Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• The group realizes that Otto’s attempt to change history did create a possible new world line. The Imaginary Tree allowed the rewrite to begin, but did not promise that it would succeed or preserve the outcome Otto wanted.
• That possibility arose because Otto spent five hundred years binding his life and obsession to the moment of Kallen’s death. His accumulated connection to that past event became a “key” that let him reach the Tree’s roots.
• The Tree opened a crack in history, then absorbed Otto and used his disappearance to stabilize the new branch. The altered history ultimately returned to its former course, though observers can still perceive the crack.

Character developments and interactions

• Huo Yuhao pieces together how resonance enabled the rewrite; Tang San clarifies that the Tree permits a chance, not a desired result. Gu Yuena and others extend the explanation, describing Otto as both the catalyst and the price of the new branch.
• Zhou Weiqing emphasizes the cruel logic of Otto’s five-century obsession and concludes that the Tree treated both Kallen’s death and Otto’s fixation as nourishment.
• Xu Sanshi angrily challenges the Tree’s indifference, while Ye Yinzhu offers the chapter’s central metaphor: Otto could turn the key, but the Tree decided which way the lock turned.
• The Dragon Prince asks whether Otto was chosen by the world. Tang San answers that he was not favored; his obsession became too powerful for the Tree to ignore.

Significant themes

• Agency versus control: Otto could create the conditions for change, but he never controlled what the Tree did with them.
• Obsession and sacrifice: His enduring fixation made the rewrite possible, while also making him expendable.
• The indifference of cosmic forces: The Tree treats love, grief, and death as forces that can generate new branches—not as moral tragedies.
• The cost of changing history: A new possibility can emerge, but its creator may be consumed in making it stable.

Key plot points and events

• Xiao Xiao asks whether the Imaginary Tree would have opened a path if Otto had not spent five hundred years pursuing Kallen. Huo Yuhao says no: Otto’s extreme, sustained suffering and refusal to give up were what made the Tree respond.
• Otto understood that the Tree would reclaim the chance it offered and that he might disappear without changing the world as he hoped. He accepted anyway, because it was the only possibility he had left.
• The Light Screen reveals that Otto’s experiences over five hundred years became connections to the past. The Tree pulled those connections away until Otto ceased to exist in time.
• Those lines carried Otto’s obsession back to the moment before Kallen’s death. At that instant, Kallen sensed it and looked back; the collision of her death and Otto’s final effort forced open a narrow entrance in the Tree.
• The opening could hold only one person. Otto filled it, becoming both the force that opened the way and the “door” that blocked it. The Tree’s new branch made a possible path—but did not guarantee Kallen’s survival.
• The Tree closes again. It does not change fate for Otto; it merely acknowledges that his obsession once reached it. His mark remains as a tiny, permanent crack in the Tree, without affecting any world line.

Character developments and interactions

• Otto is portrayed as knowingly sacrificing himself, not out of ignorance but because even being used by the Tree kept him connected to Kallen. His single-minded devotion has consumed every possibility of an ordinary life.
• Huo Yuhao explains the mechanics of Otto’s sacrifice and stresses that it was persistence, not strength, that opened the Tree.
• Gu Yuena argues that the Tree is governed by rules rather than deceit: Otto knew the cost and chose to proceed.
• Tang San interprets Otto’s act as proof that the Imaginary Tree can be reached or “rewritten,” while emphasizing that Otto’s sacrifice created no guaranteed outcome.
• Xiao Xiao, A’Dai, Xu Sanshi, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya respond with questions and reactions, drawing out the emotional and philosophical meaning of Otto’s choice.

Significant themes

• Obsession and sacrifice: Otto’s devotion becomes so absolute that nothing remains in it except his desire to reach Kallen.
• Possibility versus outcome: The Tree can offer an opening, but it cannot promise that fate will change.
• Memory and existence: The connections linking someone to the past define their existence; once those lines are removed, they vanish from time.
• Recognition without victory: Otto does not win or save Kallen. The Tree only remembers that he challenged it—and that he was there.

