Otto: I Shall Pledge My Loyalty to You!
Yes, just like Bai Ge said.
Otto Apocalypse can't do anything right now.
Even knowing that his meticulously planned scheme would be taken away, and that he would lose his only chance in five hundred years to save his loved ones, he was unable to make any struggle or attempt to salvage the situation.
He could certainly challenge Bai Ge right now. Even without a weapon, those fists made of Soul Steel would be deadly to most people.
However...
Standing before him now was the Flame Chasers, whose motto was "Salvation," a hero whose Honkai strength exceeded that of Current Civilization by dozens of times, yet who still led humanity to Honkai the Honkai!
Otto's win rate is so low it might be negative.
"Ha, hahaha, how pathetic. It seems that all I can do now is kneel before you and beg you to have mercy and let me fulfill my long-cherished wish."
Otto covered his face with one hand and mocked himself sadly.
"That seems to be the case. Do you want to do it?"
Bai Ge nodded, then propped his head up and looked at Otto with great interest, appreciating the villain's pain, resentment, defeat, and helplessness.
To be honest, it was incredibly satisfying and absolutely brilliant.
If Welt, Tesla, Einstein saw this, they would be ecstatic.
At this moment, Bai Ge undoubtedly holds Otto Apocalypse's life in his hands.
This terrifying man, who treated everyone as pawns, was now a fish on his chopping block.
He can now make Otto do anything, make him pay for all the mistakes he made in the past, one by one.
However, Bai Ge found that she wasn't very interested.
(Is it because the target isn't Otto from the Prime World? Or is it because he doesn't want to become like this guy?)
Bai Ge couldn't help but ponder the reason.
Meanwhile, Otto also let out a deep sigh.
He had just reconsidered all the possibilities.
For example, he could trick Durandal, Welt, Kiana, Raiden Mei, and all the other strong people of this era into attacking him together, but let's not even talk about whether he could actually do it.
Otto discovered that even if he succeeded, Bai Ge could still defeat everyone head-on.
Even if he could advance his plan without anyone noticing and make himself a false god, he probably wouldn't be a match for Bai Ge, although I wouldn't have had that opportunity before then.
But...
"I certainly don't have the means to defeat you, but I don't think you can do anything to me either. I guess... you don't know how to get to the Imaginary Tree, so you need me to tell you my whole plan?"
A spark of hope ignited in Otto's eyes.
"That makes sense now. The reason you haven't killed me yet is because of this. After all, if you knew everything, you could have killed me now and started the plan immediately."
Otto stared intently at Bai Ge, feeling he had found leverage in the negotiation.
However, behind the savior's white mask came a chilling, mocking laugh that chilled him to the bone.
"I'm sorry, Otto Apocalypse, you've guessed wrong this time. I know your plan is detailed. The reason I haven't killed you yet is simply to make things as perfect as possible, and at the same time... to enjoy your expression of despair and fear, that's all."
"... That's not something a good person should say, savior of the Previous Civilization."
"Because I really hate you. As for being a good person? That's just a result of my actions. I know better than anyone how selfish I really am."
Bai Ge shrugged, indicating that he wasn't actually interested in playing the role of a champion of justice, which made Otto feel disheartened once again.
If he is flawless in terms of strength, that's one thing, but if he's also flawless in terms of mind, then he really has no way to deal with it.
Otto felt that he was probably really going to suffer retribution. The opportunity to save the Saintess, which he had waited five hundred years for, was about to turn into a mirage.
Despair, resentment, and loneliness filled his entire being.
Although he certainly wouldn't give up, he would definitely look for a new way to resurrect the Saintess.
Even so, Otto Apocalypse's mood at this moment was just as bleak and desperate as when he lost Saintess Kallen.
"Alright, let's leave it at that for now."
But suddenly Bai Ge's tone changed.
"What?"
Otto looked at Bai Ge blankly.
At this moment, he seemed to have reverted to the clown from five hundred years ago, who, after being driven to desperation, was led by the nose by his sister Lisa Apocalypse and ultimately killed the Saintess with his own hands.
"Because you are not the 'Otto' of my world, no matter how much revenge I take against you, it will not make me completely satisfied. Moreover, I fight for all the good things in the world... This is also my creed."
Bai Ge walked up to Otto, looking down at this man who was undoubtedly his enemy.
Although Otto's actions are still unforgivable, his faith in the Saintess, which has remained unwavering for five hundred years, is like love—no, it should be said that it is a love akin to faith.
