"Incredible. You actually possess the ability to traverse the Sea of Quanta. As far as I know, there are only three known methods in this world to enter the Imaginary Space from the eigenworld. Just how did you manage it?"
Otto's eyes were locked onto Elias, his gaze sharp and dissecting—the sort of look you'd expect from someone who'd spent years conducting human experiments. It was the gaze of a man trying to unravel someone like a living specimen.
Elias felt an instinctive wave of disgust. In the blink of an eye, he picked up a cake fork from the table and pressed it against Otto's eye in less than a tenth of a second.
"Look at me like that again and I'll gouge your eye out, Otto Apocalypse. I'm not one of the test subjects in your incubation pods, got it?"
"Lord Overseer!"
"Put down the fork!"
The sudden threat shocked even Rita and Durandal—they didn't have time to react.
And in the very next instant, just as their weapons were about to be raised against Elias—
"Stand down."
"Don't move, either of you!"
"I don't want to fight you."
Mei, Welt, and Fu Hua all stepped in.
A lightning-imbued blade blocked Durandal's knight lance.
Star of Eden's gravity field pinned her in place.
Fu Hua's fist hovered just in front of Durandal's abdomen.
Oh, and before that, the immortal martial artist had casually struck once, forcing Rita back instantly... Pretty rude, honestly.
Rita: (Am I a joke to you? Why do all three of you take Durandal seriously and just casually slap me away? I'm an S-rank Valkyrie too, you know!)
Well, this was the difference in class. Rita was an S-rank because her strength just met the requirement. Durandal was S-rank because that was the highest grade Schicksal had.
"..." x7
The atmosphere was now so tense it could snap. It felt like real conflict could erupt at any second.
Just as both sides' guards were weighing whether to make the first move—
"That's enough. Everyone, stand down."
"Alright, return to your positions."
Elias and Otto spoke simultaneously.
The white-haired boy calmly sat back in his chair, using the same fork he'd nearly jabbed into Otto's eye to pick up a slice of fruit.
Meanwhile, the golden-haired fool closed his eyes and took a slow sip of tea.
The two looked as composed and refined as a prince and a noble, as if the violent outburst from seconds ago had never occurred. The atmosphere returned to an almost eerie calm.
"..." x5
After a moment of hesitation, Durandal and the others quietly lowered their weapons and returned to their original positions.
Welt cast a complicated look at Elias and Otto, realizing that even as the leader of Anti-Entropy, he was still worlds apart from these two in some ways.
Otto, he could understand.
But Elias... what exactly had this boy been through? How could someone so emotional also have such terrifying emotional control?
"I don't know what I did to trigger you, but it seems my gaze just now really upset you. Very well. I sincerely apologize. Can you forgive me now?"
"Heh~ If you were truly sorry, you'd gouge out your own eye. It's just a soulium body anyway—you wouldn't feel pain."
"That would be a bit too gruesome, wouldn't it? Let's not go that far. Though... Elias, you really do remind me of the Herrscher of the Void. When I once apologized to him, his reaction was very much like yours. Told me to stop talking and atone with death."
"Really? I think he had a point."
Elias let out a cold sneer.
"How heartbreaking. It seems the only two people I've apologized to in recent years are you and the Herrscher of the Void, and both of you responded the same way. Sigh~ forget it, let's drop the subject."
Otto sighed and shook his head.
"So, you really can't explain how you gained the ability to cross into the Sea of Quanta?"
"Nope. I haven't figured out a convincing enough lie to feed you yet."
"Ah... well, fair enough~ everyone has their secrets. I'm not so rude as to pry into someone's privacy. I understand the importance of personal boundaries."
Though he said that aloud, Otto didn't believe a word of it. Inwardly, he raised Elias' threat level by several tiers—the boy now ranked above even Welt.
Elias, meanwhile, could only feel a bit helpless.
The truth was, there simply wasn't a good cover story for Quantum Authority.
In this current timeline, his actions hadn't exactly been subtle. Except for the matter with the Gem of Serenity, everything else had essentially been out in the open.
So when it came to Quantum Authority, there was no good excuse. Without exposing his time-traveling ability, it was basically impossible to give a rational explanation for how he obtained that power.
He might be able to deceive an ordinary person—but Otto Apocalypse? That intellect was practically at the ceiling. There was no tricking him.
So Elias simply chose not to say anything.
Let Otto guess all he liked. If he could figure it out, then so be it.
