Chapter 631: Otto’s Unusual Behavior, Theresa’s Kiss

“Ahh~ A peaceful life really is wonderful.”

Elias reclined in a rocking chair, holding a cup of hot goji berry tea as he basked in the excessively warm midsummer sunshine. Rocking gently back and forth, he looked incredibly lazy, as though he’d already entered retirement.

Three adorable little cats were sprawled across his stomach. One was a brown Pardo Kitty, another was a white Kiana Kitty, and both could genuinely transform themselves into cats.

As for the third~ She was Luna, the vampire kitty.

Elias raised a hand and affectionately patted each of their heads, silently praying that this peaceful, blissful life would last a little longer.

Unfortunately, just then…

“Hey, you really are ridiculously energetic. Where did everyone else go? Don’t tell me you’ve already finished them all off.”

Theresa approached with a complicated expression. Although she had her hands planted firmly on her hips, she was far too adorable to project even the slightest hint of authority.

Elias blinked, then nodded with an awkward smile.

He had indeed finished everyone else off.

At this very moment, Elysia, Mei, Himeko, the Herrscher of Finality, Jyahnar, Rosemary, Rita, Cecilia, Aponia, Eden, Bronya, and practically everyone else in the dormitory were lying around utterly exhausted and barely able to move.

After all, Elias hadn’t seen them for ten thousand years, and he’d been rather… starved for affection in that particular department. Consequently, over the past few days, he’d thoroughly worn out every single one of them. And he had to admit something.

They were all unbelievably weak!

Or perhaps Elias had simply become far too powerful.

Especially after acquiring a vampire’s Meta-Morph factors and transforming into a vampire prince. Whenever night fell and Elias found himself facing the women, he could practically grant himself a buff that provided infinite stamina.

In short, he’d effortlessly defeated every last one of them. Besides acquiring a vampire’s bite mark somewhere on their bodies, they’d all been thoroughly filled like cream puffs. They would need at least several days of rest before they could recover.

“Ugh! Y-You really are something else…”

Theresa’s adorable little face turned bright red. Although she’d already lived for over fifty years, she was genuinely as innocent and naive as a child, without the slightest experience in such matters.

The way she looked at Elias now was as though she were staring at a beautiful demon. She was terrified that one careless mistake would cause her to follow in Cecilia’s and the others’ footsteps, surrendering herself to him and sinking into depravity.

Elias rolled his eyes.

Admittedly, Theresa was in her forties. Even if their relationship genuinely developed in that direction, he wouldn’t have to worry about the police dragging him away or the mighty beast coming after him.

Nevertheless, Elias had established certain principles and boundaries for himself. After all, he already had Luna. Why would he need another Theresa?

“So, what brings you here? Is my vacation already over?”

Elias asked, resting his head against his hand.

“Heh. Who could possibly stop the savior of humanity from taking a vacation? It’s just that you’ve spent the past few days doing that with everyone, and now practically every top-tier fighter at St. Freya Academy has been completely incapacitated.”

Theresa rolled her eyes as she spoke.

“Uh… Well, that’s…”

“Even when the Honkai Beasts were at their most active, nobody ever suffered injuries this severe. If you weren’t Elias, I’d seriously suspect that Honkai had sent you here to sabotage us.”

Over the past few days, Elias had single-handedly eliminated humanity’s most powerful combatants from active duty. Consequently, the worldwide Honkai Beast extermination rate had plummeted by thirty percent compared to last month!!

Anti-Entropy had even sent someone over just now to inquire about the situation. After all, Mei and the others hadn’t been seen in action for days. Anyone unfamiliar with the circumstances might have assumed that some terrible disaster had struck St. Freya Academy.

Even Elysia’s streaming account had gone quiet for quite some time.

While Elias was adventuring through the Sea of Quanta, Elysia had become a streamer to entertain herself and pass the time. Under the username “Miss Pink Elf,” she’d accumulated over a million followers in just one month.

Naturally, Elias considered this perfectly normal. After all, how could anyone in this world possibly dislike Elysia? Besides, she streamed purely for entertainment, donating every last penny she earned from her videos and livestreams.

Coupled with her status as a Flame-Chaser who fought against Honkai to protect humanity, Miss Pink Elf’s popularity had skyrocketed practically from the moment she started streaming.

