Behind-the-scenes video of the beginning of Honkai.

The Herald of Knowledge: "Otto is a complete madman! You actually want to become the god of the new world! I'm going to crush your body right now."

Otto: "What does this have to do with me? I didn't do any of these things."

The Law of Knowledge: "Because I want to take it out on Otto right now, but I can't find Otto in the live stream, and you happen to be quite annoying too, so I can only blame it on you."

Otto: "..."

Theresa: "Grandpa from another world, this is insane! To harbor such thoughts deep in his heart..."

Einstein: "No wonder that Otto in another world would be so ruthless, treating everyone as a chess piece on a chessboard, to be discarded at will."

Walter Young: "From the beginning, he never considered anyone a true teammate."

Tesla: "Otto! Don't you have anything to say? In a way, you're the same kind of person as him!"

Otto: "Like him? Perhaps, but I'm willing to admit... I don't have his grand ambitions, a god of a new world? To create and dominate the world at will? No, no, no, these are not what I want, and I don't think I could ever do any of that. After all, I'm just a fool."

Fu Hua: "...Indeed, although Otto in our world is also a notorious villain, he is more rational than the insane Otto in the other world."

Li Sushang: "Yes, yes, the Rakshasa people in this world are inexplicably a bit scary!"

Zhongli: "You want to become a god who controls everything? That's your wish..."

Hu Tao: "It feels a bit vulgar. I thought this big bad guy named Otto was fighting against the Honkai for some grand ambition, but it turns out he just wants to become a god."

Tinari: "Being a god is not easy, especially one who can control the universe."

Xingqiu: "It feels like the wish of a typical villain in a novel. It seems I guessed wrong before. I thought Mr. Otto was fighting against the Honkai in order to revive Ms. Kallen."

Otto bowed gracefully to the empty space ahead, offering the most contemptuous respect to the formidable enemy he had fought his entire life against. He quietly savored the moment, awaiting the words of the Will Ruler that he most longed to hear—

【ridiculous.】

With just the words "[Will Ruler]", a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred!

噗哧——！

Karen, who was supposed to leave on the lifeboat, suddenly appeared in front of Otto, brandishing her spear and stabbing him in the waist.

"Cough! Karen?"

Otto coughed up a mouthful of blood and looked at Karen, who had suddenly appeared, in shock.

I brought them back.

"Haha, you overestimating yourself, Your Excellency, the colors are really beautiful~"

Flora seemed to be speaking on behalf of the [Will Ruler], delivering a sarcastic remark to Otto with merciless mockery.

"Why?!" Otto roared in bewilderment.

Children, they are Heralds.

"I created them—"

What's the connection?

"This...this is impossible..."

Otto scrambled away, only to be forced back onto the throne by Kallen, his face filled with terror and disbelief.

Karen pierced Otto's body with a spear, roughly inserting tubes into his body. As planned, the tubes were to connect to bioelectricity through skin contact.

Under the influence of the Stigmata, Otto's injured body is slowly regenerating.

At the same time, the inorganic system sounded—

[You are about to enter the world of Stigmata. Please confirm.]

"Gaaaaaaah!! Gaaaaaaah!"

Otto's expression became increasingly ferocious due to the pain.

"Hahaha—hahaha—hahaha—!!"

Flora, standing to the side, just laughed wildly, her eyes vacant.

I will grant you the final battle you desire.

The voice of the Will Ruler echoed in Otto's mind: "Please confirm."

"Heh...hehehehe..." Otto rubbed his forehead, then threw his head back and burst into laughter, "Ahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!!!"

It's hard to tell whether that maniacal laughter stemmed from confidence or despair.

"So Flora was a good-for-nothing too. How could I end up like a good-for-nothing?"

"Kallen is nothing but a clone, a pawn! The real Kallen is long dead!" Otto said with a ferocious expression. "You think you can break my will with them? You're too naive, Honkai!"

[Initiating access to the Stigmata world.]

"Just you wait and see, you're destined to be mine..."

Before Otto could finish speaking, his mind was connected to the world of the Holy Mark.

At the instant of connection, Otto's brain was flooded with a large amount of information.

He finally realized that the so-called victory was nothing but wishful thinking, and all the plans and sacrifices were meaningless.

