Chapter 856: Yes, I Am Weak

Perhaps the answer to the question did not matter at all.

Before Ye Qiyan could respond.

Aloflis raised her head, and her fractured, chaotic figure revealed a trace of helplessness.

"It's all over. In twenty minutes, that divine monster outside will find this place. When its twelve pairs of pupils pierce through the treasure vault, the fading End will ultimately devour you, devour me, devour this final lingering trace completely. Human, you have given up your last chance at happiness."

She lowered her gaze, expecting to see despair and unwillingness in this human's eyes as he faced the End.

It would remind her of the expression her master had worn before the End arrived.

This human was detestable... He had destroyed her mission.

He was so weak, so unremarkable, so utterly ordinary. If only he had obediently stayed in that world and died happily.

If only...

"...Why?"

Aloflis voiced this question for the second time.

Why was it that this human named Ye Qiyan showed not a single trace of despair in his eyes?

Facing the overwhelming, inescapable End, why... did he not feel fear?

"You... aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid of death? Afraid of the End? Afraid of... losing everything you have?"

Ye Qiyan took out a Golden Apple and bit into it. The sweet, fragrant flavor was, as always, enough to make one feel happy. Gripping his sword and holding his gun, he answered her question, "Of course I'm afraid of losing everything. I don't like dying either, and I definitely don't like seeing the things I own destroyed by the End."

"Then why!?"

A crisp shattering sound echoed through the space.

Two rings, one large and one small, two utterly different circles, materialized behind Ye Qiyan.

[Evil] and [Calamity]

[Nine] and [Four]

The Wandering Star Holy Sigil unfolded across his body. That courage belonging to the [Golden Tribe] seemed to give Aloflis a rope to grasp for argument.

"I understand! So that's it! You possess the courage of the Golden Tribe! No wonder you don't feel fear at all. Human, you are too proud. Even the strongest pinnacle of the Golden Tribe would..."

"I am human, not of the Golden Tribe."

He interrupted Aloflis once again.

"I don't know what the Golden Tribe truly looks like, but in my eyes, the greatest difference between my race and yours is that we are born weak."

"Weak?"

The race called [Human] existed within Aloflis's database.

Humans were weak.

Compared to those monsters born with all kinds of racial abilities from birth, capable of hunting on their own within just a few days.

Humans were a naturally bizarre existence.

No innate power at birth. No skin that could weather flames. Unable to fly. Unable to breathe underwater.

Even when born in the wilderness, human infants would let out that loud, piercing first cry.

To the Golden Tribe, these weak races that resembled them so closely were pitiful, lamentable existences.

The Golden Tribe was born strong. Even their weakest members possessed their own art and dreams.

They could see the True Name of any existence. They could speak within just a few days of being born.

They possessed courage, beauty, glory, art, and wisdom.

Until the day the End arrived, they had never imagined, never once experienced any fear.

Beauty vanished. Glory had its spine broken. Art was denied. Wisdom proved useless.

The mighty Golden Tribe.

After witnessing that which made courage disappear, fear was born.

It was the first fear this race, this civilization, had ever known.

The Governor died in a sea of fire. The greatest artist had both eyes gouged out.

Those gods born from their convictions, one by one, were stripped of their divinity along with their beloved children. Only the weakest beauty goddess, carrying that final trace, escaped this place.

Aloflis waited here, and finally today, she had waited for the being who carried that trace.

A human.

A weak human whom the Golden Tribe had discussed as a topic of study, wondering why they looked so similar to themselves.

Yes, humans were weak...

But why, then, had the human who came here erupted with courage that seemed even more blazing, even more unyielding than any great Golden Tribe warrior who possessed glory and courage?

"Because... you are weak?"

Aloflis voiced the answer herself.

Precisely because Ye Qiyan had experienced weakness, had experienced being thrown by some unknown existence onto a near-certain-death Slaughter Platform just to continue growing.

He could expend all his Stamina and Spirit within a single city, unleashing the Hunt's most powerful strike against a formidable Train Conductor named Mr. Order, all for the sake of a mere few dozen Train Coins.

He never let anyone know what Blasphemy Cards he possessed. He always maintained caution even with Shaya and the others who had already become his friends.

Ye Qiyan's Evil was the evil of thinking everything toward the worst possible outcome.

The only thing he was willing to believe, and would always believe, was his own Train and everything within it.

Mechanical lifeforms.

Demons.

Contractors.

All of it belonged to him alone.

In other words, he only believed in himself.

And that belief was absolute!

"Yes, I am weak, which is why I have always known what fear looks like.

That is why I absolutely believe in every choice I make.

Even if I might regret it in the future, that is not now."

The [Courage] within the Wandering Star Holy Sigil shone ever brighter.

The Matrix unfolded.

The pure white Train slowly rose within this space that was gradually losing its color!

Clearly... that was also white.

But why?

Why did Aloflis feel that trace of white was so dazzlingly vivid?

"You... what, what exactly are you trying to do?"

Ye Qiyan grinned. His smile was so arrogant, so detestable, so wicked...

But...

When he raised his blade toward the heavens, pointing directly at the sky beyond the treasure vault.

Aloflis seemed to witness what pride truly was.

"That thing outside has caused me no shortage of trouble. I've wasted so much time in this Station World and ended up with nothing to show for it. At the very least, before I leave, I'm going to make that bastard feel properly miserable!"

One station's grudge, one station's payback.

Whether or not he could kill the thing, Ye Qiyan was determined to leave the most unforgettable impression on it.

"Revenge? Was your homeland also..."

"I don't know, and it doesn't matter."

"Then?"

"That god's subordinate outside wanted to kill me, so I'm going to kill it. What's so strange about that?"

Aloflis couldn't understand...

She sat there in a daze, watching this human named Ye Qiyan, surrounded by strange cards emanating an aura that even she found dangerous, actually preparing to wage

</path> war against the divine monster carrying the End that approached from outside?

Hoo~

Suddenly, Aloflis heard a sound.

Her illusory, fractured vision turned toward the source.

Inside the transparent coffin that held her master.

A dark gold fragment clutched in her master's dead hand was flickering with a faint light.