I was transported to a broken world, yet my dreams are connected to Star Iron?

　"Don't worry, old friend."

　Otto also produced a golden feather in his hand, the same one as Fu Hua's: "It will be over soon."

　Chapter 35 Otto: The Truth of Collapse, I Have Unraveled!

　“Miss Bella, as I said, I have no ill intentions towards Sirin!”

　Cecilia held the Black Abyss White Flower, and a black mist enveloped her, counteracting Benares's almost incessant Honkai energy breath.

　"I want to save her too! Or rather, of all the people here, only I can stop Otto from killing her, calm down, and then we can find a solution together..."

　Before Cecilia could finish speaking, Bella interrupted her once again.

　"Do you think Her Majesty will still trust you after you tricked Lady Suzumo to death?"

　Bella turned slightly, transforming into human form for easier combat. Her long tail swept across, forcing Cecilia back.

　"At least, I will never trust you again. If you want to get close to Her Majesty the Queen, you'll have to get over me first!"

　"Tsk..."

　Cecilia felt a little anxious. After all, she had personally witnessed Otto taking Fu Hua to Sirin's side. Cecilia had a deep understanding of the strength of this Crimson Mandarin Duck Immortal. Even if she fought him to the death, her chances of winning were probably not very high, let alone Sirin, who had almost no combat experience.

　However, at that moment, a tremendous power suddenly rose from the distance, and almost everyone on the battlefield heard Fu Hua's murmured words.

　"All that has passed is now consigned to this sword..."

　"Yu Duchen, first rated power, Taixu Sword God—"

　"Oops!"

　Cecilia's expression changed drastically. Even though she had never witnessed Fu Hua's full power, she had seen Siegfried's Judgment of Heavenly Fire.

　The attack Fu Hua is currently unleashing is even far stronger than Siegfried's Heavenly Fire.

　"Now is not the time to hesitate..."

　Cecilia gritted her teeth slightly. She originally wanted to temporarily break Bella's wings and then go to support Sirin's side. However, Bella seemed to have seen through her plan and kept entangled with her in human form, causing Cecilia to become somewhat hesitant in the fight.

　However, Sirin is currently in imminent danger. If Cecilia still wants to try to save Sirin, this may be her only chance. Therefore, Cecilia disregards the possibility of seriously injuring Bella. The black and white lance in her hand is already glowing slightly as her master's Honkai energy is injected into it.

　"What--"

　Bella was startled when Cecilia suddenly disappeared from her sight. However, before she could pinpoint the enemy's location, Cecilia's figure had already appeared behind her.

　"I'm so sorry, Miss Bella!"

　The black spear tip did not simply glide across Bella's skin as before, but instead emitted a corrosive black mist and pierced through Bella's chest without hesitation.

　"Uh-huh..."

　Ignoring Bella's cries of pain, Cecilia instantly activated another power of the Divine Key. White light enveloped Bella's body, preventing the black mist from spreading outwards along with the wounds and protecting Bella's core.

　"In that case, she shouldn't be able to fight for a while..."

　Cecilia wiped the sweat from her brow. Such precise control of the Divine Key was a considerable challenge even for her. Moreover, since Bella's true form was a Honkai Beast, Cecilia found that her energy expenditure seemed to be much higher than originally expected.

　"Forget it, we can't worry about that now. Let's get to the battlefield first."

　Cecilia carried the unconscious Bella to a safe corner and vanished instantly, rushing towards the location where Fu Hua had just unleashed her ultimate skill.

　It should be said that Cecilia truly deserves to be called Schicksal's strongest S-rank Valkyrie. Even with the double debuff of having just given birth to Kiana and consuming a large amount of Honkai energy, she still managed to catch up with the end of the battle.

　However, the scene before her eyes far exceeded her expectations.

　“Hahahaha, hahahahahahaha!”

　The scenario she had anticipated—Sirin being severely injured and her shouting for mercy—did not occur. Instead, on her side, Otto was laughing maniacally, spouting nonsense like "The truth of the collapse, I have revealed it," while Fu Hua appeared to be on the verge of death.

　"team leader!"

　Cheng Lixue, who had been looking resolute, suddenly had a glimmer of hope in her eyes when she saw the people who had arrived.

