Thank you guys for the supports and suggestions.
My direction for this story (for now) is to jump between serious and comedy 'visions' so it won't be one-direction. Though the comedy part might take the majority.
There are some series in your suggestions that I have heard but haven't watched/read, or some that are still in the middle of updating, so those ones will be on the lower part of the list. However, if it's a short animation of a section, I will consider making them soon.
Keep in mind that I will not answer/address some of your reviews in this section or the ending note to not spoil the surprise. OR I will address them DIRECTLY in the main story, but it will be little.
For why some characters aren't here yet... The casts are a bit too large already, and the 'visions' I'm going to write do not have them as the major cast, so for now they're on standby.
"...What's a simp?" Kallen innocently asks, not knowing the meaning of the word.
HoTE and Ai-chan turn their heads away from the audience and use their hands to cover their mouths, trying their best to hide their laughs upon hearing the question. They totally understand that she doesn't know much, doesn't mean it's not funny hearing the question from a 'boomer'.
Almost everyone doesn't get the title either…
"YES! Show them what the bastard has done!" A certain YATTA shouts in excitement, expecting a lot of bashings towards a certain Overseer. "Show them what he did to the Old Timer!"
After a few seconds, the MC duo calms down and HoTE answers: "To make it short, it's basically a crush, but on an extreme level."
"Don't you mean smash?" HoTE blinks when she turns to the PE table and sees HUA who's the one asking. "...Did I ask something weird?"
"...I'm surprised, that's all. I fully expect most of you to not know what it is, but you too HUA?"
"I think we could just show the vision and everyone will understand it." Ai-chan taps on HoTE's shoulder, gesturing to the awaiting video.
"Yeah… let's go with that. Buckle up, everyone."
The Navigator starts returning to her original seat while the Herrscher taps a couple more buttons on the screen then heads to a space next to HoV and sits down, just in time an armchair materializes to catch her. HoV gives her a small glance and asks: "Why do you choose to sit down here?"
"Same face." HoTE shrugs and pulls out a Coke bottle and starts drinking, while on the other side, the table projects a large screen out so everyone could watch the vision…
…
A circular eye opens, its reflection showing a brick road with three nuns walking in its vision. Two of them wear black clothes with veils covering their heads and masks covering their faces, the other dresses in white with her hands being cuffed.
"When you truly want to change the world…"
The Heir of Apocalypse widens his eyes in surprise when he hears his own voice and sees the vision of the moments possibly after he got teleported to this place. He quickly turns to Kallen who also pales a bit when she realizes what this event is about. Noticing her lover's fear, Yae holds Kallen's hand gently, which makes the nun calm down just a slight bit.
The eye then zooms out, revealing that it belongs to one of the crows which start cawing up. They then fly away, showing the dark cloudy sky and a lunar eclipse.
"You will discover… how pitiful your own strength is."
Senti, who was very excited, feels the tired voice of the man, and her excitement dies down a bit. She has seen what the man has done and his stupid smile in their encounters, and she was very sure that the man is confident all the time. But now, hearing the defeated tone of his voice…
The 'sky' wavers, as its water reflection on the ground is disrupted by Kallen's steps. The camera pans up to show the nun trio heading to the Apocalypse Church, with citizens and soldiers holding torches on the sides of the road to light up the way.
"The Holy Maid gave her all to the people, and was repaid… with merciless shackles and nooses."
Teenage Kiana and HoFi recognizes this. It's the time when Bronya forced them to use the device the petite girl built to help them learn to pass the redo test. And they know what's about to come. So as anyone who has read the history of Kallen Kaslana.
The vision subtly changes. The church's still there but it's covered in a strange purple color with red outlines. From some places, Otto Apocalypse, in his final body, clutches his left arm as he weakly walks past the church and heads to some directions. The area behind him consists of strange floating debris of buildings, with red sand underneath his boots. His outfit is a simple white suit with House Apocalypse designs and emblem, and a black-gold cross hangs on his belt.
"The world is at chaos. It is neither fair… nor sensible."
The camera then moves up, showing a bright tree shining in a low gold color, its branches seemingly expanding endlessly.