Plot points and events

• After the Light Screen goes dark, it returns with the word “Erasure” and explains Otto Apocalypse’s price for changing the World Lines: the Imaginary Tree will remove him from cause and effect, so completely that the world will treat him as though he never existed.
• The group learns this is more than death. The world would rewrite the consequences of Otto’s life—including the deaths and Honkai outbreaks connected to him—giving them different causes.
• Otto’s erasure would create the space needed for the world to restore Kallen’s existence. His plan was never to survive: he would exchange his total absence for her presence.
• To prevent any lingering bond from drawing Kallen back into his story, Otto chose not to tell her goodbye or leave her a memory of his love.

Character developments and interactions

• Xu Sanshi reacts with shock and anger, struggling to understand why Otto would choose a fate worse than death.
• Xiao Xiao, visibly devastated, asks what becomes of Otto’s place in history and whether Kallen can truly be happy without him.
• Gu Yuena explains the difference between death and causal erasure, and assures Xiao Xiao that Kallen will live peacefully, unaware that anything is missing.
• Tang San clarifies that the world would repair the gaps left by Otto and frames his sacrifice as giving up not merely his life, but every trace and connection.
• Huo Yuhao explains why Otto had to become “zero” and suggests that five centuries of wearing away his attachment to himself made him capable of completing the sacrifice.
• Ye Yinzhu recognizes the quiet cruelty of Otto’s choice: he erased himself without saying goodbye so he would leave nothing that could bind Kallen to him.
• The Dragon Prince questions whether Otto could truly surrender every memory and connection without hesitation.

Significant themes

• Sacrifice and love: Otto gives up not only his life but his entire existence so Kallen can live.
• Memory and identity: To be erased is not to be forgotten; it is to have never existed, leaving no one able to remember or mourn you.
• The cost of changing fate: The world’s history must be rewritten, and even the consequences of Otto’s actions are reassigned.
• Selfless, unrecognized love: Otto accepts that Kallen’s happiness may depend on never knowing he made it possible.

Huo Yuhao and the others discussed how Otto would be erased from causality to replace Kallen’s death, leaving him with no existence or echoes. The Light Screen then showed Kallen moments from execution while Otto raced through the Imaginary Tree, unaware that time was running out.

• Huo Yuhao explained that Otto would become a null value, erased from existence so Kallen could live.
• Gu Yuena said Otto’s nonexistence would anchor Kallen’s survival, and Huo Yuhao warned that even Honkai could be erased from causality.
• The Light Screen confirmed that Otto had accepted erasure with no resentment, regrets, or echoes.
• The Light Screen showed Kallen bound on the execution platform as the executioner prepared to act.
• Tang San explained that Otto could not see Kallen’s execution, while the split screen showed him rushing through the Imaginary Tree.

The group watched Otto race through the Imaginary Tree to save Kallen as she was executed, but he could not reach her in time. His sacrifice made the Tree reassess her death, changing it from an execution to force majeure, and the chapter ended with Tang San saying Otto had at least died at the same moment as Kallen.

• Gu Yuena and Huo Yuhao explained that Otto had to reach the Imaginary Tree before Kallen's execution became irreversible.
• As the executioner counted down, Otto poured five hundred years of obsession into the Tree and accelerated through the final instant.
• Kallen's noose tightened before Otto could reach her, and Tang San explained that Otto was using his own death to make the Tree notice him first.
• Gu Yuena said Otto's sacrifice changed Kallen's death from an execution to force majeure, though it could not save her life.
• Zhou Weiqing condemned the world's cruelty, and Tang San said Otto had at least died at the same moment as Kallen.

Otto's attempt to synchronize with Kallen's death gave her a fleeting sense of his presence but could not save her. As he reached the Imaginary Tree, hundreds of discarded versions of himself emerged to block his path, and the first confronted him over the innocents he had sacrificed.

