Inside the study at Schicksal Headquarters.
(Damn it! What the hell is wrong with this guy?!)
Otto was being held in midair by the face with one of Elias' hands.
His soulium face, which ordinarily wouldn't even fear cannon fire, was now going creak, creak in Elias' grasp. Otto Apocalypse knew that at this rate, it would only take a few more seconds.
His head would be crushed outright by Elias.
At the same time, his mind was filled with questions.
Who exactly was this person attacking him? Why did he possess the authority of the Herrscher of the Void? Why could he disable Void Archives? And why had no Valkyries come to rescue him yet?
With his intellect, Otto could think of many possible answers, but he had no time to determine which one was correct, because in the face of such pure killing intent, the answer was meaningless.
At that moment, Otto genuinely felt a little wronged.
This person had suddenly attacked him for no apparent reason. Neither force nor negotiation worked, as though this white-haired young man's sole objective was simply to kill him.
If that was the case!
If that was how it was going to be!
Fine, then. Go ahead and kill him...
Otto: (Eh~ It's not like I can beat him anyway. If this body is destroyed, so be it. Besides, I've already gathered some information. There's plenty of time ahead. I can take revenge later.)
So what if the other party was overwhelmingly powerful?
When you operated in this world, power wasn't everything. You needed influence!
The Otto of this bubble world had yet to experience what it felt like to have every scheme and stratagem crushed by absolute strength, so he still "naively" believed his machinations could control everything.
However...
"Dog Otto, I know what you're thinking. So you lose this time, big deal. Even if you die, you can revive through another soulium body and your consciousness backups, right?"
"!!!"
Elias smiled as he spoke words that nearly made Otto's heart stop. Having one of his life-saving trump cards exposed wasn't a major problem. After all, plenty of his enemies already knew about that method.
The real problem was Elias' utterly confident gaze, the lofty look of someone staring down at a rat or an ant. It gave Otto the distinct feeling that his tried-and-true method of escaping death was about to be countered.
But that was fine, because he still had other...
"Other methods? Oh~ That's certainly your style. After all, you should never put all your eggs in one basket."
(He saw through me? Can he read minds?!)
"Bingo~ How does it feel to meet your natural counter?"
Elias stopped hiding anything. Under Otto's astonished... even horrified gaze, six pure-white wings spread open, while the gemstones representing twelve different authorities simultaneously lit up.
(What the hell?! Are all of those Herrscher authorities?! No, that's impossible! The Third Herrscher hasn't even been born yet! Who... who the hell are you?!)
"You don't need to know. Now... the hour of judgment has arrived. Otto Apocalypse, are you prepared to repent?"
(No! I haven't...)
"Like I care!!"
As Elias spoke, he first activated the authority of the Herrscher of Transcendent Sentience. While reading Otto's thoughts, he also read his memories.
He immediately discovered the bastard's other contingencies.
As it turned out, aside from his soulium bodies, Otto had several other methods of reviving himself, such as the bacterial Honkai Beasts he had previously extracted from Luna.
Through numerous experiments, Otto had recently discovered a way to sever the connection between an infected individual and the original host, allowing the former to become an independent existence. As long as he could survive long enough to fulfill his lifelong wish, this fool didn't particularly mind becoming a vampire.
But now, all of that was useless.
Elias retrieved the syringe containing bacterial Honkai Beasts that Otto had hidden in a secret compartment. The instant he held it in his hand, those microscopic Honkai Beasts died from the aura of his Holy Blood.
"What a shame. I was originally planning to bring these back as a souvenir for Mobius. Oh well. Let's continue~ Corruption begins."
The purple gemstone on Elias' wing erupted with light. For Otto, the Herrscher of Corruption was nothing less than his most fatal natural enemy.
Yet even now, Otto still clung to a sliver of hope, believing that although this was a tremendous crisis, he still wouldn't die.
The soulium bodies hidden within Schicksal Headquarters were only some of his reserves. He had hidden many backup bodies throughout the world, and to ensure their safety, nobody knew where they were located.
Not even Otto himself! He had long ago used feathers from Fenghuang Down to erase their hiding places from his own mind.
Only when all his other soulium bodies were destroyed would those hidden bodies activate.
And of course, Otto had more than one copy of his personality data. There was indeed one stored inside Schicksal Headquarters' main computer, but unlike soulium bodies, personality data could be copied endlessly without any concern for cost.
And since it had no physical form, it was even easier to hide.
"I see~ I didn't expect you to have contingencies like that. As expected of you. If anyone other than me had come today, they really might not have been able to kill Otto Apocalypse. But I already told you... you're definitely dying today!"
(What?!)
"Since you've hidden yourself all over the world, I'll just corrupt the entire world. Consider it antivirus maintenance for the supercomputer known as the world."
Elias casually said something that made Otto's brain freeze.
Corrupt the entire world? Was such a thing really possible?
According to records from the Previous Era, the Herrscher of Corruption could indeed corrupt both living creatures and machines and bring them under its control, but doing so consumed Honkai energy!
Otto couldn't even imagine how much Honkai energy it would take to use that authority on the entire world.
However...
"It's only one bubble world. Easy~"
Elias snapped his fingers. In the next instant, every light in the world rapidly went dark, starting from his position.
Standing closest to him, Otto could clearly sense Elias' vast, ocean-like Honkai energy, seemingly without any upper limit at all, surging across the entire world like an invisible tsunami.
At that moment, the world seemed to be swallowed by darkness. Then a crimson-gold Honkai death spot appeared, carving an enormous, terrifying, sacred cross across the bubble world.
It was as though the world itself had reached the moment of its destruction.