"What a shame. I had hoped today we might have a real conversation, maybe even become friends. But things clearly didn't go that way. Alright~ since I'm not welcome, I won't overstay my welcome. Let's go."
Otto glanced at Mei and Fu Hua behind Elias, then stood to leave. If not for their presence, he might have tried something against the boy.
But with Rita ineffective, and Otto himself not a frontline fighter, Durandal had no chance of taking on three—no, four Herrscher-level opponents by herself.
Even Dea Anchora had its limits. Against such a power gap, victory wasn't even on the table. It would most likely end in defeat.
Still, it wasn't a total loss.
Just as Otto prepared to leave with far fewer answers than expected—
"Wait. Sit down."
Elias' calm voice halted him.
That one sentence made Otto want to laugh out of sheer irritation.
"Perhaps I've been too polite, and it gave you the wrong impression. Elias, do you think Otto Apocalypse is someone you can just order aro—"
"I met Kevin Kaslana in the Sea of Quanta. We spoke for a while."
"Rita, refill the tea. Elias, please go on."
The ever-adaptable Overseer of Schicksal sat back down without hesitation, placed his empty teacup beside the maid, and turned to Elias with a very interested expression.
(Did Otto Apocalypse just get completely handled?!)
Rita took a deep breath, her hand trembling slightly as she lifted the teapot. Not because of injury—she was simply shocked.
The infamous schemer, the man who always manipulated others, had just been played himself—by a boy, no less.
Watching Otto obediently return to his seat, Welt, Rita, and even Theresa (who was sneakily watching from the corner) were so stunned they nearly dropped their jaws. They instinctively glanced upward, wondering if the sun had risen from the west.
(I never imagined I'd hear intel about Kevin Kaslana today. Truly unexpected. This boy never fails to surprise. I hope something valuable comes of this.)
But Elias merely smiled without a word.
Otto, ever the cunning fox, understood immediately.
"Information in this world is no less valuable than gold or silver. The rarer it is, the higher its worth. Elias, have you ever worked as a mercenary or something? You really know your stuff. Alright, name your price."
"Well, most of the Valkyries at St. Freya Academy are still using outdated armor. I won't ask for much—just three hundred sets of Schicksal's latest B-rank Valkyrie armor."
"Fifty sets. Do you know how much a single B-rank armor costs? Each one is close to ten million, and they aren't normally supplied outside Schicksal-affiliated Valkyries."
"Not enough. St. Freya Academy has around 500 Valkyries. I'm already being quite modest."
Elias shook his head, implying that his request was quite reasonable. Besides, Schicksal had money to burn.
The cost of a Godsbane Suit often reached tens or even hundreds of billions, and Otto never batted an eye at producing a dozen of them—half of which just gathered dust in storage.
So coughing up a few hundred B-rank suits? That shouldn't be a problem. Besides, the intel was about Kevin Kaslana, the apex of combat power. Three hundred White Comet-class suits was practically a bargain.
"Two hundred seventy!"
"Too many. One hundred!"
"Two hundred fifty!"
"One-fifty!"
"Let's just go back to three hundred."
"!!!"
Seeing Elias loop back to the original number, Otto's eye twitched.
Before he could protest, Elias dragged Theresa out from where she'd been hiding in the bushes.
"Otto, you don't want to disappoint your granddaughter, do you? Look at her. Look at those expectant eyes. Principal, hit him with the cute routine. Quick."
"G-Grandpa... three hundred sets... okay?"
Theresa blinked awkwardly, raised three fingers, and asked in a small, embarrassed voice.
What else could be said? She truly was the world's cutest Theresa. Even Otto's stony heart softened a little, while Rita had to cover her nose from the impact of the moe.
"Tch~ Hah~ Fine. For Theresa's sake, three hundred it is."
"Excellent. Thanks to Overseer Otto for the generous donation of three hundred B-rank Valkyrie suits."
Elias beamed, then casually tossed Theresa back into the bushes and gave a light clap.
Used and discarded, poor Theresa gritted her teeth.
Still, for bringing such a huge benefit to the academy, she decided to forgive Elias' rude behavior. Just this once.
Honestly, Elias had wanted to request A-rank suits instead. But those required more from their users, and St. Freya's younger Valkyries weren't ready for that yet.
"Alright, tell me the intel on Kevin Kaslana. For that price, it better be worth it."
"No problem. My credibility is top-tier. I'll share what I know."
Elias then relayed most of what he knew about Kevin—mostly trivial details, though he kept the parts about his strength relatively accurate.
