Collapse: The opening system captures the Herrscher of Knowledge

The Schicksal headquarters, located far away in Europe, suddenly erupted with Herrscher-level Honkai energy, and alarms sounded instantly.

The scarlet warning lights flashed wildly in the corridor, and on the monitor screen, a familiar figure, shrouded in overwhelming resentment, hovered above the headquarters.

Giant phantom gears appeared one after another in the air and slowly rotated.

In an instant, a golden curtain shimmering with runes rose from the ground, enveloping the entire headquarters of Destiny like a dome.

The people in St. Freya were instantly alarmed by the sudden news.

Kiana abruptly stood up, her voice filled with exhaustion and a resigned, deathly demeanor:

"Huh? Another new Herrscher has been born? This is happening way too often! Is there no way anyone can live like this?!"

Otto's fingertips hovered over the rim of the cool red tea cup. The last trace of leisure on his face vanished completely, his expression darkened, and his knuckles slammed heavily against the stone tabletop.

"Gear patterns, a golden sealing barrier... Could it be... the Herald of Binding!"

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically. He abruptly stood up, his usual leisurely elegance completely gone, and exclaimed in surprise:

"Oh no, my—Theresa!"

Xiao Shi's lips twitched violently upon hearing this, his eyes filled with utter disbelief:

"No, Theresa has become a Herrscher of Binding?!"

Fu Hua suddenly stood up, his aura instantly becoming heavy, and said in a deep voice:

"We can't let this go unchecked; we must act immediately..."

A crackling sound of electricity interrupted her words, and Himeko's urgent shout suddenly came through the communicator:

Kiana! Mei! Get away from Otto!

Theresa, fueled by days of relentless overtime, had reached the breaking point of her resentment and suddenly awakened the power of the Herrscher of Binding. Moreover... her target seemed to be only Otto, and she was heading towards St. Freya!

Kiana's expression changed drastically, and she cried out in alarm:

"what?!"

In an instant, everyone's eyes turned to Otto.

Otto silently sat back down, raised his hand to brush off non-existent dust from the hem of his clothes, picked up his teacup, and slowly took a sip.

"Well, my 'retirement life' is temporarily ruined."

Before that, allow me to savor a few more moments of peace.

As soon as Otto finished speaking, Himeko added breathlessly over the communicator:

"She has broken through the Valkyrie encirclement at Schicksal headquarters at an absurd speed—Lord Otto, you'd better think about how to explain those mountains of documents to her!"

Xiao Shi crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow with smug satisfaction:

"Oh, so it's not some kind of destiny crisis, but Theresa's revenge battle? I think you'd better pray for yourself."

Fu Hua frowned, his gaze sweeping over the faint golden light appearing on the horizon, and said in a deep voice:

"We cannot let our guard down; we must be prepared to respond."

Kiana rubbed her hands together, her face barely concealing her excitement at the spectacle:

"How about... we tie Otto up now and send him to Aunt Flo? Maybe that will calm her down?"

Just then, in the distance, the golden gear phantom became clearly visible in the sky, accompanied by a faint roar that seemed to make even the air tremble.

Cecilia and Siegfried also rushed over, their expressions solemn as they gazed at the increasingly clear golden streak in the sky.

"Theresa arrived so quickly! The students haven't all evacuated yet!"

Otto took a deep breath, his back view surprisingly carrying a touch of tragic grandeur:

"What's meant to happen will happen. You... don't need to interfere. Let me face Theresa alone in this matter."

The group exchanged glances, then took a step back in unison, consciously creating some distance between themselves.

Otto looked at the empty space behind him, and his lips twitched:

"No, I told you not to stop me, but why did you run away so easily?"

Golden light suddenly tore through the clouds and crashed down over St. Freya.

Theresa hovered in mid-air, her petite body surging with terrifying Honkai energy, her golden cross-shaped eyes, unique to the Herrscher of Binding, fixed on Otto on the ground.

