In the dark of night, the Puppet, whose face was covered, stood at a tall pillar that gave a perfect view of the side of the castle. Looking to the side, he saw the guards who were patrolling the castle in a rhythmic manner.
'4 people at the watchtower. 32 people are patrolling the multiple floors.'
Puppet thought, as he picked out a rifle from thin air, and aimed it at one of the watch towers located at a high place, which had a better view of the guards. Then, with a press of the trigger, he disappeared from his place. He quickly appeared at the watchtower where the guard who was shot in the head was, and quickly supported his dead body from behind to not make a sound, just like he had muffled the sound of the rifle using Sound Magic.
Lying down his body, Puppet quickly aimed at the two watch towers at the same level, one exposed by the side, while the other was hidden behind the watchtower he was in now.
*PTUI*
*PTUI*
Quickly, two shots were fired, taking down the two people. Now their sound was muffled by the sound because they were within the range. Once more, he teleported to one more tower at the same level, whose occupant he had shot just now, and then aimed it at the last person on the watchtower at the same level, and killed him as well.
Now, 4 watchtowers situated on the four sides, at the highest point of the castle, were without any life.
'Now it is time for the patrolling guards.' Puppet thought, as he observed the guards, creating the sequence in which to take down the guards one by one in his mind.
Then, he disappeared.
*THUD* *THUD*
With the thudding sound of footsteps, the guards moved with discipline. One of the guards who was walking closest to the edge of the wall was walking the one minute.
*CRACK*
Then the next moment, his neck was snapped, and his body slumped to the ground, but no sound was heard due to it being suppressed by Sound Magic.
This act as well was hidden using Illusion Magic, making the death of the poor guard unknown to his comrades.
Quickly, Puppet turned his attention sideways and took an estoc in his hand, once more disappearing from his place.
Following this, a one-sided game of hack and slash began.
Guards were beheaded with a single swing of his sword, one was slashed vertically, dividing his body in two.
But he did not stop there. He moved to the other side of the same floor, all while his body was covered with Permeation Magic, preventing him from triggering any barrier or array.
Similarly, all of the guards on the other side were killed, leaving only guards stationed in the castle of the same floor.
'Time to clear the people below.' Puppet thought through his expressionless mask, and he scaled the wall down, sticking to it like a certain someone from his previous world. Still hidden with Illusion and Permeation Magic.
Standing there, Puppet pointed two revolvers, one targeting the left half, while the other targeting the right half. Without wasting a moment, he pulled the trigger.
*PTUI* X4
*PTUI* X4
4 sounds were superimposed, hidden from the rest of the world, and immediately, the 8 bodies fell in unison, bodies leaning in the direction of the bullet.
In a similar fashion, he wiped out the rest of the guards. Then, he set his sights inside.
Beast Magic: Echolocation
A wave of sound originated from Puppet, which went inside the castle, and after reflection from the surface, the waves came back, creating the structure of the inside of the castle, with the location of all the people inside, moving in real-time.
'A total of 98 people on every floor, other than the top floor, where the room of the Royalty was, that had only half the amount of guards, who moved like zombies, with all of their mana completely similar, which is impossible unless they had created 49 clones. Also, the Royals here look as if they have had anything to eat.'
Puppet was confused by the information that he received.
'Never mind, let's deal with the issue in front of me first.'
Puppet decided his course of action, he turned invisible, and craned his neck to the glassless window, which was just a hole in the wall for ventilation, and quickly crawled his way up to here.
Unlike outside, Puppet moved carefully, as he was wary of what he had sensed on the first floor. Slowly, he would creep behind the target and kill them with a single hit, either by breaking their neck or by decapitating them. Every time he did it, his movements became more efficient, and in under 5 minutes, he had killed 98 people on the first floor, leaving behind a floor filled with corpses and blood, Puppet standing amongst them, with his previously plain mask, splattered with specks of blood that gave him a menacing look.
'Well, that was quick.' Puppet thought as he took to the other floors.
He kept on going from floor to floor, which ended with blinding golden light flowing into his grimoire.
This happened until he arrived to travel up to the highest floor.
