Translator: ThatLazyPotato
Translation Checker: Rin
Editor: DragonFae
Within the snow-colored thick fog, Bai Chunian just caught a glimpse of a white silhouette from the corner of his eyes, and his head suddenly became dizzy. There was a faint pheromone scent that made him feel familiar yet unfamiliar.
He lowered his head—at some point, the floor under his feet changed into a wide and flat mirror surface. The mirror rippled like a water surface and reflected Bai Chunian’s face.
A rain droplet landed and broke the tranquility of the mirror, causing a ripple, and the reflection suddenly changed into a round and smooth pearl.
The pearl was only the size of a fist yet it was translucent. Through the layer of lustrous nacre, Bai Chunian was shocked to see a little white manta ray struggling to move inside the pearl. The youngling’s body was entirely milky white, the tip of their tail was a tender red; so fragile that it seemed it’ll break with a light touch.
It was too small. Bai Chunian knelt down in panic, stretched out his hand to catch it as hard as he could, coaxing softly, “Baby, are you alive? Come here, come over to me quickly.”
His hand passed through the mirror’s surface. The world inside the mirror was a bottomless sea.
It seemed like Pearl could understand him, slowly drifting toward his palm.
Bai Chunian’s upper body was practically sticking to the ground, and his hand was getting closer and closer. When he was one centimeter away from touching the outer surface of the pearl, he suddenly felt a tightening around his wrist, and even his ankle was caught by an ice-cold hand. Bai Chunian looked back, only to see numerous green and black smoky ghost hands sticking out from within the mirror. The sharp nails were embedded in his flesh, but he didn’t realize it.
An ethereal voice laughed smugly in his ear. “Divine Envoy’s mind is too difficult to control, so I can only make you reach out your hand yourself.”
Hundreds of green and black ghost hands were like the arms of a drowning man, grabbing Bai Chunian’s hands, feet and body, pulling them towards the world inside the mirror.
“What the…” Bai Chunian gritted his teeth harshly, dozens of the hands were snapped off, and the sharp nails made many bloodstains on his body.
The ghost hands that were broken off vigorously let out a cry of pain and resentment. They quickly regrew out of the torn section, grabbing Bai Chunian’s neck, and a nail was deeply embedded into the alpha’s fragile nape gland. Bai Chunian cried out in pain. The condensed ghost hands took the opportunity to cover his eyes and nose, and he fell heavily into the mirror. The mirror disappeared and returned to its original fog-covered ground.
Bai Chunian disappeared. Only his phone was left on the ground, with the screen continuously flashing. The caller was Rimbaud who had already made more than a dozen unanswered calls.
¤¤¤
It was normally bright out by six, but the sky was overcast today. Thick clouds wrapped in low pressure gradually depressed towards the ground.
The ocean-going ship was drifting on the endless sea. Rimbaud was sitting on the deck railing; his legs were gently swinging in the air, holding his phone in his hand, and looking at the direction where the sky and the sea meet in the distance in deep thought.
Half of the people on the ship were IOA members, the other half were PBB Mad Shark members. A team of Mad Shark members were dispatched to the Greenfly Sea to help solve the leaking submarine lab completely.
Captain Wei Lan and vice-captain Feng Lang of the Mad Shark Unit were both on the ship. They were leaning against the edge of the railing and lazily looking at the sea level in the distance.
After a thorough search, they found nearly 50 abandoned submarine labs in the sea area, more than half of which had leaked out completely. There was a strange colored oil layer floating on the entire sea surface, followed by the corpses of a large number of marine organisms floating on the sea with the surging waves, exuding a pungent stench.
Feng Lang took off his beret and held it in his hand. He lightly scolded, “Seriously, how wicked.”
Wei Lan was holding a laptop in his hands, checking in order of the locations marked on the satellite map that need to be cleaned. He let out a sigh. “The Research Institute wouldn’t have been as big as they are now if it weren’t for the support of other countries. Just wait until the proposal for this time’s International Conference gets passed, PBB obtains the arrest warrant, and captures their hideouts directly, hmph.”
