The Twelve Trials Starting from Zero

Otto's soul form inherently possesses strong resistance to mental attacks. In order to ensure the power of that strike, Su Qi had to make a decision at this moment. Otherwise, if he continued to expend energy, even if he used that strike, he might not achieve the desired effect.

However, once I use that move, I will lose most of my fighting ability...

Thinking about this, he hesitated for a moment, but quickly made up his mind.

It's alright. Even if I fail this time, I will definitely be able to create an opening for Rozell to take advantage of. With her abilities, there's no way she won't seize this opportunity!

Su Qi decided to trust his partner, so he immediately took action, doing his best to dodge Otto's various attacks while guiding a large amount of Honkai energy into Eden Star to release it.

"Eden's Star - Zero Rated Power: A Simulated Black Hole!"

A pitch-black void, about ten meters in diameter and swallowing all light like an abyss, suddenly appeared in the sky above the battlefield, located on the side closest to Otto.

The next moment, whether it was the disintegrating light cannon, the wind blade, the overwhelming sea of ​​fire, or the powerful attack released by the multiple Heavenly Fire Judgments mimicked by the Void Treasury, all of them were distorted halfway and pulled away by the black hole.

My period is coming! Right now!

Su Qi's eyes narrowed, and he seized the opportunity to rush into a large gap in the battlefield, instantly closing the distance between himself and Otto.

Then, disregarding the fact that his own body was being pulled by the black hole, he directly concentrated his spiritual power, unleashed it into a single strike, locked onto Otto, and then...

One strike to annihilate a soul!

A flash of light, like an arc of lightning, appeared as the blade slashed down at Otto, who was several meters away.

At the same time, the Soul Blade also broke through space and time in an instant, striking directly into Otto's consciousness.

The next moment, the Soul-Destroying Blade, which was not bound by the rules of this world, completely ignored Otto's defense against Yu Duchen and exploded in his sea of ​​consciousness.

boom!!

As if struck by lightning, Otto felt his soul and consciousness shattered by a bomb before he could even react. Then everything went black, and he instantly lost consciousness.

In reality, the godlike body controlled by Otto's consciousness suddenly froze, its eyes lost their light, and then it abruptly gave up resisting the black hole's suction force, its body being quickly pulled in.

"It's not over yet..."

Having practiced countless times in the pure white space, Su Qi, though extremely exhausted from using his ultimate move, still had the strength to move.

We don't know if he's dead or how long he'll remain unconscious. There's no guarantee he won't wake up halfway through, so just in case, we'll perform a seventeen-part split on him before he's sucked into the simulated black hole, and then extract the three Herrscher cores!

With this in mind, he suppressed his mental exhaustion and painstakingly manipulated the simulated black hole through the Star of Eden, quickly catching up with Otto by following the gravitational pull.

The next moment, he swung his sword without hesitation, aiming to cut off Otto's head first.

But at that moment, Otto's eyes shone with divine light once more. Thanks to his network-like soul system, although his soul as a whole was still severely damaged by the previous strike, with nine-tenths of his fragmented souls being destroyed, he was still alive. He endured the pain of the destruction of a large number of souls and managed to project his consciousness in time.

"Get out of here!!"

With the blade almost at his neck, Otto's superhuman speed of thought allowed him to react in time. He then used the power of the Herrscher of Wind to manipulate the airflow, instantly creating a massive airburst between the two.

boom!!

The air exploded like water, and shockwaves swept in all directions.

Su Qi was already at his limit and couldn't resist at all, and was blown away. But before that, he used almost all of his remaining mental energy to launch a tiny black dot, no bigger than an ant, which stuck to Otto's clothes on the back.

Subsequently, the simulated black hole also disappeared rapidly due to Su Qi's cessation of power supply. Otto barely stopped at the edge of the original black hole and was almost sucked in.

"I never expected... that man... would have... such a trump card..."

He hovered in mid-air, feeling as if his once nimble and powerful body was now sluggish as if encased in ten layers of heavy armor. His mind was in turmoil, his consciousness chaotic, and even uttering a complete sentence was extremely difficult. This was the aftereffect of excessively weakened consciousness.

But now was a critical moment. He couldn't afford to rest. He endured all the discomfort and manipulated his godlike body to swoop down and chase after the falling Su Qi. The latter might still have the information he needed. If possible, he would naturally want to catch a living Su Qi, not a pile of minced meat.