After all, only by making Otto understand just how dangerous that frozen popsicle really was, could he deter him from thinking about releasing the man and breaking the current version's balance.
Ten minutes later, Otto frowned deeply.
"Lived for over 1500 years in the Sea of Quanta without food or water. Even with his power reduced to less than one-thousandth, still vastly stronger than a Herrscher. Capable of creating bubble universes with ease. Rational, but completely obsessed with anything Honkai-related. Willing to use force to get what he wants. And... has an extreme obsession with instant noodles. An extreme one."
"Well? Satisfied with the intel?"
"Meh. Not bad. Average."
It roughly matched the profile he had constructed based on records from the First Divine Key, Void Archives.
But it did fill in a few gaps.
The part about Kevin's power confirmed something Otto had feared: this was a brute force monster immune to manipulation.
Truth be told, Kevin was Otto's worst kind of opponent.
Powerful enough to crush everything in his path, and utterly devoid of emotional ties. Someone who lived on sheer obsession was completely resistant to Otto's trademark manipulation of the human psyche.
Looking back, during the Second Eruption, Elias also held near-invincible power—a five-core Herrscher, yet neither arrogant nor reckless. He had no apparent weakness.
But Elias had people to protect.
His radiant, noble humanity was, paradoxically, his greatest weakness.
(The beacon of the Cosmic Juggernaut is almost certainly with Kevin. As much as I hate the idea of unleashing that uncontrollable monster into the eigenworld, I don't have a choice.)
Otto furrowed his brows, sinking into thought.
(What can I trade for the beacon? The Void Archives could be one card. The Herrscher of Wind's core, perhaps. Or... as unrealistic as it sounds, maybe every kind of instant noodle on Earth would do the trick.)
That detail—Kevin's love of noodles—was, oddly enough, the most valuable intel Otto had just received.
Everything else painted Kevin as a monster of obsession. But this one small detail made him feel... vaguely human.
Otto couldn't help but let out a bewildered sigh.
Three hundred B-rank Valkyrie suits, hundreds of billions spent, and the most useful takeaway was that the man liked ramen? This might be the worst deal of his entire career.
Still, at least it gave him hope.
Otto began making plans: once he returned to Schicksal, he'd initiate the Cosmic Juggernaut sequence and pull Kevin out of the Sea of Quanta to seize the beacon he'd been after for so long.
But then—
Elias pulled something golden from his coat. A familiar trace of the Herrscher of the Void's power washed over Otto.
His eyes widened in shock.
"Th-That—could it be?!"
"Ah, right. Kevin gave me this thing. Said it was some kind of beacon for the Cosmic Juggernaut, something that could open a path to the Tree or whatever. I still don't really know how it works."
Elias casually toyed with the beacon.
He took great pleasure in Otto Apocalypse's rare display of raw emotion—the surprise, the hesitation, the disbelief.
His own face lit up with delight.
"How did you get that?!"
Otto took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Elias shrugged and waved the beacon lightly in his hand.
"Is that really an important question?"
"...No. You're right. It's not."
"Exactly. What matters is that it's in my hands. And from the looks of it, Mr. Otto, you want it pretty badly."
Elias gripped the beacon a little tighter and took a step back, eyes drifting toward Durandal.
Otto's eyes narrowed. He cursed his moment of carelessness. Such a rookie mistake.
The more you want something, the less you can show it. That was rule number one in manipulation—something he'd mastered five centuries ago. And yet now...
Elias had played the perfect card at the perfect time. Just as Otto's desire for the beacon peaked, he had presented it. A direct critical hit to Otto's otherwise unreadable poker face.
(Have Durandal seize it... no, she'd probably resist such an order. And with their strength, a snatch-and-run would never work. So...)
"Elias, would you be interested in squeezing Otto Apocalypse for another major payout?"
Otto had made up his mind.
He opened his arms, posture relaxed—inviting Elias to strike while the iron was hot.
"Of course. Very interested~"
Elias grinned, lips curling with visible excitement. Otto gave a satisfied nod. As long as Elias was willing to negotiate, that was good news.
"Excellent. Then go ahead and name your price. Wealth, status, power... though I imagine those don't interest you. More Valkyrie armor? Weapons from the Pantheon-series? Or perhaps something else?"
"Hehe... I'll have to think about it carefully. Oh, how about the two S-rank Valkyries behind you?"
Elias turned to look at Durandal and Rita as he spoke.
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