Chapter 88
Chapter 88
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: Puppet (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Black flames ignited, banishing the darkness from the room.
It was truly ironic.
But instead of dwelling on such sentiments, Oliver surveyed his surroundings.
The brick-walled room, neither too large nor too small, reminded him of Joseph's secret altar in the past, with piles of dismembered corpses scattered around the edges.
In the center of one wall was an indecipherable symbol.
A circle enclosing two crescent moons and an X mark, along with a candlestick and a cross.
It was the exact same symbol he'd seen when he first fell into this place.
But the most striking thing among them was none other than Puppet.
"It's a pleasure to meet you in person."
Puppet was a man in his early to mid-forties, extraordinarily tall.
His skin was pallid, his nose hooked like a beak, and his cheekbones protruded sharply, giving him the look of a living skull.
Oliver stared at the bizarre figure before asking,
"The pleasure's mine.... You have quite the unique body, don't you?"
Puppet gave a faint smile. He rose from his seat and twitched his skeletal hand.
With that gesture, some of the corpse fragments strewn about the room stirred, completely sealing off the sole entrance Oliver had come through.
It wasn't just sealed; teeth, jawbones, and skulls clacked together in midair—clack! clack!—ready to tear into anything that approached, just like the hellish entrance described by the mine supervisors.
Oliver remarked calmly,
"Impressive. Turning meat shields into such a barrier fueled by hunger and greed."
"Free thinking is the foundation of black magic.... Still, remarkable. To understand it after just one look, and you can't be more than twenty.... Who taught you?"
"Fascinating."
"What's so fascinating?"
"My disciple said the exact same thing. A puppeteer named Glyph."
Oliver said it deliberately.
Maybe it would unsettle Puppet.
But Puppet's emotions remained as composed as ever.
"Hmm.... Doesn't ring a bell. Sorry, but I've lived for centuries and taught countless disciples. Hard to remember them all. If I don't recall him, he must've been a nobody."
At those words, Oliver recalled his conversation with Puppeteer Glyph from the past.
He might not remember everything else, but the pride when claiming to be the disciple of his master, Puppet, was crystal clear.
Two starkly contrasting emotions.
Without thinking, Oliver murmured,
"......That's a bit sad."
"Sad? Why?"
"Glyph held you in such high regard. Yet you don't even remember him... It's kind of heartbreaking."
Puppet stared at Oliver before slowly approaching.
"Interesting. You claim sadness without knowing what it is. So alien. Like a beast mimicking a human.... What are you, really?"
What was he, really.... Oliver wasn't sure how to answer that.
"......I'm Dave, the fixer from Sector T."
"Is that so? Easy enough to verify."
With that, Puppet extended his hand—a hand brimming with chilling black light emotions.
[Thrust]
[Maximum output shockwave]
Fortunately, Oliver acted first.
He'd fired off a black magic Thrust—converting emotions into a shockwave to repel and destroy the target—at maximum power.
His instincts told him this wasn't someone he could take lightly.
And that judgment proved spot on.
"What... is that body?"
Oliver watched as Puppet's shattered and torn form regenerated in an instant.
An inhuman surge of life force erupted from within, mending the wounds—a truly eerie sight.
But even stranger were the countless people beneath Puppet's skin.
"Aaaaaaah—!!!"
"Save me—! Get me out—! Kill me—!!"
"Kihahahahahahahahaha—!!!"
"Kekekekekekekekekekekeke!!!!!!"
"Kweeeek—!!"
"Kwaaaah—!!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!!"
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!"
"Kweeeek—!! Kweeeek—!!"
They wailed as if desperate to escape Puppet's body, countless hands and faces pressing against his abdomen from inside.
Yet they couldn't break free, only pushing futilely.
The scene evoked a profound, otherworldly disgust.
Any ordinary person would be overwhelmed by pathological revulsion at the mere sight.
Of course, Oliver felt more curiosity than disgust.
No matter how he looked at it, this was beyond the realm of normal black magic.
He was purely intrigued by how it was possible.
"What is that body? A fusion of a corpse puppet and a glutton's pouch?"
Puppet glanced at his own body before replying,
"Half right."
With that, he drew out a massive amount of emotions from within.
Unlike any black mage Oliver had faced before, he was extracting emotions directly from his own body.... Or rather, that phrasing might be inaccurate.
It was more like forcibly ripping them from the countless people trapped inside.
A startling concept.
Combining a corpse puppet and glutton's pouch to imprison people and drain their emotions.
Definitely outside conventional black magic.
"What are you, exactly?"
"I'm more curious about you. No reaction to 'this'.... Well, we'll find out soon enough."
As Puppet casually shaped the emotions into black magic, Oliver didn't miss the opening and fired a Hate Bullet.
The gathering emotions were destroyed by Oliver's swift attack.
In a firepower contest, Puppet's overwhelming reserves would ensure his victory, so Oliver had to press the advantage whenever an opening appeared.
Puppet raised one eyebrow.
"Oh, not bad. You've got some real sense...."
—Stab!
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Oliver's Shadow Spike pierced straight through Puppet's torso.
Spikes even sprouted from the main spike, dealing additional internal damage. Yet it seemed to barely faze Puppet.