• Tang San, Gu Yuena, and Huo Yuhao explained that Otto burned himself into the Imaginary Tree so he and Kallen could draw near in the same instant, though they never met.
• The Light Screen showed Kallen and Otto disappearing as the Imaginary Tree fell silent.
• Huo Yuhao noticed cracks splitting the space around the Tree, and hundreds of Ottos in black Archbishop's Robes emerged from them.
• Gu Yuena and Chang Gongwei identified the figures as the selves Otto had discarded, while Huo Yuhao and the Dragon God explained that Otto had to defeat his past selves to alter reality.
• The first discarded Otto accused the original of killing innocents in the name of the greater good and demanded to know whether he remembered him.

Otto defeated the manifestations of his past sins and entered the Imaginary Tree, where he declared his guilt and begged for Kallen’s return. As the tree’s light consumed him, he shattered into golden motes and became fuel for its roots.

• Otto fought and destroyed the countless versions of himself, accepting responsibility for the sins of his five hundred years.
• The Imaginary Tree sent down a beam of light and drew Otto toward it, despite his body beginning to disintegrate.
• Otto confessed that he was evil and said he wanted to bring her back to life, asking only for her to live.
• Otto reached toward the Imaginary Tree and shattered into golden motes that flew into its roots.
• Huo Yuhao said Otto was burning himself rather than simply falling apart.

Otto used his existence to empower the Imaginary Tree and send its light toward the moment Kallen died, hoping to rewrite reality and save her. The light reached its destination, where Otto appeared alive but changed, openly confessing his crimes and preparing for his final battle.

• Otto exchanged his existence for the Imaginary Tree’s power, and its projection burst into light that raced toward Kallen’s death five hundred years earlier.
• The witnesses debated whether Otto deserved the Imaginary Tree’s recognition and whether Kallen would accept the weight of his sacrifice.
• The Light Screen revealed the world five hundred years earlier, where Otto stood before the Imaginary Tree with cracks covering his body.
• Otto confessed that he had deceived people, caused deaths, manipulated wars, and treated the world as a chessboard, calling himself thoroughly evil.
• Otto summoned a simple golden spear, revealing that he had shed his usual disguises and was ready to fight.

Otto sacrificed the evil he had accumulated over five hundred years to rewrite the Imaginary Tree’s rule and save Kallen, disappearing after she survived. As the Light Screen dimmed and lit again, a golden pillar of light descended onto the battlefield from five hundred years earlier.

• Otto drove his spear into the Imaginary Tree’s projection and offered his accumulated sins to change the rule that Kallen had to die.
• Otto’s body disintegrated as he rewrote the moment of Kallen’s death, making her wounds heal and the Collapse Beasts retreat.
• Kallen survived, and Otto vanished after saying that his sacrifice had been worth it, leaving his golden spear embedded in the Imaginary Tree.
• Huo Yuhao said Otto had won by his own definition, and the Light Screen showed the battlefield from five hundred years earlier again.
• A golden pillar of light descended from the sky, tearing through space and time above the battlefield.

Otto projected his will into the past and wielded the Annihilation Form of Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment to challenge the fate that Kallen must die. He fed the sword with his life and five hundred years of obsession, then unleashed its power as the Kaslana heroes appeared within its flames.

• Otto appeared in the past as a projection of his will, surrounded by golden flames drawn from the Imaginary Tree.
• Tang San identified his weapon as the Imitation Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment in its Annihilation Form, a sword embodying the Kaslana heroes’ will.
• Otto said he wanted to become the hero Kallen had hoped he would be and swung the sword to sever his inner demons.
• The sword’s strike burned through space and time as Otto attempted to sever the established fact that Kallen must die.
• Otto’s body was charred and ruined as he poured his life and five hundred years of obsession into the sword.
• Otto called for Heavenly Fire to unsheathe, and the Kaslana heroes appeared within the rising flames.

Otto used the heroes’ sword to attack the Imaginary Tree’s rule that Kallen must die, then fought the Tree’s endless phantoms to keep the altered future from being sealed again. Badly wounded and burning through his divine soul and life force, he continued swinging as the battle grew increasingly hopeless.

