Chapter 580: Marionette

In the booming explosion, the wall separating the two suites and the wall facing the corridor collapsed simultaneously, impacting nearby furniture, the ceiling overhead, the floor underfoot, and those rooms opposite, causing them to be swallowed by the expanding firelight soon after.

That is to say, Jianna didn't use all the explosives; otherwise, the fifth and fourth floors of the Suolu Hotel would have collapsed as a whole. But even so, part of the roof had sunk, the floor was a mess, and one could directly see the rooms below from the core area of the explosion.

With the walls of the rooms opposite the corridor collapsing, and with bricks and wood brought by the shockwave smashing onto Georgia, smashing this lady's back to cave in and her head to crack, with bright red blood flowing out, Lu Jianuo broke free from that state of thinking stutter and body stiffness and regained his thoughts.

Then, he felt pain and was blown away directly by the violent shockwave mixed with flames and bricks.

If it weren't for Georgia blocking in front of him, and if it weren't for the "Farmer's" body being considered strong, he would mostly be seriously injured and dying, either having limbs separated or vital parts hit. Of course, he was still covered in blood and flesh, and several bones were broken, almost fainting on the spot.

Ludwig had already burrowed under the dining table with his food at some point. Relying on the advantage of distance and the help of the "shield," he was only smashed by the collapsed table.

At the same time, Jianna and Anthony both ran out of the bathroom of their own suite's master bedroom and cast their gazes toward the rooms opposite where the walls had collapsed and smoke and dust were permeating.

They vaguely saw a figure.

That figure looked like Rubio Paco, standing beside an overturned armchair.

"Loki"! Jianna didn't hesitate and condensed a black, illusory flame, letting it fly toward the target.

Anthony Reid, behind her to the side, had his eyes stained with gold, and his pupils stood up. He was about to lock onto "Loki" and use the "Chaos" ability on him, making him fall into an emotional and psychological state of being detonated, unable to make rational thinking and effective responses.

Just at this moment, everything went dark before Anthony and Jianna, and they lost "Loki's" figure.

They then discovered that they were in a void, with no blue sky and white clouds above, no solid earth below, and all around was darkness, dotted with a large amount of brilliance like stars.

"Void Starry Sky"!

This was a semi-real, semi-false illusion that "Children of the Sea" could create after reaching a certain level.

Immediately after, appearing before Jianna and Anthony was a lady wearing a black soft hat, with fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, dressed as a widow.

Marta!

She was the old grandmother of the Paco family and had now become "Loki's" marionette, hiding in the room where "Loki" was manipulating "Spirit Body Threads" just now.

With enough time to prepare, how could "Loki" not bring a "marionette" to perform? He had two puppets with Beyonder abilities, and this was one of them. He had another one hidden in the dark, and the remaining quota was left for different situations, to be used and discarded, and to be replaced after controlling the enemy.

Before, when the Rubio Paco he played took Lady Marta to see the "Sea Viceroy," this old grandmother of the Paco family was already a marionette, so he had to follow and couldn't let the marionette leave the manipulation range.

The fundamental reason Lu Jianuo discovered Lady Marta had suffered serious injuries was that a marionette is essentially equivalent to a dead person, relying on the "Marionettist" manipulating "Spirit Body Threads" to make various movements and show living characteristics. In the eyes of a Sequence 8 "Physician," this looked very much like a serious injury.

If Lu Mian hadn't rarely used the ability to observe others' fortune and didn't have that habit, he would have discovered that Lady Marta's fate was wrong at the time, a piece of dead silence.

Lady Marta, with a faint smile on her face, raised her right hand, and a mass of ghostly green brilliance had long been condensed at her fingertips.

That brilliance turned into a ray and zoomed toward Jianna.

Jianna had heard Lu Mian introduce the abilities possessed by ocean bloodlines. As soon as she saw the ghostly green brilliance, she rolled out in the "Void Starry Sky." Anthony was the same — he didn't use "Chaos" on Marta because a marionette, essentially a dead person, wouldn't be chaotic.

The next second, both of them felt heaviness and fell rapidly in the void starry sky, falling faster and faster, experiencing the weightlessness that Seeing Fu Lan Ka would occasionally talk about.

Just in the blink of an eye, the two stepped on the earth and stabilized their bodies, but Marta had disappeared, and the void starry sky was shattering inch by inch.

They were actually still in the Suolu Hotel, just falling from the fifth floor to the fourth floor.

This was because low-to-mid-level "Void Starry Sky" was closer to an illusion, and there would be barriers similar to a "Wall of Spirituality" around. After the two fell into it, their bodies were actually still in reality. When rolling to dodge, they were pushed heavily by Marta with invisible force, naturally falling into the floor void created by the explosives just now.

Jianna didn't hesitate, stepped and ran, stepped on the wall to go up, then grabbed the broken edge and flipped back to the explosion site on the fifth floor.

