The noose hanging from the gallows swayed slightly in the twilight breeze.
The gallows were constructed in the courtyard in front of the Grand Cathedral. The entire area was silent and empty, the sight of the gallows enough for people to avoid it. But gradually, as the sun descended from the sky and plunged the city into darkness, people began assembling as if gripped by morbid curiosity.
The entire city of Vienna knew who was to die that day. The ill fate of Kallen Kaslana, once the hero of Schicksal, spread quickly. She was beloved by the people she worked so hard to protect, and so many of them chose to be there at her life's end as if sitting beside a cherished friend on their deathbed.
The assembled crowd was forlorn and silent. Soon, ceaseless, whispered rumours spread through it. Many of them refused to believe the allegations. Some thought it was impossible to execute a valkyrie at all.
The crowd fell silent when several footsteps could be heard approaching the square. They each turned their heads toward the sound.
Kallen Kaslana came into view, dressed in white and gold robes. Her arms and legs were shackled together. She walked along a path lined with blazing torches, escorted on each side by two nuns dressed in black. Whether they welcomed or condemned her coming death, none could say.
The gathering's eyes never left her. They watched her with pity. With despair. With anger. They wanted to save her just as she had saved them.
When Kallen first saw the gallows, she expected herself to feel paralyzing fear. All she felt now was a heavy sadness and resignation. She slowly ascended the wooden staircase and stepped onto the raised platform where the noose awaited her. The two nuns stepped onto the gallows with her. They had her stand on top of the trapdoor. They carefully fastened the noose around her neck before standing aside.
The crowd continued to watch. Kallen tried to avoid meeting their eyes, but she could not prevent herself from noticing a young, brunette girl standing in the crowd by her parents.
Sasha…have you come to bid me farewell?
More footsteps approached. This time, it was two men, both dressed in dark robes and hoods. Kallen recognized one of them. She had always known it would be him to pass her sentence.
The two men stepped on the platform with her. She stared into the eyes shrouded by the darkness of his hood, wondering about his thoughts.
"Kallen of House Kaslana, eldest daughter of Francis Kaslana," he said slowly and carefully. "You stand here today because you have been found guilty of the following crimes: treason against Schicksal by interfering with and then stealing the vital research it had been conducting; theft of valuables from twenty-five households of this city; most grievous of all, treason against humanity by loving a demoness born of the Honkai. You are allowed one final opportunity to repent for your crimes, and only by this can you find forgiveness in the eyes of God. May He have mercy on your soul and ensure you a peaceful afterlife. Do you repent for your crimes?"
Kallen only felt a profound sense of sadness coming from the man. His name was Lord Arthur, and he had been one of her most trusted mentors growing up. He was a skilled combatant and had instructed her in his ways of fighting, which she had incorporated into the combat style of House Kaslana. He was the one to deliver her the Oath of Judah when she needed it the most, and he had cut through the horde of corrupted villagers to reach her. It was only right that he was here at the end.
She shook her head and stared him in the eye. "I do not. I freely admit to doing all of this and more. But I regret none of it. There is nothing that I should repent for. Everything I did, I did because it was the right thing to do. I stole from the rich because they had stolen from those who needed it the most. I fell in love with Yae Sakura not because she was a demon, but a lost soul I wished to protect. Yes, I am guilty of all I am accused of - but crimes they are not. And if I shall die for them, then so be it."
She felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders as she confessed everything to the world. Now, she could die at peace.
Lord Arthur seemed to sigh. "You have spoken. Now only He may judge you." He gestured to the other man. The man slowly walked over to the lever that controlled the trapdoor and gripped it with both hands.
Kallen looked through the crowd, hoping that they were not there to witness what was about to happen to her. To her relief, neither of them were visible. She did not wish for them to need to carry the burden of witnessing her end.
Both of you…can move on from me…
Lord Arthur did not give the order to trigger the trapdoor even after half a minute passed. The onlookers began to feel confusion, wondering why he refused to carry out the sentence. Instead, he seemed to be waiting for someone.
There were surprised mutterings throughout the crowd, then loud yelling.
Kallen opened her eyes to see what she hoped to never see again.
Johann was walking down the path to the gallows. To her. To rescue her.
His footsteps seemed painful and stilted, but still he forced himself forward. He was accompanied by twenty other men following closely behind him, each of them clad in full plate armour and heavily armed.
