"Damn you, insect! If it weren't for my previous injuries not yet healed..." The Herrscher of the Void, weakened, knelt on one knee.
Gazing at the brown-haired figure before her, wearing a red bird-beak mask and an ostentatiously flamboyant outfit like a stage actor, she spat out viciously, gritting her teeth.
"The winner takes it all, loser stands small. A win is a win, a loss is a loss—now, meet your end, Herrscher of the Void." A composed smile hung on Otto's lips as he raised the heavy golden greatsword in his hand, swinging it without hesitation towards the weakened Herrscher.
The Herrscher of the Void clenched her jaw. She no longer had the strength to dodge, nor even the remaining strength to slip into a sub-void and teleport.
Even by desperately squeezing out the Honkai energy within her, she only managed to open two narrow sub-voids behind her. From the deep purple spatial channels, two golden-glowing sub-void lances shot out at high speed, flying towards the nearby Otto.
"It's useless, Robin Hood!" With Otto's soft call, the iron-gray Soulium robot figure emerged from behind him. Persona Robin Hood raised its golden bow. Golden arrows, like shooting stars, suddenly shot forth.
The magnificent golden light arrows fired by Robin Hood not only shattered the sub-void lances launched in the Herrscher's final desperate struggle but also pierced her hands and feet with slender golden arrows, pinning her body to the ground, leaving her no possibility of escape.
"Stop—Arsene!!" Pushing open the tightly shut doors of the final room, Ren Amamiya felt as if he had triggered a cutscene upon entering the Herrscher of the Void's Palace's final stage. He immediately saw the Pancake Man delivering the finishing blow to the Herrscher.
There was no time to think. Ren shouted, hoping to attract Goro Akechi's attention, to make the golden greatsword swinging down towards the Herrscher's body pause, even for a moment.
As he shouted, the white spirit bird mask on Ren's face erupted into burning ethereal blue flames, scattering into the air. When Ren's unmasked face was fully exposed, a surging tide of crimson-black smoke billowed out from before him. A scarlet, eerie demonic face, as if drawn with fresh blood, instantly flew out from the dark smoke.
Persona Arsene vibrated its dark falcon wings, streaking towards Otto like a crimson meteor, raising its black, sharp claws that glinted with a cold light.
Fu Hua stood silently behind Ren. Since all the Shadows in the Herrscher of the Void's Palace had been dealt with by Otto, who had arrived first, this was the first time she had seen Ren in action.
Although she had heard about Ren's combat style and strength from Kevin, when she witnessed it with her own eyes, Fu Hua couldn't help but widen her emerald pupils, a look of astonishment appearing within them.
Persona Arsene moved as if it had become light itself, its speed dazzlingly fast. Even the quantum computer equipped in the Soulium robot Robin Hood couldn't accurately calculate Arsene's movement trajectory.
The golden light arrows shot from the golden bow all missed, left far behind by Arsene.
However, no matter how swift Arsene's advance, Otto was always closer to the Herrscher of the Void. Even with Ren's sudden intrusion into this room, which should have only contained himself and the Herrscher, Otto remained completely unaffected.
The mimicked Might of An-Utu in his hand swung down without the slightest hesitation, cleaving through the Herrscher of the Void's extremely fragile body.
Otto's original plan was to cultivate a Herrscher of the Void who would fight for humanity, hoping Kiana would comprehend the power of love and thereby overcome the Herrscher of the Void consciousness inscribed within the Herrscher Core, with Kiana becoming the new Herrscher.
But now, through Ren's selfless "help," Otto no longer needed to gamble on whether Kiana could grasp love and defeat the Herrscher's consciousness.
Using the Gnus system's navigation capabilities, Otto stood directly before the Herrscher of the Void's consciousness himself.
Instead of waiting for the still very naive Kiana to fully awaken and develop a will strong enough to overcome the Herrscher of the Void, Otto felt it was quicker and more efficient to take matters into his own hands and slay the Herrscher's consciousness here and now.
"Damn you, you despicable and insignificant insect! How dare you, how dare you do this to me... Just you wait! Next time, next time I will make you taste the full flavor of hell!!" The Herrscher of the Void's body was severed in two by the mimicked Might of An-Utu.
Her exquisite face contorted with intense hatred and distortion, her golden eyes filled with unwilling flames of rage. Until the very end, the Herrscher of the Void seemed to be cursing Otto with her gaze, staring fixedly at his face.
—Although Otto dearly wished to completely erase the Herrscher of the Void's consciousness, even he knew it was absolutely impossible.
Even if his old friend, Phoenix the Celestial, had rushed to the scene, Fu Hua wouldn't have been able to completely annihilate the Herrscher's consciousness.
Just as the Herrscher said before her demise, she would have another chance to resurrect, another chance to fight. Otto slaying the Herrscher once merely forced the active Herrscher into a dormant mode, to slumber in the deepest darkness of consciousness, awaiting her next reawakening.
As long as the Herrscher Core wasn't shattered, the Herrscher's consciousness could return countless times.
Unless Kiana defeated the Herrscher of the Void on a conscious level, completely embraced and accepted the Herrscher's consciousness, and fully controlled the power of the Herrscher Core to become the new Herrscher of the Void, otherwise, the Herrscher's consciousness would continuously crawl out from hell like a vexing ghost to vent its anger.
Otto had personally retrieved the Herrscher of the Void's remains and had personally implanted the Herrscher Core into Kiana's body; he knew the location of the Herrscher Core like the back of his hand.