It can indeed be described as wonderful.
So...
"Otto Apocalypse, I am about to give you a chance, a chance that will allow you to reach an ending you never dared to dream of, an ending that even the Imaginary Tree could not grant you... your only chance in this lifetime!"
Bai Ge reached out and grabbed Otto by the collar, pulling the fool up from the ground and speaking.
"I can completely save Kallen Kaslana."
"What did you say?!"
At this moment, Otto seemed to have come back to life.
His earlier resentment and despair were replaced by shock. He stared intently at the pair of Golden Eyes revealed through the white mask, trying to discern whether what he had just said was true or false.
However, Bai Ge is different now than he was during the Second Honkai Eruption of the Current Civilization, and even Otto Apocalypse cannot see through his lies.
But without a doubt, Bai Ge's words gave him a feeling of renewed hope, even if it was just a spider's thread, Otto had no choice but to grasp it now.
"It's a bit complicated to explain, but we have plenty of time tonight, and with your intelligence, you probably don't need me to provide any further explanation."
As Bai Ge spoke, he told Otto that he was from the Prime World. After hearing this, even this super villain with extremely high intelligence in the Current Civilization felt his worldview shattered.
But his eyes grew brighter and brighter, because Bai Ge had truly presented an opportunity that he had never dared to even imagine before, an opportunity that even Miracle??? and perfection could not describe.
"You really should kneel down and thank me, because your method of using the Imaginary Tree to save the Saintess is imperfect, and one of them is even a dead end."
Bai Ge said in a cold voice.
Otto has two ways to save Kallen using the Imaginary Tree. The first is to use the present as a price to turn back time by 500 years, back to before Kallen's death, and then he will deal with the Honkai Beast that killed the Saintess.
The second method involves using the Imaginary Tree to create a parallel world where Kallen can exist.
"First, let's talk about the first option, which is a dead end."
"Why?"
Otto stared in astonishment.
"Because of fate, fate has destined Kallen Kaslana to die at the hands of the Honkai Beast on that day. Even if you go back in time and successfully stop it, the corrective force of fate will try to kill Kallen Kaslana again."
Bai Ge uttered the ethereal word "fate," but it was a factual issue. In this world, the only person who could defy the corrective power of fate was him, a transmigrator.
As a human being of this world, Otto Apocalypse could not defy fate. Even though he went back in time to save the Saintess once, she ultimately could not escape death.
"..."
Otto swallowed hard, cold sweat pouring down his back.
If someone else had spoken to him about fate, he would have scoffed at it, but standing before him now was the savior who had saved an era.
Bai Ge's words carry a lot of weight... In fact, if the recipient is Previous Civilization, then his words are no different from the truth.
Even Otto trembled at the thought of the Saintess being saved by him, only to be killed by some kind of so-called corrective force of fate. He felt that he might go insane in that situation.
Bai Ge then continued speaking.
"As for the second method, it may be feasible. If it is a parallel world whose purpose is to let the Saintess live, then it may be able to ignore fate and let you get the result you want. But in my opinion... it is not perfect. After all, the person who survives in the end is just living in a parallel world."
"My great savior, please tell me, what should I do?"
Otto controlled his excitement and immediately adopted a very humble posture. He felt that he had finally found true hope!
"That's no simple matter. It's about using the Imaginary Tree to return me to my own time, and then having me travel back five hundred years to the past to sever Kallen Kaslana's inevitable fate of death."
Bai Ge made a gesture of raising and lowering his hand, so sharp it seemed he could truly sever the threads of fate.
But Otto frowned.
"How is this any different from my first method? Are you suggesting that you can disregard the so-called corrective power of fate? Savior, I need concrete evidence."
Otto maintained a humble attitude in everything else, but when it came to saving the Saintess, he needed absolute evidence that he could be absolutely certain of.
However, Bai Ge has plenty of such evidence.
Even disregarding the cases of Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Sirin, Himeko, and others, there were countless ordinary people whose fates were changed by him in the Previous Civilization era.
Aponia, who possesses the ability to see the threads of fate but not to change them, once transformed herself into the eyes that allowed Bai Ge to see destiny.
Aponia tells Bai Ge about the tragedy she sees but cannot stop, and then uses his hands—which can ignore correction and seize fate by the throat—to change the tragedy.
Many of these records are preserved in the Void Archives.
Bai Ge even transmitted his memories as a transmigrator into Otto's mind using the Herrscher Authority of Knowledge.