"This guy... he went down surprisingly easily."
After dealing with Augustus, Kallen slipped out from behind Fuli.
She was currently severely injured, exhausted, and starving, not to mention constantly tormented by the Blood Boil Curse. She couldn't even exert one percent of her original strength.
"Life's been too good to him. He's grown decadent."
Fuli, deactivating his Presence Concealment, emerged from behind Otto. He glanced at the messy surroundings and casually stated his conclusion. "He hasn't been promoted in thirteen years. This is probably as far as he'll go in this life. Rather than wasting energy being diligent, he might as well enjoy himself while he's still young."
Much like Kiana the Paramecium, who had been completely softened by two years at St. Freya in the previous timeline, combat effectiveness was something that would plummet faster than a high-speed train if not constantly maintained.
"Let's get him out of here first."
Otto fastened the collar he had intentionally loosened, concealing the expanse of his fair chest. "By my calculations, Kallen's prison break is about to be discovered by the people below. We have to leave this place as soon as possible."
"Easy enough. But brother, do we have a place to lay low once we're out?"
Otto was the last person to see Kallen, which guaranteed he'd be on Schicksal's list of suspects. He certainly couldn't go back to his own home.
"We do."
The man had already prepared for this.
In the year 1475, Schicksal's tenth crusade was halted by the Celestial Fu Hua on the Kipchak Steppe.
During the retreat back to Europe, Kallen rescued an orphan struggling to survive in the ruins of war.
Out of guilt for being one of the instigators of the war, Kallen and Otto brought the girl back to Europe and named her "Vera."
"An adopted daughter?"
Fuli's sharp brows raised slightly.
"A little sister," Kallen stated plainly.
"Ah, a sister. Never mind then."
When it came to adoption, girls were indeed more affectionate. As the Grand Secretary of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng, had proven with his own life, other people's sons could never be truly tamed.
Otto shot him a suspicious glance. "I've been secretly renting a house in the North District to take care of Vera. That's where we're going."
"Done."
The effect of the anti-magic barrier thinned the closer they got to the surface. Seeing that Kallen's escape was about to be exposed, Fuli, no longer needing to hide his tracks, formed a finger sword. A trailing drill coated in ideal fluid appeared before him.
A classic move, straight out of the old-school playbook.
As everyone knew, wherever Schicksal's divine soldiers marched, dogs passing by would get slapped twice, ant holes would have boiling water poured into them, eggs would be shaken until their yolks were scrambled, and earthworms would be split lengthwise.
However, even though the entire outer layer of the underground prison was reinforced with rare metal ores plundered by the Church during previous crusades, it was no different from a hot knife through butter in the face of the absolutely sharp and smooth ideal fluid.
A few minutes later, light poured into the hole where the three—and one captive—were standing.
"The sun! The sun! Haha! It's been too long!"
Kallen opened her arms, neurotically trying to embrace the golden fireball radiating infinite heat in the sky.
Otto, the second to leave the tunnel, watched her with a doting expression, his eyes filled with a tenderness that could almost drip water.
Fuli, who was covering their rear, came out last and just sighed at the scene.
Wasn't he the same way with Kiana in the past?
In the face of true love, everyone is a coward plagued by gains and losses. No one had the right to laugh at anyone else.
He averted his gaze and looked at the street before them.
The medieval streets were not wide. The buildings on either side were of an ancient style, mostly built of stone and wood, giving off a heavy sense of history.
An ancient clock tower stood in the center of the city, its spire piercing the clouds as if telling stories of religious faith and mysterious legends.
—The Bell of Destiny, built by the founder of the Schicksal Church, a famous monument in the former headquarters of Kolosten.
The giant clock face on the tower had only an hour hand. It was said that the closer the hour hand approached 12, the closer human civilization was to the brink of collapse.
In times of peace, the hour hand basically pointed vertically down to 6. When various turmoils occurred in the world, the hour hand would move a few ticks clockwise. After the turmoil subsided, it would return.
Seeing the boy staring blankly at the clock tower, Otto walked up to him. "Does this bell still exist in your era?"
