"I have never seen my parents. According to the Dollmaker, they were both Patrollers, so I also became a Patroller."
Carefully avoiding the various alarm mechanisms set by the Dollmaker along the way, Yinlin spoke softly to Noah:
"The Dollmaker's Resonance ability could have originally helped countless people, but he was too paranoid and went down the wrong path. I can't watch him continue making mistakes anymore."
"To be honest, although I had already planned to capture him, now that we've truly reached this step, I still feel somewhat hesitant."
"After all, no matter what, the Dollmaker was ultimately the one who raised me."
As she spoke, Yinlin's expression became increasingly conflicted. Finally, she gritted her teeth tightly:
"When I was young, I often felt that I was unfortunate, but I never thought of sacrificing other people's happiness to make up for my own misfortune. I will not impose my own pain onto others."
"Because I understand that lives that have already passed away should rest in peace. This is my fate, and I cannot erase it."
"What I can erase are the criminals who abuse their power for their own selfish desires, destroying other people's happiness and treating innocent lives as their own chess pieces."
Upon hearing this, Noah nodded deeply in agreement:
"I understand how you feel. If you're not mentally prepared to face the Dollmaker yet, you can hide farther away when I capture him later so he doesn't see you."
"No... let me capture him personally."
Under the moonlight, Yinlin had made sufficient mental preparations. She nodded slightly to Noah, then finally pushed open the heavily rusted large door of the abandoned factory.
What greeted their eyes was a dense mass of puppets in bizarre postures.
Boom— She immediately slammed the door shut heavily, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and with a tense expression, nervously said to Noah, who was using his terminal to send a message beside her:
"Um... you might not believe this when I say it..."
She opened the door a crack, glanced at the countless puppets with bizarre postures inside the factory, and paused slightly in her tone:
"It seems like... a Tacet Field has opened in my house."
...
Jinzhou.
"What the heck, Noah is being all mysterious."
With a notification sound, Chixia opened her terminal, looked at the location Noah had sent, and immediately slapped her forehead:
"Whining Aix's Mire? That's so far... No, this Blazing Dawn has to get there quickly. Oh right, he asked me to bring more patrollers."
Thinking of this, Chixia immediately forwarded the location to her superior and made a call:
"Captain, here's the thing. Noah ran into some trouble and needs us to bring more people over."
"What?" A rough voice came from the terminal: "Are you sure it's the Hero of Jinzhou?"
"Yes, I sent you the location."
Soon, the captain hung up the call, forwarded the location Chixia sent to his own superior, and made another call:
"Group Leader, the Hero of Jinzhou has encountered difficulties and needs a large number of personnel for support."
...
"What!"
At Jinzhou City Hall, Jinhsi suddenly slammed the table and stood up:
"What do you mean Noah is trapped in a desperate situation, on the verge of life and death!"
"I don't know."
Sanhua shook her head:
"That's what the people below said."
"How could this be!"
Jinhsi immediately took out her terminal and called Noah. After finding that no one answered, she became anxious.
Even Noah, who could resolve the global Lament, had fallen into a desperate situation. Just how dangerous must the situation be?
Could it be that Ovathrax had revived?
"Sanhua, inform Jiyan to come for reinforcements immediately. As for the Sentinel... never mind, we can't wait for the Sentinel. I'll head over first."
...
The War Threnodian Ovathrax had indeed revived.
But— It was now terrifyingly weak.
It didn't know what had happened during the period its consciousness had been asleep, but even if only its instincts remained, it should have been constantly driving war to obtain a continuous flow of power.
So where had its power gone? Without power, it could not bring down the Retroact Rain, nor could it incubate a body. It was left with only an ugly form resembling a black-purple full moon.
This question did not trouble Ovathrax for long, because it encountered an even more terrifying problem:
"Who?" Ovathrax roared in fury. Its entire Sound Domain trembled under its rage: "Who stole my Whisperin Erosion!"
Whisperin Erosion could not only greatly amplify the combat power of Tacet Discord tides, but could also easily crush the will of non-Tacet Discord beings into dust.
As a War Threnodian, it only needed a single thought to activate Whisperin Erosion to its maximum. The range could cover from the Norfall Barrens frontline all the way to the foot of Jinzhou City, turning this hundred-mile battlefield into a paradise for the mad.
But— it was gone! Whisperin Erosion was gone!
"Despicable humans! Stealing my Threnodian creation while I was asleep!"
Ovathrax flew into a rage, feeling a blazing fire burning in its chest that made its entire being feel scorching hot as it roared madly.
