Sirin was so angry her teeth itched. She blamed it all on Yaqing.
"Hahaha, Sirin, you're so cute."
Bella mocking Sirin was practically a reversal of the natural order.
Sirin immediately found someone to vent on. Straddling Bella's slender waist, she ruthlessly tickled her sensitive sides.
"Hahaha, Si... Sirin, hahaha... Queen... Queen, I was wrong, hahahaha." Bella laughed until tears streamed from her eyes.
"Don't bully Bella." Cecilia gently tapped Sirin on the head.
"Mom, I didn't!" Sirin covered her head, still sitting on Bella, and protested indignantly.
"She actually survived for fifty thousand years..." Midway through speaking, Vill-V's Expert personality was suddenly pushed aside. Her expression changed. "How about a thrilling, exciting magic show? It can be our intermission!"
"Uh, no need for that, Vill-V... Great Magician, you should watch the movie first," Mei said.
"Hey, Su, why are you, a doctor, just watching?" Kevin called out.
"Although I studied a little psychiatric medicine as well, you're overestimating me if you expect me to deal with someone with eight personalities, Kevin," Su said, suppressing the urge to complain.
You wanted a professor of surgical medicine with academic accomplishments to treat a dissociative identity disorder patient whom even professional psychiatrists could do nothing about?
Hearing the commotion behind her, Sakura turned around. "What happened? Did the Great Magician come out?"
"Hi, Sakura. Long time no see. Want to be my assistant for a magic performance?"
"I'll pass." Cold sweat seeped from Sakura's snow-white forehead. Even knowing Vill-V's magic shows were not life-threatening, she was still terrified. Among them, only Pardo could endure an entire show, because she always fainted right at the beginning.
Pardo suddenly shuddered all over, every hair standing on end. Looking at Vill-V's blazing gaze, she trembled as she said, "Sister Vill-V, why are you looking at me? I won't ever go stock up in your room again."
"Pardo..."
Vill-V's voice sounded like a demon's whisper in Pardo's ears.
"Why not ask Miss Pink Elf?"
Elysia's voice descended upon Pardo's ears like an angel.
For the Saintess, Meeting the Gods
"How... could this be..."
Sirin, whose abdomen had been pierced by Ruoshui, was kneeling on the ground completely unharmed. Her expression did not change, making her seem like a robot. Only through Otto and Fu Hua's conversation did they learn that Feather of the Wind had already taken control of her consciousness.
"Otto, hurry up and do what you need to do. Then we'll kill her together."
"Thank you, my old friend."
Otto placed his hand on Sirin's head. Golden feathers fell, and he entered Sirin's illusion. In a white sea of flowers, Sirin's mother smiled at her. But the next second, young Sirin stood helplessly beside her mother's hospital bed in the illusion.
"Hehe, found it. This is the one." Otto smiled faintly and used Feather of the Wind to alter Sirin's memories of her mother's final moments.
Sirin awoke with a start in bed. Seeing the worried Bella beside her, thoughts and memories of resurrecting her mother suddenly appeared in her mind. The relics of her mother held in Bella's arms continuously reinforced the memories forcibly implanted into Sirin.
As she watched Sirin walk toward the top of the Tower of Babylon, Benares's originally gentle smile vanished completely, replaced by a sinister sneer. Behind her stood Otto's phantom.
"I planted the idea of 'resurrecting your mother' into your subconscious, making you willingly show me the Herrscher of Death's true power—"
"Do everything you can to save your mother."
"Then I can find a way to resurrect Kallen."
"I still can't stand Otto. Although Sirin is humanity's enemy, after defeating her, using her most painful memories to achieve his own goal is a little..." Kevin thought for a while but could not find a suitable word.
"Far too despicable," Mei said.
"Still, all of this is for the sake of resurrecting a woman named Kallen. That truly is love without regard for anything else." Mobius's tone was unreadable, making it impossible to tell what she meant.
Yaqing merely smiled without speaking.
