Chapter 8 Evil God

"Welcome back, It's been a long time, how have you been?" Honkai-chan greeted me in the same place as before, with tea and sweets on the table. I walk to one of the chairs and sit, even though I am still wary of her, at least I know that she will not attack me, moreover, I need her to answer some of my questions.

"I'm fine, aren't you watching me anyways? You said you have watched me since in the test tube."

"Well, I just trying to do small talk, I do watch you since you are in the test tube in the other world, actually even before that when I watched Sirin. So I suppose you have something to ask me?" Honkai-chan sips on her tea even though not having a mouth. I must say that I can't get used to how creepy it looks.

"Yes, I want to ask you, why do Herrschers like me exist?" This time, I am more relaxed compared to the last dream and decided to reach out for the cheesecake on the table. Taking a bite of it. "Hmm, even though it is a dream, this cheesecake is the best cake I have ever had"

"I guess you are the Herrsher of the void, your stomach actually is a void, even in a dream, you still eat" Honkai-chan laughed.

"Hey shut up, it's just puberty ok? Anyway answer my question"

"Well you humans call me a god, I do think that I have powers equivalent to godlike to you people, do you think I am an evil god?" Honkai-chan's voice turns serious, she puts down the teacup that she was holding and crosses her fingers.

"Hey, stop answering questions with questions"

"Answer it first and I will answer you"

"Of course you are evil, if not for you then no one will suffer, no one should die from honkai eruption, and no one needs to kill their loved ones."

"I see, I understand your logic, but what if I tell you that I cared for all humanity?"

"Of course, I don't believe you, what makes you think that I believe you?"

"I see, actually I cared a lot about humanity more so than the other civilization"

"Then why are you killing humans," I asked skeptically

"If you hate gravity because it bounds you to the Earth, you would call gravity an evil force. But without gravity, there will be chaos and disorder, similar to mine. I exist as the governing force that dictates the rules of the world so that it is orderly, perhaps like the law of Physics. Similar to how weeding works, I need to destroy unstable worlds that are parasitic, thus when a world reaches the bottom of the sea, it is destroyed. Letting it live will just create a mess since the unstable world will suck souls into them even if they are still living in other worlds." Honkai-chan explained.

"Alright, I understand the [destroy the unstable world that reaches the bottom of the sea] part, but what is it have to do with denying humanity's progress?" I asked as I chowed down another slice of cheesecake.

"The tree is a collection of worlds that is stable and growing thus time flows naturally in there like your previous world and the current world you're living in. Like gravity, I am actually exerting pressure in the form of quantum energy that is diffused onto the world as honkai energy on the branches of the tree to keep it orderly and stable. Without me exerting pressure, the tree will disintegrate and the worlds inside will sink to the bottom of the sea and be destroyed."

"..." I can only respond in silence at the revelation that Honkai-chan gave. I never thought that actually, the honkai are keeping the world in order, if it were not for the honkai, we would suffer the same fate as worlds that reached the bottom of the sea. "You are lying," I said in disbelief

"It is your choice to believe it or not, but what I said is the truth. Without me, your world is unstable and will sink to the bottom of the sea to be destroyed." Honkai-chan shrugged. 

"Then what about the loving humanity part?"

"Well since I find that humans are very interesting, they can counter my powers using weird things that other civilizations don't do. Even back in the PE era, I saw many ingenious devices to fight me. Other civilizations either outright brute force their way and manage to stabilize their branch of the imaginary tree and create a new tree outside the sea of quanta, or just faded away and die."

"Are you saying that there are civilizations that beat you?" I asked shockingly

"There are, they manage to keep the pressure at bay while managing to research and created a new tree outside the sea which meant that they have ascended to a higher dimension so to speak. I don't know the challenge there, but what I could say is that by creating that tree and grafting their branch into a said tree, they can escape my control and eliminate honkai presence,  at the same time, they also used honkai energy to power their civilization, so with the absence of honkai energy, I am sure they are having energy crisis, I don't know if that civilization will survive or have regressed due to energy shortage, not that I cared since that civilization is actually my most hated one." Honkai-chan said

"Why?" I asked, while I take a slice of a chocolate cake and ate it.

"Well, the main reason is how uncivilized and uninteresting their method is, it is to brute force me, while humans can create wonderful contraptions that sometimes work and other times failed. It's like a parent watching their children walk, if on the first try they succeed, as the parent I will feel bored and uninterested. But what if the child falls a couple of times, when it finally succeeds, you feel proud right? So by watching how humans failed to fight the honkai and the influence of the sea, I loved humanity more and more and when the moment humanity leaves my embrace, I will be proud."

