Chapter 289: The Flag Has Been Raised

A recording fragment lasting thousands of minutes, brimming with unfiltered information, violently shattered Carol's mental defenses and slammed into her consciousness.

Her consciousness accelerated endlessly, overwhelmed by an influx of excessive data; around her, time seemed utterly frozen—unwilling, resisting, yet she could only passively accept it.

…

The sound of burning fire reached her ears.

The surroundings were unbearably hot; she felt as if she had entered the sun itself—only on the day her father was burned at the stake had she felt such heat.

It was no ordinary fire—it was nuclear flame.

In 199X, the world was engulfed in the flames of atomic bombs.

The seas dried up, the earth cracked open, shockwaves from the explosions obliterated every thriving metropolis; the crust, averaging seventeen kilometers thick, was shaken, magma surged from the asthenosphere, and dormant volcanoes simultaneously reawakened.

Thick nuclear dust lingered throughout the atmosphere, permeating the troposphere, stratosphere, and ionosphere; humanity raced headlong toward civilizational collapse…

Nuclear war utterly altered the food chain: herbivores had no plants to eat and vanished swiftly; carnivores lost their prey and turned to cannibalism…

The survivors emerging from underground bunkers faced a silent, cruel wasteland era.

Radiation-mutated humans grew strong, cruel, bloodthirsty, obsessed with violence and plunder—yet even under these conditions, humans still turned on each other.

In this desert world, civilization regressed, life was worth less than ants, food and water… survival of the fittest once again ruled society, violence becoming the sole melody.

Pale gray skies mingled with yellow-green sands and stones; polluted land and water, massive nuclear radiation, extreme heat, radiation rain, species extinction, shattered ruins.

Even seven-year-old children had to pick up weapons; even innocent infants met their end.

Without fighting, you could not survive.

The gloom in the sky never lifted, blocking all prayers directed toward heaven…

——That was a visible hell.

The next moment, Carol snapped open her eyes, two trails of shocking blood tears streaming down her face.

It was the manifestation of having witnessed everything, understood everything.

"Compared to a world where everything has vanished, leaving only ruins and weeping, your momentary painless annihilation of all humanity was truly gentle…"

She had seemed about to say something, but fell silent after Jia Qi spoke first.

Gentle?

Hmph… never thought one day the painless death of all humanity would be called "gentle."

For the first time, Carol found someone's thought process utterly incomprehensible—but she could also confirm one fact: he was serious.

Jia Qi sat calmly before her, spiritual power so dense it choked the air flowing in his palm, gently brushing over the girl's wounds.

Carol took a deep breath; her wounds rapidly healed, scabbed over, and vanished under his deliberate healing energy.

"None of this has happened yet… so I crossed worlds to find you—to seek the power of miracle!"

She now understood his thoughts, origins, identity, and purpose—but…

To heal an opponent who had just fought to the death, and to make the "Miracle Killer" perform a "world-saving miracle" for an unrelated alternate world?

What an absurd alternate-worlder!

Fool!

Idiot!

Even mockery has its limits!

But—

Her task was "to understand the world"—to record everything at the moment of its destruction—

A world, even one utterly unrelated to her!

How could it be destroyed without value!

How could it be annihilated meaninglessly, driven solely by human greed, rather than fulfilling the Manifestation of All Things!

How could it…!!

Her expression revealed a deep, soul-deep fury.

Click-click-click…

Her teeth ground together, her breath trembled, blue eyes blazing with genuine rage.

"How much longer?"

Only when she asked this did the proud alchemist realize what she had just said.

"As soon as possible."

Jia Qi replied.

At that moment, he knew all his efforts had not been in vain.

…

Alchemists are all oddities, but once they decide on something, they never question it.

No contract was signed, no binding oath made—they merely reached a verbal agreement: Carol would help him complete the grand global-scale ritual to control the world and lend him "Tifory City," while he needed to obtain a sacred relic called the "Mechanical Encyclopedia" to fully activate "Tifory City."

"Absolutely not! This is a world full of ridiculous Moxis!"

"Anyway, this isn't for your sake!"

"Don't you dare misunderstand!"

Hearing this, Jia Qi instinctively reached out to pat the alchemist's head—before she could unleash a Four-Element blast, he hastily used a talisman card to escape into an extradimensional castle.

Huh, that went smoother than expected…

Having torn through space, Jia Qi suddenly appeared above Lunduncheng, thinking this as he recalled the warning sent to him by Xiang.

Though the journey had its twists, the goal was achieved smoothly; now, all that remained was to retrieve the sacred relic from the facility sealed beneath Japan's ocean floor, known as "The Abyssal Dragon Palace."

With his peerless stealth technique (i. ., talisman cards), stealing a single item would be effortless.

Xiang was still too worried.

Even if he couldn't beat Carol, couldn't he at least run away?

And now that this super-alchemist with infinite memory-slash attacks had been defeated, the others were no threat at all.

The Bavarian Illuminati had mostly rank-and-file nobodies; only a few high-ranking members mattered—like Saint-Germain, Cariostrò, and Pubbilati, who once used the Philosopher's Stone to craft Faustian robes and temporarily suppressed the enhanced Symphogear users.

But first, they likely didn't even know of him, so no reason to confront him; second, the Philosopher's Stone hadn't been crafted yet, so it was useless—even if they came, he'd just strip them bare with a single blow.

As Jia Qi floated high above, basking in the cold wind and feeling triumphant, he thought: below, Lunduncheng seemed quiet enough…

Perhaps too much success had made him forget: those who say things like this usually end up badly.

"—Golden Transmutation! Monster, die!"

A freezing voice came from behind, as if long held back, forced through clenched teeth.

"————!"

Jia Qi's pupils shrank sharply, his body tensed, an unprecedented sense of danger surged within him.

(End of Chapter)