The Personal Reality dispelled itself.
"Haa…haa…haa…"
Iris stabilized her breathing and absorbed mana to replenish herself as she slowly made her way towards the Marionette Lord.
"You seem to be enjoying the show from back here," she said, clear on the fact that her words would reach the enemy.
"Hohoho~ it was quite the interesting battle to watch," the Marionette Lord replied.
Their words were not strange anymore.
After watching how Iris grew during her battle, their playful attitude went away.
This enemy who was supposed to be incredibly weakened in the Ancient Battlefield suddenly overcame that boundary with a law they didn't even want to imagine the enemy had.
This wasn't a laughing matter anymore.
No, if they weren't careful, even they would die here.
"I bet you're thinking it would've been nice if you had more backup plans, huh. Unfortunately, you didn't bring a better assassin with you, or else maybe I'd be concerned."
Iris smirked.
She was confident, but not arrogant. She'd scanned the surroundings several times for another attacker hiding and waiting for an opportunity, but there were none.
It wasn't that those people who could avoid her surveillance didn't exist. There was indeed an Assassin Lord, a Darkness Lord, and a few others, but she could guarantee they weren't here.
After all, they were servants of the Karmic Emperor. Of all the others, they were the least likely to join the Marionette Lord and act under their command.
Therefore, Iris could be certain the two of them were alone here.
"Are you underestimating me?" The Marionette Lord said indifferently.
"I would suggest you don't."
"Ah? But you haven't given me a reason to think of you highly, though?"
Iris quipped back without much of a care.
This was the Marionette Lord, after all.
They were definitely terrifying in a war situation, but in single combat…? Iris didn't have any reason to fear them.
Besides their lack of personal ability, Iris was mostly confident they wouldn't have any puppets that could threaten the current her.
"Ha!"
The Marionette Lord scoffed as if her words were a travesty.
"This is a first for me," they continued, their eyes turning colder.
"I must've been too quiet in the past."
The Marionette Lord was the Inhuman Emperor's favorite subordinate for more reasons than one. They were insane, they were versatile, they were more loyal than anyone, and most of all, they were extremely powerful.
Since the universe's strongest were underestimating them, didn't they have to show them why they were feared?
The Marionette Lord didn't entertain conversation any longer.
They made distance and instantly went into action.
The Marionette Lord's main battle strategy was clear. They were a puppet master, as implied by their title.
Of course, for a puppet master, live subjects weren't the only option. The Marionette Lord just enjoyed using them more, because torturing them was a source of great pleasure.
Nevertheless, live subjects only lasted for a short period of time before their minds broke.
The Marionette Lord's main force was corpse puppets. Once the battle started, they didn't just summon a small group like before either.
They saw the previous battle more clearly than anyone. A small number couldn't hold Iris back at all.
Hundreds of corpse puppets appeared between Iris and the Marionette Lord, and without hesitation or any consciousness of their own, they charged as one.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Their attack patterns were strange, and they mostly used physical power since their souls were gone, but their power was severe.
The air exploded and pressurized bursts shot towards Iris from every direction. Whenever they got close, they directly exploded their bodies to cause as much damage as possible.
"Khh…!"
Iris gritted her teeth as she dodged and weaved through the air. She knew the Marionette Lord would be strong, but she didn't expect something like this!
She was being pressured with a strategy similar to what she used against the Plague Lord, and the corpse puppets in the Marionette Lord's arsenal were just as limitless as the golems she could create from the earth.
'Dammit!'
Iris cursed and used her power to push them away. In the first moment, she was already forced to focus on defense.
'What a problem. I could create golems to hold them back if I had a bit of time, but they aren't giving me the chance.'
If Iris switched her strategy to create an army of her own, she'd instantly be barraged by their attacks due to the diminishing strength of her defenses.
So she had no choice but to confront them directly while the Marionette Lord continued to retreat.
'I have to force my way through.'
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
She created small stars on her palms and threw them into the crowd.
Her mana exploded into chaotic bursts of heat and energy that easily tore through the puppets they hit, but the residual energy was absorbed by the surrounding puppets and used to strengthen them.
'The problem is their direct control. If I could remove the Marionette Lord's influence, the battle would become much easier.'
However, to do so, she needed to target the very Demonic Providence that gave the Marionette Lord power.
'There must be a way.'
Demonic Providence, at the end of the day, was another form of energy.
For a puppeteer to control their puppets, they needed strings to move them through.
All she needed to do was find those strings.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
BOOOOOOOM!
The atmosphere became a chaotic mix of forces that tore through any and everything. As time passed and Iris destroyed more corpse puppets, their number didn't decrease at all. Instead, they became more numerous as the Marionette Lord became used to the battle momentum.
Iris was still calm. She was never intending to destroy all the corpse puppets. That would be nothing more than a waste of Divine Energy.
She was looking for a way to get past them, and the more she destroyed, the closer she came to the answer.
It was almost clear.
The ethereal strings that controlled them were almost visible to her. She couldn't cut the ethereal with her power, but she didn't need to.
All she needed was a chance to block the connection.
Divine Energy ran rampant.
'Almost…'
Corpse puppets came from every direction.
'Almost…'
Their synergy was unmatched, making it feel like she was in the belly of a massive beast.
'Almost…'
Her eyes shot in countless directions as if she was seeing all the information in the world. She got closer and closer to it, until eventually, the answer found its way to her mind.
Her mana raged.
The time was right.
"Bind."
With a single command, her mana knew what to do.
Space constricted and a miniature Personal Reality formed. The forces of Creation and Universal Law worked together, and…
…the corpse puppets fell lifeless to the ground, returned to their original state.
Iris bought herself a minute, but that was all the time she needed. By the time they got back up, they'd lose their controller.
She rushed through the falling masses and appeared like a phoenix from the flames, her mana burning with the desire to kill!
