St. Honghu Avenue, inside an abandoned factory.
Ke Mingqing stood in silence, his head bowed, his bangs hiding his eyes.
Above him, Shadow Girl's corpse hung from the ceiling, motionless.
Her head drooped, her eyes wide with agony. A smear of blood stained her pale cheeks, and fresh blood still oozed from the wounds beneath her bodysuit.
The factory was completely silent. Beads of blood dripped onto the mottled floor like raindrops, pattering against the concrete. Flames raged nearby, casting a flickering glow over her hanging figure.
In the next instant, pitch-black lightning wreathed Ke Mingqing's body.
He stomped the ground and launched himself upward like a gale, reaching the ceiling in the blink of an eye.
Watching this from a distance, Dream Monk and Mini Girl were both taken aback.
"Lightning?" Dream Monk murmured, startled. "Why..."
"Isn't that Blue Pigeon's ability? But didn't Daddy already take Blue Pigeon away?"
Ignoring the two in the distance, Ke Mingqing extended his index and middle fingers toward the disposable suspension rig attached to the ceiling. Lightning shot from his fingertips, severing the iron hook.
Shadow Girl's body fell. Ke Mingqing caught her still-warm body, slowly descended, and laid her gently on the ground.
"I actually did design a chocolate house for you once. Looking back on it now, my brain must have been broken..."
Ke Mingqing spoke softly, reaching out to close her eyes.
Her expression looked so peaceful now, just like the day they first met.
He suddenly offered a faint smile. "If you knew, you'd type on your phone to mock me, wouldn't you?"
Ke Mingqing patted the dust from his pant legs and slowly stood up, turning to look at the two figures in the distance.
In the next instant, he shot forward with a deafening roar.
"Stinky monk, how long do you need?" Mini Girl asked.
"Ten seconds, and I can pull him into a dream," Dream Monk said calmly.
"Fine. I might just kill him before then anyway. You're so useless." As Mini Girl spoke, she pulled an object resembling a model house from her sleeve.
She threw the model house and used her esper ability to manifest a colorful curtain. The moment the curtain swept over the model, it expanded violently, restoring to its original size: a wide, two-story residential building.
An entire residential building swept outward like a giant's arm, slamming toward Ke Mingqing and blocking his path.
"Guess how long it took me to shrink this apartment building?" Mini Girl smirked. "Let's see if this doesn't crush you, you idiot."
Ke Mingqing raised an eyebrow, seemingly not expecting her to have a move like this.
The abandoned factory wasn't particularly large, so when the building came crashing down, it engulfed almost his entire field of vision.
His eyes went pitch-black as his entire body was shrouded in a sky-blotting shadow, as if Mount Tai were collapsing onto him. The massive wind pressure, carrying clumps of loose dirt, battered his face and blew his bangs high into the air.
In the darkness, the teenager braked sharply, his feet sparking arcs of electricity as they scraped the ground.
Then, as if practicing Tai Chi, he twisted his arms and unhurriedly pushed his hands forward.
"Wall of Ten Thousand Armies."
Ke Mingqing's lips moved slightly, and a system Pop-up appeared before his eyes.
[B Rank skill released: Wall of Ten Thousand Armies.]
At that moment, a gale swept past, lifting his bangs once more. A golden wall, built entirely from statues of armored soldiers, materialized out of thin air. With overwhelming, unstoppable momentum, it pressed forward.
Mini Girl stared in dumbfounded disbelief. "Holy shit, what is that?!"
Dream Monk furrowed his brow, his expression turning grave.
"Boom—!!!"
With a deafening crash, the golden wall collided with the two-story residential building, completely pulverizing the structure.
In that moment, the world shook and trembled like a kaleidoscope. The factory's walls were torn apart by the impact, the ruptures immediately filling with flying debris from the shattered apartment building.
Everything in its path was reduced to a devastated wasteland of ruins.
Amidst this absolute chaos, all Mini Girl and Dream Monk could see was a wave of gold driving toward them with unstoppable force!
"Run!"
Mini Girl growled, throwing the colorful curtain over herself and Dream Monk.
Their bodies instantly shrank dramatically. They sprinted away, finding refuge in a narrow crevice to escape the colossal upheaval.
A moment later, when they recovered their wits, they saw that the residential building had been shoved to the very edge of the factory by the golden wall, its crushed remains piling up to block the back door.
It was as if a mudslide had just swept through; the scene before them was indescribably chaotic.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
After a moment of shock, Mini Girl slowly turned her head.
Ke Mingqing was still standing calmly in place. As if guessing exactly which way they would run, he slowly turned his head to look at the only corner left untouched by the destruction.
His gaze landed right above their heads.
Mini Girl and Dream Monk both froze.
Right now, the two of them were incredibly tiny. Looking up at his figure, it felt like staring at a giant who had crouched down and lowered his massive face to look down upon his prey.
