Records of Broken Swords in the Divine Land I

Led by the brown-haired girl ahead of him, the man walked through a pitch-black passageway. Before them lay the forbidden ground guarded by the Shaniyat Family for generations.

Of Schicksal's three great families, the Apocalypse family descended from the Enlightened One. Like him, they were the wise ones among the three families. As time passed, Otto Apocalypse, the current head of the Apocalypse family, had become the overseer of all three great families.

The Caslana family and the Shaniyat Family were respectively the main forces in the fight against Honkai. Nearly every head of the Caslana family died from the severe side effects of Heavenly Fire Judgment, the symbol of their family. Each generation of Shaniyat Family heads, meanwhile, would voluntarily relinquish their position and enter their family's forbidden ground.

Now, the one leading Otto was Eleanor Shaniyat, the current head of the Shaniyat Family.

Judging by appearances alone, no one would have guessed that the two walking through this dark passage were both nearly fifty years old.

Eleanor should have been killed by Otto with a Heavenly Fire Judgment mimicked by Void Archive when Kallen Caslana betrayed Schicksal. But as the strongest combatant of the Shaniyat Family at the time, she had not died immediately. Instead, she survived in a manner far beyond Otto's imagination.

Black Abyss White Flower. Otto had once placed his hopes of reviving Kallen upon this Divine Key, but unfortunately, Black Abyss White Flower could ultimately only affect the living.

He searched through the information within Void Archive and found, amid its vast and endless records, an account of the Shaniyat Family's ancestor, Lucifer Shaniyat. It was said that he had turned back time and brought the dead back to life.

Those few lines rekindled Otto's hope of reviving Kallen.

The Divine Key related to it was called the Key of Time, but it had been lost in the river of history. Even after scouring every kind of historical text, Otto had found no trace of it.

Moved by Otto's sincere repentance and desperate pleas, Eleanor agreed to bring him into the forbidden ground guarded by the Shaniyat Family to seek an answer.

After passing through the dark corridor, Otto looked up beneath the faint candlelight and saw only the silhouette of a nun, appearing and vanishing in the darkness.

"Eleanor Shaniyat, current head of the Shaniyat Family." Eleanor said as she dropped to one knee in salute.

Was that someone from the same era as Lucifer? Otto thought. He remembered Eleanor's warning: if he went too close to this nun, his will would be twisted, and he would lose himself.

Her name was Discipline. Even Eleanor did not know her true name.

To bring Kallen back to life, Otto was willing to give up everything.

He sincerely knelt and announced his name to her. "Otto Apocalypse, current head of the Apocalypse family, greets Lady Discipline."

"Otto Apocalypse, you are the first outsider to set foot here in centuries. Come closer and let me have a good look at you." The nun's voice was far gentler than Otto had imagined, carrying an impulse that made him unconsciously want to approach her.

Eleanor moved before Otto could. "Lady Discipline, you have overstepped your bounds."

Eleanor's voice jolted Otto awake. He immediately realized that this was the effect of the other's unknown ability, but he felt no fear. On the contrary, he was ecstatic. If this nun, who had lived in the same era as Lucifer, possessed such an ability, then the abilities attributed to Lucifer in Void Archive's records became all the more credible.

Nor did he overlook the other words the nun had spoken.

"Centuries ago? Why centuries ago? Lucifer Shaniyat's era was far more ancient than the era when our Apocalypse ancestor founded the Apocalypse family. Centuries ago..." Otto's mind began racing wildly.

"If that is overstepping your bounds, Eleanor, then how is what you have done not the same? This is the forbidden ground guarded by the Shaniyat Family, yet you brought an outsider before me." The nun's voice was gentle, making it almost impossible to hear the reproach her words should have carried.

"Yes, I have overstepped my bounds." Eleanor lowered her head. "But it is my duty as head of the Shaniyat Family to stop you from continuing to use your power to control others."

"Is that so?" The nun neither confirmed nor denied it. "Then why have you brought the head of the Apocalypse family to me?"

Eleanor fell silent for a moment. Just as she was about to speak, the nun's next words seemed to freeze the blood in her entire body.

"Have you come for that girl named Kallen Caslana?"

Otto stared at the nun in astonishment. He looked to Eleanor, trying to find an answer from her, but the fear on her face told him a terrifying truth. This nun had never left this place, yet she knew everything that had happened in the outside world.

The unknown was always terrifying.

Otto had never felt such fear before, but his heart was also wildly excited. He reverently lowered his head and said, "Just as you said, Lady Discipline, I have come for Kallen. I hope to obtain from you an answer that can bring her back to life."

He did not raise his head to look at the nun, yet he could feel her gaze resting upon him.

After a long while, the nun spoke. "As you are now, you do not possess the capacity to know that answer. Knowledge beyond one's era brings only calamity."

"Then could you tell me the whereabouts of the Divine Key said to turn back time and revive the dead—the Key of Time?" Otto asked again.

The nun did not answer. Instead, the oppressive feeling brought by this place shrouded in darkness grew stronger, and even the sparse candlelight became dimmer.

After a long time, he heard the nun sigh. "The Key of Time, Eternal Sin of Heaven, made him bear a fate that did not belong to him, and made him part from us twice. That is a cursed power..."

Otto lowered his head even further. "No matter the price, I can accept it. Even if that price is my life, my soul, I am willing!"

Hearing Otto's answer, Eleanor's expression dimmed slightly.

The nun remained silent for a long time again. So long that Otto began to wonder whether his resolve appeared insufficiently firm in her eyes before she finally spoke once more. "This Divine Key was divided into three parts, representing the past, The Present, and the future. The past sank into the sea beyond the world together with the ancestor of the Caslana family. The future fell into an isolated dream with another ancestor of the Shaniyat Family. As for where The Present went, perhaps Crimson Kite, far away in the Divine Land, knows more than I do."

"Thank you greatly for your answer!" Otto said.

The nun sighed again. "I have told you all that you are able to know now. Please leave."

It was as though some mysterious force was pushing Otto away, compelling him to leave this place.

Otto saluted the nun once more, then departed with Eleanor.

Otto walked out of the forbidden ground, only to discover that Eleanor had not followed him. He turned back to look at her. Standing in the darkness, she asked him, "Answer me, Otto... there was never a place for me in your heart, was there?"

"I am deeply grateful for all the help you have given me," Otto said. "But you know it. The one I have always loved is Kallen."

"Yes... If I had met you before she did, would the outcome have been different?" Eleanor murmured.

"I need to make a trip to the Divine Land next. As for Schicksal, I would like you to—"

Before Otto could finish, Eleanor tiredly interrupted him. "I am no longer the head of the Shaniyat Family. I will remain in this forbidden ground and fulfill my final duty as its head... Otto, before we part, can you promise me one thing?"

"...Please, tell me."

"If, in the future, a child of the Shaniyat Family falls in love with someone else, I hope you can help them. That is my final request."

"I promise you, Eleanor."

A smile Otto remembered appeared once more on Eleanor's face, which had not smiled in a long time. She said softly, "Thank you, Otto... I do not regret meeting you."

With that, she turned and walked into the darkness. From that day onward, Otto Apocalypse never saw her again.