Chapter 75

Cecilia was stunned for a moment after not expecting to be pushed away, then approached K422 again and gently hugged her once more.

"Cecilia?"

"You should call her 'Mom,' isn't that what you've always wanted?"

Cecilia smiled gently.

"... I saw how hard you worked, it was really amazing. Although you look the same age as Kiana, you're only one year old, right? Otto really did something really awful to you."

Cecilia gently stroked her head with her left hand, while her right hand continued to hold her body, clearly not intending to let her escape this time.

K422's thinking completely crashed.

She didn't understand why Cecilia was here, what kind of place this was, or why she herself had come here.

Seeing Cecilia's smile, K422 suddenly had a premonition... If Otto really mastered the means of resurrection, she would definitely cooperate with him and then do many things that she knew were wrong.

"I..."

K422 opened its mouth, but no sound came out.

She never imagined that she would be so awkward in front of Cecilia that she didn't even know what to say.

"Cecilia, I..."

"No, that's not right." Cecilia said suddenly with a serious expression.

K422, unsure of what she had done wrong, looked at her nervously, her eyes filled with confusion.

"Did I... did I say something wrong?"

"It's Mom. I haven't heard you call me Mom yet."

Cecilia's gaze was irresistible.

After a moment of silence, K422 blushed and whispered, "Mom... Mom..."

"What a good child."

Cecilia said, hugging her tighter again.

"Mom, where am I? Why are you here?"

K422 felt short of breath; she hadn't expected things to turn out so well, to the point that she couldn't think straight.

Many thoughts flooded her mind, and these thoughts kept clashing, even making her feel suffocated.

She wanted to stay here with her mother, wanted to take her back to live with True Kiana and the others, wanted to know about her mother's past, wanted to hold her mother tighter... New thoughts kept flashing through her mind.

But K422 managed to calm himself down.

I didn't let my joy cloud my judgment.

"This place is inside the Herrscher Core within the Black Abyss White Flower."

In this vast white space, Cecilia, who had been holding K422 for a while, had a satisfied expression on her face.

"After you activated the Black Abyss White Flower, my dormant consciousness deep within the core also awakened. Naturally, I saw how hard you worked to find Kiana. Your helplessness and loneliness when you finally lost to Otto made me really want to hug you tightly. Now, that wish has finally come true."

As she spoke, Cecilia untied her braids and began to comb her hair with her fingers.

"Cecilia, there's no need for that..."

"Hmm!?" Cecilia stared at her with displeasure.

Under her imposing gaze, K422 felt incredibly small and weakly changed her address, saying, "... Mom."

"Yes, that's good. I've wanted to do this ever since my self-awareness awakened, my lovely Aurora." Cecilia said, uttering a name that K422 had never heard of before.

"Aurora?" K422 looked up.

"Actually, I'm not very good at naming things. When Kiana was born, Theresa helped me choose a name." Cecilia blushed slightly as she said this. "Kiana is the goddess of the moon, so I thought of a few names in that style, and finally I felt that the goddess of dawn Aurora, suited you very well."

K422 couldn't help but feel curious. "What other names did Mom think of?"

"Hmm, don't laugh at me if I tell you, one of them is Freya, the goddess of love and beauty in Norse mythology. She is also the goddess of God of War and magic."

"Then there's Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, war, the moon, and memory, and Athena from Greek mythology..."

Cecilia named several goddesses, clearly trying to follow the line of thought that Kiana was the goddess of moonlight.

Perhaps she had been considering having a second child with Siegfried before, which is why she spent some time researching names.

"Mom, can I give the name Aurora to my sister?"

"Sister?" Cecilia looked surprised, clearly unaware of the matter.

"You mean Otto created another clone besides you?"

"There should be over four hundred. I am Kiana's clone number four hundred and twenty-second, so my number is K422. My sister's number is K423, which should be the last number I know. I don't know if His Holiness the Archbishop created K424, K425, etc..."

K422 answered truthfully, and Cecilia seemed to be able to tell him everything without reservation.

"Otto, this is really... sigh."

Cecilia, who was an old acquaintance of Otto, was clearly unwilling to comment on him.

"Why give the name Aurora to your sister?"

"Well, that younger sister was a vessel for one of the bishop's plans. The bishop wanted humanity to master the power of the Herrscher, so he implanted the core of the Second Herrscher inside her body."

At this point, K422 was also quite helpless.

His sister may seem to have gained her freedom, but she may still be part of Otto's scheme.

"The core of the Second Herrscher? That child, could it be..."

"Mother?"

Seeing Cecilia's thoughtful expression, K422 also felt a bit curious.

Cecilia shook her head and combed K422's hair again, saying, "So the reason you named your sister Aurora?"

"The reason is that Aurora is the goddess of dawn, and the morning light is a beautiful gift from nature to mankind. Aurora is a goddess who fills people with hope and anticipation. I hope my sister's life and her future are full of hope and anticipation. Of course, I think the name Freya is very suitable for me..."

Before K422 could finish speaking, Cecilia hugged him tightly again.

"You are indeed a good older sister, but also a child who breaks our hearts."

Freya is the goddess of love and beauty in Norse mythology. She is often heavily made up and dressed in flamboyant attire. Sometimes she is fully armored and ready to go into battle, leading the Valkyries to select fallen heroes for Odin.