At that moment, the detection radar installed inside the godlike body suddenly issued an alarm, detecting a high-speed unidentified flying object that had suddenly appeared nearby.

What is that?!

A thought struck him, and he looked up to see a beautiful silver-gray fighter jet, shaped like a triangular arrowhead with smooth lines that perfectly conformed to aerodynamic principles, suddenly appear in the air.

Boom boom boom boom boom...

The fighter jet roared forward and arrived in the blink of an eye. Through the artificial eyeballs within his Soul Steel Body, Otto easily locked onto the high-speed moving target and clearly saw the pilot's appearance in the cockpit opposite him.

He was a middle-aged Asian man who appeared to be around forty or fifty years old. He had short, graying hair and wore an old green military uniform. His slightly aged face was now completely distorted, as ferocious and terrifying as an angry Asura. And the look in his eyes was filled with hatred and rage that even the waters of the three rivers and five seas could not extinguish.

Wang Qinian? It's him? Why is he here? Is he just an ordinary person who came here to die, or is he one of Su Qi's trump cards?

Otto's eyes flickered slightly, and he recognized this former subordinate at a glance. Then, a thought crossed his mind, and he activated the Tranquil Gem within his godlike body.

At the same time, the pilot's furious roar, his face flushed red, came from the speakers specially installed on the opposite fighter jet.

"Otto, my entire Chinese family's ancestors for eighteen generations!!"

Classic Chinese curses from China resounded through the sky, and the next moment, the entire fighter jet was completely engulfed by the pitch-black disintegration beam cannon.

Chapter Sixty-Three: Loss of Synchronization

Did you manage to dodge it...?

Although he destroyed the fighter jet with a single blow, Otto did not relax at all, because Old Wang had already activated the ejection device and ejected from the cockpit before the light cannon destroyed the aircraft.

The other side couldn't have just sent a mortal to his death; he must possess something that could threaten me...

Otto locked his gaze on his opponent, instantly noticing the strange large backpack behind him. He had already begun to retreat rapidly while unleashing the Disintegration Light Cannon. However, the severe injury to his soul made it difficult for him to concentrate, and his control over his godlike body was greatly slowed down. Otherwise, Old Wang might not have been able to dodge that cannon fire in time.

On the other side, Wang Qinian was also enduring pain equal to, or even greater than, that of Otto.

In order to strengthen himself as much as possible and have the ability to personally wield a sword against monsters like Otto, he, who had low Honkai energy adaptability, underwent a forced implantation experiment of Stigmata and was injected with a large amount of stimulants and temporary enhancement drugs that were enough to kill him before going into battle.

Now his mind was incredibly clear and excited, but because he was too sensitive, he could feel countless strands of collapse energy flowing through his body every moment, cutting his flesh and grinding his nerves like a file, cruelly tormenting his mind like an endless torture.

All of this only resulted in him being able to react slightly in front of Otto, just like that ricochet just now, and avoiding being instantly killed.

Let's die together, Otto!!

Under the intense pain and the effects of the drug, Old Wang's veins bulged all over his body, his skin turned a deep red as if he had been steamed, his neck thickened, his facial features contorted, and his eyes bloodshot, making him look like a demon. If this state continued, he would die within half an hour from heart failure or Honkai energy erosion, even without fighting, but it was all worth it.

Only in this way could he react in time to Su Qi's lightning-fast sequence of activating the transmitter, disengaging from quantum state, and launching a short-range, rapid attack on Otto, successfully delivering the weapon to Otto's side, and then...

I'm sorry, daughter...

With that last thought flashing through his mind, Lao Wang pressed the button in his hand without hesitation as soon as he was ejected from the cockpit.

The next moment, the miniature annihilation bomb behind him exploded instantly.

Within a fraction of a second, the closest matter that made up the entity named "Wang Qinian" was instantly annihilated and erased from the world. Immediately afterwards, the immense explosive energy radiated outwards, spreading in all directions, and in the blink of an eye, it caught up with Otto, who was fleeing at top speed.

Hmph, as expected, there was a trap. But a mere mortal, using weapons I created, dares to attempt to kill a "god"?

Otto remained calm and composed, enduring the mental anguish and exhaustion, and calmly maximized his abilities in Wind and Fire, breaking through layers of sonic booms to accelerate his escape. At the same time, he painstakingly multitasked, using the Void Treasury to mimic the Key of Constraint, Judas, which could control energy, and launched chains that wrapped him up like a cocoon.

The next moment, the shockwave from the explosion spread completely.

boom!!

