Chapter 153: Sirin Awakens
"Since you can't accept it, why do you still do it?" Kallen gripped Otto's collar tightly, her eyes full of incomprehension. "What use is this, other than making me hate you?"
"Hmm, winning the chance to be hated by you." Otto smiled, not caring in the slightest how strange his words sounded. "I have always believed that some people die too early, and some die too late."
"..." Kallen pursed her lips. "But why do you have to do this? You could have used better methods, couldn't you? Why are you so obsessed with me?"
"Because you are the first, and the last, ray of light in my life." Otto dissected his own heart without hesitation, just as he had done countless times before.
"As your believer, I naturally spare no effort. I have already brought glory to Schicksal and countless Valkyries, so naturally, someone needs to bear the sins."
Kallen was still as naive as ever. Many times, people couldn't be judged solely by good and evil. To control an organization spanning the globe for 500 years, it was impossible for him not to be tainted by darkness.
This was destined. It was impossible to have a radiant leader without a single evil deed who could also completely suppress the board. Even if one existed, they would only exist in stories.
This was the necessary evil of the matter. It was just that he might have gone a little overboard, to some people.
Just as Kallen, watching Otto's completely indifferent appearance, wanted to say something else, Irene patted her shoulder within the consciousness space.
[It's useless, this guy has already made up his mind.] Irene shook her head. If Otto's own Kallen had come over, then Otto would naturally obey her every command.
But the problem was, this guy distinguished things clearly, far too clearly. He only wanted his Kallen. He didn't need parallel world counterparts, substitutes, or replicas at all.
Therefore, she knew from the very beginning that Kallen wouldn't be able to persuade Otto no matter what. After all, this was Otto; this was the most selfish thing a person could do.
This guy could be said to be living entirely in his own world. If you wanted to persuade him, unless this world's deceased Kallen came over in person, no one would be of any use.
[...] Kallen took a deep breath and then turned to look at Irene.[I apologize, I was impulsive. I'll leave the rest to you, Miss Irene.]
[Did I waste a lot of time?]
[There's no need to worry about that.] Irene waved her hand. This couldn't really be considered a waste of time. Showing that she possessed Kallen's soul would serve as a reason for Otto to hold back.
Irene took over control of the body and opened her eyes. Seeing Kallen pause, Otto raised an eyebrow. "Oh, is it Miss Irene now?"
"You really do have sharp senses." Irene let go of Otto's collar and snapped her fingers. The Corruption virus on Otto immediately seized control of his body.
"Oh, so this is what it feels like to be corrupted by the Corruption virus. Hmm, this will surely be useful for the next time."
Otto didn't care about losing control of his body; it was just a prosthetic clone anyway.
What he cared about more was whether or not he should synchronize this portion of his memory back to the database. After all, this was a memory related to Kallen. If he didn't sync it back to his memory bank, he'd be doing himself a disservice.
But by syncing it to the database, there was no guarantee that Irene wouldn't add a little seasoning called the Corruption virus into it. Ah, but since this was about Kallen, there was actually nothing to hesitate about.
As for whether Irene would plant any hidden traps inside, it didn't matter. So what if Irene planted traps? The prerequisite for a hidden weapon to be a hidden weapon was that it had to remain in the dark.
Weapons placed out in the open could be dealt with. When the time came, he would just have to make Void Archives suffer a bit.
"I hope you really can find a way next time." Irene looked at Otto. "Any last words? I think I really need this bit of Soulium in your body."
"Oh, if you want it, then take it all." Otto didn't mind this either. He controlled a vast amount of Soulium, so giving Irene a little was absolutely not a problem.
"But since Miss Irene has a request, you might as well answer a question of mine."
"What?"
"I want to know the story of that Kallen." Otto looked at Irene, his eyes filled with sincerity. "May I?"
"Of course." Irene didn't think there was anything particularly worth hiding about this matter. In fact, she was quite happy to share what that Otto had done.
For no other reason than she wanted to provoke Otto a little and let him know what his counterpart had accomplished.
