***
As Aurora was heading towards the new born Herrscher she and Alter were having a mental conversation.
(You sure you don't want my help?) Inside Aurora's mind, Alter stood arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.
'Mm, I can't keep relying on you forever.' Then in a smug tone she thought. 'Besides, you remember who won in our spars last time, hmm?'
Alter then proceeded to grumble something that Aurora couldn't hear, but just when she was about to say something they both sensed the Herrscher on the move.
Towards her.
(I think you got her attention.)
"You think?" Aurora then sucked in her Honkai energy, and she'd achieved her goal anyway.
Alter suggesting a spot nearby that is pretty much as desolate as it gets, Aurora changes direction.
…
–Thud–
"Well she followed us at least." She then proceeded to stretch a little.
(You don't need to do that, your body is always in peak condition.) Thanks to their shared senses Alter could tell that it would take about a minute for the Herrscher to get here.
"We've got a minute until we're dealing with an edgier version of you remember?
Or did you forget how Thor said the 4th Herrscher acted?" She heard Alter groan.
(Please. Aura, never and I mean never! Talk about that again.)
"Hahaha. Sure Allie."
Aurora looks up at the sky to see a storm of Ice quickly approaching.
"She's pretty angry huh."
Both saw how the Herrscher plummeted downwards with no signs of slowing down.
"And reckless."
–Snap–
A dome of lightning surrounded her. The Herrscher finally impacted the earth.
–BOOM–
The earth beneath her shook, a sort of ice explosion occurred on impact, ice spikes and pillars galore.
"Also a flair for the dramatic."
Being inside her lighting dome, she was unaffected by the impact.
Going off script, rather than waiting for the dust to settle Aurora made a finger gun gesture and created a spinning ball of plasma at the tip.
"Bang."
–Whoosh–
Creating a hole in the dust cloud the plasma bolt…
Nothing. No explosion, it didn't return, and she didn't see it pass into the distance.
(Do another one) Alter suggested.
Raising her hand again, she heard the Herrscher.
"I would expect nothing less from a Traitor!" Swiping her hand the Herrscher cleared the dust cloud to show Aurora her plasma bolt frozen mid-air.
"That's concerning." Aurora draws her blade and vanishes.
–Snap–
Coming from the Herrschers left side Aurora gives an upward slash at the Herrscher.
"What(What?!)?!" But unlike what they were expecting rather than the blade connecting the blade just got slower and slower, almost as if it wasn't moving.
–Cackle–
–Zap–
Coating not only herself but her blade in electromagnetic energy she appears 100 ft back from the Herrscher glancing down at her blade in confusion.
"You're a fast one." The Herrscher side-eye's Aurora.
Snorting she continues, "I see you've been making good use of our God's gift, traitor."
(Be careful Aura. Whatever you do. Don't! Let her touch you.) Hearing the seriousness in her tone Aurora nods slowly, unaware that the Herrscher thought she was mocking her.
"Bitch!" Swiping upwards a stream of Ice spikes emerge towards Aurora. She in turn dodges the barrage and ends up hovering above the chaos.
"That is, a lot." The whole area had been turned into a plain of icy thorns.
Holding her breath she grips the hilt of her sword and, it barely moves out of its sheath.
The Herrscher below having already prepared herself for the attack stiffens. "Heh." grinning, she spreads her influence plummeting the surrounding temperature to absolute zero.
Seeing that Aurora hadn't made a move she starts laughing as well. "Hahaha, that's it?! No wonder you turned traitor, you're an embarrassment of a herrscher! Hahaha… Now die."
The air around Aurora forms spikes and spears of Ice that rush towards her.
–Click–
"Huh?" The Herrscher looked down feeling lighter than before.
"My leg?" Her leg had been cut at the thigh, served from her body.
–Crack–
–Shatter–
–Thud–
Not only did the ice around Aurora crack and shatter, as well as all the other ice in the area, her severed leg fell to the ground with a thud.
"AHHHH!" Losing all momentum the Herrscher falls as she grapes the severed leg.
But just as she tried to reattach it,
–Shing–
A blade appeared in front of her.
–Cackle–
Covered in Honkai and lightning, it slices into her chest just as she uses her full power to freeze her in place.
'Shit!' The Herrscher thought. She was lucky.
Pulling herself off the blade with a grimace, her wound knits itself shut in under a second.
–Cackle–
Without even having time to gather herself, Aurora had already escaped her hold and was already charging her again.
–BOOM–
A crater forms as Aurora's blade collides with her crossed arms.
–BOOM–
–BOOM–
–BOOM–
Aurora relentlessly attacks her from all angles while all the Herrscher could do is barely block her body or a weak wall of ice.