"You have a really weird view on parenting" I said while I took a couple of cupcakes from the plate on the table and eat them.

"Stop saying like you know parenting, you don't have a child" Honkai-chan tone sounds like she is pouting.

"Fine, I'll just assume that you are a weird parent, but what is the deal with Herrschers? and what is the imaginary tree even? why there are multiple timelines between different branches?"

"Let me answer only one of them, we are running out of time and you will wake up soon, the reason why there are different branches is actually a coincidence. Each civilization has its own tree, so you can say that what you called the imaginary tree can be named humanity's tree. At first, due to quantum disturbance which happens from time to time, a civilization is born and the root of their tree materialized, let's say this is humanity's story ok?" Honkai-chan said as she sips her tea. "So at first there is only one branch sprout, this branch sadly stopped growing due to my pressure, in a normal case the branch will wither and fall down to the bottom of the sea to be destroyed, but since I find humanity interesting, I decided to [graft] the branch to the roots thus creating a new branch, you can say I revert time and restart human civilization. After some iteration, there are a lot of independent branches growing, some rejoined old branches which are akin to making the same choices as their previous world, and some continued growing and creating their own history. Then after what could be described as critical mass, the civilization started to appear in multiple branches at the same time, making independent choices even though they are actually the same humans. Thus creating diverging branches that created what you called the imaginary tree. Some of those branches stopped growing early, like due to civil war humanity destroying themselves, blowing up their planet in an accident, destroying their world's climate, etc. I will graft those dead branches back to the source and restart them, while other branches keep on growing. In essence, once their branches stop growing, I will cut them and restart them back from the beginning. What I did with you is special, since Otto creates a new branch to save his love, the world becomes very unstable to the point that it is not sustainable. Thus I am planning to cut your world and restart it, but then I saw you walking under the moon. as I said, I have been watching you since you are born as HoV back when you are Sirin, cause I find your soul to be different. So I want to try to not restart your branch but just alter your choices and thus decided to graft your branch at the part that you want to which is in Siberia that day. I can't really be accurate at that so I grafted the entirety of Kolosten to this timeline. Sadly it didn't work out too well, since only Herrschers were able to survive the grafting, every other being is destroyed and I return them back to the start. In the future, I will not do this thing again."

A lot of information floods through my head, and just now honkai-chan dumps a lot of words and explanation, I am sure that if it was written, it will be like a block of text, I certainly don't want to read that. Moreover, the information is so mind-blowing that I couldn't help but be mind blown. More importantly...

"Wait, you said that only herrsher survived the grafting process?"

"Yup, and those in possession of divine keys or former Herrscher in Kolosten also survived"

"You mean aunt Theresa, nee-san survived? how about mei-senpai? is she dead since she is not in Kolosten?" I asked timidly, I don't know why I think like this but hearing mei-senpai died is disturbing.

"You are lucky that at the time of your world instability is noticed by me, Raiden Mei is having a meeting with me here thus she manages to survive. Theresa Apocalypse, Bianka Ataegina, Bronya Zaychik, Fu Hua, Seele Vollerei, and Raiden Mei."

"Where are they?" I stand up and raised my tone, I need to find them

"I don't know, but they are on Earth" Honkai-chan shrugged

"That is not helping" I said

"They could be on moon, or Jupiter if I don't control it to be on Earth, you should be thankful to me." 

"Fine, you got a point, thanks" I reluctantly said thank you

"Hey, I don't hear sincerity in you voice, how could you do that to your mother? I watched you grow up, turn back time for you, what more can you ask?" Honkai-chan said in what I could only describe as a fake crying tone.

"You are not my mother"

"But herrscher are my children, so you are my child, can you appreciate how much your mother has to work to keep the world stable?" 

"Shut up, stop using tears as a method of persuation, what is a Herrscher even, why do you create us?"

"Oops time is up my dear, go wake up or your human mother will be worried, we have been talking for a long time, by the way the food you ate here are actually your lifespan, by eating them you are decreasing your life span" Honkai-chan said in a happy tone.

"WHAT!!! are you saying that I decrease my own life span? Why haven't you told me you evil god, I ate a lot, does that mean I am going to die?" I screamed in despair at the thought that what I just ate is my life span.

"Got you hahhahaha" Honkai-chan holds her stomach and laughed hard "Serve you right for disrespecting your mother"

"YOU EVIL GOD" I screamed and jumped at her to punch her but suddenly I am suspended in the air. My field of vision narrowed and everything turns dark.

