6. What's this, Xia Ling? Then let's kill it / 7. Otto: You may not have Xia Ling anymore, but you still have me

"As a reward, I won't hide anything from you this time... Well, of course, whether you believe it or not is up to you."

Upon entering the church, Otto turned around and looked at Theresa and her group, who were looking around. As he expected, their eyes were all focused on Xia Ling.

Or rather, it was the young girl version of the Otto Soul steel doll that Xia Ling possessed.

Yes, just as planned. Next, all we need to do is...

Otto smiled slightly and clapped his hands lightly, drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"Before we begin the explanation, Theresa, are you satisfied with the gift I just had Durandal deliver to you?"

Durandal and Theresa's eyelids twitched simultaneously, and Tesla, who was following behind them, almost blurted out a curse word that needed to be marked with asterisks.

"Hahaha, judging from your reactions, you must be quite satisfied with that gift."

Having received ample feedback from the three, Otto chuckled and changed the subject.

"Although I'd love to have a good chat with Theresa about the exciting things your Grandfather has recently accomplished, let's talk about the Herrscher of Domination first."

"I did bypass your Anti-Entropy's surveillance, sneak into your Salt Lake Base, and... successfully met Xia Ling."

(???)

Xia Ling suddenly turned her head to look at Otto.

(You just sold me out like that?)

Ignoring Xia Ling's gaze, Otto continued to tell the "story" he had prepared.

"Although she wasn't in good condition at the time, I still managed to see her after using some tricks, and... I made a deal with her."

"That's impossible!" Tesla interrupted, "Putting aside your infiltration of the Salt Lake Base, Xia Ling was clearly already in a deep sleep. Even the Herrscher of Consciousness couldn't contact Xia Ling's consciousness. How did you manage to communicate with Xia Ling?"

"Are you referring to those evil thoughts? Or that mysterious, inexplicable force?"

Otto's expression remained unchanged; this was indeed his personal experience. "If you're talking about those evil thoughts... I think the despair they contain shouldn't have much of an impact on me."

"As for that mysterious power, unfortunately, it did not stop me."

"Alright, Dr. Tesla ..." Theresa shook her head slightly. "Let him finish speaking first."

"After a deal was struck, Miss Xia Ling was invited to the Schicksal Headquarters to conduct a series of experiments with me."

"After all, only her body is asleep at the Salt Lake Base, but you don't know where her consciousness is, right?"

"As for the details of the transaction itself, I'm sorry, you can ask Miss Xia Ling for yourself. Revealing a contract with another person is not a gentlemanly thing to do."

(What kind of gentleman are you?! You've revealed everything except the details of the transaction! Are you just eager to have your great-granddaughter?!)

"However, during the experiment, we accidentally encountered a small accident."

Otto put on a pained expression. "After all, cutting-edge experiments always come with considerable risks, and I think Dr. Tesla should be able to understand that."

"So, you mean..." Theresa squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, "Xia Ling is in trouble?"

(Good heavens, he's not even calling Grandfather anymore, Otto, don't go too far later...)

"Don't worry, my dear Theresa. Although Xia Ling had an accident, it's not as serious as you think."

Otto quickly explained, "Actually, it was just that she was a little careless in controlling the distributed Herrscher Core, which caused some of the cores to escape her control."

"As for her, she is currently recuperating... Don't worry, it's just routine recuperation."

Chapter Six: What is this, Xia Ling? Then let's kill her.

"Hehe."

Tesla made its stance clear with a cold laugh.

"So, where is Xia Ling now, and why did you kidnap Xia Ling's body as well?"

"Oh dear, don't rush, this is another matter."

Otto continued to explain, "After all, it was my mess that I made, so I definitely have to help Xia Ling clean it up. At the very least, I have to find the escaped core for her."

"So, I continued my experiments while trying to collect the cores of the Herrscher of Domination..."

"Fortunately, I later discovered a simple and quick method. Although it was a bit cruel, I was able to collect almost all of them in no time. The one I gave you was one of the results."

"As for taking Xia Ling's body, it's only because I need to return the core to its original owner... After all, a spiritual body can't absorb a core, right?"

"Of course, now that you're here, it'll save me the trouble of making another trip. I can just hand over the core to you, and you can then give it to Xia Ling. It's a bit more troublesome, but you'll feel more at ease doing it this way."

"Right?"

Otto's series of explanations sounded reasonable; at least, judging from what he said so far, his approach seemed justifiable.

But... he is Otto, and of course, no one would simply believe him.

After all, even if what he said is true, there must be something he's hiding.

"Then..." Theresa pointed to Xia Ling, who was sitting obediently to the side. "And what about her?"

"And what exactly was that little trick you mentioned earlier?"

Theresa's long-standing understanding of Otto gave her a sense of unease, so she pressed him for answers.

"This..." Otto's face showed some difficulty. "Little Theresa, listen to me, these are adult matters, you probably don't want to know..."

"Bass--"

Golden spears have extended from the Judas' Vow.

Otto glanced at Durandal beside Theresa, but the latter made no move. It seemed that Durandal had no intention of helping Otto in his current predicament.

That's true, Durandal is Kaslana after all... The fact that she refrained from joining Theresa against me is already quite restrained. But, that's fine too...

Seeing that Durandal's performance was as he had expected, Otto withdrew his gaze with satisfaction, then looked at Theresa with a troubled expression.

"Alright, alright... since little Theresa is so eager to know... after all, I just promised to tell you the truth."

Otto pressed his hands together, signaling Theresa to calm down. "You should know that before Xia Ling obtains the identity of the Herrscher of Domination, these cores will automatically choose a host, and their choice is mostly those who are desperate, just as those negative emotions attract them."

