In the room left in shambles, the woman slowly crawled up from the cold floor.
She had just reached out to wipe the dirt from her face when a gauntleted hand suddenly seized her wrist.
The woman’s body trembled.
She slowly lifted her head to look at the knight clad in bronze armor—only then did she realize it was her own guard.
The knight’s grip was firm.
The woman frowned and struggled, but she could never break free from that large, powerful hand.
Anger surged in her chest.
So anyone could bully her now?
The woman shouted angrily, “What are you doing? I am Sylvia! I am your master! Do you want to die? You over there—come here and kill him for me!”
Still, the bronze-clad knight did not move.
Several more knights entered the room.
Enya was not here, so they were able to come in.
The woman looked at these knights, who moved like Puppets, and a flicker of fear rose in her heart.
She struggled fiercely, even raising her leg to kick at the knight’s lower body.
That private place was only protected by leather and cloth—most men couldn’t withstand such a blow, especially with the sharp point of a high-heeled shoe.
But no matter how hard she kicked, the bronze-armored knight didn’t react at all, as if there was truly nothing there.
The woman was baffled.
Suddenly, she heard the clatter of armor and turned to look at another man approaching.
He was dressed in plain armor, but he was not the focus—in his hand was something that made the woman scream in terror.
“It got torn off, huh? But that works out perfectly.”
What the knight held in his hand was a face—a beautiful girl’s face!
But unlike other masks, this Human-face Mask had incredibly lifelike expressions, and its pink lips could even move to speak in a sweet, pleasant voice.
It looked as if it were alive!
The bronze knight pinned the woman in place.
She struggled madly, but she could never break free from that steel-hard arm, while the armored man held the girl’s face in front of her.
The face smiled and spoke gently.
“Don’t be afraid. It’ll be over soon, and you won’t feel a thing.”
Even with these soft words, the woman wept bitterly, shaking her head.
The girl’s face seemed to grow impatient at her resistance.
Two hands suddenly seized the woman’s head, forcing her to face the mask.
The girl’s face revealed a sweet, harmless smile.
“I said, don’t be afraid, didn’t I?”
“No….”
The woman’s lips trembled uncontrollably—at this moment, she finally remembered.
It was this face!
The girl who wore this face once told her that by putting on the Human-face Mask, she could have a beautiful visage, a bewitching figure, and everything in White Stone City would become her private possession….
She could live as Sylvia from then on!
“I’m not Sylvia! I-I’m just a lowly laundress… No, please, I beg you, don’t take my body!”
The armored man turned the girl’s face away, so its back was to the woman’s face.
He slowly moved it closer.
The woman’s whole body was restrained; she could only stare helplessly at the mask.
Her eyes widened, her mouth opened, and she cried out hoarsely.
Yet even so, the girl’s face covered her own, and the woman’s screams were cut off at once—the armored men released their hold.
The woman’s body moved like a controlled Puppet, stiff and unnatural.
Very quickly, her figure began to shrink, gradually changing into a host body that matched the beautiful girl’s face.
Her purple evening gown tightened, molding itself to the girl’s form.
“Sylvia?”
Enya returned to the room through a hole in the wall, eyeing the purple-haired, purple-dressed girl.
The armored men sensed Enya’s presence — and lunged at her.
But as soon as they came within three meters of Enya, in an instant, they were all sliced to pieces, their armor clattering to the floor.
There was no blood from these corpses—in moments, they turned into heaps of broken wood.
They were all low-level Puppets, made from wooden masks.
Enya looked to Sylvia and spoke again.
“Or should I call you Lady Sharon?”
Sylvia narrowed her eyes, looking Enya up and down.
Her head tilted slightly to the right in feigned confusion.
“So what should I call you, then? I really didn’t expect that Ain-chan would turn out to be a dragon. To think I believed you were human.”
“Heh.”
Enya let out a hollow laugh.
A faint, rosy smile bloomed on Sylvia’s face.
“Ain-chan, just call me Sylvia. I doubt that’s your real name either, but I don’t mind.”
“So you think that, with this Puppet, you can hold me back?”
Enya wiped away the smile, returning to a calm expression.
Sylvia lifted her chin, gazing at the Dragon Princess in silver armor whose face she could not see.
A sudden, bewitching smile curled on Sylvia’s lips.
“How will I know if I don’t try?”
At her words, the wall beside Sylvia exploded—shattered stone scattered everywhere, and a golden Cross Slash flashed through.
Sylvia raised her head, purple threads gathering into a barrier that blocked the Cross Slash and shielded her sight.
The smile on her face faded, her purple eyes focused on the barrier.
