Chapter 151: Otto's Purpose
At this moment, Fu Hua also noticed the missiles flying past her toward Irene: "Irene!"
Hearing the voice in her ear, Irene immediately struck the Wendy card on her chest hard. Amidst flashes of light and hurricanes, Wendy's appearance replaced Pardo's.
Although with Pardo's luck, even if the missiles flew over, she couldn't be blown up thanks to Quantization, but the problem was, Benares was right beneath her.
Pardo's luck always only protected herself, not necessarily others.
A cyan light flashed in Irene's eyes. The explosive whirlwind bursting from around her, carrying the black mist of the Herrscher of Death, rapidly expanded. The several missiles flying toward them in the distance were sliced apart the instant they touched the whirlwind.
Subsequently, they were corroded layer by layer by what was carried within the whirlwind, losing the conditions to detonate, turning into corroded metallic remnants not even worth throwing into a recycling plant as they crashed to the ground.
[What's going on, Little Corruption?] Irene looked at the dealt-with missiles. [Why would missiles suddenly come over? Didn't you keep an eye on them?]
[Come on, missile systems aren't that easy to hack into, and I didn't come out.] Little Corruption poked Irene's head. She had drawn out a large portion of the virus to be active.
It looked as if she could come out from Irene's body, but in reality, her main body was still here with Irene. The things she could do through Irene's body were actually quite limited.
A Corruption virus without a Core as its main body wasn't actually that powerful. Just like in the original storyline, Gray Serpent was able to sever his own signals and commit suicide to deal with that patch of Corruption virus.
As for Rin, she was currently following Mei and the others to resolve the situation at the Third Airport. It went smoothly at first, but Rin's side suddenly reported that the Divine Machines had directly severed their signal connections with each other.
Although for the Herrscher of Corruption, merely shutting down the communication network wasn't enough to completely stop her. After all, if you closed it, I could just open it again.
As long as it wasn't a physical forced disconnection, the Herrscher of Corruption always had a way. But it was obvious that Otto's side had discovered something and started to mount a forced response.
[Tsk...] Irene clicked her tongue lightly, quickly thinking of a possible culprit.[The Void Archives must have told Otto, right? It has seen the Herrscher of Corruption, so it probably recognized it.]
[Probably. I'm looking for where the missile control system is.] Little Corruption nodded. It would probably take a little time, and there would likely be a few more waves of missiles.
[Speaking of which, is there no way to control it when the missile launches and get rid of it?]
[Is there a possibility that the missiles are entirely disconnected from the network, and the only thing connected is the missile launch system at most?] Little Corruption rolled her eyes. [Rin took over the entire base at that time, which naturally included the missile launch system.]
[I didn't directly conquer Schicksal HQ, how could it be that fast?]
It wasn't like she hadn't chatted with Rin about this. Although for Rin, those weren't exactly great things to bring up, this kind of experience was truly quite rare for Little Corruption.
When Little Corruption emerged, it was already quite close to the late stages. There weren't any military systems left that specifically required her to forcefully hack into. As for some ordinary systems, they could be handled directly through her instincts.
So she had a little chat with Rin. Although Rin had died at the time, the Herrscher personality that controlled her consciousness retained all the memories from then.
"Irene, are you alright?" Fu Hua immediately came to Irene's side, but seeing only Wendy before her, she couldn't help but stop in her tracks. "Where is Irene?"
"I'm right here." Irene raised her hand and waved it at Fu Hua. "This is also one of my transformations. Master, surely you aren't unable to recognize me just because of this, right?"
Fu Hua looked at Irene, who was currently wearing Wendy's skin, and couldn't help but be somewhat surprised. Because she genuinely felt the powerful Honkai energy within Irene's body, as well as the Authority she had just released.
That Authority of the Herrscher of Wind, which was completely different from the Herrscher of Death... what exactly was going on?
"Just treat it as my special ability..." Irene suddenly sensed something and frowned. "Master, you should leave quickly. Being discovered staying together with me without fighting won't be good for you."
"Moreover, the next round of attacks is coming."
As soon as Irene finished speaking, several satellites flew over from not far away, firing endless beams of light towards them: "It seems I'm being underestimated."
The Authority of the Herrscher of Wind indeed couldn't do much against energy attacks, but those satellites weren't invincible. Irene raised her hand and squeezed hard.