Han Xingqian was also onboard, bringing a few of the Medical Association’s interns to do a water quality test. The interns were configuring the purification machine. Several new regular trainees from the Search Division were also onboard. They didn’t want to miss this rare opportunity to train.
Han Xingqian held the newly released report and looked at it carefully for a while. “There’s no more issues. As long as the purification is below 3.2, the effect can be eliminated. It seems like it’ll take 10 days.”
Rimbaud had been sitting on the railing deep in thought, looking at the bodies and filth drifting on the sea surface. Without his command, the merfolks won’t go out to sea to purify it without his approval—this was a small punishment he gave to mankind. But now that he and Xiao Bai had agreed to reconcile with humans, Rimbaud no longer wanted to carry this resentment. He loved Xiao Bai the most, and he couldn’t bear to see Xiao Bai in a dilemma.
He suddenly opened his mouth, and a strange vague chant, indistinguishable from male or female, came from his throat. It was like the cry of a whale, yet more elegant and mysterious than that.
The crewmates all dazedly turned to look at Rimbaud. They only heard such a special sound in marine documentaries. And only the older seamen could recognize that this was the sound issued by the leader summoning the sea creatures while they were migrating.
The air on the boat was stagnant, and people stopped their work one after another, quietly watching Rimbaud sitting on the railing. The atmosphere became silent for a moment, only the sound of waves beating against the hull could be heard.
Suddenly, a similar call came from the distance. It came from the east direction at first, then the west, and then the north and south. The cries and ethereal chanting sounds came one after another in all directions, responding to Rimbaud’s call one after another.
Someone shouted, “There are merfolks! Merfolks are gathering towards us.”
The people on the ship became excited, swarming the deck, and trying their best to poke their heads out to look out at the sea.
Under the serene sea surface, colorful and shiny scales gathered towards the ocean-going ship. Hundreds and thousands of merfolks swam to the surface. Some lept out, creating a path of light through the air before plunging back into the waters, causing a huge snow-white splash.
Beside those that were swimming, there were also scale-winged merfolks hovering in the sky. They don’t have fishtails, rather, their lower bodies were the same as birds—born with two sharp and powerful claws. Their wings and feet were covered with colorful scales, and there were gills on the side of their ears.
The crew were all stunned by this shocking scene. It took a while for them to remember to take out their phones and DSLRs to take photos like crazy. What kind of luck was it to encounter such a miracle of the century, and to meet a group of merfolks in the open sea? This kind of experience was enough to boast about for a lifetime when they get back.
Seeing the shocked expression on the humans’ face, Rimbaud was a bit speechless. All he did was summon a small group of merfolks who stayed nearby to come and work.
“Boliea claya kimo, Siren (We heard your call, King.” The merfolks used their melodious voices to greet him one after another.
Rimbaud said indifferently, “Nabiya ye (Clean up).”
The merfolks absolutely obeyed the leader’s orders, immediately dispersing into the water. The waters where the merfolks swam gradually became clear. Some dived into the bottom of the sea, opened their mouths full of jagged teeths and gnawed on the sunken shipwrecks. Although their purification ability was far less than that of Rimbaud, it was good enough.
Wei Lan was the first to react from the shock, calling other team members to speed up the progress, and hoisting the configured purifier into the water. People were busy on the deck, while the merfolks were working silently in the sea.
There were also merfolks using scaled wings to fly to the deck to rest. However, they didn’t dare get close to humans. They vigilantly kept a distance from every crew member except Han Xingqian.
On the entire ocean-going ship, only Han Xingqian was surrounded by merfolks. The merfolks closed their wings and hovered beside Han Xingqian. Han Xingqian took out compressed biscuits from his pocket, broke them into small pieces and gave it to them. The merfolks took them carefully and stuffed them into their mouths, munching on them.
