Chapter 22: Death God Puppet
More than sixty people scattered in escape.
There were only three demons supervising them—how many could they catch?
One of the golden-haired demons transmitted via divine sense: "Forget about those assessment participants clearing the way for us now. Let's go find the Black-Robed Guards!" The two demons immediately dashed forward, and although Crompton was filled with reluctance, he followed as well.
"Linley. I hope I don't run into you again. Next time, it won't be like this."
Crompton regretted it. Why hadn't he killed Linley earlier?
In truth, it wasn't that Crompton had gone soft. At the time, he simply couldn't kill Linley!
When the thousand demon assessment participants had been divided into ten teams, if Crompton had tried to kill Linley then, the other demons probably wouldn't have allowed it. After all, killing Linley without cause at that point would likely have caused all thousand participants to scatter and flee.
Inside Moon Lake Castle, chaos reigned.
One area in disorder, and everywhere followed!
The ten teams had all frantically scattered, with several hundred people spread across various areas of the castle's third floor. The Gold-Robed Guards who had been hiding in certain rooms were stunned to find people charging straight at them! Though they had concealed themselves well,
with hundreds of people running wild, collisions were inevitable.
Battle erupted instantly!
"Boom!" "Boom!" Explosions of energy, angry shouts, and the sounds of slaughter rang out continuously from various areas of the castle.
Inside a secluded room,
Linley, Delia, and Bebe were hiding.
"Things are really stirring outside," Bebe said with a grin, then looked at Linley. "Boss, if we just hide here and the Gold-Robed Guards all get killed, won't we end up without any Moon Rings?"
"Don't rush!"
Linley frowned and said, "There are quite a few Gold-Robed Guards, and the castle's strength might be greater than we imagine."
Linley still remembered that last arrow!
His 'Pulsating Armor,' which combined two profound mysteries, had defense ten times stronger than an ordinary mid-level god's! Yet even with such defense, it had been pierced. Linley believed the one who shot that arrow was likely a high-level god!
"Inside the castle, the strongest guards, the 'Black-Robed Guards,' won't come for sneak attacks right away. It'll definitely be the Gold-Robed Guards first." Linley understood this principle—those tasked with minor ambushes were always the lower-ranked ones.
Linley couldn't help but sigh. "Delia, Bebe, be careful of the Gold-Robed Guards. They aren't all mid-level gods as we assumed!" He then shared his thoughts with Delia and Bebe.
They had to be cautious!
If they underestimated the Gold-Robed Guards, they might be finished.
"Killing a mid-level god Gold-Robed Guard or a high-level god one—either way, it's still a Moon Ring," Bebe said with a shrug. "Hope we get lucky."
Though Linley and the others were talking, they used their divine domains to isolate the sound, preventing it from leaking outside.
"Bang!" The wall suddenly shook violently.
"Someone's fighting outside!" Linley, Delia, and Bebe instantly stood up. In a flash, all three moved to the wall. If anyone burst through the door, they could join forces and kill them in an instant!
"Bang!" Another impact!
The wooden door, though sturdy, shattered directly, and a figure tumbled weakly inside, crashing onto the floor.
Linley and the others didn't move.
"That's a corpse!" They judged instantly. The body's head had been blown to pieces, and a divine spark rolled across the ground.
Linley, Delia, and Bebe held their breath.
"Whoosh!"
A figure charged in instantly!
"Kill!" All three of them moved.
Delia immediately unleashed the profound mystery of 'Wind Space,' and the figure was instantly entangled and slowed down. Linley's Blackdirt Heavy Sword struck without mercy, slamming directly into the figure with his strongest attack—
Void Wave!
"Get lost!" Bebe laughed loudly, kicking the figure's head.
"Bang!" The figure slammed hard into the nearby wall before crashing heavily to the floor. The wall's magical runes flickered briefly but remained undamaged.
The castle was reinforced with defensive magic, though not all walls had it. Load-bearing walls and some prison cells were enchanted, while other walls and doors were not.
"Huh?" Linley and the others' expressions changed. "Not dead?"
The figure actually stood up.
But its head had been deformed by Bebe's fierce kick, the skin on its face bursting open to reveal a metal skull beneath. The metal skull's eye sockets held red gemstones, and it stared eerily at Linley and the others, letting out a mechanical laugh: "Three mid-level gods? Not bad!"
Divine power flowed over the metal skull's surface, instantly restoring it.
"That's not a person—it has no soul!" Linley was shocked. His 'Void Wave' hadn't struck a soul.
In Linley's perception, this monster, covered in human skin but with a metal interior, had no trace of a soul.
"What is this?" Linley, Delia, and Bebe were all puzzled.
Even a metallic lifeform had a soul. For any life, the soul was fundamental. But this thing had no soul! It wasn't a living being at all. Yet why did it have consciousness and the ability to speak?
"A special kind of doppelganger?" Linley wondered.
"Boss, this monster's body is really tough. I kicked its head with full force, and it didn't even explode! Strange," Bebe said, puzzled. He knew how terrifying his strength was. In pure physical power, even Linley couldn't match him.
This was one of the abilities of the Soul-Devouring Rat after digesting divine sparks.
"Running into me? Hmph, all three of you die!" The monster's red-glowing eyes fixed on Linley and the others as it moved instantly.
"Bang!"