"Stinky monk, why haven't you pulled him into a dream yet?" Mini Girl asked.
Cold sweat ran down Dream Monk's forehead. "His mental fortitude is extremely strong, far beyond a normal person's," he rasped. "I don't know why..."
He stared at Ke Mingqing's brain as if looking at a grotesquely stitched-together abomination.
Countless fragmented, shattered, and contradictory pieces of consciousness made up the source of his mind, leaving Dream Monk unable to find a true entry point.
"Just tell me, how many more seconds do you need?" Mini Girl snapped.
"Soon..." Dream Monk frowned deeply. "I can already see the entrance. It won't be long before I can invade his mind."
"Damn, damn, damn! I'll trust you one more time!"
Mini Girl shouted, scowling as she pulled a miniature pistol from her jacket.
She aimed the muzzle at Ke Mingqing and pulled the trigger, flourishing her curtain at the same time.
In that instant, a bullet barely a millimeter thick cleared the chamber and shot out, flying straight for Ke Mingqing.
Mid-flight, the bullet suddenly expanded, returning to its normal size.
A hail of bullets came flying right at his face. However, Ke Mingqing simply threw up an electrical net, intercepting the entire barrage.
Mini Girl kept running as she frantically pulled the trigger. The bullets constantly grew larger in mid-air, cutting sharp trajectories and carrying the deafening sound of piercing the air as they shot toward Ke Mingqing's vitals.
Ke Mingqing transformed into deep blue lightning, dodging the bullets while tearing through the ruined factory.
He had already used his Tracking Sunglasses on Clock Maker.
And right now, the two of them were simply too tiny. He couldn't pinpoint their exact location right away.
Ke Mingqing could only roughly judge their position based on the trajectory of the incoming bullets. But every time he rushed over, Dream Monk and Mini Girl had already fled further away.
Of course, he had one way to deal with them: if he used "It's Raining", he could summon torrential rain inside the factory. The rainwater would completely restrict Dream Monk and Mini Girl's tiny bodies.
But Ke Mingqing didn't want to do that.
Firstly, because these two would immediately choose to run once they fell into a tight spot, and he didn't want to let them get away.
Secondly, he didn't want to drench a certain someone's corpse here.
"Enough, he's already a dead man," Dream Monk suddenly said.
His words struck Mini Girl's chest like a tranquilizer. She skidded to a halt, panting heavily, and turned her head to look at Ke Mingqing.
At that exact moment, Ke Mingqing's eyes widened abruptly, and his entire body went rigid.
He stood completely immobilized like a puppet with cut strings, looking incredibly drowsy. Shortly after, he closed his eyes and hung his head, falling entirely still.
Mini Girl let out a sigh of relief and nearly dropped to her knees. "Stinky monk, that's the first time I've ever seen you take so long to put someone to sleep."
"Change me back," Dream Monk snorted coldly.
"Alright."
Saying so, Mini Girl draped the colorful curtain over herself and Dream Monk. Their bodies rapidly returned to human size.
"So, is this guy Blue Pigeon or not?"
Mini Girl placed a hand on her hip, looking at Ke Mingqing as he stood frozen in place.
"I don't know," Dream Monk muttered. "I've never heard of Blue Pigeon being able to push out a solid wall just by raising his hand. That's a bit too exaggerated."
Mini Girl scratched her head. "I might have been a bit hasty shooting at him just now. If he's the real Blue Pigeon, Daddy will be mad if we kill him."
The two walked closer to Ke Mingqing as they spoke.
"Why would there be two Blue Pigeons..." Dream Monk frowned, sizing up the teenager's face. "Could the Blue Pigeon that Father took away be a fake?"
Mini Girl thought about it. "That White Jack's methods are so bizarre, it wouldn't be surprising if he built a fake, right?"
Dream Monk nodded. "No matter what, we need to tell Father about this immediately."
"Give it a rest. Daddy is definitely enjoying some alone time with that gloomy, repressed Crow Man right now. I really don't understand how these old men think..." Mini Girl sighed at this point and threw her hands up.
Suddenly, an eerie voice rang out:
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger."
The two of them froze at the same time and looked toward Ke Mingqing's windbreaker. The sound was coming from inside his cuff.
At that very moment, a tiny paper figurine was hiding just inside the cuff.
It was crouching down, one hand gripping the edge of the cuff and the other resting on its white knee, silently staring out at Dream Monk and Mini Girl.
"What is this?" Dream Monk asked. "A paper figurine?"
"Ha, this little thing actually looks pretty cute," Mini Girl said. "Was it the one talking just now?"
Suddenly, the philosopher Nietzsche spoke, reciting in a gloomy voice: "God is Dead."
[Nietzsche: "God is Dead" (Breaks the influence of a domain-type or rule-based ability on you, allowing you to escape from it.)]
