Having been transmigrated into Otto Apocalypse, Lin would undoubtedly be affected by the man's previous emotions.
Otto's devotion to Kallen Kaslana and the symbol she represented. The 500-year-long obsession with bringing back the possibility of the Holy Maiden Living.
His caring attitude towards those whom he raised (Theresa) and nurtured (Bianka), despite his deceitful methods.
Though the massive rift of difference was an indistinguishable thing they had in common...The contempt they had for this woman sitting in front of him.
Emily Rose, one of the Shepherds of The Church of Monsters, and the one who made Luna suffer.
Otto(Lin) knew himself that he was the epitome of scum. Turning a blind eye to human experimentation that included children, letting the Second Eruption continue for a chance to revive Kallen, and the list goes on.
He would not go around praising himself as a moral, just Saint. Otto was an evil, villainous monster. Yes, he could change by being a better person, but it doesn't dispute all the harm he his done...He will always be a Sinner, but he was a Sinner who could sympathize with a little girl who was groomed as an experiment.
So, given the chance to do something about Luna's suffering, he would take that chance. Sometimes it was okay for a child to run away and let an adult handle the situation...Even when a parent had to stain their hand in cold blood to protect said child and let them live a life in light instead of cruel darkness.
Otto was a hypocrite...Was he doing all of this because Luna looked like Theresa, and it brought forth his maternal instincts of protecting his Granddaughter?
Was he doing this to bring some sense of redemption to his already stained metal heart, or was it because of some twisted sense of love that drove him? Otto didn't know, but right now he just wanted nothing more than for Emily to cease to exist.
"Such a pretty gaze...You're gonna make me squeal if you keep staring like that." Her mocking, lustful tone brought Otto out of his dark thoughts.
He let out a cruel, cold smile as he laid out his hands onto the table, "Miss Emily Grierson, or was it Rose...I am going to ask you some questions. If you don't reply truthfully, some unfortunate things will happen to you...How do you feel about worms?"
The Lady started to laugh wholeheartedly, and her chest ached in amusement, "What manner of torture do you have that could even make me crack a peep, Darling...Well, if you give me some of your blood and a little bit of your neck. I am willing to answer."
She licked her lips and stared at his nape with a lingering gaze. Her desire was apparent; she wanted to drink from him like a sippy cup.
Hearing her words, the man stood up and approached her. He cupped her chin till the point of their eyes gazed at one another, crimson met emerald.
Before the Shepherd could make a lewd remark, Otto reached into his inner coat and pulled out a Staff covered in crimson bandages with an orb of numinous stars flickering on top.
Was it overkill to bring out a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact to interrogate someone? In Otto's mind, it was necessary since he doubted that some torture would get her to answer. Otto could have used Fenghuang Down to mess with her mind, but sometimes, brute force was the better solution.
With a slight movement of his wrist, Otto shoved the pummel of the staff into the delicate flesh of Emily's right kneecap. The sound of bone snapping reached his ears, and he paid no mind to it as he stared at the incoming effects of Elated Detachment.
A slight sharp pain eched itself into the Lady as her leg started to convulse into an abomination of strained skin and muscles. Down from her knees to her right foot, the once smooth, silky skin turned into a pile of squirming transparent worms that slowly decayed into transparency.
Seeing the effects firsthand, Otto thought to himself that this would undoubtedly cause mental damage from the body horror.
"Are you ready to answer my question now, Shepherd?" He asked and positioned the pommel of the staff onto Emily's other kneecap.
Why not match it? After all, being perfectly symmetrical was a form of beauty itself.
Despite the insufferable pain itched into her flesh, Emily could only smile maniacally, "Hit me harder!"
"Ha." Otto coldly let out. 'Were most of the Shepherds this degenerate and perverted? Well, I can't judge, Elysia sees me as one, and I am a Gacha Addict...I might as well be one.'
He gripped the staff tightly while the Shepherd smirked as if her bait worked like a charm. Even in her position, she had the high ground...She wouldn't let out any piece of information unless it were bargained for that man's delicious blood.
She thought of many ideas to break out of this predicament, but they were all sealed because of the Oath of Judah. Emily didn't even expect the Schicksal Overseer to appear fully prepared and knew what she looked like.
Raising the staff, Otto held it up, then slammed it down onto the ground, his emerald eyes suddenly changed to a gold platinum, and his next words were uttered in the manner of a noble Judge.
"This room prohibits the action of the interrogatee lying or any form of deception."
A sudden force made itself present around the room and was subjected to one specific law.
Using the Replication of his Staff, Otto replicated the main ability of a Sequence 6 Judge from the Justicar Pathway. A Path about defending 'Order'.
Costing about 15% of his Spirituality, Otto used Verdict to issue a command to Prohibit any form of lying for Emily and to force her to speak the truth. Any form of Loopholes that the Shepherd tried would fail because she was versed in blood, not the twisting of the law.
The duration of Prohibition wasn't one that constantly drained Spirituality, but a simple cast within the area for an indefinite amount of time unless it was broken, distorted, or the target was out of range.
Though the ability was useful, it had the downside of costing more Spirituality if more words were used or complex specifications, the user had to follow their own Law, and if there is a difference in level between them and their targets, the Judge's targets will be able to resist the rules set by them to a certain extent
If Otto were to instead cast 'Lying in this room was prohibited,' Otto could not lie. That was the reason he made the Prohibition so specific. Emily was the interrogatee, and Otto was the interrogator.
"You think some fancy wording is going to help you...Why don't I test it out?" Emily mocked with a sultry tone. Though she felt the compulsion and instincts to not lie despite her words.
