Chapter 155: When Schicksal Goes Bankrupt
"None of your business!" the two spoke simultaneously, their voices blending in a reverberating echo.
Facing Otto, who was charging at them again with the Judgment of Shamash, both of them felt a surge of anger.
This guy was doing it purely on purpose. The Judgment of Shamash held significant meaning for both of them.
To Sirin, this weapon had cleaved her numerous times. She had even been solidly smashed by Siegfried using the unsheathed Judgment of Shamash. She had severe psychological trauma regarding this thing.
To Kiana, the Judgment of Shamash was the cooking utensil Siegfried frequently used to take care of her when she was young, solely purposed for cooking meals and making toast pizza.
It was one of the testaments to his care and love for her.
That bastard Otto knew this. That was exactly why he was using this weapon—purely to disgust or provoke Kiana and Sirin.
"Hey, idiot," Sirin called out to Kiana, who was still trying to rush up and throw wild punches. "Hand over control of the body to me. We are Herrschers, not reckless brutes. Who goes up to fight in close combat?"
"But..." Kiana wasn't a complete idiot either. She knew the identity of the person before her was the Second Herrscher, Sirin, who had reincarnated alongside her.
During their stasis, the two of them hadn't done nothing. In that time, Sirin had told Kiana everything she needed to say.
After all, she would definitely have to make a direct appearance later and couldn't remain in her previous state. Since that was the case, laying her cards on the table was only a matter of time. It was better to take advantage of that downtime to lay everything out openly.
As for Kiana becoming suspicious of her after hearing her identity, Sirin didn't mind at the time. After all, that was exactly who she was.
However, she also reminded Kiana that Kiana herself was actually Sirin as well. The two of them weren't two souls in one body; rather, they were closer to split personalities.
They couldn't even be distinguished as a normal personality versus a Herrscher personality, but rather two sides split from a single consciousness. Kiana couldn't deny her own identity either.
It could be said that without Sirin, there would be no Kiana. On this point, neither could criticize the other.
Ultimately, Sirin had still died. As Irene had said, the two of them were merely a chance that Sirin had yearned for—an opportunity accidentally obtained through the schemes of others.
Whether they intended to follow Sirin's initial hatred and seek revenge against humanity, or if they were willing to accept Sirin's final, insignificant yet glaringly obvious hope...
...ultimately depended on themselves. Though, to be fair, Sirin had been forcefully beaten up by Irene and then reasoned with until she was convinced.
"Then do you want to keep taking a beating like just now?" Sirin looked at Kiana. "Hand control of the body over to me, and I'll handle him. Or do you just want to rely on wild swinging and get knocked flat by the enemy?"
Kiana pondered for a moment before finally nodding. She took a step back, indicating she was completely relinquishing control of the body to Sirin.
Back in reality, Sirin did a flip to dodge Otto's slash. After confirming that control of the body was entirely hers, she clenched her fists.
"That's more like it." Sirin's voice no longer carried Kiana's tone, shifting instead into a pure electronic reverberation.
Finally, she looked at Otto, who was transforming his weapon and wielding dual guns to shoot at her.
A golden light flashed in Sirin's eyes, and she constructed two Lances of the Void, thrusting them straight at Otto.
Otto clenched his hand, and the weapon in his grasp instantly transformed into a massive cross.
The thick and wide cross acted like a shield, blocking the initial attack of the Lances of the Void. Subsequently, Otto shifted his stance, dodging the direct thrust of the Lances of the Void.
Then, Otto thrust Judah forward, separating it from the middle. Several spears shot out like explosive projectiles, rocketing toward Sirin.
Sirin's eyes flashed, and she immediately opened a spatial portal right in front of her.
This time, Kiana thankfully didn't cause any trouble. Those spears were swallowed directly into the portal.
Sirin snapped her fingers lightly. Another spatial portal opened right above Otto's head, and the previously swallowed spears shot out, piercing through Otto's body.
"Oh my, it seems this set of equipment really isn't well-suited for dealing with the Herrscher of the Void." Otto dragged his pierced prosthetic body, looking somewhat helpless.
Ultimately, this wasn't a prosthetic body specifically designed for combat.