Feng Lang leaned over in curiosity. “Oh, bro, why are they only not afraid of you?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ljc Wlcudljc ilutais ijeutfv. “P yfilfnf lc atf rfj ubv jcv P ajxf gfoeuf lc atf rfj ubv’r qgbafmalbc. Tbe vbc’a ufa la, gluta?”
Mfcu Ojcu yfmjwf fnfc wbgf meglber, qgfrreglcu Ljc Wlcudljc ab mijglos.
Elwyjev kjr rlaalcu ybgfvis bc atf gjlilcu fcpbslcu atf rfj ygffhf ktfc j rfj jcfwbcf jiqtj revvfcis mjwf eq yfrlvf tlw, atflg gfv tjlg ralmxlcu bea yglutais jujlcra atflg tfjv.
Rimbaud looked up at him. It turned out to be the vice-captain of the Mad Sharks Unit.
Feng Lang strangely came over and asked in a low voice, “Um, I don’t eat seafood or sashimi. We also patrol the sea when in the army. The coral conservatory at our headquarters was also built by my team…”
Rimbaud furrowed his brows. “Kid, what exactly do you want to say?”
Feng Lang clasped his hands together. “I think I can believe in you, too. Please.” Since becoming a follower of the merfolk leader could make marine creatures grow closer, won’t Clownfish be more attracted by his handsomeness?
Rimbaud was helpless. He extended his fingers to let him peck his fingertips. After becoming a follower, he couldn’t do anything harmful to the ocean, which was beneficial for Rimbaud.
After pecking Rimbaud’s fingertips, Feng Lang successfully clenched his hands into fist and left happily. Rimbaud suddenly realized that there was a group of seamen crowding around him, like fans at a concert waiting to get his autograph, eagerly waiting for his blessing.
He suddenly chuckled. Not all land creatures disgusted him; there were a lot of young people who were warm-hearted and lovable like Xiao Bai.
He brightened up, raised his right hand lightly, and a faint blue fluorescent debris fell from his palm into the water. When the debris fell into the water, they expanded and transformed into countless blue jellyfish of different sizes, accelerating the purification of the polluted sea area. The sea broke out into blue shimmering stardust, and the saturation of the merfolk’s colorful scales suddenly became higher, making them even more brilliant. The purification efficiency visibly improved.
When Rimbaud was about to relax and finally talk with the humans on board, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.
He covered his heart, a great sorrow coming from it immediately enveloped him.
Rimbaud had once cut off a corner of his heart and embedded it in his rib bone to make an earring for Xiao Bai, so he could hear Xiao Bai’s breathing and emotions.
“Rimbaud…come get me.” An extremely painful voice called hoarsely into Rimbaud’s ear.
A sharp heartache rose from his chest. Rimbaud suddenly straightened his back, his pupils stretched into thin lines, and a fierce light flashed past.
¤¤¤
A peculiar white fog filled the surrounding area. The buildings of Red Fox City were soaked in the light fog. Warwick Pharmaceutical Factory was completely covered by the thick fog. In the dense fog released by Twilight Deer, the people’s five senses were completely weakened, which was no different from being blind or deaf.
Odd Bones fanned her feather fan to disperse the fog in front. The bodies of the security guards killed by Sarcosuchus lay next to her in a mess. The vitality of an M2-grade alpha was too tenacious; it was trying to get up off the ground and struggle to resist, grasping Odd Bones’ slender ankle with difficulty. Odd Bones raised their hand and turned it into bone ashes, which drifted away with the wind.
Sarcosuchus wandered anxiously in the thick fog. Odd Bones also frowned, stretching out her hands to look for traces of the others in the dense fog where she couldn’t even see her fingers. Under such circumstances, it was dangerous to be alone.
A strand of golden thread drifted over, wrapped around Odd Bone’s fingertips, and led her to look for Sarcosuchus.
“Miss, don’t get lost.” Eris walked along the golden thread.
