Chapter 415: No. 178: Card, my furry card is still inside!!

No. 178: Card, my furry card is still inside!!

The instinct of monster cards is merely a kind of instinct.

Based on information, based on power, based on the genetic imprint on the card, the instinct stored therein is also sealed together, and it is not dangerous in itself.

What is truly dangerous is the human heart that comes into contact with it.

The human heart is the most steadfast thing in the world, yet also the most changeable.

At the same time, it is the most complex and multifaceted thing.

A person can display different images in different situations and before different objects; this is not necessarily due to astonishing acting skill, but simply because he indeed possesses so many facets.

As a child, as a husband (or wife), as an employee (or boss), as a father (or mother), etc.

Different images, different worries, different desires together constitute a three-dimensional person.

At the same time, it is the container with the most complex content.

And monster cards are like a key.

While being used, they also carry out the process of 'opening the container'.

While releasing power, they are also releasing desire.

They release some of the worries and images that one usually suppresses.

And then the instinct, deeply……

Thus becoming obsessed.

Seemingly longing for monsters, actually longing for the self liberated by monsters.

Monsters and the human heart attract each other in this way; calling this process 'being steeped in darkness' could be considered a defamation of monster cards.

Just like the hundred-bodied horse monster embodied by the symbol of Yuechi.

Monster cards do not wish to fuse, nor do they crave to become that excessively stitched-together monster's shoddy skin-suit appearance.

What makes them become that appearance is the human heart.

True darkness has always been merely the human heart.

Monster cards are merely a fuse, yet countless holders of monster cards regard them as a source to be feared.

They simply do not wish to face the self that reveals the contents of their heart.

Not only humans, but also space beings, sub-humans, and even intelligent lifeforms that have assumed human form are likewise unwilling to face their own inner selves.

Moreover, they cannot even embrace their own darkness.

Wanting to destroy what, wanting to kill what, feeling jealous of what, wanting to possess what……

Aomo, accustomed to introspection, who believed he understood his condition perfectly, only realized during his first monster fusion in Heaven Gate City that he had unconsciously avoided acknowledging certain facts all along.

As for darkness, he embraces it without hesitation, and it is sufficiently profound.

Rather, how could he possibly not have it?

One who, from childhood, had neither of those two presences nearby, and could only watch peers being escorted and cared for by such presences.

Even the later contact after being adopted had to be observed through others' foster parents, then one's own foster father—some silent individuals.

From struggling as a youth to university, said to have a hobby of observing humanity, but the original reason could not possibly be merely because he could only watch, could it?

Negative emotions, extreme ideas—it is hard to have none.

After all, he never drew six whiskers on his face.

Everyone at the welfare institute knows that this child, Aomo Lindun, has had little to do with sunshine since young.

But he is indeed not noisy, does not cause trouble, and even helps manage affairs.

With his small-scale observations, he understands the behavior patterns and habits of those around him, yet he does not use this to commit petty misdeeds, not even pulling pranks.

Where does a little child get such self-control?

The answer to this question lies in his childhood ability to observe same-age children in the cafeteria and hall to the greatest extent.

In that welfare institute of the Demon Realm District, the common point of those two places is that they both have screens.

Playing federally produced surface-level audiovisual works that attract children's attention and make them more obedient.

Nowadays, Aomo can even see the images on them.

Only because, at this moment, his memories keep surging, his thoughts keep churning.

This is a rather wondrous state.

Clearly he is acting with his whole heart, using claws, using condensed energy to break open and expand the wound of that hundred-bodied monster.

But those past memories…… those images, those sounds also churn violently in his mind, as if the old crystal in his brain had finally been scrapped, and even the computational optimization of Jiatelong could not salvage it.

Yet he also clearly knows, based on a feeling.

He can be certain that this chaos stems from the spirit, from the heart.

It has nothing to do with physical interference.

That is merely his emotions, his desires seeking a home under the drive of monster instinct.

Human memory is easily led; often seeing something triggers recall of something else, hence the usage of 'seeing an object brings to mind a person' has persisted to this day.

At this moment, his emotions and desires are pulling those related memories, playing them back in turn in his brain.

Perhaps the symbol of Yuechi is also in such a state……

He even has the leisure to think this way.

This was originally a turmoil; he is like a small boat adrift in the waves of memory and thought, tossing and turning.