Although he understood the Authority of the Herrscher of the Void, spatial abilities were just like this—difficult to deal with. Even if you knew the opponent's ability, your rhythm could still be completely disrupted by a single portal.
However, he was very curious. According to the recordings, Sirin's utilization of the spatial Authority didn't seem that comprehensive. It was mostly used as a means of battlefield teleportation and long-distance movement.
She hadn't used it much in actual combat. More often than not, she relied on the Lances of the Void, the massive amounts of Honkai energy manipulated through her spatial Authority, and that accompanying Honkai Beast known as Benares to fight.
If Sirin heard Otto's doubts, she would definitely be grateful to the currently unparalleled virtual culture of human civilization. Abilities like this were abundantly featured in all sorts of novels, comics, and games.
With just a little development, she could easily master similar techniques. After all, she was a Herrscher.
As the saying goes: don't fear a Herrscher with strong Authorities; fear a Herrscher with a brain.
Now, having undergone systematic learning through Kiana's memories, Sirin had long since made up for her shortcomings of having received almost no education in the snowfields.
True, although Kiana herself hadn't fully committed these things to memory, she had at least glanced over them. Sirin could still perform basic learning through Kiana's memories.
Even though they shared the same brain, their different personalities dictated the outcome. Even if they received the same memories and memorized the same things, if Sirin actually took an exam, her scores would simply be much better than Kiana's.
Aside from becoming an "educated Herrscher," this also branched into two paths: the "scientist Herrscher" and the "imaginative Herrscher." After coming into contact with subcultures, Sirin unhesitatingly threw herself into the latter.
By expanding her imagination through human subculture to further develop her Authority of the Void, she was no longer the Herrscher from the snowfields who held six cores yet only knew how to throw wild punches.
"I'm going to completely crush you." Sirin lightly snapped her fingers.
Two spatial portals opened on two distant communication towers, swallowing them whole. Then, under Otto's bewildered gaze, two more portals opened on either side of him.
The tips of the swallowed towers thrust out from within, acting like sudden heavy-duty crushers, clamping his body between them.
"Kiana!" Mei shouted loudly, looking up at Kiana high in the sky.
Although it was worth celebrating to see that she was alright, the combat tactics she was employing weren't that simple either.
This was even more true for Tesla. As someone who had been on that battlefield back in the day, she knew very well just how terrible Sirin's application of her Authority had been at the time.
But this also served to prove just how overpowered Sirin's abilities were. Even with such terrible operational skills, relying purely on her raw stats, she still fought them to a standstill.
Of course, there was also the particularly flashy manipulation by a certain someone, which forcibly nurtured Sirin into a multi-core Herrscher with an even more explosive damage output ceiling.
But regardless, a Sirin who could bear six cores without exhibiting any abnormal conditions—it could be said that if certain Previous Era cultivator characters hadn't joined the fray, the Sirin of that period was the absolute apex.
Now, Tesla could see it very clearly. The opponent seemed to have already begun patching up her operational shortcomings, preparing to grasp both mechanics and raw stats. How could anyone deal with this?!
Meanwhile, Otto, who was being squeezed between the two towers, barely avoided being instantly scrapped thanks to the high durability of his Soulium body. At that moment, the Void Archives' leisurely, gloating voice rang out.
"Aha, can Otto finally admit that he's crashed and burned now?"
"It can indeed be considered a slight crash." Otto was truly somewhat helpless about his current predicament. Sirin's progress in controlling her Authority had indeed exceeded his expectations.
"But what are you going to do now?" The Void Archives continued to ask after laughing. "Weren't you going to play the villain? With your current performance, you won't be able to pull it off."
"It is indeed somewhat unexpected, but who said this is all the cards I have?" Otto smiled.
After issuing a command through the integrated system in his mind, a heavy jousting lance materialized in his hand once more. The sudden appearance of the lance forcefully warped the thick metal around him.
Pitch-black mist corroded a hollow opening using the simulated Abyss Flower. Otto's remaining body crawled out from it, looking up at Sirin in the sky.
However, at this moment, the clothes on Otto's body clearly couldn't maintain the dignity of the Overseer of Schicksal. His right arm was completely twisted, obviously having lost its function.
His left arm could barely still be used to hold a weapon, but the surface skin was also severely damaged, revealing the mechanical structures beneath.