Sirin gave everything she had. The Herrscher of Death's authority extracted DNA from her mother's relics. Based on her mother's DNA, Sirin used the power of creation, creating from cells—to tissues—to organs. In the end, her mother returned to the world.
Sirin happily threw herself into her mother's arms.
Yet Otto did not feel the slightest joy. He glared resentfully at Sirin reuniting with her "mother," his clenched fist trembling. What he had hoped for, what he had prayed for, what he had awaited—the so-called Herrscher of Death's authority—how was it any different from using DNA to clone Kallen?!
What kind of Herrscher of Death was this?!
What kind of godly power was this?!
Otto steadied himself and took on Bella's form as he stepped forward, asking Sirin, "Queen, forgive my impertinence. But I do not understand. Is the one you are holding truly Mother? Does she truly possess Mother's soul?"
"Bella, what nonsense are you saying? She is my beloved mother, she..."
Perhaps Otto had done something, or perhaps Sirin herself wavered inwardly. Her "mother" turned to ashes before her eyes. At that moment, Sirin was like a helpless child. She understood that her mother had not been resurrected. She had only restored her mother's body, but had not found her mother's soul.
Bella, transformed by Otto, kept encouraging Sirin to try again, but Sirin interrupted Otto with just one sentence.
"Bella, I don't understand. What is a soul...?"
Otto froze. What was a soul? It was also a question he had contemplated for five hundred years. He had found no answer. Even if he could clone Kallen's body, even if he could implant Kallen's memories into Kallen's clones, he knew they were not Kallen, because, because, because...
It was her essence. It was why she was herself. It was her smile. It was her tears...
At that moment, both Sirin and Otto fell silent. They both wished to resurrect those they loved, yet neither had an answer.
"A soul... what is a soul?"
Even Mobius could not explain that question.
Where did people go after death? Did heaven exist? If souls did not exist, what was the meaning of living a life? Once one died, did they truly vanish into nothingness? How hollow that would be.
"If Otto could truly resurrect someone, that would mean his wisdom had surpassed everyone else's," Vill-V said.
Honestly speaking, after one's beloved had departed, rather than wallowing in self-pity, how many people in this world would go so far as to overturn the causality of the world's timeline in order to resurrect them?
"Something's wrong. Miss Pink Elf thinks something is very wrong o>_"
Elysia puffed out her cheeks and glared at Yaqing.
Yaqing turned his face away to avoid looking at Elysia, but as soon as he did, he saw Mobius's fair, pretty face resting on the back of his seat. So he turned back again.
Now it was Mobius's turn to puff out her cheeks.
"Bella, I don't understand... What is a soul...? Perhaps only gods know the answer to souls."
Sirin's murmuring made Otto, disguised as Bella, jolt. His reason told him he had to remain calm. When facing an existence beyond human wisdom, even he was not completely confident.
Reason told him he could not take this risk. He should use Feather of the Wind to halt the Second Herrscher's consciousness and slowly research a way to resurrect Kallen, even if it took several more centuries...
But at this moment, the fool decided to take a risk.
"Queen, I believe the gods will understand your sorrow. They will surely help you."
For Kallen's sake, Otto had the courage to face everything. Even the so-called "gods" no longer frightened him.
"Please seek the answer from the gods."
That was what Bella, transformed by Otto, said.
"Ah, so the voice acting here wasn't actually my role." Bella suddenly understood. She had thought the lines sounded strange while recording them. So Otto had been disguising himself as her... That explained it...
Explained it my ass!
Why were you so good at pretending to be a little girl, Otto?!
"Mom..." Sirin murmured, tightly clutching Cecilia's arm.
Cecilia pulled Sirin into her arms and gently comforted her trembling body.
"Sirin, Mom is here. Mom has always been here."
"Otto, why were you so good at pretending to be a little girl? Do you have some strange fetish?" Kallen asked curiously. If Bella in the story had not occasionally revealed Otto's inner voice, no one would have realized she was Otto.
