Chapter 896: The Eternal Utopia / Red Flowers Blooming in the Rain

The Demon Overlord of the Emperor's Order.

Or perhaps some people preferred to call him the Demon Mech-Dragon Man.

This powerful existence that had suddenly emerged from the Wasteland was not someone even the Homeward-bound Souls wanted to provoke.

After all, they were no longer in the heyday when they could summon a large number of Top-Tier Train Conductors just to seal away Shaya alone.

Were it not for that Memory object.

After capturing Fan Huo with a trap, they would only have slowly cracked his life-preserving mechanism in secret, never would they have publicized it with such fanfare.

And now.

The Demon of the Emperor's Order had truly arrived.

Heinz swept his gaze over the boys and girls around him who had tensed up at a single name, his eyes still calm, showing no particular reaction to [Altos].

"So he's come, then let us go welcome this guest.

Hm? You don't dare go?

Don't be afraid, children.

We are all happy people.

Happy people do not face death.

The moment you fall, you will enter that eternal Utopia~"

A dreamlike flash of light passed by.

The expressions of those boys and girls shifted from their earlier tension to calm.

From their mouths they continuously repeated the same sentence.

"We will enter the eternal world of happiness, where there is a true Utopia without pain..."

Heinz raised his face, and with that smiling face of his, looked toward a certain direction.

"So then, Mr. Altos, what do you think? Would you like to enter that eternal Utopia with us, and enjoy happiness~"

Rumble!

A thunderclap resounded across the sky.

Under the illumination of the night's lightning.

Ye Qiyan, draped in the black Cloak of Evil, stood calmly in place.

Red rain fell from the sky.

Beside him.

The beautiful Demon Girl held up that red flower umbrella for him.

Nine Demon Cards emerged from the Void Card Repository.

Behind him, they coalesced into a ring.

Malice, surging forth.

The boys and girls around Heinz, because of this malice, were actually temporarily freed from that state of mechanically repeating a single sentence.

Yet also because of this malice, they collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

"Where is Fan Huo?"

Heinz's smile deepened several degrees.

"You truly are a man of deep loyalty and honor. This matches our previous psychological profiling of you precisely. Please rest assured, you will not find that War today, not even if you kill the current me."

This sentence contained a great deal of information.

The Homeward-bound Souls held an extremely strong interest in Ye Qiyan.

And Fan Huo, by the looks of it, was not inside this building either.

Menrojina's intelligence had likely also contained some errors.

And also...

He did not seem to fear death.

"A boring trick."

The other side's preparations seemed quite thorough, but this did not surprise him in the least.

They could not possibly have acted on impulse. Clearly.

For this matter, the Homeward-bound Souls had prepared for an unknown length of time.

Ye Qiyan deliberately put on an air of indifference.

He took a stubborn stone from the Storage Unit.

And the instant this stubborn stone appeared.

Heinz's pupils constricted, and his entire eyes opened completely.

"So, you did all this, just for this worthless rock?"

[Memory Object: An ordinary stubborn stone, without any distinguishing features. But this stone perhaps came from some world that this talent-holder once visited?]

"..."

Heinz's emotions were somewhat affected by the appearance of this stone.

If, and this was only a hypothetical, if he handed over Fan Huo right now and obtained this stone, perhaps it would be possible to fulfill the long-cherished wish of the Homeward-bound Souls!

But... no.

He was no longer the man he once was, longing to go home.

No matter how important this stone was to Lu Jiayun.

The current Heinz would only utilize it for his own plans.

Rather than, sacrificing everything.

"Ha... Mr. Altos, it seems you do not understand this stone. It is by no means a worthless rock. If there is no mistake, it comes from the primordial world of us humans."

"Oh, so?"

"So, with it, we can find the path home. Are you not moved?"

Ye Qiyan toyed with the stone, drawing Heinz's gaze to shift continuously.

Until he finally caught the stone steadily and returned it to the Storage Unit.

Only then did he speak:

"So what? In the end, isn't it just a worthless rock?"

"No, this is hope. The me of the past would have been willing to pay everything to trade for it the instant I saw it. Even now, Mr. Altos, if you are willing to part with your beloved.

I think I too would pay no small price. So long as, you let me come into contact with it, let me know whether it can truly take me home."

Heinz's tone was utterly sincere.

Like a wanderer away from home for many years, facing the last boat ticket home.

That stone landed firmly in Ye Qiyan's palm.

"Just paying no small price, rather than exchanging Fan Huo, huh. As expected, you never intended to let Fan Huo live from the very beginning, Mayor Heinz."

[Demon Card · Bewitchment × Defiance]

From the moment [Ring of Evil] appeared, Ye Qiyan had kept these two cards interwoven the entire time.

That was why Heinz had not realized the greatest loophole in what he had just said.

The rain fell harder.

The pitch-black Demon Ravens seemed to melt into the night.

Their shrill cries proclaimed the arrival of death.

Heinz became aware of the presence of [Bewitchment].

But he did not feel anger because of it.

Since he could not easily lie, then, let all he said be true.

"That's right, you are correct. Fan Huo must die. His nine cards, Utopia City is set on having them. No one can stop this from happening, not you, not Zhu Xingshu, and not even that Angel."

"So it seems you don't want this stone all that much after all."

"You are wrong again, Mr. Altos. I want it very much, but compared to my objective, this stone is only the second option.

Of course, I know you are very strong, but, this is Utopia City, this is the land of happiness.

Your power is not yet enough to secure victory in this battle."

Heinz's voice suddenly stretched very far away.

From behind him, a girl who had been dazed by the malice stood up woodenly.

A scythe-like weapon was drawn out by her.

A silver-white flash passed by, slashing toward Ye Qiyan's head.

Clang!

The Wandering Star Holy Sigil unfolded automatically.

The golden-red sun blazed forth.

That attack was instantly intercepted, yet left a cutting mark upon the Wandering Star Holy Sigil.

"We have already performed psychological profiling calculations on the power you used in the previous battle of Suoluo City. This Numbered Weapon was specially commissioned from a False God to be forged solely for use against you.

Your defense is no longer impregnable.

Mr. Altos.

You, cannot win."

The girl holding the scythe launched attack after attack without cease.

Upon the Wandering Star Holy Sigil, just as Heinz had said, more and more cracks appeared.

"Is that so?"

Ye Qiyan neither dodged nor evaded. One hand slowly curled into a loose grip, and bright moonlight converged in his palm.

The golden-red sun blazed forth! A phantasmal dreamlike golden Laurel Crown floated and rotated above Ye Qiyan's head.

[Courage · Glory!]

The cracks on the Wandering Star Holy Sigil vanished in an instant. That scythe, which had originally been capable of breaking through his defense, also lost its effect on its next attack, and the girl was knocked backward by the recoil energy.

And that girl would never again become Ye Qiyan's enemy.

[Demon Card · Decisive]

The Decisive mech-soldier descended from the sky, raised its palm, and slammed it down.

Boom!

In this rain, a red flower bloomed.