Names.
Were important.
Even the simplest serial number.
Carried the weightiest sense of self.
A name could be changed, but it must never be forgotten, nor could one ever go without one.
Once upon a time, Ye Qiyan had regarded these Endless Knights as nothing more than ordinary, emotionless robots.
But as time passed, as they progressed through platform after platform, as they continued to grow on their own.
They, too, had become Ye Qiyan's companions.
He was someone.
Who clung to the past.
Even though he never trusted strangers, nor showed strangers any goodwill.
Yet often, the more extreme someone was in this regard, the more likely they were to develop another kind of extreme feeling.
He was unkind to strangers, but treated all those he acknowledged as friends and companions entirely differently.
Everyone aboard the train was his companion.
Ye Qiyan possessed [Ascension].
Even the weak Frostsky White Bear would not be allowed to fall behind everyone else.
Because...
He was greedy.
So greedy that nothing belonging to him should be left in the past.
One mech after another received a name.
Whether they were knights famous in the history of humanity's Primordial World before entering the Wasteland, or simply knightly names Ye Qiyan had made up himself because he thought they sounded cool.
From this day onward, they would become the [True Names] that carried the mechs' selves.
Medals named Miracle were fastened over their most vulnerable Mechanical Cores.
When the last Endless had been awarded its medal.
For some reason-perhaps it was only an illusion.
Ye Qiyan kept feeling that these mechs seemed to have become more emotional.
Boom!
Led by Augustine and Lancelot, all the mechs dropped to one knee, even a hulking fellow like Martial Dread.
Their beliefs converged, and Augustine swore to him