Chapter 1199: Chapter 1199: Crazy Puppet Theater
"That door, I remember..."
[Yes, when passing by just now, that door was closed tightly.]
The letter in hand had no envelope, just a simple folded piece of paper. Upon opening it, the letters looked like chicken scratch, as if Mia’s claws had randomly scrawled out the message.
Not only was it messy, but each letter was extremely large, with one line of letters taking up three lines of space on the paper. However, this letter was indeed for Shard—
[To the Follower of the Toy God:
I challenge you to enter that room. Through my puppet show performance, I will free you and your companions. Otherwise, they will forever become puppets.]
Although written in the Casenric Language, there were many grammatical and spelling mistakes. There was no name at the end, just a red stamp resembling a puppet’s palm, with clear marks of puppet’s knuckles.
"Follower of the Toy God..."
The Old God, the "Creator of Innocence," was also referred to as the Toy God. Shard not only acquired Divinity from that Deity but also temporarily kept the "Divine Artifact" of this God, and received help during a battle with another Evil God. Hence, it’s not surprising that Shard was regarded as the "Follower" of this Deity.
"Did it attack Miss Benanis and the others?"
Shard vaguely understood, yet found it astonishing to consider that the Witch could be trapped by a Sage-Level Relic. But thinking carefully, it wasn’t implausible. After all, the four Grand Witches last night believed Miss Benanis was not good at fighting, and being caught off guard, it was indeed possible to be trapped by a Relic extremely restraining her.
[Are you going to rescue them?]
With a whispered murmur in the ear, Shard put down the letter paper and nodded:
"Even if I want to leave, I’m afraid I can’t. Moreover, in some way, I’m involved in this matter... Miss Benanis was recently searching for a Sage-Level Relic related to theater, and Luviya mentioned at noon that the Church was investigating a relic that turns people into puppets. Could this be it?"
Of course, no one answered Shard’s question at this time, but the puppet maid had already revealed many things.
Transformation-related supernatural abilities like "toy shapeshifting," "petrification," and "turning into a sheep" have a consistent feature—as long as the soul of the transformed person remains, the transformation can be reversed. If the soul is absent, the essence of the ability is a permanent transformation, which means turning them back to a living human is as difficult as turning any toy, stone statue, or sheep into a normal human.
The puppet was undoubtedly "alive," and its soul was imprisoned in the puppet’s body. Thus, the letter did not lie; even if turned into a puppet, it could be reverted, as the change was not permanent.
"It’s a pity that at noon, Luviya didn’t know what this relic is..."
Carefully closing the door behind, to prevent Mia from coming out, Shard walked towards a door with only a small gap open next door.
Pushing the door open, opera singing could still be heard in the dim compartment. The concentration of Whisper Element reached its peak here. No lights were on inside, yet Shard recognized the structure was almost identical to the compartment he was just in.
Only at this time, the sofa and coffee table, originally occupying the center of the compartment, were moved to the wall. From a point five or six steps away from the door, a large wooden model was arranged deep into the room. It was a model of a forest, city, and castle. Though brushed and filled with paint, the wooden model looked unreal, appearing cartoonish and childish.
But Shard believed no child could reject such model toys.
No other people were seen indoors, but beyond the large model, clear signs of a struggle were visible, though not very pronounced. The Whisper Element was distinctly evident here, indicating the unknown relic’s rating was probably indeed Sage-Level.
Holding the doorknob, Shard still stood in the corridor, fully aware of what would happen once he entered.
[Are you sure you really want to go in?]
"She" asked softly, Shard nodded slightly:
"I won’t do anything I’m not confident about; you know this. This is a good opportunity; the Witch needs help, and I just happen to... Although there is a risk, I think it should be fine."
As he was thinking, suddenly there was the sound of chains in the room. At the farthest point in the compartment, where the wooden model was furthest from the entrance, past the forest and city model, atop the terrace at the peak of the nearly human-height palace castle model, the sliding track pushed out a new puppet.
The puppet was only palm-sized, dressed in a white princess gown only seen in fairy tales, firmly bound to a chair by chains. The chair’s bottom connected to the track. Presumably to prevent the puppet’s escape, the chains almost wrapped the princess-like puppet in a cocoon-like state. The puppet was alive, constantly squirming, but its face, impossible to express any emotion, appeared quite comedic.
