"I swear upon the name of Otto Apocalypse."
The man's tone was sickeningly polite.
"Once you unite with Kallen, you will no longer need to fear your body crumbling from the Divine Blood. As for everything else, you needn't worry."
Otto paused, deliberately steering the conversation into the gutter. He glanced back at Ana to gauge her reaction.
"Rest assured, I absolutely will not lay a hand on any 'irrelevant' personnel. After all... your relationship with them is nothing more than a shallow fling, easily discarded at a moment's notice. Isn't that right?"
It worked.
At his words, Ana's quiet sobbing stopped abruptly.
An indescribable, suffocating silence took its place. The faint light in her eyes extinguished entirely, leaving behind two hollow voids. She just stared blankly at the floor, utterly mute.
She wasn't physically hurt.
It was just that something inside her had suddenly snapped.
A shallow fling.
Easily discarded.
She didn't want to believe it.
Ana looked up.
Li Wu stood there like a scarecrow. He offered no explanation. No denial. He didn't even spare her a glance.
His eyes were like bone-dry golden wells, devoid of a single drop of life or emotion.
She didn't want to believe it...
"Since the deal is made, we stick to our ends of the bargain," Li Wu said flatly. "I'm taking Kallen."
He scooped Kallen into his arms. Without another word, he vanished from the dilapidated house in plain sight, darting straight for his apartment.
Three people remained in the ruined house.
A smug Otto. A devastated Ana. And a helpless Cecilia.
"Thank you for playing the leading lady in my script, Ana Schariac," Otto said, pulling back his hood.
He offered a deep, exaggerated bow—a gesture dripping with utter contempt.
"I, Otto Apocalypse, am a man of my word. You may return safely to your family and resume your duties as a Valkyrie, just as things were at the very beginning."
He spread his arms wide, leaving his chest completely exposed and undefended.
"I no longer require your cooperation in this performance. You are free to leave. However... if you wish to beat me senseless, feel free. Consider it a token of my gratitude for your flawless acting."
Cecilia stepped forward to comfort her niece, but Ana gently pushed her away.
Sniffling, Ana shook her head. She forced a stiff, unnatural smile.
"It's... it's fine. You should head back first, Aunt Cecilia. I know what I need to do. I'm fine."
"Are you... really sure?" Cecilia looked at her with profound pity.
She was completely broken. Ana was clearly just trying to spare her the worry.
Ana nodded heavily, turning her face away to hide her expression. "Yeah. I lost my composure earlier... sorry you had to see that. Just give me some time. I'll figure things out, I promise."
She took a shaky breath.
"Help me apply for missions. M-my body is recovered now. I want to become an S-Rank Valkyrie. I want to get stronger. I want to..."
She trailed off. No one knew what the end of that sentence was.
If I were just a little stronger... I could endure Li Wu's Divine Blood.
If I were just a little stronger... he wouldn't have had to risk activating his Authority and turn into that cold, emotionless husk.
If I were just a little stronger... I could beat Otto to a pulp, shut him up forever, and take Li Wu to finish our seven-day trip around the world...
Looking into Ana's deadened eyes, Cecilia knew exactly what she was thinking.
Ana needed grueling missions to numb the pain. Cecilia had been there herself once. Only the relentless grind of battle could drown out the agony in a shattered heart.
Cecilia glared at Otto, overwhelmed by a crushing sense of powerlessness.
She wanted to charge forward and beat the living hell out of him for her niece's sake. But then what?
The man standing before her was nothing more than a Soulium avatar. He could simply turn off his pain receptors. Given his shameless nature, beating him wouldn't offer any catharsis—it would only cause collateral damage to everyone around them.
Risking her life to rescue Ana from the Babylon Tower had already offended too many powerful people. Pushing it further would gain them nothing and lose them everything.
Cecilia's fists clenched so hard her knuckles turned white.
But a moment later, she deflated. Her grip loosened.
Compromise was her only option.
That was the tragic reality of being an adult. Even if you were willing to grit your teeth and throw your own life away... when forced to choose, there were too many tethers holding you back. Family, friends, children. Her life was bound by countless invisible chains.
Cecilia was willing to die for Ana, but she couldn't drag her family down with her just to vent their anger.