It was Eris’ cursed thread. Cursed threads could be automatically connected to living creatures within a radius of 100 meters. Eris relied on this cursed thread to bring people together.
Puppet Master held the last suitcase of dolls and stood still. “Eris, put away the string.”
“Oh.”
The other party had an asbestos omega that specialized in ranged damage. While Eris’ golden thread caused everyone connected to it to receive the same amount of damage at the same time. Once the asbestos attacks, everyone would receive two times the damage.
Odd Bones opened her little fan, the gold, green, and blue dots on her forehead flickered, activating her associated ability, Emerald Dawn. Six dots identical to Odd Bones’ appeared on Eris and Sarcosuchus’ forehead.
Emerald Dawn would trigger the positive mutations of allies. Once he received Odd Bones’ reinforcement, Eris suddenly felt his vision and hearing have somewhat recovered. The distance he could see in the thick fog had increased by more than ten meters, and his ears no longer felt like they were blocked by cotton and unable to hear clearly.
Since his sight became clear, Eris keenly noticed the blurry shadow more than ten meters away, shot them, and immediately changed places with Puppet Master.
Cotton Erosion had already noticed them.
In Twilight Deer’s fog, their own people’s five senses won’t be affected, so Cotton Erosion could clearly see where they were.
The petite girl in the ash-colored skirt spread her hands, and a crystal filament emanated from her soft tutu, approaching them silently.
Cotton Erosion M2 ability, Needle Weathering Rain. A large number of strengthened asbestos fibers were overwhelmingly pressed over.
Eris rushed forward against the rain of needles, and connected the cursed thread to Cotton Erosion’s slender wrist in the wind. He spun around in the air and swept a leg towards the little girl’s waist. Cotton Erosion turned her cold milky white eyes, raised her hand to catch the kick, and was pushed back by the shock.
But her J1 ability, Gentle-like Cleansing, was a force-nullifying ability. Eris felt that the force of his heavy blow on her body was like sinking into cotton; more than half of it was dispersed softly, so she was not seriously injured.
Before Cotton Erosion could stand straight, Eris kicked her in the head with a fatal blow. The power of the Cursemaker still suppressed Cotton Erosion. The little girl was struggling to deal with him, but she seized the opportunity to release another rain of asbestos needles.
Sarcosuchus received Odd Bones’ mutation strengthening, his crocodile skin became tougher. He used his strong and lofty body to go in front of everyone. He turned around and shouted, “Quickly leave!”
But the asbestos was as thin as needles and penetrated everywhere. Cotton Erosion wasn’t going to punch Sarcosuchus head-on. The fine asbestos fibers penetrate into Sarcosuchus leather armor, and he felt a tingling pain penetrating into his bone marrow. Blood oozed from the leather armor and all over his body.
Odd Bones furrowed her brows and scolded, “Idiot, hurry and step back!”
The peacock’s tail feathers unfolded from under her skirt, and Odd Bones launched her M2 ability, Secondary Rainbow for Clothes, without thinking. The dazzling halo formed a protective shield to protect them in the center.
As it was also an M2 ability, the power would not differ too much. However, Odd Bones was one grade lower than Cotton Erosion in terms of differentiation, so it was a bit difficult to support the protective cover. Odd Bones’ face gradually turned pale, and she coughed more violently. The blood she coughed up stained the feathers on the small fan.
Puppet Master was looking for the exit within the thick fog while also observing the changes in the surrounding atmosphere. He suddenly said, “Stop, save your strength.”
Odd Bones was stunned, subconsciously following his order. However, an irreparable accident had occurred during this short second.
In an instant, a strip of rainbow light with sharp edges broke through the protective light shield released by Odd Bones, shattering the light. Odd Bones coughed up a mouthful of turbid blood, kneeled on the ground in pain, and managed to support herself with her hands so as to not pass out.
Twilight Deer’s M2 differentiation ability, Rainbow: Detonate the protective shields and armor formed by all protective-type abilities. Cause a 100% backlash against those who use the abilities.