Johann himself wore no armour and gripped his gun using his left hand. Kallen knew this was because his right arm was forever lost to him and his legs could now barely carry his own weight. Despite this, he still carried his sword on his right. His paralyzed right arm was carried in a sling, but the ferocity in his eyes made him seem as dangerous as any of the soldiers walking behind him.
Kallen could not tear her gaze away as Johann and his entourage stopped in front of the gallows, their weapons brandished.
Lord Arthur turned around. "What is the meaning of this, Johann of House Apocalypse?" he demanded. "Why have you and your men raised your weapons against the Church of Schicksal?"
"You know why I'm here, Lord Arthur. Kallen is to live today. She has committed no wrongdoings, and executing her is a crime against what Schicksal ought to stand for. I beg you, my cherished mentor - stand aside and let Kallen go."
To Kallen's surprise, Lord Arthur offered no resistance. In fact, he seemed almost prepared for this moment. Had he coordinated with Johann to rescue her?
"As you demand," Lord Arthur conceded. He barked an order to the man at the lever to cut apart the noose around Kallen's neck.
In contrast, the nuns seemed shocked at what was happening. Was this an insurrection unfolding before their eyes?
Before the executioner could free Kallen, another pair of footsteps approached them from the opposite direction. He had come from the Grand Cathedral. The crowd murmured quietly as he approached.
It was Otto.
Otto? Why are you also here? Are you two working together to free me?
Kallen was not sure what to think. She was not sure if she wished to be freed at all. It would only result in more trouble for them both, and she did not wish to emburden them any further.
Johann could do nothing but tighten his grip on his weapon as he followed Otto with his eyes. He slowly stepped forward. "Not another step, Otto. Why are you here?"
Otto's face carried an expression Johann did not expect to see - surprise. As he looked into his cousin's green eyes, he saw another strange emotion - fear. Otto began muttering to himself. "No…no, this wasn't how it was meant to be…you weren't supposed to be here…they're going to escape…"
Johann spoke again, his voice louder and harsher this time. "I asked you a question. What are you doing here, Otto? Answer me before I make you."
Otto only continued to shake his head. "You were supposed to stay safe at home, Johann…you've put yourself in danger…they're about to arrive…"
Johann felt the first stirrings of unease gnawing at him. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
He had already inferred the reason for Otto's presence, for it was the same as his own: to rescue Kallen. But how could Otto hope to achieve this alone? Johann could rely on his reinforcements and the plan he and Lord Arthur had made in secret. After rescuing Kallen from the gallows, Arthur would ferry Kallen through a preplanned escape route out of the city, where a safe house was waiting for her, its location so closely-guarded that not even Johann knew where it was; this would prevent it from being discovered if he were interrogated. There, she could remain for a time before travelling farther from Vienna until even Schicksal could no longer find her.
He had considered directly breaking Kallen out of her underground prison, but this came with several complications. First, she was heavily-guarded, and he did not wish to cause further inevitable bloodshed by fighting through the guards; Kallen would never forgive him if he did. Second, she would simply refuse to escape with her rescuers even if they did reach her. Johann could potentially convince her to escape with him, but his injuries prevented him from participating in such a venture. Third, the Grand Cathedral was a heavily-secured location where guards were always watching and waiting. After escaping from the underground levels and to the surface, there were no ways to leave its grounds undetected.
There was one more reason why Johann had chosen to publicly rescue her in such a brazen manner. He wanted the people to see that Schicksal was not wholly tyrannical. There were those among its ranks that did believe in doing what was right. He had met with several close allies in secret so together they could transform Schicksal from within. He was unsure if he could trust them, remembering the opportunism of those the Rogue Extraordinaires had instated into various positions, but his desperation left him little choice. He would become the face of a new Schicksal, one Kallen would approve of…or die trying.
If Otto had a plan of his own to save her, what was it?
The crowd of onlookers grew more and more uneasy in turn.
Johann chose to ignore Otto and focus on Kallen, someone far more important. Whatever Otto's plan was, Johann already had one of his own.
The executioner, who in truth was another co-conspirator, was having difficulty slicing through the reinforced rope around Kallen's neck despite having sabotaged it the night before. Johann was about to order his men to slice through it themselves when Otto looked directly at him and spoke a single word.
"Run."
