Chapter 89: Puppet (5)
"Kya-hahahahahaha-haaaaaaa——!”
As Oliver extracted emotions through Puppet's maw, the latter screamed.
It was a scream as though molten steel was being forcibly poured into his mouth. Compared to how leisurely he'd been against all previous attacks, this reaction was a surprise.
The scream was so loud that the dust clinging to the walls crumbled and fell, yet Oliver didn’t stop. He continued to extract the emotions of hell through Puppet's maw.
Though it wasn’t clear if these emotions were truly from hell, an instinctive desire for possession flared up in Oliver as he extracted as many emotions as possible.
'More... more...! More...!!'
“Kyaaaa———!”
Unable to endure it any longer, Puppet flailed his hands, forcibly cutting off Oliver's extraction.
Even though a significant amount of emotion had been drawn out, it still felt insufficient. Perhaps that’s why? Oliver felt a slight twinge of irritation without even realizing it.
Bang————!!!!!!
"Excuse me, could you open your mouth for me one more time?"
"...Ugh!"
After cloaking himself in the emotions he had extracted, Oliver spoke as he thrust his quarterstaff into Puppet's solar plexus.
It went in very deeply, and the sensation of bones shattering transmitted through his fingertips.
"What is this... it hurts?"
"Does it?"
With those words, Oliver detonated a Wrath Bomb at the tip of his quarterstaff.
Bang———————!!
It was indeed a Wrath Bomb, but its power was somehow different from usual.
Was it because of the emotions used as fuel?
Puppet’s body shattered into pieces like mud, scattering everywhere. But even so, the chunks of flesh began to gather together, forming a new body.
Step, step.
Oliver approached Puppet and asked, "Could you open your mouth one more time?"
Half-recovered, Puppet responded to Oliver’s request with a question instead.
“...I must apologize. You're no ordinary fellow. What exactly are you?"
"Could you open your mouth one more time?"
Hehe. Puppet chuckled in his unique way, then placed his hand on the ground, drawing out emotions.
The black emotion quickly flowed through the cracks between the bricks. Watching carefully, Oliver prepared himself to move if necessary.
But this time, it wasn’t the ground beneath Oliver that crumbled.
It was beneath Puppet, and at the same time, the walls around them began to crack open with a tearing sound.
Through the gaps, the zombie army that had been seen aboveground appeared once again.
[Shadow Spike]
[Bind Shadow]
Oliver infused some of the emotions he had extracted into his shadow and chanted.
Oliver’s shadow then stretched out in all directions like weeds, tearing apart all the zombies in its path.
Rip—! Rip—! Slash! Slash! Splat! Splat!
The zombies were shredded in an instant.
However, not all of them were destroyed.
A few Corpse Puppets used the other zombies as stepping stones, narrowly avoiding Oliver’s attack and then pounced at him.
"Minion."
At that moment, Oliver swiftly created a Minion to intercept the Corpse Puppets that leaped toward him.
The Minion closed in on the Corpse Puppets at breakneck speed and fired Hate Bullets, shattering their heads cleanly.
After swiftly dealing with the horde of zombies, Oliver immediately chased after Puppet, descending through the hole.
That was when it happened.
Kya-hahahahahahaha-ha———!!!!
As if on cue, just as Oliver descended, a Corpse Puppet climbed up.
It was a grotesque creature, with the upper bodies of a man and woman fused together like a centipede.
Perhaps in line with the theme, the woman’s eyes had gun barrels embedded in them, and her mouth was stuffed with steel pincers.
Kya-hahaha———bang!!!!
Without a moment's hesitation, Oliver slammed the creature's face with his quarterstaff.
The gun barrels lodged in its eye sockets and the steel pincers in its mouth shattered to pieces, which was a bit of a shame.
Normally, he would have captured it intact for study.
But his curiosity about Puppet outweighed that.
"Hmm?"
When the woman's head was smashed and she ceased to move, the man’s torso, which was attached below, detached and lunged at Oliver.