Despite being riddled with spikes, he didn't scream—instead, he shattered the Shadow Spike, forcing his way out, and regenerated.
Each time, the people inside wailed in agony.
Kyaaaaaaaah—!
"Oh.... It's not just physically trapping people inside, is it."
"Correct.... But is that all?"
"No."
With that, Oliver slammed his quarterstaff against the floor.
Thud—thud— In time with the sounds, a Black Cube enclosed Puppet.
But it wasn't just Puppet inside.
There was a minion too—one loaded with maximum Wrath Boom and Explosion Fury.
"Minion, if you would."
At his words, the minion trapped with Puppet detonated inside the Black Cube.
It was a massive explosion; without the cube containing the blast, Oliver would've been caught in it too.
Smoke and shockwaves obscured the interior, but Oliver was certain he'd taken Puppet down.
No emotions were visible.
But he was wrong.
Something pierced the Black Cube, flying straight at Oliver.
He reflexively fired a Hate Bullet to intercept, but astonishingly, it punched through the bullet, then the Black Suit, striking his shoulder.
Stab!
It was his first direct hit since leaving the Family.
Oliver pulled out the embedded object and examined it.
A finger.
Puppet had infused it with black magic and launched it. Before he could process that, another spell approached.
Glancing ahead, he saw corpse fragments from the corner had gathered into a massive claw arm,
Rushing at him with fingers of ribs and flesh of rotting meat.
In haste, Oliver maxed out a Hate Bullet, but its size overwhelmed it, and he was caught.
Boom—!!!
The claw arm seized Oliver and slammed him into the wall with full force, cracking the brick with a thunderous crash.
Even worse, the rib fingers clamped down tight; without the Black Suit, he'd have been pulverized.
His spine cracking, ribs shattering, organs crushing...
Oh, that was close.
He heard the Black Suit fracturing with a crack.
"......How did you do that?"
"Do what?"
Puppet, emerging from the shattered Black Cube, asked back.
He bore burns and massive damage from the blast, yet was regenerating before Oliver's eyes.
As if it were nothing.
"Your emotions vanished for a moment. Up there too, and now the basement walls.... How?"
"Well, normally I wouldn't answer, but your composure in asking even now earns you one. It's a trick I learned to counter sharp-eyed black mages like you. Works great against them—we rely too much on our sight."
"Learned?.... From a demon, perhaps?"
"Oh.... Perceptive, aren't you?"
"Hiding emotions, that body—none of it looks like standard black magic.... Worship a demon for power?"
Oliver recalled how Joseph's strength and talents came from a demon.
No intent to insult, but Puppet's face suddenly twisted.
Oliver had unwittingly touched a nerve.
"......Watch your words."
Puppet advanced with heavy steps.
For the first time, his usual calm was shaken by displeasure.
"I don't serve demons.... I just trade with them. Research hits walls sometimes.... So occasionally... very occasionally, I make a deal."
"......I see."
As Oliver replied, he detonated the emotions gathered in his hand.
Mimicking his past fight with the magic tower mages, the chain explosion obliterated the corpse arm gripping him.
Puppet calmly twitched his fingers, reassembling the fragments.
But it didn't matter. This time, Oliver was faster.
He cast Targeting on Puppet's body, then layered black magic on nearby ribs and teeth.
Suddenly, ribs, shinbones, teeth, and jawbones stabbed into Puppet from all sides—like a barrage of gunfire.
Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-bam—!!!
Bones riddled Puppet's body densely, momentarily halting his movements.
"Good technique, but ultimately petty tricks. Against me, these small—"
[Wrath Bullet]
[Maximum compression Wrath Boom Hate Bullet]
Oliver fired a maximally compressed Wrath Boom Hate Bullet into the gaps in Puppet's body.
Riddled with bones, Puppet couldn't defend properly.... Or chose not to.
Kaboom—!
The blast was weaker than before but intense, and exploding inside made it devastating.
As the smoke cleared, Puppet's state emerged: his upper body half-blown away.
But it meant nothing.
It was regenerating simultaneously.
'No.... That regeneration isn't free.'
Indeed.
The damage was so severe it drained massive life force from those inside—meaning there was a limit.
Relentless attacks could bring him down.
The problem was...
—Grip!
Puppet's arm elongated, seizing Oliver's throat.
The grip was immense; the weakened Black Suit shattered instantly, leaving Oliver like a turtle without its shell.
"Running out of emotions, eh.... Right?"
Oliver affirmed with silence. The pressure on his neck intensified.
"Too bad. Black mages always hit a firepower ceiling. You... were decently fun, but that's it. Just another genius out there. Enough now."
With that, Puppet yanked Oliver close and gaped his maw.
It stretched impossibly wide, enough to swallow a man whole,
And in that moment, Oliver glimpsed something inhuman inside. It was...
"The gates of hell. I'll swallow you whole."
Puppet tried to devour him into the black maw glowing red.
Whether it was true hell or not, Oliver couldn't say, but the sight mesmerized him. It felt strangely nostalgic.
Like returning home.... Was that why? Without thinking, Oliver reached inside.
And extracted the churning emotions from the gates of hell.