Within the thick fog, the silver-horned deer slowly revealed a shadow. Their upper body was that of a majestic alpha, while his bottom half was the elegant four hooves of a white deer. Cotton Erosion was sitting on Twilight Deer’s back, holding the deer’s arm expressionlessly, sticking her head out from behind the deer to look at them with a finger in her mouth.
Eris clung to Puppet Master, holding a shotgun in one hand and fingers wrapped around the cursed golden thread. The other hand protected Puppet Master behind him. He licked his lips, curling up the black line on the tip of his tongue.
“Cursemaker, you’re scared?” Cotton Erosion laughed, then used her M2 ability, Needle Weathering Rain, again. Scattered asbestos fibers spread from the air.
Twilight Deer’s antlers flashed a silvery light. The fog that surrounded him changed into a ray of sunlight, and even Cotton Erosion was wrapped in a radiant color. Twilight Deer’s A3 ability, Rosy Sky, used to increase the ability density of all allies.
The sky full of asbestos fibers suddenly doubled, and even the air became viscous. Blown by the breeze, they descended silently.
“Ahhh—!!” Odd Bones, who was heavily injured, screamed miserably. The pores on her body started to ooze blood, dying her dark green qipao and shimmering gold and green peacock feathers red.
Sarcosuchus’ situation was also dire. The crocodile leather skin couldn’t prevent the pervasive asbestos needle rain. Almost every movement he made would make him feel unbearable stinging pain.
Eris glanced back at Puppet Master. Puppet Master raised the suitcase of dolls to block the rain of needles falling from the sky, took out two doctor dolls from the suitcase, and threw them at Odd Bones and Sarcosuchus respectively.
The doctor doll with a spell engraved on the back ran to the two nimbly, repaired their damaged glands with a small toy needle, and dragged them inch by inch away in a safe direction. The seemingly small dolls were infused with inexhaustible power, dragging the heavy and tall Sarcosuchus was no issue at all.
They were constantly changing positions while in a stalemate. Although Eris lost his sense of direction in the fog, in the process of groping around, he tied the cursed thread to the direction of the exit that he found. The ground was strewn with golden curse threads. He handed the threads to Puppet Master and pushed him hard. “Follow the thread. I’ll deal with them.”
Puppet Master raised his head and gave him a deep look.
Eris was taken aback by Puppet Master’s vaguely worried look and made a funny face at him. “Your envoy is omnipotent.”
While carrying the suitcase, Puppet Master put his hand on Eris’ nape and wound the Sacred Wind-Up Key, and instructed lightly, “Don’t bother. Twilight Deer will run out of energy sooner or later. Let’s kill Cotton Erosion first.”
“I’ll do it myself.” Eris raised the corner of his lips, and the black and red cross on his face curved along with his smile. He held Puppet Master’s hand, and twisted the Sacred Wind-up Key on his nape in his place. Usually, it only needed to be wound twice to start up the controller, but this time, Eris turned it 10 times.
Puppet Master grabbed his hand sternly. “Your mechanical core can’t take it, stop it.”
“I can do it.” Eris wasn’t listening to him at all. He stubbornly broke free from his grip and opened his right hand. He removed the bone on his calf from the ball joint and held it tightly. A golden thread flew out of his cuff, penetrating through the thick fog and wrapped around Twilight Deer’s antlers and Cotton Erosion’s neck.
In this way, even if Eris couldn’t see them in the dense fog, he could still judge their position by the straight direction and vibration of the cursed thread.
Puppet Master was so shocked that he lost his composure. It took him a few seconds to calm down. He tried his best to forget the flattered look in Eris’ eyes, turned around and carried the gravely injured Odd Bones in his arms, and left in the direction of the exit with Sarcosuchus who could still move.
The most powerful and unattainable advantage of the envoy-type experimental subject was that they could be strengthened by the controller. As long as the life of the envoy could withstand it, they could be infinitely strengthened by the controller.
