Chapter Summaries

Otto sent waves of clones to attack Kiana and her companions, then publicly admitted that his deal with the Will of Honkai would regress civilization by five hundred years. He challenged them to come to Kolosten, having engineered events so Kiana’s fury and power would help him reach the roots of the Imaginary Tree.

• Kiana and her companions fought off Otto’s mass-produced clones aboard a warship while protecting the people evacuating behind them.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had sent the clones to provoke Kiana and lure her to Kolosten.
• Otto appeared on a virtual screen and admitted that his deal with the Will of Honkai would return civilization to a state five hundred years earlier.
• Otto challenged Kiana and her companions to stop him at Kolosten before his deadline, then ended the transmission.
• Tang San and Huo Yuhao concluded that Otto had left Kiana no viable choice but to pursue him, making her power serve his plan.

The God Realm watchers realized Otto had arranged Kiana and her companions’ trials to make them stronger and more desperate for his plan. Kiana continued toward Otto in Kolosten, unaware that he wanted her Flamescion to burn away her hesitation and tear open the Imaginary Tree’s barrier.

• Tang San said Kiana was the final variable Otto had left for himself, and Kiana vowed to stop Otto after he vanished.
• Kiana and her companions entered Kolosten, where three regions separated them into individual trials.
• Huo Yuyao and Tang San explained that Otto’s trials were meant to ripen the group’s strength, pain, and resolve rather than kill them.
• Kiana’s Flamescion blazed as Otto watched from beyond a distant door and urged her to keep going.
• Tang San concluded that Otto was forcing Kiana to abandon her hesitation so her perfected flame could break through the World Rules and open the Imaginary Tree’s barrier.

The observers explained that Otto’s trials forced heroes to grow into sacrifices, and Kiana completed her transformation into the Herrscher of Flamescion. The scene then shifted to Bronya’s trial in an opera house, where Rita began confronting her fear that she could not truly feel.

• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto designed the trials to make the heroes grow stronger while bringing them closer to becoming sacrifices for Kallen.
• Kiana rose and became a complete Herrscher of Flamescion, while Otto watched with satisfaction.
• The observers discussed how Otto intended the heroes to reach the altar willingly, believing they were fighting for the world.
• Bronya appeared alone in an opera house, where Rita welcomed her to a performance prepared by Otto.
• Rita summoned phantoms from Bronya’s past and challenged her to admit whether she could truly feel, while Bronya stood her ground.

Bronya awakened the full Authority of the Reason Law User by believing her heart still existed, but Huo Yuhao and the others realized Otto had manipulated her and Rita to complete his plan. The Light Screen then showed Li Sushang confronting Fu Hua on the wasteland at Kolosten.

• Bronya summoned thousands of Pseudo Black Holes that tore apart the opera house, but she spared Rita, who vanished with a smile.
• Huo Yuhao and the others concluded that Otto had used Rita as a whetstone and Bronya as a blade, turning their growth and humanity into part of his plan.
• Bronya returned to reality exhausted, clutching her doll as the markings of the Reason Law User stabilized in her palm.
• The Light Screen shifted to the wasteland at Kolosten, where Li Sushang faced Fu Hua, and the two recognized their shared martial teachings as they fought.

Fu Hua and Li Sushang fought to a bloody standstill because neither could fully turn against a fellow disciple, just as Otto had planned. Fu Hua urged Kiana onward, and Kiana ran alone toward the center of Kolosten, unaware she was following Otto’s design.

• Li Sushang and Fu Hua fought with Taixuan Sword God, with Fu Hua restraining herself while Li Sushang fought desperately.
• Their strongest attacks left both of them wounded and sprawled on the wasteland, fulfilling Otto’s plan to make their ties keep them from stopping each other.
• Fu Hua struggled to raise her head and signaled Kiana to go, despite knowing Otto was waiting for her ahead.
• Kiana looked back at Fu Hua and Li Sushang, then continued running alone toward the center of Kolosten.
• The Light Screen went dark as the onlookers realized Otto’s plan had brought Kiana to him after five hundred years of waiting.

Durandal entered the Kaslana Stigmata Space, discovered that she was the real Kiana Kaslana, and awakened Dea Anchora. Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had engineered both Kianas’ lives so their combined powers would unlock the final lock on the Imaginary Tree.

