Defeat · Void Archives

This was a roundabout way of telling Schicksal not to make any moves regarding her return.

"Is that so..."

All the woman's little emotions swiftly vanished, but the surging gratitude left her gaze utterly dazed. She quietly pressed herself against Otto, like a white flower blooming from his body.

Cecilia shifted slightly, closed her eyes, and let Otto lead her onward.

Listening to his familiar breathing, she suddenly felt as though their breaths had mingled, becoming one.

"Honestly... I'll never be able to repay this..."

The Saintess murmured softly. The affection hidden in her heart burst forth, remaining lush and verdant no matter how desperately she tried to suppress it.

Moonlight shone through wisps of feather-like clouds and fell from the tranquil sky, spreading layer upon layer, rippling outward and dyeing the night with peace and serenity. The entire Schicksal floating island was veiled in a dreamlike silver-gray glow.

Cecilia's nostrils twitched slightly as she quietly savored the bliss of being cherished.

Brother Otto carried a cool, crisp fragrance. Golden hair fell smoothly beside his pale earlobes, gleaming with a beautiful luster. Following that restrained yet seductive scent, she naturally leaned against his arm like a coquettish kitten, melting away her unhappiness and worries in his warmth. Beneath the silver radiance, their private world was filled with his calm yet doting voice, along with the lingering savory sweetness of the rich soup...

A long, bitter winter. An innocent Saintess. A scheming bishop.

Night fell, and the world became gentle as a fairy tale.

PS: Bonus chapter for reader "Pseudo Daoist 110." I only just realized someone had given me a ten-thousand reward. My God, I hadn't even seen it.

By Cat Guest's usual rules, a ten-thousand reward means one extra two-thousand-word chapter. But I didn't want to split the chapter, and it was my negligence to notice it so late, so I added two thousand words instead.

Thank you, thank you!

Defeat: Void Archives

"Look, Void Archives. You've lost completely."

Otto lounged lazily upon a silver throne, holding a wineglass in his right hand as the red liquid within reflected the light.

"Now, you can't even reclaim your authority from my hands, much less condense a human form and speak to me."

"Hmph, Otto Apocalypse, that proves nothing. I was weakened because I voluntarily left, and then you took advantage of my vulnerability."

Golden chains coiled around Otto's wrist. Void Archives's voice sounded out, carrying the faint weakness and anger the man had hoped to hear.

"It's just... damn it, damn it! You merely used that MANTIS organization to gain a tiny, insignificant degree of control while I was weakened—damn it, they—they dared to do this?!"

Her voice gradually turned hysterical as she repeated herself again and again, as if trying to persuade herself and strengthen her confidence.

"But no matter what, such a tiny degree of control means nothing. Yes, it means nothing!"

Oh, you're panicking. You're panicking.

"Don't deceive yourself, my old friend. The reason you're so furious now isn't merely because I unexpectedly obtained your algorithm from World Serpent. It's because... you failed in secret."

Otto's lips curled upward.

"You lured Siegfried into activating Fehu Rune, preventing me from gaining Theresa and Siegfried—two major sources of combat strength—through Cecilia. Those were the little tricks you pulled behind my back, weren't they?"

"And if you hadn't done everything in your power to scheme against Siegfried and exhausted your control over that authority, how could I have succeeded in ambushing you?"

He leaned back, swirling his wineglass, his eyes filled with absolute confidence.

"I knew you would do this long ago—and do you know what? I was the one secretly arranging things so you could carry this out so smoothly."

"Theresa? The reason Apocalypse called her a 'fake' was because, when I had Rita and the others retrieve Cecilia's clone from St. Freya's basement, I deliberately let her learn of it."

"Siegfried? The reason Kaslana appeared near the Schicksal base and was discovered and exploited by you was also merely a move I casually placed."

"Even at the moment the curtain fell, I used Feather of Dust to push the emotions of the two people onstage to extremes, making them choose the worst possible option at that moment."

"—Though it was merely guidance rather than control. Cecilia might still have noticed traces of Feather of Dust's alteration of consciousness."

"—But guidance and alteration clearly produce much the same result, don't they?"

