LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

The heavy oppressive feeling before him forced Hewesley Bernstein to retreat, but the black corrupted sunlight beams poured down at this moment.

The young man holding the Sun Scepter aimed the twisted sun symbol at the marionettized enemy, black radiance like a beam of light enveloping him.

The next moment, Hewesley Bernstein's figure disappeared again.

Another paper figurine he took out as a substitute prop also turned yellowish-black, shrouded by the black sunlight.

It didn't dissipate. In the black radiance, it eerily stood up, as if it had gained its own spirituality. The paper figurine's eyes frothed with blood-colored bubbles, making its papier-mâché face even more blurred and unclear.

The mouth that was merely a casual decoration by the maker opened, revealing the forest-white teeth inside.

It had completely "come to life."

"Hehehe, hahahaha——"

Like a cannonball, the paper figurine rushed toward Hewesley Bernstein not far away the instant the black sunlight dissipated. It crashed into the colonel's back, who seemed somewhat slow to react, merged with his armor, and in an instant adhered to his skin.

With a tearing sound, the armor on Hewesley Bernstein's body shattered. He reached out and tore off the paper figurine that had fused with his skin, along with a large piece of flesh and blood. Blood gushed out, but it wasn't a normal color—it was filthy and turbid, like paper pulp stained with mental contamination.

After suffering this ordeal, Hewesley Bernstein's condition grew worse and worse.

Auditory and visual hallucinations began to become severe. He felt as if all the flowers, plants, and trees around him had come alive, ready to devour him completely at any moment.

And the surroundings fell into deathly silence again, with no sign of the young man with the scepter, as if everything just now had been merely his own hallucination.

"No." His face was cold and hard, teeth clenched tightly, words coming out of his mouth one by one.

"Manipulation of Spirit Body Threads is forbidden here!"

When he spoke this prohibition law, the blood from his throat could no longer be stopped, flowing from the corners of his mouth. With the forceful use of a prohibition law targeting Sequence 5 Beyonders, his spirituality rapidly deteriorated, worsening the sluggish feeling of being manipulated by Spirit Body Threads.

The cross-sequence prohibition law was weakened. The opponent had somehow managed to make it impossible for him to find any trace of the enemy, leaving him only able to rely on wide-range laws to attempt a breakthrough.

"I can't fight a prolonged battle. I must attract others' attention. The earlier obstruction shows that the hidden enemy doesn't want me to seek help, afraid that I'll alarm the other Beyonders here."

When this thought appeared and he acted accordingly, time was also quietly passing.

The Marionettist hiding in the darkness had always been a hunter with sufficient patience.

As someone from this sequence who had summarized the acting rules, Don naturally understood this principle deeply.

Euclidean space provided essential improvement to Marionettists. The few weaknesses of a Marionettist's marionettization were the time needed to marionettize enemies and the requirement that during marionettization, the target must be kept within a certain distance, with gradual control until the target could be completely made into one's own marionette.

Within Euclidean space, all observed objects were in the same observable space.

And what this space presented would change according to Don's own will.

Through the method of "Dimensional Descent," making his control over Spirit Body Threads affect targets in the real world that needed to be marionettized—even if the opponent used substitutes, used travel and other beyonder powers, as long as they didn't escape from the range he could observe, then his manipulation of Spirit Body Threads couldn't be interrupted due to distance!

"As for the law forbidding Spirit Body Thread manipulation? Across a layer of space, a law that can't find the source of manipulation can't take normal effect. At most, it can slow down the marionettization time and buy him opportunities."

Now there was only one problem to worry about: if the opponent attracted the attention of other Beyonders, and before he completely marionettized this person, the opponent had a chance to get help from companions and escape this state.

Don calmly observed the development of events. The opponent still had several mystical items on him—Don had already figured this out long ago. The opponent must have also realized that the possibility of escaping alone now, or counter-killing him, had dropped to a completely impossible level.

As expected, the opponent's next move was to take out a circular gemstone that emanated a dark luster, dotted with dazzling blue, like a fantastic treasure from the deep sea.

He was somewhat sluggish but appeared very tense, looking around gravely before solemnly wearing that gemstone on his chest.

The next moment, like a boiling oil pot exploding, Hewesley Bernstein opened his mouth, his voice mixed with rage and madness, accompanied by spiritual power. That resounding song instantly pierced through the air, surging in all directions.

That was essentially a mystical item made from the beyonder characteristics of a Sequence 5 Ocean Songster from the Tyrant Pathway.

And this Loen colonel wanted to use the negative effects of this mystical item—the undisguisable loud singing—to attract others' attention.

At the same time, this kind of voice was also highly provocative, capable of making people irritable, lose their reason, become true ruffians, abandoning their brains and acting purely on muscle.

Don didn't know what he was singing—it seemed to be a folk ballad? However, across a layer of space, no beyonder ability could affect him, but this voice was really... too unpleasant to hear.

All output relied on shouting, without any technique.

"If an Ocean Songster can sing this badly, I'd rather poison him mute."

He hurried to make the opponent into a marionette.

As for whether this singing would attract others' attention?

Hewesley Bernstein's voice was extremely penetrating. Honestly, mixed with spirituality, probably half of Fort Saga City could hear it, but all these sounds were blocked when they tried to leave the manor.

Chanting in ancient Hermes in a low voice, using charms at the right time and place, Owen watched as those several charms turned into points of black light merging into the air, causing that resounding song to fall into death, without a trace of outward spread, before quietly leaving.

This type of high-level charm that could designate the death of a certain thing, belonging to the Death domain—their family wasn't particularly lacking in these.

[Host, go for it! Host will definitely win——]

The system cheered in Don's mind.

The resounding song was isolated inside, and the people in this manor were all misled by the beyonder abilities of the Sun Scepter manipulator, completely ignoring all problems and unable to support their colonel at all.

In this situation, the enemy had only one outcome.

Don countered each move. When the opponent took out a mystical item, he dealt with one mystical item. This Loen colonel's collection was indeed quite substantial, and he was quite cautious, carrying many mystical items on him, some of which were quite troublesome to deal with.

The desperate counterattack before death was equally astonishing.

However, in the end, the victor was still Don.

Before long, Hewesley Bernstein quieted down.

He calmly removed all the mystical items from his body.

Don, holding the Sun Scepter, also calmly appeared not far from this colonel.

(End of Chapter)