“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
Puppet screamed as the emotions got extracted by Oliver through his mouth.
He screamed as if someone was forcefully pouring hot molten iron into his mouth, which was an amazing response compared to how relaxed he has been in the face of any attack so far.
The scream was so loud that the dirt that had been stuck on the wall fell down. Nevertheless, Oliver did not stop and continued to extract the emotions of Hell through the mouth of Puppet.
Oliver didn't know if this was really the emotion of Hell, but Oliver instinctively got attracted to it, and he extracted as much emotion as possible.
‘More…more…!more……!!’
"Hak!"
Eventually, the impatient Puppet swung his hands and pulled Oliver out to forcibly stop Oliver's extraction, but Oliver, who had already extracted a considerable amount, wasn't satisfied and wanted more, so unknowingly he felt slightly annoyed.
BANG!!!!!!
“Excuse me, could you please open your mouth one more time?”
"…….. Cough!"
Oliver put the extracted emotions into the test tube and stabbed Puppet's throat with his quarterstaff.
Although it was a light stab, the sounds of the bones cracking inside the throat could be heard.
“What…? Why is it powerful?”
"Is that so?"
At those words, a [Las bomb] took off from the end of Oliver’s quarterstaff.
BOOM
But strangely, the Las Bomb used now somehow felt more powerful than the ones Oliver used before.
Oliver wondered whether it was because of the difference in the emotions used.
And at that moment, the flesh of Puppet which got scattered all around the place like mud began to come together and merge to form a new body.
BAM
Oliver approached Puppet and asked.
“Would you mind opening your mouth again?”
The half-recovered Puppet, who was lying down asked a question instead of answering Oliver's request.
“…… I apologize. You weren't a Genius Warlock that comes once in a while. What is your real identity?”
“Would you mind opening your mouth again?”
“Huhuhuhhuhuhu…….”
Puppet let out a burst of gloomy laughter, then he put his hands on the floor which transferred the emotions in his hands to the floor.
The black emotions moved quickly through the cracks of bricks, and Oliver readily moved as if he had predicted it.
However, it was not the ground under Oliver's feet that collapsed this time. The ground under Puppet started to crack, and at the same time, the walls on the four sides creaked as cracks appeared in them.
Through the cracks, Oliver could see the zombie army he had seen on the ground.
[Shadow Spike]
[Vine Shadow]
Some of the emotions Oliver had extracted were poured into the shadow along with chant.
With that, the shadow stretched out like a weed in all directions and began to rip off all the surrounding zombies.
Rumble! Rumble——!
Pababat—!
“UUUUUUUUUUU!”
Zombies got shattered in an instant.
But it wasn't that all were broken.
A handful of corpse dolls used the zombies as a springboard to narrowly dodge Oliver's attack and then attacked.
"Minion."
At the same time as the Corpse dolls tried to attack, Oliver made a minion in an instant and intercepted the rushing corpse dolls in midair.
The minion quickly approached the corpse dolls at close range and fired bullets of hate to blow the heads of the corpse dolls.
Oliver cleared the zombie horde and immediately chased after the puppet down the hole.
It was then.
“Eyaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaeaea———!!!!”
As if it was predicted, at the same time as Oliver descended, a corpse doll came up climbing the hole.
The Corpse doll was made of the upper bodies of a woman and a man connected back to back in a grotesque shape like a centipede.
As if they were tailored for a weapon, the woman's eyes were embedded with guns, and steel tongs were planted in her mouth.
“Eaheheheeawawawwaw”
———————Bang!!!!
Oliver hit the Corpse doll's face with his quarterstaff without any hesitation.
The muzzle stuck in her eye socket and the steel tongs planted in her mouth got shattered, which was personally disappointing for Oliver. If it had been a normal time, he would have caught it and researched it as much as possible.
However, he was more curious about Puppet right now than that.
"Um…?"
When the head of the woman was smashed and unable to move, the male upper body attached to it fell off and started to attack Oliver.
It stretched out several arms and held on to Oliver tenaciously.