"Everything you did, I understood perfectly—and then made use of it."

He toyed with the golden chain, a grin splitting across his face.

"My old friend, look. I never forgot you. I've always been thinking of ways... to set traps for you."

"Why...?"

Void Archives took a long time before asking, her tone filled with confusion.

She did not understand. She truly did not understand. Wouldn't a normal person choose to use one clone to win over those two people?

Those were two S-ranks!

They were both among the top five strongest within Schicksal!

The original Otto had feared Siegfried's power! He had wanted to kill him in Siberia, then use Kiana to bind him!

No matter how she looked at it, Otto should have made those two see this "Cecilia" as the real Cecilia, then sincerely recruited them to protect Schicksal—and Otto himself—once again, shouldn't he?

But why... did he insist on doing the opposite, wanting to cut Siegfried and Theresa away from Schicksal?!

Could this guy really be so brainless that he would rather satisfy some so-called desire than protect his own life?

Void Archives even began to wonder whether she had taken the wrong direction by plotting and scheming like this.

If she wanted a body and freedom, should she have tried to seduce him instead? It was only a Divine Key—she could just treat it like it had been chewed on by a dog, right???

"Miss Void Archives," the blond man said with a smile, "do you know Buridan's Donkey?"

"Buridan's Donkey?"

Void Archives immediately retrieved the relevant data from her database:

Buridan's Donkey is a paradox named after the fourteenth-century French philosopher Buridan. It states that a completely rational donkey placed exactly between two identical piles of hay would starve to death because it could not make any rational decision regarding which pile it should eat.

"What does that have to do with us?"

Void Archives asked in confusion.

"My emphasis is on rationality, not equality or starvation."

Otto replied.

"Right now, Cecilia's complete submission alone is one pile of hay. Cecilia, Theresa, and Siegfried's submission is another pile of hay. From an absolutely rational perspective, you naturally believe I would choose the hay for three people rather than covet Cecilia alone."

"What else would I think? Could this woman's allure really be so great to you? Are you really that lustful, with a head full of golden bugs?"

???

Prometheus-version Void Archives, if I don't fill your head with golden bugs in the future, I'll take Durandal's surname.

"But the question is—can I really eat the hay for three people?"

Otto narrowed his eyes darkly, then asked in return.

"Wouldn't you do everything in your power to stop me?—Oh, that shouldn't even be a question anymore. You are doing exactly that right now. And would Siegfried and Theresa truly submit to me wholeheartedly after I returned Cecilia to them?"

"Heh, let's not even mention it. From when I began dealing with the Kaslana family five hundred years ago with Kallen Kaslana, all the way to Siegfried Kaslana, would I not know how difficult they are to handle?"

"One final point: once Cecilia became entangled with those two, would she truly continue obeying me? Forget anything else—what did she do during the Second Honkai Outbreak? Don't we both know perfectly well?"

"No matter what, protecting someone I wished to kill was a betrayal of me."

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Otto summed up, raising his wineglass. Through the red drink, it was as though he were staring at something.

"In truth, rather than breaking through countless obstacles to take in those two, it would be better to find a way to remove them and increase the purity of my Schicksal Saintess."

"..."

Void Archives did not respond, while Otto continued enthusiastically.

"My old friend, perhaps I know what you're thinking."

"You believe that I am still living in fear of being suspected. Therefore, judging rationally, the defensive line I seek to establish should gather as many people as possible. Even currying favor with them would be acceptable, and returning 'Cecilia' to Siegfried would be only natural."

"However, in reality, once Cecilia Schariac was extracted by me, that possibility had already dropped to its lowest point—yes, the likelihood of me being questioned has become almost nonexistent."

Putting aside the authenticity of this Cecilia, the blond man paused and spoke inwardly before continuing.

"You overlooked Bianca Durandal Atagina. You overlooked Rita Rossweisse. They will certainly stand as one; Little Goose would never attack her mother."

"Then, with the inevitable acknowledgment of three of Schicksal's foremost combatants, coupled with Amber's unwavering belief—"

—because Amber knew that only the two of them knew Cecilia was still alive—

"—and the contact and understanding we built during the London incident, I have long since become invincible."