"See you next time Liana"

________________________________________________________________________________

Beep Beep Beep

I heard a regular beeping sound, is it my alarm? damn it that Evil god, even though I got some information from her, she had to trick me at the end by saying I am eating my life span. When I get my hands on her, I will show her what decreasing your life span means, even if she is my supposed honkai mother.

Let's leave it for later, I need to wake up soon, how long was I asleep for? that Evil god told me that I have spent a long time talking with her, is it already noon? I am sure I need to listen to mom's lecture about waking up in the morning.

I slowly tried to open my eyes, but I find that it is extremely hard. I exerted more force, and finally able to open my eyes slowly.

Wait a minute, the ceiling is not my room's, I tried to look to my right. IV drop and Heart monitor, I am in a hospital? What happen to me? Wait a minute, I don't remember sleeping, what?

I spend some time thinking about my situation when the door to my room opened and I saw mom guiding Kiana in. Mom's eyes shocked to see me and she runs to me.

"Liana, you are awake? wait a minute ok I will call the doctor" She then pressed the button next to my bed and call the doctor.

"Nee-san, are you ok?" Kiana climb the bed and sit on the edge looking at me, 

"Ki.. a..na?" I said, my voice is very hoarse, I feel like my vocal cords is screaming for water.

"Here Liana, drink slowly" mom hold a glass of water and helped me drink it.

"Thanks mom" I said with a smile

"Liana ... , Thank goodness you are fine" Tears started to well up on mom's eyes

What happen? I mean do I faint since I am in a hospital?

The doctor came and check some stuff

"The patient needs more rest after her coma, but overall she should be able to recover quickly, about the appearance of cakes and sweets in her stomach, we still don't know what causes it, perhaps a new weird disease that only infects Herrschers? Anyway, miss Liana, you should stay here and rest for a while to recover your body." The doctor said and quickly left the room

Coma? wait a minute

"Mom? did I faint?"

"Liana, you fall into a coma after you met with Avrora and was walking to my room with Sirin. Sirin brought you to me in a panic since you just faint and fall to the ground without warning. She is blaming herself about your fainting saying that she is the cause of it. You have been asleep for 2 days already"

"2 days?"

It is that long? I thought the worst will be to wake up in noon, not 2 days later. Is it because I talk longer with that evil mischievous god?

"More importantly, is your stomach alright? the doctor says that all of a sudden, cakes and sweets started to appear on your stomach even though you are in a coma, the doctor said that maybe this disease only infect herrscher since no known disease cause this weird symptoms" Mom asked worriedly as she pats my head.

Cake? Sweets? Don't tell me that the cake and sweets I ate with that evil god show up in my stomach? I need to lie about this

"Yeah probably mom, I don't know, maybe it is a new disease" I nervously said while looking away

"Liana, you are lying" Mom suddenly said as she brings my face to face her. "Tell me the truth"

"Hahahahaha Nee-san got caught lying" Kiana laughed while still sitting on the edge of the bed.

"How...How do you know mom?"

"Every mother can tell if their child is lying, so tell me the truth" Mom said in a stern voice

Now that mom already knew I was lying, I need to tell them the truth

"I met the will of the honkai in a dream, it is not my first meeting with her so relax" I tried to act as nonchalantly about the matter but I guess that it is impossible.

Mom froze while staring at me

"You mean the one who commands the honkai? what did she say to you? is she telling you to return to her and fight humanity? I will not let my daughter be manipulated by that person." Mom shot out a bunch of questions at me.

"No, relax mom, I just asked her some question about honkai and stuff"

"What do you ask her?" mom said, still skeptical

"I will tell you later with the others ok?" I said to reassure her, I don't want her to worry about me.

"Fine, but are you ok?"

"I'm fine mom, relax"

"What about the cakes and sweets? you said you met the will of the honkai, why is it in your stomach?"

"Uhmm well, the funny thing is that when I was talking to the will of the honkai, I ate a bunch of cakes and sweets she prepared," I said while looking away, I know that I should be more serious when talking to that evil god but what can I do? a cake can't eat itself you know, I need to help it reach its goal to be eaten.

"You what?" needless to say I got scolded by mom about it. 

A/N: It is my birthday today, that is how I get the inspiration for cakes and sweets lol. I decided to make up my own version of the world and the rules that govern them so it will probably differ from the original official storyline but hey, this is fanfic and I have the power to control this fanfic world, so perhaps the job that the will of the honkai have and said in chapter 5 is given by me? am I the evil god? hahahahaha *evil laugh