Destiny and Anti-Entropy / Keep It Up, Lord Otto!

Cecilia could only sigh helplessly.

"Rigged! Rigged! Siegfried, you deserve to die!!!"

Theresa's miserable wails rang out from the dormitory building of St. Freya Academy once more.

"Stupid old man, why do you have to be so handsome?!!!"

Kiana lay sprawled over Mei's shoulder.

The scene shifted to Tesla's helplessly pretty face.

She sharply pointed out the stakes. Siegfried and the others had already been tied down by the Honkai Beast horde, which would give 'that person' time to absorb energy. Her plan to order the Rook Team to force their way into the Tower of Babylon was vetoed by Walter, who intended to have a proper talk with Siegfried.

Siegfried suddenly sensed that something was wrong. The previously frenzied Honkai Beasts had slowed down, and he hurriedly called Shub back just as she was about to charge into battle with them.

"Is that... a human?!"

Siegfried stared in shock at Walter in midair.

Walter's eyes had turned violet-red. The black sphere in his hand emitted black-and-crimson beams like lightning as he looked down arrogantly at the three below and the Honkai Beast horde.

"Kneel."

At Walter's cold command, invisible gravity swept over every living thing before him. Shub and Salome dropped to their knees with a thud, while Siegfried barely managed to remain standing.

"Disappear."

Countless specks of light emerged from the sphere in Walter's hand, transforming into black-and-crimson beams that plunged straight into the Honkai Beast horde. With that single strike, tens of thousands of Honkai Beasts were crushed into light particles and vanished into the air.

Siegfried was utterly stunned.

"This man... I feel like I've seen him somewhere before." Siegfried warily watched the man land before him. "That symbol on his belt... it's Anti-Entropy..."

Walter stood with his hands in his pockets before two massive Titan Mechs.

"People of Schicksal!"

"I am the leader of Anti-Entropy, Walter Yang."

Walter's introduction made Siegfried and the other two even more wary. Whether it was the hostile relationship between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy or Walter's identity as the First Herrscher, Siegfried raised Judgement of Shamash.

After an intense discussion, Siegfried ultimately agreed to cooperate with Walter.

"Walter Yang is Anti-Entropy's leader? Wasn't that Uncle Joyce?"

Bronya was confused. Her guardian was a senior Anti-Entropy executive, so she knew the organization well. The president of Anti-Entropy had always been Welt Joyce, while Walter Yang, as Joyce's younger brother, was only responsible for an affiliated studio under Anti-Entropy.

"Ahhhhhh!"

A duet of wailing gave Bronya a headache.

"So cool."

Even Welt Joyce could not help but sigh.

Einstein's frown deepened.

She still could not figure it out.

Walter Yang's eyes gleamed. He was already completely immersed in it.

Schicksal and Anti-Entropy

Meanwhile, two adorable children played happily in a grassy field. Just as everyone wondered why this scene had appeared, the back of a man in a white shirt appeared on the screen. His blond hair covered his eyes as his thoughts drifted back to the past, and he could not help reaching out his hand.

"That's me! Though I was little back then." Kallen looked at the projection in delight and nodded happily before asking in confusion, "I didn't expect little Yaqing to write me into it, but why didn't he ask me to do the voice acting?"

Otto fell silent.

"Otto, help me ask little Yaqing whether I'll have more scenes later, okay?" Kallen looked at Otto and blinked coquettishly.

One hit. Otto's heart was pierced.

Otto held Kallen tightly, as though afraid she would disappear the very next second. Yaqing's script was far too realistic, giving Otto a feeling that was both dreamlike and not.

Though Kallen did not know what had happened, she saw Otto reveal such vulnerability before her for the first time in years and gently stroked his blond hair.

A sudden emergency report shattered the unusual atmosphere. Amber's report informed Otto that Anti-Entropy's leader, the First Herrscher Walter, had appeared near the Tower of Babylon. Hearing that familiar name, Otto could not help being somewhat surprised.

"Walter...?! The debt from 1955 still hasn't been settled." Otto muttered to himself.

A brief scene flashed by, showing Otto's memories. Yet the person in the image was not the Walter Yang who had appeared before, but an unfamiliar young man with purplish hair who punched Otto hard in the face.

Knowing it was connected to Walter, Otto immediately linked the Tower of Babylon incident to the Second Herrscher. At the same time, he ordered Siegfried to be notified: the Tower of Babylon had to be defended at all costs.

