Chapter 326

When the smoke cleared, Otto was able to see the attacker's face clearly.

Siegfried and Cecilia stood side by side in the corridor opposite the main entrance, both fully armed and each holding a weapon. Siegfried, in particular, had not put down his Divine Fire Penance, which was in firing mode, clearly indicating that the attack was his doing.

"This is completely different from what I expected, Siegfried." Otto looked at the mess in the office, his expression darkening. "So, what are you planning to do?"

He didn't think the other party really wanted to kill him, because the energy reaction just now, from accumulation to explosion, had a clear delay, obviously more like a greeting than a sneak attack, deliberately giving him time to react.

But that's precisely why Otto was somewhat confused about what the two were thinking.

"Nothing much, just here to collect a debt." Siegfried grinned smugly. "Didn't expect that, did you, Otto? This was Cecilia's idea!"

"I've heard about what happened on the other timeline. Although those things won't happen anymore, there are still some things I can't let go of." Cecilia held the Abyss White Flower, her smile gentle, yet a dark aura emanated from her. "Even His Holiness the Bishop would never tolerate someone trying to harm my husband."

In the original timeline, Otto attempted to kill Siegfried with the Honkai Fission Bomb because he was wary of Siegfried's awakened power as a Fused Warrior. Cecilia chose to shield Siegfried and the ordinary people still alive in Siberia from the missile attack with her own life.

Therefore, after learning about everything that happened in the original timeline, Cecilia was not most concerned about her own death, but rather about Otto's hostility towards Siegfried.

That's why we're in this situation today.

"It seems that even if I apologize now, it won't make any difference, right?" Otto had naturally figured out the whole story and couldn't help but show a helpless expression. "But I'm still very curious, how did you manage to get here?"

The Schicksal Headquarters is not some random marketplace you can just walk into. The Bishop of Schicksal's office area is naturally heavily guarded. Even Siegfried and Cecilia had to lay down their weapons before entering.

"Of course we asked for help," Siegfried smiled. "Kallen- senpai was very kind of help to us and even cheered us on."

"I knew it." Otto gave a knowing look, then stopped dwelling on it. "Since things have come to this, it wouldn't be right not to let you vent, would it?"

He raised his right hand, and golden light began to emerge from his palm. "However, I won't just sit here and wait to die."

On that day, an unidentified explosion occurred in the tallest building on the floating island of the Schicksal Headquarters, suspected to be an energy leak caused by a failed experiment. Fortunately, no casualties were reported.

However, according to sources, the truth behind the explosion is not so simple, because the blast did not extend beyond the office area, clearly indicating it was not the work of an experiment—as is well known, there are no laboratories in office areas.

Besides this, some people witnessed enormous plants rising from the ground, pushing Bishop Otto's desk directly into the stratosphere, and even seeing continuous, battle-like activity...

The press release abruptly ended because a powerful force prevented its publication.

"Tsk." In the spare office, Otto glanced at the press release in front of him, casually tossing it into the trash can. "Can we have a proper talk now?"

His current appearance was undeniably disheveled. His once clean and neat bishop's robes were now blackened by the flames and covered with countless tears, clearly indicating that he had received a warm welcome from the Divine Fire Penance. In addition, Otto's originally magnificent golden hair was now interspersed with many weeds and vines, obviously thanks to the Abyss White Flower.

It's clear that even though Otto has considerable combat experience, he would still find it difficult to win in a direct confrontation against Schicksal's S-rank Valkyrie and Kaslana, who has awakened her bloodline power. Even if he were ten times stronger, he would struggle to prevail.

Not to mention he didn't intend to win anyway—after all, ultimately, he was indeed in the wrong in this matter.

Kallen's decision to help the Siegfried was clearly based on her belief that Otto should apologize for the incident.

After all, although it was something that happened in the original timeline and will no longer happen now, for Reincarnator like Siegfried, it was a tragedy he had personally experienced.

"No problem."

After venting his frustrations, Siegfried felt refreshed. He put his arm around Cecilia and sat casually on the sofa. "So, what are your plans?"

"First, how much does Cecilia know about the future?" Otto didn't rush to explain his plans, but instead looked at Cecilia first. "For example, what about Durandal?"

"Siegfried explained everything to me, right up to the Stigmata Project, I understand everything," Cecilia said calmly. "So, Your Excellency, you can just speak your mind."

"Alright, then I'll be frank," Otto nodded, realizing that Siegfried hadn't hidden anything from Cecilia. "The birth of Durandal is inevitable, so she needs to stay in Schicksal and become Bianca."