"ARRRGGHHH!" As her anger fuelled her, the Herrscher let out a scream as her Honkai energy formed a barrier around her and forced Aurora to back off.
Landing just outside the crater, Aurora converses with Alter.
***
"AURORA, your thoughts?" Thor asked his AI daughter, while observing Aurora's confrontation, he'd hidden himself from both their perceptions and had seen the fight from crash landing.
"Yes… But I don't like my answer." Thor raised a brow as the AI continued.
"She's not just controlling ice or the temperature. Like how Alter told us she controls Electromagnetism, and with the data on the other 3 Herrschers, this woman might have some form of molecular manipulation." She then goes on to point out some key moments, like Aurora's blade slowing, but not stopping completely, the complete plummet in temperature and stillness in the air, then finally,
"She froze both her and the blade, I also didn't even notice any heat on her body's exterior." Thor got where she was going with this and nodded.
"Thermal manipulation. But why just Ice?" He thought about it as Aurora finally managed to turn the severed leg that the Herrscher had been diehard protecting into nothing.
"Like Alter said Father. Their powers only work on their powers understanding. This woman must of seen ice and thought her power was to control ice, and is currently learning, it has been almost an hour since her birth–"
"And Herrschers gain an instinctive understanding of their powers." He finished for her.
"Umu."
They both continued to observe the situation and AURORA gave Thor updates on how the rest were progressing as well.
***
Following another cackle of lighting from Aurora
"Collapse." she mutters.
The air superheating around them, the Herrschers Ice projectiles and platform vapourised, space began to crack as Aurora slashed forward.
"What the hell is this!!?" Pushing herself to the absolute maximum the one-legged herrscher tries her best to block the lightning fast attack.
She threw up wall after wall of Ice, reinforcing them to the absolute maximum with her Honkai energy–
–Crack–
–Shatter–
–But it was useless, the cracked space reached her body as she was attacked by the void for a second, but in that second she was exposed to the most harmful and dangerous realm.
As the space sealed itself, her damaged figure could be seen.
Her body riddled with deep cuts, her Herrscher clothing torn to shreds, a look of fear and despair on her face.
–Thud–
She collapsed back onto the ground.
"Guess I win then." Aurora's mocking voice reached her.
–Shing–
Followed by her blade to her neck.
"W-wait!" She shouted.
"I-I'm sorry." She apologised, but Aurora's face didn't change, but her aura did.
"Sorry?" She muttered, she sheathed her blade then,
"Severance." –Click–
She had decapitated the Herrscher, she did it so cleanly the Herrscher still had the time to be confused before she felt the blood leaving her body.
"You don't get to be sorry." She spat, then heard Alter.
(Hypocritical much? You know I killed thousands when I awakened right?)
'You're different, you didn't even kill people outside of that moment, the city had been evacuated already.' Remembering the vision Alter shared of how Thor basically played around with Alter to let the city fully evacuate, she cringed at some of Alter's more creative word choices.
…
At the same time Aurora was conversing with her other personality, Thor had silently appeared next to her.
Oblivious to the man beside them Thor looked over the Herrscher's corpse. Feeling the core within the body, he shifts his gaze to Aurora and pokes her cheek.
–Poke–
"AHHH!" Aurora had jumped back, landing in a combat ready stance, she looked up to see him there.
"Thor?" She inquired, bringing a hand up to rub her cheek.
"You've done well." He disregarded her question, instead reviewing her performance.
"-_-" Deadpanning, Aurora quickly shakes off the intrusive thoughts, before answering.
"Did I? I didn't think so. I held back in the end."
(Mhm, mhm) These were Alter's thoughts on Aurora's main issue in fights. She never goes 100% from the start, even against Thor.
Thor knelt down on one knee next to the body, shoving his hand through its chest. "Umu, that's why I said You've done well not, You did great or amazing, barely even considered good–
Gotcha." He pulls out the Herrscher core as it shone navy-blue, the glow falling on his face.
(Do you know how he even does that?) Alter asked, it always surprised her how easily he "tamed" the Herrscher cores he touched.
'Beats me.' Aurora sheathed her blade, a little disappointed that she couldn't test the slingshot form, but she'll make sure to hit a Herrscher with it sometime in the future.
Putting the Core along with the Herrschers corpse into his inventory, Thor stands and gestures for Aurora to follow, "Come on, Kevin's nearby fighting 10 snakes now, you don't want to miss that right?"
They both shared a smirk before they turned into lightning and shot into the clouds, sonic booms resounding in their wake.
***
A/N: No edits this time because I'm quite tired today.