Bianka felt the surging numbness coursing throughout her body, the pain of being engraved into this wall, her consciousness slowly fading away, but her eyes glared at the blonde man with rage. A raging fire in her heart that burned away all the darkness flooding her eyes.
She couldn't understand how the Gap between them was this vast... No, there wasn't a Gap at all; the Heaven and Earth were always meant to be forever apart.
The calluses that stained her hands, the countless hours of sweat she put into, and the soreness from banging on her body were they all for naught? Just to be overpowered by a single punch?
Her gaze kept glancing at that man and that sly smile on his face. A smile like a Devil. It didn't matter if the Gap between him and her was boundless...She just wanted to knock that smirk off that charming, devious face and tear the space between the two apart.
Her arms, embedded in the wall, broke free from their cage and into the open air. Her legs, grounded by her shackles, tore apart from the solid binds. Bianka gritted her teeth as her fist cracked into the floor upon her landing.
Bianka stood up, and her eyes filled with burning life. She tugged at the burning feeling engulfing her heart and let it set ablaze. An illusory golden armor started to form around the Valkyrie as a golden light engulfed the area for a moment.
As the light dimmed, her voice echoed through the field towards the Schicksal Overseer.
"I am Time itself, the source capable of absolute annihilation. My duty is to deliver various worlds unto obliteration. I am the blade named Durandal, and the edge that will slay you, Devil!"
Volatile Battlesuit: Falsus Dea Anchora
Faced with such a spectacular sight, Nagamitsu started to type on her tablet violently while Luna watched with suspicious eyes.
Otto stood in utter silence, witnessing her new armor, and his mind was brewing with answers to make sense of what had happened.
'I thought a Timestop and a heavy punch would knock her out, but she exceeded my expectations
She is tapping into her Bubble World, and that armor represents the sheer amount of energy and fragile stable balance she has within herself.
That type of Battlesuit in the future should have been given to her in a complete state, but because of me, I provoked her into getting a half-baked version of it. That's f*cking hilarious...Damn Monocle is affecting me more than I expected.
Welp, time to fight her and take responsibility. No Divine Keys, no projections, no Cheating, just straight hands...I would be a fraud if I couldn't fight her like this!'
In a flash, Durandual summoned a golden spear into the air and punched towards the grinning man.
It surged toward the blonde man like a golden blur, but it flung into the air as Otto kicked it upwards from the bottom.
"Is that all you got, Hallow Blade! Can a blade meant to obliterate worlds not be able to cut down this old man?"
Durandal flashed an eerily elated smile, "I am going to knock your teeth out, then when we get ice cream together, I'll force feed you it."
Otto snickered in the moment of danger, "That so? Is that you're answer to my remark? I was expecting bigger."
His words stopped as a gigantic golden spear aimed straight for his head. As a similar golden light was about to emerge from Otto's right hand, he stopped in his tracks.
*CLANG*
A circular barrier of blood blocked the incoming attack, and a familiar young Bloodfiend was standing in front of him, her back facing him like a knight protecting their Liege.
"Luna?" Otto blinked his eyes, but he quickly started talking, "Thanks for the help, but...Are you sure you can take her? She has combat experience, including top-tier military combat experience. I wouldn't want you getting hurt, plus she's the equivalent of a superhuman right now."
She smiled back, "I can handle myself, stop worrying like a cute old man. I know I am less experienced than she is, but who cares if I lose? What's the point if I don't at least try? Also, I can smell it from her, the aroma of facing off against a Hero! Suffering will enrich my blood."
Crimson blood started to condense into Luna's right hand, and it surged into the shape of a lance covered in red ribbons.
"So you decided to join in, instead of watching with your eyes, Child," Durandal asked with clenched fists.
"I just jumped into the fray, and you're already calling me names, how cute! I gotta protect the elderly! So let's have a match, Worldbearing Hero!" Luna pointed her lance forward at the opposing golden hero.
"From how you say it, it almost feels degrading." She responded as the golden spear appeared in her hands and faced the bloody one.
"That's so? Is that you're answer to my words? Do you feel that way because you couldn't hear it from his mouth?"
Luna's pupils widened as a golden blur lunged at her with sharpness and aimed at her chest. The crimson spear in her hand responded in kind as it aimed forward toward the tip of the light.
The room shook as the two spears clashed. Adjusting her posture, Durandal let out a multitude of stabs at every point of Luna's body. The blood-stained spear in Luna's hand moved like a fiend as each strike was met with equal force.
The vampire let out a smirk as she kept up with Durandal's assault, but her arrogance was cracked as numerous golden spears were summoned and joined the fray.
Luna's hand moved around the shaft of her spear and spun it toward the brutal onslaught coming at her. She winced as her arms became numb from the apparent shockwaves coming from each blow.
Her grip tightened as the main spear of Durandal launched forward at an abrupt speed straight at Luna's head.
The smirk on Luna's face shifted into one of panic, feeling the aching numbness grow from the fierce stabs coming at her.
Durandal tightened her muscles, and her armor shone like tomorrow's blazing sun. A spear of condensed light shot with the speed of a sonic boom into the girl's chest like a stake.