His thinking is unprecedentedly active, even said to be chaotic.

Yet he held onto himself.

In the noisy turmoil he retained a self divided into multiple threads.

You flip yours, I strike mine; the degree of dissociation feels like the initial battle in Heaven Gate City—sensing the emotional agitation of Godzilla and Belia, experiencing the inner cold emptiness and turmoil, yet as if viewing flowers through mist.

It affected his behavior style, but he couldn't truly reach his inner self.

He grasped this feeling more clearly this time, being more awake, and in his wakefulness he heard those voices repeat again.

【A passionate heart cannot be extinguished, sympathize with the weak, help each other.】

【Truly strong people are usually gentle.】

【Everyone is full of spirit today! Say this with a smile!】

【Hypocrites always treat those who sacrifice like this, merely picking out words of praise to say.】

【Transform!】

【Look at me upside down—doesn't it look like I'm holding up the earth?】

【One who steals others' things has already lost something more important.】

【Actually birds aren't free; they fly nonstop to hunt, and humans have forced the dream of freedom onto them.】

The surging voices, in different versions, even with different image quality.

It was extremely noisy, yet that made him very awake.

「Xiao She… you really…… not considering waiting anymore……」

It also mixed in Qian's words of summoning courage again.

「Speed Symbol! 」

Of course, there was also the harsh cry of the hundred-body monster Moon Chariot Symbol, howling as it shifted targets in its mental confusion.

It was really noisy……

No wonder Aomo would unusually want to turn off the song.

「No need, I've already found him. 」

With fists to repel limbs, with claws to rend flesh, with wings to sever feelers, with tail to whip and pierce.

And……

With head and horn to resist.

If his teeth weren't hard to open wide, he'd probably have to bite twice at any passing claw.

The demon had never faced the human‑horse head directly, but with similar feral frenzy it first contacted that deranged thought.

The monsters' postures, the oppressive scenery—this is the mental resonance of the two monster fusioneers, and also an irreversible state where memory and beastly instinct flow into each other.

For Aomo this is a worsening of his condition; for the Moon Chariot Symbol, a spirit shattered and held together only by obsession, it's essentially nothing.

After a mentally ill person gets a mental illness, they only become more spirited.

It seemed to have drawn attention, then retargeted its repeater at Aomo Lindun.

「You've really become a repeater, huh—any thought left? Moon Chariot Symbol? 」

「Aomo… Lindun… why, what? 」

「Heh, there really is…… 」

Bracing the crushing fist on the wound with its claws, its foot claws also stepped into the wound; the demon's found 'Moon Chariot Symbol' is merely the most tightly condensed fragment among countless shards.

Since the whole thing is a patchwork monster, this fragment isn't necessarily in the brain; we must wait for Qian's instrument to scan where mental energy is most concentrated.

Even if we use the digital world's convenience to transmit the instrument's probe, the detection efficiency is still too poor.

It's not even as good as the mysticism non‑naked floating chat room here.

This is precisely why Aomo must stay.

He wants to chat with this Moon Chariot Symbol.

Not only the Speed Symbol and Xin Tiao Qian would be surprised by his move to act.

Aomo couldn't help but admit, especially in this state where countless thoughts surge now, that seeing those countless fragments howling at him filled him not only with gloom but also with an excited thrill.

How long has it been?

Even the strange writings major illness area can no longer give him new human observation material; now he has seen a living, breathing extreme distortion.

How…… hateful yet special a possibility.

「Why… are you obstructing me! 」

「Clearly… you also despise this family……」

「Why! 」

Why… even the Bar Beast X has gone over to your side!

Obviously, in the Aomo memory he read, even recent stuff got mixed in.

「Isn't the Free Armor supposed to be fluctuating? ！」

The distorted vision of the distorted thing can fully sense the intense vibration carried by the Bar Beast X.

The laws integrated into the digital world—both of them have this ability.

That's way too vibratory—normal evolved armor just shakes for a few seconds, yours is like a super‑endurance novelty item, looks like it's about to burst.

「All I can say is, you're a bit too extreme. 」

Aomo said calmly, even as the real demon cruelly constructs a continual wound.

The hundred-body monster, already in continuous self‑destruction, just maintaining its wound accelerates its energy consumption—that is the self‑destruction process.

