Inside a certain Schicksal base.
Otto, in his office, had already turned off the videos he was watching earlier.
He wasn't so idle as to have nothing better to do. After confirming that Leo Ash was currently staging a romantic comedy at the Schicksal headquarters, Otto couldn't be bothered to waste any more time on him.
Before he initiated his final plan, he still had many things to take care of.
"Hmm, let me think..."
Looking at the message he wanted that Amber had sent, Otto saw the message 'Isla Ash has been sticking to Lady Theresa today for some reason' and fell into deep thought.
Previously, Otto had gradually shifted his focus from the questionably qualified K423 to Isla Ash.
And now, looking at the message Amber had sent him, he felt that his choice might have been the right one after all.
From a normal perspective, a little girl pestering the Archbishop of Schicksal and hindering her work was indeed a bit too much of a brat.
But considering that Otto was now genuinely planning to make a move on her, and she just so happened to find a capable bodyguard, Isla Ash's current actions seemed highly suspicious in Otto's eyes.
Otto had long known that the intuition of the Kaslana clan could be frighteningly accurate at times, but he and Isla Ash had never even met, yet her actions were already obstructing his plans...
Am I overthinking this?
The moment this thought appeared in his mind, Otto felt he was probably tired.
His mental exhaustion was causing him to have such foolish and weak thoughts.
Right now, I've been pushed into a corner.
If I drag this out any longer, the Honkai will continue to accelerate, and after Leo Ash and the others learn the truth, they certainly won't continue to work for me. They will one hundred percent want me dead.
Once he joins forces with Welt, if Welt, armed with Jizō Mitama, comes for me with him, I'm one hundred percent done for.
Rather than being forced into a passive position later, it's better to secure the 'backup' Herrscher of the Void now.
Besides, although this kid is very alert, she is just a kid after all.
The 'Theater' can capture her directly. My strength may not be on par with those top-tier old friends, but dealing with a child is no problem.
There's no time to lose. I'll do it now.
Just as Otto was about to take action, the base he was in suddenly blared with alarms.
A few seconds later, a Schicksal staff member, ignoring Otto's standing order of 'do not enter this room without my command', burst into the office and said to Otto in a panic.
"Lord Otto, this is bad! Our base is under attack!"
"What?!"
Upon hearing this news, a sense of foreboding welled up in Otto's heart.
But, the person wasn't finished speaking.
"No, it's not just this base!"
Looking at the information displayed on the terminal, the staff member said nervously to Otto.
"All of the secret bases you never told the other Schicksal comrades about are under attack!"
"That's impossible!"
After blurting this out, Otto, realizing his loss of composure, irritably dismissed the person from his sight.
These secret bases were backup bases Otto had prepared long ago, and the staff within were all talents he had carefully selected.
They might not be the best, but they were absolutely the most loyal.
Of course, Otto didn't believe his personal charisma was strong enough to make everyone loyal to him forever.
So, to prevent accidents, Otto had used Fenghuang Down on all of them, planting a suggestion in their minds to 'always be loyal to Otto Apocalypse'.
In all this time, the only outsider who had ever visited these bases was Li Sushang, whom Otto had released.
But Li Sushang didn't know the way, and whenever she went out, Otto either took her himself or someone sent her by helicopter.
Even if she wanted to be a guide for some reason, Otto didn't think his old friend could find the way.
Who is it?
Who on earth found these places!
"Ah, you are—"
Upon hearing his subordinate's cry of alarm, Otto had already switched Void Archives to the Judgment of Shamash mode.
But the next second, upon seeing the intruder, Otto immediately abandoned the idea of a direct confrontation.
The moment the door was blown open, Otto's Soulium eyes precisely captured the figure of his opponent.
[Herrscher of Binding] Leo Ash, one of the enemies Otto least wanted to face right now, had appeared before him and was charging at him.
At this point, Otto had no time to think about anything else.
As Otto activated the powers he possessed, he instantly used the power of the Theater of Domination to transfer himself inside, fleeing from the enemy in a most disgraceful manner.
Of course, at this point, Otto couldn't care less about petty issues like losing face.
Inside the Theater of Domination, Otto, having confirmed his safety, began to ponder relentlessly where things had gone wrong.
Who would have thought that just a few minutes ago, based on the footage from Schicksal, Otto had judged that Leo Ash was still 'resting'.
And a few minutes later, his base, whose coordinates had never been exposed, was directly attacked by Leo Ash.
If he hadn't been prepared to transfer at any moment, Otto felt that Leo Ash's fist would have probably already punched through his body.
And a 'Herrscher of Domination' whose body was pierced by the Herrscher of Binding could never escape from him under the power of the Herrscher of Binding.
The Theater of Domination, this bizarre place, was ultimately inseparable from the special energy known as Honkai Energy.
Using Honkai-related powers in front of the Herrscher of Binding?
Otto was not that foolish.
And at this point, realizing that his previous thinking had been too naive, Otto could only assume the worst about what information his enemies had obtained.
How many of my trump cards have been exposed now?
The powers of the Herrscher of Domination are different from those of the Previous Era; they probably don't know how to deal with this yet.
But my trump cards hidden in various countries, the weapon launch switches left in my computers, and most importantly for me, the Rebirth Program...
