Otto's gaze was drawn to Kiana's chest.
More precisely, it was drawn to the Gem of Desire nestled there.
The gem seemed to possess a magnetic pull, drawing in everything around it. Kiana's cheeks flushed slightly as she deliberately exposed her chest for Otto's view.
Being stared at so intently made her feel a little shy.
It made it seem like Bishop Otto was lusting after her chest.
Despite her current god-like state, filled with seemingly endless power, she still found it hard to meet his gaze.
After all, she had grown up under his watchful eye. They were childhood friends, or perhaps more like a father and daughter with a close bond.
But now she was so powerful she could probably kill him with a single punch. A single strike from her could even destroy Destiny Headquarters.
She felt a pang of sadness because her mutation had led to the sacrifices of those around her.
"What's going on?" Otto asked, though he didn't elaborate. Kiana knew exactly what he meant.
He wanted to know how the Gem of Desire, which should have been securely stored for equipment testing, had ended up embedded in her chest.
Kiana maintained a divine, indifferent expression, but her gaze shifted to the right, betraying her unease.
"I just wanted to try out the latest equipment. I'm a Valkyrie, after all, so I figured I'd give it a go."
Kiana heard about the experiment: if successful, it could provide gear to fight the Herrscher.
This piqued her interest.
The experiment was originally supposed to take place at the Oceania branch, but young Otto wasn't comfortable with that. After all, this involved the Herrscher.
Compared to the future Otto, whose plans always seemed to go awry, the younger version felt less secure.
The cautious Otto insisted the experiment be conducted at Schicksal Headquarters, and the equipment was delivered there.
Kiana, who wasn't allowed to leave Schicksal Headquarters, happened to hear about it. Bored, she decided to try out the new gear.
Using her authority, she successfully obtained the equipment.
The moment she put on the boot-like gear, it exploded. The embedded Gem of Desire pierced her body and reappeared on her chest, like Ultraman's countdown timer.
A surge of frenzied power erupted from her, leveling the surroundings and reducing several people to corpses.
She had grown stronger, but she couldn't control it. The Stigmata of the Herrscher of Finality materialized on her back, and Kiana felt like she had become an entirely different person.
No, she had become something else entirely.
Kiana saw a vision.
She saw herself holding a planet in her hands, the humans' pathetic final resistance as futile as ants opposing an elephant. The only things that could harm her were the attacks from strange devices and a white-haired man wielding a flaming greatsword.
In the end, she reduced the planet to rubble. Then her body shrank and she fell back to the ground.
Paralyzed, she could only stare at the clear sky above. Though her body had returned to its normal size, the power within her hadn't dissipated.
More terrifying still, her mind remained active, leaving her no choice but to wait for the Honkai energy to fade.
Soon, she stopped thinking altogether.
One year, ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years.
After annihilating human civilization, she lay alone on the earth for ten thousand years, until the Honkai energy had completely dissipated.
Finally, she could die.
This was the vision Kiana saw, the experience so visceral she felt as if she were that entity who had exterminated humanity.
She understood. This was the memory of the Herrscher of Finality, preserved within the Stigmata.
Then she grew afraid. She feared that she had become the Herrscher of Finality, that she would annihilate this civilization, and that she would end up alone on the earth, unable even to end her own life.
Memories flashed through her mind like a carousel, bringing back images of her mother Cecilia and her father Otto.
But she didn't have to wait long. Otto came looking for her.
*Good.*
He was the kind of father who wouldn't give up on her.
"Tsk." Otto clicked his tongue after hearing Kiana's explanation, surprised that researching equipment could lead to a world-ending crisis.
Fortunately, it was still manageable. He raised his left hand, his right still bound behind Kiana by golden veins, their position somewhat suggestive.
Despite his youthful vigor, Otto felt no strange stirrings at this intimate moment.
His left hand pushed Kiana's chest aside, causing the young girl to blush. After all, compared to Fu Hua, Kiana's chest was quite substantial.
Otto extended his thumb and index finger, ready to pry out the Gem of Desire.
But the moment his fingers touched the gem, the golden veins surrounding it surged inward, as if trying to devour his hand.
Startled, Otto withdrew his hand. Yet even as he pulled back, he frowned at the golden veins now spreading across his fingertips.
It was like he'd been infected by a virus.
Though he felt no strange sensations, the golden veins on his hand were clearly abnormal.
"How do you feel now?" Otto asked, realizing that simply ripping the gem out wasn't going to work.
"Hot and swollen," Kiana replied truthfully. When Otto touched her, she felt something inside her trying to surge into his body.
Her temperature was rising, yet she felt strangely energized. It was as if her violent power was trying to burrow into Otto's body.
"This is tricky," Otto thought. He wanted to run his fingers through his hair, but both hands were occupied, and he didn't want to risk these golden patterns spreading to his head.
"Do you have any idea what these golden patterns are?" Otto asked. Apart from the damaged Stigmata on his back, Kiana's halo and these golden patterns were the only other strange things about her.
"It's incredibly powerful Honkai energy, but I can't control it," Kiana said. "When you touched me, I felt this Honkai energy trying to burrow into your body."
*These patterns appeared on my body, but why do they feel like they belong to Otto?*
"Burrow into my body?" Otto thought, suddenly having an idea. He asked again, "If this Honkai energy burrows into my body, will its amount decrease?"
"Yes," Kiana replied. A moment ago, a tiny bit of the golden pattern had spread to Otto's fingers, and she could sense the Honkai energy within the pattern diminishing.
Otto pondered and came up with an idea.
"If all these patterns transfer to me, will your strange state be lifted?"
"But... what about you, Otto?"
Before Kiana could finish her sentence, Otto pressed his hand against her chest, as if trying to cover her fullness.
His right arm wrapped around Kiana, while his left hand pressed against the Gem of Desire. Golden patterns began to transfer onto his left arm.
"W-what are you doing?!" Kiana cried out, pained to see the patterns moving to Otto.
Otto just smiled faintly and shook his head.
"I don't have a choice."
Indeed, Otto had no choice. His right arm was already crawling with golden patterns.
At first, lacking experience, his right hand had become trapped behind Kiana, and the golden patterns had begun to burrow into his body. Kiana hadn't noticed at the time.
But Otto had calmed himself, accepting the risk.
If this power took control of his body, he'd simply end it himself.
After all, he had multiple bodies. He could just revive.
Losing one body was better than losing Kiana.
Right?