The Ely Gate, which had once enjoyed tremendous popularity throughout the Previous Era, had recently reappeared in the Current Era. Elias had even found time to join over the past few days and seize the position of its supreme leader.

Ahem. Getting a little sidetracked here…

“Honkai Beasts, huh? Leave them to me. I’ll send a few thousand puppets on a little trip around the world and have them wipe out every Honkai Beast they encounter. Sigh~ Not that we’ll ever manage to exterminate them completely.”

Elias shrugged. In truth, St. Freya Academy, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent, and even Schicksal had become practically unnecessary. He alone was already powerful enough to suppress Honkai.

After all, who could possibly stand against an army of a million puppets?

Every puppet possessed the strength of an Emperor-class MANTIS. A single one could defeat three versions of Theresa without any enhancements. In other words, just one of Elias’ puppets was sufficient to defend an entire small country.

Furthermore, they could receive additional power from Elias at any moment. As long as human malice continued to exist and Elias himself remained alive, his puppets could resurrect indefinitely, no matter how many times they were defeated.

Honkai: (How the hell am I supposed to fight this?! Bash my head against them?!!)

Incidentally, Elias had already progressed as far as the Tenth Herrscher in Luna and Himeko’s bubble world over the past few days. Controlling his Otto puppet, he’d been breezing through everything with almost insulting ease.

He’d even absorbed Anti-Entropy and World Serpent into his forces. By now, his puppets had effectively unified the entire bubble world. As for how he’d managed to progress so quickly, that was because he’d asked the Herrscher of Finality to accelerate the flow of time inside it.

At this rate, that particular bubble world might completely conquer Honkai before they even finished dealing with Honkai in the Proper World.

“Anyway, Theresa, you didn’t come looking for me just because of the Honkai Beasts, did you? Even if Elysia and the others need a few days to recover, considering St. Freya Academy’s current military strength, we’ve practically got S-rank Valkyries and Herrschers running around everywhere.”

“Forget exterminating a few Honkai Beasts. Even if the Eleventh Herrscher suddenly appeared, everyone could simply overwhelm it with brute force without me lifting a finger.”

Elias stretched lazily as he spoke. The Current Era’s combat capabilities had already reached absurd levels, leaving humanity with an overwhelming advantage against Honkai. And all because they’d discovered a particularly ridiculous exploit.

Honkai grew stronger in proportion to civilization’s strength. Unfortunately for Honkai, the main force currently fighting against it consisted almost entirely of Herrschers, all of whom Elias had poached directly from the opposing side.

Consequently, the situation was no longer a matter of civilization growing stronger and Honkai responding in kind. Instead, the stronger Honkai became, the stronger civilization became!

The tables had completely turned. Fifty thousand years of fortune on one side, fifty thousand years on the other~

“That’s you, all right. And yes, I do have something to tell you. Grandpa has been asking about you again. And again. And again.”

“Oh? Otto? What does he want with me?”

“I’m not sure. But during the nearly month-long period you spent exploring the Sea of Quanta, Grandpa kept sending messages every few days, asking when exactly you’d be coming back.”

“…Is that so?”

Elias narrowed his eyes slightly. He immediately contacted Amber, who was currently working as his undercover agent inside Schicksal. According to her, Otto Apocalypse had indeed been behaving rather strangely throughout this period.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have any further information.

(He hasn’t even told Amber? Whatever he’s planning, it must be something big.)

Elias raised an eyebrow. Amber was arguably one of the people Otto Apocalypse trusted most in the entire world. He might conceal information from practically anyone else, but surely not from his artificial secretary.

And if there was something Otto wouldn’t even tell Amber…

It could only be his plan to resurrect the saintess, couldn’t it?

“Tsk, tsk. So we’re finally approaching Thus Spoke Apocalypse, huh? Although I doubt things will unfold exactly as they did in the original storyline. Otherwise, Otto wouldn’t be going out of his way to ask about me.”

“Come to think of it, I promised the Otto from that parallel world that I’d save Kallen, didn’t I? Uh… I accidentally pushed that whole business to the back of my mind. Well, at least my preparations are already complete.”

For the first time in ages, Elias opened his system interface. He’d actually obtained the dungeon set five hundred years in the past quite some time ago. Now, whenever he felt like it, he could immediately travel back to that era.