「Extreme… extreme… extreme…… Could it be that I… still have a stable choice? ！」

The giant beast rages, a heavy punch smashes the wound‑site demon, but it only adds injury to injury.

The demon king fusion beast has flashed to a distance, again gaining room to maneuver.

「I'm talking about human extremes, what's with the plan? Of course, the atmosphere of your subordinate companies is indeed quite extreme, 」 Aomo said, as a childhood image of the Moon Chariot Symbol flashed in his mind, he couldn't help but frown slightly, 「They learn from you, just as you were once treated that way. 」

「……Same? …… Originally same……」 he gave a bitter smile, then in the next moment shouted 「Not the same! 」 the Moon Chariot Symbol, wanting to leap up and step again, but even his limbs wouldn't obey.

「Won't be the same… they still have the moon…… the moon god……」

"You will also have it, you can see it." Aomo said calmly.

"That is your reference, and also your endpoint, isn't it?"

No matter how you run, it's all about wanting to reach the other's side, even if it's impossible.

For many people in harsh environments, life is a hopeless run; even if they know, they still run.

The end is not even hope, merely something disguised as hope.

He also lacked the ability and courage to create hope.

Suddenly, he remembered the Edge Runner Mercenary Corps.

Now that older brother perhaps has already found the end of hope in this world, while the local person Moon-chase Symbol, who originally lived in this world, has been bound to this point by the suppressive constraints of the existing environment.

End……

The colossal beast staggers and collapses, murmuring the words he once scorned.

The horse girl constantly mutters that word, and his foolish sister also constantly mutters that word.

The entire family often mutters that word.

He once grew tired and hated that word, but now he feels a sense of emptiness.

Familiar emptiness, just like the sudden departure of the moon god.

Now, perhaps it is also his own departure.

"The Symbol clan's change, you have already achieved it."

Aomo saw the loss of the Symbol clan; the massive reduction in personnel is insufficient to summarize the great significance of the deaths of those high-status, powerful individuals. It can be foreseen that the Symbol clan's operational policy will inevitably change, and the clan's atmosphere—

The demon, no longer showing resistance, turned his head to look toward an old and a young person in the distance.

The aged deer-furred mare, the deer-furred yet three-colored mare, and the mare with a crescent moon-shaped forehead are all looking this way.

Why are they looking this way?

Think of Moon-chase Symbol's memory of his niece and mother.

The point is the mother.

Why would the Speed Symbol deliberately come to see Moon-chase Symbol's 'after'?

"Although unwilling to admit, this hardened, stagnant environment is often broken open by blood."

Aomo already has a plan in mind.

"Today is also the same."

"So you have indeed succeeded."

Relying on this, and also on those memories, he who originally loathed and rejected Moon-chase Symbol from the bottom of his heart cannot help but think, in the final stage of his plan, to make a slight modification.

After all, looking at such an opponent, he also becomes more certain of his own position.

The moon always reflects the sun's light, and also establishes its own course by means of the Earth.

Aomo, who constantly observes others, is also seeking his own sun and earth.

But occasionally there will be times like this…

Originally it should have been two moons coexisting peacefully, but one must watch helplessly as one side grows dim, and even take the initiative to strike, causing the other to collapse.

This is also a common ending for the moon.

If no star is found, one will fall into Hei'an.

If no primary star is found, one will lose one's course.

"... Success…"

A sudden weightlessness stems from the colossal beast's massive collapse; its four wings spread, the demon king synthetic beast still suspended in the air grips its fists and swings them before its chest.

His chest is filled with inch‑by‑inch extending cracks, clustered with pale crystals, and in a crescent‑like arc, at this moment it emits a stream of silvery‑white particles.

"Eh eh eh, don't move your hands!" Qian suddenly exclaimed, causing Aomo to slightly startle.

But this hesitation did not hinder the emission of the crescent particles; it directly covered the beast's inch‑by‑inch collapsing eyes, and further stimulated the beast's bodily energy that had become chaotic to its peak.

"Ah ah!"

""

"Hiss——!"

Thus, amidst Xin Tiao Qian's sharp scream and Aomo's sharp intake of breath, the giant beast exploded.

It exploded very grandiosely.

It left Aomo without any victor's composure, and he immediately rushed toward the explosion's firelight!