'Focus…49 enemies. Most probably a trap, so let's do this with caution.' Puppet ended this thought as his body glowed and lost its form. This formless structure was divided into two individual formless objects, which started to take shape, resembling the Puppet. When the process ended, there were two Puppets standing, one of whom stayed in place motionlessly, while the other started to make his way to the top floor.
For the clone at the top, he watched every guard carefully instead of attacking outright.
He waited and observed for 10 minutes, until he finally concluded.
'Cracked lips, sunken face, hollow and unfocused eyes, and very slow heartbeat. Even their body is significantly cool. I would think they are vampires, but they are more like zombies instead. It would be best to kill them all at once rather than one by one. I am not sure how it will play out.'
Puppet thought, as he shoved his hand into the ground, and immediately…
*SHING*
…blades of metal sprouted from the ground and pierced the head of all guards, and suddenly burnt them to ashes in under a second.
'Better to burn them. Don't know what type of hidden creatures this world holds.' With this thought, Puppet made his way to the only occupants left on this floor.
Using permeation magic, he walked through the door instead of opening it, wary of triggering any alarm. Inside the room, he looked in front of him and took in the sight.
'What the hell?' Puppet could not help but speak internally.
The reason for that was, in front of him was a large bed, on which lay 2 people.
The King and the Queen.
Both of them looked like corpses, just like the guards.
But unlike the guards, they did not look like they were capable of even walking. If the guards were to be called vampires, then the pair in front of Puppet would be rotten zombies.
'Let's inspect this place first, then touch them. This screams curse.'
Puppet decided and got to it. The room, befitting of the King, was filled with gold items like candle stands and other objects of luxury. He checked every square of the room, pressed every brick on the wall, pulled every torch, and moved every book on the shelf, but no secret passage opened.
'This is not possible. Every room of the royalty is bound to have a secret passage for them to run on their tails while their people sacrifice themselves for them, much less the room of the King himself.
This only means that this secret passage is the only place in the room that I have not checked yet.'
Puppet ended as he looked at the bed itself.
Taking a deep breath, he started to walk towards the bed, his eyes focused on the occupants on the bed all along, waiting for any sudden movement, but until he stood in place, nothing happened.
By the end of it, he was standing on the bed, looking over them.
'Well, neither of you don't looks alive to me. Might as well free you from whatever you are suffering from.'
Puppet decided as he summoned Dawnbreaker in his hand, which he swung at them.
*SSSSS*
As the blade decapitated them, their flesh started to sizzle and caught fire. But unlike normal fire, it did not spread, and instead fizzled out of existence after burning both of the people away as if they were never there.
'I was right. The way those flames spread means they were subjected to some form of necromancy.' Puppet thought as he started to inspect the bed.
As he was doing so, he removed the pillow that was underneath the late King's head, and saw there was a page beneath it.
Taking it, he inspected it and, opening it, he began to read internally.
'To whomever finds this,
Listen carefully, and share this only with those I name. The truth I'm about to reveal must not fall into the wrong hands.
I don't know when it began, only that by the time I understood what was happening, it was already too late.
Our kingdom has always suffered from a lack of natural resources. No matter how hard we pushed, we could never stand equal to the Clover or Heart Kingdoms. Even our victories over the Spade Kingdom were hollow. Snow-covered land means little when you gain nothing from it.
So, I turned to desperate measures. I funded research, unethical, dangerous, and ruthless. We tried everything, from embedding magic into children by force to developing enhancement drugs. Most ended in failure… until he arrived.
Morris.
A mind sharper than any blade I've seen. The moment he joined our research program, results began to appear. Projects that had shown no progress suddenly came alive. I thought we had found our path to greatness.
But I was blind.
With time, Morris gained control, not just over the experiments, but over the very backbone of the kingdom. My generals began to serve him. My words lost their weight. And before I could act, he made his final move.
He poisoned me.
Not with a substance, but through a creature of pure malice, brought here by someone from the Spade Kingdom, with whom he had been secretly allied all along.
If you're reading this, seek out the Cyrus Family. They will know what must be done.
This is my last act as your King. I fought until I could no longer stand.
Aurem Crystallis
King of the Diamond Kingdom'
'Writes the man who was basically dead on the bed.' Puppet snorted as he pocketed the letter, planning his next move.
***
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