"As far as I know, the actions of that Otto were no different from yours. He also chose to believe in his sister, and also thought that Kallen would leave together with him."
"Now that things have come to this, I want to know, Otto... have you ever regretted what you did back then?"
"Of course I have." Otto shook his head. How could he not? It was just that his heart had been completely blinded by the conditions proposed by his sister at the time.
He was solely focused on taking Kallen away from there. For him, there was no better bargaining chip than that. He had absolutely no interest in the so-called power of Schicksal at the time.
He just hadn't expected things to develop like that in the end. He, who had absolutely no interest in the power of Schicksal at the time, ended up becoming the Overseer of Schicksal for 500 years.
As for that sister of his? Now the entire Apocalypse Family only consisted of him and his granddaughter. Where did the rest of the family go? Hmm, who knows?
After all, the dead cannot speak.
"But in the end, you were one step too late, right?"
"It was more than just one step, Miss Irene." Otto shook his head, recalling the scene from back then. "I was far too slow. When I arrived, I only saw the corpse lying on the ground, and the child she had protected."
"Looking at the outcome, I was the one who released the Honkai Beast. I killed Kallen myself. Perhaps it was indeed partially because of my sister, but I was the one who took action after all."
"But since Miss Irene is saying this, then that 'me' wasn't late?"
"Yes. Not only were you not late, but you might have even achieved the result you dreamed of." Irene nodded. "You weren't late. You even rushed forward when Kallen was in danger and blocked that fatal attack for her."
"After a brief moment of reaction, Kallen killed that Honkai Beast. But what she saw was you, with a massive hole pierced through your abdomen, on the verge of dying."
"Facing your corpse, she buried you, reclaimed Judah, and yet did not return to the Kaslana Family. Instead, she wandered the land and became a Nun of Atonement."
"That is Kallen's style." Otto nodded, his face nevertheless full of a happy expression. "That is truly wonderful, Miss Irene. I have lived far too long, while Kallen died far too early."
"This is indeed, just as Miss Irene said, the ending I dreamed of."
After lamenting for a moment, Otto reined in his emotions. "However, it seems a few small questions have arisen. Miss Irene, if that's the case, she shouldn't have seen me. So why are you so familiar with me?"
Before Irene could say anything, Otto figured something out on his own. "Or perhaps Miss Irene has visited more than one parallel world."
"I didn't say that." Irene shook her head. Subsequently, Otto's body was gradually dismembered. A lump of metal slowly flowed out from his body, crushing the other parts of his prosthetic clone in the process.
"Well then, I was very happy chatting with Miss Irene." Otto nodded, then quietly waited for his body to be completely dismantled and its systems shut down. And at the very end, he still chose to upload this set of memories.
-Schicksal HQ-
In the office, Otto opened his eyes, revealing a nostalgic expression. "To have a conversation with Kallen, it truly makes one nostalgic. She is still exactly the same as before."
"You actually uploaded that memory?" The Void Archives appeared beside Otto, its voice solemn. "Right now, it is highly likely that the Corruption virus has been mixed into this memory of yours. Is it really worth it?"
"For you, isn't the one you want your Kallen?"
"Kallen is Kallen. There are differences, but they make no difference."
"Besides, the intelligence value of this memory is also very important, isn't it?" Otto raised his wine glass and took a light sip. "So, since it has intelligence value, why not keep it?"
"A person originating from the Sea of Quanta." The Void Archives flipped slightly, currently checking whether the data brought over by Otto's memory contained any remnants of the Corruption virus.
Although if it acted as the relay, the danger of having the Corruption virus wouldn't be too great, but what if? The authority of the Corruption virus in the field of electronic warfare was simply too vast.
Although it was very dissatisfied with Otto acting on impulse, what needed to be done still had to be done. Otherwise, if the Corruption virus really launched an attack, it would be the first to bear the brunt. It had to treat this seriously.