"Alright. Go back and get some rest," Cecilia said softly, rubbing Ana's back. Her heart was heavy with guilt. "Don't think about him anymore. Don't think about any of this."
"If it gets too much, call me. I'll stay with you. Auntie is always here. Whenever you need me, I'll come running."
If only I hadn't made that impulsive decision, Cecilia thought bitterly.
Ana would never have gone to Senba Academy. She would never have fallen for Li Wu, and she wouldn't have almost died.
It's all my fault.
She never should have let Ana anywhere near him.
And the same goes for Kiana... I absolutely cannot let her get close to Li Wu.
Cecilia made a silent vow. The moment she got home, she was calling Kiana. She'd tell her daughter to stay the hell away from him.
No, better yet—she'd process Kiana's transfer paperwork immediately. She couldn't stay at a school where Li Wu had been, and where he might return! Even if Kiana threw a tantrum, she was moving schools.
Hanging around Li Wu would only bring her daughter the exact same misery that had just shattered her niece...
---||---
Meanwhile, Li Wu had carried Kallen back to his apartment.
The place was empty.
There hadn't been many people living there to begin with, but it suddenly felt infinitely colder and more desolate than before. It felt that way now, and it likely would forever.
A shaft of pale, cold sunlight spilled through the window onto the small bed.
Li Wu walked over and drew the curtains.
Having regressed alongside him, Kallen was surprised to find that she remained fully lucid even after leaving the Throne.
She already knew the truth about Li Wu's regression. Half a month ago in real-time, during his very first Return by Death, she had sensed it.
The only other person capable of rewinding the entire world was Li Wu.
In the days that followed, she had felt the world reset over and over again. Not hundreds of times, but enough to notice.
She had wondered what he was doing. With his level of power, what terrifying obstacle had forced him into such rapid, continuous death-loops?
She hadn't dared pry. She had been terrified he would notice her awareness—terrified of seeing the disappointment in his eyes.
But everything had changed in the previous loop.
Once she left the Throne, her emotions should have dissipated just like his, her brain so overwhelmed by endless memories that coherent thought became impossible.
Her past memories were still there. But suddenly, a new memory had surfaced—one that pierced her to her very core.
It was so agonizing, so deeply etched into her soul, that the moment it appeared, all other memories stepped aside. It forcibly restored her ability to think.
And the very first thing she did upon waking up... was kill him.
Kallen knew Li Wu couldn't stay dead. She also knew that his high-frequency death-looping had forced his brain to trigger a self-preservation mechanism, essentially wiping out all his emotions.
But she hadn't been able to stop herself. The rage and grief had been uncontrollable.
Now, however, she had finally calmed down.
She stood there, her expression icy. Her sharp gaze swept over every piece of furniture, every scrape on the wall, trying to piece together the life Li Wu had lived here.
It was agonizingly ordinary.
There were no luxuries. Not even mildly high-end tech. The furniture was so incredibly spartan that you'd be hard-pressed to find a drearier apartment in all of Nagazora. Aside from bare-bones daily necessities, there was nothing.
Not even a computer.
She watched as Li Wu pulled a thoroughly shattered phone from his pocket. The glass and plastic shards clattered onto the table like a handful of gravel.
It was a pathetic sight. She didn't recognize the model; it was likely some no-name bargain-bin brand.
No matter how much Kallen resented him right now, she couldn't help but wonder.
Is this the life he chose for himself?
Does a dingy shack like this really justify a savior's sacrifice?
"Li Wu."
He didn't turn around, assuming she was just calling his name pointlessly again.
"Can you shed tears? Have you ever cried?"
Li Wu froze.
He slowly turned around. His pupils were fixed dead center in his eyes, refusing to track her movements. He looked entirely mechanical.
Tears?
After a brief silence, he reached a logical conclusion: the Kallen standing before him had regained her sanity.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Nothing. Just that the Divine Blood has been activated, and just as Otto said, my body can withstand high concentrations of it."
Kallen's voice was even, devoid of any fluctuation.
"If you consummate with me, you won't have to worry about the ichor burning you from the inside out."
"You think the pain of the Divine Blood burning me alive is going to make me cry?" Li Wu asked.
"You've been through far worse. Besides, you've likely lost the biological capacity to cry anyway, haven't you?" Kallen replied. "I killed you once. We're even. As for my body... use it if you want. Consummate? Do whatever you please. If it's what you want, I... don't mind."