We are energy life forms from another universe; Honkai energy existed before us, and we are one with it.

Honkai energy is a fundamental medium for perception, solvent exchange, and matter replacement.

[By sending one type of matter into our universe through a 'channel,' we obtain Honkai energy; by sending Honkai energy back into our universe through a 'channel,' we obtain another type of matter.]

This is displacement, the foundation of Honkai energy.

[But Herrscher, this byproduct of the cheap, large-scale replacement guided weapons produced by what humans have named the 'Alienation Organization' has drawn even more attention from you and the previous humans.]

In the beginning, the two universes were completely unrelated.

The distances between universes are unfathomable; we once judged that invading another universe was an impossible miracle.

But our determination to progress is unstoppable.

But our determination to progress is unstoppable, even if we unify all other civilizations in the universe.

The search for another universe, and its civilization, has consumed enough time for you to call eternity.

[The precise transfer of the first wisp of Honkai energy to this civilization consumed the energy of hundreds of billions of star systems, making countless attempts to exhaust the resources available.]

We succeeded.

You may have forgotten the initial 'Honkai', but we remember it.

Long before you named it 'Honkai,' we began using Honkai energy to observe, understand, and analyze your civilization: a weak civilization that might face destruction even before the two universes overlapped.

Only when humanity also uses Honkai energy can the distance between the two universes be rapidly shortened.

Only when the 'channel' continues to expand can the two universes overlap.

Only then can we descend.

This left us at a loss.

[Resolving the Honkai crisis is of paramount importance to humanity; however, fundamental research into Honkai energy is a lengthy, complex, and unpredictable process...]

Fortunately, a utilitarian, ridiculous, and extremely advantageous strategy for the enemy was born in her hands: "Use Honkai to fight Honkai."

[The first era began.]

Chapter 389 The Will-Controlling One's Gratitude

The more Herrschers humanity defeats, captures, or studies, the more significant the results of trial-and-error applications of the 'Alienated Organization,' and the less importance is placed on fundamental research into Honkai energy.

This gave us a glimmer of hope.

So I detached a part of myself and, through the pseudo-human entity you named 'Kiana,' gave it to you.

[I will distribute to you the true theoretical gap in Honkai energy, what you call 'Saintess Power'.]

[The 'Stigmata', created by that madman, another displacement-guided weapon, was combined with the apostle we sent, whom you call 'Jana'...]

[The 'Stigmata Project': an anti-human extinction plan; a planetary-scale matter replacement experiment; a project that repeatedly reboots civilization, causing the Stigmata to endlessly repeat the absurd joke of 'using Honkai to fight Honkai'.]

After that, she was replaced by you, Otto.

I do know you better than you know yourself.

[You are someone who has been instilled with a great deal of knowledge and ideas from a pre-civilization, and whose identity and value have been designated by the Holy Mark, but are simply rebelling against the 'mission' it has given you.]

[Stigmata Terminal Maintenance Technician.]

The biggest reason you can't beat me is your 'narrow-mindedness'.

Do you believe that the Stigmata have endowed you with knowledge and history, making you wise, spiritually strong, and superior to others?

You are certainly an exception among humans.

[The Holy Mark grants you a near-infinite lifespan.]

[And the ability to experience 'hypothetical possibilities' using your personal experiences as material.]

You have used every means to rule Destiny, attempting to defy fate and seek revenge against the Honkai.

But do you really think you've traveled to a parallel world?

Can countless hallucinations truly lead to spiritual refinement?

Have you ever traveled to worlds beyond destiny?

Do you realize how backward and insignificant destiny is?

Lifespan and ability are meaningless, only making you more narrow-minded. A medieval feudal bishop who spent his entire life regarding humans 'below' as ants, consumables, pawns, stumbling blocks... a man who despised everything.

How can one not be poisoned by narrow-mindedness?

If you truly understand the people 'below,' understand their development, thoughts, and breakthroughs,

How could I possibly treat your brothers and sisters, whom I have been inspired to come, as mere pawns to be placed at will?

How could one possibly establish a false cooperative and diplomatic relationship with a community of shared interests?

[How could one possibly intentionally trigger a massive collapse?]

How could one stubbornly cling to their own opinion and create an artificial Herrscher when a subordinate suggested that "using Honkai to fight Honkai is a dead end"?