Luna comforted the blow with her strike, plunging blood sharpened the tip and met with the sun's blaze.
Just for a second, the red spear struck with all its might toward the approaching dawn, but alas, blood wasn't as thick as the world itself and...*CRACK*
The tip of the bloody spear broke, and the opposition continued forward into its mark, but unfortunately, it seemed for today that light was shaded in darkness. Luna's panic turned into a wicked smile.
A trap for the Worldbearing Hero.
"Gotcha! Luna Hardblood Style!"
The broken spear transformed itself into an ever-expanding umbrella and twirled its front in rapid succession.
"Parade to the End!"
A vortex of hardened, caked blood started to twist and churn forward like a raging storm toward Durandal. The Golden Haired Valkyrie shoved a spear in the ground, conjuring a warm, brilliant barrier to warp around herself.
The sound of metal scratching exploded all over the arena. Nagamitsu covered her ears from the apparent ear-piercing noise, and as she looked at the scene, she noticed...'Where did Otto go?'
As a moment passed, the storm of blood stopped in its tracks, Luna gazed at where Durandal stood with her barrier stained and dripping with red.
"Damn! I thought I at least wounded you, but all I got was a scratch." Luna said as she lifted her umbrella on her shoulder and cast a shadow below her.
Durandal let a finger linger on the cut apparent on her face, feeling the warmth on her finger, she flicked away the stain onto the ground.
"A weak attack, but I can feel the Bloodlust coursing through it."
"Of course you feel it! I mainly use blood. Hey, I noticed something. How come you started acting so cold towards me? Is it because I interrupted something between you two?"
Durandal's fist tightened. "You did. I was this close to feeling his soft and tender devilish face in my hands."
"It seems like you have some pent-up resentment for him."
"It's complicated, I know he's intentionally provoking me so I can grow, but every time his words reach my ears, something within me snaps and burns. I just want him to say, I did a good job, and that I matter to him just as he matters to me."
"...I don't know what to say to that, but why don't I keep you company!" The umbrella held in her hand shifted to that of a long whip sharpened with spikes.
Durandal let out a small smile, "That is, if you can. I'll stop holding back now."
"Oh shit..." Luna's face dimmed as a golden aura started to burst from Durandal's Battlesuit.
The Vampire's pupils dilated at the incoming flash, fast approaching, about to bash and leave a mark on her face. The whip moved in a flash to wrap itself around the fist and slow it down, but no matter how much Luna pulled, it didn't stop in its destination.
Just as the edge of despair was about to devour Luna, a wooden edge appeared out of nowhere and deflected the blow to the side, and the culprit was....
"Otto!" Durandal yelled out.
Otto quickly moved Luna to the side and finally stood in front of the Golden-covered Durandal.
...
Within the past, at the moment when Otto went missing during Luna and Durandal's spar, he quietly moved to the part of the room in a distant corner where a rack of wooden training weapons stood.
As Otto examined each weapon and adjusted his monocle, he asked himself.
What is Honkai Energy?
Is it the supernatural phenomenon that engulfed the world? Is it the energy that comes from the imaginary, or is it a concept that would one day be conquered by Humanity?
Just like in the olden days, when fire, thunder, and water were forces of nature that couldn't be tamed, but were now used in everyday life.
Honkai Energy is the tainted embrace of a Cocoon, but is still Imaginary Energy at its core and allows one to manipulate reality partially.
Moving along, Otto picked up a familiar wooden training blade and thought to himself.
'If we go by that logic and the fundamental truth that every individual has a semblance of Uniqueness within them...How would I apply that to myself?
Seeing Bianka and her Battlesuit, I started to question myself, shouldn't I start exploring the possibilities of Honkai Energy as well, instead of only relying on my Pathways?
Void Archives is a tool, not a crutch, and just like a tool I bought in a store...I have to get my money's worth.'
Otto closed his eyes, and darkness was first within his sight. The man looked deeper past the foolishness, theiving, envisioning, and star gazing. What he saw was just a little golden cube, and its body motionless but still burning brightly.
He nudged the Divine Key into action, not to project or mimic but to use it in absorbing the little bits of Honkai Energy saturated in the atmosphere. The Divine Key inside grew and burned with a kindling fire.
'That was the first step, turning on my tool, and the next step was to use said tool. The basic principle of using Honkai Energy was to enhance an individual to superhuman levels.
Well, I don't have a Stigma, Battlesuit, haven't learned Edge of Taixun, or am genetically modified with a Honkai Beast...I only have body that's comprised of Soulium and is damn well conducting Honkai Energy.
Let's think now, if I somehow pump my limbs full of Honkai Energy to amplify my Stats, it will work, but in a costly and short boost. That's a short-term solution. I need something more permanent.
I have to process this clearly in my own way. If Otto's life was filled with foolishness for the one purpose of reviving Kallen, and my life was filled with gacha, nine to fives, and coffee. The thing we had in common...It was our Sin of Greed.
Sin....Sin...Sin...Sin...Sin! F*ck it we ball! Who cares if it doesn't work? We both lived as Sinners might as well Lament in Hell for attempting this.'