Johann felt a flare of rage. Otto knew he was no longer able to run. Was he mocking him? He was about to retort with a few words of his own when an unearthly noise erupted from beneath the Grand Cathedral. Everyone froze and turned to the sound.
It was immediately joined by another. Then dozens more. Then the entire cathedral rang with cacophonous roars that reverberated through the air like a chorus of the damned.
From within the cathedral, there were the terrified screams of those being brutally slaughtered. Then the screeching of tearing metal and smashed stone as the walls and gates of the cathedral gave way. Hundreds, if not thousands of creatures with gleaming white shells streaked with luminescent pink light burst through the ruined walls and began charging at anyone they could see, monstrous roars released from each of their maws. The legion was composed of nearly all types of Honkai beasts that had been encountered, documented, and then captured for study beneath the cathedral. They had escaped from the imprisonment of their containment cells deep below the surface. Their vengeance against their tormentors was at hand.
In seconds, they had set themselves upon the helpless inhabitants of Vienna.
The crowd screamed with terror and tried to run, but they were cut down after a matter of steps. Dismembered limbs and mutilated corpses filled the streets as crimson water flowed. The horde of monsters began spreading throughout the rest of the city in search of new victims to prey on, but some of them remained in the square to finish off the few survivors.
Kallen and Johann stared at the butchery in horror. How could this have happened?
There was no time for speculation. Johann steeled himself for what he had to do. "All men, to arms! Protect the people from the Honkai with your own lives! You two - go free Kallen!" he ordered his men, who were pitifully outnumbered.
Arthur jumped down from the platform to him. "What would you have me do?" he asked.
"Join my men and kill every Honkai beast you can find. I can continue our original plan to rescue Kallen."
Arthur hesitated, then nodded. With blinding speed, he attacked a Honkai beast before vanishing behind a building in pursuit of more targets.
The twenty men who had joined him to free Kallen from death were his most loyal and trusted. Each had proven himself in the Great Eastern Crusade, and each still believed Kallen deserved to live as much as he did. They assembled into a battle formation and defended themselves against the Honkai beasts that had noticed them. They cut down Honkai beasts in droves, but it was ultimately a losing battle.
One by one, his soldiers fell. A brutal assault of teeth and talons gradually overwhelmed them while the number of additional Honkai beasts emerging from the depths of the cathedral seemed endless.
All this time, Kallen stared at the carnage, unable to think and unable to move. A voice within her soul called out to her. It was a voice calling her from aeons past, reminding her of her purpose to be.
Purge the Honkai…defend the innocent…
Johann withdrew his firearm and fired round after round at a single Honkai beast. It took every bullet he had to destroy it. He put away his now useless gun and unsheathed his blade. He had only limited experience at swordplay using his left arm, but there was little choice.
The two men he had sent to free Kallen were now grappling with three Honkai beasts. Johann knew the duty had fallen to him. He gripped his sword even harder as he slowly attempted to climb up the staircase to her, but his legs refused to obey his commands and remained motionless. He cried out in frustration.
"Leave her to me, cousin. Get into a basement and hide," he heard Otto saying to him before he climbed up onto the platform, face to face with Kallen. His presence lifted her out of her trance, although the voice continued to call out to her.
"Otto, you need to get to safety! This place isn't safe!" she pleaded with him.
"My dearest Kallen, there's nothing to worry about. All that matters is that you are safe. Nothing else in this world matters, certainly none of these fools who have come to witness your death. I have released the one thousand Honkai beasts kept in the catacombs beneath the Grand Cathedral. They will provide the perfect distraction for you to escape. Come - I've already planned your escape route. If we hurry, we can avoid both Schicksal's men and the Honkai beasts. You can trust me with your life, Kallen. I will never let you die."
Kallen stared at him in horror. She could not believe what he had done. She could not accept that all this death was because of her.
She yelled as she shattered her metal shackles before reaching up to the noose around her neck and tearing it apart. Otto smiled with joy as he watched her free herself.
Then he cried out in pain as she slapped him across his face hard enough to knock out several of his teeth.
"HOW COULD YOU, OTTO?!" she sobbed, shedding the tears she no longer thought she had. "You disgust me! How could you do this for me?! How many innocent lives have you destroyed for my sake?!"
Otto wiped away the blood on his mouth as he stared at the woman he loved so dearly, as he realized, yet again, how much his actions had hurt her.
