·I never knew you had the taste for stargazing at midnight.
Ails, having answered Malin’s summons, stood on the rooftop of Katerina’s sanatorium. He glanced at the milky way in the sky, then lowered his eyes to look at Malin.
·You’ve shrunk again.
"Yes, I don’t know why, but the two bloodlines in my body seem like they will never merge... Ails, did you bring the things you prepared?" Malin wasn’t too surprised by this; after all, whether he was one meter twenty, one meter forty, or one meter eighty, Malin could use his fists to knock the brains out of any fool who dared to challenge him from their skulls.
·Yes, I’ve put in quite an effort to protect the souls of those two children, but as you know, I’m a master in this area; their souls are preserved perfectly, as if they were still alive.
The Lich ’spoke’ with a proud and self-satisfied tone, the whisper from the soul seemed to be boasting, or perhaps seeking a reward.
"I knew you would be useful. Come, I’ll take you to see the mechanical life created by the ancient creators of this world."
·Mechanical life? What is that, something composed of gears and alchemy tools that clanks when it moves?
Ails was extremely curious; he looked around inquisitively.
·Mr. Malin, where are they?
"Katerina, come, this is a being from another world, beyond what you could have previously imagined."
"Good evening, Mr. Ails, although I maintain certain differing views on your form of life, I must admit, you indeed seem like a living person."
With Katerina finishing her speech, a disembodied eye emerged from the wall, immediately eliciting a cry of surprise from Ails.
·Mechanical reaper... No, that’s not right, the form of creation doesn’t match.
His shock caused Malin to pause: "Mechanical reaper?"
·To explain this, it would be a long story.
Ails answered, looking down.
In his narrative, Malin learned that Melo’s legion had just breached a fortress in Subspace. The mechanical hordes had thoroughly purified Nagoth’s fortress and the source world it guarded. A giant steel warship had fired a beam at the planet, igniting a great fire that now covered the surface. The land crystallized amidst the flames, the seas boiled over completely, and all so-called life was being purified.
Having heard this, Malin could only sigh; it turned out that another self in a different timeline had bided his time for so long just to mass troops and build ships to burn glass globes.
·Those mechanical reapers call themselves the Heartless. They only see Chaos as their enemy. To build their legion, they are even willing to collaborate with us Undead. They will trade the souls of the lives from the conquered planets who worshipped the Chaos pantheons with us; you know that in the Realm of the Undead, we always say that mechanical reapers, beings without souls, are not to be trusted, but when it comes to souls, many are still willing to trade with them.
"You can also trade with them; you can even tell their leader that you are my friend. He will give you a discount," Malin said with a smile.
Malin thought that Melo would likely be in great need of various metals, and the metal plundered by the Semi-Planes and the Undead from various worlds would certainly make the Heartless quite happy—after all, they held vast, incalculable quantities.
·Why are you so certain?
Ails appeared completely unaware of Malin’s relationship with the Heartless leader.
So Malin stretched out his hand, and Melo separated from his wrist and, turning into a little fairy, hopped into Malin’s palm: "The Heartless is me from another timeline. His world failed. When the last life was transformed into a Lich and purified by my hand, he gathered all the defiant souls from that planet, turned them into the Heartless, and then began an eternal crusade..."
Ails, having heard everything Malin had to say, nodded his head very rarely.
·I understand. In the trade with the Heartless, I will provide all the metal artifacts I can find, and I will also tell the you from that world that I will take over the souls he has collected. These souls will be traded at the Realm of the Undead’s market for a sufficient amount of metal."
"That’s good. Now follow me, I’ll take you to a small world of mine. It’s not a Semi-Plane, but it is my last stronghold," Malin said as he opened the transmission gateway to the Seafloor Base.
Malin had always felt that as a Mortal, one should have the consciousness of a Mortal, because human power is finite... But he realized that if one limits oneself to being a Mortal, one loses the courage to fight the heavens and battle the earth. Therefore, to change the Fate of Larraya and Four-leaf, he had to take it into his own hands. Only by personally changing their Fate could Malin prove himself.
Ails, who had followed Malin through the gateway and entered the Seafloor Base, was marveling from the moment he arrived.
·My God! This place... I’ve never encountered such technology in any world I’ve visited, not even in storybooks, and yet such a profound depth of the ocean to construct such a grand... city!
·Yes, a city. My goodness, I’ve never seen metal before; my fingers can’t even scratch it!