"You're actually still alive." Sirin frowned as she looked at Otto before her, subsequently noticing the exposed structures beneath his ruined skin. "Oh, right. You're a robot, after all. It seems I really will have to crush you completely."
"Hope you don't mind me stepping in." Right at that moment, a dragon's roar and Irene's voice echoed from the sky. Benares flew down from above, crashing heavily onto the airport.
"Bella?!" Seeing that it was Benares, Sirin was also somewhat excited. She had thought Benares had sacrificed herself during the Second Eruption; she hadn't expected her to still be alive.
This was truly an unexpected joy, but she didn't know if Benares would be willing to defect from the Honkai alongside her. After all, the other party was a pureblood Honkai Beast.
But if it was Bella, there definitely wouldn't be a problem. Bella was the one who listened to Sirin the most.
"Queen, I am here." Human words clearly spilled from Benares's draconic maw.
Indeed, after Irene's adjustments along the way and the infusion of Honkai energy, although Benares still hadn't regained the ability to transform into a human form, speaking was already something she could do.
"Mn." Sirin nodded forcefully, suppressing the urge to fly down and hug Benares. She raised her hand and pointed at Otto. "Bella, bite him to pieces for me."
Hearing her Queen's command, Benares immediately spread her wings and took to the sky, opening her massive maw to snap at the half-crippled Otto mid-air.
"The crowd is really growing." Otto wore a seemingly relaxed smile on his face, his gaze sweeping over Irene, whose expression was unreadable.
Furthermore, a dense swarm of Sub-God Machines and Divine Machines flew over in the sky at this moment, led by several Divine Machines · Heimdall.
"It's better to have more people, isn't it?" Otto looked at the group. He knew these Divine Machines wouldn't be able to hold them off for long; after all, the enemy had a Herrscher of Corruption.
Even if he entirely uninstalled the overall communication network and switched all the Divine Machines to an offline combat mode, it would at most only affect the opponent's speed of invasion and control.
It wouldn't play a decisive role, but that didn't matter. He never expected to wipe everyone out with this anyway. Ultimately, these Divine Machines could at best match an A-Rank Valkyrie, up to Rita's level.
And Rita's level only applied if she was fighting Heimdall completely head-on—a turn-based battle of trading blows without dodging. So, on-paper stats didn't represent actual combat power.
If it were truly a matter of combat power, Rita, relying on her agility and attack power, would only need a few rounds to dismantle Heimdall into iron rods.
But it didn't matter. The sheer quantity could still stall for a bit of time no matter what. And a little bit of time was all he needed to get that thing ready.
As a villain, how could he be completely suppressed and beaten down by the heroes?
If he was completely suppressed, it wouldn't have any effect. He had to smooth over all the consequences that Miss Irene's naivety might cause.
After the Divine Machines wielding ranged weapons brought everyone into their firing range, the energy cannons on their bodies began to charge, subsequently bombarding the group.
Seeing this, Benares no longer fixated on Otto. She turned around, using her broad body to shield her Queen. Protecting the Queen was her duty.
"This level is far from enough." Sirin lightly snapped her fingers. Instantly, several massive spatial portals opened in front of the group, swallowing all those blue energy projectiles.
"Uh oh." As soon as Otto saw this, he knew things were going south. It seemed he really had infused Sirin with too much Honkai energy earlier. However...
Sirin took a deep breath. She could feel that after she awakened, her Herrscher of the Void Core had begun rapidly taking shape. Using her Authority so extensively had also accelerated the awakening process.
The massive amount of Honkai energy within her body, as well as the dense Honkai energy in the surrounding air, all corroborated this point: a Great Eruption was about to begin.
With such a massive amount of Honkai energy, plus the Honkai energy within her body acting as a catalyst, the scale of the Great Eruption triggered this time would likely be far more massive than any previous one.
But for now... she had to deal with the matter at hand first. The Great Eruption was inevitable; it wasn't something she could stop.
Sirin snapped her fingers lightly, and the previously closed spatial portals opened once more. From within the portals, countless blue energy projectiles were returned along their original trajectories, shooting toward Schicksal's Sub-God Machine swarm.
"I'm returning all of this to you!"
This moment was the time of Schicksal's bankruptcy.
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