"Young Master, please eat something?" Holding a platter filled with mouth-watering delicacies in both hands, a man in a black robe and a bird-beak mask knelt on one knee, unable to bear looking up at the haggard Young Master Otto, whose back was turned to him.
He understood the reason why the Young Master had become so despondent... The Young Master, filled with anticipation and hope, had intended to abandon everything to rescue Miss Kallen, who was to be executed for violating Schicksal's laws...
For Miss Kallen's sake, the Young Master even went so far as to release the Honkai Beasts imprisoned in the basement of the Grand Cathedral to create chaos, aiming to rescue Miss Kallen amidst the turmoil...
But... as if it were a joke played by God... Miss Kallen, the "Holy Lotus," couldn't bear to see the commoners in the city being slaughtered by the Honkai Beasts released because of her. So, after being imprisoned for days without a grain of rice... the extremely weak Miss Kallen was killed by a Honkai Beast while saving the people...
"Tell me... can God do anything?" Otto, who had been silent for days, suddenly lifted his bloodshot, green eyes, his voice hoarse and weary.
"...He should be able to." The man was stunned for a moment and said with some uncertainty... According to the teachings of Schicksal, God seemed to be omnipotent...
"Then tell me... can [God] resurrect a person's life..." Otto's voice came again, as ethereal as an illusion...
"This subordinate does not know..." The man lowered his head and said earnestly, still uncertain. "Perhaps He can..."
"I see...." Otto, his upper body hidden in the dark shadows, said softly. He finally staggered to his feet, his magnificent coat, emblazoned with the Apocalypse family crest, covered in dust...
"...." The man subconsciously raised his head to look at his Young Master, and his pupils couldn't help but shrink. The rebellious young master of the Apocalypse family before him seemed to have died. The current Young Master Otto's face was calm, though extremely haggard... but his emerald eyes were as deep as the sea...
"Are you willing to do anything for me?" Otto said softly with his back to the man, his long golden hair having unknowingly grown to waist-length.
"...Yes, this subordinate is willing to be the blade in your hand..." The man knelt on the ground, placed his right fist over his heart, and said softly.... There was no hesitation. If not for Young Master Otto's appreciation, he would have been dead long ago. Now he had a wife and children, so he didn't have many regrets...
"...Schicksal has become a bit decadent... It's time to give the rusty nails a good cleaning..." Otto looked through the window at the eternally unchanging, bright moon in the night sky... its snow-white light was just like her hair...
That year... after the death of the Holy Maiden 'Kallen Kaslana', the Apocalypse family seemed to have been abandoned by the Valkyrie of fortune. The patriarch and the successors in line fell one after another due to various accidents and reasons in their battles against Honkai Beasts...
Before long, only the youngest son of the Apocalypse family's main line remained—'Otto Apocalypse'.
That year... 'Otto Apocalypse' inherited the position of the family patriarch... Under the leadership of Patriarch Otto, 'Apocalypse' began to operate like a precision instrument, abandoning its sole focus on fighting the Honkai and instead began to comprehensively accelerate research on the 'Honkai'... Humanity's understanding of the 'Honkai' grew more and more...
Thus... 'technology' also began to advance, accelerating down the path of the 'Industrial Revolution'...
After that... 'Schicksal' began to expend vast resources to search the world for ruins of the Previous Era that were destroyed by the Honkai but still contained artifacts—'Holy Relics'... Sparing no effort to search for 'Holy Relics' and bring them back to the organization for research, Schicksal began to continuously deepen its understanding of the 'Honkai'...
Schicksal began to try to utilize that [Power of God]... Honkai energy.
Time flew by... The man named 'Otto Apocalypse' held the reins of the organization 'Schicksal', and in the blink of an eye, hundreds of years had passed...
Using some of Schicksal's undisclosed techniques, Otto did not die...
'Technology' was also constantly being perfected. With the improvements made by various scientists who emerged, 'technology', the power belonging to humanity itself, also gradually advanced...
No one knew Otto's thoughts. The people he loved, and the people he hated, were no longer in this world...
And then... the [First Honkai] appeared...
In 1961, a special Honkai outbreak occurred in Germany. Ten days after the outbreak, due to [Top Secret] reasons, Otto urgently ordered Schicksal to accelerate its research on the Honkai and named this Honkai outbreak the [First Honkai].
Ordinary Schicksal personnel had no idea what happened during the [First Honkai]... What is known so far is only this: a numbered Honkai is always accompanied by the birth of a Herrscher...
.......................
Data Link... Abridged translation of "The Book of Revelation":
At the end of the world, when all of humanity is to be judged, the Lamb will break the seven seals of the scroll, summoning knights on four horses: white, red, black, and green, to bring war, famine, plague, and death to humanity receiving the Final Judgment. At that time, heaven and earth will be thrown out of balance, the sun and moon will change color, and then the world will be destroyed.
The first knight is on a white horse, representing the conqueror, the son of the devil, the anti-god. The bow and the [crown] both represent conquest, while white represents the reverse of holiness.
The second knight is on a red horse, representing a great lord. The great sword symbolizes war and destruction.
The third knight is on a black horse, representing famine and unjust transactions. This is the symbolic meaning of the scales.
The fourth knight is on a green horse, representing pure death and endless suffering.
(End of this chapter)