She looked entirely indifferent. Her eyes were as calm as stagnant water.
Once upon a time, just holding his hand would have left her flushed, stammering, and blurting out whatever mindless nonsense popped into her head. Childish things, like 'Your hands are so big and warm.'
They used to hold hands during work, swiftly letting go the second an acquaintance walked by, pretending nothing had happened.
But not anymore.
Her ideals had long since crumbled to ash, leaving behind only an unavoidable, mandated mission.
Save the world.
Hah. Save the world? What a spectacularly unfunny joke.
"There's no need," Li Wu interrupted. "I am not the man you used to know. And besides, I have a faster way."
Now certain that Kallen shared his ability to Return by Death and had looped back with him, he cut to the chase.
The [Future Loan] system.
Otto and Kallen's seemingly baseless hatred for him.
Putting the system prompts and the timeline together, Li Wu had finally figured out the whole picture.
[Future Loan] didn't just borrow power from the future—it anchored the past.
If fate was an empty void, standing at the origin point meant you could move up, down, left, right, forwards, or backwards. Infinite angles, infinite directions, infinite possibilities.
[Return by Death] allowed him to alter his trajectory. He could shift from left to right, or up to down.
But [Future Loan] cast a blinding spotlight along that chosen trajectory. It illuminated both the past and the future.
Once illuminated, it was observed.
And once observed, it could no longer be changed.
Therefore, he needed to minimize his use of the system at all costs to avoid locking the timeline into a fixed state.
Consummating with Kallen to neutralize the Divine Blood was the most mathematically optimal choice.
It made perfect sense.
It made perfect sense.
...Did it make sense?
He wasn't sure anymore.
For some inexplicable reason, the sound of hoarse sobbing echoed in his mind.
Fragile. Sorrowful. Agonizing. Despairing.
The crying belonged to Ana.
Li Wu tried to shift his attention, but that only made the sound clearer. The apartment was dead silent. Ana wasn't here.
Yet a strange, damp, unfamiliar sensation was quietly taking root and sprouting in his hollow chest.
Sitting on the bed with downcast eyes, Kallen spoke up.
"Come here," she said, her tone apathetic. "I have no desire to fall into an eternal cycle of reincarnation with you."
With that, she opened her arms.
She exposed the flawless curves of her body to him without a shred of modesty. Her skin was snow-white, catching the pale light filtering through the window.
The majestic vestments of the Overseer had been cast aside. She wore only a thin, white undershirt that barely concealed her jade-like frame and full, heavy breasts.
Yet, Li Wu just stood there, utterly unmoved.
"What are you hesitating for?" she asked.
Placing a hand over his heart, Li Wu ignored her entirely. He initiated a new loan.
"I don't know. My intuition just tells me that consummating with you is the wrong move."
His voice was a cold whisper in the quiet room.
"Therefore... Kallen Kaslana. I borrow in advance the outcome where you take residence in my 'heart'."
The next second, Li Wu stiffened.
A flood of hazy memories washed through his brain, violently stripping him of his motor control. He pitched forward, collapsing toward the floor.
Kallen caught him.
She laid him gently on the bed and sat beside him. A rare glimmer of emotion flickered in her sapphire eyes as she studied his unconscious face.
At the same time, a cold, mechanical voice chimed in Li Wu's fading consciousness.
[Act IV: Elegy of the Holy Maiden]
[Save Point Updated.]
[You have pre-borrowed the destined outcome of Kallen's heart. Because this debt cannot be fulfilled in the current or future timeline, you have prematurely initiated Act IV.]
[Main Quest: What Do You Do When the Honkai Arrives? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?]
[Location: Medieval Europe]
[Quest Target: Kallen Kaslana]
[Objective: Guide Kallen Kaslana onto the path of the Savior; OR, become the Savior yourself and rescue this doomed civilization.]
[Hint: I saw all the misfortunes of the world violently stitched together, stuffed into a fresh, supreme vessel to be sealed away. It is the tragedy of an individual, but the tragedy of an individual is equally the tragedy of an era. She emerges from the flames, boiling the seas and burning away the world's cancer—but in doing so, she destroys its most precious treasure.]