[Ningguang: The decision Otto mentioned… it must be that one, right…]
[March 7th: That time… the execution by hanging?!]
[Theresa: The incident that led to the Saint's untimely death…]
[Rita: That choice must have haunted the Overseer like a nightmare for five hundred years…]
[Furina: Sigh… why did it have to be this way…]
[Paimon: It hurts… this hurts so much!]
[Lumine: Paimon, what are you even saying…]
Within the pure white space,
Kallen's vision was already blurred by tears.
All the obsessions Otto could not let go of in this consciousness—
all the memories he kept touching, revisiting—
scene after scene, every single one of them,
was connected to her.
In Otto's world…
everything was filled with the traces she had left behind.
And she—
who had never once noticed those feelings back then—
could never have imagined
that the emotions Otto poured into her
were this heavy, this overwhelming.
As Otto once again entered another memory fragment—
Outside a prison.
A cold, elegant female voice rang out.
"What's wrong, my dear little brother?
Shouldn't this be the time for you to keep vigil at Father's coffin in the cathedral?"
"Then why are you here, Sister Lisa?"
"Hm… because I hate that rotten old man and don't feel like putting on an act.
Is that reason acceptable?"
"Father was poisoned. I know who the killer is."
"Oh? And who might that be? I'd be quite curious to know."
Faced with Lisa's feigned ignorance,
Otto did not answer directly, instead laying everything bare.
"You need the Overseer's seat of Schicksal.
And I need to complete a transaction."
Only then did the viewers realize—
who the woman before Otto truly was.
Lisa,
the one who usurped the position of Schicksal's Overseer.
His elder sister.
And the woman who would ultimately die
at the hands of the uprising Otto himself led.
And this transaction between Otto and Lisa…
Could it be—
about Kallen?!
At this moment…
wasn't it precisely the eve of Kallen's execution?!
Hearing Otto's blunt words, Lisa didn't beat around the bush either.
"Kallen Kaslana, right?
You really do like her."
"What a pity. She'll be hanged tomorrow—
swaying beneath the rope, turning into a corpse that will never wake again."
"We forced her onto this road.
Every one of us bears guilt."
Otto's voice was low and heavy.
Lisa smiled, interest glinting in her eyes.
"Alright, I get it—you don't want her to die.
So what exactly are you offering me in exchange?"
"Her death sentence was approved jointly by our parents and the council, you know."
"If Father could be murdered like that, then I believe you also have a way to save Kallen.
After it's done, we'll leave far away and never covet the Overseer's seat you care so much about."
At once,
many viewers felt their hearts tighten.
Otto… was actually willing to give up the position of Overseer
just to save Kallen?
Without the slightest hesitation!
But striking a deal with someone this vicious—
could it really end well?!
Even though Otto didn't say it outright,
from the hints and circumstances it was obvious—
Lisa was the one who killed their father.
Someone who could commit patricide for power—
how much affection could she possibly have
for Otto, her frail, unimpressive younger brother?
And even more so—
why would she let Otto and Kallen escape,
when Otto himself was a living secret of her usurpation?
"Hm… when you put it that way, it does sound somewhat reasonable."
Lisa gave a fake, syrupy smile.
"But, my dear little brother—
even if the previous Overseer is dead, the next one can't just revoke such an important execution overnight."
"It concerns that person's authority within certain circles.
You understand that, don't you?"
Otto fell silent for a moment.
"…You're unwilling to help me."
"Oh, don't rush, Otto Apocalypse.
I never said I wouldn't spare your lives—
so long as you're willing to dirty your own hands."
The memory fragment ended abruptly.
Only Lisa's sinister, venomous voice lingered.
Anyone could hear the malice and deceit in her tone—
a massive trap, clearly laid out for Otto to step into.
And countless viewers had already guessed—
Otto… had indeed stepped straight into it.
But even so—
even the young Otto back then
shouldn't have made such a naïve mistake… right?!
"Do you know, Otto? Sometimes I really envy your sister."
Void Archives couldn't help but speak.
"Back then, I meticulously set trap after trap for you—you never once fell for them."
"Yet all she had to do was hand you a shovel,
and you dug your own grave without hesitation."
"They say human emotions can make people lose their reason—
but what you did was truly baffling."
Void Archives' words sent a chill through the audience.
Void Archives—
the First Divine Key,
an existence of boundless knowledge and wisdom.
For countless ages, it had carefully laid traps for Otto,
scheming to seize his body—
yet Otto never took the bait,
instead keeping Void Archives firmly under control.
And yet Otto's insidious sister,
with only the slightest ploy…
made him rush headlong into disaster.
Why?
Could it be—
because it involved the most important person in his life?
Kallen Kaslana.
Otto's reply confirmed it.
"Try putting yourself in my place, Void Archives.
Other than closing my eyes and believing her, what other choice did I have?"
"Or—if you had been willing to let me freely use the full power of the Divine Key back then—
to save her, I would've agreed to any condition on the spot."
For once, Otto's reasoning left even Void Archives speechless.
"Tch. So in the end, it's all my fault?
Is that the real reason you bound me for five hundred years?"
"Heh… who knows."
Otto's laughter was filled with endless bitterness.
"In any case, neither of us has a medicine for regret, do we?"
The next image that appeared
made everyone's hearts tremble.
A cold, silent tombstone,
standing alone.
Engraved upon it:
Kallen Kaslana
1453 – 1477
After a brief hush in the chat—
[Hu Tao: This is… Kallen's grave?]
[Ningguang: 1453–1477… the Saint only lived twenty-four years.]