"Isn't there any other way?" Siegfried frowned. "If possible, we don't want her to go through the same childhood again."

The fact that he couldn't protect his wife and daughter in the past is a pain that will never go away from Siegfried. Now that he has a chance to do it all over again, he doesn't want to be separated from his daughter no matter what.

"Don't rush, it's not like you have to separate," Otto continued. "Anyway, given Kiana's current situation, even if we don't go back to the past, we don't need to worry about it affecting her integration with reality. So why don't you both stay here?"

"No wonder you weren't worried at all before..." Siegfried suddenly realized something, a helpless expression on his face. "So you had already planned to take advantage of our whole family all along."

"That's not quite how it works," Otto shook his head slightly. "Actually, I can still give you maximum freedom. As long as you don't nominally break away from Schicksal, you can take Bianca and live anywhere—however, you will still have to participate in missions that require your cooperation."

"That would be perfect," Siegfried and Cecilia exchanged a glance, then suddenly felt a little awkward. "Speaking of which, shouldn't we find some time to tell the child about the name change?"

Although they theoretically only have one daughter at present, according to the timeline, the name Kiana will soon belong to someone else.

"Hmm?" Otto's expression became somewhat subtle upon hearing this. "Didn't you guys notice?"

"What?"

"So-called rebirth is the merging of important characters from the 'present' with the reforged timeline, thereby achieving the effect of living again," Otto said matter-of-factly. "Therefore, Durandal is naturally one of the Reincarnator."

Cecilia blinked, then looked thoughtful. "No wonder she seemed slow to react to the name 'Kiana'... I thought she was always like this when she was little."

"Alright, all in all, you have several years to adjust to this kind of life," Otto waved his hand, urging them to hurry up and get back to Bianca to settle the accounts. "Don't waste my time here."

After seeing the Siegfried off, Otto finally breathed a sigh of relief. He took out a slightly worn notebook from his pocket, crossed out the words "Project Durandal," and then began to examine the text that followed.

This notebook, used for hundreds of years, contains Otto's plans for the future.

With the defeat of the Second Herrscher, the massive Second Honkai Outbreak Disaster, which affected almost the entire Siberia, finally came to an end.

Subsequently, Theresa left the Schicksal Headquarters and went to the Far East to establish St. Freya Academy, recruiting students without any admission requirements in order to train warriors to fight against the Honkai.

According to the agreement between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, a total of eleven Herrscher Core were also brought by Theresa to the Far East Branch and buried deep in an underground containment facility.

At the same time, Otto began to spearhead the promotion of a new urban planning system around the world, with the intention of transforming every inhabited city into a large fortress city capable of resisting Honkai attacks.

Shenzhou and Anti-Entropy responded, and the three most powerful forces in the world joined forces to begin spreading this plan to every corner of the world.

After a relatively peaceful decade or so, the Third Honkai Eruption outbreak occurred in Changkong City. Although the scale of this Honkai disaster was even greater than that of the Second Honkai Outbreak in the initial stage, Changkong City was a key prototype "fortress city" under construction. Therefore, thanks to the thorough protection of its excellent defensive facilities, no ordinary people were harmed.

In the midst of this disaster, Raiden Yae Sakura, the Herrscher of Thunder, awakens and becomes the second Herrscher to fight for humanity.

From this moment on, the reconstructed timeline finally began to intertwine with "reality".

A year later, St. Freya Academy held a new round of admissions, Kiana, Raiden Yae Sakura, Bronya, Hua, and two Seele enrolled that year.

Two years later, the candidate for the fourth Herrscher Core was determined, and the Fourth Honkai Eruption outbreak unfolded in Oceania. The Far East Branch sent support immediately and successfully nipped the disaster in the bud. Venti, the Herrscher of Wind, also successfully awakened and became the third Herrscher to fight for humanity.

Following this, Schicksal's special project "Queen's Descent" unfolded on the floating island of its headquarters. Kiana regained control of the Second Herrscher Core and, as the Herrscher of the Herrscher of Void, engaged in fierce battles with her former friends. Ultimately, with the help of Murata Himeko, she awakened her powers.

Note: There were no casualties in this operation.

Six months later, Seele successfully fused with the Herrscher Core and awakened as the "Herrscher of Rebirth," Murata Himeko also mastered the power of the Herrscher Core and awakened as the "Herrscher of Flame."

At the same time, an "error" occurred during Hua's resonance with the Herrscher Core, resulting in the birth of a new consciousness within her, which enabled the Herrscher of Consciousness to awaken through her body.

