October 18, 1453, New Calendar.
Silvervein City, noon.
The black lead tiles glinted with a dull luster under the faint sunlight.
On the wide main thoroughfare, pairs of people moved to and fro as they always did.
In front of a bakery on the street corner, the owner, wrapped in a thick apron, was skillfully handing a freshly baked loaf of bread to a young couple whose wrists were tied together with hemp rope.
“Would you like to try it first? It’s fresh out of the oven,” the owner greeted them with a smile, rubbing his flour-stained hands.
“Thanks.” The young husband took the bread, just about to take a bite.
Whoosh—
A sudden, violent gust of wind swept through the street.
The wind was incredibly strong, whipping up dust and fallen leaves from the ground.
The once clear blue sky gradually grew murky.
Even the bread in the young husband’s hand was snatched away by the gale.
The sunshades shook violently, letting out a piercing screech of friction. The wooden sign hanging in front of the bakery rattled loudly, nearly falling off its iron hook.
“Damned weather, why is the wind so strong today?” The young husband squinted, shielding his eyes from the dust with his sleeve as he grumbled.
“Yeah, this wind is unsettling. I feel like even the stone slabs on the ground are trembling slightly.” The owner looked up briefly. “It’s alright, customer. I’ll get you a new one.”
The sun was shining, and the wind had only lasted for that brief moment.
The rumbling and the tremors vanished with the wind in an instant.
People turned their attention back to their own lives.
“Thanks.” The young husband pulled his wife closer. “The wind’s a bit much today. Give me five Copper Shells’ worth of black bread.”
“You got it!” The owner’s face immediately broke into a grin. “Freshly baked. Don’t let the wind cool it down, or it won’t taste as good.”
The wind howled as it blew.
The swept-up bread soared past bewildered citizens, over the towering Twin Towers, and over the thick city walls, flying higher and higher.
The sound of the wind grew louder and louder until it became a deafening roar of tearing air.
It carried uprooted ancient trees, confused animals and birds, and enough sand and stone to blot out the sun.
Finally, it all converged into a single, tiny point.
“Judgment!” Kaila shouted, holding her greatsword high.
A river of holy light, carrying the scattered mana it gathered along the way, forcibly pushed the aftershocks of the Witches’ battle back toward the two combatants.
“Whew.” Kaila let out a long breath.
Sophie slumped on the ground beside her.
They had already left the area affected by Gravity Reversal and were now in the wilderness outside Silvervein City.
“Cough... Ptu!”
Sophie spat out the bat, which had finally stopped moving entirely.
【Log: You have extracted [Twelfth Generation Vampire Blood Essence]. Spend 5 points of Blood Essence to promote your template?】
【Log: Due to the trigger of [Bloodthirsty Craving (Reversed)], you have developed a severe repulsion to blood. Your health is depleting: -2, -2, -2...】
【Log: You have entered the [Holy Light Irradiation] state. Recovering 100,000 health per second.】
Rat blood tastes like absolute trash.
“Kaila, we should go,” Sophie said, suppressing her nausea.
She looked up at the chaotic space in the distance.
The dark red moon was entwined with tens of millions of golden threads, and spatial cracks spread across that domain like a spiderweb.
“Now is a... good opportunity to... wipe out both Witches at once.” Strands of golden hair were stuck to Kaila’s face with sweat. Her greatsword dissolved into specks of light, which then coalesced into a rifle. “Sophie, you... go first. Once I’ve eliminated the Witches, I’ll come find you.”
Eliminate... eliminate both Witches?
Sophie fell silent.
It was true that their physical bodies could be destroyed.
Just as Little Dino’s previous descent had been ended by a single shot from the Hero.
Even as the Puppet Witch, her physical body remained extremely fragile.
Chengzhong Dino knew this weakness herself.
—And Hiso knew it too.
That was why the “Phase 2” she and Little Dino had researched together was designed specifically to solve this problem.
In the chaotic battlefield, more and more threads descended.
These threads weren't being used to attack Miaoyue or pull objects; instead, they were intertwining and weaving together, manifesting into brand-new blue-haired girls wearing small top hats.
Some were suspended in the sky by threads, some stood on the shoulders of the giant, some were swept up in the wind, and some stood on floating rocks or trees.
As far as the eye could see, there were thousands of Chengzhong Dinos, each with ten fingers extended to manipulate the threads.
And every single one of them was Chengzhong Dino’s true body.
A Puppeteer was already skilled at controlling multiple objects, so she simply had to divide her mana and her body across a wide area. For Chengzhong Dino, managing them all was perfectly within her control.
This was the Phase 2 that she and Little Dino had spent a long time developing.
With this, the standard decapitation strike used against Puppeteers was rendered useless.
After all, who could decapitate a monster with thousands of heads?
Sophie looked toward the other side of the battlefield.
Rate on N.U.