　"what's the situation?"

　"His Holiness the Bishop's experiment backfired. Master used his ultimate technique to kill the Second Herrscher, but it seems to have been blocked by something, and the Second Herrscher is unharmed. I was just about to..."

　"Okay, I see."

　Cecilia didn't know how she should feel at that moment.

　"Your Excellency, if you are still conscious, take Miss Fu Hua and Li Xue away. Leave this to me."

　"..."

　Seemingly still reeling from the impact of the Honkai God, Otto simply nodded weakly, then took Fu Hua and walked away without hesitation.

　"Well……"

　Opposite Cecilia, Sirin looked at the red feather beside her, her consciousness slowly recovering from shock.

　That attack just now could have instantly killed me, even with the five cores within me.

　But why... did that sword strike just now seem to have missed?

　"The Will of Honkai, do you know what's going on?"

　"The Will of Honkai?"

　"Wait... my link with the Honkai Will has been severed?!"

　Xilin suddenly realized that something had blocked the sword strike for her.

　"Ha... I'm really useless. Even with such power, it's always others who are making sacrifices for me..."

　Xilin gave a slightly sorrowful, bitter smile, then scooped up a few red feathers floating in the air and held them in her hand.

　These things just severed her connection with the Honkai Will, so theoretically, if she mastered their power, she could reconnect.

　Sirin's gaze swept across the ground. The gray-haired flat-chested man who had almost seriously injured her and the blond man who looked extremely annoying had disappeared, apparently having evacuated. In their place stood a gentle woman with long white hair.

　Moreover, this long-haired white woman was the one who had almost killed Bella. Sirin had confirmed this through her shared feelings with Bella. However, she also confirmed that this woman had used a strange power to keep Bella alive and protect her at the same time she was about to kill her, which was somewhat puzzling.

　Of course, the more important reason is that this guy has a feeling that Sirin is very familiar with. That feeling even gives her the illusion of seeing Suzumo, a kind of maternal tenderness...

　Almost subconsciously, Cecilia categorized herself as "potentially a good person," just like the previous leader of the Anti-Entropy Alliance. After all, Cecilia knew that she might be the villain, so she tried her best not to kill these "good people."

　"Fine, let's test the feather's abilities. Let's pull them all into the illusion..."

　However, just as Sirin was pulling Cecilia and Siegfried into the illusion...

　Otto, who had already gone far away and moved to a safe zone, suddenly opened his eyes and then violently knocked the unsuspecting Cheng Lixue unconscious from behind.

　Chapter 36 The God-Slaying Spear targets Honkai energy, right? Eh! Then I just won't use Honkai energy.

　"amber."

　"Your Majesty Bishop?"

　On the other end of the communication, Amber's delighted voice came through: "That's great! You've been out of contact for so long, I was thinking... If it weren't for the fact that your 24-hour disappearance period hadn't ended yet, I would have already activated your backup body!"

　"It was just signal interference, it's nothing. I contacted you this time to ask you to use my backup body."

　Otto's voice was unusually calm: "Now, I will upload and update my memories, and then I will discard this body on my own. My consciousness will be transferred to a combat-specific soul steel body codenamed 'Joker.' Also, you have already prepared the things I asked for in that body, right?"

　"Of course, but Your Excellency, are you really going to use that? A reverse inducer made with holy blood as a base... If we're not careful, the whole of Siberia could be..."

　"Just execute the command. The situation you described won't happen. I have my own judgment."

　Otto interrupted Amber: "Also, get me a new Soul Steel body at headquarters. I've set a countdown for a consciousness transfer, and I'll sync the data to you later. Remember to set it up for me."

　"clear."

　"Okay, that's settled then... By the way, how's Theresa doing?"

　"She has successfully mastered the zeroth rated power of the Oath of Judah, and is now clamoring to rush to the battlefield..."

　"According to the original plan, we should hold her off for at most two hours, and the battle will be over. During this time, we must not let her go to Siberia under any circumstances."

　"But didn't you say before that as long as she mastered..."

　Amber asked, somewhat puzzled.

　Otto didn't elaborate, simply saying, "Her feelings for Cecilia are too deep, so just carry out the order."