Bebe charged forward, clashing directly with the monster.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"
Bebe and the monster fought in a bizarre way, like two brutes, using fists and feet to viciously pummel each other. In the frantic brawl, the monster's skin and flesh burst open, blood splattering everywhere, revealing its metal body beneath.
The metal body was extremely hard.
"How... how is this possible?" The monster was stunned.
"Damn it, let's see whose body is tougher!" Bebe roared. He was very confident in his own body's hardness, thinking to himself, "After digesting so many divine sparks, if my body can't even match some monster, I'd be disgracing the Soul-Devouring Rat's name."
"Boss, this definitely isn't the real body. The real one must be outside!" Bebe transmitted via divine sense.
"Swish!" Linley immediately darted out.
Sure enough, in the corridor nearby, a Gold-Robed Guard stared in shock. It wasn't Linley's emergence that startled him, but Bebe: "How... how can someone's body be so hard, going toe-to-toe with a Death God Puppet!" He couldn't believe it!
A Death God Puppet!
In truth, it was a humanoid weapon—more accurately, a special type of divine artifact!
The twenty Death God Puppets in Moon Lake Castle were all top-tier, reaching the high-level god level as humanoid divine artifacts!
The energy core of a Death God Puppet was the divine crystal inside it.
The user of a Death God Puppet only needed to drip blood to bind it, then could use the puppet to attack others. Though extremely hard, the Death God Puppet had one flaw—it couldn't perform soul attacks, because it had no soul!
"Whoever you are!" The Gold-Robed Guard sneered coldly.
At that moment, the Death God Puppet fighting Bebe suddenly produced a battle blade in its hand. The blade was coated with poison—the same poison as the God-Slaying Arrows. This poison, once it entered a body, would immediately attack the enemy's soul.
So it could only be used once. After that, the blade would be poison-free.
The Gold-Robed Guard had been reluctant to use it, but now he had no choice!
"Using a blade?" Bebe's eyes widened. "Hmph, I'm not wasting time with you either." Bebe also produced a dagger—the black dagger Belut had given him long ago. Ignoring the fight between Bebe and the Death God Puppet,
outside, Linley and the Gold-Robed Guard were locked in battle.
The moment they clashed, the Gold-Robed Guard split into two, forming two divine doppelgangers.
"Divine doppelgangers?" Linley was startled.
But even so, Linley didn't hesitate, swinging his Blackdirt Heavy Sword in a single strike.
"Clang!" Weapons collided.
The Void Wave detached from the Blackdirt Heavy Sword, shooting directly at one of the Gold-Robed Guard's divine doppelgangers. The other doppelganger tried to stab Linley, but at that moment, its speed suddenly dropped.
"Wind Binding?" The Gold-Robed Guard realized instantly.
Not far behind Linley, Delia, holding the Gotes Longspear, hurled it with all her might. A streak of light shot out, almost instantly piercing the Gold-Robed Guard's chest, running straight through it.
The divine doppelganger trembled.
"Not good!" The Gold-Robed Guard's face changed as he looked at Linley in shock. The doppelganger struck by the 'Void Wave' was already dead. He had fully felt the terrifying power of Linley's 'Void Wave.' "Such a devastating soul attack—it must be a fusion of profound mysteries of the laws!"
A fusion of profound mysteries!
And a soul attack at that.
"Flee!" The Gold-Robed Guard instantly decided, darting away into the distance.
"Trying to run?" Linley's speed surged instantly.
"Ah!" The Gold-Robed Guard painfully realized his speed was only half of normal, as his entire body was bound. "Damn woman!" He knew the binding was Delia's doing, and he understood...
He couldn't defeat Linley.
"Ah!" Facing Linley's incoming sword strike, the Gold-Robed Guard fought back in despair.
"Pfft!"
In life-or-death combat, one always used their strongest move. Under the Void Wave's assault, the Gold-Robed Guard collapsed. Linley flipped his hand and stored both divine doppelganger corpses into his spatial ring.
"Delia, thank you!" Linley walked over.
"Too bad I don't know soul attacks," Delia said with a smile.
Since they were preparing for the demon assessment, they naturally wanted to boost everyone's strength. So after selling one high-level divine artifact earlier, Linley had given the other, the 'Gotes Longspear,' to Delia for her to refine and learn to use.
The profound mystery of 'Swiftness' in the wind element, combined with the longspear and 'Wind Space Binding,' made Delia's spear throw incredibly powerful.
"Why did it stop?" Bebe's dissatisfied voice came from inside the room.
Linley and Delia exchanged glances and smiled.
Why had it stopped? The master of the Death God Puppet was dead, so naturally, the puppet stopped moving!
Linley and Delia stepped into the room.
The Death God Puppet lay motionless in the corner. Seeing them enter, Bebe quickly said, "Boss, this metal monster stopped moving. Did you kill its real body?" He guessed that was the reason.
"Yeah,"
Linley nodded.
"What is this?" Delia looked at the Death God Puppet in confusion. None of them had ever seen one before.
Death God Puppets were extremely valuable humanoid weapons, far more precious than ordinary high-level divine artifacts. Just one of these puppets was worth far more than a high-level god's divine spark. Moon Lake Castle only had twenty of them.
"Let's store this monster first," Linley said. "We'll look into what this metal creature is after we leave."
Linley and the others didn't know that simply dripping blood to bind it would allow them to use the Death God Puppet.
Bebe flipped his hand and stored the metal monster into his spatial ring.