"However, after Xia Ling took control of the core, she absorbed almost all of the malice, which led to a certain change in the mechanism by which these cores select hosts."

"Since Xia Ling did not intend to 'spread out the branches,' she did not establish a new autonomous selection mechanism for them... In this case, the core will follow another choice."

"That is, to automatically seek out hosts similar to Xia Ling. The higher the similarity between the two, the more ideal the target is."

"But as you should also know, Miss Xia Ling's personality and temperament are quite different from ordinary people, coupled with some unique traits of hers... which makes it impossible for these cores to find a host that meets the requirements."

"So... that's when I came up with a plan."

Otto stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers.

The mask on Xia Ling Linghun's steel face also fell off automatically.

Xia Ling looked at Otto and blinked, puzzled.

"Your Lord Bishop? And... Theresa?"

As Xia Ling's voice faded, the church fell silent.

Theresa never expected that this little girl, who looked almost exactly like a gender-swapped version of her Grandfather, would make the same voice as Xia Ling.

Three pairs of eyes, filled with disbelief and anger, were immediately cast upon Otto.

However, Otto seemed to have no problem with it; such a gaze had almost no effect on him.

"That's right, this is my result."

Otto opened his arms, showing Theresa his "genius" plan.

"In a previous experiment, I was able to back up Xia Ling's 'information' once."

"This information in the Tree of Imaginary was generated by Xia Ling herself. Therefore, under the disguise of this information, I can easily create a copy of Xia Ling's program."

"With this program to simulate Xia Ling, plus Xia Ling's original information, and my Soul Steel body whose properties I can change at will... for the escaped core of the Herrscher of Domination, this is simply a perfect host, isn't it?"

"Of course, practice is the sole criterion for testing Istina. What I gave you before was a summary of the core findings I've gathered over the past few days. And now, the last core piece—"

Otto's gaze fell on Xia Ling, who was standing to the side.

A bad feeling flashed through Xia Ling's mind.

She knew Otto wanted to stir up hatred and put her completely on the opposite side of the main characters, but she really didn't expect Otto to be so bold.

As expected of Otto, he's a real madman...

Before she could react to the thought that had just crossed her mind, Xia Ling heard a dull sound of a body being torn apart.

She looked down slightly and found that Otto's arm had pierced straight through her chest, which was made of soul steel.

The sudden turn of events left the three unprepared individuals stunned and frozen in place.

However, Otto still had some conscience; while attacking the body, he did not activate the pain sensor of the Soul Steel body.

"Teresa..."

With her speech system rendered ineffective due to the penetration of her body, Xia Ling's body fell heavily to the ground, her eyes losing their luster.

At the same time, her body began to dissolve and deform automatically, turning into a strange shell with no discernible face.

Otto, who had suddenly made his move, had just pulled his arm out of Xia Ling's body and was wiping a dark gold core that he had just taken out.

"Here, this is the last core that Xia Ling left behind."

Otto flicked his sleeve and gently tossed the core, still warm from Xia Ling's touch, toward Theresa.

"Remember not to lose it again, okay?"

The silence, like the prelude to a storm, was abruptly broken by the soft thud of the core hitting the ground.

"Otto!"

Chapter Seven Otto: You may not have Xia Ling anymore, but you still have me.

To be honest, Xia Ling never expected Otto to lay a hand on her.

It's not about allies or not; she just felt that Otto had already used his core to provoke Theresa by sacrificing himself once, so doing it again might not be as effective.

Neighbor-Dream Eight Mountain Neighbor (Nine) Phosphorus rises blame '? Ba But Otto took advantage of this point and, unexpectedly, gave Theresa a fresh core on the spot, killing her on the spot.

It's fortunate that Otto didn't know he would be resurrected, otherwise he probably would have dared to perform a gruesome act of tearing Xia Ling's heart out... However, in that case, he would probably be facing not Judah, but artificial Honkai outbreak Vishnu.

With the death of her Soul Steel body, Xia Ling's consciousness instantly flowed back into her main body through the core network.

Inside a church in Kolosten, Xia Ling, who had been asleep for a long time, suddenly sat up. Ignoring her rusty body, Xia Ling immediately turned her head to look in the direction of St. 537 Church in the distance.

Sure enough, an aura that Xia Ling was extremely familiar with had already erupted there.

"You're really brave... Otto. Even in this situation, you managed to make Theresa furious..."

"Tsk, judging by this situation, are they going to start fighting today? His experiment doesn't start until tomorrow..."

Thinking of this, Xia Ling suddenly paused.

"... No wonder Otto chose to provoke us here."

"He never told Theresa the location of my true form... That old fox, he knew Theresa would eventually compromise."

With a slight sigh, Xia Ling lay back down.

Since Otto's side won't have any problems, it means it's not time for her to step in yet.

However, now that she has some time, she should also take some time to deal with another matter...

"Oh, my dear little Theresa."

"As the future archbishop, how can you lack even this much self-control?"

"Enough with the nonsense!"

Theresa didn't want to say another word. All she wanted to do now was to use the chains of Judah to torture Otto's body in the same way, so that he would taste the deep affection her beloved granddaughter had for him.

Otto skillfully used a feint in mid-air to gain leverage, dodging several chains that Theresa was about to unleash.

At the same time, Void Archive immediately mimicked the dual-gun mode of Heavenly Fire Judgment. Otto didn't even turn around, relying solely on his hearing to fire several shots, repelling the light spears that Theresa used to block the landing point one by one.

"Look how awkward this is. When you flip the table, you find that you can't beat it."