"It doesn't."
Recalling the history Mei had taught him, Fuli shook his head. "In 1491, Otto Apocalypse led an insurgent army to defeat the main force of the old Schicksal in Kolosten, completely annihilating the Bishop's personal guard and becoming the new Archbishop. The Bell of Destiny was destroyed in that tragic war."
Ironically, the moment Otto ended the rule of the old Schicksal, the once-drooping clock hand instantly jumped to the twelve o'clock mark, signifying the extinction of all humanity.
It was as if it were telling people that compared to those mediocre wastes who only knew how to indulge in pleasure, this newly appointed Archbishop, this Tearless Fool who had abandoned all ethics and morals, was far more likely to drag all of humanity into the abyss of destruction.
"Me? I'll defeat the Bishop's personal guard in the future?"
The present-day Otto pointed at himself with a very confused expression, as if to say, Brother, do you really think a weakling like me is that fierce?
"After Archbishop Marcel—that is, your great-nephew—took office, he not only disbanded the Castle Council formed by the European nobility, but his fourteen-year reign of terror had also become extremely unpopular, with his subordinates fleeing or defecting. You, with the Void Archives, spent all that time cultivating an elite army with equipment that crushed the Church's of the same period. With one side weakening and the other strengthening, it's not so hard to imagine you cutting down the corrupt old Schicksal."
This was why you should always crush scientist-type enemies the moment you meet them; you must never give them a chance to develop.
"Alright, let's not talk about that for now."
Kallen interrupted their conversation, pouting her lips and sighing. "I'm so hungry I could eat both of you."
Her noble, elegant, ice-blue eyes held a pitifully charming look. Her luscious lips, ripe for the picking, shimmered with a gentle, watery light.
To be eaten piece by piece by such cherry-like lips could, in a certain sense, be considered a kind of pleasure.
Fuli, now disenchanted, patted the shoulder of the still-dazed Otto. "Brother, the white moonlight filter really cranked up the beauty stats during the modeling phase."
The thought that this great beauty would one day be his and his alone actually made the boy a little embarrassed.
My brother's wife... no need for courtesy.
Fuli sighed. "In the real world, I'll help you take good care of her."
Otto: "?"
Otto: "!!!"
You motherf—!
...
In such a large network of streets and alleys, there should theoretically be a few vendors selling things along the way.
But as far as the eye could see, the entire street was not only dead silent but one could occasionally see children hiding behind cracks, looking over with strange, jealous, hateful, and longing eyes.
Their clothes were ragged, and they were so thin they were just skin and bones.
"This is the weight of history," Fuli said with emotion.
In the year 1470, with the spread of Honkai in the form of the Black Death in Europe, Schicksal successfully intervened in the politics of various European countries under the pretext of "protection."
The massive expansion of its influence brought the organization greater prestige and power, but it also gradually corrupted the guardian heart of the contemporary Schicksal Bishop, Nicholas Apocalypse.
Subsequently, in order to bring more countries and interests under their control, the leaders of Schicksal planned a large-scale expedition, later known to historians as the Tenth Crusade.
The path of the crusade was smooth. Not only did it sweep away heretics and stubborn old forces that refused to submit to Schicksal along the way, but even many stubborn divine entities that were the root of heretical beliefs fell at the hands of this unprecedented violent machine in human history.
Until the unstoppable Schicksal encountered the powerful empire that dominated the east of the world.
At that time, the continent of Shenzhou was under the rule of the Chenghua Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty. Compared to his famous "God of War" father, this great emperor who coined the term "plowing the courtyard and sweeping the caves" was a genuine hardcore badass.
One side was the restorer of the Great Ming, the other was the most elite force in all of Europe.
After several skirmishes, the armies of both sides finally decided to engage in a decisive battle on the Kipchak Steppe in Central Asia in 1475.
(T/N: That's right, in the Honkai world written by the original author, the Ming Dynasty was just that ridiculously OP. The army's logistics could reach the Kipchak Steppe, which is farther than Xinjiang. If you ask how, the answer is just: Honkai can do anything.)
