Chapter 868: A Photograph / An Escape

Colorless had departed.

With him went the faded End as well.

This world of despair had finally, after countless epochs, regained its first true trace of color.

Ye Qiyan stood in the midst of the torrential downpour, the icy, bone-chilling red rain washing over his body, which was bleeding from having borne an excessive amount of power.

Mingming on his shoulder wobbled dizzily and fell off, caught in his outstretched palm.

That miracle from just now was by no means as simple as merely locking down his Stamina and Spirit.

She had already done remarkably well.

"Hoo..."

A deep breath.

Ye Qiyan summoned Miatira's light screen and looked at his personal interface.

[Stamina: 1 (Genuine Fatigue MAX)]

[Status: Dizziness, Muscle Fatigue, Numbness...]

[Warning! A large amount of rest time is required for recovery!]

[Spirit: 600 (Shadow of the End) (Witness Truth and Falsehood)]

"Just as I thought... this is... a bit of a stretch, isn't it?"

Ye Qiyan smiled faintly, using his abundant Spirit to suppress the collapse of his physical body.

"Master!"

Lisette was the first to run over.

She looked at the injuries on Ye Qiyan's body, and on her beautiful face, it was impossible to tell whether it was tears or rain.

"It's nothing serious. I just overextended a little as usual."

Ye Qiyan patted Lisette's head, then raised his eyes to look around.

The Hunt, Eve, Augustine, Scoundrel, Lancelot...

Raven Duo, Decisive, Gluttony restored to its Slime form...

Sky-Resonant Thunder Eagle, Nefeti, Frost Sky White Bear.

And Red Tears.

All of them were surging toward Ye Qiyan.

This battle was the most brutal one he had ever fought.

The Hunt's scales were cracked and broken, a third of Eve's weapons were scrapped from overload, Augustine's Flame Spear was snapped in two, Scoundrel was heavily damaged, Sky-Resonant Thunder Eagle had lost a considerable number of feathers...

Even his train's carriages had suffered varying degrees of damage.

Fortunately, from beginning to end, the radiance of [Salvation] and Bedivere's support abilities had never ceased.

The damage sharing performed by the giant mech formed from Lancelot and all the Endless Mechs merging together had also prevented the Endless from losing their lives.

Those people of the Golden Tribe had even left something behind for them before waking from their dreams.

Though Ye Qiyan didn't quite understand why those things hadn't disappeared after the dream ended.

Like the golden sheen on the Hunt's scales that could enhance its defense.

The several high-grade long-range weapons that had appeared in Eve's weapon slots.

Lancelot obtaining the Knight Army Formation Module, and Sky-Resonant Thunder Eagle's lightning undergoing a slight evolution...

That's right... the Dreamweaver's dreams had never been purely false.

Truth and falsehood often merely hung on a delicate boundary.

"Don't worry. Right now, what we should do is rejoice."

Ye Qiyan raised his hand and clenched his fist.

"We won!"

The ravens let out joyful cries.

The Mechanical Army raised their weapons one after another and fired into the sky.

The melody of Defiance finally came to its close at this moment.

If it were any other time, how he would have wanted to immediately return to the train, lie down on his Dream Bed for a good rest, and after waking up, enjoy a luxurious feast prepared by Lisette.

To lie around for days on end doing nothing, then lazily fish by the poolside for fish that never bit.

But not yet.

Ye Qiyan handed the Tear-Engraving Sword to Red Tears.

The Overcomer mode and the intertwining of Defiance completely faded away.

Red Tears' Demon Girl form reverted to her original appearance.

Her gaze grew increasingly lively, those sparkling, watery eyes seeming to convey some kind of emotion.

But she, she still could not speak. She merely silently raised her red floral umbrella to shield him from the red rain that fell because of her.

The birds circled overhead.

The battered Mechanical Army stood proudly behind the Lord of Absolute Supremacy.

The Throne and Inverted Cross hung suspended in midair, the Sword of Supremacy dangling beneath them clattering noisily.

Eve came to his other side, linking her arm through the young man's, her soft metallic rabbit ears twitching incessantly.

WALL-E also came running out, clinging to his shin.

Everything that belonged to Ye Qiyan was celebrating his victory in this

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Lisette's tears turned into a smile. She stepped back, took out that low-grade camera, and facing this moment, was just about to press the shutter when a hand caught her wrist.

"Come here, it's just a photo, everyone look at the camera. To celebrate us defeating the will of a pinnacle Wasteland Species, this is definitely something worth recording!"

Ye Qiyan pulled Lisette to his other side, suppressing the exhaustion in his body as he brought over the Imaginary Number Mechanic Snake still in the train, along with Scoundrel, who was lying there broken and half-dead. He manipulated the camera and pressed the shutter.

Click.

A photograph encompassing everything Ye Qiyan possessed in the present was born.

————

Beside the coffin.

Aloflis watched nervously at the young girl beside her who had not immediately vanished with the end of the dream.

And that young girl named Yulia, in those golden eyes of hers, flickered with some indescribable, unfathomable luster. She gazed at Ye Qiyan, watching the smile on this human young man's face, watching the beings beside him.

After a long while, she slowly spoke.

"Aloflis..."

"Master, you, are you going to disappear?"

She shook her head.

"I don't know. Logically speaking, I should have left this place along with them and returned to that time of the End, but..."

Yulia looked toward the coffin beside her that held that corpse.

"Seeing my own corpse from this angle is quite a strange feeling... Why haven't I disappeared yet?"

A voice came from not far away.

"Because you still have to live."

The source of the voice was Ye Qiyan.

Having finished taking that photo, he had already sent his companions back to the train, and he himself, accompanied by Lisette and Red Tears, had come to this place.

"Mr. Ye Qiyan."

Yulia crossed her hands over her chest and lowered her head, making a gesture that represented respect and gratitude to the Golden Tribe.

Aloflis fearfully hid behind Yulia.

Clearly, this Treasure Vault intelligence was terrified of Ye Qiyan.

Ye Qiyan paid no attention to their reactions. He merely raised his hand.

A pale Card Sequence floated in his palm.

"Sir? You?"

An inexplicable memory surfaced in Yulia's mind, one that seemed both to exist and not to exist.

As if in the darkness, a voice had asked her a question.

"I..."

"Alright, this world is about to shatter. Let's not waste time."

[Demon Card · Salvation] was pinched between two of his fingers, aimed at Yulia's forehead.

"I'll ask you one more time. Do you want to live?"

Yulia opened her mouth and answered instinctively.

"I do..."

The next instant, she felt as though she were standing on a stretch of pale white road.

Both sides of the road were lined with pure white flowers.

She walked forward, reaching the end, where a hand reached down toward her.

Yulia didn't know what she was thinking. She knelt on one knee and received that hand with her head.

She opened her eyes, stood up...

What Yulia saw was Aloflis's tear-streaked face, and the black-haired young man standing on the other side.

From this day forth, the daughter of the final Governor of the Golden Tribe, the last trace of a civilization's glory, escaped that End which had annihilated her race, here in this world of despair that served as a civilization's escape pod!

On this day, countless ages later.

The Golden Tribe.

Had found their salvation.