LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

It was another clear morning when Don was suddenly jolted awake.

Outside the window was brilliant sunlight, and the early morning campus was already filled with students heading to their 8 AM classes, rushing toward various teaching buildings with hearts full of resentment.

This kind of resentment could probably sustain ten Evil Sword Immortals...

Under the manipulation of the theater's core, everything that occurred within the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw would approach reality. All marionettes were vivid and lifelike. If one didn't know the truth, no one would suspect that the essence of this place was actually the interior of a Sealed Artifact.

And as time passed, when this place generated a concrete region in the Spirit World, it would complete the ritual for advancing from Sequence 2 to Sequence 1 of the Seer pathway.

This place was isolated from the Spirit World, cutting off connections between inside and outside—safe enough.

And for a Sequence 5 Marionettist, there were very few things here that could make him feel the trembling sensation of dangerous premonition.

But the frantic jumping of his spiritual intuition made him feel alarmed.

Did Amon come in? Or did the old man find his way here?

Or had the Church of Evernight Goddess finally discovered that he was developing stealthily here and dispatched an archbishop to knock on his door and check his gas meter?

Don quickly realized that this kind of frantic premonition from his spiritual intuition wasn't coming from himself, but from a distant region—from his marionette.

"What's going on, System?" Don immediately got out of bed after climbing up and looked out the window.

Outside was pleasant weather with beautiful sunshine, not affected in the slightest.

[It's from the marionette's side.] The System's mechanical voice answered Don's question. [Host, there's some problem with the marionette by your father's side.]

Listening to the System's narration, Don sensed his Spirit Body Threads, following the seemingly endless Spirit Body Threads extending into the distance. Soon, he saw a scene through the marionette's eyes.

But in the very next instant, Don immediately put on his 'Mosaic Glasses for Stargazing.'

There was contamination, and it was very strong contamination.

The 'Bionic Marionette' module allowed Don to create a marionette that could be controlled from extremely long distances as long as the Spirit World wasn't completely isolated.

Marionettes equipped with the 'Bionic Marionette' module naturally possessed their own 'life' and didn't require the Marionettist to continuously maintain this persona.

For a Marionettist, such marionettes didn't need deliberate control at all and could continuously provide spiritual feedback to help digest potions. Even if the Marionettist lost consciousness and power, such marionettes could still act autonomously without commands, relying on the 'agency' granted by the module.

At that time, Don had specifically chosen a Wraith to place in a gold coin to make it convenient for his father to carry the marionette. For a Marionettist, the value of a Wraith marionette need not be elaborated—everyone who's used one says it's good.

And staying beside his father, who had attracted most of the churches' firepower, under the protection of a Sequence 2's position and the extraordinary power of being a Death Consul, those pursuing him were most likely high-level members of various churches, demigods. A Sequence 5 Wraith indeed had few opportunities to appear.

Don never thought this Wraith could do much for his father. His original plan was that even if his father lost his memory again due to the Death God's contingency plan, before his father recalled his memories, that marionette would take proper care of him.

This was just insurance. He had never bothered to manage this marionette's movements, but now, this insurance had been autonomously triggered.

The marionette had transmitted its own sensations back to him through the Spirit Body Threads.

It was ultimate fear—facing irresistible force and extreme contamination, the instinctive, irresistible fear when facing the abyss.

Through the marionette's eyes, Don saw a person.

It was a man of medium build wearing a black hood.

Don's complexion instantly became extremely grim.

Perhaps due to multiple entries into Euclid space, even though he was only Sequence 5 and hadn't yet advanced to demigod, Don had become mentally sensitive, his spirit vision had become more acute, and he could vaguely see through the other party's essence.

With the assistance of the mosaic glasses, he could see something vaguely floating behind this hooded man, and this thing was covered with thick layers of mosaic.

A mythical creature? Some angel? Or some deity?

"Death Consul, have you thought about my suggestion?"

"Causing a 'Pale Disaster' in Backlund—I think that Death God might receive some help because of this?"

"This is the diocese of the Church of Evernight Goddess. We can completely cooperate to give the Goddess of the Night a great surprise, including those demigods pursuing you—they can equally serve as sacrificial offerings for the ritual, can't they?" The medium-built man's low voice seemed to carry ultimate temptation, like a devil's whisper, making people unconsciously follow his words and think further down that path.

Is it you!

The System immediately sent an identification through the Spirit Body Threads to the other side, then the identification failed.

[Unknown factors are interfering.]

But perhaps due to the System's own level plus a previous upgrade, even when identifying someone suspected to be a True God's vessel, the System still provided some feedback.

[Sequence 4: Demon.]

Demon?

This appearance, this timing, this Sequence.

Don's expression grew cold. "Is it that previous Desire Apostle who advanced?"

The Abyss pathway—he'd been in contact with it quite a lot recently.

There was still a Devil marionette lying in the theater right now.

And the one who had trapped the Sequence 4 Demon along with others, turning them into marionettes within the theater, was a suspected vessel for the descent of the Dark Side of Universe, a Sequence 5 Desire Apostle.

That was the biggest devil he had recently encountered, worthy of the title.

Now this Desire Apostle was nowhere to be found, suspected to have already left Tingen.

He was in Backlund? And preparing to cause a huge disaster in Backlund?

"The Dark Side of Universe once issued a divine oracle requiring the Rose Redemption people to conduct large-scale blood sacrifices. My previous guess was that the Dark Side of Universe suspected of wanting to use some kind of ritual to escape his current state of being contaminated by certain Outer Deities."

Throwing down his contaminated body, forcing other True Gods to deal with these contaminated things for him, thus allowing himself to continue lingering on, seeking opportunities.

"I haven't heard of any bloody rituals caused by devil worship appearing in this area recently." But information exchange in this era wasn't convenient to begin with. In places far enough from Tingen, or in other countries, perhaps the Rose Redemption believers had already succeeded?

And this kind of success also led to this suspected vessel for the Dark Side of Universe's descent, the Desire Apostle, being able to advance? Allowing the Dark Side of Universe to pour more power down?

What did he want to do? Planning to conduct a blood sacrifice in Backlund as well? And why seek out his father?

Because of Underworld Emperor Salinger?

Don was eager to move, preparing to enter Euclidean space to conduct further observation of this Sequence 4 Demon.

And Death Consul Azik Eggers maintained a calm expression, seemingly unmoved.

(End of Chapter)