At the beginning, the two sides were evenly matched, with victories and losses on both sides.
Until Schicksal, in a desperate attempt to break the stalemate, used the advanced Honkai energy weapons developed from the black box, as well as the Valkyrie corps as their trump card.
The scales of victory tipped overwhelmingly in Schicksal's favor.
Then, with a low cry of "Embers of Xuanling," that unremarkable woman fell into the center of the battlefield.
And then?
There was no "and then."
In the end, the Battle of Kipchak concluded with Schicksal's disastrous defeat.
The surviving troops retreated to Europe, and the loss of the war brought extremely painful losses to the Church.
To compensate for these, Schicksal issued "indulgences," and began to levy exorbitant taxes in the name of faith.
God only blesses the most pious, and who are the most pious?
Of course, the more indulgences you buy, the more pious you are!
This was a disaster for the common people at the bottom. The Church had already conscripted a large number of civilian laborers to ensure logistics during the crusade. The long journey, the war, and frequent accidents meant that less than one in a hundred men returned.
The collapse of the family's breadwinner, the spread of the Black Death and many other diseases, Schicksal's scraping the land bare, the steel whips of the noble lords...
Hibiscus skin cooked to a fragrant aroma,
Breasts made into wontons, people fight for a taste.
A message to passersby: don't cover your nose,
The living are not as fragrant as the dead.
This was no exaggeration. For the common people at the bottom, this was their daily life.
This was Hell on Earth.
That was why Fuli had always scoffed at those who praised the sanctity of religion. If you're rich, even Satan is kind; if you're poor, even Buddhists get into gang fights. Religion itself was just the internalization of the human spirit.
And Schicksal, regardless of its original intentions, now existed solely to allow those at the top to do evil things with a righteous pretext.
"Let's go."
As someone who existed in reality, Fuli wouldn't immerse himself in a virtual scene for too long.
Kallen bit her lip, understanding that as someone living under another's roof, she could do nothing.
She turned around and, along with a secretly relieved Otto, followed Fuli's footsteps.
As they walked, they realized something was off.
"Aren't I supposed to be leading?"
"Oh, right!"
Fuli came to his senses, slowed down to let Otto take the lead, and then activated Presence Concealment to hide their tracks.
Otto gave him a helpless look and used the Void Archives to mimic an item that could conceal their presence for himself and Kallen to use.
The three of them twisted and turned, finally arriving at an inconspicuous two-story building just before sunset.
The entire building was surrounded by runes to ward off loiterers, so powerful that even Fuli, a genuine A-Rank, almost missed them.
A cute, silver-haired girl was busy in the small courtyard in front of the house. Judging by the neatly tilled land, she seemed to be planting some edible vegetables.
Standing at the door and observing her for a moment, Fuli spoke up: "A rather clean little girl."
"But you only look a little older than me, you know?"
Despite saying that, Vera couldn't help but break into a smile.
"Clean" was the highest praise one could give a person.
But soon, her eyes lit up as she noticed Otto and Kallen beside him.
"Brother Otto! Lady Kallen!"
She dropped the small shovel in her hand and rushed over, throwing herself into Otto's arms and acting spoiled.
"It's been a while, Vera."
The man stroked the girl's silver-white hair, which was tied into short twin tails, his doting expression mixed with apology. "Sorry, I've been busy lately and haven't been able to come see you often."
"It's okay!"
Vera shook her head, reluctantly leaving Otto's embrace, and then performed a standard curtsy to Kallen.
"Lady Kallen, it's been a long time!"
"Vera, big sister here would rather you just扑 into my arms like you did with Otto."
The Saintess wore a regretful expression.
This is the kid I brought back!
"But I heard that during the Schicksal meeting, Sister Kallen said she fell in love with a girl named Yae Sakura."
Vera looked troubled. "That means Sister Kallen likes women, just like other boys do. There's an old Eastern proverb that says men and women should not touch indiscriminately. If I were to casually make contact with Sister Kallen, wouldn't that tarnish your good name?"
"Leaving aside where you got that messed-up chain of logic, you just rushed into Otto's arms!"