Otto then asked her one simple question, "Where are your remaining Shepherds from the Church of Monsters hiding?"
As the lady's lips tremble to hide the truth, a sudden force pried them open for Otto to hear.
"One of them is in France, one in Italy, another in Shenzhou (China), Siberia, and the last one in Greece."
Otto let out a wicked, cruel smile. Hearing his verdict working wonderfully, he sat back down into his seat and asked her
"Miss Emily, if you have any attempts to kill yourself to avoid answering my questions, I can revive the spirits of the Dead and have them converse with me. So are you going to comply, or am I going to have to use your rotting corpse instead?"
...
Within the past hour of the Interrogation, Otto had gotten every piece of information he could from the Shepherd. Their current hiding places, most of their abilities, resources, and even their tax bracket.
Otto made a realization that Emily was a snake...A cold-blooded one at that. Keeping tabs on her allies and ready for an opportunity to strike them down for their blood.
Remembering the picture Schicksal provided for the file of Emily, Otto noticed it was older than the young lady standing right in front of him.
He made a note to himself...The Shepherds were mentally insane, trying to sneak into Schicksal HQ with a well-designed disguise and a flawless fake background, which dissociated from the original...Too bad, Divination wasn't Omnipotent, but very useful in a World where there was no focus on it.
Even as Emily kept spewing out the information, she started to babble out the reason she went down this Path, and to be frank, Otto had no interest in her past or history.
Something about the cruelty of growing old, loveless romance, and blood...Typically.
The less he sympathized and knew about her...The less guilt and connection he had with her.
"So you're gonna kill me, aren't you? I don't have anything left! You milked me all out of my usefulness. Angry because I harmed that child? Aren't you the same...Does the Tower of Babylon bring any memories back?"
Otto let out a sigh and stood up once again, placing his left hand onto the lady's head, "I know I am evil...So I wouldn't feel any regret doing this. So Goodbye, Miss Emily. Hopefully, I never get to see you in Hell."
The man wandered into his mind and brought up the densest memory he had. It was a scene in the 1500s when Otto was the founder of St. Michael's Abbey, an orphanage meant to teach the way of the Holy Maiden.
He gave out presents to the children sitting in the main living room, their laughing and smiling faces, the fireplace burning that gave warmth during the cold winter.
It brought Hope for a happy future, Despair that these children would die for the rebellion of Schicksal, and it brought Finality that in the end...It was all for Naught.
These emotions stirred up in the staff as three warm rings of light manfisted onto the top of it. Hope, Despair, and Finality: these three emotions powered the Three Mangs (望). With each Sequence Otto undertook, it was natural for his talent to convert Honkai Energy and Emotions into Mang to be enhanced.
"If I am going to spend my life in the fiery pits of hell... Answer me! What's your type of woman?" Faced with the approaching, the Shepherd let out one last sentence. To her, Death didn't matter; she knew the risk of trying to sneak into Schicksal all for a taste of blood.
"Not you, of course." Otto willed 60% of his Spirituality onto the Staff, and soon his pupil transformed into a deathly hollow black.
His left hand pressed onto her head till it gripped her skull, and Emily felt the sensation of Death eating into her brain.
Whenever a Sequence 3 Ferryman of the Death Pathway touches a target with their left hand, they will almost irreversibly approach Death.
In a moment of her last struggle, Emily shifted her head until one of Otto's fingers was in her mouth and she bit down for her last supper. Even as her body decayed into approaching Death, it didn't stop her from tasting the blood of a delicious blood bag.
She couldn't take any more blood as her hair turned to dust, flesh into an ashy gray, skin rottened, and bones hardened.
After a second, her entire body was turned into decaying dust and crumbled under the pressure into a fine mist.
It didn't stop there; the golden chains of the Mimicry Oath of Judah started to rust into Death as well, and soon disappeared into decaying motes of light.
Otto deactivated the Replication so it wouldn't spread and took a look at his pale gray hand. A physical side effect of replicating a Demi-God's ability, and if he kept it active even for a few seconds, Otto might have turned into an Undead despite his Soulium Body.
The Stringed Staff of the Stars in Binds was meta-defining, though it had its drawbacks of being costly and having certain effects if replicated for certain abilities, but it would get better the more Sequences Otto shoved into himself.
He shook his hand to wash away the lingering remains of Emily on his fingertips. Despite murdering someone to Death, he didn't feel any guilt or any sense of remorse...Must be because he intently did, or this was just another day in Otto Apocalypse's life.
It didn't matter how many lives he took; Otto would make numerous sacrifices to revive Kallen. As for Otto now, he wouldn't hesitate to kill if it was necessary, but he wouldn't commit mass genocide on a population.
...Unless it was 30,000 criminals, Sky People, Anti-Matter Legion, or anyone else who wanted to destroy a decent civilization. They were fair game.
There was a saying that reflected the original Otto Apocalypse: you can either be the good guy or the one who saves the world...But Lin, he was a greedy a*s motherf*cker, he was going to be a Morally Gray man that would try to save the world, it was perfectly balanced as all things should be.
Finishing the Interrogation, Otto had to make his way back to Schicksal with his plane since he planned on visiting Nagamitsu more especially her assistant/receptionist, Amamitsu...The one whose hair resembled mint green and had the look of a mermaid.
Wasn't there always the fact in her file that whenever she sang, people who heard her song would feel refreshed and have their emotions stirred up. What a reasonable development! If they didn't work, he could always try to replicate Amamitsu's singing.
Otto confirmed it himself; he undoubtedly was cheating. Reaching Sequence 5 in 5 days...Was this Fate or the power of paying 2 winning? He did not, but he was now a Speedrunner.