Because I am the strongest (cont.)

"... It's all over now, Mike."

Looking at his colleagues, Lin Yu spoke to Mike.

"Rest assured, you are not combat personnel. Leave the rest to me."

"... Ha, that's true."

"But..."

At that moment, Lin Yu saw an undisguised weariness in Mike's eyes, whom he already knew well.

"The opponent is Otto... Otto Apocalypse, that old bastard."

"Can you really win?"

"We can win."

At this moment, Lin Yu didn't seem to be answering Mike; rather, he seemed to be giving himself a suggestion, talking to himself.

"We can win."

"Because I'm the strongest."

"Okay, then I'll rest easy."

In the next instant, all the Schicksal members, including Mike, simultaneously punched themselves hard.

Already physically weak, the group decided to knock themselves unconscious on the spot to avoid further annoyance to the strongest knight, given their 'fallen' state.

Looking at the actions of everyone in front of him, Lin Yu felt that the anger in his heart was about to be completely uncontrollable.

Everyone here is someone who Honkai Energy. That's why they chose to knock themselves unconscious during the internal strife, so that they wouldn't be able to cause trouble for Lin Yu.

And the reason why everyone is in despair...

—Otto Apocalypse, I will never forgive you, you traitor who toyed with the emotions of everyone and the Schicksal!

"Hmm, not bad momentum."

Just after his colleagues knocked him unconscious, a woman slowly walked out of the corridor and appeared before them.

"Xiaolin, it seems you listened to what I said at the bar the other day."

Looking at his mentor standing in front of him, Lin Yu chose not to respond to his words.

Faced with Lin Yu's rude behavior, Ghost said expressionlessly.

"Now, do you know what you should do?"

Theresa, who had no idea what the two were talking about, could clearly sense that the atmosphere had become worse than before.

Meanwhile, Xiola and Rita, who vaguely sensed something, both chose to keep quiet and left the scene to Lin Yu and Ghost, the master and apprentice.

"Ghost Teacher, you... you're in despair."

"Yes."

After readily admitting the matter, Ghost spoke to Lin Yu.

"To fight against the Honkai, all of us in Schicksal have been working tirelessly for so long, and some of our comrades have even sacrificed their lives for it."

"Then, just today, Otto told us all that he had been letting the Honkai develop for five hundred years."

"The mission we risked our lives to complete could very well be helping him to let the Honkai develop unchecked—with that in mind, do you think I can still look at everything calmly and objectively as before?"

"... It's very difficult."

At this moment, Lin Yu faced the ghost slowly approaching him, and after hesitating for a second...

— He punched right through the ghost's body.

With this action, Lin Yu forcefully dug the core out of the ghost's body before it could escape from his sight, and used the power of the Herrscher of Constraint to temporarily deactivate the core.

At the same time, Lin Yu did not dare to be careless and immediately used Powerful Healing Technique to heal the ghost's body.

However, he still had some questions for the ghost.

Therefore, while completing the treatment, Lin Yu activated the Phantasm Lantern Barrier, pulling his own consciousness and the ghost's consciousness into the illusion simultaneously.

Within the illusion, the ghost, having regained its self-awareness, became noticeably more relaxed than before.

"Ha, Kobayashi, you little brat, you actually have such a strange ability hidden away."

Looking at Lin Yu's Lin Yu expression, Ghost said to him with a grin.

"You've kept so many things from your teacher, you're not being good."

"Um, sorry, Ghost Teacher."

"Okay, no need to apologize, you did a great job."

After the playful expression on his face disappeared, a somewhat complicated expression appeared on the ghost's face.

"To be honest, at the time I just thought you were a talented kid but had some mental issues, so I wanted to correct your mental distortion by taking on apprentices."

"But now it seems... I'm a terrible teacher."

"Not only did I not realize that your problem had become more serious, but I was also fooled by you, and even now..."

"I have to make my disciple bear these responsibilities that he should not have to bear."

"... These responsibilities were ones I chose to take on voluntarily."

Faced with his mentor's words, which were a mixture of relief and frustration, Lin Yu calmly replied.

"I am now the strongest in Schicksal, and also a member of the [Bishop- Apocalypse] clan."

"Since I am the strongest person in the Schicksal and a member of the Bishop's clan, I should naturally bear the responsibility that the strongest person in the Schicksal and the Bishop's clan must bear."

"Otto is a piece of trash who has abandoned his bishopric duties, so now I will get rid of this trash and put Schicksal back on track."

"But right now, more than these things, I'm curious—Teacher, when did you start having the idea of deceiving the Honkai?"

Just as Lin Yu said, in Lin Yu's opinion, Ghost's previous actions were clearly deceiving the Honkai.

Otherwise, if Ghost were to truly become the Herrscher of Dominion, with her intelligence network and her own authority to control information about Schicksal, she could easily trigger far more terrifying turmoil than anyone else.

However, after Ghost became the Herrscher of Dominion, she was already 'desperate', but she immediately came to Theresa's office and prepared to do something that looked like a confession.

This is clearly not something someone whose mind and body are truly being manipulated by the Honkai should do.

"Ah, let me think... Let's start from the day Otto failed to ambush me."