As the Abyssal Eye erupted, the "Serpent" imprisoned in the Sea of Quantum also bared its fangs. The World Serpent organization, lurking in the shadows, began to declare its existence, while simultaneously seizing the remaining Herrscher Core from the St. Freya Academy and creating the "Herrscher of Rock" belonging to the World Serpent.

During this process, Welt Yang, the Herrscher of Reason who was "severely injured," had no choice but to pass on the First Herrscher Core to the next eligible candidate, Bronya, thus completing the succession of the Third Herrscher of Reason.

Six months later, the "Domination Incident" swept the globe. Schicksal and Anti-Entropy launched a joint investigation, eventually identifying the "Domination Theater" created by World Serpent and completing the retrieval of the Tenth Herrscher Core.

Meanwhile, Otto reached a deal with World Serpent, exchanging the Herrscher Core of the Eleventh Herrscher for it. He then sent invitations to the St. Freya Academy and Anti-Entropy, inviting them to witness the "birth of a god."

Otto snapped out of his reverie, looking out at the darkening sky. He stared at it absentmindedly for a moment before turning his gaze away and crossing out the last line of text in his notebook.

The "retirement plan" is nearing completion.

How are you feeling?

Ai Yue appeared in front of Otto at some point, took the notebook from his hand and flipped through it. "You've done a good job with your work lately."

"I'm retiring soon, so I should make the most of it," Otto smiled. "It's just that I suddenly feel like these past ten years have gone by a little too fast."

"So much has happened, it's understandable to feel that way." Ai Yue smiled, not surprised by Otto's sigh. "However, I really don't want you to retire."

"Teacher, there's a limit to how much you can use an ox or a horse," Otto said with a wry smile. "I've been working for over five hundred years, and I'm really starting to feel the strain."

"But Theresa obviously isn't as capable as you." Ai Yue raised an eyebrow, then shook his head slightly. "Forget it, why should I worry about it?"

He paused for a moment, then changed the subject. "What are your plans after retirement?"

"It's all planned out. I'll become a pastor at a church in a remote area, and Kallen said she'll come with me," Otto replied smoothly, clearly having rehearsed it countless times in his mind. "But before that..."

"I also want to see the Imaginary Tree."

Chapter Thirty-Seven: He was using all my words.

Christensen, Austria.

Although Schicksal has now become the most influential and largest organization in the world, its birthplace, under the deliberate control of someone, has not expanded along with Schicksal's growing strength. Instead, it has retained the simple and quiet charm of a small town.

After all, this was the stage Otto had chosen for his "farewell performance" hundreds of years ago, limited to internal personnel, so it couldn't be too ostentatious.

At this very moment, Otto, who had already taken off the red robes of the Bishop of Schicksal, was strolling through the cathedral of Christensen with a nostalgic expression.

This is where he was born and raised; every corner of this church seems to bear the shadow of his past.

The sound of lonely footsteps echoed in the corridor, involuntarily reminding Otto of his childhood.

Before meeting Ai Yue, he seemed to be like that too, wandering alone in the corridor. Now, yesterday is happening again, but he no longer feels that loneliness and fear.

Otto walked through the corridor and arrived at the nave of the church. The huge space had already been emptied under his arrangement, and now only a headless statue remained.

Although the statue's head is damaged, its forward-leaning posture still clearly shows that the statue was designed to overlook the entire central sanctuary.

The head of the statue was actually accidentally blown off when Otto first tried to use the Herrscher authority of Reason to simulate the Divine Fire Penance. Its prototype was actually modeled after Ai Yue.

Otto smiled as he recalled the time he went to his teacher to confess with mixed feelings, only to be completely ignored.

Just then, he heard two more footsteps behind him.

Just like in the original timeline, Durandal and Kiana, the two sisters, arrived at Otto's stage at this moment, ready to begin this pre-arranged farewell performance.

"You've worked hard. How did the challenges I designed outside go?" Otto turned around and saw the two girls. He smiled and nodded to them. "It seems they didn't cause you any trouble."

"Because it wasn't prepared for us at all, right?" Durandal shook her head slightly. "On the contrary, it was just to tie down the others, in order to simulate this battle in the original timeline as closely as possible—but why did it have to be done this way?"

"If you hadn't insisted, this should have been just a symbolic battle," Kiana added, "Unless, that's not what you intended."

From the moment she stepped into the church, or even earlier, Kiana sensed something was wrong.

She is not the naive girl who was swept along by fate, but a candidate to become the God of Earth. During the five hundred years that Otto worked to maintain the timeline, Kiana also grew.

Therefore, she quickly realized that Otto seemed to have other plans for the two of them.