The smell Eris was emitting from his body had already far surpassed the limit an A3-grade should have at this moment. The overwhelming pressure suddenly paled the human face under Twilight Deer’s silver mask.
Twilight Deer’s hooves couldn’t help but stamp on the ground and retreat. Cotton Erosion sitting on his back had a cold face. Needle crystals suddenly shooted out from her ash-colored skirt.
Cotton Erosion’s A3 ability, Heart and Lung Penetration: Asbestos fibers will penetrate into every hole in the opponent’s body, destroying each organ from the inside.
Such a huge damage-type ability was also strengthened by Twilight Deer’s A3 ability, and the overwhelming asbestos fibers rushed towards Eris.
Eris didn’t dodge, but firmly held the bone blade in both hands and slashed down against the rain of needles. A sharp cold light flashed from within the fog, the bone blade landed heavily, and cut off half of Twilight Deer’s antlers. Twilight Deer’s A3 ability came to an abrupt end, stopping the enhancement suddenly. Cotton Erosion froze for a moment. Suddenly, a heavy kick landed on her chest, bringing her off the deer’s back by Eris.
When Eris landed, he pressed his hands to the ground, slightly raised his eyes, and deeply chuckled. “Like the Abyss.”
Cotton Erosion fell from the air. The ground was covered by a dense fog and a shadow, and the shadow turned into a bottomless ravine. Cotton Erosion’s screams reverberated all the way down the deep ravine, and she fell into the abyss.
The abyss cracked like lightning. The rooms of the pharmaceutical factory collapsed one after another, the walls and the sundries placed on the ground were sucked into the abyss one after another, and even the trucks in the parking lot were swallowed by the darkness one after another—hell opened its huge mouth, beckoning everything on the shore to fall down and seal them up forever.
Eris knelt on the edge of the deep ravine, using the bone blade to support his exhausted body. Gravel was still falling from the edge of the deep ravine. Cursemaker’s body was extremely small compared to the cracks filling the ground.
Eris’ body was also filled with asbestos needles, the tiny sticky fibers were stuck in the cog joints inside him. While kneeling, Eris could hear the sound of the parts in his body being slowly destroyed by the asbestos needle seeping into his core.
With Cotton Erosion gone, no matter how strong Twilight Deer was, a support-type experimental subject couldn’t do much damage to him anymore.
“It’s your turn now.” Eris used the bone blade to help himself up, and he slowly walked toward Twilight Deer.
A white figure suddenly passed by. Just one look aroused all of Eris’ vigilance. He had never been frightened by any smell before, but this smell sent a chill down his spine.
This was the smell of an experimental subject in the deterioration stage.
Eris immediately gave up on Twilight Deer. He cut in between the white figure chasing after Puppet Master and slashed down with the bone blade in his hand. The white figure flickered faintly for a moment, then dodged.
Then, the ghostly figure shook the white cloth cloak on his body, sending out a shockwave with them in the center. A rippling mirror unfolded below Eris’ feet. Numerous ghost hands emerged from the mirror, growled hoarsely and grabbed Eris by the feet, and left deep nail marks on his porcelain legs.
“Who’re you?” Eris raised his hands to break off the ghost hands getting in his way. He released a cursed thread to wrap around the ghost’s swift body, then harshly dragged them in front of him.
But before the bone blade in his hand moved, he felt waves being released from the ghost’s body again, which made his soul tremble.
The ghost suddenly attacked, Eris turned to avoid, leading to the ghost grabbing nothing. He retracted his hand under the white cloth again, and flew over to Eris. When Eris got up, the ghost flashed behind him. Eris retracted his cursed thread, and cut across the ghost’s throat with a backhand slash.
The white cloth was cut open by the bone blade, and blood flowed down.
Behind the white cloth, he could see that the ghost’s neck was severed by the blade, the head snapping backwards at a right angle. The blood stained the white cloth covering their body.