• Otto pretended to retreat as Durandal fought him, then opened a Stigmata-patterned door and urged her to enter and discover her real name.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had lured Durandal into the Kaslana Stigmata Space to force her bloodline and power to awaken.
• Durandal saw memories of her past and learned that she was the real Kiana Kaslana, while the silver-haired girl Otto raised was her clone.
• Durandal accepted her true name, awakened Dea Anchora, and gathered the Stigmata Space’s runes into herself.
• Huo Yuhao and the others concluded that Otto planned for both Kianas to unite and use their combined powers to open the final lock on the Imaginary Tree.

Tang San and the others watched Otto dismantle Kolosten and use its existence to form a pillar connecting to the Imaginary Tree. As Kiana and Durandal approached, Otto’s final ritual left them as the only remaining fighters capable of reaching him.

• Ji Dong and Lie Yan explained that Otto had turned Durandal’s suffering into fuel for her strength, while Huo Yuhao said Kiana and Durandal were the last pieces Otto needed.
• Tang San said Otto could not calculate the instant someone took a blade for another, and the Light Screen showed Otto halt in Kolosten as Kiana charged toward him.
• Otto raised a hand and dismantled Kolosten into golden data streams, revealing that the town had been a ritual altar prepared to power his plan.
• The golden streams formed a pillar that pierced the Imaginary Void and connected Otto to the Imaginary Tree, while the others realized the earlier battles had cleared the field for the ritual.
• Anti-Entropy’s soldiers collapsed after Otto used the Erosion Law User’s Authority to incapacitate them, leaving Kiana and Durandal as the final two fuses.

As Kiana and Durandal charged Otto in the golden pillar, Huo Yuhao explained that their fury would provide the Anchor Point Otto needed to reach the Imaginary Tree and rewrite reality. The pillar then turned white and began remaking Otto, and Huo Yuhao realized he was replacing the Constraint Herrscher rather than simply connecting to the tree.

• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto needed Kiana and Durandal’s intense emotions to stabilize the pillar and reach the root of the world.
• Kiana and Durandal rushed into the pillar toward Otto, who welcomed their attack because their wills would fuel his plan to reach the moment Kallen fell five hundred years earlier.
• Tang San proposed that Kiana and Durandal withdraw their emotions at the crucial moment to extinguish the pillar’s Anchor Point, though Gu Yuena warned they might be unable to hold back.
• The pillar abruptly became still and turned white as Otto’s body was rearranged by its light.
• Huo Yuhao identified Otto’s transformation as an attempt to replace the Constraint Herrscher, the Eleventh Herrscher, and claim its power of prohibition.

The onlookers learned that Otto had seized the Binding Authority and become a False God, placing him beyond the reach of Kiana and Durandal’s attacks. Otto rose toward the Imaginary Tree to rewrite Kallen’s fate, while the Dragon God and Gu Yuena warned that his new power had cut him off from mortal feeling and from Kallen herself.

• Gu Yuena and Tang San explained that Otto had obtained the Binding Authority, making Herrscher powers unable to affect him.
• Kiana and Durandal attacked Otto, but his Binding power stopped their flames and sword strikes just short of reaching him.
• The Dragon God and Gu Yuena said Otto’s godhood had separated him from mortal reality and would prevent him from seeing Kallen as a person.
• Tang San explained that Otto still had to reach the Imaginary Tree and change the line stating that Kallen was dead.
• Otto rose in a pillar of white light and invited Kiana and Durandal to follow him to the end of the Imaginary Tree.

Otto rewrote Kolosten and raised a vast temple stairway as he climbed toward the Imaginary Tree, leaving the human world behind. The observers believed his ascent would make him powerful enough to lose the humanity that could have reunited him with Kallen.

• Otto restored Kolosten by rewriting reality, though he did not bring back the people who had died there.
• Otto reshaped the earth and clouds into an immense stairway leading to a temple above the clouds.
• Huo Yuhao said Kevin was the only one who could overpower Otto, but Kevin was absent and Kiana and Durandal were not yet ready to fight a False God.
• Gu Yuena said Otto had built the stairway for himself, while Tang San and the others warned that ascending would distance him from Kallen and the human world.
• Otto climbed into the white temple and disappeared through its gates.

Otto learned that the Imaginary Tree had claimed the price of his power and ordered him to destroy civilization. As the Tree began to rewrite him, he needed Kiana to choose freely and use her authority to sever its control before he could secure Kallen’s return.

