"You!?"
The local Otto instinctively reached for his pocket.
"It's gone..."
The [Void Archives], which he carried with him at all times, was missing.
"Am I not right before your eyes?"
The Imperial Otto said to the local Otto. This was a lie. He did not reveal his identity but, in the instant he appeared, used the [Mimicked Authority of Sentience] to block the local Otto's awareness of the [Void Archives].
Simply put, from the local Otto's perspective, the Void Archives was indeed no longer in his possession.
(As the naming can get a bit confusing, for this chapter, we will temporarily refer to the "Current Civilization Otto" as "Lü Tuo" — Green Otto. Of course, this is just a joke. Cuckolding oneself definitely has nothing to do with certain three-letter acronyms... It's much better than some pink-haired fox popping out of nowhere, isn't it?)
"When?"
Lü Tuo's eyes were filled with vigilance.
His sister Lisa's methods were ruthless enough, but this imposter self before him was even more vicious. There was no doubt that Lisa was already dead; the [Abyss] spear that had fallen to the ground and the [Lily] part now being toyed with in the other self's hand completely eliminated any possibility of a reversal.
"Not long..."
"About half an hour ago?"
"..."
Kallen had returned to Tianming not long ago (just back from Yae Village), and Tianming would not have let her come into contact with the [Oath of Judah] during that time. This meant that the [Void Archives] had seized this opportunity to break its seal.
It was logical and reasonable.
Unfortunately, it was all wrong—an error that the Imperial Otto had intended.
"What do you want?"
Lü Tuo's guard did not lessen in the slightest.
"What do I want?"
"No, no, no, what I wanted to do is already done."
The Imperial Otto's reply was filled with mockery.
"Wha—!?"
"Don't misunderstand."
The Imperial Otto waved his hand casually.
"I didn't do anything to your Kallen."
He hadn't laid a hand on her, but his mouth had certainly not been idle.
"Not only did I not control her body, I even saved her life just now... acting in your identity, of course."
"If you insist on asking about my objective—"
"BANG!!"
With a slight push of his foot, the [Oath of Judah] shot towards Lü Tuo like a cannonball!
Just as the latter was about to roll away—it was obvious an ordinary human body could not withstand such an impact—golden chains flew out from the [Oath of Judah], locking Lü Tuo's movements. Then, the main body slammed into him with a loud thump!
Click!
"..."
"I..."
After a brief silence, Lü Tuo stared blankly at the "shackle" on his wrist. This was the [Oath of Judah]'s containment mode, capable of deploying a small-scale, weakened version of the [Divine Grace Barrier]. Of course, its main feature was that it was convenient to carry.
"Everything else," a soft voice whispered beside his ear.
The golden-robed figure had already appeared next to Lü Tuo.
"BAM!!!"
"I've already taken care of for you."
A heavy blow to the abdomen knocked Lü Tuo unconscious.
The Imperial Otto was right.
Though his words were sharp, he had indeed "handled" all the troubles for his other self.
What he just did was the final piece:
As someone who understood the [Authority of Reason] very well, Otto's previous actions were precisely to lock down the [Void Archives], which was on the verge of breaking its seal.
His style may have seemed somewhat reckless, but the actions of all parties were actually within his predictions... even as the effects of the timeline's deviation were beginning to show.
And...
"Ding!"
From the location of Lü Tuo's heart, a thin chain shot out from the [Oath of Judah] and retrieved a small, perfect cube from the void.
"..."
"Everything is as His Majesty the Monarch predicted."
After a moment of silence, Otto sighed softly and muttered to himself.
The impact of the "singularity's" changes on the flow of time was difficult to judge precisely, but the Monarch, who wielded the [Dominion of Finality], had still found an opportunity within it. The [Authority of Binding], which should have been bestowed upon Lü Tuo by the "Honkai Consciousness" five hundred years later, could actually be extracted now due to the chaotic flow of time.
Because of this, Otto did not need to defeat a powerful "pseudo-god" level master to extract the [Origin] fragment from this [Authority of Binding], which had not yet formed into a Herrscher core.