"Kallen, I didn't say..."
"Alright, alright, don't say anything." Kallen covered Otto's mouth. She had a feeling something bad would happen if Otto finished speaking.
"He actually planned to communicate directly with a god." Mei said, "Otto really is bold when it comes to Kallen. Collapse Consciousness makes Herrschers destroy human civilization, so would it tell Otto the answer?"
"What if this so-called god told Otto that he had to destroy human civilization to resurrect Kallen?" Sakura said.
"Otto isn't stupid." Mobius replied irritably. "Once human civilization is destroyed, what meaning would Kallen's resurrection have? So I believe Otto would definitely put considerable effort into fighting Collapse."
"Of course," Yaqing said. "But eliminating Collapse still ranks below resurrecting Kallen."
Revelation from the Gods
Fu Hua in reality reminded Otto that he did not have much time. Sirin could awaken at any moment. Meanwhile, Otto, within Feather of the Wind's illusionary space, told Fu Hua not to worry, because he was close to finding what he sought.
Kneeling upon the mirror-like surface, Sirin begged the gods for help, and the gods answered her plea. A powerful pillar of light descended from the sky, and the dazzling radiance forced Otto to close his eyes.
When Otto opened his eyes again, his disguise had vanished. He found himself in a pure white space, and his heart began pounding violently because he knew he was about to face something beyond human wisdom.
Under Otto's gaze, he saw a pure white figure kneeling devoutly before a cross in the distance. When he approached, the figure slowly rose—and transformed into Otto himself.
Otto was only surprised, not afraid. He politely bowed to the so-called god.
"Lord God, my name is Otto Apocalypse."
"My purpose in coming here is to seek your assistance."
To resurrect his beloved, Otto had long since cast life and death aside. Yet before humanity's enemy, the god of Collapse, he remained completely on guard. Since he was already this close to the answer, even if he had to battle a god, he would not fear it.
"What is he going to do?!" Kevin's eyes widened as he watched Otto's hand behind his back tightly clutching the mimetic Judgement of Shamash.
"Clearly, if he does not receive the answer he wants, Otto would dare to slay a god. Ha..." Mei yawned. She had spent the entire night conducting experiments, and fatigue suddenly washed over her.
Kevin held his girlfriend and let her sleep against his shoulder.
"What a wildly audacious man." Einstein remarked, blowing on her scalding coffee.
"Although we dislike the atmosphere within Schicksal, we must admit that Otto truly could stand against the entire Anti-Entropy on his own," Welt Joyce said.
"I thought Yang was already charismatic enough in the story, but Otto Anti-Entropy profanity actually dared to do this." Tesla's mouth hung wide open, large enough to fit an egg.
"Oh~, Yang, Dr. Tesla says you're charismatic." Einstein said with an ambiguous smile.
"Bird's Nest, you!"
Under Einstein's gaze, Dr. Tesla, who had been spewing expletives, gradually lowered her voice, her cheeks turning bright red.
Walter Yang simply pretended not to hear.
The god nodded slightly without speaking, yet an answer reached Otto's mind. Otto could not believe that the god of Collapse was so willing to help him, a human, so easily.
Faced with such an unexpected answer, Otto could not easily believe it. He decided to test the other party first.
But before he could ask his question, answers flooded into his mind. Even if the brains of every wise person from ancient times to the present were combined, they would not be able to bear the countless truths pouring into Otto's mind at this moment.
In an instant, Otto knew that the being before him was indeed an omniscient and omnipotent god. He also understood why the god would help him—
He was Schicksal's Overseer, Collapse's enemy, and a man who considered himself the smartest person in the world.
Otto knelt down in utter humility. When had he last been this humble? It seemed to have been in a prison cell, when he had humbly begged Kallen to marry him in order to save her.
In the eyes of the gods, people were no different from ants.
As a human, would you care about an ant's thoughts?
Before you continue