The air around those satellites immediately responded to Irene's control. The calm airflow turned into a rushing hurricane. Supported by Honkai energy, the immense wind pressure became almost tangible, gripping those satellites like a palm and crushing them.
"Master, do not trust Otto." Irene turned to look at Fu Hua. "Sirin is not beyond saving. If Master is willing to believe me, please stop helping Otto."
"As A-Hua can see, Otto didn't exclude you from the attack range, you know."
Fu Hua clenched her fists. Indeed, Otto hadn't issued any warning to her regarding the attack just now. She recognized that kind of missile as anti-Honkai missiles specifically designed to target high-speed and large Honkai units.
This was why just as she saw the missiles fly over, they had already arrived right in front of Irene. They were missiles specifically targeting large, high-speed targets.
And the blast radius of those missiles wasn't small at all; it would definitely have caught her in the crossfire. The subsequent attack satellites also similarly did not exclude her.
"I will go find Otto and demand an explanation..." Fu Hua clenched her fists. She already understood that she might have just been brought here this time as a target to attract Irene.
Hearing Fu Hua's words, Irene didn't stop her. Although doing this was a bit unfair to Fu Hua, Fu Hua indeed needed Little Senti to help her recover all her memories.
In terms of the body, she could heal her, but memory issues were not within the purview of the Herrscher of Death.
Even if she dragged Fu Hua into the Elysian Realm to complete them, it would only be a portion of the memories from the Previous Era. Only Little Senti could help Fu Hua recover the vast majority of her memories.
"Irene, you should leave quickly too," Fu Hua warned as she looked at Irene. "If Otto has truly set his sights on you, his attacks won't end so easily."
"Rest assured, I know." Irene nodded. After casting one last glance at Irene, Fu Hua flew off towards Schicksal HQ.
Irene watched Fu Hua's departing figure:[Sigh, the Celestial's memories can only be recovered by Little Senti. If not for that, I wouldn't have done this.]
[This is also something that can't be helped. Who told Hua to use Fenghuang Down so many times?] Nuwa also felt somewhat helpless. If it were just the body, no one would be more adept at repairing it than the Herrscher of Death.
But the problem was that Fu Hua's issues weren't just limited to her body. They lay deeper in her heart, and even more so in the memories atop her soul that she had burned away.
Merely repairing her body was of no great use for her memory recovery; this matter could only be resolved through Little Senti.
As for the chaos that the newly born Little Senti would cause, Irene also had a way to deal with it. To put it bluntly, the incident back then was purely because a bunch of people didn't know how to raise a child.
Every word they said directly set Little Senti off. If they had guided her properly, that kind of thing wouldn't have happened at all. As long as they stroked her fur in the right direction, it would be fine.
Irene turned her head to look at Benares and re-established contact through the Bodhi imprint: [Have you recovered?]
[Mm, there's no problem anymore.] Benares's voice sounded somewhat surprised. She had just seen the person in front of her transform directly into someone else right before her eyes, undergoing a completely different change in both abilities and even aura.
Even the Honkai energy fluctuations had completely changed their appearance. If it hadn't happened right in front of her, Benares would have absolutely no way to equate these two individuals as the same person.
[Then let's hurry up and leave...] Irene nodded. Just as she was about to pull Benares along and leave, the Authority of the Herrscher of Wind helped her sense someone approaching nearby.
"Tsk tsk tsk, I didn't expect Miss Irene's abilities to be like this." Otto's voice sounded beside Irene. Irene frowned and turned around, looking at Otto's battered body.
"Yo, our Lord Overseer looks quite battered, huh." Irene looked at Otto. "Who beat you up like this? It looks like you need some healing."
"The main culprit is you, Miss Irene." Otto patted the dust off his body. He had originally been sitting on one of the missiles, tagging along for the ride.
As for the purpose, it was naturally to guard against the Herrscher of Corruption. By utilizing the communication network of the Void Archives, he could ensure that the missiles wouldn't be infected by the Herrscher of Corruption.
As for this body, he had plenty of bodies of this type anyway; they were completely worthless and could be recovered afterward, so it wasn't a loss at all. In any case, there was nothing that temporarily required his personal attention over at Headquarters, so acting as a temporary commander served as a bit of a change of pace.
But he didn't expect that Irene would actually possess this kind of power\u2014Herrscher of Wind. Moreover, judging from the level of control and ability, it wasn't on the same level as Wendy at all.