She saw Lu Jianuo treating his own injuries and saw that "Loki" and Lady Marta in the room diagonally opposite had disappeared.

Ludwig, who was originally hiding under the dining table, was also gone!

Aquina Street, in a lively folk celebration.

"Loki," who had turned into a featureless passerby, was holding the "asleep" Ludwig and walking through the crowd.

His other marionette was a "Night" pathway "Soul Assuager," always hiding on the other side of Lu Mian's suite, waiting to influence the target.

"Loki" initially just let the temporary marionette Georgia deal with Lu Jianuo and also manipulated the "Spirit Body Threads" of that "Physician," not letting the stronger marionette take action directly. It wasn't that he was afraid of alerting Ludwig, this target, but he was worried that there were other enemies lurking in the dark. After all, there were several guests in the hotel who hadn't gone out to participate in the various celebrations of the Sea Prayer Ritual, and a couple next to the target had returned before lunch, almost one after another with the target.

In addition, the advancement ritual of a "Marionettist" requires a grand performance, requiring a gorgeous and profound drama. An assassination that is silent, didn't cause much commotion, and lacked enough audience doesn't meet the requirements.

So "Loki" deliberately targeted Lu Jianuo first. If there were no other enemies in the dark, it would be equivalent to changing a marionette. If there were, he would lure them all out, lead them to his side, and let the other marionette hidden next door quietly control the target.

He knew that was a sealed demigod. Maybe it couldn't display enough powerful strength, but its essence wouldn't change and it could be immune to many influences. However, he also believed that the "Night" pathway's forced sleep would still be effective — since this sealed demigod would be as tired, hungry, need rest, need to eat, and need to sleep like a real child, it showed that the seal affected the corresponding traits, making it the same as an ordinary person in similar aspects, at most waking up faster and needing less time to rest.

And giving "Loki" a few seconds was enough, enough for him to take the target to change positions, hide, and try to manipulate the other party's "Spirit Body Threads."

His two marionettes would act separately, misleading those enemies and the "Mother Goddess of Depravity" church clergy who rushed over, taking them in circles within this range of more than a hundred meters, completing the corresponding part of the performance.

Wait until the time was almost up, and the enemies would be able to lock onto his hiding place through the marionette's trajectory, finding their way over with joy and anticipation. But what would greet them would be a demigod-level marionette, and it would be a terrifying and cruel ending.

Under the gaze of all the citizens around, this gorgeous drama would come to an end, and "Loki" would be able to take the potion, advance to Sequence 4, and become a "Bizarro Sorcerer"!

On the Colorful Flower Ceremony Ship, within Lato Giaro's "Void Starry Sky."

This was essentially different from similar abilities of low-to-mid levels. It was both an illusion and an abnormal, fragile different-dimensional space that could make people get lost, close to a "Fiction Bottle" plus visual illusion.

The mass of sticky flesh Lu Mian spat out in front of him squirmed rapidly, lengthening and expanding into a human figure.

That figure wore a blood-colored cloak and a blood-colored hood, with his face covered by shadows. It was precisely Mr. K of the "Aurora Order."

To deal with "April Fool's" planning, Lu Mian adopted the plan of overwhelming people with momentum, cooperating with some exquisite arrangements to achieve the goal with magnificent power.

This plan had high fault tolerance. As long as "April Fool's" didn't have angel-level helpers and didn't have three or more saint-level combat forces, even if he guessed some things wrong, he could at least leave one or two "April Fool's" core members.

For this reason, Seeing Fu Lan Ka invited "Hela" and "Gandalf," and the Bountiful Society also reported it up. This year, there would definitely be a saint sitting in Sangtagang to prevent the Sea Prayer Ritual from having accidents again. And on the "Tarot Club" side, two holders of Major Arcana cards had already arrived nearby. When all the core members of "April Fool's" appeared and no longer sensed danger and withdrew in advance, Lady "Magician," this "Angel of Stars," would also cross the long distance and descend directly!

To be safe enough, Lu Mian even used Mr. K's finger, letting him come to Sangtagang, use the "Rose Bishop's" ability to turn into a mass of flesh, hide in his stomach, and thereby mix onto the Colorful Flower Ceremony Ship.

Mr. K raised his head, and the depths of his eyes suddenly became illusory, as if hiding one door after another.

He quickly scanned the "Void Starry Sky" and soon found the road to leave here.

"Follow me." He said to Lu Mian with a hoarse voice.

Lu Mian nodded, reached his hand into the "Traveler's Bag" that looked like a coin bag, took out the "Torture" gauntlet, and prepared to put it on.

If you guys still have backup plans later, or if several strong people fail to appear in time, then I will draw the gaze of the evil god, stir up the water, and everyone will bear the crisis together. No one should think about leaving early!

(End of chapter)