Sirin's fight was like a child being toyed with by an adult.
The young girl, barely a teenager in appearance, never expected to be ambushed by a five-hundred-year-old geezer. The shock nearly broke her composure.
Sirin almost fell to her knees to cry "God, save me!" all over again.
Unfortunately, she couldn't. That "god" feared Noldrei like a tiger, not daring to even show its face, terrified of being caught by the tail if it made one wrong move.
Sirin probably knew her personal "god" was unreliable. If Kevin were here, he would likely tell her what that god's true nature was.
It was an Imaginary Renormalization group, a byproduct of an injection by Prometheus No. 17.
Of course, it was also possible that the Will of the Honkai had realized that Noldrei, leading humanity on a wild rampage, posed an even greater threat of destruction—one that might just blow up the Honkai along with them, leaving no chance to influence the next civilization.
Whether that new civilization would even call themselves "human" was another question entirely.
Otto's combat was an elegant, grand performance. Through some unknown means, he had improved the rate at which Soulium could change its liquid state, condensing its abilities to an incomprehensible degree.
This liquid Soulium, possessing a memory of its own, successfully recreated the scenes from Noldrei's past battles. It shifted effortlessly between concentration and diffusion, its movements between points, lines, and planes utterly flawless. Sirin's old combat style, which relied on her five senses, was being completely crushed.
Sirin scrambled to dodge the attacks closing in on her from all directions.
Combat was, at its core, a simple exchange of blows. The moment Sirin could no longer land a hit on Otto, the scales of victory had already tipped. She could only desperately use Imaginary Space to evade his attacks, but Otto was no powerless weakling.
As for Rita's warning, Sirin was too far away to hear it.
Perhaps Rita should have considered whether Sirin had time to take a call in the middle of a fight.
"Herrscher of the Void, what are you still hesitating for?" Otto's voice echoed. "Are you worried about accidentally harming the ghosts of your old companions that linger on this land? Or are you holding back, afraid to attack? Or perhaps, you're simply not strong enough to get your revenge?"
"Call upon the power within your heart! Just like before, summon more Herrscher Cores to make you stronger. You can't win against me like this. Do you even know where I am now? What I'm using to speak to you? No, you don't. After losing those Herrscher Cores, you're nothing but a blind, crippled girl."
Sirin couldn't see a trace of Otto, but she could hear his voice right beside her, so close it felt like it was coming from inside her own ear.
She knew Otto wasn't literally hiding in her ear; he was using some knowledge, some power she didn't understand, to transmit the sound directly to her.
Thinking this, Sirin instinctively threw up a spatial barrier—an excellent tool for blocking external sound.
But this time, it failed.
The voice lingered, and Otto's attacks followed like a shadow. A spear, familiar from Sirin's memories, abruptly pierced the barrier and shot toward her heart.
In a flash, Sirin used the pull of space-time to narrowly evade the surprise attack.
The piercing killing intent stabbed into the depths of her soul. The young girl was terrified, re-experiencing the near-death feeling from all those years ago.
At this very moment, Sirin finally realized...
She hadn't been in such a brutal fight for over a year. The sweet feeling of a peaceful life had seeped into her heart like a gentle stream.
Noldrei had been like a wall for the world, separating the conflict between humanity and the Honkai for so long.
Even she, a Herrscher, had nearly forgotten that her original identity was to be hunted by humanity.
For a year, Sirin had been without her Herrscher Core, without her Herrscher identity. She had experienced more than enough of a normal human life.
But it's not enough... It's not enough...
The more she understood the beauty of human life, the more Sirin's hatred for Otto grew. The resentment in her heart didn't diminish; it festered and swelled.
If it weren't for Otto, could her companions have lived a life like hers?
If it weren't for Schicksal, would those girls have been spared such cruel treatment?
Sirin couldn't be sure. Just as she knew that without the cruel treatment of the Second Herrscher, more suitable artificial Stigmata would never have been created. More people would have perished in the Honkai. In the choice between the many and the few, Schicksal had simply chosen them at that time.
Sirin hated herself for learning so much, for listening to Noldrei like a child. All these lessons hadn't made her stronger; they had only made her feel smaller.
If she didn't know these things, if she was ignorant, she could have continued her revenge against humanity without a second thought.
But life was never that simple.
"Your attacks are hesitant. What are you thinking? What's making you waver? At this rate, you'll die!"
Otto was deeply disappointed in the current Herrscher of the Void. He had expected a battle of equals. He was confident that if he could provoke all her emotions—her fear, her hatred—he too could pass the Honkai's certification and obtain a Herrscher Core.
But the Sirin before him was incapable of that. She was like a child who had just realized she was a child, even less destructive than an unruly brat swinging a sledgehammer.
She was like a child who had grown up and no longer dared to jump from a two-meter wall, because she now knew fear.
The power of the Abyss Flower slowly condensed in Otto's hands.
A massive hand, formed from the void, gripped the Divine Key.
Throughout the battle, Otto never revealed his true form. Sirin couldn't even find where he was hiding, let alone where his real body was.
Her space-time attacks were useless against the liquid Soulium, and her Imaginary powers were dodged with ease. Be it the power of Honkai Energy or the abilities derived from it, everything was for naught.
The Abyss Flower accelerated, its destructive power condensing into a single point as it hurtled toward Sirin.
Sirin's eyes widened. She tried to use the Herrscher of the Void's barrier to stop it.
The barrier was as fragile as paper.
It was built on a foundation of Honkai Energy and structured with Imaginary power, but before the might of the Abyss Flower, its entire structure collapsed into chaos.
Before the Divine Key even made contact, the Honkai Energy in Sirin's body destabilized and dissipated into useless internal energy. Without a power source, the Imaginary power vanished. The space-time barrier was shattered by the Abyss Flower in an instant.
The spear aimed straight for Sirin's heart and plunged forward