["Do you want to live?"]
This was a question anyone would answer.
No one wanted to die, especially after being stabbed in the back.
Bewitchment tugged at the deepest desires and truths in everyone’s heart.
At this moment, they were faint, on the brink of death.
At this moment, following instinct, they answered.
Ain, his blood loss severe and his heart slowing, trembled as he pulled the photo with his childhood friend from his chest.
Staring at the childhood friend in the picture, he dropped to one knee and reached his hand toward that pale light before him:
"I want to live... I want to go back..."
the girl crushed beneath the rubble, Koleira, heard the same question.
Live?
Of course she wanted to live.
She did not want to die, and she was very afraid of death.
Death was the most terrifying thing to her, bar none.
She hungered for salvation with every fiber of her being.
That was why she had made Altos, who had saved everyone in Suoluo City, into an idol.
"I don't want to die... I'm so scared..."
Demon Card · Salvation
When those yearning for salvation spoke their answer,
when the boy and the girl made that choice,
a holy demon descended upon the equally holy skeletal stairway.
Ye Qiyan smiled faintly.
He spoke softly.
"Deal, made."
Spirit began to drain.
Ain and Koleira’s consciousnesses slowly revived in that pallid radiance.
A black inverted cross flickered into Ain’s eyes and above Koleira’s lower abdomen.
The inverted cross flashed past.
When they opened their eyes, the grievous wounds inflicted by Hiroshi Fuji’s sneak attack and betrayal were already gone.
Death had been driven away by salvation, and they instinctively looked in one direction.
Ain realized something, forced a bitter smile, stood, and bowed to Ye Qiyan.
"Thank you for saving me, Senior Altos... thank you for your mercy, you really are not a villain."
He no longer intended to keep fighting.
Likewise, Koleira, who had crawled from the ruins, ignored Eve’s provocation and fixed a bright gaze on Ye Qiyan.
"Lord Altos saved me once again..."
She thought this in her heart, her worship of him reaching a new height.
They had lost the battle.
Ye Qiyan did not demand anything from them.
But as a Train Conductor who had been traversing the Wasteland for more than three years, both Ain and Koleira understood something very clearly.
Free things were always the most costly.
They could sense some mark seemed to have been left inside their bodies, a mark that felt as if it could take their lives at any moment.
Maybe it was a delusion, but Koleira did not care.
Ain was different. He looked at the photo of his childhood friend, and memories of Abukado’s leader helping him floated through his mind.
He hesitated, sighed.
In the end he put aside the thought of ending his life.
After all, someone was waiting for him.
He understood well that Lord Altos, who came from the Emperor's Order, was an enemy of Abukado.
If a member of Abukado were saved by the enemy and left with a mark, what did the other side want?
It was obvious...
He slung his sword onto his back, brought up his system interface, and proactively sent a friend request to the other party.
"Senior... you saved my life. I owe you a favor. If you need anything later, I'll repay it, but... if you want me to stab the leader in the back, sorry... I..."
When Koleira heard Ain's words she reacted immediately, a flash of joy appearing in her eyes.
She cut Ain off without hesitation, sending her request while speaking:
"Lord Altos, I'll keep an eye on this guy for you. If Abukado makes any move against you, I'll notify you immediately. Rest assured, you saved me twice after all."
Twice?
Ye Qiyan tried to recall when he had ever saved this woman twice.
"Ahem, in Suoluo City you defeated the End, and... you were powerful, more powerful than anyone... a genius."
Suoluo City again. Back when he’d received Salvation in that Station World, the Ding Xiuqi who had a mouse-girl girlfriend had also become grateful because Ye Qiyan had repelled the Wind of the End during that operation.
What a coincidence... right?
No, Ye Qiyan felt he might have underestimated that Suoluo battlefield.
How many Train Conductors had gathered in that war—no one could really say.
Repelling the Wind of the End, though done to help Zhao Xi, had indeed saved some people.
The friend requests were accepted, and Ye Qiyan hid his name from the two of them.
They were smart.
They knew what to do to repay the debt of life.
As for Ain refusing to stab his leader...
It didn’t matter. He would choose Demon’s Salvation to live, and there would be a next time when he didn’t want to die and made the same choice.
Bewitchment would make him tell the truth.
All of this happened very fast.
The canopy resented Ye Qiyan’s simultaneous use of demonic and mechanical abilities.
It resented even his initial use of the Realm of No Self sword technique.
But as always, it could not bear to leave, and it had no way to strike Ye Qiyan.
However, being unwilling to fight Ye Qiyan did not mean it would not act against Koleira and Ain.
Threads of the canopy descended, reaching toward the two who had just recovered.
According to wish war rules, failures will be transformed into Formless Heroes to provide nourishment for wishes.
A new voice appeared.
As it said, it intended to turn Ain and Koleira into the kind of monsters that other members of the Birds of Paradise Guild had become.
Even compared to those others, Ain and Koleira—humans with talents—were more valued by the Wish Machine.
They were failures, losers in this Wish War, and thus destined to be absorbed and converted.
"Can’t hold it in any longer? So this is your goal, the reason you hate leaving."
"On Year 709, Month 11, Day 7, you said you had accumulated power for so long, and that through this so-called Wish War you would have Train Conductors or others fight, gathering strength through battle and death, and... now is the time."
Ye Qiyan lifted his sword.
It was the sword combined from mechanical gears.
Warning! Warning! Do not use more power! Violators will...
"Shut up."
One slice.
The canopy cracked open.
"I am their creditor.
Their lives belong to me.
A so-called Wish Machine that only hides in the gutter, you are not worthy of taking them."
Beep—beep—
At that moment, Wall-E’s unique alert tone sounded in his ear.
Ye Qiyan's mouth twitched into a small smile.
He looked up at the sky and sheathed the sword.
"By the way, the war continues~ Don't be afraid. Even if you're a rat hiding in the gutter, if you hide well enough I still won't be able to find you."
Arrest.
Wall-E traversed back through the prismlike space to Ye Qiyan’s side.
He gently patted the happy blocky robot’s iron head, pressing one finger to his own lips.
"Shh~"
Ye Qiyan smiled mysteriously, and Red Tears appeared at his side.
Orders given—
"Go, find it, bring it back, alive or dead, it doesn't matter~"
Red Tears drew the Tear-Engraving Sword.
The still-not-fully-healed canopy was cut apart again.
"Don't misunderstand. I only want them to help me fetch something. Don't be afraid, just let the war continue."
A cross of black light flickered in Ye Qiyan’s left eye.
Defiance × Bewitchment
He is lying~
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