"Hm. This pathetic human sure has a lot of surprises." HoV flips her hair. "Still, he annoyed me from time to time…"
"Ha, I know that feeling." HoV turns to see HoS raising her knuckle up and waiting for a fistbump. Rolling her eyes, the former accepts, and the latter chuckles. "He's gone now, that's one thing to cheer on."
Otto's expression darkens. He knows that the Herrschers were hellbent on killing humanity so he's not surprised if they hate them. What he didn't expect is that these two seem to harbor much deeper hatred to him. He starts wondering what he could have done in the future that could cause the matter…
But then he remembered what happened in that underground dungeon… And the black box…
ELYSIA then asks with a hurtful tone: "Why did they chain her up like that? What could such a lovely lady do to deserve such harsh treatments?"
Due to the question, the vision instantly pauses.
"...If you want a long version, then you will have to ask the lady herself." HoTE responds, which makes the one in question slightly flinch. "In short, she opposed the corruption with little backup and her actions were falsified."
"There's no way everyone didn't notice corruption…"
"Unless it's from the Schicksal itself." Kallen interrupts Siegfried's question. "In my time, Schicksal was the largest anti-Honkai entity in the world. However, we waged war with the East… and got beaten by The Immortal Celestial."
"That would be the Old Timer then."
"Yes, that was me." Fu Hua nods, confirming Senti's address, and uses a bit of her power to change to her Phoenix Form, which surprises the nun. "If the History Archives recorded correctly, you tried to flee with the sealed Herrscher of Corruption but ended up wounded and brought back to Schicksal and got executed."
"...I didn't want to resist anyway." Kallen nods, knowing her fate is already sealed… "When I sealed Sakura away, my will to live was gone…"
"The problem is that you didn't die due to the execution."
The nun blinks when she hears that. "...What do you mean by…"
"The vision will explain it." HoTE interrupts, not wanting the conversation to stray too far. Fu Hua thinks for a second before nodding. Kallen also begrudgingly agrees and returns her attention back to the screen. "To add a note in this, miss Kallen and mister Otto were sent here during their sleep the night before the event."
From the sand, numerous copies of Otto erupts, stopping him from reaching the tree.
"It wrongs heroes, and breeds scum. It is rife with ugliness, without a trace of beauty."
The dying Overseer acknowledges the obstacles with a sigh, then grins as a golden version of Judgment of Shamash appears in his hand. It starts emitting fire as he's ready to fight for his cause, his eyes hardening in determination of succeeding his work.
"The malice of the world… shall be sundered by the villain!"
"Isn't that Void Archives?" Vill-V questions in surprise as she puts down her tools. "You must be a real genius if you can use it…"
"I unlocked him while I was fourteen." Otto speaks up. "I tried to revive Kallen's father…" Kallen's expression darkens, causing him to stop immediately.
The con-artist wants to question further, but the atmosphere stops her from doing so.
"When did the event with the Overseer happen?" HoO changes the direction of the conversation.
"After his fight against Bianka and Kiana."
"I thought he died after our attacks?" HoFi's eyes turn blank for a moment.
"It's his plan to reach the Tree Of Imaginary, which is this tree we're watching. For why… we will see." HoTE then smirks and mimics how Bronya speaks a bit. "Still the same Idiotka, I see."
"Hey!"
'...We fought? How?' The Apocalypse Heir can hear the conversation very clearly, but at the same time doesn't understand how it works. Their eras are five centuries away, how could they physically fight?
Unless…
"...Is he viewing himself as a villain?" KEVIN questions out loud, but only enough for his table to hear.
"From his monologue, I believe it is." SU responds. "It's his perspective, so he can call himself whatever he wants."
With her power, APONIA could see the threads of fate connecting Otto to many of the people in the Current Era if not all. Then, to her surprise, she can also see a thread that links HoTE to everyone including her, but she's not sure if it's the thread of fate or it's something else due to its strange color. She keeps the fact in mind in case something might happen, while she watches GRISEO making some drawings with KOSMA occasionally shifting between the vision and her.
Being the Bearer of Infinity, MOBIUS instantly realizes how this 'Overseer' managed to stay alive after five centuries. It's nowhere near Immortality, but she has to give the man some respect for finding out a way to avoid Death for a good duration of time. Still, it seems Death managed to claim him in the end.