• The observers discussed Otto’s plan to fix Kallen’s World Line and predicted that an unexpected act of love could bring down his Cloudtop Divine Palace.
• The Imaginary Tree ordered Otto to prune the civilization by destroying it, revealing that he had become its envoy.
• Otto resisted the command because destroying civilization would prevent Kallen from returning, but the Tree’s influence began to grow inside him.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto needed Kiana to use her Kong Law User authority to cut off the Tree’s control, making her choice the final gamble in a race against the Tree.

Otto asked Kiana to release him from the Imaginary Tree before it erased his identity, while observers debated whether she would save him and the world. The screen then showed Otto blaming civilization for Kallen’s death, as the others pointed out that he himself had caused it.

• Otto told Kiana that only she could release him from his shell as the Imaginary Tree consumed him.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto needed Kiana to act and that her choice could break the deadlock between Otto and the Tree.
• The observers discussed Otto’s fear of losing himself before Kallen could return and Kiana’s role in bringing him back.
• Otto claimed that civilization’s cruelty and indifference had caused Kallen’s death and demanded repayment from humanity.
• Bei Bei accused Otto of shifting the blame, pointing out that Otto had released the Collapse Beasts that killed Kallen.

The God Realm commentators recognized that Otto had turned his guilt over Kallen’s death into hatred of humanity, using his supposed debt collection to excuse five centuries of atrocities. As Otto prepared to continue his plan to resurrect Kallen, they concluded that he could no longer stop or face what she might ask him.

• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had erased his own role in Kallen’s death from his memories and blamed the world instead.
• Gu Yuena and Tang San said Otto believed humanity was guilty because admitting his own responsibility would destroy the excuse that had sustained him for five hundred years.
• The commentators condemned Otto for making himself humanity’s judge while suppressing knowledge and killing anyone who might remind him of the truth.
• Lie Yan and Tang San reasoned that Otto wanted Kallen’s resurrection to escape his guilt, but feared that she would ask why he had hurt others.
• Huo Yuhao said Otto could no longer turn back, while Otto declared that he would make the world repay Kallen before the Light Screen went dark.

Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had prepared two paths: Kiana could sever his connection to the Imaginary Tree and free him, or refuse and let the world be destroyed. The chapter ended with Otto admitting that he needed Kiana’s hatred and power to cut his connection for him.

• Otto revealed a crack in the white barrier and urged Kiana to use the Authority of the Void and Imaginary Renormalization against him.
• Huo Yuhao explained that if Kiana severed Otto’s connection to the Imaginary Tree, Otto would escape its control and become a free False God.
• Huo Yuhao warned that Imaginary Renormalization would burn Kiana’s power, while refusing to attack would leave Otto to destroy civilization under the Tree’s influence.
• Huo Yuhao explained that the Tree’s counterattack would concentrate pressure at the severed connection, creating a singularity that could peel Otto’s soul away from the Tree.
• Otto admitted that he needed Kiana to hate him and use her light to cut his rope, turning her attacks into an escape route.

Tang San and the others watched Otto prepare to regress the world if Kiana’s attack failed, and Tang San proposed that Kiana force Otto to face Kallen and the world together. The chapter ended with the group believing Otto would have to look at Kallen and answer Kiana’s question when she asked whether Kallen would accept a life bought at the world’s expense.

• Tang San explained that Kiana’s kindness might let her reach Otto without becoming like him, even if she had to use her fire to drag him back to the human world.
• Otto revealed a fallback plan to regress civilization by five hundred years if Kiana’s strike failed to free him or bring Kallen back.
• Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena recognized that Otto had made the world pay in every possible outcome because he valued Kallen above it.
• Otto admitted that he had never hesitated between Kallen and the world, and Huo Yuhao called his choice a debt rather than love.
• Tang San proposed that Kiana place Kallen on the scales beside the world and make Otto see whether Kallen would accept a resurrection bought with everyone’s lives.

The God Realm observers watched Otto prepare to sacrifice the world to revive Kallen, condemning his obsession and the guilt he hoped to escape. As the screen shifted to an underground facility in the ice, Huo Yuhao introduced Kevin, whose devotion to humanity had driven him to survive and shed blood for fifty thousand years.

