K422 closed her eyes and stopped looking at the laughing, happy boy and girl. She could no longer feel the tremors, which meant the fighting inside the Floating Island had ceased.
Apparently, her only chance to find True Kiana had already slipped away.
She had searched seventy-two laboratories. Fifty of them belonged to Otto, and three more were secret labs hidden between the floors.
In the end, she found this secret room.
"An hour? Tsk..."
K422 estimated the time and naturally felt unwilling to accept it.
If she had been given another hour, she could have explored the remaining nine hidden laboratories marked on the map.
Unfortunately, that Alliance Leader and True Kiana's father had not been capable enough. Or perhaps Bishop Otto had been even more troublesome than she had expected.
Either way, she had already lost.
"Bishop, you're here?"
At that moment, K422 noticed the hurried footsteps.
Seeing the blond Grand Bishop stride into the room, a helpless smile appeared on her face.
She could still take a gamble. As long as she killed Bishop Otto, she would still have a chance to find True Kiana.
But K422 had no intention of attempting such a reckless challenge.
He was a five-hundred-year-old Yokai, after all. There was no way a clone less than half a year old like her could defeat him head-on.
If she wanted to defeat him, she could only resort to underhanded methods, such as poisoning or ambushes.
After placing Black Abyss White Flower on the ground, K422 stood up and raised both hands in surrender.
Yes, she chose to surrender.
She had no chance of winning. She could only surrender, and surrender was her only option.
Only by surrendering could she possibly save her own life.
Seeing that this room had not been damaged, Otto visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
But he did not seem to be in a particularly good mood.
"My adorable little princess, how did you end up in this room?"
Otto rubbed between his brows, clearly feeling helpless.
K422 was helpless too.
She did not know how she had ended up here either.
Maybe she had put a few too many skill points into the talent of getting lost.
"Bishop, couldn't you have a meal first, listen to some music, and wait another hour before coming over?"
K422 pursed her lips in displeasure.
He was putting on the face of a victor, yet deliberately said nothing about her escaping the room, injuring Amber, injuring the researchers, and searching everywhere for True Kiana.
Clearly, he wanted to watch her surrender.
What rotten taste.
"Oh? Give you another hour? Then you could find Kiana?"
"...Bishop, what do you mean?"
Hearing Bishop Otto ask in such a teasing tone, K422 frowned sharply.
Otto's attitude clearly showed that he was absolutely confident she would never find True Kiana.
"True Kiana isn't in Asgard?"
K422 abruptly raised her head. Though she still held her hands up in surrender, her gaze locked onto Otto's face, trying to confirm the truth from his expression.
"True Kiana? The real Kiana? That is quite an interesting way to put it. Is that a nickname between you two? Then what are you? Fake Kiana? And K423?"
Otto clearly did not care whether she confirmed the truth.
"Where is she?!"
"Look, isn't she right there?"
The blue sky and white clouds formed by the holographic projection on the ceiling turned into a transparent canopy, revealing a Floating Battleship of an even larger model.
Looking up at the sight, K422 was truly shocked.
"You hid True Kiana aboard a Floating Battleship?"
"That's right. Prepare a completely sealed room for a little girl inside the battleship, build a loop-shaped corridor outside that sealed room, then connect it to a laboratory. Simple, isn't it? And that environment was where Kiana lived for roughly six years."
Otto answered cheerfully.
After taking True Kiana from her home, Otto had recreated the layout of Schicksal on a Floating Battleship and fed True Kiana lies for six long years.
This Floating Battleship had its own dedicated harbor. Apart from the Valkyrie units and staff stationed aboard it, no one knew there was a special laboratory within the ship.
Otto knew that Siegfried wanted to find his daughter. He knew that Welt wanted to use the opportunity to take away this prototype. He also knew that the restless K422 would definitely seize this sole chance.
So he openly dispatched this Floating Battleship together with the other Floating Battleships to suppress those trash organizations.
That was why he was confident K422, Siegfried, and Welt would never find the real Kiana.
For six years, the real Kiana had believed she was at Schicksal Headquarters.
It was as though she had been blindfolded and wrapped in layer upon layer of shackles.
Otto had used a sealed room to keep her from knowing her location, confining her freedom to a tiny room, an enclosed loop-shaped corridor, and a laboratory that had cast a shadow over her life.
Honestly, K422 wanted to pick up Black Abyss White Flower and poke a few holes in Otto.
What she had not expected was that Otto would answer so happily. His heart was utterly twisted, his mind completely deranged.
"...I'm very curious. Why did you choose to conceal the matter of the mental link? If you had told me about it, at least I would not have been so wary of you."
Looking at K422, whose expression had clearly darkened, Otto asked the question he was most curious about.