It activated its power, wanting to gather a Tacet Discord army to attack Jinzhou City, only to discover another matter that made it furious:
"Where are the Tacet Discords!"
"Where is my Tacet Discord legion?!"
"Why are there only a few scattered Common-class trash left?"
Not to mention Crownless, Thundering Mephis, Tempest Mephis, or other Overlord-class Tacet Discords — even the Elite-class ones were pitifully few.
Without power, it could not create Tacet Discords. Without Tacet Discords, it could not start a war. Without war, it could not gain power.
It was a complete closed loop. What was the point of it still being alive? It might as well jump.
Ovathrax was collapsing. After waking up from a long sleep, it had no power, its creation had been stolen, and it was left as a lone commander.
Fortunately, heaven never completely cuts off all paths. After painstaking searching, Ovathrax finally found a Overlord -class creation — the Mech Abomination.
It moved the entrance and exit of its Sound Domain directly into the interior of the Mech Abomination.
While remotely controlling various Common-class Tacet Discords to gather and provoke "war," it poured all the weak power recovered through "war" and natural restoration into the Mech Abomination.
Finally, today, Ovathrax had turned this Mech Abomination into its own. Although the price was that it currently had no combat power at all.
No big deal. As long as war broke out, it could continuously absorb the power fed back from the war. Everything it invested would be returned tenfold or a hundredfold.
"Humans are stupid and ignorant. No matter how much scheming they do, how can it compare to my tactics?"
Ovathrax had never thought before that simply picking up a piece of Overlord -class trash would make it this happy. Truly... it had fallen on hard times.
However, with such a disastrous start, having an Overlord -class creation to start a war should be enough to restore some power for it to incubate and take form.
Harboring pleasant thoughts, Ovathrax controlled its body to float from beneath the pitch-black throne toward the exit of the Sound Domain, preparing to personally command the battlefield.
"Hmph, so what if you stole my creation? With the Rover gone, I am invincible."
...
Countless Camellya vines brutally pierced through the bodies of over a thousand puppets. The entire puppet factory looked as if it had suffered a nuclear strike and was almost razed to the ground.
Noah stood at a high place, casually tossed out his terminal to absorb the Echo from the Mech Abomination, and glanced at the Echo entries with some dissatisfaction:
"Eh? It doesn't even have the strength to hit people, and it's still Overlord-class?"
Upon hearing this, Yinlin beside him felt somewhat offended. To her, the Mech Abomination was an existence that required her to go all out.
"Cough cough, I just found the Dollmaker's remains. He... should indeed have died here."
As she spoke, Yinlin's expression was somewhat complicated:
"I really didn't expect that he would end up with such an outcome in the end. One can only say that the heavens have their own cycle."
Letting out a long breath, she looked up at the bright moonlight in the sky and suddenly felt much more relaxed.
"Mm... you're quite strong. Do you still have time tonight?"
Yinlin turned to look at Noah:
"If you don't mind, I'd like to treat you to a drink. I suddenly... really want to get heavily drunk."
"We still need to help clean up those Jinzhou residents who came into contact with the Remnant puppets. Once everything is completely resolved, I'll drink with you. Oh, and I don't drink anything with too high of an alcohol content."
Noah replied, then opened the panel and looked at the Companion Story "Solitary Path," which still hadn't shown as completed. He fell into deep thought.
Generally speaking, miscellaneous tasks like cleaning up the battlefield were not counted in the quest.
So... what exactly was he still missing?
While pondering, he suddenly felt the surrounding space faintly fluctuating.
Noah subconsciously turned his head to look and saw a massive black-purple full moon slowly emerging from the void space.
Upon seeing this, Noah's eyes gradually widened in shock.
At the same time, Ovathrax, having left its Sonoro and looking at the ruins all over the ground, was also shocked.
Ovathrax: "Ah?"
Noah: "Ah?"
It finally saw Noah and recalled all the memories related to him. At the same time, a pure white light circle appeared beneath Yinlin, and in the blink of an eye, she disappeared entirely.
Ovathrax: "Ah!"
Noah: "Ah!"
The Shorekeeper's blue Terminal End loop domain expanded and instantly turned purple. Ciaccona's Resonance was unleashed, leaving three green afterimages in place. The purple Terminal End loop domain instantly turned gold as the shining sword light of the Crown of Unyielding Fate severed the sky.
Ovathrax: "Your name..."
Noah: "Furious tides, split the heavens!"
...