• Ye Yinzhu described how Otto knew Kallen would oppose his plan but intended to revive her regardless of her wishes.
• Gu Yuena, Lie Yan, Zhou Weiqing, Huo Yuhao, and Tang San discussed the suffering Kallen would face and how Otto's greatest enemy would be her judgment.
• Otto declared the world unworthy of the cost and concentrated a point of dazzling light as the Light Screen went dark.
• The God Realm observers reacted to Otto's decision, and Tang San said no one could stop him from learning that his sacrifice could not repay his debt.
• The Light Screen showed Kevin in a frozen underground facility surrounded by hibernation pods, and Huo Yuhao identified him as the strongest warrior of the Previous Civilization.
• Tang San contrasted Otto's devotion to Kallen with Kevin's devotion to humanity and said their bloodshed had brought them to the same Ice Field.

The group discussed how Otto and Kevin pursued opposing obsessions, sacrificing others for Kallen and humanity, while treating Kiana as a tool. Kevin set out to stop Otto, and the chapter left both men moving toward Kiana as the group hoped she would choose her own path.

• Kevin activated the Holy Mark Plan, willing to sacrifice those who could not adapt to Honkai so humanity might survive.
• Huo Yuhao and the others compared Otto and Kevin, arguing that both imposed their obsessions on countless people despite their different goals.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Kevin would oppose Otto to protect the Holy Mark Plan, not to defend Kiana or pursue justice.
• Tang San said Kiana and ordinary people could resist the two False Gods by refusing to become sacrifices for their plans.
• Kevin left the hibernation pods and headed into the Ice Field as Otto's pillar of light continued toward the same destination, where Kiana was burning.

The observers watched Otto wield the Imaginary Tree’s power in Kolosten and learned that his apparent godhood was also rewriting his will. Otto remained caught between his obsession with reviving Kallen and the Tree’s command to destroy civilization.

• Tang San said Otto and Kevin had failed to account for an ordinary person refusing to be manipulated.
• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had turned Kolosten into a False God Kingdom connected to the Imaginary Tree.
• Otto formed a miniature sun and shifted the distant mountains, but Huo Yuhao said he could only borrow the Tree’s power and could not fully control it.
• Huo Yuhao and Tang San explained that the Tree’s power was consuming Otto’s will and that he could reform himself if destroyed within Kolosten.
• Huo Yuhao said Otto was racing to alter the World Lines and revive Kallen before the Tree completely overwrote him, while his obsession with her preserved the last of his humanity.

Otto waited in Kolosten for Durandal and Kiana, intending to use Durandal’s strength and Kiana’s power to reach the Imaginary Tree and save Kallen. As Durandal struck the barrier and Kiana’s Flamescion began erasing it, the observers realized Otto had turned Durandal’s hatred into a tool to free himself.

• Otto stepped into Kolosten’s rising light, willing to risk being swallowed by the Tree to reach it and cross Kallen’s name off the page of death.
• The observers concluded that Otto was waiting for Kiana to call his name and keep him human as he approached the Tree.
• Otto identified Durandal and Kiana as the sword and swordfire he had waited five hundred years to bring together.
• Durandal awakened Dea Anchora and struck the barrier with pure physical force, causing Otto’s pillar of light to sway.
• The observers realized Durandal’s attacks were breaking the chains binding Otto, and that her hatred was being used as a hammer.
• Kiana’s Flamescion seeped through the barrier, and its power of denial began erasing the barrier’s patterns.

The observers explained that Otto had raised Durandal and Kiana into the two forces capable of severing his bond to the Imaginary Tree, hoping they would free him even if they killed him. As Durandal struck the light pillar and Kiana’s Flamescion burned at the chain, Otto welcomed their attack, choosing death by their hands over being erased by the Tree.

• Lie Yan, Tang Wulin, Huo Yuhao, and Gu Yuena interpreted Durandal and Kiana as Otto’s swords and mirrors, raised to break his prison and confront his humanity.
• The observers concluded that Otto’s final gamble was to let the two girls bring him down, hoping he might recover the ability to feel before he reached the human world.
• Otto opened his arms toward the lights below and silently invited Durandal and Kiana to come.
• Durandal punched the pillar of light with Tianyuan Power while Kiana’s Flamescion burned at the Imaginary Tree’s rules and dimmed Otto’s chain.
• Huo Yuhao explained that their combined powers could erase Otto’s status as a False God, and Tang San said Otto preferred dying beneath their swords to being consumed until his name vanished.