...Traitor to Schicksal?
Hearing this title applied to him, Otto's expression became somewhat... incredulous.
As the Schicksal Overseer for five hundred years, he had branded quite a few people with such a crime—the most recent example being Siegfried Kaslana, who was now standing right before him. He never dreamed that one day, this very accusation would be leveled against him, and even worse... by his most precious granddaughter, Theresa, the very next Schicksal Overseer he personally endorsed.
At this moment, Otto's feelings were complex, mixed with some relief, but devoid of anger.
After all, for someone like him, feeling anger about anything had become a great luxury.
Putting aside the boomerang effect of his reversed circumstances, seeing Theresa make such a leap forward before his own departure filled him with sincere gratification.
"It seems you truly have learned quite a bit, Little Theresa."
"Grandpa is truly happy to see such growth in you before setting off—choosing you as the next Schicksal Overseer was undoubtedly the correct decision. I have never believed this more firmly than at this moment."
For someone in power, ruthlessness was never a demerit; rather, it was a significant plus.
Being able to disregard past familial emotions and make such a decisive choice... In a way, Otto vaguely saw shadows of himself and Kallen in [Theresa].
A wry smile mixed with some gratification, followed by a lighthearted chuckle.
"Since that's the case, then there's no need for further words."
"Durandal, Rita, no need to hesitate. Obey the orders of your new Overseer—and to our friends from Anti-Entropy, as my lovely granddaughter said, the only thing you need to do next is to defeat me, this traitor of Schicksal."
"Otherwise, I will inevitably bring harm to this entire world!"
"Kill everyone present, kill you, and everyone you hold dear, destroy everything."
"Of course..."
"During this process, I, Otto Apocalypse, shall also give my utmost!" His nonchalant tone held a hint of seriousness. The former Schicksal Overseer performed a gentlemanly bow, his entire aura abruptly shifting.
Before anyone else could say much, the atmosphere became heavy with killing intent. The flowing air seemed to solidify in an instant.
"Something's wrong! Honkai Energy is rapidly draining!"
The Herrscher squad, being Herrschers, immediately detected the anomaly. Kiana, the most sensitive to Honkai Energy flow, had her expression change drastically.
Rita knelt on one knee, breathing heavily.
"..Strength too.... finding it hard.... to exert force...."
In an instant, almost every member of the Otto-subjugation team showed signs of distress.
"Hmm? What's wrong, everyone?"
"You came to defeat me, the traitor of Schicksal, yet you display such a sorry state?"
"If this is all you have, then I shall be greatly disappointed." His light tone provoked glares. Yet, even though they wished they could tear apart this infuriating man's bones and dice him into eight pieces, under this strange influence, they still struggled immensely.
The Authority of Binding—an absolute suppression of the Honkai energy system... And not just that, under the influence of this power, even conventional physical variables were significantly affected and weakened. It could be said that this 'Anti-Honkai' Herrscher was the inherent 'natural enemy' of civilizations utilizing the Honkai system.
And those present were either Herrschers or Stigma descendants with Honkai Beast genes. Even Valkyries like Rita relied heavily on Honkai Energy... Even setting aside the impact on Honkai Energy, the disruption of bio-electric fields was enough to make any normal living being instantly call GG.
It was only because basically no one present was ordinary that they could even last a second.
"Let Grandpa teach you one last lesson, Little Theresa."
Looking at the mess—Otto's eyes revealed a hint of helplessness, but outwardly, his smile remained.
For him, Binding was merely a means of obstruction, a tool to slow them down.
He also believed that the clever minds at Anti-Entropy would surely find a way to solve this problem.
However... facing this power so suddenly was indeed quite jarring.
Fortunately, his goal wasn't to use this power to wipe them out.
—Let's drive them out first, give them some time to adapt.
He planned to do just that.
However....
Among the crowd, one of the few who remained standing, whose expression hadn't changed much, was [Theresa]—in Otto's eyes, this was likely his lovely granddaughter, who could endure this power more easily due to years of using Judah. She slowly took a step forward.
"Hehe, it's useless, Little Theresa. Even if you've come into contact with this power through Judah, even if you've used its full potential before, unfortunately—from the moment of your birth, you were destined to be unable to overcome this power."
The artificial human girl created with the Vishnu factor—an existence derived and improved from the Previous Era's MANTIS theory—was inherently opposed to the power of Binding.
Witnessing this display, which he interpreted as stubbornness, Otto felt gratified but wouldn't hold back.
Life always involves some setbacks.
He admired his granddaughter's growth but also intended to make her understand that not everything goes smoothly.
The Authority of Binding intensified further. The solemn golden gears derived from it rapidly spread throughout the church at high speed, bathing the dilapidated structure in magnificent, dazzling golden light.
The consequence was an even faster energy drain and bio-electric disruption.
But, facing all this, facing the didactic taunt, the girl simply smiled.
"Is that so?"
'She' slowly raised her hand—seemingly struggling to grasp the encroaching gears.
Otto dismissed it.
Those gears were merely external manifestations of the Binding authority. To think that destroying them could stop the power was a grave mistake.
Moreover, simply destroying these special gears wasn't something... at least, he didn't think his granddaughter could achieve it.
"Crack—"
A faint, almost imperceptible sound was caught, causing his expression to flicker with surprise and uncertainty.
Otto initially thought it was his imagination.
But the next moment, the gear grasped by [Theresa] instantly shattered into pieces.
Following this was a soft, young cry:
"Vishnu, release!"