• The heroes acknowledged Otto’s resolve, and he swung their flaming sword at the rule that Kallen must die, declaring that he would become her hero.
• The scene shifted to a battlefield where Otto faced the Imaginary Tree’s phantoms, which attacked him for trying to alter space-time.
• Otto’s first two strikes incinerated swarms of phantoms, but more poured in endlessly and wounded him.
• Otto made his third strike despite losing his right leg and burning his divine soul and life force; his hair turned white as the phantoms quickly filled the cleared space.
• Otto made a weakened fourth strike while the phantoms tore at his body and devoured his divine soul.

Otto spent his remaining existence fighting the Imaginary Shadows so Kallen might survive, then appeared on a warped battlefield wielding three imitations of Divine Keys. As an enormous, twisted beast crawled from a rift, Otto readied himself to face it.

• Otto kept striking the Imaginary Shadows despite his body disintegrating, and burned away his future possibilities to continue fighting for Kallen.
• Otto saw Kallen watching him and used his final strength to unleash a ninth strike, engulfing himself and the battlefield in golden light.
• Otto appeared on a warped battlefield surrounded by weapon imitations, then summoned the Black Abyss White Flower, the Xuanyuan Sword, and the Oath of Judah.
• An enormous beast formed from black imaginary energy crawled out of a rift as Otto prepared to fight it.

Otto defeated the Imaginary Beast formed from his sins by purifying, severing, and binding it, then piercing its core with the combined power of three Divine Keys. The heart of darkness struck back and pinned him with cursed spikes, but Otto began pulling them out so he could keep moving toward Kallen.

• Xiao Xiao and the others identified the enormous Imaginary Beast as the embodiment of everyone Otto had killed and the sins he had committed.
• Otto tried purifying the beast with the Black Abyss White Flower, then severed it with the Xuanyuan Sword and bound its smaller forms with the Oath of Judah.
• Otto fused the three Divine Keys’ Authorities into an arrow of light and pierced the beast’s heart of darkness, causing its body to disintegrate.
• The heart of darkness launched a final counterattack, piercing Otto with black spikes that corroded his Divine Spark and made his body turn transparent.
• Otto said he could not die while Kallen was waiting, then began pulling out the spikes despite the risk that he would disintegrate.

The Light Screen showed Kallen’s execution being interrupted by a Collapse Beast outbreak caused by Otto’s battle within the Imaginary Tree. Despite her injuries, Kallen fought to save civilians and shielded a little girl from a fatal attack, leaving her critically wounded but still protecting the child.

• Otto pulled out the final spike, his Divine Spark shattered, and he died relieved to have given up being a god.
• The Light Screen showed Kallen’s execution at Schicksal Headquarters five hundred years earlier as a simultaneous image of Otto’s battle.
• Collapse Beasts poured into the execution grounds, and Gu Yuena said Otto’s spacetime fluctuations had triggered the outbreak.
• Kallen broke free from her shackles, fought the beasts bare-handed, and carried an old woman to safety despite her wounds.
• Kallen threw herself in front of a little girl, took a spike through her body, and held back the beast while telling the child she would protect her.

Kallen died at the execution grounds while protecting a little girl, and Otto saw her death as he struggled toward the end of the Imaginary Tree to change her fate. As Otto neared annihilation, memories revealed him and the fifteen-year-old Kallen sharing a sunny afternoon in Vienna, where she read him a knight novel.

• Kallen comforted a little girl before dying from her wounds at the execution grounds five hundred years earlier.
• Otto watched Kallen die through the Light Screen and vowed to change her fate, even if he had to burn away his existence.
• Otto pressed on toward the depths of the Imaginary Tree as his divine spark shattered and his body faded.
• Otto collapsed near death, unable to reach the end of the Imaginary Tree, while his consciousness began to dissipate.
• Otto's memories returned to a Vienna courtyard, where the fifteen-year-old Kallen read a knight novel and called him over.
• Young Otto sat beside Kallen and complained that the novel's happily-ever-after ending was clichéd.