"The defensive line I keep talking about is a bishop's defensive line built on faith in me and eternal loyalty to me. It is a Schicksal defensive line that I can use for the rest of my life, not the self-defense line you imagined would protect me when I came under suspicion."

"I am planning for the next ten years, while you merely think I live in the present."

The blond man's smile turned cold and sinister.

"I had already become Otto Apocalypse long ago. Yet, Void Archives, within my calculations, you still believe yourself to be facing me in the days just after my arrival."

"Of course, purifying the Saintess was not the fundamental reason I arranged for you to lure Siegfried."

He took a sip of red wine.

"The most fundamental reason was to let this matter restrain you, to keep you acting upon my stage."

"Buridan's Donkey appears to be a paradox, but if it were completely rational, then once it determined the hay was of equal quality, it should simply choose one direction and eat—because time itself is a resource, and an exceptionally important one at that."

"Luring you to act as I wished and guiding your schemes down the wrong path would consume your time, preventing you from considering other ideas."

"I have always controlled your line of sight, trading events for time."

"Ah, my old friend—what an interesting thing it is to place one's opponent upon the track one desires!"

Otto drained his wine in one gulp, brimming with excitement.

"Those so-called opponents put on their ridiculous performances, smugly employing schemes they believe can defeat me, never realizing that I am actually outside the stage, merely tugging at the strings from time to time to adjust my image upon it."

"They—or rather, all of you—have always been trapped upon my stage. Every plan was deliberately induced by me, every action lay within my grasp—hehe, my old friend, this feeling is almost as exhilarating as staining the Saintess with my own colors!"

"...You think you can trap me like this?"

After a long silence, Void Archives finally asked through gritted teeth.

"Don't forget, you can manipulate me countless times, but I only need to win once! All I need is a Soul Steel body—no, I don't even need that. An ordinary body will do—and I can turn things around at any time!!!"

"Of course, of course."

The blond man swirled his wineglass and answered unhurriedly.

"You are a Divine Key. You believe that no matter how foolish you are, you still have endless time to spend against me. But, my dear Void Archives—"

He turned his wrist, revealing a black-and-red isolation case.

"The Herrscher of Reason core—I still have this bait."

"...What do I need that for?"

"Don't play dumb, Key of Revelation."

Otto said.

"We both know exactly what your essence is."

"Replication and understanding are the Herrscher of Reason's greatest abilities. Analyzing matter and simulating its operation—those are things both you and this core excel at. Then isn't simulating a Herrscher's origin also a form of understanding?"

"Herrscher link to the Imaginary Tree through Imaginary gates to obtain Honkai Energy, and when the concentration of Honkai Energy reaches a certain threshold, a Herrscher core condenses. That is the traditional understanding of how Herrscher are formed."

—He was using the framework Void Archives could currently understand rather than the new theory from before his transmigration.

Because this idiot was not at that level yet. Nor was this the right stage to spread the Cocoon of Finality Theory.

It was always good to keep something in reserve. What if he needed it later?

"The principle of Divine Keys is much the same. It is only because the 'gate' linking them to the Imaginary Tree is comparatively 'outdated,' making the rate at which they obtain Honkai Energy extremely slow, that a Divine Key's maximum output is merely equivalent to a Herrscher's single strike."

"Output power and Honkai Energy storage—those are the two great chasms facing Divine Keys. But Void Archives, an opportunity to cross those chasms lies before you."

"You can analyze this Herrscher of Reason core and simulate its method of connecting to the Imaginary Tree, increasing your output power and storage capacity, thereby narrowing the gap between you and the Herrscher of Reason."

"This is the only, most perfect path of evolution I have devised for you."

Otto's voice carried temptation, like the whisper of a demon.

"It is the Herrscher core most compatible with you, and also the one you are most likely to analyze successfully. Imitate it, study it, mimic it, and if possible—devour it. Then, as a Divine Key, you can become a Herrscher of Reason in an entirely new sense."

"And the Herrscher of Reason can construct her own body, while also more efficiently fulfilling the ultimate directive the Previous Civilization implanted within your system."