[Furina: When he buried Kallen… how despairing must Otto have been…]
[Kiana: She was so young…]
[Himeko (Star Rail): The Saint's death is tragic, but destroying the world is still too much.]
[March 7th: That young… she didn't even get to enjoy life…]
Not only was the audience shaken—
even Kallen, within the pure white space,
felt an indescribable sensation as she gazed at her own grave.
Her expression was unbearably complex.
But when she saw the figure before the tomb—
that colorless, hollow silhouette,
the Otto who no longer shone—
her nose burned, her chest tightened.
And in that silence,
only Void Archives seemed inclined to speak.
"Oh. She died.
Yes—that was your apocalypse."
"Five hundred years passed in the blink of an eye…
and now, you finally have the chance to change this moment."
"Or perhaps, for you, time never flowed at all?"
As Void Archives muttered to itself,
Otto seemed not to hear it at all.
"Yes… she died."
"…Huh? Hey, are you even listening to me?"
Void Archives snapped.
But Otto remained lost in thought.
"In many languages, people avoid speaking of death itself."
"Death—the eternal dissolution of subjective will.
A concept that renders existence into nonexistence.
Before all intelligence, it is an everlasting terror—"
"But when, to escape that terror, we blind ourselves before death…
a grand, shameless self-deception is born."
"We instinctively believe that those we love are immortal, eternal."
"Even when our reason knows they are merely flesh and blood,
emotion refuses—absolutely refuses—to accept it."
Otto's philosophical words echoed in the void.
The audience watched in silence.
Regarding death…
Otto's contemplation over five centuries was undeniably profound.
And yet—
even so,
he could not come to terms with Kallen's departure.
"You're saying that humanity is always, in some form, terrified by death."
"Exactly. We fear death so deeply
that the blind panic it causes creates countless unnecessary deaths."
Otto nodded,
as though recalling centuries of human history—
and perhaps sighing as the Overseer of Schicksal.
"Discrimination, abuse, murder, war…
who among us has not been driven by the fear called death,
casting that shadow onto others in advance?"
"But can you truly stand apart?
You're deeper in this mire than anyone else—
only the death you fear is not your own."
Void Archives struck directly at the core of Otto's terror.
Most people feared their own deaths.
But Otto—
everyone watching now understood—
feared Kallen's death,
not his own life as Schicksal's Overseer.
And Otto accepted this calmly.
"Yes. That is why I am, at best, merely an Overseer—
while Kallen is the Saint in people's hearts."
"Do you remember the letter I once wrote to that Welt?"
"We are so fragile that we can only trade temporary peace through mutual threats."
"And then use lofty words like order and ethics
to disguise motives that are utterly despicable."
"These words remain true even today.
Humanity endlessly repeats the same mistakes—
and even turns a blind eye to that very fact."
"I feel obliged to remind you—
those words can just as well be used to criticize you."
Faced with Void Archives' sudden remark,
Otto fell silent, his loneliness deepening.
He understood everything Void Archives said.
But for Otto,
Kallen was everything.
"Whether it's K-423, Durandal, Theresa, or Welt—
you could say they all inherited Kallen's legacy from different angles."
"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all things as straw dogs.
To the world before us, it truly does not need Kallen's brave heart to beat again."
"Some pretend not to understand,
and you—perhaps you should be called one who understands yet deliberately chooses blindness."
Void Archives shook its head, almost humanly.
"Hahahaha—now that is what you don't understand, Void Archives."
Otto laughed.
"Human emotion is, by nature, a desire
that will be released even if it harms both others and oneself."
"By common definitions, good people restrain emotion with reason."
"Evil people, on the other hand, let emotion dominate their reason."
"As for so-called rational evil—
they turn their lives into machines that only calculate profit,
not even worthy of being called human."
Otto concluded with a smile.
And everyone understood what he meant.
He was such an evil man.
He knew all the truths—
knew what was good, what was evil.
And yet he allowed emotion to trample reason without restraint.
Thus, he became the very rational evil he described.
"Is that so?
I'd say you're exactly such a rational evil right now."
"I never denied that I'm unworthy of being called human."
"In fact, I know perfectly well that I'm the culmination of such dregs."
"Didn't I say it before?
Humans emotionally believe that those they love are immortal."
"And I'm merely a fool who lets that emotion rule his reason,
endlessly calculating gains and losses for its sake."
Then—
Otto abruptly changed the subject.
"—Look. The first person to come settle accounts with me
is already right at the doorstep."
"Welcome, my dear friend of different ages—
Schicksal's foremost S-rank Valkyrie."
With Otto's smiling words,
the memory shattered.
Standing before him now—
was Durandal, weapon in hand.
The chat erupted with renewed tension.
Everyone was finally pulled out of Otto's sorrowful inner world.
At this moment—
nothing else mattered.
Stopping Otto's madness was all that mattered!
[Hu Tao: She's here!!]
[March 7th: Durandal has arrived!!]
[Ningguang: That was fast—she's here to confront Otto.]
[Shenhe: Is the decisive battle… about to begin?]
[Cloud Retainer: Can Durandal really stop Otto??]
[Himeko (Honkai): Just wait a bit longer—Kiana and Bronya will be able to reinforce her soon!]
[Kiana: You've got this! Bianca!!]
[Durandal: I will.]
[Otto: My dear Bianca… how heartless of you.]
[Rita: Please forgive us, Lord Otto… for humanity's future, Durandal has no choice.]
[Tesla: Go! Schicksal's Valkyrie! Punch that smug face of his!!]
[Theresa: Grandpa, stop being so obsessed already!]
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