"Hey-hey..."

K422 was quite enjoyable.

This name suits her well, regardless of whether it carries a self-deprecating connotation.

"I have a name now, and my mom chose it for me herself."

Although she was still K422, still the Schicksal Saintess in Otto's palm, she received the most precious treasure from Cecilia: a name that belonged to her.

They also finalized the name for K423.

Freya, Aurora.

Seeing how happy she was, Cecilia gave up the idea of thinking of a few more names.

Neither she nor Siegfried were good at naming things, so since K422 was so happy, she wouldn't dampen their enthusiasm.

After cuddling for a while, they talked about the situation outside, such as Siegfried getting involved with Anti-Entropy, K423 being with them, and also about True Kiana's current predicament.

K422 then ended her casual conversation with Cecilia, even though she was reluctant to part with her mother's cooking, she needed to understand the current situation first.

"Mom, is your soul currently preserved inside the Herrscher Core?"

"It's less of a soul and more of a consciousness... I still remember the Second Eruption War, and I remember my past, whether it was my life in the Schariac Family, my life in the Schicksal Headquarters, or my life after meeting Siegfried."

"Not the soul?"

"Yes, Freya, your mother died in the Second Eruption War."

Seeing K422's serious expression, Cecilia smiled.

"Don't even think about bringing Mom back to life. That would make you commit many mistakes. Mom's life is no more important than anyone else's. Life is equal..."

"Mom, life is never equal, True Kiana ... I mean, Kiana and Aurora's lives are more important to me than anyone else's, but I understand what you're trying to say, Mom. I won't let more lives be lost because of lives that have already been lost—I promise."

Faced with Cecilia's smile, K422 made a promise.

"Of course Mom believes in you, Freya. Although Mom likes how hard you work, Mom hopes that your life will also be full of hope and anticipation."

"...I will." Perhaps sensing something, K422 nodded.

Cecilia gave her another big hug with a smile.

"Freya, Mommy loves you, Ich liebe dich."

"I love you too, Mom."

As the warmth surrounding her body slowly receded, Cecilia's consciousness seemed to drift back to sleep.

A moment later, K422 wiped away the tears that welled up in this white space.

80. She was completely stunned by the impact.

When I woke up, my eyes were already blurred with tears.

K422 held the Black Abyss White Flower tightly, while Cecilia's consciousness slumbered deep within the Herrscher Core.

"It's okay, we'll meet again..."

Perhaps because Cecilia acknowledged his identity, K422 felt much lighter, and the things he had been worried and afraid of did not happen.

"Mom, don't worry, I will protect Kiana and Aurora."

K422 whispered softly to the Black Abyss White Flower.

Then, as if handling a fragile item, the Black Abyss White Flower gently placed down. Then, the person went to the box containing the Black Abyss White Flower, took out the stand inside, wiped it carefully, and then solemnly placed the Black Abyss White Flower on it.

Although it is Divine Key, a weapon used by the Previous Civilization to fight against the Honkai, it has a completely different meaning for her.

"Speaking of which, since Mom's consciousness is dormant in the Black Abyss White Flower, could there also be dormant consciousnesses in the other Divine Key?"

However, the Schicksal currently possesses only three Divine Key, one of which Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment, has fallen into the hands of the Anti-Entropy Organization due to Siegfried's defection.

Of course, K422 believed that Otto was definitely hiding the number of Divine Key that the Schicksal possessed.

Even with her keen interest in learning, she couldn't find much information about the Divine Key.

It can only be said that information about the Divine Key has been deliberately hidden by someone.

Only that bastard bishop could do something like this within the Schicksal.

Yeah, that's a great word, "bastard bishop".

K422 discovers that she unexpectedly likes her crazy relative.

I even wanted to sing a song for her—there was a girl who was a little crazy, a little frantic...

As for how she sang the rest of the song, she forgot. But that girl seemed to be more than a little crazy.

"What should I do next? Should I lie down and continue sleeping? Or should I just go out and have some fun?"

After carefully wiping the Black Abyss White Flower and its support, K422 found herself still quite energetic. Although she had been inside the Black Abyss White Flower's Herrscher Core for quite some time, she had only actually taken a nap for a little over ten minutes.

In just over ten minutes, I felt a sense of satisfaction from having slept enough, and my whole body felt like it had inexhaustible energy.

"Speaking of which, the left hand..."

Previously, in the consciousness space of the Herrscher Core, his left hand was not in a cast.

After K422 broke the cast, she moved her left hand, which had been in a sling for several days, and showed a surprised expression.

"It's already healed?"

The faster one's recovery speed far exceeds that of ordinary people, the more one's body changes in order to adapt to multiple genes. Although the body is not easily injured after breaking through the limit, the recovery speed after injury is also much slower.

Therefore, the recovery speed, which was originally several times faster than that of an average person, is now only slightly faster than that of a normal person in terms of physical recovery.

As the saying goes, it takes a hundred days to recover from a broken bone. In order to send K422-1 to its grave, she took all of the opponent's attacks.

I thought I would need to rest for at least a month or two, but I recovered completely in just a few days.

"It's not my own healing ability. Black Abyss White Flower, the Sixth Divine Key, yes, the power of Creation of the Sixth Divine Key..."

K422 looked at the Black Abyss White Flower on the stand, smiled and shook her head.