In an instant, the shadow of a black cross appeared behind Ke Mingqing, stretching out like a demon spreading its massive wings.
Immediately after, he broke free from the dreamscape and opened his eyes. He raised his head, meeting Dream Monk's gaze.
Dream Monk froze on the spot.
In the next instant, Ke Mingqing moved. Pitch-black lightning tore forward, its electrical arcs spreading out like a dark spiderweb and grazing Dream Monk's body.
"How could..." Dream Monk rasped.
But he was given no chance to finish his sentence. By the time he recovered his wits, Ke Mingqing's lightning-wreathed hand blade had already pierced clean through his chest.
With a sickening squelch, blood sprayed out like a fountain, dyeing his light-colored kasaya red.
Dream Monk clutched his chest, his eyes widening to their limits. Blood vessels burst and wriggled out like tadpoles, instantly filling his sockets.
Mini Girl stared in sheer shock. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn't utter a single word.
The hand blade, crackling with pitch-black lightning, twisted violently inside Dream Monk's body, churning his internal organs to mush.
Then, Ke Mingqing slowly pulled his right hand out of Dream Monk's chest and turned his head, meeting Mini Girl's eyes.
His eyes were pitch-black and freezing cold, like a wild beast preparing to devour someone. A massive wave of terror and panic exploded in Mini Girl's heart.
But her well-trained body still reacted. In the very next second, she summoned that rainbow curtain and quickly draped it over herself. Shrinking down into a tiny speck invisible to the naked eye, she bolted, sprinting frantically toward the factory exit.
In that moment, she understood clearly: she was absolutely no match for him.
"You'd better run faster."
Watching the direction she fled, Ke Mingqing spoke expressionlessly and snapped his fingers.
[It's Raining (E-grade skill): Snap your fingers to call forth a localized torrential rain.]
In the next instant, torrential rain crashed down. The water washed over the factory floor, completely dousing the raging flames. Mini Girl's figure was instantly pinned to the ground by the brutal rain.
Ke Mingqing crouched down to shield Shadow Girl's body while silently raising his right hand.
Lightning erupted from his fingertips. The electricity conducted through the water, streaking violently through the torrential rain until it caught up to Mini Girl.
Mini Girl turned her head, watching the lightning snake rushing right at her. To her currently microscopic size, the lightning looked as unfathomably huge as the legendary Yamata no Orochi.
She had nowhere to run. She knew that getting hit while in this state meant certain death, so she gritted her teeth and pulled the curtain over her body, reverting to her original size in a flash.
"Gaaaahhhh—!" A wretched scream rang out through the factory.
Mini Girl collapsed to the ground, hugging her arms against her chest. She spasmed violently amid the electrical arcs, her eyes rolling back into her head.
The torrential rain continued to pour.
Through the heavy curtain of rain, the teenager in the windbreaker walked toward her step by step, muttering to himself:
"You know, Invisible Giant, Top Hero, Shadow Girl... Even though I didn't care much about them, I did design some very good ways for them to die, for the sake of our friendship."
"And then I started thinking. Is it possible they just thought making me kill them myself would be too sad, so they died this early, this suddenly... right?"
Ke Mingqing spoke softly. His voice carried no emotion, and neither did his face.
But when Mini Girl met his gaze, she saw those condescending eyes. Black arcs of electricity danced in their depths, and he was looking at her exactly like one would look at a piece of livestock waiting to be slaughtered.
She had never seen such a chilling gaze in her life; it felt like staring directly into a bottomless cavern of ice.
In the very next moment, Ke Mingqing chopped through her neck with a beam of lightning. He reached out, ripped off her head, and kicked it up toward the ceiling.
Amidst a spray of crimson, Mini Girl's head flew high into the air, heading straight toward the hook of the disposable suspension rig.
With a loud clack, the hook snagged the back of Mini Girl's neck, anchoring her severed head mid-air—just as Shadow Girl had experienced only a minute ago.
Ke Mingqing couldn't even be bothered to look up at the hooked head. He turned away, stepped past Dream Monk's corpse, and walked back to Shadow Girl.
He stood silently in front of her body for a long time.
The sudden, localized torrential rain inside the factory had stopped, but heavy rain was still pouring outside, the massive roar of water blanketing the entire world.
Amidst the rustling rain, Ke Mingqing lowered his gaze and cast a tired look at her face.
"Tell me, do you want to be buried next to Top Hero, or next to Invisible Giant? Although, both of them are way too loud; they might annoy you to tears. Anyway... let's go back."
He spoke softly, leaning down to scoop her body into his arms before slowly walking out of the abandoned factory.
Ke Mingqing walked through the curtain of rain with his head bowed. He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and muttered soundlessly, "The people from Death Crow and Third Sister have already arrived. I don't need to worry about the rest of the Clockwork Alliance... The only thing left to worry about is the old man's side."