He reached out with multiple arms, tenaciously grabbing hold of Oliver, and soon after, other Corpse Puppets followed, wrapping their numerous arms around Oliver like a ball.
Covered by the Corpse Puppets, Oliver then heard a sound.
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
The ticking came from inside the bodies of each Corpse Puppet.
Oliver instinctively knew what it was. A bomb.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boooom———!
An explosion went off.
It wasn’t a black magic spell but a regular bomb, so Oliver’s response was a beat too late.
Well, does it really matter?
Thanks to the Black Suit, he wasn’t injured.
Escaping from the explosion, Oliver stepped onto the lower floor, where he was greeted by a large number of Corpse Puppets.
They all seemed to be well-made, at least comparable to the Saber-wielding Corpse Puppets he’d encountered before.
"Oh... there's quite a few?"
"It's because they're C-class."
One of the Corpse Puppets replied as it charged toward him.
They didn’t just charge blindly; they moved in organized coordination, as if they were alive.
In the rear, black magicians and sniper-type Corpse Puppets provided long-range support with black magic and guns.
Meanwhile, the Corpse Puppets wielding sabers and axes rushed in sync with the long-range support.
Seven or eight attacks came at him simultaneously.
In that moment, time seemed to slow down as Oliver looked around.
What was threatening him?
The creeping shadows approaching from the darkness, bullets, hate bullets, black javelins.
Raiders and mutated Corpse Puppets climbing the walls and ceiling.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been a rather dangerous force, but due to the emotions Oliver had extracted, his body felt light, and he experienced an unusual sense of calm.
No, more than calm... he felt composed.
Oliver first used Bind Shadow to shatter the shadow creatures creeping toward him, then fired Hate Bullets to shatter the bullets and hate bullets aimed at him.
Perhaps due to the different quality of emotions, even though he didn’t exert much effort, the enemy Corpse Puppets were easily pierced.
Without stopping, Oliver naturally swung his quarterstaff, dealing with the enemies approaching him up close as if someone else were moving him.
He smashed the head of a mutant Corpse Puppet climbing the wall, and then, in perfect timing, he finished off the other Corpse Puppets charging at him with hate bullets and shadow spikes.
Once the close-range Corpse Puppets were shattered, the rear Corpse Puppets retreated, but Oliver didn’t miss the opportunity. He focused strength into his legs, swiftly closed the distance, and swung his quarterstaff, destroying them all.
As the shattered Corpse Puppets' remains scattered, a clicking sound was heard.
The broken Corpse Puppets had triggered bombs they were holding.
Another explosion erupted in the basement.
Even though the dust rose noisily, Oliver wasn’t harmed. Instead, he extracted life force from the still-intact Corpse Puppets to reinforce his Black Suit.
"..."
Oliver calmly surveyed his surroundings.
They said there was another city beneath the land of Landa. It seemed to be true.
At this point, Oliver couldn't grasp the scale of the basement. What kind of research had been conducted here?
'I have a rough idea.'
Oliver thought as he observed the faint emotions, life force, and magical power around him.
At first, he couldn’t see it, but ever since nearly being devoured by Puppet, he gradually began to see it.
Kya-hahahahahaha-haaaaa———!
Kya-kakakakahahahahaha-ha———!
Kya-hahaha———--!
The horde of zombies rushed at Oliver once again.
It seemed Puppet intended to exhaust as much of the emotions Oliver had extracted as possible.
Oliver decided to play along, gathering emotions at his fingertips.
Just enough to catch him off guard...
...
Crash! Crash! Bang!
Oliver, having cleared out numerous zombies, stepped into a room.
Contrary to his expectations, he had used up nearly all the emotions he had extracted due to the sheer number of zombies. Fortunately, Puppet no longer tried to run and instead greeted him.
“You’ve come?”
He opened his massive maw like a greedy pouch, swallowing people whole.
Judging by the aura emanating from Puppet, it seemed he hadn’t just swallowed one or two people.
"Yes."
"My apologies for running. I hope you understand, I have a principle of avoiding fights that aren’t advantageous.”