His gaze hardened. "How many people, Kallen? Why do you still care for them? They mean absolutely nothing. All of their wretched lives combined could not equal a single strand of your hair. They did not lift a finger to save you. They were content to watch your life ebb away after your neck shattered in the noose. I told you that I would tear down this entire world using my own hands for your sake, and now I have. So why - "
Kallen wailed, her heart utterly broken. She could no longer bear to be beside him. She gave into the voice in her soul and leapt off the platform at inhuman speeds, leaving a trail of tears in her wake. She aimed herself at a Honkai beast overpowering one of Johann's men. Her foot collided with it, shattering it to pieces. The soldier yelled before realizing who had saved his life.
"My lady," he gratefully said.
"Go and protect the city!" she yelled as she charged at another Honkai beast before breaking it in two using her bare hands.
Johann could do nothing except watch as Kallen dispatched Honkai beast after Honkai beast unarmed. She was a bringer of destruction to the dark forces that threatened humanity, and he had never seen anything as beautiful.
But he feared for her safety. She had not fully recovered from her injuries, and Otto had released so many Honkai beasts on the city and its people…
He looked up and saw Otto still standing on the platform, unmoving. He had heard him explaining himself to Kallen. He felt fury coursing through him, fury like he had never known. He thought he knew what Otto was capable of - but this? He gripped his sword even harder, wishing to have saved one last bullet.
"Otto…you…you BASTARD! COME DOWN SO I CAN KILL YOU!"
If Otto had heard him, he did not indicate it.
Johann pushed his fury aside. Otto could wait. First, he had to help Kallen. He had to ensure that she lived past this day, even if it cost him his own life. He forced his legs to move as fast as they possibly could as he focused on her. She had just finished dispatching another Honkai beast.
She saw him shambling to her from the corner of her eye.
"No, Johann! You need to live! Go and hide, my shining star!"
She lunged at the particularly massive Honkai beast that was creeping up from behind him and caved in its armour with a single kick. Then she turned back around and lunged at another Honkai beast. The Kaslana oath ingrained in her mind would not let her choose anything else.
He was about to protest when he felt a crushing blow in his side accompanied by a loud snapping noise. He felt every bone in his one remaining arm shatter and break along with most of his ribs. He was launched through the air. The stone pavement of the ground rushed up to him as he crashed back down with a sickening crunch. Something else within him broke and gave way.
Despite feeling more agony than he had ever known, he could not even scream.
In the corner of his fading vision, painted red with the blood dripping into his eyes from the deep gash in his head, he saw the tail of the Honkai beast Kallen had knocked over sweeping through the air like it had never even struck him. Was he really so frail a creature that even an accidental blow from a Honkai beast returning to its feet could reduce him to such a pitiful state?
The blood dripping into his eyes merged with his tears. This truly was the end. There was nothing more that the wretched, broken man he had become could do. He could only watch, utterly helpless, as Kallen rushed over to a little girl cowering under a rock and held her in her arms. He vaguely recalled her name. She was the same girl they had rescued from Otto's experiments so long ago, and she had come to pay her respects to the woman who now rescued her twice.
He watched with absolute terror as the same Honkai beast began charging at her. He could not warn her. His jawbone had been shattered. The only sound that came out was the incoherent scream of a dying man.
Kallen heard its roar too late. She turned around and shielded the girl using her own body.
The bloodstained claw pierced through Kallen's chest and burst out of her back. The Honkai beast pulled its spearlike claw out of her, letting her fall backward onto the ground, before stalking away.
Sasha screamed and wept over Kallen Kaslana's motionless corpse, begging her to wake up. She never did.
Mercifully, he saw no more.
…
Otto strode through the mass of mangled corpses and strewn rubble that defined the courtyard. The same sight could be seen anywhere in the rest of the entire city.
It had taken Schicksal every resource it had to end the rampage of the one thousand Honkai beasts that had somehow been released from their cells from beneath the Grand Cathedral. Every weapon at its disposal had been fielded, thrust into the hands of even untrained soldiers who were ordered to go forth and eliminate every Honkai beast they could. Reinforcements from outside of Vienna were called in.
They had ultimately prevailed, but not after thousands were lost.
Countless more would die in the aftermath once the survivors turned against each other, no longer capable of calm, rational thought. Even more blood would be shed to restore by force what little order that could remain in the ravaged city.
The one guilty of releasing the Honkai beasts to begin with was irrelevant. In all likelihood, they had died in the initial outbreak. No effort was spent to identify or search for them.