Back to the past. Kallen walks to her own death, with the citizens murmuring left-and-right not knowing the full story. In the execution stand, she lets the others throw the noose around her neck, as she sighs and accepts her fate.
To Otto, he rushes towards his clones and jumps up in the air, slams Judgment of Shamash down to the ground, creating a force that destroys several clones while pushing away the others. When the rest recovers, they immediately rush to him and try to put him down. He responds by cutting one in front of him horizontally and kicking the other, then turns back and cuts one from the head to the tail. Knee-ing one of them in the chin, he twists his body and cuts down two behind him in half, however it destroys the pseudo weapon in pieces.
"This is the distance between her and tomorrow. This is the world taking revenge against her."
Immediately after the weapon breaks, he summons Abyss Flower and spears two of the clones completely, pushes them back and gets the tip through the third one, but they manage to hold him there.
"But her believer… will never give in."
Three more jump on him, forcing him to abandon the lance and flips away. One clone tries to attack him through the sand smoke, but a Xuanyuan Sword throwing to its head stops it, and Otto double-kicks two away. Constantly summoning the swords out once the previous breaks, the late Overseer starts slashing through the clone, then pushes one away with him to reach a safe destination against others.
"The Overseer is this good at fighting?" HoFi questions in surprise, not expecting this kind of movement from the man.
"I know that the Overseer is strong, and surely he has a lot of combat experience…" Bianka joins in. "But why didn't he use those when he fought us? At least, before he transformed."
"Probably because he's only using you." The two turn to the Maid Valkyrie who's sipping her teacup. "For what reason, however, we might not know why until now when she told us." She sends a small glance towards HoTE, who nods. "Though, he admitted himself that he's not actually good. This is probably the one time he pushed himself over the limit."
Meanwhile, the nun of Kaslana slowly connects the information, and realizes what the future Otto is doing. And it seems Sakura also has the same conclusion, as the two's grips on each other's hands tightens. The man himself is also getting what is going on as his knuckles turn white…
The PE crew doesn't react much, considering that they do not know the context of the story. However, they can tell that the man's determination for his own cause is at least admirable. Even if it's a bad thing to do…
Cecilia also wonders to herself if Siegfried would go for such length if either she or Kiana got into problems… which probably happened, given his elder self having a prosthetic left arm.
Theresa knows enough of her grandfather's affection towards the nun, which results in her and Amber's existence. However, she never knew its full extent and her grandfather tended to hide a lot of things. Now, everything is shown in its full glory…
The dark part of his skin spreads even further, and the clear sign of fatigue shows as his breath turns rough. He turns back, and a sweat drop rolls out of his forehead when he sees thousands of clones stacking on each other, morphing themselves into an enormous monster.
Back to Kallen, the screams of civilians cause her to turn to the direction and gasps when she sees a Honkai Beast jumping out of the roof and causing destruction everywhere. Seeing the havoc in front of her snaps her back, as she easily breaks the handcuffs and the noose around her neck and she jumps into the action, trying her best to save everyone.
"...So I died because I tried to save the people from that beast." Now Kallen can let out a sigh in relief. "At least I went out the heroic way."
'If things are that simple.'
'Yeah, if it's that simple.'
Ai-chan blinks once when an unfamiliar voice of a young adult speaks in her mind after her thought. She looks around to see HoTE giving her a small glance. 'Oh… So that's how you really sound, Cap?'
'Seems like my telepathy still uses my original voice. Best to not use this until something urgent comes up.'
'Didn't you already establish your other self being a male?'
'You think they could catch that when they first met me in HoTE form?'
'Right.'
The black monster swings its massive left claw into Otto's crossing swords, sending him away while crashing into a couple of flying debris. He tries to stop his sliding by stabbing the swords into the sand, though he has to raise them up immediately when the monster jumps up and slams its claws down on him, creating a huge sand smoke.
From the aftermath, several chains fly up and stab themselves into the monster, binding it down to the ground. Its claws are knocked back by an explosion, revealing Otto with the pseudo Oath of Judah ready to strike. Due to the binding chains, the monster can do nothing to stop him from running on its arm, jumping into the air and slamming the cross into its head breaking it. To make sure it stays down, Oath of Judah shoots out its projectile arsenal through the monster's head, dropping its dead. Though it wastes Otto's energy to a critical point that he's thrown away after the monster falls without being able to control his body for a moment.