Soon, various other corpse dolls started appearing from behind and stretched out dozens of arms and began to wrap Oliver like a ball.
As soon as he got covered by corpse dolls in all directions, Oliver heard a sound.
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
Tick-
The sound of a clock was heard inside the body of each corpse doll.
Oliver instinctively knew what it was.
That's right, it was a bomb.
BOOM BOO BOO BOOM BOOM—-!
A big explosion went off.
It was a normal bomb, not black magic, and thanks to that, Oliver reacted a bit late.
Well, it didn’t matter anyway
Since he was wearing a black suit, Oliver didn't take any damage.
As Oliver escaped the explosion and stepped downstairs, he could see a number of corpse dolls.
They all seemed pretty well-made, at least as good as the Corpse doll with a saber.
"Um… that's quite a lot?"
“Because it’s C-class.”
The answer came from one of the corpse dolls among the many corpse dolls that ran toward Oliver.
Rather than simply running, they moved in harmony in an organized manner, as natural as a living person.
The Warlock and the Sniper corpse doll from the rear provided long-distance support with black magic and guns, respectively.
Armed with a saber and an axe, the corpse dolls rushed for close combat.
Seven or eight attacks came flying at the same time.
Oliver looked around, feeling the illusion as if the time was flowing slowly.
Oliver knew which corpse dolls were more dangerous.
Shadows, Bullets, Hate Bullets, and Black Javelins were shot by the corpse dolls hiding in the dark.
A looter and a mutant corpse doll rushed toward Oliver breaking through walls and ceilings.
It would have been fairly intimidating if it had been normal, but Oliver felt a sensation as if his body was floating and was very calm, perhaps it was due to the emotions he extracted from Puppet.
No, he was more relaxed than calm.
Oliver first used [Vine Shadow] to shatter the shadows of enemies approaching him, then fired [Hate Bullet] to shatter the enemy's attack.
Maybe because of the difference in the quality of emotions, Oliver could easily pierce the enemy's corpse doll even with a moderate shot.
Oliver didn't stop and naturally swung his quarterstaff as if someone was moving it for him, dealing with nearby enemies.
He lifted the head of the mutant corpse doll that rushed up through the wall and crushed it and killed the other corpse dolls who rushed at the same time using [Hate bullets] and [Shadow spike].
When the corpse dolls in close proximity got shattered, the corpse dolls in the rear retreated, but Oliver didn't miss the timing, he concentrated his strength on his legs and narrowed the distance in one breath, then swung his quarterstaff to smash them all.
As soon as every Corpse doll got broken into pieces, a clicking sound was heard.
The bombs inside the broken corpse dolls got activated at the same time.
BOOM
Another explosion erupted in the basement.
However, Oliver was not hurt even in the storm of dust. He augmented the black suit by extracting Life-force from the less damaged corpse doll.
"…….."
Oliver looked around slowly.
The fact that there was another city under Landa seemed to be true.
By this point, Oliver couldn't even fathom the size of the basement, and he wondered what kind of research they were doing there.
‘I think I can infer about it a little bit.’
Oliver thought as he looked at the faintly visible emotions, Life-force, and mana.
It was invisible at first, but after nearly being eaten by Puppet, he slowly started seeing them.
“UUUUUUUU…”
“Eakakaha”
“Ayayayayayaha”
Thousands of zombies rushed toward Oliver again.
Apparently, Puppet seemed to be trying to make Oliver use as much extracted emotions as possible.
Oliver gathered the emotions into his fingertips with the idea of doing what he wanted.
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Kwagwagwang——!
QUAJIK!
DODDDDOOODOODO!
BOOM!
After defeating numerous zombies, Oliver entered a room.
There were so many zombies, contrary to what Oliver thought, he almost used up the emotions he barely extracted, and fortunately, Puppet no longer ran away and welcomed Oliver.
“Huhuhuhu… You came?”
He was swallowing people with his mouth wide open like a glutton bag.
Judging by the aura he felt inside Puppet, he didn't seem to have swallowed one or two people.