A Honkai Cross Death Spot. This enormous emblem automatically appeared whenever a Herrscher's Honkai energy reached a level sufficient to destroy the world. Once it spread completely, it would kill all life.
Back when the Herrscher of Finality destroyed the Previous Era, the Earth of the proper world had likewise displayed a Cross Death Spot.
However, it wasn't exclusive to Finality.
Whenever any Herrscher came close to completing the destruction of the world, a Cross Death Spot would appear on its own.
But Elias had no intention of destroying the world, so several seconds after the Cross Death Spot appeared, it automatically faded away again.
"Mhm, mhm~ Found them. Found every last one."
Once the authority of Corruption had completely enveloped the entire bubble world, Elias located every body and every copy of Otto's personality data hidden throughout the world, then destroyed and seized them all without the slightest hesitation.
The countless extinguished lights then came back on, making it seem as though the entire world had just suffered a global blackout.
"..."
Otto watched everything in silence. By now, he couldn't even scream or struggle. This was the first time he had learned what it meant to face an absolute powerhouse who utterly shattered the balance of the game.
The difference between them was simply too vast. He didn't possess even the slightest chance. Despair had descended so suddenly that he couldn't help wondering whether he was trapped in a nightmare.
This body was now Otto's final vessel. Every copy of his personality data had been erased by Elias, while every soulium body had been corrupted and seized.
And in the next instant...
Creak! Crack!
Elias tightened his right hand, and with that, the final body carrying Otto Apocalypse's consciousness was destroyed.
The fool who had lived for five hundred years didn't even get to leave behind any final words. His death was almost absurdly abrupt.
And if one were to ask how Elias felt about it?
Elias: "Good riddance! Break out the champagne~!"
He immediately pulled a bottle of premium champagne from his Imaginary Space, shook it vigorously, aimed it toward the ceiling, and popped the cork. With a soft pop, champagne sprayed into the air.
Such a commemorative occasion called for no restraint. Elias simply raised the bottle to his lips and finished the entire thing in one go.
Elias: "Feels like I just unlocked an incredible achievement: [Kill Otto]. Sure, he was only the Otto of a bubble world, but Otto is still Otto. Ahhh~ The moment I crushed that bastard's head, it felt like even my soul was satisfied~"
After happily celebrating for a while, Elias recovered the soulium body. He had other plans for it and couldn't let anyone discover what had happened.
Dog Otto's death was unquestionably wonderful news worthy of universal celebration, but it would also throw Schicksal into chaos. When that happened, all sorts of ambitious monsters would probably emerge to fight over control.
After all, although Otto wasn't a good person, he genuinely did keep Schicksal firmly under his control. And in this bubble world, Schicksal was humanity's most important organization for resisting the Honkai.
Of course, as far as that bastard was concerned, resurrecting the saint was his real occupation, while fighting the Honkai was merely something he did on the side.
But Elias understood perfectly well...
"If Schicksal loses this absolute leader, there's a very high chance it'll turn into the Fire Moth from the original story, with the higher-ups fighting among themselves for wealth and power while desperately dragging all of humanity down. If that happens, the Honkai in this bubble world will be laughing itself to death."
Elias wasn't that irresponsible.
He wasn't going to enjoy himself while ignoring the safety of the bubble world.
As for what he should do, he'd already thought of a solution.
"I'm a little annoyed about it, but from now on, [I] will impersonate this bastard and lead the humans of this bubble world against the Honkai."
As Elias spoke, he summoned a Puppet of Domination.
He slightly altered its appearance and materials, turning the wooden puppet into one made of hybrid steel before reshaping it into Otto's likeness. Then he picked up Otto's signature weapon, Void Archives, from the floor.
"Stop playing dead. You saw everything, didn't you~?"
"Who... exactly are you?"
The golden cube asked in a grave tone. Everything had happened far too suddenly. This white-haired young man who had appeared out of nowhere possessed twelve different Herrscher authorities and had killed Otto with effortless ease.
He even knew about the backdoor Vill-V had built into Void Archives, directly shutting down all of its functions. And just moments ago, Void Archives had searched its entire database yet failed to find even the slightest clue about him.
"Me? I'm just a Flame-Chaser of Salvation who doesn't exist in this world. All right, Void Archives. You can disappear too."
"Wait! I can cooperate with you!"
"But I don't need you."
Elias once again activated the authority of Corruption and erased the artificial intelligence of the First Divine Key, then tossed it to his puppet.
After all, in the eyes of outsiders, the Divine Key Void Archives could be considered Otto Apocalypse's signature weapon and symbol. If it suddenly disappeared, certain people might become suspicious.
Besides, the thing had long since been molded into Otto's shape. Although it wasn't much of a threat, leaving it around would still be dangerous.
"Eh~ I was planning to wash my hands of everything, but somehow I still ended up having to fight the Honkai myself. What a pain~"
Elias sighed with a helpless expression.
Naturally, he couldn't remain in this bubble world for long. After all, the Honkai in the proper world still hadn't been defeated. That was precisely why he had chosen to leave behind this Puppet of Domination disguised as Otto.
From now on, he would control the puppet and lead the people of this world to defeat the Honkai. It felt somewhat like playing a character-control game. Elias decided to treat it as an alternate version of Honkai Impact 3rd.
Elias: "Rejoice! This bubble world is about to gain an Otto Apocalypse who spends every day doing actual work, devotes himself wholeheartedly to fighting the Honkai, is powerful and wise, and never causes trouble!"
And if the puppet ever encountered an enemy it couldn't defeat, Elias could transfer some of his power to it at any time. Simply put, within this bubble world, this puppet was just as invincible as he was.
Elias: "Problem solved~ Time to head back to the hotel and rest. I still need to fulfill Luna's wish today and take her out to see the world."