"Lady Lane.
Might I ask where Lord Eris is?"
Eliza, sighed as she wiped the edge of her staff with a cloth before pointing towards the left and replying.
"Well…he was with me, and then he suddenly said something about having to kill a runaway corpse puppet before running in that direction."
The Brigade Captain was the same one who had witnessed Evan taking out a corpse puppet after the flesh golem attack, so he knew just how dangerous it was.
He was also informed by the Duke that the corpse puppet user was apparently a crucial piece in the enemy's plan to take him out of the picture, but sadly the second corpse puppet that was discovered escaped capture.
'So, the corpse puppet fled t-!"
**BOOOOOMMMM!!!!
The third explosion of the night rang out alongside multiple shockwaves, breaking the brigade captain out of his thoughts, with him turning to see that nearly a third of the large 1500-acre manor had been turned into a pile of dust.
◇ ◇ ◇
As for the reason for the sudden destruction of the manor, it was naturally the handiwork of our resident Hero of Mimicry.
Right after they had been attacked and Evan shot the flare into the sky, the boy joined Eliza to combat the Dullahans that were sent after them, however, Evan suddenly received a prompt that made him abandon that task instantly.
[The goddess 'Artemisia' says that there is an Autonomous Corpse Puppet containing a soul fragment of the Entity; 'Methik Ifoumien' within 500 meters of your location.]
Seeing this message, Evan instantly activated his blessing of destruction, launching a vortex at the over level 250 Dullahan, putting It into a state where Eliza easily finished it off with her child of life skill.
After that, he gave her a short description of his goal, before pulling out a bloodied cloak from his inventory and blitzing away with lightning speed.
It didn't take him long to discover the Corpse puppet that was posing as a butler, trying to run away along with the rest of the servants that were being evacuated by the knights.
Evan also noticed a few 'servants' who were actually demonic hand members after appraising them, sending out Kuro and Kayla to deal with those ones while he grabbed the corpse puppet by the neck and blitzed out of the area faster than some of those nearby could react.
He then flung the poor puppet into a wall and activated his body transformation skill, before clearing his throat and speaking.
"Long time no see, Corpse maker."
"Guh!
Who are…?!…Ulmoch!!"
The autonomous corpse puppet of Methik screamed out as he noticed the appearance of the man walking towards him with a wide grin.
As he had all the memories of his original, it was impossible for him to fail to recognize one of his colleagues who he didn't get along with the most.
However, he held back his astonishment and remembered the orders he was given by his original; to not hesitate to report any unexpected circumstances.
Without hesitation, he silently sent out a message to the main part of his soul, informing him of the current situation where he was being attacked by who he believed was Ulmoch.
"You…why are you doing this?!
Don't you know I'm here on orders for Lord Velak?!"
"Pfft!
Like that Necrophiliac's orders matter when faced with the will of Lord Keasatra!"
Hearing Ulmoch's words, Methik's brow twitched repeatedly, with his breaking past the limits as the veins on his forehead bulged.
However, he did not forget to directly transmit all he was seeing and hearing to his main body in Saunau.
"Are you both you and your Lord crazy?!
You should both know that Lord Velak is carrying out the will of our great Hand! The will of the Sire!
Yet you dare to interfere with it?!"
Methik got to his feet and flared his magic power, causing the ground to tremble as the pressure of the pitch-black darkness attributed magic bore down on the area.
Yet, Ulmoch looked unaffected, even snorting at Methik as he spoke.
"What can you do about it?"
That statement was the final straw for Methik as he manifested two long spears of darkness in his hands, throwing one of them at Ulmoch with all his strength before dashing towards him with the other in hand.
Ulmoch summoned his signature magic catalyst and waved his hand activating a water magic spell that created multiple water vortexes around him
The vortexes shot out ten water blasts which turned into needle-like water projectiles, with five of them heading straight for the incoming spear of darkness while the other five headed straight for Methik.
"Like that puny magic can stop me!"
With a shout, Methik moved his spear and cut down the incoming water projectiles, before glaring at Ulmoch who used that chance to gain distance and threw the darkness spear in his hands towards him.
Ulmoch moved his hands and manipulated his magic power with finesse, generating a large water shield that blocked the spear without a dent.
The water shield then reforged into a large hammer that slammed down towards Methik's head, making the latter click his tongue in annoyance.
'That's right…this bastard was a proficient water mage.'
"Dark Magic: Witch's Flight!"
Howling black winds of magic power surrounded Methik's body and carried him out of the way, causing the hammer to slam down on the empty ground and shatter the floor.
While being transported by the black winds, Methik weaved two spell formations, with pitch-black two-ringed magic circles appearing beside him as he called out softly.
"Darkness of the Endless Night..."
As he began his chant, an illusory third ring began to flicker around one of the two spell circles, however, the chant was cut short when two long tendrils of water that had a strange red glow around them shot towards the spell circles and slashed at them.
Methik originally didn't care as there was no way his spell circles would be destroyed so easily, however, his indifference became shock when the two tendrils of water shattered his magic circles completely, with the backlash flowing to him and causing a bit of blood to seep out of the side of his lips.
Looking up, he saw Ulmoch facing him with an amused smile and a glowing blue Tier 2 Magic circle beside him.
*SNAP!
With the snap of his fingers, a pressurized stream of water shot out from the magic circle, slamming into Methik and sending him flying through a few walls before he eventually fell to the ground.
"Ha…I need to end this farce."
Methik heard Ulmoch's voice as he struggled to his feet, looking up to see the man drop his magic catalyst into a small black hole that appeared mid-air, and pull out an obsidian black long sword from it.
"…what?"
'Ulmoch using a sword…? Since when?'
The Corpse maker's confusion was visible on his face; however, he snapped out of it and ran various possibilities in his mind while keeping his gaze on Ulmoch who was seemingly staring into nothing.
The mind of a peak Master level existence was very quick, instantly scanning through various scenarios and arriving at three likely possibilities.
One of those possibilities, however, made him frown as he instantly tried to connect to his main soul and report the strangeness.
'I should report this immedi-!!!
I can't connect to my main soul?!'
"You can't connect to your main soul, right?"
As if reading his mind, 'Ulmoch' spoke up while slowly walking towards Methik who reflexively backed away, however, he paid this no mind and continued speaking.
"That's what I was waiting for.
I can't have the Eighth Finger discover I'm the one who can damage souls yet, after all."
◇ ◇ ◇
[The goddess 'Artemisia' says the connection between the two soul pieces has been temporarily severed.
She further states that you may now rid yourself of that unsettling appearance.]
Evan chuckled lightly as he disabled the body transformation, cracking his neck lightly and pulling back the hood off his head.
He could see the expression of shock that adorned Methik's face as the man instantly realized that the person he had been 'fighting', wasn't Ulmoch at all.
"You!! You're Evan Eris!!!"
Methik Screamed out the boy's name with rage, grabbing his dark spear tightly while trying to contact his main body, but he failed time and time again.
Evan on the other hand, was about to begin spouting bullshit, but the goddess sent a message that shut him up instantly.
[The goddess 'Artemisia' says that the Autonomous Corpse Puppet before you, contains a third of the Soul of the Entity; 'Methik Ifoumien'.
She states that destroying this puppet and its soul fragment, is guaranteed to put him out of commission, in a state where he would be effectively no better than a cripple.
He is also guaranteed to lose a certain percentage of his skills as well.]
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