Otto stared with empty eyes at what he had done. He took in the sheer death and destruction he had unleashed using his very own hands.
And for what? What had he gained from his actions? What had he lost?
He knew perfectly well what he had lost. He saw her lying motionless on the ground in front of him. She was still nearly as beautiful as she had been in life, even with a bloody, ragged wound in her chest.
He had only himself to blame, he knew this. No words could describe the amount of hatred he directed at himself. He resolved to restore her beauty and happiness to what she had been. He would do this no matter how many centuries it took or how many lives it cost.
But she would need to wait. He found something else in the midst of all the death and destruction. He found the only other person in the world who still held meaning for him.
He knelt down and pressed his fingers to his neck, checking for a pulse. He found one, but it was intermittent and weak. The man did not have long to live.
He gently picked up his broken body as he would a lover. He cradled the man's head in his arms and carried him into the depths of the ruined Grand Cathedral.
It was an ancient building, the levels below it even more so. It was a convoluted labyrinth filled with untold secrets and untold horrors. Most would never see the light of day. Most were not even known about. It was the perfect location to store the things that should never be allowed to roam freely again. Honkai beasts were one such thing, but there were so many more. Otto knew of all of them. He knew of one secret that perfectly suited his current needs.
He cleared aside a fallen piece of the ceiling over a doorway and opened it. He descended.
One was almost certain to become forever lost in the endless, labyrinthine tunnels if they strayed too far into them, never to return to the surface again. The dark, oppressive tunnels would have long smothered an ordinary man who walked through them and driven him mad. But Otto was no ordinary man. He descended deeper and deeper into the complex of tunnels beneath the cathedral until he reached a floor he had only visited once before in his life.
He walked into a well-lit room. It was filled with alien artifacts and other items that did not belong to this world. The people of this era could not even begin to comprehend the advanced technology that existed below them.
The room's walls were covered with shelves holding items that not even Otto could identify by name. He had no interest in them. What he had come for was directly before him. He stopped in front of it. It resembled a metallic coffin with a transparent glass lid, large enough for one person to fit inside.
He walked over to the control terminal and pressed a button. Immediately, the device came to life. A soft whirring noise from within it could be heard as it was activated.
Otto slowly slid the glass lid open, allowing him to place Johann in it. As soon as he did, tubes and wires from within the machine attached themselves to his body. One of the tubes had a mask-like extension attached to the end, which positioned itself over Johann's mouth and nose.
Satisfied, Otto shut the lid and pressed another button. The chamber gradually began filling with a glowing blue fluid. The amount of liquid in the chamber increased, rising over Johann's mouth, nose, and hair, until it was finally full.
Otto lovingly looked at the broken man in the pod as if he were his newborn brother.
He pressed another button. Johann's eyes slowly opened.
Initially, he panicked. But he was immobilized by what felt like ropes wrapped around his limbs and was surrounded by a warm, soothing fluid. Nothing had prepared him for this. He was certain he had gone mad.
Then he heard a familiar, if detestable voice speaking to him.
"Welcome back, dear cousin of mine."
Something was lodged in Johann's mouth and nose, preventing him from answering.
"I must apologize for underestimating you. In hindsight, I should have known from the start that you would have your own plan to rescue Kallen even as I had mine. My only mistake was assuming that your injuries would prevent you from personally carrying it out. Clearly, I was wrong. I was a fool, and I should have coordinated with you so our respective plans would not clash and we could rescue her together. But as I consider it again, it was never to be. You would never agree to have anything to do with me again, not even in pursuit of a common goal…not even to save Kallen."
Johann's thoughts were slow and muddled, but he gradually came to realize who was speaking.
"I'm afraid that I have terrible news for you. Kallen is dead, and you are mortally injured beyond most means of recovery."
Johann could not believe what he heard. He wanted to reject it, but he remembered seeing the painful truth with his own eyes. He struggled to move, but his body seemed to be frozen.
"How ironic. Despite your sorry state, you are infinitely more fortunate than the thousands who died in the chaos. Now, that is a mess that will take Schicksal years to clean up, if they ever do."
Johann felt another familiar emotion - rage. Pure fury and hatred. But it was useless for him. Gradually, his eyes focused on the face peering at him through the blue liquid. It was him.
How he wished to strangle him to death with his bare hands.