"No complaints here. I feel the same... By the way, this place?"
Oliver looked around the room and asked. It appeared to be some kind of laboratory.
“As you can see, it’s a lab. Coincidentally, the original owner of this place... a magician, was researching a field similar to mine. So, I’ve been borrowing it for a while.”
Sincerity.
“What kind of experiments were they conducting?”
“Well, didn’t I tell you? Experiments to bring people back to life.”
"Ah, you did say that. Have you made any progress?”
“...To some extent? But there’s a bottleneck, so I intended to hand things over to some troubleshooters connected with demons for a bit of help, but things got tangled up. Let me ask again, what exactly are you? In all my hundreds of years, I’ve never encountered someone quite like you.”
"I'm just myself. A troubleshooter from T-District... May I ask you one question? In your experiments to bring humans back to life, does that include experiments to create human souls?”
Puppet suddenly froze.
It seemed Oliver had asked the right question.
"Indeed, I shouldn’t have handed this over to the demons. How did you figure it out?"
Oliver looked up and spoke.
"Well? I can see it now."
With those words, Oliver struck his quarterstaff against the floor.
Click-click. Along with the sound, emotions flowed rapidly along the cracks in the bricks, reaching the ceiling.
As the emotions reached the ceiling, the bricks moved with a clicking sound, and a hidden door opened.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Oliver leaped toward it.
"Stop!"
Puppet shouted as he stretched out his arm.
But Oliver was faster.
He climbed the wall and entered the hidden room, where many large flasks were stored.
Each flask contained emotions, life force, and magical power in considerable quantities.
Had Puppet hunted the black magicians and raiders from the contaminated zone for this purpose?
But the most eye-catching thing was the largest flask in the center, connected to all the others.
Inside the large, spherical flask was an artificial soul, created by mixing and condensing human emotions, life force, and magical power.
Though it wasn’t a real soul, its craftsmanship was impressive, even to Oliver, who was seeing it for the first time.
"You’re a rude little one. To intrude into someone else’s laboratory... How did you find this when I had hidden it so well?"
Puppet climbed up, warning Oliver. He was filled with intense anger, along with curiosity and suspicion.
"Well? It suddenly became visible to me. And I apologize for my rudeness. But you see, I’ve used up a lot of emotions. I also hate fighting when I’m at a disadvantage, so I’ll need to replenish myself.”
With that, Oliver swung his quarterstaff, shattering the flask containing the unstable artificial soul.
With a short scream from Puppet and a dull explosion, the artificial soul was exposed. Without hesitation, Oliver reached into the air and extracted the entire soul.
All of it.
Swoooosh————!!!!
It was an enormous amount.
Casting aside the restraint and efficiency he usually maintained, Oliver recalled his battle with Joanna, which had resurfaced in his mind.
Then, he scattered the vast emotions in his hand, engulfing the surroundings.
"Ho... This is—"
[Shadow Spike]
The dark emotions that now surrounded the area.
At Oliver’s command, shadow spikes rose from the ground, attacking Puppet.
They tore him apart completely, their power immense due to the sheer amount of emotion.
Up until now, Oliver had always considered the amount of emotion left and used the minimum amount of power. But at this moment, there was no need for that.
Kyaaaaaaaaah———!
The humans devoured inside Puppet screamed, and Puppet's body recovered in an instant.
His regeneration speed had dramatically increased, indicating that he no longer intended to fight moderately.
Puppet gathered an enormous amount of emotions by squeezing the humans within his body.
If Oliver hadn’t found this secret lab, it could have been dangerous.
Puppet scattered his body in the air, unleashing numerous black magic spells.
[Finger Gun]
[Bone Bullet]
[Lip Spear]
[Skull Bomb]
[Contagion Hand]
Black magic that combined emotions and corpses.
It was a mix of manipulation-type and projectile-type spells, making them much more efficient and powerful.
Of course, they weren’t much of a threat to the current Oliver, but instead of dodging the dozens of incoming attacks, Oliver swung his hand.