"Yes."
"I’m sorry for running away. I hope you understand. It’s my principle not to fight when I’m at a disadvantage."
"No, I understand. I think the same way… This place is…?"
Oliver looked around the room and asked.
"As you can see, it's a laboratory. Coincidentally, the original owner of this place…. the wizard studied a field similar to mine. So I'm borrowing it for a while."
Puppet spoke with sincerity.
“What experiments did you do here?”
"Didn't I tell you? I did experiments to revive people."
"Oh, did you? Were there any results?"
“…. Somewhat? However, there was a block, so I tried to hand over the solvers to the Demon for some help, but unfortunately, it crossed paths with you. I'll ask you again, what are you? I've seen all kinds of people in my more than a hundred years of life, but this is the first time I've ever met a chap like you."
"Me. I'm just a solver from District T… I have a question for you. By any chance, does the experiment to resurrect a human include the experiments of creating a human soul?"
Puppet paused for a second.
Apparently, Oliver seemed to have asked the right question.
"As expected, I shouldn't just hand you over to the Demon. How the hell did you know?"
Oliver said while looking up.
"Um? I can see them now."
With those words, Oliver pounded the quarterstaff to the floor.
Through the quarterstaff, emotions moved toward the ground and from there to the brick gap and soon reached the ceiling.
With that, the ceiling bricks moved and opened.
Without hesitation, Oliver jumped towards it.
"Stop!"
Puppet shouted as he stretched out his arms.
But Oliver was faster.
Oliver climbed the wall and entered the hidden secret room, which contained a number of gigantic flasks.
Each of the flasks contained emotions, Life-force, and mana, and the amount was quite substantial.
Oliver understood what happened to all the warlocks and looters in the contaminated zone.
The most notable flask among the large number of flasks kept in the room was the largest flask that was connected to all the flasks.
In the center was a circular flask, in which human emotions, Life-force, and mana got mixed and agglutinated together to form a Soul.
Of course, it wasn't a real soul, it was a fake one, but the perfection was pretty good even in Oliver’s eyes, who was seeing it for the first time.
"Young Chap, that’s rude. To enter someone else's lab… I hid it perfectly, how did you find it?"
Puppet came up and warned. He harbored doubts and curiosity along with intense anger.
“Um… How? Because I was able to see it. I’m sorry for barging in. I’ve used a lot of emotions right now. I have to make up for the unfavorable fight since it’s also my principle not to fight in an unfavorable fight.”
With those words, Oliver swung the quarterstaff to break the test tube containing the unstable ‘artificial soul’.
BANG
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
With a loud explosion sound accompanied by Puppet's grief scream, the glass covering the artificial soul shattered, exposing it, and Oliver reached into the air and extracted the soul.
Oliver threw away his usual temperance and recalled the life-threatening fight he had with Joanna in the past.
At that moment the vast emotions of the artificial soul that got concentrated in his hands scattered all around the place.
“What… this is…”
[Shadow Spike]
From the black emotions that dyed the surroundings, a shadow spike sprouted and attacked Puppet in response to Oliver's cry.
Due to the huge chunk of emotions, the spell had a lot of power and it literally tore Puppet to pieces.
Up until now, Oliver has always used the least amount of energy to save emotions as much as possible, but at this moment there was no need for that.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ————!”
Humans entrapped in Puppet's body screamed, and Puppet's body recovered in an instant.
The recovery rate had increased tremendously, and he also seemed like having no intention of dealing with Oliver in moderation anymore.
Puppet squeezed the humans within his body and drew in a ton of emotions.
Probably, it would have ended up being dangerous for Oliver if he hadn't found the secret laboratory.
Puppet cast a lot of black magic, scattering the corpses inside him in the air.
[Finger Gun]
[Bone Bullet]
[Lip Spear]
[Skull Bomb]
[Contagion Hand]
He activated black magic that uses emotions and corpses.
It was a mix of the manipulation series and the firearms series, and due to that, it was much more efficient and powerful.