"Grandpa! Your vacation is over. Come back to work in Tianming with me right now!"

Cecilia quickly stepped forward:

"Theresa, calm down and let's talk this out!"

"calm?"

Theresa sneered, her fingertip suddenly pointing at Otto, her voice trembling with grievance and anger.

"He dumped all the piles of documents on me, while he himself was leisurely drinking tea at St. Freya. Why didn't he think of letting me calm down?!"

Otto still wore his usual elegant smile, but the smile froze at the corner of his lips.

“My granddaughter, getting angry is bad for your health. Those are just trivial matters, why get upset over them?”

"trivia?"

Theresa roared and suddenly swooped down, the golden binding force transforming into several chains that spun through the air and wrapped around Otto.

"For three weeks straight! You've dumped all the approval work on me, even making me work overtime until the early hours of the morning on my days off! Today, I'm bringing you back to Tianming for work!"

Fu Ming nodded in agreement:

"It's really miserable."

Otto narrowly dodged the chains, still arguing as he did so:

"Theresa, I thought you had grown up, that you could stand on your own and fulfill all your destiny—"

"Just because I'm capable of the job doesn't mean I'm willing to be exploited like this. I'd rather not be the Bishop of Destiny!"

Theresa interrupted sharply, her fingers clenching tightly, the binding force tightening abruptly, completely blocking Otto's escape route like a net.

Kiana whispered to Mei:

"Auntie is really exhausted this time... Otto is probably in big trouble."

Mei shook her head helplessly and placed her hand on Kiana's shoulder:

"Don't cause trouble, we'll just watch."

Within the restraint zone, Otto was bound tightly by chains.

He looked at Theresa, whose eyes were dark and swollen, clearly showing the exhaustion from days of overtime work, and finally abandoned his usual nonchalance, letting out a soft sigh:

"It's Grandpa's fault. I'll give you a three-month leave, and Grandpa will handle all the paperwork personally, how about that?"

"Really?"

Theresa paused, a flicker of hesitation crossing her eyes, but she still spoke firmly:

"Wait, don't try to fool me! I don't believe Grandpa's nonsense!"

“I swear in the name of the head of the Apocalypse family,” Otto’s voice was unusually solemn. “And I will also prepare your favorite bitter melon juice for you, three servings a day.”

Upon hearing this, Theresa's momentum instantly weakened by half, her clenched fists loosened slightly, and the Honkai energy around her began to fluctuate.

(Honkai Consciousness: ???)

Theresa turned her head away and muttered:

"Ahem, that's more like it, but Grandpa has to go back to the Destiny Headquarters to take over as Destiny Bishop first."

The golden binding force gradually dissipated, the barrier slowly faded, and Theresa landed on the ground, still glaring at Otto, but without the previous ferocity.

Otto stepped forward, raising his hand to ruffle her hair, but she slapped it away.

"Don't touch me! If you give me an excessive workload again, I'll throw you off a cliff!"

Otto chuckled softly, a hint of doting in his eyes:

“Yes, my Theresa.”

Seeing this, everyone around breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiao Shi whistled:

"Ha, so after all that, you were swayed by a few words from Otto?"

Sure enough, as long as Otto lives, Theresa will always be a little girl; no matter how high her potential is, it's useless.

Kiana scratched her head and burst into laughter:

"As expected, Aunt Flo is still Aunt Flo. She was so easily persuaded. Does this mean we've survived the ordeal?!"

Theresa blushed and glared at Kiana:

"Kiana! If you laugh again, I'll throw you into the pile of files too!"

Above St. Freya, the golden gear vanished completely, leaving only a clear sky. What caused the tragic restraints of the previous civilization has become a childish farce in the present civilization.

Just then, a chilling aura suddenly swept over them—Kevin appeared behind everyone, his hand engulfed in raging flames, his cold eyes sweeping over those present as he questioned in a deep voice:

"Where is the law of constraint?!"

Everyone fell silent instantly, swallowed hard, and even unconsciously softened their breathing.