Eroding Orchestra

"How do you like the surprise I prepared for you?" the puppeteer asked in an excited tone.

"Did you think you won when you blew my head off?"

"That feeling of giving prey hope, only to personally turn that hope into despair..."

"You had so much confidence when you were provoking us earlier, talking so big. In the end, you're still just a shrinking turtle," Xu Xiaoyou interrupted with a wave of her hand, her tone helpless. "Your carefully constructed puppet defense line was broken in less than half an hour. I slaughtered my way right to your doorstep."

"Talking trash at a time like this can't hide the fact that your self-esteem is shattered all over the floor."

"Your so-called schemes look like nothing more than a child's nasty tricks to me. Utterly foolish."

The puppeteer suddenly fell silent.

"Where is that guy?"

Lin Sheng scanned the surroundings with his blade, only to realize that the hundred puppets who had been worshiping on the circular platform below had all stood up at some point. Their limbs made clicking sounds under the control of silk threads, and red light burst from their eyes.

As far as the eye could see, it was like a bizarre sea of fire.

Looking closely, he discovered that their mouths were all moving in unison. The puppeteer's ethereal voice echoed from above:

"Small talk ends here. You really are unpleasant."

"How about we play a game?"

"The rules are simple. My real body is hidden among those hundred puppets below. As long as you can find and kill me, you win."

"Of course," the puppeteer's tone rose, "if you are killed by my puppets before then, I will collect you properly, just like works of art."

All the puppets in the circular arena looked at Xu Xiaoyou simultaneously, their voices layered in cold indifference: "I hope your mouth is still this tough when it's being torn apart by my puppets."

Xu Xiaoyou tapped open her communication curtain. Chen San had disconnected, and her Substitute's durability had hit zero not long ago.

It was still unclear what the situation outside the cathedral was like, but they had no way back. Though, she hadn't planned on turning back since the moment she entered the underground cathedral.

Xu Xiaoyou summoned her Dawn Haze Blade and jumped off the high platform, leaping down onto the circular platform below. Lin Sheng followed her down.

The hundred puppets on the platform turned to face them at the same time, clicking in a symphony: "The game begins~"

"Which one do you think is him?" Lin Sheng asked with a frown.

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about those puppets."

A violet glow spread beneath Xu Xiaoyou's feet as multiple runes intersected. She flicked her long blade, her gaze sweeping straight past the hundred puppets to land on the massive figure at the very back.

"Focus on taking out the puppet mother first. You break through from the left, I'll cut in from the right and back you up."

Lin Sheng nodded, then pointed his blade toward the abyss and charged forward. Countless puppets with red-glowing eyes pounced on him, only to be sliced into fragments by that decapitating blade.

Xu Xiaoyou didn't rush to move in. Instead, she observed the scene. These hundred worshiping puppets seemed ordinary, their auras even slightly weaker than the puppet sentinels wandering the snow-fields.

But upon closer inspection, one could see that their materials were far more advanced than the puppets wandering the perimeter. Unlike the glazed black surface of ordinary puppets, these were closer to deep obsidian—sharp-edged, hiding their lethal edge beneath a restrained, plain exterior.

Those puppets ran incredibly fast, like swift and ferocious beasts, scurrying on all fours as they pounced toward the man without fear of death.

After the man let out a roar of battle intent, the storm of blades he unleashed instantly tore countless puppets to shreds. More than half of the hundred puppets were lost in the blink of an eye. It looked as though Lin Sheng alone could finish off all these puppets in less than ten minutes.

Lin Sheng roared, cleaving a puppet in half with one stroke before pouncing like a tiger. He grabbed a puppet's head and ripped it clean off its body.

"How truly brutal. I'm so scared. I suppose I'll have to be a little more serious while playing with you."

"Let me show you the true strength of this orchestra I have carefully cultivated."

"Awaken, Eroding Orchestra!"

As soon as the puppeteer's words fell, the distant puppet mother emitted a mournful sound. Her massive body began to 'perform,' and a heavy pressure suddenly bore down from above. A bizarre music echoed through the arena—a symphony composed of flutes, zithers, and drums. Including the puppet mother, the hundred puppets in the arena had effectively become a symphony orchestra, performing a grand dance of erosion and death!

The shattered puppets previously slain by Lin Sheng turned into eroding sludge within this music. Moments later, they reshaped themselves from the pools of sludge and ran toward Lin Sheng once again.

Under the puppet mother's performance, these orchestra puppets were shrouded in black mist, and their movements became incredibly swift. Their clicking bodies were like an improvisational drum set. The terrifying power they unleashed caused Lin Sheng's expression to change; several puppets moving together were actually able to push him back repeatedly.

As soon as that black mist touched his skin, it began to fester and rot. Purplish veins spread across his body, showing a state of being corroded by erosion and death.

"Don't touch this black mist!" Lin Sheng yelled, the veins on his forehead bulging. He forcefully threw off all the orchestra puppets in front of him and retreated to create some distance.

Xu Xiaoyou pondered for a moment before joining the fray. Several orchestra puppets brandished their arms and pounced. She cut off their heads before the black mist could touch her skin.

Backing away a few steps, Xu Xiaoyou searched through the puppet crowd. She hadn't believed the puppeteer's words from the start and had her own plans.

At that moment, an orchestra puppet suddenly pounced from behind her. Just as the poison, like thick ink dripping into the black mist, was about to erode her skin, a gunshot rang out in time.

The puppet's body was instantly blown apart, its limbs and parts scattering everywhere. Xu Xiaoyou looked up and met the blue-haired girl's gaze.

She nodded to Tang Xin: "You stay up there and provide support. If the puppets from outside the cathedral chase us in, find a way to protect yourself."

Tang Xin: "Understood."

After another shot picked off a puppet approaching Xu Xiaoyou, Tang Xin turned her muzzle toward the puppet mother at the center of the arena. Her gaze searched for a few moments before finally landing on a bright red, beating heart beneath the puppet mother's ribcage.

Tang Xin decisively fired at that heart.

The bullet sped toward the heart but, halfway there, it was like a drop of water falling into the ocean, vanishing with a crisp sound.

Tang Xin's eyes widened slightly. She reconfirmed the situation, and only then did she observe through her sniper scope that countless tiny silk threads were dancing wildly around the puppet mother. The previous bullet had been sliced apart by those silk threads!

Sensing danger, the puppet mother turned toward Tang Xin and let out a mournful wail.

Two orchestra puppets in the arena instantly turned into sludge and sank into the ground. In the blink of an eye, they reshaped themselves behind Tang Xin and pounced toward her!