The voice was soft, the enunciation light, yet it seemed to echo in everyone's ears.
Otto frowned—he wouldn't feel fear because of this. More than fear, his current emotion was probably closer to worry.
"Release the Vishnu factor? Indeed, Vishnu possesses the ability to devour everything, but Theresa...."
"Before the power of Binding, Vishnu's power is ineffective. In fact, it will only deepen the harm you suffer."
"This is not the correct decision."
"Whether it's correct or not depends on me, not you, Grandpa," 'she' stated coldly. The next moment, raising the heavy cross carried on her back, she slammed it onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Then, she whispered softly:
"Judah... lend me your power one more time."
The voice gradually blurred, then sharpened again. The figure blurred, yet became distinct.
That young voice seemed to mature.
And... it became incredibly familiar, nostalgic, to Otto.
The light dissipated.
After seeing the figure clearly, Otto, who had been about to speak, widened his eyes, somewhat lost, murmuring the name that had haunted his dreams for five hundred years:
"Kallen...."
Shedding the childishness of someone who couldn't grow up, all that remained was the refined grace of a young woman who had weathered many storms.
Slowly opening her eyes, clear sky-blue pupils reflected Otto's figure.
A pale hand extended from within the lotus-shaped sleeve, slowly opening.
The next instant, the gears that troubled everyone shattered instantly, like broken mirrors.
This undoubtedly meant the Authority of Binding had been nullified.
"This is... Elysion Pedion's barrier? No... this is... the power of Binding?!"
Snapping back from his astonishment—the resemblance to Kallen wasn't surprising to him. After all, Theresa herself was a clone created using Kallen's genes for the purpose of reviving Kallen. Her fully grown form being nearly identical to Kallen wasn't strange; Amber looked the same too, appearance-wise.
He was lost in thought not just because of the appearance, but more so because of the trace of Kallen's demeanor she displayed.
But recovering from it, contemplating everything that had happened in an instant, sensing the essence of that power, even the current Otto couldn't help but question it.
He thought Theresa would use Judah's power to counteract Binding, but he never expected... this power didn't belong to Judah at all, but rather seemed like the authority of the Herrscher of Binding itself.
But... the Binding authority should be within himself.
Having connected to the Imaginary Tree, becoming a pseudo-god, he had already become an existence surpassing Herrschers—in the next twelve hours, he would reclaim all Herrscher authorities one by one.
The first among them was Binding.
And yet... the power of Binding was now being wielded by his precious granddaughter, Theresa.
This caused even the brilliant Otto's CPU to overheat slightly.
"Curious?"
"Of course, Theresa. Grandpa is truly curious how you managed that."
The answer, of course, was simple.
This was indeed the power of Binding, but it was also the power of Judah.
Although the Herrscher Cores within the Previous Era's Divine Keys were 'dead,' differing greatly from the current era's Herrscher Cores...
Leveraging the identical core of these two powers, Jiang Qiao proactively used the Vishnu factor to devour 'Judah's Oath,' merging it with himself and achieving 'resonance' through the power of Origin he carried.
The result was—he directly used Judah as bait to lure and forcibly seize the Binding authority that should have belonged to Otto.
After all... there were differences between Herrschers.
Although the formless pseudo-god was indeed higher in rank, precisely because it was formless, its security level for containing Herrscher authorities was far lower than an original Herrscher's lock on their Core.
It could be said that the pseudo-god's authorities came easily but also went easily, like a beautiful girl with loose pants or an open American vault—stealing from it posed no difficulty at all.
Easier to steal than the Cocoon's butt.
Of course—while this operation sounded simple, probably only Mr. Jiang could pull it off.
After all, even if the pseudo-god's anti-theft capabilities were extremely poor, normal people lacked the qualifications to compete with it for ownership of Herrscher authorities.
"Want to know? I won't tell you!"
"...."
"That truly saddens Grandpa—but Little Theresa, you wouldn't think that just this alone is enough to defeat me...."
Before he could finish speaking, the next moment, as 'her' hand clenched, chains shot out from the surrounding void, heading straight for Otto.
Their terrifying speed left only golden afterimages; the sharp sound of air being torn apart was chilling.
"Clang clang."
Chains from all directions tightly wrapped around Otto's limbs, giving him a suffocating sensation like being constricted by a python.
With the sound of turning gears, these chains glowed brightly.
A sense of powerlessness rapidly flooded Otto's mind.
The power of Binding, even a pseudo-god struggled to cope with it.
After all, even as a pseudo-god surpassing Herrschers, he still used Honkai Energy, Imaginary Energy.
And as long as it was Imaginary Energy, encountering Binding, the specialized 'Anti-Honkai,' 'Anti-Imaginary' special attack authority, would lead to a state of helplessness.
"Now, it's your turn to experience this power!"
Like a boomerang.
Moments ago, Otto was using this ultimate weapon to annoy the Herrscher squad and others. In the blink of an eye, the weapon he used for annoyance ended up in his good granddaughter's hands, turned against him.
At this moment, Otto's feelings grew even more complex.
Feeling the sensation of being trapped like stagnant water, he looked at the white-haired [Theresa] before him—her bearing heroic, just like Kallen during the expedition to Shenzhou—and suddenly thought of something, asking softly:
"You.... aren't actually Theresa, are you?"
"Eh?"
Suddenly hearing this question, [Theresa]—Mr. Jiang, who was happily playing bondage games with his newly acquired authority—froze.
His first thought was:
Nani, I've been exposed?