Chapter 1419: The Final Backbone

The Final Backbone

Whimpering wind and snow whirled around the heavily damaged radio station.

On this land filled with the smell of blood and the stench of the deep sea, the young girl wearing the flaxen-colored overcoat sat quietly on the ruins. Her hand tightly gripped the gun handle, her knuckles pale and distinct.

Teacher Ye was already dead. No one knew how much longer that wisp of Thought Storm he had left within Little Peach's body could last. Every word Little Peach spoke now could very well be the final voice of her life...

Nervousness, fear, bitterness, despair.

No one knew with what kind of powerful mental fortitude the young girl currently sitting in front of the radio was carrying all of this. No one had imagined that she, who had once been pampered and raised within the Mother Tree, would now have to become the final backbone of the Integration Faction.

Yes,

Her body was trembling in fear, but her gaze was more resolute than ever before.

She took a deep breath, parting her lips once again...

The instant this sentence rang out, the figures listening to the radio in all the domains froze slightly.

On the streets of the South Sea Domain, which had already been occupied by the Forbidden Sea, the Pu Family members desperately trying to carve out a bloody path, as well as Han Meng traversing the ruins, all simultaneously raised their heads and looked towards the direction of the radio station.

The black Enforcer windbreaker fluttered in the wind. Han Meng's gaze was somewhat complex...

"The defensive line fell because of us, and the South Sea Domain was also destroyed because of us... Perhaps in your eyes, our crimes are heinous and unpardonable... Perhaps when you hear my voice, you all feel disgusted."

"But there are some words that I must say... And now, only I am left to say them."

Little Peach closed her eyes, and the corpses of those who had died under Teacher Ye's gun muzzle surfaced in her mind. Pain surfaced on her face.

Teacher Ye was dead, and everyone in the Integration Faction was also dead. If this continued, every child of the Integration Faction would bear an eternal stigma, buried beneath this wind and snow with their eyes wide open in death... How would future generations evaluate them?

Ungrateful wretches, dark traitors, vicious heretics skilled at disguises, filthy Calamities draped in human skin...

The existence of the Integration Faction would be defined as absolute "evil." They would be ruthlessly trampled beneath the feet of future generations' gazes, having their backbones shattered and denying all the beauty and innocence they once possessed, letting them forever sink into abuse and accusations like wild dogs by the roadside.

Little Peach knew that even if she tried to clarify things for the Integration Faction, almost no one would believe her...

But whether they believed it or not was their business;

At least the Integration Faction had once tried to reveal the truth to the world, tried to let the world understand a bit more about this past... Even if ultimately only one or two people believed what she said, that would be enough.

"We truly didn't know that our consciousness and bodies had long since ceased to belong to us... We were like a group of marionettes, firmly grasped in the palm of the Thought Calamity, becoming its tools, becoming sharp blades stabbed towards humanity."

"We never wanted to hurt anyone..."

"We just wanted to have a 'home'."

Tears slid down Little Peach's cheeks, dripping onto the ground and freezing into frost in the whimpering cold wind.

Little Peach's voice choked up somewhat. She took a deep breath forcefully, trying to calm her voice down as much as possible...

"Since I was young, my brother taught me that if you do something wrong, you have to take responsibility..."

"I know that apologizing is completely useless, but we are already atoning for our sins... Even if this can never make up for the mistakes we have committed, we really... really cannot do any more..."

"We are heretics, we are sinners..."

"But we are not cowards!"

The Thought Storm lingering in Little Peach's mind gradually dissipated. Chaos and brutality once again attempted to control her body.

A trace of bloodshot color increasingly climbed into Little Peach's already reddened eyes. Her entire body trembled violently. Her sharp claws began to lengthen, and her voice also became hoarse, as if she was gradually sinking into becoming a wild beast.

Little Peach knew her time was up.

Her chest heaved violently. She curled up into a ball in front of the radio. The hand tightly gripping the gun handle trembled constantly. She used almost all her strength to slowly raise it...

With her own hands, she pressed the cold gun muzzle against her chin.

At this moment, Little Peach thought of many things.

Fear? Nervousness? Anger? Bitterness? She seemed to no longer feel any of them...

Memories flooded her mind like a tide. From the moment she stepped into the Integration Faction's Mother Tree as a child—every class, every break, every time they joked and played around, every birthday, every New Year's Eve... The warmth of the memories diluted the freezing cold of the gun muzzle. She seemed to see those familiar figures enthusiastically waving at her from the other side of the distant shore.

Her lips parted slightly, leaving behind the final words of the South Sea Domain:

"Our birth was a mistake, and our existence is also a mistake..."

"But our love is not."

BANG——!!

This was the ultimate swan song from the Integration Faction,

The confession of the penitents, and the elegy of fate.

In the instant fresh blood splattered across the ruins, Little White threw the door open from the outside. His heart-rending wails mixed into the endless wind and snow, ear-shattering.

...

The instant the gunshot rang out,

Upon the throne of the Underground Palace, a figure draped in a Great Crimson Theatrical Robe abruptly opened his eyes!!

Those were a pair of hungover eyes, a pair of bloodshot eyes. He stared fixedly in the direction of the radio. The final few words echoing in his mind were like thunder, completely dispelling his muddle-headed drowsiness!

"Little Peach!!"

Chen Ling wasn't clear on exactly what had happened in the South Sea Domain, but from Little Peach's few words, an ominous premonition rose within him.

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Ling's Great Crimson Theatrical Robe was dyed pitch-black in an instant. His hair drifted upwards strand by strand, and a terrifying aura swept through the entire Underground Palace!

The Thought Storm activated. Chen Ling's consciousness swept past consciousnesses one by one within the storm, ultimately locking onto a certain figure...

...

"Little Peach——!!"

"Little Peach——!!!"

Hugging the young girl collapsed in a pool of blood, Little White called out heart-rendingly. But the only response he got was the whimpering sound of the wind and snow in the sky above the ruins.

Right at this moment, the scene before his eyes swayed slightly. The corner of a pitch-black theatrical robe gently brushed past his cheek...

Little White froze.

He raised his head to look, only to see a familiar figure standing beside him. The pitch-black theatrical robe fluttered in the wind. That person looked down at the two corpses of Teacher Ye and Little Peach, a trace of bewilderment surfacing in his pupils...

"Great King... Great King Chen Ling!!!"

A trace of light finally recovered in Little White's deathly pale eyes. Like a drowning man grabbing onto the final straw, he wailed and rushed to hug Chen Ling.

But in the next second, his figure directly passed through the pitch-black theatrical robe, and he stumbled, nearly plunging to the ground.