(Perspective: Otto Apocalypse)
Schicksal Headquarters, Bishop's Office.
Night had fallen deep. Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling window, fleets of battleships floated above a sea of clouds, their cold metallic sheen gleaming under the simulated moonlight.
Inside the office, only the low hum of the control console and the crisp tap of fingertips on the crystal desktop echoed.
Otto Apocalypse sat in the large bishop's chair, dozens of light screens floating before her, displaying endless data streams—frontline reports, research progress, branch movements, resource allocation... Her emerald eyes scanned rapidly, her brain processing a massive amount of information like the most precise instrument, ensuring the efficient operation of Schicksal, this colossal machine.
Perfect, efficient, ruthless.
This was the face she presented to the world.
However, in the center of her primary field of vision, a window, deliberately minimized but never closed, quietly displayed a copy of a death notification from thirteen years ago.
Recipient Name: Kael.
Her fingertip unconsciously rested on that name; the cold sensation permeated her skin, yet it could not freeze the wound in her heart that had long since festered.
Time had not healed everything; instead, it was like the cruelest carving knife, etching that loss into her very bones.
She remembered it too clearly, every detail as if it were yesterday.
That final mop-up operation against the remnants of the Third Empire, everything should have been without suspense.
Kael, as always, led the Asgard to an overwhelming victory.
The signal of triumph had already been sent back; the battleship was about to return to port.
Then, there was that special Honkai Energy shockwave bomb from the depths of the shadows.
The target was not to destroy the battleship, but to strike indiscriminately.
When the alarm shrieked, she was on the Void Archives, watching through the observation screen as that pale light, like death's kiss, flashed across the Asgard's bridge and vanished.
The smile on her face froze instantly.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only silent energy ripples spreading out. Wherever they passed, life signals dimmed abruptly, like candles extinguished by the wind.
She almost immediately activated maximum authority, forcibly taking over the Asgard's monitoring.
The screen flickered, stabilized, and what came into view was Kael's last figure—he abruptly pulled Theresa behind him, using his own body to block the fatal soul shockwave.
His expression showed no panic, only a momentary bewilderment, and... a kind of peace, as if of release?
The next moment, the monitoring screen was torn apart by energy turbulence, turning into static.
No—!
She screamed silently within, her nails digging deep into her palms, drawing blood.
But she could not lose her composure. She was the Bishop, the pillar of Schicksal. She
had to be calm, had to control the situation.
When the rescue team forcibly entered the Asgard's bridge and found Kael, he had long since ceased to show any vital signs.
All vital sign monitoring instruments displayed a cold, straight line.
The soul-level impact had completely extinguished his flame of consciousness.
She personally examined his "remains."
The body was still warm, even appearing unusually "healthy" due to residual Honkai Energy, but inside, that soul that had interested her, that she had paid too much attention to, that had... made her feel different, had completely vanished.
A husk.
A perfect, powerful husk.
She announced Kael's death, in the most solemn and tragic manner.
Died heroically, sacrificed for the nation.
She even held a grand memorial service for him, watching Theresa cry herself almost unconscious, watching Siegfried and Cecilia suppress their grief, watching Sirin, the little purple-haired girl Kael had brought back, her eyes so hollow it was as if she too had died.
She perfectly played the role of a grieving leader.
But only she knew the emptiness and rage that gnawed at her heart in the dead of night, when she alone faced that "husk" she had secretly preserved in the highest-grade life support system.
She had lost him.
Not dying in a grand battlefield duel, but dying from a despicable, targeted sneak attack!
This was the greatest mockery of her, Otto Apocalypse!
She used all of Schicksal's power, even trading with dangerous shadows, to uncover the truth—it was the Third Empire's final madness, a special weapon designed by a scientist who harbored extreme hatred for Schicksal, targeting highly adaptable individuals.
They could not defeat Kael, so they chose the most vicious method, to completely erase him.
She retaliated, using methods ten, a hundred times more cruel than theirs, uprooting and pulverizing all participants and their associates.
But the pleasure of revenge was fleeting, leaving only a deeper void.