In truth, neither K422's thoughts nor her actions had exceeded his expectations.
Of course, running into this room had been a complete accident.
Otto had not expected K422 to take such an unconventional path after obtaining Black Abyss White Flower.
Instead of properly smashing through the isolation wall, she had gone after the laboratory walls.
"If I had told you, what would have happened to True Kiana? If I kept quiet, Bishop, you could only remain suspicious."
In fact, Bishop Otto had tested the mental link between her and True Kiana before.
K423, who had been treated cruelly, was the method Bishop Otto had used to test that mental link. But at the time, K422 had gritted her teeth and endured it, refusing to let True Kiana's emotions spiral out of control.
All so the matter would be dropped.
Unfortunately, her concealment had not worked.
Fortunately, True Kiana and K423 had not undergone experiments because of the mental link afterward. Though Otto's attention had shifted to her, if she suffered a little more and grew a little more tired, then True Kiana and K423 would suffer and tire a little less. What was there for her to complain about?
She knew this would be the outcome, but she still chose to do it.
It Really Felt Suffocating
To someone like her, who had nothing at all, Kiana Kaslana, the one who acknowledged her existence, was naturally worth such sacrifice.
Even K423, who spoke unclearly and could not even finish a complete sentence, was someone K422 did not want to see suffer or struggle.
Even if that was foolish.
How could she not know that betraying True Kiana and K423 would allow her to live a better life?
But she did not need that better life.
"Although it was useless against you, Bishop, after I chose silence, True Kiana and Xiao San did not suffer too much harm."
K422 stated her answer openly.
Before Bishop Otto, she had no chance to resist.
She only wanted to know whether K423 had been taken away by Siegfried and Welt.
"Xiao San? The Second Herrscher truly was given an adorable name. Well, if we are being precise, she is the number two."
Bishop Otto clearly did not mind telling her more.
At the words Second Herrscher, K422's expression changed. She stared at Bishop Otto, revealing disbelief for the first time.
Herrschers were apostles of Honkai.
And Honkai was humanity's enemy.
Leaving aside the casualties caused by the frequent Honkai incidents each year.
The Second Eruption War might have caused more than a hundred million deaths, while tens of millions of refugees had died on the road while fleeing after the disaster.
One had to remember that the global population in 2000 had only been 6.1 billion.
Those were not merely numbers, but living lives. The corpses alone could have formed a blood-soaked mountain.
"The Second Herrscher? Bishop, why do you call Xiao San the Second Herrscher?"
K422 could not believe that the Grand Bishop of Schicksal, who fought against Honkai, would dare to "revive" the Second Herrscher.
Yes.
When K422 believed Bishop Otto's goal was to revive Kallen Kaslana, she had thought that Otto must possess some kind of resurrection technology, though that technology was not yet mature enough.
K422 lacked many crucial clues.
She simply did not know that her guess had happened to hit the mark.
If she had known she had guessed correctly, she definitely would have called herself a prophet.
"Because I buried the core of the Second Herrscher inside K423's body. Isn't that a good thing? Just like the stigmata possessed by Valkyries, this is meant to let humanity wield the power of Honkai. Only Honkai can defeat Honkai."
Otto did not conceal his purpose at all.
"K423 is a clone of Kiana Kaslana. Clones themselves have no human rights, yet I granted her freedom. Given Siegfried's personality, he should soon accept that child. Then, that child will encounter important people in the identity of Kiana Kaslana, form deep bonds, or perhaps even find love... When she awakens, her bonds with companions or a lover will resist the will of Honkai, giving birth to a human who possesses the power of a Herrscher."
Faced with her confusion, Otto spoke at length.
In his words, it was using Honkai to defeat Honkai.
But K422 did not believe a single word.
The man before her could not be trusted.
For some reason, that thought surfaced in K422's mind.
The man before her not only toyed with lives, but manipulated the lives of others and deceived everyone in the world.
Otto spread his arms as though he could see an artificial Herrscher about to be born.
A Second Herrscher who would obey his commands.
K422 frowned.
The prototype, the accidental product, Bishop Otto's original plan.
True Kiana, herself, and K423 were all unique to Bishop Otto.
Yet to Bishop Otto, they were all merely chess pieces.
Just as Otto now intended to give K423 the name "Kiana Kaslana."
And she, who currently possessed that name, had already become a superfluous existence. Bishop Otto might erase her.
Should she resist?
Should she struggle to survive?
K422 asked herself where she stood.
She glanced at the Giant Floating Battleship parked overhead.
The real Kiana was hidden inside by Bishop Otto.
And this Giant Floating Battleship, carrying Valkyries alongside the other Floating Battleships, was openly departing right beneath the eyes of every faction.
Before you continue