Worth mentioning is that even with a wooden face and golden hair made of silk thread, it was the most "beautiful" puppet Shard had ever seen. There’s no doubt; this was Miss Vanessa Benanis. Because it was a special puppet form and the Whisper Element’s interference, Shard hadn’t sensed her presence from the badge in the adjoining room.
Miss Benanis had never seen Shard before, but she probably guessed that he was the person she was supposed to meet today. Therefore, she tried hard to express something by wriggling her body. Unfortunately, this kind of puppet seemed unable to speak, and Shard did not understand any means of mental communication.
"Follower of the Toy God, your goal is to overcome the obstacles I have set and, as a hero, rescue the Princess imprisoned at the top of the palace."
A somewhat comical child’s voice came from behind the gigantic palace model, and a boyish puppet dressed in blue overalls and a red cap poked its head from behind the palace.
The imprisoned Witch Puppet was only palm-sized, but it stood half-human high, and it had no strings or control disc above its head.
Shard’s expression turned cold immediately. This strange puppet, even if not the entirety of the relic, was at least the core of it.
"Silver..."
His right hand rose, ready to strike, but the half-human-sized childlike puppet hopped around to stop him. The puppet’s black button eyes stared at him, and its lower jaw kept opening and closing, letting out a comical child’s voice:
"If you truly wish for those who have become puppets to remain forever as they are, you may fight with me here."
It happily bounced on the floor, and for some reason, this reminded Shard of Mia:
"Follower of the Toy God, I really have no malice against you, only curiosity. Moreover, this woman has been trying to catch me during this time, so I have prepared a puppet show for you here."
It stopped bouncing, and the black button eyes fixed on Shard, gesturing invitingly:
"As long as you reach the top of the castle and rescue the Princess, I promise to let all of you go. Yes, although I am a relic, I can still swear this to the Toy God."
Outside, the opera performance seemed to reach its climax, and Shard pretended to hesitate for a moment:
"Having turned into a puppet, I’ve lost all my spellcasting materials and relics. I will not easily enter your arena."
"Oh, once you become a puppet and enter my puppet theater, your spellcasting will no longer require materials. You are a follower of the Toy God, carrying many toys with you, and I allow you to use the items you carry... as long as you can still hold them."
"So that’s how it is."
Shard hesitated for a moment, dispersed the silver glimmer in his hand, and took a step forward into the box.
As he continued towards the gigantic field model, his skin felt fiery and itchy. When Shard finally reached the entrance of the model forest, amidst the soprano’s glass-shattering high note, with a crash, all the items Shard carried fell to the ground. The faint light let the metal and glass vessels reflect arcs of light.
[Outlander, you have contacted the "Whisper."]
[Outlander, your life form has undergone a reversible transformation. Do you need to resist using soul power?]
Shard did not resist, so he stood on the path at the "forest" entrance, looked at his hands that had turned into puppets, and observed the clothes enveloping his body. Then he turned around and saw the potion bottles fallen on the floor, all now larger than himself.
Five strings connected his limbs and head, and above the strings was the cross-shaped disc for controlling the puppet.
The Primal Fire and divinity were still protecting Shard, and he understood that he could return to normal anytime once he left the model field.
At this moment, the opera outside coincidentally was singing about the knight’s adventure story, and the half-human-sized puppet had hidden behind the model castle, softly humming in that comical tone:
"An evil demon has invaded the royal family’s palace, kidnapping the beautiful Princess and covering the once prosperous kingdom with a forest. The outlander knight enters the forest, advancing towards the distant castle for the sake of the Princess."
The puppet Shard had nothing with him, so he attempted spellcasting, and indeed, the puppet’s hand drew from the air a "Moonlight Greatsword" perfectly sized to his body, even appearing as a carved wooden toy.
[Outlander, within the field of the Sage-Level Relic "Crazy Puppet Theater," all spells are material-free, and all spell effects relate to body size. The spellcasting consumption is dramatically reduced.]
Although his body had shrunk, his soul remained grand, leading to decreased spellcasting consumption and spell effects, but his total spirit amount and spirit recovery rate remained unchanged. Using the "Moonlight Greatsword" now and maintaining the weapon’s existence consumed less spirit than Shard’s natural recovery.
This gave Shard more ideas:
"I’ll open the Maze Lock in a moment and give it a surprise."