Unfortunately, Otto had not expected Siegfried to avoid fighting the First Herrscher altogether, instead cooperating with Anti-Entropy on his own and allowing Schicksal's enemy into the Tower of Babylon.

"Damn it, Siegfried is such a reckless and dangerous variable. He's completely impossible to predict."

Otto watched the footage sent back from the scene in anger, then suddenly noticed something was wrong. The man calling himself Walter was not the Walter from his memories, yet Einstein and Tesla stood beside him, and he was indeed holding the Star of Eden.

Otto understood. His earlier rage vanished as he began praising Siegfried's decision. He smiled maliciously and licked his upper lip.

"This time, we'll accept Anti-Entropy's goodwill."

"Eugh..." Kiana shuddered. "Why does President Otto feel so much like a villain..."

"Uh... that can't be, right? Grandpa is Yaqing's boss, after all. The villain shouldn't be Grandpa... right?" Theresa was somewhat uncertain. Although her script had not explicitly said so, the villainous aura before her was far too strong.

Kallen, Theresa's grandmother, was just as bewildered. "Otto, you..."

Otto's heart skipped a beat.

"Did someone punch you in the story?" Kallen asked with innocent confusion.

"Hah, it seems my dear junior still harbors a little resentment over me sending him away." Otto smiled unconcernedly.

"Mm."

Kallen gave Otto a meaningful look. She might be a little airheaded, but she was not stupid. The signs were practically blowing in her face. If she still could not guess, then she truly would be hopelessly dense.

At Golden Courtyard, Elysia saw that the weapon in Walter Yang's hand was called the Heart of Eden and excitedly shook Yaqing by the shoulders. "Yaqing, my dear Yaqing, does the Star of Eden have some special meaning?"

Yaqing was somewhat helpless. Whenever the topic involved Eden, Elysia became especially excited. He, along with everyone else in the courtyard, had long grown used to it.

"Elysia, that involves important plot points later on." Yaqing smiled. He was planning something huge for the future, so how could he reveal the plot to Elysia so easily?

"Fine~?"

"The Ninth Divine Key? Is that a ranking based on versatility or power?" Vill-V wondered. For some reason, the term Divine Key inexplicably drew her in.

Kevin felt like cats were clawing at his heart. He knew about the Seventh Divine Key and the Sixth Divine Key, but he could not say anything. It was agonizing.

"It seems that whether in reality or in the story, our relationship with that President Otto remains just as tense." Einstein commented in her listless tone.

"Serves him right!" Tesla rarely refrained from swearing when discussing Otto. "With the way he develops later in the story, is Otto even doing anything human?"

"In that flash of a scene, was that me? Did I punch Otto in the face?" Welt Joyce was at a loss. Since he had not done any voice acting, he never thought he would appear in it.

"Who knows? Still, Joyce, that was so satisfying! You should've ＊＊(civilized speech) punched him right in his ＊＊(Anti-Entropy profanity) face." Tesla clenched her fist excitedly.

Welt Joyce was helpless.

"Achoo."

Tesla, leading the Titan Units stationed thirty kilometers outside the Tower of Babylon, suddenly sneezed. She did not know whether she was cold or whether Bishop Otto was talking about her.

In the wind and snow, Tesla complained indignantly, "Chicken-head, this isn't fair!"

After receiving Bishop Otto's approval, Einstein thanked Otto in a distinctly sarcastic tone, then asked Theresa and Siegfried, who had just joined them.

"Do either of you know that beneath the Honkai reactor, there is a prison holding experimental subjects?"

As soon as Einstein finished speaking, the scene flashed to a frozen wasteland. A label above read: Tower of Babylon, 17 kilometers away. A purple spiral portal suddenly appeared, and Sirin sat in the snow, panting heavily. It was her first time teleporting such a long distance.

Sirin was still wondering why the miniature Honkai Beast had told her to retreat when her pupils suddenly shrank. She stared in shock at the enormous circular structure before her.

After following the miniature Honkai Beast inside, she saw her younger self standing helplessly beside a hospital bed, crying out for her mother. But the patient on the bed had already been covered with a white sheet.

"Mom... don't leave me all alone."

The tender sobbing of her younger self echoed through the silent space. Tears fell from Sirin's eyes as she muttered, "I don't want this..."

