Chapter 129: Puppet Master
Reinhard and the others reached the third floor, their descent taking them deeper into whatever madness Phineas had prepared.
They continued moving through the halls, their footsteps echoing off walls that felt somehow closer than the floors above.
Roana’s eyes focus as she activated Grand Scan. The pulse spread through the level, mapping position, and when her eyes refocused, concern was evident in her expression.
"There are people ahead."
Everyone nodded as they continued moving. They would quickly deal with whatever awaited them, stopping wasn’t an option.
They approached a corner, the corridor bending at a ninety-degree angle. As Reinhard turned the corner, a sword came rushing at him the moment he rounded the corner.
The attack was clumsy and slow enough that, to his perception, it seemed almost frozen. Zenuken came up automatically, batting the blade aside with minimal effort.
But then Reinhard’s eyes widened.
The attacker was a middle-aged man wearing worker’s clothing. But his eyes were completely blank, carrying no expression as he continued trying to punch and kick Reinhard, who evaded.
When the man tried to grab him, Reinhard sidestepped easily, his free hand shooting out to grab the man’s arms. He held them firmly before pressing him against the wall to immobilize him, and looked closer.
"I knew it, that bastard and his old trick." Reinhard says as he saw the golden thread that gave off a gleam from the light.
They emerged from the man’s wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and head. Each thread ran upward, disappearing into the ceiling where they presumably connected to some distant controller.
Zenuken swept upward in a precise cut, severing the threads without touching flesh. The golden strands parted like spider silk, and immediately the man’s body went limp. Reinhard caught him before he could fall, lowering him gently to the ground.
The man’s eyes remained blank, but his chest rose and fell with steady breathing. He was alive but unconscious and unharmed.
Marie’s expression darkened. "He’s using the people he captured as guards... Damn him."
Joseph and the others grimaced, disgust evident on every face.
Roana’s voice came quiet but strained. "Then all those people I sensed through Grand Scan are being controlled..."
Reinhard nodded slowly as Mimir appeared in a flutter of black feathers. "Mimir, I want you to help us locate each of the golden strings for the people controlled."
The crow tilted its head and nodded. "I will."
They continued moving through the hallway.
They met more controlled people, who were a man, a woman, old, or young, and all of them wore the same blank expression. Some wielded weapons clumsily while others simply tried to grab and restrain, their movements jerky and uncoordinated.
A woman lunged at Marie with a knife. Marie sidestepped, caught the woman’s wrist, and held her steady while Mimir called out the location of control threads.
"Three at the shoulders, two at the wrists, one at the base of the skull."
Marie’s free hand moved with surgical precision, Longinus’s butt striking exactly where Mimir indicated.
The golden threads severed, and the woman collapsed, but Marie caught her and laid her against the wall, checking for breathing before continuing.
Joseph faced a young man with a crowbar and an elderly worker with a pipe. Both swung with mechanical timing, their attacks synchronized but predictable.
"Threads at elbows and neck." Mimir reported.
Joseph’s lance moved in arcs, the flat of the blade striking precisely. Golden threads were cut apart, and both attackers crumpled. J
oseph caught them both before lowering them gently before moving on.
Gran encountered a group of five rushing towards them with improvised weapons. His Vector Path showed him their attack trajectories three seconds in advance.
"All five have primary control threads at the back of their necks." Mimir called.
Gran’s fists moved in rapid succession, striking the back of each person’s neck with controlled force. Not enough to cause lasting damage, just enough to sever the threads Mimir identified, and all five dropped within seconds.
Scáth faced three attackers trying to surround her, but her weapon shifted to a long staff, giving her a reach advantage.
She swept legs, used the staff to leap over attacks, and struck precisely where Mimir indicated.
The controlled people fell like marionettes with cut strings.
The group continued with each controlled person being carefully incapacitated, threads severed, bodies caught, and positioned safely.
They moved through the floor methodically, encountering perhaps two dozen controlled people.
But each, taken care of the golden threads that were controlling them, was destroyed and then placed on the floor.
Finally, Roana activated Grand Scan again, and then she said. "No more humans."
Everyone sighed before they continued moving forward and reaching a doorway that opened into a larger room.
Phantasm Beasts waited inside.
But something was wrong immediately.
The beasts didn’t move like living creatures. Their postures were too stiff, their breathing absent, their eyes glazed with death rather than aggression.
"The Phantasm Beasts are dead." Mimir announced, his voice carrying clearly. "But their bodies are being controlled by the same golden strands."
Marie’s frown deepened, recognition crossing her features. "Just like that room in Mensis Town."
Joseph sighed, but he gripped his lance tighter. "We should smash them apart and keep going."
Reinhard nodded. "Let’s do it."
They engaged without further discussion.
A Bumbodusk corpse charged, its massive boar body moving with unnatural jerking motion.. Its tusks are still dangerous, but the creature behind them is long gone. Reinhard Zenuken was carving through dead flesh and bone, but the beast counterattacked even as it was dismembered.
Reinhard jumped over the beast and attacked before thrusting, sweeping Zenuken out. And cutting through the golden thread before then hacking the Bumbodusk into pieces until it stopped moving.
Cheronos corpses attacked Marie with clumsy movement, leading to her sweeping them with wide arcs from Longnius. The spear cuts through rotting flesh easily, and the Cheronos limbs were separated, torsos split, and heads rolled.
A Tonothus corpse stampeded toward Joseph, but he hurled Arondight forward. The lance rushed through the air and blasted off the Tonothus’ head.
But the body kept coming without stopping, leading Joseph to sidestep and let it crash past, then systematically dismember it until the threads had nothing to manipulate.
Bear-Terror corpses lunged with their obsidian spikes, the weapons still deadly even on dead bodies. Gran and Niki worked together, Gran’s fists shattering bones while Niki’s flames burned away flesh until the spikes fell free.
An Autumn Deer corpse moved with eerie grace despite death, its multiple antlers still dangerous as it tried to gore attackers.
Roana froze its legs with ice, immobilizing it long enough for Scáth to decapitate it with her weapon reformed into an axe.
Werefang corpses attacked in their characteristic pack tactics, but without living intelligence coordinating them, the strategy was predictable.
The group systematically destroyed each one, reducing them to components too damaged for threads to manipulate.
Within minutes, the room was filled with dismembered Phantasm Beast parts, golden threads lying severed among the carnage.
But all of them had slightly disgusted looks on their faces.