Whether it was instantaneous explosive power or control over the wind, neither could be compared to the Wendy who was currently entangled in a fight with Durandal. This was a fundamental difference.
There was also a difference in attire.
However, this could be considered an unexpected harvest. The Soulium on Otto's body continuously surged, roughly repairing the wounds inflicted by the wind blades and black mist.
But this body wasn't meticulously crafted to begin with, and the amount of Soulium used wasn't much, so it only did enough basic patching to make Otto look slightly less pathetic.
"In that case, could it be that Wendy was able to control the Gem of Desire because she received Miss Irene's help?" Otto stood high in the sky, looking at Irene. "If that's the case, then I guessed wrong. I thought it was because of Miss Sirin."
Otto stood high in the sky like a gentleman, looking at Irene with a smile on his face. But in the next moment, he felt a powerful thrust, and a longsword pinned him to the ground.
"Overseer Otto is truly confident. Aren't you afraid of appearing before me like this?" The longsword in Irene's hand pierced through Otto's body. "Or perhaps Overseer Otto feels secure in the knowledge that you have backing?"
"Naturally, I can't speak of feeling secure with backing. I don't think I have anything that could threaten Miss Irene either." Otto shook his head. His gaze swept over the longsword piercing his body, and he raised an eyebrow.
"The Ruoshui Sword? It's indeed been a long time since I've seen this sword. But if I remember correctly, this sword should still be safely kept in storage. It shouldn't have fallen into your hands, Miss Irene."
After Lixue's death back then, this sword had been properly put away and hadn't been taken out since. After all, it was because of him that his old friend had tragically lost her disciple.
He naturally wouldn't add fuel to the fire in his old friend's heart. Even if his old friend had already forgotten her disciple, he ultimately still had to do the decent thing.
"Then why doesn't Mr. Otto try to guess what's going on?" Irene wore a smile on her face. She was rather happy to stall for time with Otto, simply because at this moment, the Ruoshui Sword was actively transmitting the Corruption virus.
Although it might not necessarily be very useful, she still had to give it a try. What if it actually succeeded?
"Mm, let me think." Otto actually began to ponder, just as Irene had suggested.
"I think it should be related to Miss Irene's origins."
"If I'm guessing correctly, Miss Irene should be someone who hails from the Sea of Quanta."
"Very clever. As expected of Overseer Otto." Irene nodded. "Could you tell me how you guessed it right?"
"It's not hard to guess. Unless it's a complete replica or a mass-produced item, there shouldn't be two such identical weapons." Otto looked at the Ruoshui Sword in Irene's hands.
"And the Ruoshui Sword is the 10th Divine Key. It only took on that appearance because of Miss Lixue's traits. There should logically be only one in this world."
"And the one we have here is securely kept in storage at Headquarters. I don't think it's been lost, and that sword isn't fundamentally special enough to warrant imitation."
"Then there is only one answer. This sword is indeed the Ruoshui Sword, but it isn't the Ruoshui Sword of our world," Otto's face bore a confident expression. "Then there is only one answer."
"Miss Irene comes from the Sea of Quanta, which also aligns with the fact that Miss Irene had absolutely no records prior to Nagazora City."
The identity documents that Himeko and Theresa fabricated might be able to fool others, but for him, to say nothing of being full of loopholes, it was just something he could discover with a little investigation.
It was just that he hadn't cared before. After all, this was someone his own granddaughter wanted to slip in. As long as she didn't directly blow up his plans, why should he care?
"As expected, I can't hide it from you." Irene didn't feel any surprise at Otto pointing out that she might have come from the Sea of Quanta.
She had thought from the beginning that the stuff Himeko and Theresa had whipped up would essentially be seen through by Otto after just a little study.
"But I still want to ask Overseer Otto one thing." Irene plunged the sword down a bit further. "Overseer Otto, what exactly are you trying to do?"
"If you wanted to see the human heart conquer the Herrscher, that has already been achieved, hasn't it?"
"That's merely limited to your perspective, Miss Irene." Otto shrugged quite nonchalantly. "Others may not necessarily see it that way. Furthermore, Miss Sirin is the main culprit who caused the Second Eruption."
"It won't be that easy for others to accept, will it? So, naturally, I have to help Miss Irene complete this matter. I am helping you, Miss Irene."
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