[Vol. 8] Chapter 334: The Rules That Were Disturbed
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could such a broken puppet have that kind of terrifying fighting power? Goddess, are you deliberately using tricks to humiliate me?!”
“Lying to others is one thing, but don’t lie to yourself too…”
The priestess rolled her eyes at the emperor, who was already sounding a bit desperate. At first, she had thought of these two as the final bosses, planning to pull them in and deal with them seriously. But after a few exchanges, both of them suddenly felt much less impressive, completely losing the sense of fear they once gave.
In fact, even Leonis’s anger now carried a touch of powerless frustration.
Because after the [Ring of Heaven and Earth] was reconstructed, the rules were disturbed. The mysterious enforcer who descended from beyond the world, seemingly the Primordial Light, turned out to be nothing more than a wooden puppet put together in pieces. Maybe the true mastermind didn’t even care about this place at all.
If that was the case, then even the new Serpent, who had been seen as the top enemy and had required so much effort to resist before, now looked… well, kind of funny in every move.
Though she found it both laughable and annoying, Violet understood clearly that this wooden puppet was definitely not as simple as it looked. If it were really just scraps of ordinary wood, there was no way it could hold the terrifying mysterious power inside it, much less fight flexibly like a living being.
True mastery often looks simple, true skill doesn’t always look polished, that was the principle. As long as it had the power, its appearance didn’t matter much.
Violet was simply curious about how it worked. Since it had been chosen as a target of the [Iron-Blood Arena], it meant that conceptually it was judged to be a living being. Yet after being dragged into this place, the puppet had lost most of its glow, and its actions had completely stopped, as if it had lost its purpose. Clearly, something was wrong.
The priestess didn’t fully understand how skill judgments worked, but most likely the puppet didn’t have real thought like a living being. It was just following a fixed program. If she guessed right, its “rules” were centered around one thing: eliminating taboos. In other words—it would only attack specific targets.
Since Leonis’s current state was rather special, it couldn’t find its target inside the [Iron-Blood Arena], and the field’s rules prevented it from returning to where it came from. That was probably why it entered this “bugged” state.
Somehow, even its logic felt as sloppy as its appearance.
But before Violet could think more, a sudden tearing sound rushed at her from behind!
Clang!!!
Violet swung her staff hard. The [Eternal Scepter of the World's Heart]orld clashed with a sharp fang-like light, sparking a deafening metallic crash. Calmly, the priestess turned her head, there stood the emperor’s spirit body, his face icy cold. His arms had turned into weapons, his pupils narrowed into thin snake-like slits, radiating a deadly aura.
“What, no sense of honor? Sneaking an attack like this?”
“Enough! The domain rules are set. Since you’ve dragged me here, this is a fight to the death. There’s no need to waste more time! Today…”
Leonis had just regained a bit of control and was ready to fight Violet to the death. But before she could even respond, the wooden puppet, silent and lifeless ever since it entered the [Iron-Blood Arena], suddenly moved again!
No one knew what had been triggered, but as if it had been provoked, the puppet suddenly turned its head. Its eyes, which looked like they were made from random stones picked up off the ground, so crude that one might doubt if they worked at all, stared straight at the emperor!
“!?”
Its face was extremely plain, with no expression at all, yet for some reason, Leonis suddenly felt a deep chill rising from his heart. Immediately after came an even stronger sense of danger than what he had faced outside before!
The next moment, the golden light around the puppet flared up again. Then, like a hunting leopard, it leapt forward and charged at the still-stunned emperor!
Even though the puppet looked ragged, as if it could fall apart at any moment, when the real fight began, its sudden speed and strength shocked even Violet.
So fast!
Judging from its performance, its physical strength was only slightly below that of Xiao Guang in her normal state, maybe not even weaker than her. But Xiao Guang was a Holy Crystal Dragon, a creature most skilled in close combat. How could this rough wooden puppet, without any refinement, possibly have such terrifying ability?
And… why did it suddenly move, only to target Leonis? By position, Violet was standing closer, and she was the one who dragged it into the [Iron-Blood Arena]. Logically, its hatred should have been directed at her.
If the priestess girl was only confused by this strange turn of events, then the emperor, suddenly made the target, was both shocked and furious.
Facing this clearly unfair attack, he could only raise his arms to block. But as the newly-born Serpent, he had already struggled to match this mysterious puppet outside. Now that his true body was sealed away, how could he hope to win?
Bang!!!!!
With just one strike, the puppet’s plain wooden arm, so rough it didn’t even have fingers carved properly, smashed him flying. The snake-fang weapons in his hands shattered piece by piece, while the puppet remained completely unharmed. The difference in power was instantly obvious.
Still, as a Serpent, Leonis was not someone who could be beaten so easily. He didn’t admit defeat, nor did he waste time with words. Instead, he quickly reshaped new weapons and rushed in again, fighting the puppet hand-to-hand in the arena where attack skills couldn’t be used.
Uh… what’s wrong with these two? Can’t they at least respect the arena’s owner a little?
The priestess girl stood awkwardly, having nothing to do. She wanted to step in, but didn’t even know which side she should help. For now, she could only watch them fight. Yet in her heart, a sudden realization began to form.
Wait… could it be that this strange wooden puppet had been activated because she was attacked, and that’s why it turned against Leonis, who hadn’t been its target before?
In other words… was this puppet helping her? Maybe even… protecting her?
It felt a bit like she was overthinking, but aside from this, Violet couldn’t think of any other explanation. If this was really true…