Eris closely watched them.
In an instant, the ghost’s severed head suddenly straightened up. The head was straightened in place and let out a crackling sound of bones joining together. Before Eris barely had time to see their movements, the white ghost had arrived in front of him and released a huge shockwave from within.
Eris was shaken to the point of causing a buzzing and excruciating pain in his head. And once he stays on the ground where a mirror has formed, countless ghost hands would grab him and drag him deep inside the mirror. The little gland energy he had left was also constantly being absorbed by the hands.
The ghost disappeared in the dense fog. Eris couldn’t find which direction they were in, only being able to hear their faint laughter.
“Knicks…leave…” Eris tried his best to get back up, but was held back by the numerous hands and unable to move. His body kept sinking down, not knowing where he was being pulled to.
“Attribute, swap.”
An indifferent voice appeared not far from Eris. He heard this familiar and annoying voice and looked back.
“Finally caught up…” Specter Hourglass timidly held the glass hourglass and flipped it. The fog that filled the entire factory was ignited, with him at the center. The flames quickly engulfed the dense fog. Once the fog disappeared, Eris’ vision finally became clear.
Twilight Deer looked back in amazement at Specter Hourglass who appeared suddenly. He was surprised that this petite and weak glass experimental subject had the ability to disperse his fog.
The full view of the ghost was revealed in the sky; they were chasing after Puppet Master.
Puppet Master ran windingly through the obstacles with Odd Bones in his arms, but the ghost was able to pass through the walls and abandoned boxes. They released shockwaves from within them, and Puppet Master shook violently in response. Odd Bones’ skirt blew upward by the wind.
The ghost extended his hand from under the white cloth, grabbing Odd Bones’ leg.
With a bang, a shot was fired at his fingertips. The ghost’s right arm was mutilated starting from their hand.
Eris struggled to get up from the entanglement of the ghost hands. He raised his gun at the ghost. “Knicks had said before not to look up a girl’s skirt.”
The ghost halted, and his mangled right arm slowly recovered. He seemed to understand how much Eris cherished Puppet Master, so he flew at the Puppet Master viciously.
“Don’t touch him!” Eris used up all of his energy yet he wasn’t able to break free of the ghost hands coming out of the mirror. He could only release a cursed thread out of his cuff. When the ghost was about 100 meters away from him, the cursed thread wrapped around the ghost.
“Die.” Eris fiercely gritted his teeth, then turned the Sacred Wind-up Key on his nape.
The key had already been wound to its limit, but was forcibly turned again, which directly blew up Eris’ mechanical core.
A wisp of charred black smoke rose from Eris’ body. Then, starting from the body, his ball joints broke down, and everything fell apart.
The ghost made a cry of pain, halted in his steps, and fell to the ground. The pain transferred by the cursed thread made him suffer all that Eris was going through at the same time.
Eris’ doll body was collapsing; his mechanical core was damaged, and his internal gears could no longer mesh, and his ball joints fell to the ground one by one. His calves, thighs, lower body, and even the left shoulder fell off his body piece by piece.
Eris lost support, and half of his ceramic cheek broke when he fell to the ground. Only half of his chest and right hand remained. He struggled to claw on the ground with his fingertips, crawling inch by inch in Puppet Master’s direction. Only Puppet Master’s back was reflecting in his pale green pupils. In a daze, he saw the sacks piled up by Puppet Master in the corner of the workbench, inside were scrap limbs of dolls.
Being scrapped—that was a cursed doll’s worthwhile life.
He wanted to say, “Don’t leave me behind,” then remembered urging Puppet Master to leave. It was both contradictory and sad.
The ghost that fell to the ground slowly put together their limbs, and as if immortal, they stood back up again. They let out an ethereal laugh, flew in the sky, then sat down slowly on Twilight Deer’s back.
However, Eris could no longer stand up again, his eyes were completely dark. As his mechanical core had blown up, his eyes and everything else would become scraps.