"That's a brutality I can get behind." KALPAS chuckles at the killing blow. "He could have just blown up the whole body too."
"I don't think he has enough strength to do so." SAKURA disagrees. "He's already fatigued before fighting the clones."
"...It's not over yet." KOSMA warns as the music kicks up.
Using his last of strength, Otto stands up and reaches his hand towards the Tree…
Looking around the destroyed village, Kallen gasps as she detects the Honkai Beast aiming at one of the children. Its claw slams down to the kid…
Otto suddenly gets stabbed from behind through his chest…
Kallen blocks the claw attack but not the stab in her abdomen…
To add insult to injury, it's revealed that the intact monster's body is still alive, and it launches several more of what was just stabbed through Otto, hitting him a couple more times. His consciousness slowly fades away…
Those who don't see it coming gasp in horror, including the victim herself though hers is more of being surprised. On instinct, the kids' eyes are covered by the nearby adults, not wanting to show them the brutal murder.
Both HoS and HoV stay silent in spite of hating Otto because Kaslana's wound was shown immediately after his. Thanks to the memories and 'adventures' of their previous hosts, they both now respect humanity's will to survive and their value of life. Not that they're going to admit out loud soon.
However, the last bits of memories of his childhood friend awaken Otto once more. He snaps back, and the cube form of Void Archives appears before him. Breaking what just stabbed him, he reaches his hand towards the weapon, activating one attack that engulfs the monster's body completely, ensuring the thing will never come back.
"Once their soul dissipates, one cannot be brought back to life. The world allows a mind to find another matching vessel, but does not allow a vessel to gather the pieces of a mind."
If it's any other person, the audience might have already cheered up for the man's comeback. Though they do let out a sigh of relief that the man wouldn't stay down just because of a sneak attack.
Kallen does send a disappointed/angry glare towards Otto, now knowing that the man's still very stubborn about 'saving her' even after her death.
"To save the one and only her…"
Dropping Void Archives behind, Otto materializes the last Judgment of Shamash and touches the Tree with his free hand. A new branch appears and joins with the rest.
"I can only… create new possibilities in the past. The other future… will belong to her."
"Took you five hundred years to figure that out, Otto." The man turns to HoTE who's closing her eyes while talking to him. She doesn't even turn to him and instead faces the vision. "You should have just stopped when you knew the price of reviving someone, but no, you just had to try to oppose nature without a proper meaning."
"But it seems he still has to sacrifice himself." Doctor MEI speaks up after a while. "From what I can see, reaching the Tree of Imaginary is not an easy task."
"And so is to reach the Sea of Quanta. Yet you guys found a way to do so."
"Sounds like you know about this matter very well." MOBIUS gleefully sends HoTE a hungry look. "Mind sharing a story or two?"
"How about asking Vill-V? She definitely has the capability of doing so."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" From the tone of her voice, it seems the Magician decides to come out and answer.
"So it's Grandfather's final moment…" The Principal's self-speech causes the Trio from the fifteenth to snap their heads to her in surprise. "Uhm… well, he…"
"His 'sins' will be shown soon." HoTE interrupts her, which makes her grunt a bit though at least she doesn't have to explain her story… for now.
Everything stops. The 'barrier' surrounding the city where Kallen was executed cracks, then breaks, changing night to day. Otto also appears out of nowhere, then falls to where his friend is.
The pinch attack on Kallen miraculously disappears, leaving no wounds on her as she pushes the claw away.
With the last of his life, Otto lifts the sword over his head and aims for the Honkai Beast. As his body cracks, his memory about his first meeting with the girl of his life flashes. The last energy sustaining his body leaks through the cracks, and engulfs him into a large blast that directly hits the Honkai Beast, saving Kallen and the child she tried to protect.
"Kallen, live."
In the last possible moment, Kallen thought she heard Otto's voice, and she turns back in wonder if she hears correctly.
"This is the most selfish thing one can do."