And of course, it didn't mean much to Oliver right now, so instead of dodging the dozens of attacks flying toward him, he just swung his hand.
"Eat and clean up. EATER."
With those words, an amorphous existence with only human teeth jumped out of the black emotion that dyed all sides of the room and swallowed up Puppet's attack.
"What the FU*…"
—Pooh!
[Shadow Spike]
Before Puppet could finish his words, Oliver used a shadow spike once more.
Dozens of sharp, slender spikes of shadows protruded from all directions and pierced Puppet, along with dozens of thorns sprouting from the spikes.
Chuck Chuck Chuck Chuck ————!!!!
Puppet, whose body is pierced with thorns was relaxed.
"I'm glad…it doesn't hurt."
“You will still take damage, right?”
Oliver pounded the ground with his quarterstaff.
With a tick-tock sound, the shadow spikes exploded, and just like in the first fight with Puppet, Puppet’s flesh got scattered everywhere.
When the flesh got scattered, Oliver attacked as much as possible to accumulate damage.
Puppet pretended to be preoccupied with Oliver’s attack, but in fact, he was trying to attack Oliver from behind.
However, when he tried to attack… Oliver blocked it
"HOW? I hid my emotions.”
"Didn’t I tell you? I can see it now."
With those words, Oliver concentrated his strength on the quarterstaff and smashed Puppet.
His body got dented and took damage, but it was still solid.
Puppet's body clung to Oliver's quarterstaff like mud, as if he wouldn't let it go.
“I came here to play, but now I feel like I’m working.”
[Explosion Fury]
Although the range was narrow, a more powerful and condensed explosion erupted inside the puppet's body.
Everything perished within the explosion range, as if being devoured, and the recovering puppet staggered back.
“Ugh….. ! You’re strong. I can’t win.”
"Thanks for the compliment. It must be a little tough with that body."
When Oliver said that, he fired [Hate Bullet] like a machine gun.
Instead of piercing the body, he shot with the intention of turning Puppet into a rag, and in the fear that Puppet might run away, Oliver grabbed his leg with [Vine Shadow] and stabbed him with [Shadow spikes] from all directions, literally trying to kill him.
Oliver thought he had to do something like this to suppress Puppet.
The whole lot of emotions that filled the room slowly started to show the bottom.
Fortunately, the effort didn't betray Oliver, the recovery speed of Puppet's body started to slow down, and his body turned into a rag.
It was then…
With the swelled flesh all around his body Puppet rushed toward Oliver, throwing his broken body as if he was peeling off his skin.
Due to the speed, Oliver’s response got one beat delayed, but fortunately, he was able to respond.
"Minion."
The minion he had kept in his arms abruptly popped out and fired a [Hate bullet] at the rushing Puppet.
The power wasn't particularly strong, but it was strong enough to damage Puppet's weakened body.
BANG—!
With an explosion Puppet’s upper body and lower body got separated.
Puppet smiled and said while looking at his body
“Huhuhhuhuhu… In my long lifetime, this was the first time something like this has happened. I lost to a warlock who has been on this field for less than a year."
"It's all thanks to Mr. Puppet's courtesy of using only one hand."
Oliver looked down at Puppet and thanked him sincerely.
"Huhuhuhu… did you notice it?
"Just a while ago. Where is your real body…?"
"I'm sorry, but that's a sensitive question that I can't answer."
"Um, It’s ok… and I'm also sorry for ruining the lab. I didn't want to die."
Puppet looked at Oliver in wonder, with eyes that couldn’t understand what kind of being was in front of him.
"Apology… I'll take it. Things got messed up, but I saw something interesting… Are you really not going to tell me who you are?"
"I'm just a solver from District T."
"Huhuhuhu, I can't believe I got rejected three times… Anyway, I'll believe you. Little chap, let's meet again next time."
With those words, the light slowly faded from the eyes of the body, which turned into ashes and faded away.
Oliver didn't mean to stop him and he just mumbled sadly.
“Um…I didn't ask why he was trying to resurrect a perfect human.”
(To be Continued)
A few fan art ?