The Edge of Taixun, created in the Previous Era, was self-hypnotized to an extreme to allow people to rapidly adapt to Honkai and become stronger. To allow the body to control energy and kill Herrschers. To clear all emotions and reach enlightenment.
The complete opposite side of a coin that Otto was attempting. A technique from the "Gacha" Game, Limbus Company, called Shin (心), and Mang (望), is related to the powers of the Light (Emotions), and Sin (Using Emotions into Power), which is a type of energy projection.
He wasn't using the actual Shin and Mang from that game's Universe but merely the concept and principles of it and fueling it with Honkai Energy...The Imaginary.
Let a little child transfixed on a piece of candy, Otto stared at the blade and concentrated within his mind.
His emotions started to dimmed into nothingness, the burning uncontrollable wrath of his rage being put into his world froze, his lust for the holy maiden ceased, his sloth of unwillingness to never change his fight for the beauty of the world moved, his gluttony of never ending hunger for Pathways saited its appetite, the darkness of gloom sinking into the deeps of the sea shined with light, his pride of perfection became imperfect, and the envy of being the unloving didn't matter.
A single memory surged throughout the flickering emotions, the one in his past life, he felt the searing flames burning down the orphanage where he stayed, they're intense heat bringing him freedom from his childhood prison.
In that memory, the child named Lin didn't care if his flame burned everything to the ground, all he wanted was to be free from this shackle, the burn a cinder, the disgusting memories he had of the place, the rotten food in his mouth, and the aching pain from how wounds. Lin wanted to set it all ablaze.
The Sin and memory of Wraith engulfed Otto's mind in a blazing heat. A warm and faint light started to emit from his body. Touching his body, Otto felt it, the denseness of this light, and the thickness of its properties.
The only reasons why he could do it in his first try from the top of his head were that his Pathways were that good at increasing his Spiritual Talents, Soulium is cracked at Honkai Energy Conduction, and lastly, he was filled with Sin.
He sighed in disappointment, noticing that Shin lasted only for five seconds. He was only a beginner and wasn't surprised at the short time.
"15% Defense Increase is pretty good for starting. No point in trying Mang, don't have much time and it's more difficult."
Finished examining himself, he slowly moved to the battlefield where a surge of light engulfed the area. Otto shaded his eyes and spoke to himself.
"...I, Otto Apocalypse, am a fraud for breaking my vow on thy hands and will forever be a man engulfed in Sin."
...
Present.
With a wooden training sword pointed at her, Otto said to her, "You're wrong, Bianka! You do matter to me! I am just a bastard who can't properly express his emotions, and so this is the only way for me to do it."
"What?"
He dropped the sword onto the ground and projected a black golden edge throne. As the moment he sat on it, several dark crimson bandage bindings stuck him onto the seat, and with a voice filled with majestic vigor, he called out to the frozen, confused girl.
"Hit me, Durandal! Slay this devil atop this solitary throne, bound by his Sins!"
Bianka stood silent at Otto's words and quickly asked, "Are you sure?"
"Would thy King ever lie?"
"Grandpa! You can't take her! How do you keep on making these weirdly specific objects?" Luna quickly tried to force out the man from his bound throne, but the binds were wrapped tightly around him.
"I am sorry, my sweet child, but what must be done will be done. Thy King must keep their word! So please leave this battlefield for my sake...I know my limits. Death is merely an afternoon snack."
The girl trusted him, but...To see him just do this act really riles her up. "Fine...Just know if you need someone to help with your wheelchair, I'll be the first one to help. Since I am your favorite."
"Sure, sweetie, whatever you say," Luna grumbled as she heard this and moved back to the stands where Nagamitsu was still furiously scribbling.
With Luna gone from the fray, Durandal was ready for this opportunity and positioned herself.
Otto's hand gripped onto the armrests as Durandal held her hands onto the empty air in the position of holding a sword.
"You're the reason why, I feel this way...So take this responsibility."
A faint flicking shape started to form in her hands, it was an illusory golden crossed sword. As Bianka held the blade high, it shone a volatile but warm light. Its blade is ready to cut all things.
"Duridana."
Otto, without moments of hesitation, stirred up a memory full of burning wraith, and an aura of Shin started to surround his body.
The false blade named Durandal moved with might as its wielder swung down at the throned king.
As the Holy Blade inches closer to cutting down at his Shin-covered body, and just as the blade was a breath away from touching him, it disappears into glittering lights. Otto tilted his head at the sudden lack of pain, and soon after, he felt a finger flick onto his forehead.
"Ow."
"That face is yours is worth remembering. Quite cute."
The shining translucent armor disappeared from Bianka's body, and taking advantage of Otto's befuddlement, she took out a heavily encased phone. Bianka positioned the phone screen facing both of them and...*SNAP*
A picture of him bound on a throne with a confused expression, while Bianka was making a peace sign.
'Ah...I, Otto Apocalypse, have been hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amok, and flat out deceived by a Goose.'
Otto couldn't help but laugh manically at her, "Good job, Bianka...I am proud of you."