Even though he split the Herrscher's body in two with the mimicked Might of An-Utu, Otto still precisely avoided the area where the Core resided. As the Herrscher's body dissipated, Otto suddenly reached out into mid-air, attempting to grasp the orange-glowing Herrscher of the Void Core into his palm.
In that brief instant, Persona Arsene had already closed in on Otto. The Herrscher of the Void had been thoroughly slain by Otto. Compared to continuing the attack on Otto, clearly, seizing the Treasure dropped upon the Herrscher's death was now the most important thing.
Persona Arsene silently changed its target, reaching out its hand towards the Herrscher of the Void Core falling from the air.
If compared by normal speed, the Herrscher Core should naturally fall into Arsene's hands.
However, as Otto's mimicked Might of An-Utu fell towards the ground, blazing infernos suddenly erupted from him as the center, shooting out in all directions. Deep crimson flames of destruction, like the greedy tongue of a world-destroying beast, incinerated everything they licked into complete nothingness.
Facing the engulfing, deadly tongues of flame, watching Persona Arsene speeding towards her, reaching out to save her, and Ren Amamiya standing behind Arsene, looking at her with a grave expression... compared to "Goro Akechi," this detestable human who had a clear objective, no intention of communicating with her, and even wanted to completely slay her...
Ren, who had the chance to erase her last time but chose to spare her, and who, along with Hare, promised her happiness, releasing goodwill towards her just like Cecilia did, now seemed incredibly precious...
Sirin, until the last moment of her life, only then did she truly know and understand Cecilia's heartfelt cherish and love for her. But by then, Sirin and Cecilia's story had already reached its end, with no possibility of continuation.
But she was different. As the newly born Herrscher of the Void consciousness, she still had the possibility of starting over.
Engulfed and seared by the blazing hot flames of the explosion, the Herrscher of the Void felt as if she were trapped in the same desperate situation as Sirin at her death. This time, she empathized with the Sirin from the Herrscher Core's final memories.
However, unlike Sirin, she, the Herrscher of the Void, still possessed the ability to continue the story together with the person who had shown her kindness.
Her consistently arrogant golden eyes unknowingly misted over. The Herrscher of the Void even began to find it difficult to see Ren clearly. Now, at the final moment of her existence, the Herrscher of the Void rarely showed a fragile expression appropriate for her apparent age.
The purple-haired girl, with only her upper body remaining, showed a delicate smile like a wilting flower. Amidst the searing pain of being consumed by flames, she struggled to reach out her hand, arduously touching the black, sharp claw Persona Arsene extended towards her.
Boom! Boom! Boom—!!!
The Herrscher of the Void's knuckles had just barely touched the tip of Arsene's outstretched claw when the destructive flames released by the mimicked Might of An-Utu completely erupted.
A world-ending crimson storm violently blasted Persona Arsene, who was approaching Otto, far away, forcibly pushing it out of Otto's vicinity.
By the time Persona Arsene regrouped, abruptly vibrated its dark falcon wings, nullified the impact of the destructive flame explosion, and fiercely flung off the deep crimson flames clinging to its body, the Herrscher of the Void's figure had already completely vanished under the might of Judgment of Shamash.
Only tiny specks of purple light still lingered on Arsene's black, sharp claws.
"Damn it, Akechi—!!!" Just when there was a possibility of subduing the Herrscher of the Void as a Persona, just when Hare had persuaded the Herrscher to a state of wavering indecision in the last encounter, only needing a slight push to make her yield...
this damn Pancake Man had to interfere at this exact moment, slaying the Herrscher of the Void that Ren had almost within his grasp, and forcibly seizing the Treasure in this Palace.
Ren was already annoyed with Goro Akechi, and now Akechi's act of snatching the fruit of his labor pushed Ren's displeasure to its absolute peak.
Under the influence of anger, Ren didn't notice that the fingertips of his clenched right fist, much like Persona Arsene's claws at this moment, were faintly surrounded by specks of purple light. However, the purple light hidden in his palm was clearly much dimmer, almost non-existent if not observed carefully.
In just two or three seconds, the purple light specks, formed from the Herrscher of the Void's demise, silently and completely merged into Ren's body.
"What a fortuitous encounter, Joker. Good evening. I didn't expect to meet you here," Otto said. The raging fire ignited by the mimicked Judgment of Shamash slowly subsided.
Otto held the mimicked weapon in one hand and the successfully captured Herrscher of the Void Core in the other. As if only just noticing Ren's arrival, he leisurely turned around, a perfectly timed surprised expression on his face, followed by a polite and appropriate gentle smile.
Like a prince performing on a royal theater stage, he elegantly gave Ren a nobleman's bow.
"...." Faced with Goro Akechi's seemingly provocative and sarcastic demeanor, Ren's eye twitched violently.
How infuriating! This cognitive Pancake Man is even more pretentious than I imagined the real Pancake Man to be, and his ability to provoke anger is several times stronger.
"Stop your posturing. You clearly knew I was conquering the Herrscher of the Void's Palace and deliberately wanted to get here first... Hand over the Herrscher of the Void's Treasure, Akechi."
A cold glint appeared in Ren's obsidian-like eyes. He reached out his hand towards the distant Akechi, demanding the spoils that should have been his.
"If you want this Treasure, then you'll have to come and take it yourself... This is the rule of the Phantom Thieves. You wouldn't be ignorant of it, would you, Joker?"