On the Imaginary energy level, a "pseudo-god" was equivalent to having the right to use the near-infinite Imaginary energy of an Astral God. However, in terms of "power output," let alone reaching the level of a [Grand Monarch], they would be hard-pressed to even touch the threshold of an [Emissary]. Be that as it may, this was still the combat power of a [Pillar God] or one of the [Three Flame-Chasers], and dealing with one was absolutely no trivial matter.
Otto considered himself to be at the level of an Apostle.
But any higher... would require a certain amount of training.
Now.
"Mission complete."
Watching the crystal floating above his palm slowly disappear, Otto knew that all the objectives of this trip had been achieved.
Next—
"The Middle Ages."
In the room littered with corpses, Otto gently stroked his handsome chin.
"It's only been half an hour, and there are still five whole days to rest... Such a long vacation, I'm really not used to it."
With a flick of his long robe, Otto's incomparably dashing figure vanished without a trace.
However...
There was one thing Otto did not know.
Although the entire event was not broadcast live, as mission data, it was all meticulously preserved by the Empire's records department. The main person in charge of such recorded events was Vill-V, and with her personality, there was no telling when this data might be used as a "template for experiential learning videos."
On a side note, much of the study material at St. Freya Academy was sent over from the records department.
Before being used for teaching, Kallen, as the Headmaster, would carefully inspect each and every one of them.
Otto...
Died in a certain future Imperial year.
---o---
2000 AD.
"Bella, we're late!"
Sirin clutched her head tightly, kneeling on the snow with an expression of impending doom as she roared at the sky.
"Yes."
"And by a full 63 hours."
The expressionless Bella pulled open her thick sleeve, pretended to check the time, and then spoke with a deadpan face.
"What do we do now!?"
"The Lord Apostle will kill us!"
"..."
Bella really wanted to retort, but she thought it might be good if this could cure Sirin's habit of being late.
"Yes."
"A direct mission from the Monarch, uncompleted."
"Reason: Sirin insisted on tasting the local specialty snacks—and she was cheating the vendors by using coins 'created' by Bella..."
"Ah!"
"Bella, stop talking! Hurry up and think of a way out!"
"..."
Seeing her usually arrogant friend in such a state, Bella hesitated for a long time before sympathy won out. Bullying a fool was, after all, not a very nice thing to do.
"Sirin."
"Bella, have you found a way to escape responsibility!?"
"..."
"Did you actually read the mission briefing carefully?"
"...That paper full of words?"
Facepalm.
Bella slapped her own forehead in exasperation.
"It's less than 200 words in total."
"But—"
"Bella, you know me."
Sirin, who had been kneeling in the snow, shifted to a duck-like sitting position, poking her two index fingers together pitifully.
"Test papers and stuff are even more annoying to me than that hateful [Authority of Sentience]!"
"..."
"Want to see it?"
After fumbling in the air beside her for a couple of seconds, Bella, with a look of "Ah, found it," produced the contract they had received from the Lord Apostle.
Rustle.
She took the contract Bella handed over.
One second, two seconds... ten seconds later.
"Wahahaha!"
"I knew it!"
"How could I, the great me, remember the time wrong? We still have plenty of time! Plenty enough to eat a few more shops empty!"
"..."
I'm used to it, I'm used to it.
---o---
"What's your plan, Sirin?"
After casually breaking off a few pine branches, the two of them conjured a campfire on the ground.
"Do you even need to ask?"
"Of course, we're charging straight to the moon!"
Sirin's arrogance swelled once more.
"A native counterpart with a mere five Authorities? I can knock her down with no effort at all!"
"Then I'll grab all the gems at once, and His Majesty the Monarch's mission will be completed with ease!"
"..."
"And then the 'Consciousness' will discover that you've crossed over from a parallel world, completely ruining His Majesty the Monarch's grand plan?"
"..."
The great thing about a pufferfish is its ability to inflate and deflate with extreme speed. The so-called ability to be flexible is what defines them.
"Then what do you suggest, Bella?"
"What to do..."
Bella closed her eyes.
Pale cyan ripples spread outwards without a stir. The auras of all beings, large and small, in the vicinity were quickly captured and fed back into Bella's mind.
"We definitely can't go directly to the moon."
"Besides, there are many here who can defeat us."
This was during the Second Honkai Eruption.