Leo Ash doesn't have Jizō Mitama.
But Welt does!
In other words, as long as Welt gets to the base where Leo Ash ambushed me, everything I left in that base will be gone.
Although I still have the Rebirth Program in other places and a few spare Soulium Bodies, at this point, these things don't mean much anymore.
Welt has Jizō Mitama, Anti-Entropy excels at electronic warfare. Now that his base coordinates have been exposed, the Rebirth Program in the secret base will be destroyed, and Otto's remaining data will only be dug up by the enemy using the Key of Corruption.
It's over, it's all over.
If I don't think about a desperate comeback now, dragging this out will only lead to them cornering me step by step.
At that moment, a crazy idea formed in Otto's mind.
Ever since he obtained the Core of the Herrscher of Domination from God, the Herrscher of Domination had never found enough people.
The Core of Domination tends to seek out 'failures' who are in deep despair, but after Otto obtained the first core, he was naturally going to be selective.
Even among failures, Otto hoped to pick out some useful ones, not just a random mob.
It was because of Otto's pickiness that the Cores of Domination had yet to be distributed to enough people.
Several hundred of these cores were installed in his spare Soulium Bodies.
And as soon as he activated a program on a computer inside the Theater of Domination, these Soulium Bodies would connect to Otto's consciousness and become true Ottos, just like him.
Perhaps this would lead to conflicts and internal friction between the Ottos, but Otto believed that if all those Ottos shared the same consciousness as him, they would surely work together until Kallen was saved.
Having now arrived in front of a computer, Otto activated the program without any hesitation and saw the hundreds of 'Ottos' standing behind him like guards. At that moment, something they had not previously possessed appeared in their eyes.
And through quantum entanglement, these hundreds of Ottos understood the first Otto's thoughts in an instant.
It could be said that at this moment, apart from not having Void Archives, they were no different from the original Otto.
But, this is still not enough.
Originally, I wanted to plan for a longer time, but now...
—Who cares about all that anymore!
With a rough idea in mind, Otto began a tactical discussion with his other selves through quantum entanglement while simultaneously advancing his plan to the next stage.
To me, Schicksal has always been a useful tool.
And now...
—Let this tool be of use to me one last time.
..
Inside a certain Schicksal base.
Leo Ash, having failed to kill Otto in time, now strode into the machine room near Otto's office, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
In that split second, under normal circumstances, Leo Ash would have had a chance to use the Field of Binding to directly control Otto.
But as he was about to use his power, he suddenly felt a malfunction in the core within his body, and this malfunction interrupted his attack.
It had to be said, he could see it now. Compared to a traitor like him, the Honkai would of course choose to protect Otto, its 'great loyal servant' who had allowed the Honkai to flourish from the past until now.
Otherwise, that one punch just now would have been enough to end the battle.
And now, taking out Jizō Mitama, Leo Ash naturally summoned Rin, who was resting in the Stigmata Space.
Upon seeing the computers, Rin didn't bother asking questions. She just picked up Jizō Mitama and brutally stabbed it into the computer in front of her.
About thirty seconds later, Rin said to Leo Ash with a calm expression.
"The [Rebirth Program] you mentioned is indeed here, along with Otto's weapon launch authority."
"Both of these had a self-destruct backdoor, but I took care of it. Now—what are you going to do?"
"Of course, we're going to dismantle these two bombs."
Even though Leo Ash had just dealt with one of Otto's greatest assets with Rin's help, his heart grew even more vigilant.
Dealing with Otto's revival coin this easily, doesn't that mean... that old dog is going to struggle even more fiercely later on?
Taking out his terminal, Leo Ash saw from the other teams that they had all come up empty.
Come to think of it, although Otto had selfishly used most of the Soulium to make his bodies, he didn't usually have multiple versions of himself appearing in the world for no reason.
Now, Otto was able to escape from me, and the method he used was neither the Herrscher of the Void's power, which he doesn't possess, nor did it look like the Quantum Teleportation System that I can use, which means...
Theater of Domination.
This incredibly troublesome ability, in Otto's hands, is a real headache.
In the original story, that mob of failures using the Theater of Domination for combat had already pushed the protagonist team into a dangerous situation.
Now, replacing that mob with Otto...
Well, Otto himself also considered himself a failure.
But the difference between one failure and another can sometimes be greater than the difference between a dog and a human.
Compared to those rabble with only a few minor tricks, having the micro-management master Otto now in possession of the Herrscher of Domination's power...
At that moment, Leo Ash's terminal suddenly rang.
After connecting the call from Bronya, Leo Ash said to her bluntly.
"Speak."
"Brother Leo Ash, something terrible has happened!"
"Right now at Schicksal headquarters, a video released by Otto has caused a huge commotion."
"The situation is very bad. The headquarters is on the verge of paralysis... Wait, what is this?!"
Bronya, who was trying to create a video to solve the problem, was completely stunned as she looked at a new piece of information that had just appeared.
"Bronya? What's wrong with you?!"
"Brother Leo Ash, I'm fine, but..."
After confirming the piece of information and its related surveillance footage, Bronya stammered to Leo Ash.
"Just now, Isla, who was right beside Bishop Theresa..."
"Suddenly vanished from right under Bishop Theresa's nose, completely without a trace."
...