At that moment, a violet flame rose up, and an androgynous voice rang out. "That's right. Tear open the hearts of humanity, and you can become a true Herrscher."

"That really is a philosophical question." Mobius's desire for research was stirred. "Yaqing, in your setting, what kind of existence are Herrschers? Humans who have suffered endlessly? Or humans with special abilities?"

"Senior Mobius, what do you think?" Yaqing asked in return.

Mobius gritted her teeth in anger. When Elysia asked him questions, he answered indulgently, and even when he could not, he would refuse gently. But when she asked something, he just brushed her off with a question.

Heaven knew Yaqing merely thought Elysia might have trouble understanding his ideas, which was why he answered every question she had. But Mobius was different. She stood at the pinnacle of human intelligence, so how could she possibly fail to understand him?

Cecilia held Sirin tightly.

Sirin could also feel Cecilia's love for her and gently rubbed her face against Cecilia's pretty cheek.

"Sirin, Mommy won't leave you all alone."

Do Your Best, Lord Otto!

Inside the Tower of Babylon, Einstein used a thermometer-like Honkai Energy Meter to test the girls released from the prison, trying to find 'that person' whose Honkai energy exceeded the limit. But to her confusion, none of the girls was 'that person.'

"Wait..." Theresa suddenly remembered that one purple-haired girl was missing.

Einstein helplessly concluded that the other party had still escaped, so she asked Walter to sense 'her' presence. Yet Walter Yang told her that he could not sense 'her' at all. Based on the lingering traces of Honkai energy, Walter guessed that the other party had already torn through space and escaped beyond the tower.

"Tear through space?!" Siegfried exclaimed in shock.

Cold sweat streamed down Siegfried's forehead. If Walter was right and the other party was outside the Tower of Babylon, then trying to find one person across the vast snowfields in Siberia's harsh weather with a detector would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Einstein, however, was not panicked in the slightest. She even proposed a backup plan: borrowing Theresa's Judah's Oath.

Theresa froze. She reached for the enormous black-and-gold cross on her back. Even she had not known Judah possessed such a function. As far as she knew, Judah's target-search range was only one hundred meters.

Based on materials Anti-Entropy had retrieved from Ancient Civilization ruins, Einstein began explaining it to Theresa—or rather, to the audience.

"Judah's Oath, as well as Judgement of Shamash in Mr. Siegfried's hands, are both weapons created by the Ancient Civilization—Divine Keys."

At the same time, Einstein pointed out that apart from its weapon functions, Judah also had four other functions.

"Ancient Civilization? Why does this suddenly feel kind of mythological?" Ling complained, then stuck her tongue out at Yaqing behind her and casually took a bag of chips from Pardo.

"It seems Divine Keys are quite mysterious." Vill-V began speculating from the smallest details. "Walter's Star of Eden, Judgement of Shamash in Siegfried's hands, and Theresa's Judah's Oath."

"Whether it's Theresa's nun outfit or her cross-shaped weapon, they both have a strong religious style." Mei commented.

Kevin stared at the twin guns on Siegfried's waist on the screen, feeling that they strangely drew him in.

Einstein placed the residual Honkai energy from the scene into a test tube and poured it onto Judah's Oath.

The art style for Einstein and Theresa suddenly turned chibi.

"I've never heard of... of that function, and I don't know how to use it..."

Einstein's face darkened as she began personally teaching Theresa how to activate Judah's Oath's Hunt Mode. As Theresa silently thought of tracking, Judah's Oath lit up with dazzling light, so bright that Theresa could not open her eyes.

Judah's Oath shrank from a huge cross to less than palm-sized, and eight glittering golden chains stretched out in every direction. Under ideal conditions, Judah could track a target within a radius of two hundred kilometers.

Even the hostile Walter could not help sighing helplessly, complaining that Otto had clearly handed the Divine Key over to them without telling them how to use it properly.

"Huh? Say, why didn't President Otto teach Aunt about Judah... uh, what was Judah's called again?" Kiana asked in confusion.

"It's Judah's Oath," Mei reminded her.

"Ah, right, Judah's Oath. Why didn't the president teach Aunt how to use Judah's Oath properly?"

"Uh... I don't know either." Theresa was equally at a loss.

"This makes Theresa look so silly." Himeko, already flushed and drunk-eyed, stared hazily at the screen.