"Don't worry. No matter what happens, as long as you keep my charm with you, I will always come back."
Before leaving, Durandal set down a promise — a flag that, if anything, made the players even more anxious.
Durandal wouldn't really… die here, would she?
Even Eden felt a prickle of fear. Otto had always treated Durandal well when it didn't conflict with his own obsession. This time felt different. Otto's behavior over the last chapters was stranger than ever: the theatrics of "entrusting his last wishes," the frequent barbs thrown to provoke Durandal and the others, his almost suicidal rhetoric… and, bafflingly, his willingness to reveal the plan to Theresa and co. all at once. It made no sense.
"Please, let Mo Li not be that merciless…" Eden muttered inwardly.
After Durandal left, the camera cut back to Otto.
At this moment, the consciousness of Otto—'Five-Ten' Apocalypse—floated deep within the boundless void.
A narration skated past as Otto sank into memory: the first time he met Kallen.
"Aren't you great? It flew so high!" A white-haired child sat on a wall, clutching a toy plane Otto had built. Young Otto was shy and small; answering, he stammered, "It… it's mine."
"Keen! You're so talented — one day you'll be a great inventor!" Kallen's eyes shone. She was sorry when the toy broke. For Otto, who'd felt abandoned most of his life, that kindness was like sunlight. For the first time he heard someone need him.
"Hey — excuse me! Can I take Otto out to play? In the name of Kaslana, I'll protect him!" Kallen pleaded to Otto's brother. "My dad always says play and sun help you get healthy!"
Otto blinked. "A great inventor… I have a request. When we're older — will you come save the world with me?"
The memory cut.
A voice, strangely similar to Otto's, spoke: "How rare — you remembered your childhood. Is it resentment at a fate that ends in death?"
Otto laughed softly. "Ha. You joke, Void Archive…"
"You told them you'd willingly die," the voice pressed.
"I told Theresa that. I volunteer to die. A willing death. This is only a five-hundred-year-delayed finale."
An image of Otto's original portrait appeared, and by his side floated a small golden cube.
Void Archive said bluntly, "You're only hiding your anxiety behind grand phrases."
"Perhaps," Otto sighed. "Of course I'm anxious. I am afraid. Yet I've lived long enough — seeing the finish line stirs me."
"Don't you yearn for more?" Void Archive asked.
"Why not?" Otto sneered. "But impossible things are impossible from the start. If you're curious, walk with me into memory, old friend. Before destinies clash, there's still time."
What followed were scenes from Otto's past: the ingenuous, naïve boy; Kallen's righteous fury. Before Schicksal's Eastern Campaign, Kallen already doubted the righteousness of that crusade. Her eyes were always on the people; Otto's were always fixed on Kallen. She often sought emotional refuge in him. He never quite read it then. Looking back, Otto called himself foolish.
He laughed bitterly. "I once thought that 'gentle care' could fix everything."
Void Archive replied, "Blame your own ignorance. You never understood her heroic streak."
"She never joked about wanting to save the world. She meant it — utterly and utterly." Otto's voice grew small. "Saving the world…"
The memories kept coming — Otto's misdeeds, his sister's manipulations, the release of trapped beasts. The chain of events that led, indirectly, to Kallen's death. When that final memory played, Otto fell utterly silent. In that instant, something in him died for good.
Void Archive, after watching, let out a bitter laugh. "You know, Otto… sometimes I envy your sister."
"I set traps for you and you never dodged them," it said. "But your sister handed you a shovel, and you dug your own grave. Humans' feelings make them irrational — but your case is… special."
Otto only replied with a small, humorless sound. "Try looking from my side. At the time, what else could I do besides trust her? If you'd let me wield the full power of the Divine Key back then, I would have agreed to any condition to save her."
Void Archive's retort was cold: "So you blame me?"
"Is that why you bound me for five hundred years?" Otto asked.
"Who knows? Neither of us has a regret pill to swallow."
Players watched these recollections and felt a melancholy wash over them: pity for the lost saint, and mourning for how wholly innocent Otto once had been. Still, pity didn't erase hatred — Otto remained the schemer who'd done terrible things.
Until seeing Kallen face-to-face in Otto's memories, players had only held the abstract image of "a woman." Otto's crimes for her had seemed, at best, a selfish romantic trope. But witnessing their past — the light Kallen had been in young Otto's life — clarified something enormous: Otto's devotion to Kallen transcended romance. It had become a faith. Whether she were man or woman mattered less than what she represented to him.
Kallen — the saint in a court of rotting power — retained a rare purity and righteous anger. No wonder she'd captured Otto's whole life. The way she behaved beside him — protectiveness, straightforward strength — won player sympathy. The only complaint was aesthetic: Kallen's face and voice felt too similar to the streamer's favorite character, a reused model, different only in maturity. Still, players accepted the sentiment.
Chat erupted.
"He's actually going to die!!"
"Void Archive's rendering looks rough though…"
"Hey—it's supposed to be a god-key; the blocky cube is fine."
"Void Archive's voice sounds like Otto's, why?"
"Don't cut Durandal, MiHoYo QAQ"
"Kallen's model is too 'streamer' flavored…"
"All Kaslanas seem like that — except Kevin."
"Now I wanna see how Otto dies."
"I hope someone beats him to death (kidding, kinda)."
Underneath the chatter, some players understood the grim core: Otto had not saved a single lover. He had saved — and turned his life toward — a conviction, a creed embodied in Kallen. He had built an altar of faith, not romance.
To read 30+ future chapters, head over to Patreon:
patreon.com/WhiteDevil7554