"You're probably wondering where I've taken you. I'll let you in on a little secret that only the two of us will ever know. You know that I possess Void Archives, which grants me access to a library of nearly limitless knowledge. But where did all of that knowledge come from? No one in this primitive and wretched world of ours could possibly have written any of it. But Void Archives has a librarian of sorts. He told me of a world before our own, an aeon ago. It too had battled against the Honkai, but despite all of its efforts and sacrifices, it eventually failed. Before its demise, it planted a seed - a seed that eventually blossomed into the world we know today and loathe so much. It kept all records of its history and technology within the library of Void Archives, which I have the good fortune to access. You would never believe what I have learned."
Otto sat down in a chair facing the pod. He was uncharacteristically enthused. Johann had no choice but to listen even though he understood none of it.
"They preserved much of their technology in the tunnels they excavated where we are now - below the grounds where the Grand Cathedral of Schicksal would eventually be constructed. In these chambers, they stored as much of their world as they could in hopes that the next era could find use from them. How right they were."
Otto began laughing, a horrible, maniacal sound that struck Johann to the core.
"The little invention you find yourself in now is one of them. It's a rejuvenation tank that can heal the occupant from even the most vicious of wounds. The injuries you suffered earlier will vanish as if you had never suffered them. You'll be delighted to learn that even your sword arm and legs will be returned to you as good as new. In fact, I was already planning to heal you using it before today."
Despite himself, Johann felt a feeling of relief. It was soon suppressed by an ever-increasing trepidation.
"This suits my aims perfectly. But it also has a second function. It can hold the occupant in an indefinite stasis. The blue solution you're bathing in can not only heal you, but sustain your life without any need for food, water, or other nutrients. You will be able to enjoy a peaceful and dreamless slumber for as long as I require it."
Johann's fear worsened.
No…no…don't do this…
"After all, even if I bring you back with your health fully restored, what good would it do me? Kallen is dead. Schicksal is in chaos. You utterly loathe and despise me. You will do everything in your power to destroy me. I would expect nothing less from you. Keeping you concealed here is the only logical choice I can make. As far as the world is concerned, Johann Apocalypse died in the year 1477 during the outbreak of Honkai beasts that ravaged Vienna, and his corpse was never recovered."
Kallen…why…
"But don't let this make you think that you're of no use to me. Oh, just the opposite - you are absolutely indispensable to my plans. I cannot achieve them without you. I need you more than anyone else in the world…as does she."
He stood up, walked over to the chamber, and gently placed his hand on the glass lid.
"What do I plan on doing, you may be wondering? Isn't it obvious? I will bring Kallen back to life. I will bring her back into the world where she belongs. No matter how many centuries or lives this will cost, I will save her. And when I do, I will need you. Kallen will need you. We cannot do this without you, Johann."
You're mad! You're completely insane, Otto! Let Kallen rest in peace!
"It's for this reason that I need you alive and well. And even that isn't enough. It won't do for you to just die from any chance injury or illness right after you've healed. No, I must ensure that no matter how horrific the injuries you suffer may be, you will always stay alive for her sake. I will make it so that death itself becomes an alien concept to you, my dear Johann. I will make you into an immortal even as I stand by your side as an immortal myself. Together, we will remake the world into a better place for Kallen to be."
NO! NO, OTTO! PLEASE, I BEG YOU, JUST LET ME DIE ALONG WITH KALLEN!
What use was screaming and begging at Otto in his mind? Otto could not hear them, and even if he could, what good would it do?
Otto smiled.
It turned out that Otto had heard his every thought. Johann saw a glowing gold feather flash brightly in front of him before vanishing. It had enabled Otto to read his every thought since his awakening.
"And why should I do that? What good would sending you to oblivion do for me? Like I said, Kallen and I need you. You're no use to me dead."
Johann went mad. His screams would have echoed throughout the entire room if only he could make them. He would have thrashed against his bindings if only he could move. But he could do nothing but watch in helpless horror as Otto reached over and pressed a button on the terminal once again.
Slowly and mercifully, his thoughts slowed to a halt. His eyelids began falling. His oblivious, centuries-long slumber would begin.
Otto gave him a warm, loving smile.
"Johann…make her happy."
The last thing he saw was a girl with violet hair placing her hand on the glass.
A/N: 100,000 words. The original rough draft ended not long after this wordcount, but we've still a ways to go.