Otto drew on his will to reach the Imaginary Tree’s core and learned that changing the past would erase his existence from every timeline. He accepted the price and sent a brilliant light toward Kallen’s execution five hundred years earlier.

• A memory showed young Otto promising Kallen that he wanted to protect only her, and Kallen said she would wait for him.
• Otto recalled Kallen’s words, reassembled his shattered divine spark, and used his will to keep fighting.
• Otto advanced toward the Imaginary Tree’s core, cutting through its branches as his body and soul burned away.
• Otto learned that rewriting the past would make him never have existed, and he accepted the cost to save Kallen.
• Otto pressed his hand into the core and sent light through space and time toward the execution ground five hundred years in the past.

Otto sacrificed his existence to revive Kallen five hundred years in the past, then the Light Screen showed his final battle before he vanished. With his remaining power, he mimicked Void Archives to destroy the Imaginary Beast's remains and clear his way to the Imaginary Tree.

• Golden light healed Kallen’s fatal wound and brought her back to life as Otto disappeared from every timeline.
• Otto’s final words reached Kallen five hundred years in the past, telling her to live well, and the Light Screen went dark.
• The Light Screen resumed with footage of Otto’s final battle, where the Imaginary Beast’s lingering remains blocked his path to the Imaginary Tree.
• Otto converted the power of the Key of Reason, the Key of Sensation, and the Key of Knowledge into an incomplete Void Archives.
• Otto hurled Void Archives at the remains, and the golden cube began deconstructing their concept of existence.

Otto erased the Imaginary Beast’s remains with the Void Archives and reached the Imaginary Tree’s core, where he rewrote history so Kallen would survive at the cost of his own existence. After Otto vanished, the Light Screen showed him still moving on the imaginary battlefield, nearly erased but not yet gone.

• Otto used the Void Archives to erase the Imaginary Beast’s remains and the curse attached to them, opening the path to the Imaginary Tree.
• Otto struggled along the golden path despite his fading body and reached the Imaginary Tree’s core.
• Otto learned that changing the past would erase him from every timeline, then accepted the price and rewrote Kallen’s fate.
• Kallen returned to life five hundred years in the past as Otto disappeared, sending her the last words, “this time, live a good life.”
• After the Light Screen went dark and the onlookers mourned Otto, it showed him nearly erased but still moving on the imaginary battlefield.

Otto used the last trace of his divine spark to forge a self-consuming Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment and tear open the Imaginary Tree’s barrier to reach the origin of space and time. As the sword and his body began to break apart, the passage remained unfinished and the blade began to shatter.

• Huo Yuhao said Otto was already dead and sustained only by his will as Otto struggled toward the Imaginary Tree.
• Otto’s right leg and then his remaining limbs disintegrated, but he crawled onward until he reached the Imaginary Tree’s projection.
• After losing his left arm, Otto transformed his final divine spark into a ghastly white Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment made from his existence.
• Otto pressed the sword against the Imaginary Tree and burned his body to force open a passage to the origin of space and time.
• The sword developed spreading cracks before the barrier was breached, and Otto realized its power was insufficient.

Otto burned his existence to open a passage through the Imaginary Tree and rewrite time, saving Kallen while vanishing from the battlefield. Before his sacrifice could end, he merged himself with the Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment and offered his body, soul, and existence to the Tree, which began to consume the flames.

• Otto burned his will and love for Kallen to open the rift and reach the source of space and time.
• Otto accepted the cost of having his existence erased from every timeline and rewrote fate, healing Kallen as he began to disappear.
• Otto remained on the imaginary battlefield and drove the Heavenly Fire Holy Judgment into the Imaginary Tree's trunk.
• Otto merged his body, consciousness, and soul with the Divine Key, turning himself into fuel for the sacrifice.
• Otto declared his offering to the Imaginary Tree, which shook and began devouring the flames.