In the depths of the silent dungeon, Lihua didn't know how much time had passed.
She had been planning on convincing Otto to work with her to overthrow Schicksal, but after all this, she was now in a cell, locked up by Schicksal.
The world was telling her that she wasn't the one to lead this rebellion. She wasn't a hero, nor a villain, but a simple pawn, who was trying to play a part that she wasn't suited for.
These were all just minor issues. The real problem was, why had Kallen gone crazy?
Lihua looked at the dark ceiling, trying to figure out what she had done to influence Kallen to change so much.
But she just couldn't think of anything. Kallen now seemed to have some strange obsession with power. She had never pushed Kallen toward violence.
She probably developed a crush on her after she saved her from a Honkai beast. This was Lihua's theory.
Lihua was the one who gave her all of those things.
She had told Kallen how to change the world. She told her that they shared the same dream of bringing peace to everyone.
Kallen liked Otto's wooden airplane, so she made one for her. It might be ugly, but at least it could fly.
Kallen got hurt in training, so she would bandage her up. Kallen's relatives had died, so she was there to comfort her. Kallen was hungry, so she cooked her snacks…
As an orphan from the Hedgehog Novel Orphanage, Lihua felt like she was even kinder to Kallen than her own mother. It was normal for Kallen to like her.
But!
With such good examples, Kallen should have become an even better saint than in the original story. Why had she become another Otto?!
And while Otto was obsessed about bringing her back, Kallen was obsessed with getting stronger. That was such a classic villain arc, she'd probably be killed by the hero any day now.
And she had said that it was to protect her. She didn't need her protection!
The only good person left in Schicksal was now gone. All that was left were lunatics or those who would become lunatics.
If they had kept it to themselves, that would have been fine. But now, Schicksal was researching the box that sealed the Twelfth Herrscher. That was like dragging the world to its end.
Lihua didn't consider herself to be a good person, but she didn't want to watch so many people die. Especially since she was the one who caused the timeline to change.
Tsk, what's wrong with Kallen? Is she going through a rebellious phase now?
No, she couldn't just sit here in the dungeon and wait for death. She needed to find a way to stop Schicksal's schemes.
Even if she couldn't save the children who were being forced into human experiments, she had to find a way to reach Shenzhou and tell Fu Hua about what Schicksal was doing. She needed to have her kill the Twelfth Herrscher before it was too late.
But Fu Hua didn't seem to like her. And if Fu Hua chose to destroy all of Schicksal as collateral, she didn't know what the Honkai world would be like without Otto and Kallen.
Ugh, headache.
Lihua sat up and stretched. She walked over to the bars and tried to break them again. It was sad to see that the Soul Steel was too strong. Her fists still couldn't break through.
She only had 200,000 energy points left and still couldn't buy the trait to break the Soul Steel bars instantly.
Crap.
Lihua dejectedly slumped back onto the straw.
I came here to be a bad woman, so why am I thinking about saving the world again?
She was locked here, and she couldn't leave. Waiting for the Honkai to kill her was the same as killing herself. She should just kill herself now.
But she was too afraid to stab her own throat. Maybe she should wait for the guard and get him to kill her instead.
Now that she had fallen out with Otto and Kallen, they probably wouldn't even shed a tear for her when she died. If she couldn't earn any energy, then it didn't matter.
She was just worried about Eleanor and the others. She hoped they wouldn't do anything foolish, and that they would just run away.
"Life is truly unpredictable, like sausage wrapped in a sausage."
While Lihua was mumbling to herself, the dungeon door opened. Otto appeared in front of her and took her to a special room where he could talk to her privately.
"Lihua, what's going on?"
Otto said, with a worried expression.
"You're being so reckless!"
He sounded as though he was scolding a disobedient child.
Lihua sighed.
"You know I care about you, right? You should really be more careful."
She looked at Otto, and his eyes seemed sincere.
"Can you just try to be more considerate of my feelings?"
Lihua sighed again.
