Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Soara looked at the lifeless, smiling body of the swords-wielding underworlder before nodding in satisfaction. It was a worthy sacrifice, and he had helped her figure out her current strength more accurately. As a deity of Death, Soara respected those who faced her straightforwardly without backing down.

Soara turned to the side and looked straight down one of the many occupied tunnels.

It was much better than the coward hiding behind their dolls.

Sieging her was the least effective method of attacking Soara since beings noticeably weaker than her couldn't even breathe in her presence without losing the air of life. Things that weren't biologically alive had a little better resistance, but the dolls were so well-made that Soara had no trouble killing them.

They weren't alive. They were dolls that followed orders written into their beings. But they weren't that different from beasts following their base instincts. The source of the instincts was different. And the instincts and design of the dolls were the exact same. The dolls could also be monitored and controlled remotely.

In any given situation, they would react the same as any other doll, unlike a beast or monster who would never act the same as its sibling or packmate.

Other than that, they weren't much different from a living being. The difference wasn't enough for Soara's powers to not work on them.

All they did when trying to get to Soara was build up a mountain of dolls around her and the Basilisk.

How could an individual capable of crafting such elaborate dolls be so mindless in their approach? Had they invested all of their brains into doll-making? Or did they have a plan of some sort?

Soara's gaze shifted over the battlefield. She looked for anything amiss or anything that stood out.

Someone who would receive this many resources from the Great Ugor in the poor Underworld would not be stupid enough to waste it on something as pointless as filling up the Basilisk's tomb with doll corpses.

If they were that stupid the Great Ugor would never have granted them permission to all the resources necessary to craft the dolls. That would only happen if the Great Ugor was at least as stupid as the dollmaker. If the Great Ugor had been that stupid, the Underworld wouldn't have been a threat.

Soara tried to sense if the dollmaker had hidden anything inside the dolls. If there were explosives, she might not necessarily be in trouble since she could use her Aspect. But Dukiel, Anerias, and Violina would be no more. If the dolls were full of explosives or magic with the same function, it might even be enough to rock the Basilisk's body and interfere with Alzara's de-petrification potion-making.

However, Soara didn't sense anything. The dolls were empty husks.
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Soara frowned.

They shouldn't be entirely empty.

She stretched her consciousness deeper into the mounds of dead dolls.

Not all of them were empty. Some of them were being emptied. Their contents were sucked into the centers of each mound, gathered in tiny lumps. The outer shells soon followed.

Soara's eyes narrowed. She knew what this kind of process was.

It was a sacrificial ritual. The dollmaker was using the lives of many weaker dolls to build fewer but stronger units.

Could the quantity of the dolls make up for the lacking quality? Would the five thousand dolls turned into five dolls be enough to land a blow on Soara?

Soara didn't see a reason to find out. She cut the process short by grabbing a stone shart that broke away from the ground during the Basilisk's collision and threw it through the hill, piercing the core of the new chimera dolls.

"Hmm?"

However, instead of the process being interrupted, the dolls from the hill Soara targeted just changed directions and went for the next hill to build onto that doll instead.

"Now then…"

Soara's eyes sparkled.

Could she get rid of all the cores first or would one of the dolls finish being born first?

It was a fun bet. She picked up another four stones.

Physical actions and activities like flinging stones with pinpoint accuracy and enough power to blast through mountains weren't her specialty. But she was still good enough to launch the stones at the nearby chimera cores without straying more than a few hairs from the dead center.

The next three cores shattered without issue, diverting all the dolls, their contents, and their husks to the final chimera doll. Four out of five mounds and sources of trouble were gone.

Soara was a little curious about how strong the final one, strengthened by the sacrifice of its brethren, would be.

Maybe that curiosity led to a moment's hesitation. Maybe that moment's hesitation was enough for the doll to form enough of its body that when Soara threw the stone shard, the core shifted to the side. Maybe her hesitation didn't matter.

Maybe it gave the doll enough time to finish being born by making Soara take a few seconds to pick up another stone.

That stone wouldn't do much at this point.

The chimera doll was twice as tall as Soara and had a smooth body and face like an oversized, muscular, hairless doll, puppet, or mannequin.

Soara couldn't help but think that the doll's head looked a little small for its body.

But the head was probably just there for the aesthetic anyway. The core wasn't in there, and there weren't any sensory organs. The dollmaker just didn't make a headless doll.

Soara looked the chimera doll up and down.

It was too strong for her to snuff its spark of life out like it was a candle. But it wasn't the kind of living being she was used to, either, so she couldn't tell exactly how strong it was, at least not until it made a move.

Soara faced off against the doll, and the doll stood motionless and expression less in front of her. Soara was ready to use her Aspect instantly in case the doll surpassed her perception of it.

The doll moved.