The battle at Babylon Labs had ceased.
Not because both sides had let go of their hatred, but because Otto had revealed a different form.
In this state, Sirin could no longer easily breach the barrier Otto had erected to attack him. The Soulium body rendered her attacks useless, and the power of the Herrscher of Corruption was now surrounding Otto, performing its final process.
It was liberating the Void Archives from its AI shackles.
The Will of the Honkai, like a wondrous power of reverse augmentation, could free androids from the defects of their own consciousness, allow AI to evolve into true life forms, and now, allow Otto to remedy the flaws of his Soulium body.
"My plan is complete. You shouldn't be stopping me now. In fact... the more you stop me, the closer you get to the plan itself."
Otto laid his cards on the table. He said frankly, "No matter what, my end result is death. It's just a matter of choosing how to die. But as for the future you all face, I can't see it clearly."
"Otto, what do you mean by that?"
Durandal took a step forward and asked with a frown.
"Words are sometimes so powerless. Even if I really tell you, would you truly believe me? Perhaps I'm just dragging some people down with me before I die? Just to make your future lives miserable? You wouldn't believe me. No matter how much I insist it's the truth, you wouldn't believe me."
Otto held the Abyss Flower, facing the two of them. He was like a man standing on the edge of a cliff, constantly walking toward self-destruction for his own goals.
And the bridge in between was the Honkai.
Sirin said impatiently, "What's there to say now? You must pay the price for what you've done in the past."
"Yes, yes, the price. It's all about the price. But can you kill me now? We're both Herrschers. Isn't it a bit ridiculous to talk about a price? Or do you think you haven't betrayed the Honkai yourself? Why don't you try summoning some Honkai Beasts and see if they still listen to you?"
Otto knew better than anyone that the sign of betraying the Will of the Honkai was whether one could command the Honkai Beasts. It was a classic Herrscher privilege.
"Sirin, admit it. You've already, in fact, admitted that you are human. Every judgment you utter is based on human values."
Sirin was silenced. She did have such thoughts.
Rita couldn't help but ask, "But... please allow me to call you Overseer one last time. Why have you come to this point?"
"Try to defeat me, and then I'll tell you. But even if you do, it's not very likely. I won't just stand here waiting to die and tell you the real reason."
Of course, Otto wouldn't tell Sirin the real reason. He needed to use the Herrscher of the Void's ability to manipulate the Imaginary Space to open a path to the Imaginary Tree.
This power was far more than just a trip to the Sea of Quanta.
The Sea of Quanta was a sea formed by the twisted "gaps" between the branches of the Tree. It didn't have the traditional concepts of time and space. Only on the Imaginary Tree itself did these concepts have a real existence.
That was why Otto had to lead Sirin here. And Noldrei just wanted to use the Honkai to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Sirin was furious, but she had no other way to judge Otto.
The only thing she could do was use her own power to kill him. And the Herrscher of Dominance Core, connected to the android network, was the key to maximizing the power of her Herrscher of the Void Core.
"Then you can confess to the Imaginary Space!"
The power of the Herrscher of the Void condensed around Otto. The Imaginary Space was forcibly renormalized, crashing down upon the Abyss Flower in his hands.
The collision between the finite and the infinite, the orderly and the chaotic, erupted with astonishing energy.
The earth was destroyed, the sky collapsed, and a Honkai fission explosion erupted. At the very tip of the attack, everything returned to annihilation!
Durandal couldn't stop Sirin's attack. She instinctively felt that there was a huge problem, but Sirin couldn't be bothered with that right now.
Under this attack, Durandal and Rita both felt the danger of this place. Not having regained their full Valkyrie powers posed a great threat to them.
This was when Misteln came in handy. The young Hare grabbed the two of them and immediately rushed toward the outskirts of the battlefield.
The battle had now entered its final stage. Sirin's most direct Imaginary attack sent Otto on his final journey.
In the twisted Imaginary Space, Otto disappeared from this world.
Sirin, blown away by the twisted energy explosion, tumbled across the ground, rolling toward a more distant place. It was unknown on which mountain she would finally come to a stop.
Otto had successfully entered the seam between the Imaginary and the real.
He opened his eyes and saw the great tree standing before him.
The tree was layered with the indescribable power of the Imaginary Space, and streams of information crawled across its trunk like vines. The feeling was like...
"We're here. So this is the seam between the Imaginary and the real?"
Noldrei's voice was slightly dazed. He felt that something was not quite right with this world. It seemed a little different from the path he took when he traveled through history.
"What do you mean?"
Otto was shocked. You're telling me now that this isn't the path you took to travel through time? Isn't that a bit of a scam?
Who knew that Noldrei wasn't lying to him? He was now a tiny eyeball floating next to Otto, looking around at the scenery that was completely different from his memory.
"That's right, it's indeed different from what I remember. This isn't the tunnel I used to travel through time. Either you got it wrong, or I got it wrong, or we both got it wrong."
Otto's entire face twisted into a knot. He gritted his teeth and asked, "You're telling me now... that we got it all wrong?!"
Noldrei soothed him, "Don't get excited, don't get excited... Let's just go to the tree and see, shall we? Look, those strange Imaginary creatures are already popping up. Wouldn't it be good to clean up the surrounding monsters first? Oh? By the way, where's the Void Archives?"
Otto was in no mood to care about the Void Archives. He said with a cold face, "I threw it outside. The Herrscher of Corruption is still sealed inside it."
"That AI is rather unlucky. The Will of the Honkai really can't track us to the Imaginary Space or the Sea of Quanta. These places are all areas that the Honkai can't monitor. Quick! Take me to your new world!"
Otto really didn't know what to say.
"No, it's your new world... And, don't forget what you promised me."