Watching Welt's sudden eruption of power in the chat group,
many of the transcendent beings were stunned by the sheer might of the first Herrscher of Reason, casually creating a black hole with his own hands.
But almost immediately, they began cheering for him in their hearts.
The reason was simple.
By this point, Otto Apocalypse's image had become utterly abhorrent.
Two character exposures from the Honkai world—
and the greatest villain in both was Otto.
He had catalyzed the awakening of Sirin within Kiana,
shot Fu Hua dead,
and, under the guise of a "plan," indirectly caused the death of Murata Himeko.
He had secretly pushed forward dangerous Honkai experiments,
leading to the death of Nancy Edison,
and then, in full view of everyone, murdered the Finn.
He openly admitted to conducting human experiments on Rhianna,
slowly, step by step, turning her flesh into a soul-steel body,
only to ultimately claim it for himself.
In just a few short minutes,
Otto Apocalypse had firmly established himself in the chat group's eyes as a man guilty of every conceivable evil.
And now—
The image on the screen
had shifted to Otto's perspective.
A perspective being twisted and devoured by the black hole.
Otto felt all things before him collapse.
He felt time itself being thrown into a massive blender.
Past.
Present.
Future.
Everything blurred into endless slow motion and fractured fragments.
Otto knew what this was.
A black hole.
He had read about it in Einstein's papers—
a concept in physics.
In most cases, black holes were the result of the gravitational collapse of stellar cores with masses exceeding three suns, after their nuclear fusion fuel was exhausted.
When an object weighing millions of Earths compressed itself into a single point defined only by mass, charge, and angular momentum—
The horror of the outcome was self-evident.
Especially—
For him,
who relied on external terminal signals to maintain control.
Once the signal was cut—
Rhianna's body would be lost.
And he would be forced back into his original form.
His consciousness was already beginning to tear apart.
And then—
Within Otto's collapsing consciousness space,
a figure appeared.
A figure dressed in a nun's habit.
In that instant—
Otto froze in place,
forgetting even the mortal danger he was in.
"Y-you… you…"
The figure spoke calmly.
"Otto Apocalypse."
"He will scorn life and despise death."
"He will transcend all reason and discard all doubt."
"He will cling to a hope that can never be realized."
"And a matter begun in injustice must be secured with crime."
Kallen was quoting Shakespeare.
"From the very beginning, this was a road to death…"
"My Otto Apocalypse…"
Before this figure he had yearned for, obsessed over, and clung to for more than five hundred years—
Otto Apocalypse finally lost the composure he always maintained.
"Y-you… who are you?!"
"You fear this topic, Otto Apocalypse," she replied.
"I am already wading knee-deep in blood. If I do not continue forward, even the path of retreat would be loathsome."
"But in the end, you will change nothing."
"No—my Kallen would never say such things!"
"But you would, Mr. Otto Apocalypse."
"Your life is nothing more than a Macbeth without supporting characters."
Kallen's words cut mercilessly into Otto's deepest wound.
And at that moment, Otto finally understood.
"I see now!" he shouted.
"You understand nothing—because you are nothing more than Otto Apocalypse himself!"
"Yes," Kallen said softly, shaking her head in pity.
"Of course I understand nothing."
Though she wore Kallen's appearance,
she was nothing more than Otto's own obsession given form.
"So many years have passed… and yet only you—
only you—still cannot accept my death."
"How many more people must be dragged into this before you're satisfied?!"
"Yes! I cannot accept it!"
From the very beginning, Otto roared,
"I was that child waiting for Christmas!"
"Yearning for a gift called Kallen Kaslana!"
"No—
I was yearning for a Santa Claus named Kallen Kaslana!"
His voice trembled with grief and desperation.
"You're wrong!"
"This has nothing to do with how many people are implicated!"
"Just as a universe without an observer will never give birth to poetry that praises it—"
Otto's voice sank, heavier than ever before.
"A world without Kallen—
has no right to exist."
His resolute words—
his five-hundred-year obsession—
left everyone watching the screen utterly shaken.
[March 7th: Wait… Otto's about to be swallowed by a black hole, and he's still thinking about Kallen?!]
[Sparkle: Just how obsessed is this guy…]
[Tartaglia: Five hundred years… that's not easy.]
[Rita: The Overseer's obsession with Lady Saint has always been like this.]
[Himeko (Star Rail): But this is… far too extreme, isn't it?!]
[Arataki Itto: Kallen, Kallen—does this guy have anything else in his head?!]
[Yanqing: Welt should be able to defeat him now, right?]
At the same time—
Within the pure white space.
Kallen's eyes reddened.
Tears welled at the corners as she whispered softly,
"Otto… please… don't keep making the same mistakes…"
She didn't want Otto to continue down this path for her sake.
She didn't want any more innocent people to be dragged into suffering because of her.
But deep down—
What she feared most was this:
That Otto would remain trapped forever in the shadow of her death.
That for his entire life—
there would never be a single day that truly belonged to Otto Apocalypse himself.
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