　"……I see."

　Having followed Otto for so many years, Amber was by no means a clumsy person who couldn't read the room. Combining the purpose of the Divine Grace Barrier with the hints in Otto's words just now, Amber had roughly guessed what Otto meant by "there will be no pollution".

　If what she thinks is true, then Theresa really can't come to Siberia. After all, if it were Theresa, she would probably activate the divine grace barrier without hesitation to complete the "purification" for Cecilia.

　"The escape has been successful, and the answer has been obtained. Now... it's time to execute the remaining plan."

　Otto's lips curled up slightly.

　"First, we need to take care of those pseudo-heroes."

　……

　"Huh? Is this their battlefield from before...? But why..."

　At this moment, two uninvited guests, one large and one small, appeared at the location where Xilin was.

　"It seems they are all in the illusion right now."

　Lingmo stepped forward and gently poked Xilin's cheek. Seeing that the girl had no reaction, she turned back to Walter and said.

　"I guess it's because Sirin got the Feather of Dust but didn't know how to use it, so she locked herself in the illusion as well."

　"You know this too?"

　Walter paused for a moment, and was about to step forward when Suzumo stopped him.

　"Stay where you are. Just because she didn't react when I approached her doesn't mean she won't react when you come over. Don't wake her up."

　"Ah, sorry."

　Perhaps because he had acted somewhat recklessly in the recent operations involving Suzuma, Walter almost subconsciously apologized.

　"But why not wake her up? It seems Otto is nowhere to be found. If we wake Sirin and then go looking for Otto..."

　"If we wake up Celine now, it's uncertain whether Otto will even show up."

　Lingmo shrugged: "Besides, the illusion that Xilin is in right now... might be quite important to her, so if possible, I'd prefer to let her wake up naturally."

　"Then I'll do as you say. Anyway, according to our previous agreement, I'll follow your orders."

　Since Suzuma had her reasons, and Walter wasn't a stubborn person, he readily gave up thinking about it.

　"Oh, by the way, Lingmo, how did you know the contents of the illusion? And do you even know Yu Duchen?"

　"Actually, I know most of the things that are related to the previous civilization."

　Lingmo glanced at Walter and saw that he was indeed deep in thought, just as she had expected. A knowing smile flashed in her eyes.

　“Let’s go find Otto. Also, Mr. Welt, I need you to stay hidden during this process. With the abilities of the Herrscher of Reason, that shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”

　"Of course... wait, you mean you want to go alone?"

　Walter suddenly realized what was happening: "How can this be? It's too dangerous! Even if you can be resurrected..."

　"Don't worry, I have some other abilities. Although they may not last long, they are more than enough to keep me going until you come to my aid."

　"But even if you can hold out until I get there..."

　Walter paused, then continued, "You might not know this, but the person who attacked you earlier was most likely Otto, and if he was carrying the God-Slaying Spear, even the two of us combined might not be able to..."

　"Then that's no longer a problem."

　Lingmo revealed a mysterious smile: "On the one hand, the true source of the God-Slaying Spear is right here on this battlefield."

　"On the other hand, since the Spear of Godslayer targets Honkai energy, then..."

　"Can't I just not use Honkai energy?"

　……

　"The third……"

　Otto expressionlessly pulled his hand out of the chest of the red-haired pseudo-Herrscher. At this moment, the pseudo-Herrscher had completely lost its life force, and in Otto's hand was an additional "pseudo-core" composed of one, no, several crystals.

　Logically speaking, pseudo-Herrschers shouldn't have such a strange core. However, when Sirin created these pseudo-Herrschers, she specifically separated a portion of the power from the core and granted it to them. At the same time, she condensed a considerable portion of the Honkai energy in her own body into crystals to support their actions. This constitutes the peculiar core of these pseudo-Herrschers.

　"Including the pseudo-Herrscher of Death that I killed at the beginning, all the pseudo-Herrschers on the battlefield have now been wiped out. It seems that two members of the Snow Wolf Squad are missing, and the remaining members have also suffered a significant reduction in combat power, most of them being seriously injured... It doesn't have much of an impact, since they weren't the main combat force to begin with."