Recalling what happened that day, Ghost said with a touch of emotion.

"Actually, before you saved me, I really felt a bit desperate."

"The boss I once trusted betrayed me and everyone else; we were just pawns in his game to achieve his ambitions."

"At that time, I kept asking myself – were my comrades' efforts and sacrifices really meaningful?"

Listening to the ghost's words, Lin Yu made no attempt to interrupt him.

Even a transmigrator like him, who knew Otto's true nature, almost became Herrscher out of despair after seeing reality in Changkong City.

So, for the Valkyrie Otto Otto the other fellow Schicksal members, despair was only natural after they realized what kind of person Otto was and learned the cruel truth.

"But I quickly realized that I was almost getting stuck on something."

At this moment, Ghost's face was filled with determination.

"I am not fighting because of Otto Apocalypse, but because of fighting against the Honkai and saving the world."

"He is a monster. He has hindered us and betrayed us, so we should do everything in our power to defeat him—just as we tried to defeat the Honkai."

"Our desire to fight against the Honkai is not wrong, so since we are on the right path, we just need to keep moving forward."

"As long as we keep moving forward, the road will keep extending, so until we defeat the Honkai..."

"—I will absolutely not stop."

After saying these words, Ghost immediately put on a seemingly relaxed expression and said to Lin Yu.

"Okay, don't be so serious. Although I don't know if you'll need it, I'll quickly explain how I got this core."

"After realizing that Otto was unreliable, I started thinking about where the next Herrscher would take action."

"Then I thought about it for a long time..."

"—Apart from the plague, the other three of the Four Great Gems already have owners."

"And I certainly don't have the qualifications to become the Herrscher of Flames, otherwise Otto would have used me for experiments long ago."

"I lack power, but I possess a wealth of information. If I were to become the Herrscher of Dominion, I could use the information I have, combined with my Quantum Entanglement abilities, to cause immense destruction to this world."

"The thought that I might have this qualification made me start using the kind of equipment that everyone in the Schicksal uses to watch past recordings, and I kept watching images that made me uncomfortable."

"Then—I suppose I succeeded, since after seeing so many upsetting things, I did feel even more 'desperate'."

"After sensing my despair, it probably took a liking to my status as the intelligence chief, which is why the Dominance Core attached itself to me immediately."

"Under these circumstances, I kept hypnotizing myself, not knowing when I would truly fall into despair. That's why I had to use this method to get to your side while trapping this core."

After listening to the ghost's account, Lin Yu fell silent.

In the original work, Otto also did something similar, using his own power to lure and control the core of something.

However, in the original story, Otto went through many means before he came up with this method.

Lin Yu never expected that his mentor could come up with a similar method to trap the core by simply looking at the information left in the Schicksal Headquarters.

Because the ghost herself was in despair, the core within her body did not escape before she lost consciousness.

However, similarly, because the ghost harbored some despair, but this despair was more of a disguise, she was able to force herself to make the right choice after experiencing 'despair' through self-hypnosis and arrive near Theresa's office.

Even if Lin Yu didn't arrive in time, Theresa could use the Key of Restraint to immediately bind a Dominance Herrscher of Domination who had no desire to fight and seemed very strange, thus securing a core for Schicksal that could not escape.

"As for what happens next... ha, I still haven't adjusted my mindset, so in other words, I might still attract other core members because of my despair."

At this moment, a cold smile appeared on the ghost's face, and he spoke very decisively to Lin Yu.

"And this situation will keep happening at the Schicksal Headquarters, so Kobayashi, if you want to deal with the mess left by Otto, you'd better hurry up."

"Otherwise... perhaps Rita will have to do some things that you would never want to do in your place."

"Yes, I know, teacher, you can rest assured."

Before using the Phantasm Lantern Barrier to completely slumber the ghost's spirit, Lin Yu whispered to the ghost.

"Just like I said, I... will win."

"Because I am the strongest."

As Lin Yu and Ghost finished their conversation within the Phantasm Lantern Barrier, Lin Yu handed Ghost, who had fallen into a deep sleep, to Xiola, the weakest fighter among them.

"Teacher Xiola, I'm entrusting the Ghost Teacher to you."

"Protect her safety, and after it's done—"

"Alright, that's enough."

Seeing what Lin Yu was about to promise, Xiola spoke decisively.

"There's no need to make any promises. Things have come to this point, and we're in the same boat."

"You go and handle Otto, leave the rest to us. I just want to retire in peace, I don't ask for anything else."

"Yes, that's excellent."

"A'yu."

Seeing Lin Yu calmly gazing at the Herrscher Core in his hand, Rita asked with slight unease.

"Could it be that you...?"

"Sister, don't worry about me."

Amidst the gasps of the crowd, Lin Yu threw the core into his mouth, thus releasing the core's seal.

"It's regrettable, but I have to face reality now."

"Perhaps I am just a fussy person who cannot be decisive in killing. If I don't deal with the cores in the bodies of my colleagues at the Schicksal Headquarters, I won't be able to fight with peace of mind."

"But you...!"

Seeing Lin Yu's actions, which she considered almost suicidal, Rita didn't hesitate and pulled out Skyfrost Skadi, holding the scythe to Lin Yu's neck.