With a sound like cloth tearing, the barrier Sylvia had conjured split open with a crack.
A petite golden elf girl, Nina, appeared, wielding sharp twin swords!
Nina had already leaped before Sylvia, her twin blades glowing gold as they slashed down at Sylvia’s towering chest.
Nina’s eyes were cold, nothing like the goofy, sulky Nina who used to mope at Enya after losing a match.
Now, she was dead serious.
When Nina got serious, she was nothing like her usual self.
But although her swords had struck Sylvia’s chest, Sylvia merely retreated a few steps, putting three meters between herself and Nina, and then looked down at her own chest.
Two intersecting slashes had torn her open, each as wide as three fingers and deep to the bone—horrifying wounds.
Her once soft, full bosom was now cut into quarters.
“Oh my~”
But even with these wounds, Sylvia’s expression didn’t change at all; in fact, she even teased Nina with a smile.
“What a rough child—how can you slash a woman’s chest like that? If you must cut, at least aim for the neck or the waist, don’t you think?”
Nina pursed her lips and shot back, “Ugly woman, Nina will chop you into even more pieces in a moment!”
“Tsk, tsk, so fierce.”
Sylvia mocked her.
At the same time, countless purple threads began emerging from the wounds in Sylvia’s chest, knitting the gashes together.
Bone, flesh, even her clothes—everything was restored in just a few seconds.
Such recovery was rare indeed.
Nina snorted and lowered her stance, taunting Sylvia.
“So what if you can fix yourself? Nina will just cut you up again!”
No sooner had she spoken than Nina was in front of Sylvia again, twin swords slashing once more at Sylvia’s chest.
But this time, it was as if she struck not flesh, but a layer of fabric—which healed itself almost instantly.
“Dance of Chaos!”
Nina unleashed her skill with twin swords.
She swung rapidly, golden sword-qi bursting forth, slicing Sylvia’s figure into pieces—from large chunks, to palm-sized, to fingertip-sized, and finally, even to grains of rice.
When the Dance of Chaos ended, the confined space erupted with golden sword-qi, splitting the building into a hundred cracks.
Boom—
Tremors shook the place, and parts of the building began to collapse.
Nina looked coldly at the pieces of Sylvia diced on the floor, then turned toward a hole in the wall leading to the corridor.
There stood a completely unscathed Sylvia.
Nina pouted in annoyance.
“Hmph, humans are only good at these cheap tricks!”
“Hehehe~”
Sylvia covered her mouth and laughed, glancing at Enya, who was watching the spectacle.
She asked, “Aren’t you going to join in? If you and she worked together, maybe you’d finish me off faster and could hurry to the Teleportation Array.”
“No, let Nina have her fun. She’s been stewing for a while—bottling up those feelings isn’t good for a child.”
Enya, caught off guard, shook her head.
Since Nina had already locked onto Sylvia as her enemy, it wouldn’t do to steal her thunder.
Besides, Enya wanted to save her magic for later—her real stage was yet to come.
“Hehehe, what a proud woman!”
“But I’m starting to like you more and more, my dear Ain-chan~”
“Hehehe~”
Sylvia’s mouth split into a wide grin, her voice light and clear as silver bells.
She lifted her chin, stretching her slender, snowy neck—then, a flash of gold.
Her beautiful head flew into the air.
Nina’s aura was ice-cold.
A gold-glowing short sword was about to stab into Sylvia’s flying head, but the instant it neared, her purple hair lengthened and hardened to block Nina’s thrust.
Sylvia’s head, hanging in midair by those purple strands, looked down on Nina below.
Purple threads emerged from the tidy stump of her neck, weaving a brand-new body for her.
The headless body on the floor was still intact—if someone were to touch it, it would surely still be soft and warm.
“You can’t kill me~”
Sylvia kindly reminded Nina.
Physical damage was useless—she was only a Puppet, not a true flesh-and-blood being.
Nina raised her short sword, pointing at Sylvia who dangled from the ceiling.
In a cold voice, she said, “Are you afraid I’ll rip your face to shreds?”
“You’re not capable.”
Sylvia’s eyes were haughty, her purple pupils fixed on Nina below.
Enya thought this fight was going to take a while—she couldn’t help but consider:
Maybe I should go handle my business and let Nina play by herself for a while?
Yes, that’s the plan!
Having decided, Enya turned and leapt straight out the gap by the window to the first floor.
Of course, this caught Sylvia’s attention—but Nina stood in her way.
“Hey, ugly woman, your enemy is me!”
Nina struck a pose with her chest out and back straight, looking cool and heroic—but her chest was flat, and Sylvia’s gaze was full of ridicule.