【Doll Courtyard】
A blinding crimson moon hung high above the castle's tower.
Surrounding the castle was a vast expanse of thorny roses blooming within the mist.
Blood-red petals covered the long, silent path, while eerie and hollow melodies faintly echoed in the air.
Crack—crack—
The flower field.
The sound of trampling came repeatedly.
Within the faint black mist, one Hunter after another with human heads and spider bodies cautiously advanced toward the central castle.
"Preparing to launch the third assault... Hunter Squad 21 in position... requesting assault command authorization..."
"Command received... confirmed... assault..."The lead Hunter's eyes flashed with red lights—ding, ding, ding.
And in the next moment.
Dozens of Hunters suddenly charged at extreme speed toward the flower field within the black mist.
Simultaneously, from all directions of the castle, over a dozen squads composed entirely of Hunters launched their assault on Doll Courtyard almost at the same time.
They pressed forward.
Along the way, numerous wrecked remains of destroyed Hunters could be seen scattered about.
It was clear they had launched multiple assaults on Doll Courtyard before, but none had succeeded.
The wildly surging thorns along the path were frantically slashed apart by the sharp blades in their hands.
"Information transmission... breached into third zone... distance to target... 500 meters..."
A Hunter's eyes flashed with red lights—ding, ding, ding.
But just then.
They suddenly saw a figure faintly emerging at the end of the misty path ahead.
Their vision rapidly zoomed in, clearly revealing the figure's appearance.
It was an exquisitely crafted life-sized doll.
She held a black umbrella with gold-trimmed edges, wearing a lavish doll-like hat on her head.
Dressed in a black gothic gown with gold trim, her long white hair draped over her chest, while her high heels made unusually clear sounds as they touched the ground.
She appeared extremely bizarre, moving stiffly, with no trace of life emanating from her form.
Yet she could actually walk.
But it was this almost human-like state that gave her an indescribable eeriness.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding—
The red lights in the dozen Hunters' eyes flashed violently.
"Target analysis... target identity confirmation in progress... database retrieval..."
"Target identity confirmed... Doll Courtyard's Seventh Puppeteer: Hei Xianyue... extremely high combat capability..."
"Warning... target threat level extreme... initiate full-scale hunt..."
Almost instantly.
The dozen Hunters charged toward the gothic doll at unimaginable speed.
Countless petals scattered through the black sky along with their movement.
In the blink of an eye.
The dozen Hunters had already appeared around the gothic doll.
Click—click—
Sounds of gears jamming.
Something bizarre happened, as if time had suddenly frozen—the dozen Hunters who had reached the doll suddenly stopped in place.
Faintly visible.
In the refracted glow of the crimson moon, one could see that numerous fine yet resilient threads had appeared on all their joints.
They were like puppets, frozen in place.
"Unit restricted... unable to break through... warning... unit restrained... unit restrained..."
The Hunters struggled violently, but aside from mechanical whirring sounds from within their bodies, they couldn't move even slightly.
In the flower field.
The exquisite gothic doll tilted her head.
Her clearly jointed fingers lightly flicked.
Thud—
One of the Hunters suddenly turned around, its arm-mounted mantis blade instantly piercing through another Hunter's head.
Thud—
Several more piercing sounds followed.
The Hunters stabbed into each other's heads in a theatrical manner, one after another.
Until only one Hunter remained.
The gothic doll looked up, gazing at its rapidly flashing eyes like a harmless little girl.
Light rain pattered against the black umbrella.
The gothic doll's head suddenly tilted.
Crack—
The neck of the Hunter before her instantly twisted into a distorted position, broken by its own force.
The body sparked with clicking sounds, then heavily crashed to the ground.
In less than a minute.
All dozen Hunters were destroyed here without exception.
"Northern gate intruders, completely eliminated, record: 59 seconds."
The gothic doll turned mechanically as she reported.
Simultaneously, several different voices reached her ears.
"Southern sector intruders, completely eliminated, record: 3 minutes 51 seconds."
"Northwestern sector intruders, completely eliminated. Minor injuries, parts replacement required."
"Eastern courtyard intruders, currently being handled, estimated time remaining: 5 minutes."
"Xianyue, how are you so efficient? Did Madam's engineer install new components for you, sister? You've already left us sisters far behind!"
"Sister Xianyue is a cleanup-type doll, of course she's faster than us! Stop chattering and finish the battle quickly—we still need to report to Madam!"
Various voices chattered in her ears.
The gothic doll walked along the path, black umbrella in hand, step by step toward the castle.
Each step covered exactly the same distance, her gothic gown fluttering slightly in the wind.
But just then.
She suddenly stopped.
Her pupils shifted slightly toward the corners of her eyes.
As if she had discovered something.
Instantly, countless glass-like threads pierced into the space nearby.
Hum—
Space suddenly split open, revealing a bizarrely shaped Turtle King controlled by threads, dragged out from the void in an extremely unnatural inverted position.
"Message... delivery..."
The Turtle King unusually widened its eyes, speaking these three words hundreds of times faster than normal.
The gothic doll tilted her head.
...
Several minutes later, inside the castle.
"Bloodsaw, your letter."
In a hall filled with gears, the Doll Mistress dressed in lavish clothing entered with elegant steps.
Her nearly three-meter-tall figure was curvaceous and imposing with nobility.
If one ignored her height, she resembled a medieval noblewoman perfectly.
On the other side of the hall.
The tall and burly Bloodsaw leaned against a mechanical platform, his eyes flickering.
Around him, doll-sized puppets with button-sewn eyes were using various tools to tap and repair his body, treating his massive wounds.
"A letter?" Bloodsaw said deeply. "Who sent it?"
The Doll Mistress elegantly sat on an ornate chair opposite him, lightly picking up a cup of strong coffee as she said indifferently:
"My daughters found it in the courtyard, delivered by a void messenger. The sender is someone named Lynn—do you know him?"
Hearing this.
Bloodsaw jolted in surprise.
"Lynn? How is that possible!"
He struggled to stand up, dragging his massive body as he frowned and walked to the table, reaching out to take the letter.
"Who is he?" the Doll Mistress moved her lips to ask.
"A child I adopted two years ago," Bloodsaw said deeply while looking at the letter.
"He's been my apprentice at the potion shop these past two years. A few days ago when I realized the Demonkin Association might go to Wandering Souls Alley, I urgently sent him a message. It seems he managed to escape the Demonkin Association's clutches."
He composed himself, then quickly opened the envelope.
The moment he saw the crooked handwriting, he confirmed this was definitely his apprentice's own writing.
Because only this guy could make proper characters look so ugly.
But when he saw the words written in the letter, his expression drastically changed.