Tianming had established a large-scale Honkai energy research facility in Siberia called the "Babel Tower." Under the pretext of treating illnesses, they had taken in a large number of orphans, most of whom became experimental materials for Stigma research.
During this process, Sirin (yes, just like Lü Tuo, we'll call her "Pufferfish" in this arc), who had the highest Honkai energy adaptability, became the Second Herrscher, the Herrscher of the Void, during an experiment.
On a side note, this research facility, which housed the world's third-largest Honkai energy reactor, was also responsible for developing the [Godsbane] series of Soul Steel weapons.
After that, the Pufferfish erupted into a battle against Tianming and Anti-Entropy. Tianming dispatched the Snow Wolf Squad and Siegfried Kaslana. Anti-Entropy was led by its Sovereign, Walter, with Tesla and Einstein, assisted by a considerable [Titan Mech Force].
In the end, just as Anti-Entropy's Sovereign Walter was about to completely annihilate Sirin with a [Mimicked Black Hole], the Tianming Bishop Otto intervened, allowing Sirin to be carried away to the moon by her retainer, the "Judgment-class Honkai Beast · Benares."
It is important to note here that at this time in Tianming, the difficulty of the Valkyrie ranking assessment was extremely high. Among all of Tianming's Valkyries, there were only six A-ranks, five of whom participated in the Snow Wolf Squad:
"Genius" Patricia Highsmith.
"Frost Blade" Cheng Lixue.
"The Cleanser" Salome Jokanaan.
"Child of Chaos" Shania "Shub" Nicholas.
"Floating Prominence" Shigure Kira.
Furthermore, the combat power of an A-rank Valkyrie was roughly equivalent to that of a Monarch-class beast. Note the word used here is "match," not "defeat." A-rank Valkyries also varied in strength. The strong, like Theresa (an A-rank at the time), could take down a Monarch-class beast single-handedly, while the weaker ones could only manage to hold their own against one.
Bella's statement certainly had its reasons.
After a whole semester of cultivation and training at St. Freya Academy, both her and Sirin's combat power had reached the [Primordial Species] level.
As mentioned before, the combat power of an Imperial [Primordial Species] was equivalent to a [Monarch-class] to a [Judgment-class] in this civilization. Given their talent and bloodline, they already possessed the strength to face a [Primordial Species] head-on without losing even before they officially reached that rank. Now that they had formally entered this level, they were basically equivalent to a Judgment-class Honkai beast of this civilization.
Of course, this refers to the "magnitude" of their power.
Considering that the citizens of the Empire did not use "Honkai energy" but directly wielded "Imaginary energy" as a weapon, and their understanding of Authorities was countless generations ahead of this civilization... it would be perfectly fine to consider Sirin and Bella as two Herrschers.
And multi-cored ones at that.
There was only one small problem:
This was not Imperial territory. Before becoming [Higher Primordial Species], Sirin and Bella did not have the ability to break through the world barrier and directly absorb [Imaginary energy]—this was a key characteristic of a [Higher Primordial Species]. The chaotic flow of time had affected their link to the [Imaginary Space], so they needed to be a bit more conservative with their energy usage.
Although their combat power was extremely high, there were quite a few in the Current Civilization who could threaten them. Whether it was the Celestial Immortal Chiyuan unleashing the power of [Fenghuang Down] or Otto wielding the [Void Archives], they both had the potential to kill them.
Dying wasn't a big deal; the Lord Apostle could bring them back.
But if the mission failed... how could they let such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away!
Moreover, although Bella was the sarcastic one, she was no master strategist. She was only an infinitesimal bit smarter than Sirin.
Compared to Sirin's infinitesimal bit... it still wasn't great.
"Let's gather intelligence first."
Bella carefully examined all the information provided in the contract.
Sirin was actually right. Although the text on the paper was less than 200 words, the information it contained... there was no doubt Sirin hadn't used her [Authority of Sentience] to observe the hidden information. Bella had read it once, but to be safe, she needed to examine it again carefully.
"Confirm if the 'flow of time' has changed from what's in the intel."
"Don't look at me like that. You can go find something to eat while I gather intel."
"Any help you provide will likely be the opposite of helpful anyway," Bella did not say out loud. As for why Sirin was so easily handled by Bella...
Her mastery of the [Authority of Reason] was not yet precise enough to "print money."