…
Sirin, who harbors the most hatred towards the man who tortured her, can't say a word against him. All he has done is to give the one he cares most a happy ending. She accepted the power from the Will of Honkai because her happiness was taken away and she wanted revenge. If she looks at a different view… the two of them aren't that different…
Or rather, they're just pathetic humans who want happiness for themselves…
"...Why, Otto?" The man flinches after hearing Kallen's stern address. "This is just like when my father died. If you truly care about me, you should have known I will never approve of you sacrificing yourself to save me. Why don't you…"
"You are his only true friend." Her lecture is stopped by HoTE, who somehow still doesn't move from previous position. "I will be frank here and say that some of us here would definitely pull stunts similar to his if they're desperate enough. Some in here right now, indeed, have done so."
Those guilty of this flinch, which includes the Herrscher Trio, Cecilia, older Siegfried, and Fu Hua.
ELYSIA briefly turns to APONIA who looks a bit guilty. She knows that the nun has done many unspeakable things, but all of that is because she could see the future and she really wants to change the bad ones then ends up making them worse. Then she looks at SAKURA recalling her 'mission' in Sundown Valley, to GRISEO who underwent MANTIS's surgeon with a very low chance of succeeding to save her life, and KEVIN… who's now sitting near next to them…
"And he has to fix his own mistakes."
All blink in confusion, but then the music kicks in and they return back to the vision.
…
"Too much… of the past… For one to… memorize…"
Under the sun of a hot summer.
Between the leaves that the sunlight runs through.
A wooden plane toy lies motionlessly on the grass, between the shadow of the leaves.
"Too many words remained… for one to… read through the lines…"
A young boy and a young girl happily play with the toy the former made himself. They smile brightly, enjoying their days of childhood.
Everyone smiles gently, seeing that the two at least still had a good time as kids. But…
"The ebb and flow of the crowd…"
The boy throws the plane away, following it as the toy flies for quite a distance…
"Floods the world… and paradise…"
"Along… the path of time…"
But when he turns back… she's no longer there.
…The toy plane eventually falls…
"Every night brings a dream…"
…Kallen is now in Otto's arms, her eyes devoid of life…
"But the day, relentlessly, keeps me awake…"
…He has succeeded in overthrowing the current Head of Apocalypse House and became one himself.
…He overwatched the mutated body of Eleanor Shariac, determined to find a way to revive Kallen.
…In front of the defeated Fu Hua, he brought the body of Li Sushang away while speaking something to her…
"All the rest will be torn up… Whenever a choice is made…"
…In the aftermath of the First Eruption, Otto talked to the first Herrscher of Reason, Welt Joyce…
…The Overseer witnessed the mercy of Model A-310 as she broke the blade in her hand, not wanting to deal the final blow on Model A-303 despite the orders he gave her…
…In his disguise, Otto watched Benares creating havoc in the Siberian Forest…
…He watched the Will of Honkai 'suggesting' how to revive Kallen, by transforming into him and stabbing itself with a knife…
…K-423 Model's life signal returned, much to his shock…
…He and Model A-303, now known as Amber, watched Kiana escaping the World Serpent's grasp and tried to foil their plans…
…He offered a deal with KEVIN, now the Sire of the World Serpent, who gave it a thought…
…His last attempt in finding the Tree of Imaginary, by turning himself into a False God and making himself the 'enemy' against Herrscher of Flamescion and Palatinus Equinox…
"Everyone has their own desires… leading to… the ultimate…"
…In the sunset, the old plane toy flies and falls to the grass soundlessly. Picking it up, the adult Otto looked at it then to the starry sky, reminiscing his past…
"Life is… TOO… LONG… to end at a grave…"
"Just a drop of water suffices… Still I wish…"
Under the same starry sky, beneath the large tree, next to a small bonfire…
"To embrace the world with my thoughts…"
"A eulogy."
The two innocent childs, leaning on each other, sleep peacefully, undisturbed by the danger of the outside world as the vision fades away…
"Time to leave where I have stood so long…"
"Letting you…"
"Go recover traces overlapped…"
"Ends, then begins."
All comes through like a flash, and everyone's speechless. The grief in the singer's voice, the lyrics of the song, the 'sins' he has committed… all for the only girl who looked at him like a true friend…
Tears are a good reaction, though, and they start rolling when the audience sees the white nun resting in the arms of the future Overseer till the end. Handkerchiefs are drawn to wipe away the sadness on their only exceptions might be those whose hatred is too much, already knew beforehand, or they try their best not to show a moment of weakness.