"I thought we were friends, Otto."
Otto's face turned sad.
"You were my friend, too!" he said.
"But I guess you think it's alright for us to do this to each other, then?"
Lihua shook her head, and looked at him as though he had betrayed her.
Otto's face turned even sadder.
"No, that's not what I meant! I would never hurt you, Lihua. I just want you to be safe!"
"So what if I do? If that's the way I choose to live, then why do you have to change it?"
Lihua's eyes were wet with tears.
Otto remained silent for a long time.
"I just can't stand seeing you hurt. I can't stand seeing you take so many risks."
"So why didn't you let me just leave that day?" Lihua yelled.
Otto's face became pale.
"I thought that you could get away from me, and live a normal life somewhere."
Lihua stared at him silently.
"Can't you see that that's not the path I want to take?"
Lihua slowly rose to her feet.
"I want to live life as a bad woman. I want to hurt people, and I want to go down in history as the worst one out there!"
Otto opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
"And you want to stop me? You think that by binding me here, it will make me live a peaceful life?"
Lihua closed her eyes as tears began to fall.
"That's not what I want! I want to see the faces of those corrupted executives when I stab them in the heart! I want to see those hypocrites wail and scream in agony. I want their blood to flow across the streets!"
She then took a deep breath and opened her eyes. They were no longer sad.
They were now filled with a thirst for blood.
"I want this world to be filled with despair!"
"And you want to help me with that?" Otto said.
Lihua nodded.
"Then I will." Otto smiled slightly. "If this is what you want, then I'll let you do it. I'll help you to destroy everything in your way."
He opened the door and gestured to her.
"Go then. Go make this world be filled with the despair that you so desire."
"I will." Lihua answered him with a smile.
And with that, Lihua stepped out into the world, ready for the final act.
While Otto and Eleanor were busy evacuating the crowd, the interior of the cathedral was deathly silent.
The Schicksal executives, who had been chatting loudly just moments before, had fallen to the ground with the guards, their faces twisted and unseeing.
Amidst the blood and severed limbs, a single red figure stood in the center of the cathedral, staring at the cross in front of her.
"Ah, this is really…" The figure moved. It turned out that the red figure was the Schicksal Archbishop. His white robes had been splattered red with blood.
He dropped the dagger he was holding. Though his body was covered in fatal wounds, he walked toward the cross as if he couldn't feel it. A look of satisfaction was plastered on his aged face.
"50,000 years, it sure has been a while."
The old man spoke in a voice of a young woman. He reached out to press a hidden switch beneath the cross. With a loud rumbling, the cross and the platform it was on sank into the ground, taking him into Schicksal's treasury.
"Ha, the Judgment of Shamash. So, even that invincible man died?"
The Archbishop walked through the treasury. He ignored the precious gold and gems and headed to the deepest part of the vault. He picked up a pair of dual pistols on a platform, inspecting them closely. "It is to be expected after all these years, I thought that the fusion warrior would live for longer than that. It seems I was thinking too much."
"The Judgement of Shamash. This era doesn't have anyone who can truly wield its power, what a pity ~"
Although he said that, the Schicksal Archbishop carelessly threw the weapon on the floor.
"Though this era's civilization isn't as good as the previous one, they were just as good at rushing towards their deaths."
He walked to the last platform and held up a box-shaped container as if it was the most valuable item in the world.
That was the newest weapon that Otto had spent so much time developing: Prototype God-Slaying Armament 0th, which used the power of the Twelfth Herrscher, who had been sealed in the box since the Previous Era, to increase the user's power. From a certain perspective, it could even be called a Divine Key.
After all, the box that sealed the Twelfth Herrscher was originally the unfinished prototype of the Twelfth Divine Key from the Previous Era.
But unfortunately, the consciousness of the Herrscher in this 'Divine Key' still existed, and had never been destroyed.
In fact, the prototype God-Slaying Armament 0th was created under the guidance of the Twelfth Herrscher herself.