He could steal away the saintess whom a certain fool had spent five hundred years longing for… Ahem! He meant rescue her, of course!

(Come to think of it, although I’ve never actually met that saintess in person, I’ve already gotten to know several versions of Kallen Kaslana. In a sense, you could say we’re practically old acquaintances.)

First, there was the self-aware Kallen data construct he’d encountered in St. Freya Academy’s database. She’d since renamed herself Eliana Kaslana and become one of Elias’ lovers.

Then there was Amber. Anyone who removed her golden mask would immediately recognize her as Kallen’s clone. She was currently serving as Elias’ undercover agent.

Finally, there was the Sündenj?ger Kallen he’d encountered in a bubble world not long ago. Although she wasn’t the genuine saintess either, she was an entirely new personality who’d inherited fragments of the saintess’ memories alongside her complete physical body.

At present, she was also an invaluable subordinate to Elias’ puppet.

Elias: “There really are a ridiculous number of Kallen variants…”

Theresa: “Elias, what have you been muttering about this whole time? What are we going to do about Grandpa?”

Elias: “Hmm… Well~ Theresa, what would you like me to do?”

Elias reached out and scooped up the adorable little white-haired girl, holding her as casually as though she were a stuffed doll.

After all, Otto was still Theresa’s grandfather. Although he was an utterly irredeemable villain, there was no denying that he’d always treated Theresa exceptionally well. In fact, one could argue that Theresa was practically the only person who could occasionally bring out whatever little conscience that bastard still possessed.

“I… I…”

Theresa hesitated, completely uncertain about what to say. She understood perfectly well that Otto was a monstrous villain whose death would undoubtedly be for the best. Nevertheless, that same villain was also her grandfather, someone who’d genuinely shown her familial affection.

Put simply…

Everyone in the world had the right to curse Otto.

Everyone except Theresa herself.

“I understand. I’ll spare that bastard’s life.”

“…Elias, I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“Some things don’t need to be said, Theresa. Your expression has already told me exactly what you’re thinking. Hehe. I don’t even need to use the Authority of Transcendent Sentience to figure that out. However, let me make one thing clear beforehand.”

Elias raised a hand and gently stroked Theresa’s head. Despite the tenderness of his gesture, his unusually serious expression made her somewhat nervous.

“I’ll spare his life, but that’s all I’m promising. Although I owe the Otto Apocalypse from that parallel world a promise, the Otto of this world was unquestionably one of my greatest enemies. I fully intend to take revenge on him… And my revenge might very well make him wish he were dead.”

Death had never been the most terrifying punishment.

For Theresa’s sake, Otto’s miserable life would be spared. However… Someday in the future, Otto Apocalypse might find himself believing that death would have been a merciful release.

Theresa took a deep breath. Gazing into the young man’s magnificent heterochromatic eyes, she eventually nodded with complete seriousness.

If Grandpa ends up wishing he were dead, then so be it. He brought it upon himself.

“All right, then it’s settled. I’ll head over to Schicksal right now and see what that bastard is plotting this time.”

“Come back soon. Uh, wait a second… Elias, could you crouch down for a moment?”

“Hmm? Is there something else?”

Just as Elias was preparing to leave, Theresa caught the hem of his clothes. He blinked in surprise before obediently crouching down as the adorable little white-haired girl requested.

The very next moment, Theresa leaned forward and stood on tiptoe.

She planted a quick kiss on Elias’ cheek.

Theresa: “…Thank you, Elias.”

The little white-haired girl’s cheeks turned scarlet. This was her own modest way of expressing her gratitude. However, immediately after kissing him, Theresa rather irresponsibly turned around and fled.

Elias could practically see steam rising from her head.

(Uwaaaaah!! Cecilia and the others always look so natural when they kiss Elias! Why does it actually feel like this?! T-This is way too embarrassing!!)

“Hehe~ How adorable.”

Using the Authority of Transcendent Sentience to read the little white-haired girl’s thoughts, Elias couldn’t suppress the enormous grin spreading across his face.

He was perfectly willing to acknowledge that today’s Theresa was the cutest girl in the entire world!

And he certainly wasn’t washing his face today!

Elias: “Hmm. Before I leave, I should go find Eliana and get another kiss. Then I’ll head over and show off to that bastard Otto!”