But when the moment of sympathy passes…
"We can tell his actions are bad or even evil." MOBIUS speaks up. "But calling them 'sins' sounds a bit overboard. Besides, a couple of deaths compared to the survival of the whole humanity is a good trade-off for me."
"The death of those aware of Honkai's existence? Maybe not." HoTE's eyes finally open and she turns to the Snake MANTIS. "But what about the opposite? Especially those too young to even know how to dream of the future?"
Sirin and Bella immediately flinch, knowing that the fake Herrscher is directly talking about them. HoV almost joins too if she doesn't already see that coming.
"...So Otto was that masked bastard." The younger Siegfried decides to not say it directly to the other Heir, considering he actually hasn't committed it… yet. "No wonder he stopped us defeating…" Cecilia sends him a glare, shutting him up instantly.
"Is… is it just me…" The teenage Kiana weakly asks. "Or… did I see my childhood self in the testing tube?"
HoFi opens her mouth, then closes it. She starts thinking if revealing the truth is a good idea…
"That's correct, my vessel." Welp, it's not her decision anymore, as HoV replies with a cold stern voice. "The bastard tried to revive me by making you and adding my genes into you."
"Vessel… Making…" The young Raiden's voice shakes up, then turns to her best friend who's also wearing a surprised face. "Kiana… what happened to…"
"Kiana, Siegfried, either you explain it to them now, or we wait for the future visions." HoTE directs her statement to HoFi and the older Kaslana. "We're not done with Otto's 'sins' yet."
"...If possible, can we talk alone?" The latter asks.
HoTE nods, blinks her eyes a couple of times, then says: "I have established a close telepathic channel between the Kaslanas, including Kallen and Bianka but excluding the baby Kiana." She looks at the PE table and says: "KEVIN, you are free to join if you want, or you can choose to ignore it for the time being. Your choice."
"...I will stay out. It seems to be a personal affair for me to interfere." The leader of Flame-chasers replies, though he's impressed that the false HoTE can do something like that in a couple of seconds. "Your power seems to be close to SU and APONIA."
Deciding to not answer that, HoTE walks to her original table and starts tapping on the screen, checking the next visions that 'her other self' sent her during the first one. Along with some she has in mind… There are a lot of recommendations both in and out of the Honkai Universes…
Even one within the other Captains' Universe much to her surprise.
But unless the Universe's finished, she won't open those visions. Watching it midway without the proper contexts would be hard to make a reaction out of…
"Ara? Is that the beautiful me in a wedding dress?"
HoTE jumps in surprise when she notices that ELYSIA has already creeped up behind her while looking marvelously at the screens. Though she manages to quickly turn off all the visions before the Pristine Girl can see any further, leaving only the works she was working before dealing with the current situation.
"Aw, spoilsports."
The girl's pout face with pleading eyes shoots an arrow of guilt right into HoTE's heart. But she resists.
"Sorry, there are things you would not understand. And there are things…"
"Hai hai, you have secrets. I won't poke further." The girl suddenly smiles back, shooting another arrow through the heart. She giggles when she watches HoTE's face blush up. "So what are we watching next? I recommend something fun and happy though. The last vision is very heavy, and I feel like the setup we have here is to have fun. How about the one I just saw…"
"That one is also heavy too." HoTE coughs once to hide her blush, though she has to turn her eyes away to talk properly. "...I have some in my mind, but those make fun of people here."
"Even better, isn't it?"
"...I'm getting murdered here. Ely, please return back to your seat."
The girl's smile never falters when the 'Captain' says it without being able to look her in the eyes. Though she does comply and returns back to her table.
EDEN smiles and talks to her best friend: "You seem to have fun teasing her."
"Teasing him." ELYSIA winks back.
"Him?" PARDOFELIS questions back. "I know that her current appearance is because of some guy…"
"And he said the person to be his other self, right?" The Second-in-command reminds her squadmates.
"My real identity aside…" Raising her voice up to stop ELYSIA from spoiling further, HoTE watches as the Kaslanas calm down a bit, though they send couples of hateful stares towards a certain simp then eventually drop. "With ELYSIA's suggestion, the next vision, or a couple of them, will be comedy…"
"That relates to a certain trait shared between all Kaslanas."