"To you, Otto Apocalypse is a Great Inventor, your fiancé, a man who made a mistake."
"But to that man, you were not just his fiancée, but his salvation. This man already made the wrong choice at the unjust Judgment of old."
"And in a future that was originally much further away for you, this man will commit even more insane acts for your sake..."
"He opened his heart to the devil, offering kindness and mercy as payment. He made a deal with the God, paying with his own disappearance from the world."
On the shaded path of St. Freya Academy, the blonde girl leading Kallen through the trees sang in the tone of a mourner, speaking to the Saintess about the changes that had already occurred to that man, and what was about to happen to him.
"Wait!!! Otto, he's..."
Hearing the ominous undertone in the girl's humming, Kallen's pupils constricted.
"What happened to the Great Inventor!?"
The Saintess tightly grabbed the god-girl's shoulder, her expression frantic.
"Tell me quickly, what's wrong with him?!"
"His fate is about to reach its end. The journey of suffering that man has walked for five hundred years will soon come to its end and salvation at some point in the near future."
"How can this be? Miss Odin, please send me back! If the price of resurrection is another person's silent disappearance, I cannot accept it!"
The white-haired Saintess looked at the god who continued to stroll forward alone, her eyes filled with supplication.
"Do not panic, there is no need to fear... The prophesied suffering has not yet arrived. This is merely a small glimpse into the future granted by the God."
Odin, while being a powerful warrior, was also an outstanding diviner and prophet; his divination accurately predicted the arrival of Ragnarok... Kallen recalled the magical mythological tales her father used to tell her in her childhood.
"A prophecy... But if it's a prophecy from Odin..."
"Not all prophecies are as irrevocable as Ragnarok. The reason a prophecy is called a prophecy is precisely because it is a conjecture made based on the infinite nature of the future..."
Snow, seeming to discern what Kallen Kaslana was thinking, interrupted her stray thoughts.
"Moreover... the Ragnarok spoken of in human legends does not exist... The Gods of the Imaginary Tree have no end."
"I... I see..."
Kallen stared into Snow's flowing golden eyes, the innate majesty making the white-haired Saintess unconsciously believe the god-girl's words.
"Indeed, indeed. What you are about to hear is the journey of asceticism this man has walked for five hundred years, his five hundred years of struggle, five hundred years of sin... and also five hundred years of redemption."
"And then, you shall judge his merits and faults yourself, and you shall decide his fate..."
"Decide his fate myself???"
The Saintess pointed to herself in confusion.
"Why me...?"
"It began with you... so naturally, it must end with you. You are the heroine of this grand opera who has been absent for five hundred years. If you do not decide, who else would?"
"In that case, he would probably be hung from the Floating Island of Schicksal Headquarters and beaten to death by a crowd several times."
"Yes... exactly, several times."
The young girl nodded after a moment's thought, confirming her description was not incorrect.
"What exactly did Otto do... to be hated by so many people—"
Seeing the god-girl nod, Kallen's expression couldn't help but twitch.
"Let's start with the Schicksal Revolution mentioned earlier... In a sense, this was the most important turning point that changed the old era's state of Schicksal's unification of church and state, fully awakened the people's consciousness, and entered the Renaissance generation."
"But you said Otto..."
Kallen looked confusedly at the girl in front of her, who seemed to be about to start her story from Pangu's creation of heaven and earth.
"That was just the beginning... As the rift between the Church and the people grew deeper, a faction within Schicksal that sympathized with the masses broke away and established a new Schicksal."
"Two tigers cannot share one mountain... The ignorant Old Schicksal naturally would not stand idly by as New Schicksal was born. A war inevitably broke out. At this time, that man was actually still immersed in the sorrow of losing you."
"He felt dissatisfied with the dark rule of the Old Schicksal, which was controlled by his own sister, Lisa Schariac, and that pitiful puppet, his nephew Marseille Apocalypse, but he had no intention of interfering... until the newborn Schicksal raised your banner once again and proclaimed your name..."
"Many of the supporters who broke away from Old Schicksal were originally your adherents and followers, and the common people were even more so... It was only natural for them to raise your banner high."
"But for your fiancé... the meaning of this title was far more than just that of the Saintess."
The God looked at Kallen with an expression that said, So you're also a person with a heavy burden of sin.
"Eh... What did Otto do?"
"Although New Schicksal had the support of the people at the time, its foundation was inferior to that of Old Schicksal, which had a century-old legacy, even if it was composed of elites who had defected from Old Schicksal."
"Therefore, New Schicksal was actually suffering continuous defeats... And Otto Apocalypse, out of a very... um, fanatical? Let's just say he always viewed things from the perspective of a hardcore fan—"
"That man felt that if New Schicksal lost, it would further tarnish the Saintess's glory... He resolutely joined New Schicksal."
"Then, New Schicksal welcomed its hard-carrying savior. Conversely, Old Schicksal, thanks to the world's excellent matchmaking mechanism... let those two noobs, Lisa Schariac and Marseille Apocalypse, encounter a nightmare they could never escape from in their lives."
"Naturally, our Great Inventor won. Otto Apocalypse, who crushed those two fools with his intelligence since they didn't even know how to manage things and could only carry out a dark rule, led the people to storm Schicksal's headquarters at the time."
"The angry people stormed into the Church and strangled those two culprits to death..."
"And after the victory, Otto Apocalypse gained everyone's recognition. The man, whose heart had become empty again due to the confusion after the victory, was pushed by the people into the position of New Schicksal Overseer."
"Oh, I never would have guessed Otto had that kind of leadership quality... He looks so gentle and polite, like he'd blush if you said a word to him..."
Kallen rubbed her fingers in surprise, seeming to find it somewhat unbelievable.
"Um... How did Schicksal fare under his rule?"
"Ah... This is a key point. Let's start with a summary: As you can see, the newly born Schicksal has survived to this day and is still prosperous."
"But the brighter the light, the darker the shadow..."