A blinding flash of light appeared, and a vacuum with a radius of over ten kilometers instantly appeared high in the sky. Immediately, the air surged and the storm spread. Su Qi, who had tried his best to get away after being blasted away, was also affected. His psychic power, barely enough to keep him steady in the wind, was almost blown away, leaving him dizzy and disoriented, nearly fainting and performing a freefall.

As for Otto, although he reacted quickly and escaped to the outer edge of the blast's epicenter before being affected, he lost his entire lower body. The Judas-like being was also destroyed during the blast, causing the Void Treasury connected to his soul to overload and exacerbating his mental trauma.

However, he managed to preserve most of the important parts of his body. And with his body made of soul steel, given more time, he could rebuild most of his physical structure.

This time... I... won...

Otto managed to steady his remaining upper body, but due to the successive severe mental blows, his consciousness was as sluggish as a computer crashing.

No... since they... were able to hide once through some method... then...

He suddenly realized what was happening, but it was too late.

The next moment, ten crimson beams of light pierced the sky, converging precisely at a single point, and simultaneously struck Otto.

Lavatin... a giant cannon? How could it... be here?

He opened his eyes, trying desperately to resist, but before he could even move, he was engulfed by the exploding light. Then, everything went black and light flashed before his eyes, and he returned to the consciousness space constructed by the Void Treasury, which served as the soul's central hub. A notification panel popped up in front of him—"Out of sync with Body S01."

……

On the other side, Su Qi, who was in mid-air, looked up and saw a huge firework blooming in the sky. The light it shone for a moment even overshadowed the sun on the horizon.

Old Wang, are you satisfied now...?

He sighed softly, and after a while, a small airship descended from above and stopped right in front of him.

Need a ride?

Still dressed in a white cat-eared maid outfit, Roselier stood at the edge of the upper deck, extending an invitation to him. The floating warship beneath her feet was, of course, a replica materialized by her abilities, capable of operating at her will without a pilot.

"Of course, I don't want to end up like Otto, turning into Su Qi-chan."

Su Qi, who was already at his limit, gladly accepted the invitation and stepped onto the deck of the warship.

"Phew, this is killing me. I've been almost completely drained by Otto for two days in a row. I need to get a good night's sleep when I get back to make up for it."

As soon as he boarded the ship, he let out a long breath and simply plopped down on the ground to rest... Well, it was definitely not because this was a better angle to appreciate Miss Roselle's absolute territory.

"By the way, have any items been recovered?"

"Yes, the structure of the Herrscher core is very peculiar, existing somewhere between energy and matter, and it was not destroyed in the bombardment."

As Roselle spoke, she extended her right hand and presented it to Su Qi. On her fair and delicate palm were three exquisite crystals that emitted powerful energy fluctuations: a red Plague Gem, a blue Tranquility Gem, and a cyan Desire Gem.

The latter glanced at the three Herrscher Cores but didn't take them. He simply said, "Herrscher Cores... these things are useless to me. You can just leave them there to study as you please. They should be helpful in analyzing the properties of Honkai energy."

Roselle nodded, put the three gems back into her skirt pocket, and then said, "Otto's counterattack has been repelled. He shouldn't have the strength to organize another threatening attack in the short term. The next thing to do is very simple."

"That's right. First, we need to unite the power of all humanity to fight against the Honkai. Second, we need to find a way to deal with the fission bombs that Otto has set up, dig out his true form, find the key, and then fundamentally solve the Honkai problem."

"But before that, this battle still needs to be brought to a close."

"Speed ​​up. I don't think Otto will honestly keep his promise. The most likely scenario is that he'll get angry and order the branch fleet to flee or fight us to the death... But I can't take action right now, so I'll trouble you to take Yu Duchen over there and subdue as many of those people as possible."

Although Roselle's soul strength is comparable to Su Qi's, it is not much different. It is perfectly fine for her to use the Feather Dust to carry out brainwashing.

Roselier didn't answer. Instead, she switched the floating warship beneath her feet into a supersonic fighter jet, carrying the two of them as they quickly swooped down.

……

Meanwhile, in Antarctica, a secret laboratory known as "Between Fates".

In the columnar space that seemed to be supported by a giant crystal tree, the hatch of one of the life support pods opened, and Otto, still dripping with nutrient solution, emerged fresh from the pod, his face ashen.

“Su Qi…”

Standing on the cold metal floor, he squinted as he chewed on the name, a chilling killing intent, like never before seen in his eyes.