Why?
Why him of all people?
She recalled her first encounter with Kael, that young man from Old Schicksal with sharp eyes, yet carrying a hint of imperceptible confusion.
She liked to see his vibrant expressions, liked to see him, who clearly had the ability to resist, ultimately choose to obey.
She had invested too much "attention" in him.
She once thought her feelings for him stemmed only from the friendship brought by his words, "You will... definitely become a great inventor in the future..."
It was only at the moment of loss that she realized it wasn't friendship.
It was a twisted, undefined... possessiveness? Or something deeper, darker?
She would not allow him to just disappear like this! Absolutely not.
"Death... is not the end."
She whispered to the sleeping "husk" in the life support system, a fanatical flame burning in her emerald eyes.
"Kael, I won't let you leave like this. This world, this boring world full of inferior beings, doesn't deserve to have you, but it deserves even less to lose you."
She began a frantic research.
The essence of the soul, the transfer of consciousness, the ultimate mysteries of Honkai Energy and life forms... she delved into every field.
She used those blood samples for various dangerous experiments.
K423, the artificial human modeled on Kiana and Sirin's genes, infused with the power of the Herrscher Core, was one of the products of these experiments.
A clumsy, uncertain replica, a vessel carrying her mad hopes.
She observed K423, observed the individual taken by Siegfried and named "Kiana," observed everything that could potentially connect with Kael.
She cast a vast net, encompassing everyone.
Theresa was sent by her to the Far East to establish St. Freya Academy, both for protection and to keep her away from the vortex of Headquarters, and also as a kind of... surrogate hope? Watching Theresa, she occasionally seemed to see a trace of his shadow, protecting others, from back then.
Kallen... that woman with whom she had a complex past. Kallen's attention and familiarity with Kael also made Otto feel displeased and wary.
She removed Kallen from the inner circle, also a subconscious isolation.
And Sirin... that girl whose power soared at an abnormal rate after Kael's death, eventually ascending to the throne of the Herrscher of the Void... Otto could feel that Sirin's madness and destructive desires were, to some extent, another extreme reaction to losing Kael. She welcomed it, even secretly fanning the flames.
Chaos would provide cover for her ultimate plan.
Her gaze returned to the main screen, where the latest report from the Far East was displayed—K423, or rather Kiana Kaslana, had entered Chiba Academy in Changkong City and had intersected with Raiden Mei.
The turmoil of ME Corp, Anti-Entropy's intervention... everything was slowly progressing according to her pre-arrangements.
But it was not enough.
These trivial arrangements, this pursuit of "possibilities," could not fill the huge black hole in her heart.
What she needed was an undeniable "result."
Her fingers glided through the air, bringing up a top-secret research report.
The title was: "Feasibility Study on High-Dimensional Consciousness Tracing and Reality Reconstruction Based on the Imaginary Tree and Sea of Quanta Theories."
The core content of the report pointed to an utterly insane plan—to use the power of the Herrscher Core to leverage the rules of the Imaginary Tree, to reverse time, or at least, to find traces of Kael's existence in the world's "records" and "bring him back."
This would require unimaginable energy, precise coordinates, and... a "key" capable of bearing all of this.
And the Second Herrscher, Herrscher of the Void Sirin, her core, her authority, was the most suitable choice.
"It's time..."
Otto stood up and walked to the massive observation window, looking down at the sleeping world below. The city lights were like stars, yet they could not illuminate the abyss in her eyes.
"To achieve my goal, I can sacrifice everything. The survival of Schicksal, the stability of the world, the lives of countless people... even myself."
The corners of her mouth curved into a cold and beautiful arc, a madness that had discarded all humanity, leaving only pure obsession.
"Kael, you once asked me the meaning of life... now I can answer you. My meaning is to bring you back."
"If this world is destined to be without you, then it loses its value of existence."
"Baseness will be carried by me into the grave... and light will extend to the future because of you..."
She raised her hand, as if to grasp the distant stars outside the window. In her emerald eyes, the flames that would soon ignite and consume everything were reflected.
"In the name of Apocalypse, I swear."