"I don't deny that I have some selfish motives, but more than anything, I want to do as much as I can for the world before I retire." Otto smiled, then looked at Kiana. "Now that things have come to this, you shouldn't doubt that, right, Senior Sister?"

Although Otto already knew Kiana's identity, due to Ai Yue's actions, he could only bow his head and address this girl, who should have been his junior, as his senior sister.

"All I know is that the Otto I remember now is not the same person." Kiana shook her head slightly, not denying Otto's current achievements. "However, if you really want to do more for this world, why do you have to retire? Wouldn't it be better to stay behind the scenes and manage Schicksal as before?"

Now that things have come to this, Kiana can naturally recognize the true identity of Otto before her. Although she can never truly forgive what happened in the original timeline, she will not hold that grudge against the person before her.

So when Kiana learned that Otto planned to retire as originally intended, Kiana even felt a little regretful—after all, he had done a good job over the years and could have continued on that path.

"Now that I have a new goal, I naturally can't let go of my old identity," Otto said, a hint of warmth appearing in his smile. "Besides, this was all part of my plan— Theresa is a good girl, and she will surely bring about positive changes to Schicksal."

"You probably don't know, but Auntie will be overwhelmed by the heavy workload from now on, and she'll even dream about slacking off." Recalling Theresa with her heavy dark circles under her eyes, Kiana couldn't help but smile helplessly. "Since this is a normal retirement, let's properly arrange the handover of her work afterward."

"Excuse me," Durandal said, looking at the two who had suddenly started talking, somewhat helplessly. "Isn't the most important thing right now the battle at hand? The issue of the Bishop of Schicksal's job can be resolved later, right?"

"That's true," Kiana scratched her head somewhat awkwardly, then subtly steered the conversation back on track, "So Otto, what exactly were you referring to when you said you had selfish motives?"

"It's actually quite simple," Otto raised his hand, a soft white light shining from his palm. "Kiana, and Durandal, how much do you know about the power your teacher possesses?"

Kiana keenly noticed that Otto was using his left hand, which was not wearing a glove—meaning that this was not the energy released by the Herrscher of Reason Core, but the power he now controlled.

"The Power of Light?" Durandal paused for a moment, then raised her hand as well. "This power is far too profound. Although I have studied it for a long time, I can only say that I understand a little bit about it now—no, perhaps even less."

What was released from her palm was not the pure white like Otto's, but two distinct yet intertwined and constantly rotating shades of black and white.

In this current timeline, she did not receive the Valkyrie training from Schicksal as before, but instead directly followed her parents, and even Kevin, the progenitor of the Kaslana family, to learn how to master the power within her.

The new power, combined with her past insights, has allowed Durandal to wield power far exceeding that of her former self. Although both are "people of the Heavenly Origin," their strengths are now worlds apart.

Even so, she could vaguely sense that she had only just glimpsed the infinite possibilities contained within the Power of Light.

"I didn't expect you to have come this far..." Otto fell silent, unusually, as he gazed at the light in Durandal's hand. But he quickly composed himself and looked at Durandal again. "Tell me your understanding?"

"My understanding?" Durandal paused for a moment, then began to organize her thoughts. "Well, how should I put it? I feel like the Power of Light is like... a seed? And our insights and training are like providing nutrients to this seed, allowing it to grow continuously and eventually blossom and bear fruit."

After saying this, Durandal looked at Otto with some hesitation. She knew very well that she was not a smart person, let alone compared to Otto. Her only strength was probably that she was hardworking. Therefore, she didn't know if her idea was right or wrong.

Kiana, standing to the side, scratched her head and then managed to stammer, "Uh, me too?"

Otto was speechless upon hearing this. "Senior sister, are you kidding me?"

Otto knew very well that the main reason he was valued by Ai Yue and taken as a student was because he couldn't be absent from the next five hundred years. But Kiana was different. She was already the Herrscher of the End before that, an existence like a god of the earth. As Ai Yue's student, she would naturally have to learn from him in the realm of gods.

But now it seems that her understanding of the Power of Light is even less than Durandal's?

"No way!" Kiana immediately retorted upon hearing this. "My main focus has been on the power of the Finality, how could I have any extra energy to research the Power of Light!"

Elysia can't play the Will of Honkai of the Honkai Cocoon of Finality in this world ultimately depends on Kiana herself to control. Therefore, during this period, she spent more time familiarizing herself with and mastering the powers of the Finality.

"That's not surprising," Otto nodded in relief, then added, "Well then, let's get back to the topic we were discussing. Your ideas aren't wrong, just a little misaligned in your understanding."

He looked up at the two of them and said slowly, "It is not the Power of Light that becomes the seed, but ourselves."