"Alright. If you want to check, then check." Otto stood up and walked toward the adjacent room. "The time for the performance has arrived. I hope Miss Irene understands the purpose of my performance."
A faint light flickered on the surface of the Void Archives. "Hehe, Otto, planning to directly provoke a Herrscher is not a good idea, especially when what you speak of will be her reverse scale."
"Oh, now that is truly rare. Let me think, when was the last time I didn't step on someone's landmine?" Otto smiled, then pushed open the door and looked at Kiana, who had her eyes closed inside the stasis pod.
"My, my, how truly greedy. You really won't refuse no matter how much Honkai energy is stuffed in, will you, Miss Sirin?"
Kiana, lying inside the stasis pod, seemed to ignore Otto's words, but the feather quietly manifesting in Otto's hand immediately caught a trace of a tremble.
Just as he thought, the young girl before him had already awakened long ago. She was merely pretending to be asleep. In that case, he only needed to apply a little bit more stimulation.
[Irene, why didn't you piggyback on his action of uploading memories? We could have uploaded the Corruption virus along with it.] Little Corruption looked at Irene with some confusion; it had clearly been a great opportunity just now.
But Irene hadn't done so.
[There's no need.] Irene shook her head. Even if she implanted the Corruption virus over there, Otto wouldn't necessarily be helpless. Although the new type of virus was invincible in electronic aspects, there were also many ways to immunize against it.
The lethality of the Corruption virus without the Herrscher of Corruption herself holding the fort wouldn't actually be that high. And to be honest, this matter truly counted as accepting a favor from Otto.
Even though this man was inherently a villain, she had to admit that he was indeed prepared to help Irene resolve a matter that was very difficult for her to handle.
Since that was the case, she would let him off the hook. Letting him know of the existence of a Kallen wasn't entirely a bad thing for him either.
If necessary, Otto was actually a very good teammate, provided you weren't standing in opposition to him. Letting him know about the Kallen on her side might prove useful later on.
When it came to fighting against the Honkai, he would still be of some use after all. She would just treat it as a potentially useful hidden piece.
Besides, even though Otto kept saying that Kallen could only be his Kallen, it was highly unlikely that the Kallen on her side wouldn't have even the slightest influence on him.
Irene turned her head and looked at Benares. "I've settled things here. Let's go. We're going to find your Queen. I hope she's alright now."
"The Queen won't be in any trouble." Benares shook her head. As her accompanying Honkai Beast, she could intuitively sense Sirin's condition.
And right now, Sirin's condition was very stable, or rather, it was gradually strengthening. Therefore, the Queen would not have any problems.
"Then follow me to a place first, and after that, we'll go look for her together." Irene flew onto Benares's back; she had wanted to experience being a Dragon Knight for a long time.
Benares didn't resist Irene's actions either. She didn't think there was any problem with this; the Queen had done it before too, and the Queen's aura on Irene was extremely dense.
The power she used was also the Queen's past power, so she must definitely be the Queen's subordinate.
After sitting down, Irene placed her hand on Benares's back and began transferring Honkai energy to Benares. At the same time, she added the Authority of Creation to adjust Benares's physical condition.
However, this adjustment made Irene raise an eyebrow. The condition inside Benares's body was truly terrible. No wonder Benares, despite being a Judgment-class Honkai Beast, was weakened to this extent.
With these large and small wounds and chaotic physical conditions, even a Honkai Beast should have died long ago. She could only say, as expected of Bella.
To think she could still fight while dragging this kind of body around. She'd help her recover a bit; Sirin should be happy when the time came...
But right at this moment, the sky suddenly darkened. Irene could feel a massive surge of Honkai energy violently erupting, carrying an intense fury within it.
Benares turned her head to look in the direction of the Honkai energy eruption and immediately took flight, appearing somewhat anxious.
[It's the Queen! The Queen has awakened!]
Sitting on Benares's back, Irene looked in the direction of the Honkai energy eruption and frowned. "This guy Otto moves really fast. But what on earth did he say? Why is Sirin enraged to this degree?"
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