Seeing the child she brought back not being affectionate with her, Kallen pointed at Otto in exasperation. "Isn't this guy a male?"
Vera said with innocent purity, "Brother Otto is Brother Otto!"
"I—!"
"Alright, alright, you two. Can we go inside first?"
Fuli stepped in to mediate. "And you, you naturally black-hearted little girl."
"Call me by my name. Otto Vera or Vera is fine," the silver-haired girl corrected him earnestly.
"Alright, Vera. I'm curious, you don't seem very surprised to see Second Sister and my brother here?"
So much time had passed since the prison break; Schicksal's people should have noticed the situation deep in the dungeon by now.
Even if Vera's whereabouts were kept hidden, the girl would still have to go out to buy groceries and daily necessities.
Along the way, had she not heard rumors like "Kallen Kaslana has escaped from prison" or "The young master of the Apocalypse family has been kidnapped"?
"Surprised? A wanted notice?"
Vera blinked. "But I heard from the patrolling knights that Sister Kallen just eloped with Brother Otto!"
"I see."
Fuli's thoughts turned, and he quickly understood.
The current Bishop Nicholas—Otto's father—could not help but worry about the escaped Kallen making a comeback.
Even if he looked down on Kallen, the high-ranking officials who participated in Schicksal's crusade and witnessed the Schicksal Saintess versus the Celestial Fu Hua on the Kipchak Steppe would never do so.
However, more than that, Nicholas currently needed to consolidate the Kaslana family's power to deal with the increasing pressure from the Castle Council.
The Castle Council was an organization formed by European nobles.
The organization was already eyeing Schicksal's power, and with the aftershocks of the crusade's failure still lingering, the Church was now exposed for conducting human experiments.
This gave the Castle Council ample reason to impeach the three major families, with the goal of destroying the system of shared power and forcing Schicksal to cede power to the council.
It was for this reason that Bishop Nicholas had set his sights on Kallen, attempting to use marriage to stabilize the disloyal Kaslana clan after the crusade.
And once the news of Otto and Kallen's elopement was released, he, having confirmed their engagement, could interfere with the Kaslanas openly and justifiably.
With both parties absent, no one could refute these rumors.
If either Otto or Kallen lost their composure and appeared, Nicholas could also dispatch a large number of elite troops to arrest them.
In reality, the old man's scheme was quite brilliant.
Unfortunately, this was just a data slice of past history. Knowing this, the two of them cared even less about such illusory things.
"Um?"
Vera looked at Fuli with concern, as if wondering why he had suddenly gone silent.
"I'm fine. Actually, right now—"
Fuli gestured, trying to explain the current situation to her in simple, easy-to-understand words.
"Hmm..."
Soon, Vera fell into deep thought.
At that moment, the three of them seemed to see her body's outline glow faintly. Within it, they even saw complex, branching neurons, creatures blooming and withering, and the magnificent expanse of a thousand stars.
"Ah, ah, forget it."
Fuli scratched his head. "In short, just think of me as a good guy."
"I understand, Mr. Good Guy."
She understood that part.
The girl smiled slightly, revealing a set of white, healthy teeth. So cute.
Kallen stood to the side with her arms crossed, thinking that these two kids looked quite compatible.
"Otto."
She turned her head. "Holy crap!"
She was startled by the man's expression, which was like that of a murderous Asura demon.
There were always those types—the ones who saw their daughter or sister interacting with another boy and were instantly consumed by the fires of samadhi, wishing they could kill the bastard with their own hands.
Otto truly regarded Vera as his own daughter. Not only did he personally teach her to read and write, but in the future, he would also have Valkyries teach her combat skills.
Even though Vera's talent was limited, and she was destined never to become a Valkyrie, Otto still showed an immense degree of patience.
In a certain sense, this girl was the last shred of humanity Otto Apocalypse had left after Kallen's sacrifice.
The moment Vera died of old age, Otto had completely and utterly become a monster.
He had become the Tearless Fool whom the Bell of Destiny judged could, at any time, drag all of humanity into the abyss of destruction.
...