Yes, the Twelfth Herrscher of the Previous Era— the Herrscher of Corruption, had already awakened her consciousness in this era!
But she had chosen to remain hidden and secretly observe the outside world. After understanding the current state of civilization, she had decided to act in secret.
First of all, while the Herrscher of Corruption had awakened her consciousness, her main body was still sealed in the box. She was only able to use a sliver of her power. If she was found out by the people of this world, she would be sealed in the box once again.
Second, this era's civilization level was too low. As the Herrscher of Corruption, she could corrupt humans and other living creatures. But she was most skilled at controlling data and machines. Without even the basics of the internet, she was effectively stripped of her greatest power.
But the weakness of this era also had its benefits. Though the sealed Herrscher of Corruption was unable to defeat the strongest fighters of this era, once the seal was broken, she was confident that she could easily destroy the world, even while being limited.
So the Herrscher of Corruption chose to secretly accumulate her power. When she found out that Otto and Schicksal were trying to study the box, she didn't resist. Instead, she actively cooperated with them, lending her power to create the illusion of a successful experiment.
She had been secretly corrupting the Archbishop, who was always in contact with the box, with the power that she had left. With just a thought, the Herrscher of Corruption could take control of the Archbishop's mind.
The seal on the box was hard to break from the inside. But opening it from the outside was extremely easy. Once she had someone in this world release the seal, the Herrscher of Corruption could free her body.
The Herrscher of Corruption's original target was Otto. But since he was protected by the Imaginary Key, she could not attack him directly. If she failed, she could reveal her identity.
Most other people were too insignificant to touch the box directly. In the end, she had to choose the Schicksal Archbishop, an old man that didn't match her aesthetic, to be her puppet.
But things didn't go as planned. While the Archbishop was the head of Schicksal, Otto was in control of quite a bit of power, especially of the Schicksal treasury. He couldn't enter without Otto.
Whenever the Herrscher of Corruption tried to control the Archbishop to go to the treasury and open the box, Otto would suddenly appear, leaving the Herrscher of Corruption with no time to undo the seal.
And since her puppet, the Archbishop, couldn't defeat Otto who possessed the Void Archive, the Herrscher of Corruption had no choice but to endure and continue waiting for an opportunity.
And today, that opportunity had finally arrived!
An attack broke out in Schicksal's headquarters. The guards had been sent to suppress it, including those who guarded the treasury. The Herrscher of Corruption quickly took the chance to control the Archbishop to go to the cathedral under the guise of taking shelter. In reality, she wanted to break the seal.
Otto said that he was going to fight the rebels, but he had surrendered as soon as the fighting started. He had even brought his men to chase the Archbishop.
The Herrscher of Corruption didn't care about what Otto was planning. She only knew that Otto wasn't at the cathedral. He was busy evacuating the citizens below the hill.
She had no one to stop her from breaking the seal now.
"Humans, your civilization… ends here!"
Purple energy, tainted with Honkai, began to emit from the Schicksal Archbishop's body. This man, who had once been above everyone, had become a monster. He picked up the Prototype God-Slaying Armament, which Schicksal had spent countless resources creating. He then tore apart the intricate outer parts and revealed the black box at its center.
These devices had been used to limit the amount of Honkai energy, and to make the power of the Herrscher of Corruption more manageable. The Herrscher of Corruption had no need for that.
She only needed one thing - to be free.
To escape the prison that had held her for 50,000 years…
Purple energy started to spread from the Archbishop's hands and toward the black box. The power that was flowing from the puppet was weak and couldn't completely break the seal, but it was enough to let the Herrscher of Corruption show her fangs.
The box cracked open, and a tempest of purple Honkai energy that felt like a physical object burst out, instantly turning her puppet into dust!
But this is not enough. How could my hatred from being sealed for 50,000 years be released so easily?!
Eyes filled with hatred opened in the darkness. The power of the Herrscher was about to be unleashed.
BOOM!!!!