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The wind surged—
And was instantly crushed in Allen's grip!
It never even had a chance to howl.
With the precise control of his Flow Secret Technique, he crossed his arms in front of his abdomen, palms open, intercepting the sudden thrust of the puppet's bladed limbs.
Grip. Clench. Crush.
He seized the momentum of the attack, stopping it dead in its tracks.
A faint whirlwind curled around his wrists before dissipating into nothing.
In that instant, Allen pushed his sensory abilities to their absolute limit, amplifying them with the Dragon King's Battle Aura.
Time slowed to a crawl in his perception.
—Thud—
The heartbeats of the four in front of him echoed like drumbeats, lingering unnaturally in the frozen moment.
Yet…
There was no killing intent.
As the phantom drumbeats faded, Allen's eyelashes twitched slightly.
His senses sharpened, then dulled—sight, sound, smell, taste, touch—all fading away as the world around him lost its color.
Darkness crept in from the edges of the tomb-like walls, writhing, boiling, before collapsing inward from all directions.
It swallowed everything, even muffling his awareness of the four heartbeats in front of him.
But this was exactly what he wanted.
Allen opened his eyes.
And in the abyss, light bloomed—dazzling, overwhelming.
To his sides, countless magic circles flickered to life, their intricate patterns glowing with an otherworldly radiance. They formed two distinct silhouettes—the puppets lurking behind him.
This surreal sensory feedback was the result of Allen's refined technique—enhancing his physical senses with the Dragon King's Battle Aura, then overlaying it with the Flow Secret's perception.
A year ago, during his first spar with Ghislaine in the Boreas courtyard, he had only been able to blunt his senses to barely catch the trajectory of her sword.
Now?
He had mastered the Flow Secret.
Even if Ghislaine stood before him now, blade sheathed, he could still pinpoint the exact focus of her killing intent.
But here, in the depths of the Well of Stellan…
There was no killing intent.
Yet the attack had still come.
Because the puppets were lifeless.
So why did they move?
The magic circles.
The Flow Secret could trace the movement of mana, but that wasn't enough.
So he had deliberately dulled all his other senses, focusing only on the flow of magic.
And what he saw confirmed his suspicions.
Why go to such lengths?
To check for other threats—to see if more puppets lurked in the shadows.
But the darkness revealed no other lights.
The brightest glow came from the two puppets behind him—their arms, their bodies, every magic circle channeling mana into their bladed limbs.
It was worth noting that the Flow Secret could only detect mana in motion, not mana itself. If it could perceive raw mana, it wouldn't be a "secret technique"—it'd be outright godhood.
In a world saturated with mana, where even battle aura was just refined magic, sensing raw energy would be like staring into the sun.
The First Water God really was something else, Allen mused. To create a technique like this, blending the properties of water with divine-level magic insight…
His thoughts snapped back as the darkness receded.
Vision returned.
Dust motes drifted lazily in the shaft of light from the skylight above.
Sylphie, Isolte, Eris, and Rudeus stood ahead, bathed in the glow—completely unaware of the bladed arms that had just lashed out from the shadows behind them.
Nor had they noticed Allen effortlessly neutralizing the attack.
The atmosphere was peaceful.
But beneath that peace, lethal force still pressed against Allen's grip.
The puppet's strike carried terrifying power—greater even than Ghislaine's fiercest slashes.
Confirming the others were safe, Allen's eyes darted rapidly, analyzing the puppets through the lens of the Flow Secret.
Both puppets were frozen mid-lunge, their entire bodies leaning forward, all their magic circles funneling mana into the single thrust of their bladed arms. Their other limbs hung limp, devoid of energy.
No spare mana for additional movements.
Logically, that should have been reassuring.
Yet Allen's blood remained ice-cold, his pupils contracted in alarm.
His mind raced as he pieced together the source of his earlier unease—the reason he had been subconsciously wary of the hanging puppets beneath the Blegi Continental Bridge.
Moving puppets. A surprise attack was shocking, yes—but that wasn't the real issue.
Because he had already suspected the possibility of an ambush. The stall owner's behavior had been too convenient, too guided.
No, the true significance lay in why moving puppets existed in Rapan at all.
In the original Mushoku Tensei timeline, autonomous puppets were rare—but critical to the main story.
Not because of the puppets themselves, but because of what they represented:
The Magic Armor—the prototype for Rudeus' mechanical limbs, and later, his iconic combat suit.
Two key figures:
The current Mad Dragon King, Chaos.
Orsted, the Dragon God.
In the original story, only one person was known to create puppets with this level of autonomy: Chaos, the Mad Dragon King.
A tinkerer at heart, he loved blending magic with machinery.
One of his creations? The puppet in Rudeus' basement—the first autonomous puppet encountered in the story. After subduing it, Rudeus and Zanoba studied it, eventually reverse-engineering its magic circles to create the Zanoba Prosthetic Arm.
That arm became the foundation for Rudeus' Magic Armor—the very symbol of his future title, the Magic King.
But why did this connect to Orsted?
Because the Mad Dragon King carried one of the Dragon Treasures—fragments of the Dragon God's shattered core.
Orsted's ultimate goal across countless loops was simple:
Kill the Human God.
To do that, he needed two things:
Find the Human God—currently hiding in the Void World, the center of the six-faced realm.
Regain enough divine power to breach the Void and fight him.
The Dragon Treasures were the key.
Five fragments, held by the five Dragon Generals.
Orsted had to kill each general to reclaim them.
And one of those generals was Chaos.
So if autonomous puppets are here… does that mean Chaos is nearby?
And if so… where is Orsted?
In the original timeline, when did Orsted kill Chaos?
Is it happening now?
Is Orsted in Rapan?
Allen's breath hitched.
For a fraction of a second, his grip faltered—and the puppet's blade pressed an inch closer to his ribs.
He stared at the backs of the four in front of him, suddenly feeling like they were miles away.
As if they might vanish at any moment—
Like a mirage.
His mind screamed with a single, horrifying thought:
Has the Human God been manipulating me all along?
First, ensuring Roxy fell for him, cutting off any chance with Rudeus.
Then leading him here, to this moment—where Orsted would see him, recognize the aberration in fate, and brand him an apostle on the spot?
His thoughts spiraled—
No.
The Human God wasn't that meticulous. Allen had already disrupted its plans multiple times. This trip to the capital was his own decision. The events in Buena Village were another wrench in the gears.
There was no way it could orchestrate something this precise.
He scoured his memories of the original story.
Wait—
A realization struck.
In the original timeline, when Aisha's group visited Perugius' floating fortress, the Dragon King mentioned something:
"Chaos has been dead for decades."
The timeline didn't match. Orsted had already killed the Mad Dragon King long before this point.
Meaning these puppets weren't directly tied to Chaos.
They were either remnants of his work, repurposed by another mage…
Or someone who had inherited his techniques.
Which meant—
Orsted probably isn't in Rapan.
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