He couldn’t see anything; only those gross ghost hands were persistently pulling him down. The hands were ice-cold, and they were pulling him to an even colder place.
Eris gave up struggling. He didn’t know where his consciousness would drift after death. It would be great if Knicks remembered him in a few years and was willing to come and pick up his mechanical core fragments. He wanted to become a beautiful specimen that would be placed on Knicks’ workbench, and be lit by his favorite old lamp everyday.
A pair of hands, with a different temperature compared to the others, touched Eris’ ceramic body and dispelled the coldness all at once.
Eris instinctively hugged him, and a warmth he had never felt passed through his shattered chest to the damaged mechanical core. Eris didn’t have tear ducts, but rainwater accumulated in his eye sockets and slowly flowed down his cheeks.
Puppet Master held the tattered doll scattered on the ground, picked up the scrapped mechanical core and Sacred Wind-up Key, and put them in his pocket. Eris, with only half a chest and a right arm left, tightly hugged Puppet Master’s neck.
Those ghost hands shrank back in fear when Puppet Master approached, not daring to touch him.
The ghost flew in front of Puppet Master, and the smiling face painted on the white cloth looked him up and down. “Cursemaker’s dominator…?”
“Eternal Undead, you’re very capable. As expected of a deterioration stage A3-grade experimental subject. We admit defeat.” Puppet Master held Eris’ broken body with one hand. He coldly looked at Eternal Undead, his previous mild-tempered and bored expression turning dark.
Puppet Master let go, and the suitcase in his hand landed on the ground. The brass buckle opened with a kachink, and the suitcase opened. The interior was full of precision gears. The gears spun, suddenly expanded, and burst through the suitcase, taking root on the ground. Suddenly, a thick geared mechanical arm that neither of them could wrap their arms around, was raised. It rose to midair and unfolded. The gears moved and linked together to assemble a humongous palm, slammed down on Eternal Undead, and caused a gust of howling wind.
Puppet Master’s A3 ability, Hand of God: Manipulate a gear machinery to cast a core, endowing inanimate objects with vigorous vitality.
The huge mechanical hand heavily smashed the ground, forcing Eternal Undead back, and separated them both by a long distance. Puppet Master took advantage of the gust of wind to climb over the collapsed high platform. He turned around and threw out a sentence—
“You hurt him, but I won’t fight you to the death. However, you hurt Divine Envoy. I’ll wait to see if that troublesome dominator will let you go so easily.”
Eternal Undead was disrupted by the large mechanical hand and was unable to catch up to them. He looked up silently at where Puppet Master disappeared from.
The rain had already stopped. The entire city was drowned in a dark, humid low pressure. The sewage was flowing towards the low-lying places. Puppet Master took Eris between the buildings. Eris’ remaining ball joint arm tightly hugged his neck.
“You don’t need to hold so tight, you won’t fall.”
“I’m scared you’ll toss me halfway. Just like those spoiled dolls, you don’t bat an eye when throwing them away, it’s very scary.” Eris had his lifeless eyes opened, already unable to see anything. Half of his face was crushed and gone, the other half of his face was covered with cracks and on the verge of breaking off.
“I won’t.”
Hearing him say that, Eris slowly loosened his grip on his clothes due to exhaustion. His body slid down, but was held back up by Puppet Master’s warm palms, holding him tightly.
[Staff’s Corner]
Kris Xian: I’m silently sobbing. Eris, please be okay. I won’t banter with you over calling my merman ‘seafood’ anymore.
DragonFae: *cracks knuckles* Looks like a bunch of blitches are asking for an ass kicking. Rimbaud! Do the zappy zappy thing!
God …it’s so sad watching Eris falling apart I hope to seem him back on the floor and rimbaud to come fast and beat the shit out
It’s my first time hearing about porcelain voodoo doll 🤔 And I see that only I finding Eris annoying, haha 😂
Thank You for the new chapter ( ꈍᴗꈍ)❤️