"Devour it. Eater."
With that command, a formless entity with nothing but human teeth burst from the dark emotions surrounding them, devouring all of Puppet's attacks.
"Damn it—"
Thunk!
Before Puppet could even finish his sentence, Oliver used Shadow Spike once again.
Dozens of sharp, slender shadow spikes shot out from all directions, piercing through Puppet. Then, from each spike, dozens of barbs sprouted out once again.
Riiiiiip————!!!!
Puppet’s entire body was skewered by spikes.
However, his expression was peaceful.
"Thank goodness... It doesn’t hurt."
"But the damage is still there, right?"
As Oliver spoke, he struck the ground with his quarterstaff.
Click-click. The sound was followed by an explosion of the shadow spikes.
As before, chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere.
While Puppet’s flesh was still scattered, Oliver concentrated his attacks to build up more damage.
Feigning focus on his assault, Oliver blocked Puppet’s surprise attack from behind.
"How...? I hid my emotions."
"I told you, didn’t I? I can see it now."
With those words, Oliver focused power into his quarterstaff and struck Puppet.
The blow caved in his body, dealing significant damage, but he was still incredibly tough.
Puppet’s body clung to Oliver's quarterstaff like mud, refusing to let go.
"This feels like I've come here to have fun, only to end up working."
[Explosion Fury]
Though the area was small, the condensed explosion inside Puppet’s body was much stronger and more focused.
Everything within the explosion’s range was annihilated, and Puppet, who had been regenerating, stumbled backward in pain.
"Guh...! You’re strong. I can’t win."
"Thank you for the compliment. It does seem like your body’s at its limit now."
With those words, Oliver fired Hate Bullets like a machine gun.
Rather than simply piercing through Puppet’s body, he fired with the intent to turn him into rags. To prevent his escape, Oliver bound Puppet’s legs with Bind Shadow and skewered him with shadow spikes from all sides, attacking with lethal intent.
It had to be this much to properly subdue him.
As the relentless assault continued, the vast emotions that had filled the room began to dwindle.
Fortunately, the effort paid off, and Puppet’s regeneration started to slow. His body turned into a tattered mess.
Then, it happened.
Puppet’s flesh bubbled up from his core and began to peel off, shedding his ruined body as he charged at Oliver.
His speed was incredible, and Oliver’s response was slightly delayed, but he managed to react in time.
"Minion."
The Minion, which had been safely tucked away in Oliver’s arms, suddenly popped out and fired a Hate Bullet at Puppet as he charged.
Though it wasn’t particularly powerful, it was enough to wound Puppet’s already weakened body. In that brief moment when Puppet faltered, Oliver drove his quarterstaff into him and unleashed another Wrath Bomb.
Bang———!
With the explosion, Puppet’s upper and lower body were separated.
He laughed and said, “Hehe... In all my years of life, I’ve truly experienced everything. To think I’d be beaten by a black magician who hasn’t even been in this field for a year.”
"That’s because Puppet-nim was kind enough to fight me with only one hand.”
Oliver said earnestly, looking down at Puppet.
“Oh... You noticed?”
“A little while ago, yes. So, where is your real body?”
“Sorry, but that’s a sensitive question I can’t answer.”
"Ah, my apologies... And I also apologize for damaging the lab. I had to act impolitely because I didn’t want to die.”
Puppet looked at Oliver with an expression of genuine curiosity.
His eyes seemed to be staring at something incomprehensible.
"Apology... accepted. Things didn’t go as planned, but I’ve seen something equally interesting... Will you still not tell me who you really are?”
"I'm just a troubleshooter from T-District.”
"Ironic, you’ve denied it three times... Nonetheless, I’ll believe you. Interesting friend, let’s meet again sometime.”
With those words, the light slowly faded from Puppet’s eyes, and he crumbled into ash, as if he had finished his business.
Oliver didn’t bother to stop him, simply murmuring regretfully.
"I didn’t get to ask him why he was trying to bring people back to life."