"Boom!" The moment the Harbingers' aura shifted, the Black Knife sensed it. Several death blades, wreathed in black-red flames, shot out towards the Harbingers.
The small probe, naturally, yielded no results. This attack was more like a declaration of war, reminding everyone—the battle had begun.
The Black Knife's figure vanished again, and when she reappeared, she was already beside the Marionette.
The Marionette, slumped on the ground, didn't even have time to react before the Black Knife twisted her arm and hoisted her up.
No matter when or where, the mission was always paramount. So, even though the Black Knife wanted to fight to her heart's content right now, she still chose to target the weakest, the Marionette.
The instant the Black Knife appeared, the Damselette beside the Marionette reacted. The first pair of the three pairs of wings on her occiput trembled slightly, and pure white feathers fell from them, only to disappear again.
"Swish, swish, swish!" The falling feathers reappeared high in the Sky, transforming into pure white beams of light descending from above, beautiful yet filled with killing intent.
Light appeared in the night, and opposing it was flowing red.
An extremely dense red emerged on the Black Knife, the black having already receded to the edges of the red.
That was the aura of the Rune of Death, representing the law of "death." The Golden Order needed to manage even death, so it had been sealed for a long time in The Lands Between.
Black flames devoured the wings in the Sky, then turned and headed towards the distant Damselette.
The Damselette's second pair of wings trembled slightly, and then the black flames' forward momentum suddenly stalled, subsequently dissipating into the air.
The Doctor seemed to have anticipated this; he saw the Black Knife's movements abruptly pause and immediately transformed into a black shadow, rapidly approaching her.
"Hiss—" The sound of flesh Burning rang out, and the Doctor's body beneath his cloak underwent some strange transformation.
Correspondingly, equally black flames rose from the Doctor's body. However, the black flames were not mixed with crimson, but with an unsettling deep purple.
This segment was injected with a large amount of remnants of the gods!
The figure before her grew closer and closer. Looking at the Black Knife, who was still dazed in place, the Doctor extended his hand, which was ablaze with roaring black flames.
With this strike, he intended to disembowel the fellow before him and thoroughly examine her internal structure.
However, just as the Doctor's hand was about to touch the Black Knife, her figure suddenly moved.
She didn't dodge, raising her blade, which emanated a dense aura of death, and thrust it towards the Doctor's body.
She actually wanted to trade DMG for DMG!
"Bang!" The black flames exploded upon contact with the Black Knife's body, blasting her figure far away. However, she also delivered the Destined Death into the Doctor's body.
"Ah—" The Doctor half-knelt on the ground, clutching his chest, letting out a painful cry.
He was now experiencing the taste of a constantly disintegrating soul. Moreover, the power raging within his body not only sought to kill the soul of this segment of his.
It also wanted to completely erase the "state" of this segment! The Doctor's other segments could clearly feel that they were starting to lose the ability to establish a connection with this segment's "state."
This meant that the Doctor in this state would completely become history, never to be created again by the main body through segment technology.
"Hmph, ha ha… Interesting! Interesting!" His soul gradually disintegrated, but after a brief period of adaptation, the Doctor adjusted.
He was both terrified and excited. Terrified that the Black Knife before him possessed a means to completely erase him, and excited that the power she wielded was something he had never seen before.
The curiosity of a researcher continuously urged him, making him crave to understand more.
"The Rooster, The Knave, you… quickly go and awaken the Tsaritsa. These… fellows, are very dangerous." The Doctor's aura had weakened to an extreme point.
That power was simply too formidable, as if born specifically to create death. All his means were unable to stop the arrival of death.
However, even though he couldn't even maintain a standing posture now, he had already thought of a countermeasure.
The Black Knife, empowered by the Rune of Death, was too terrifying. Fighting her meant that one couldn't take even a single point of DMG, otherwise, it would be a dead end.
The Doctor could only hope that Her Majesty the Tsaritsa could find a way to break it. Otherwise, with just the Damselette alone, the outcome would likely be grim.
"Plop." After saying this, the Doctor could no longer hold on. His body collapsed to the ground, turning into ashes.
Everyone watched the scene before them in silence for a long time. The Doctor, the second strongest among them, had died so easily, leaving them somewhat disbelieving.
The Rooster and The Knave did not immediately obey the Doctor's words and go to see the Tsaritsa. They each had their own thoughts.
The Rooster looked at the Doctor's body, which had turned to ashes, then looked at the Black Knife in the distance, who had hoisted up the Marionette and was preparing to operate, and said:
"Everyone, there's no need to be nervous. The Marionette is yours to deal with. As long as you promise to leave Snezhnaya afterwards, that will suffice."
Now that the Black Knife's danger was clear, The Rooster's first thought was how to avoid conflict. Trading the greatly weakened Marionette for a chance at peaceful coexistence was well worth it.
The Black Knife in the distance heard The Rooster's words and couldn't help but look up at the smiling old man before her.
Such a person, who could put everything on the table for negotiation, was rare in any world.
"That was the plan all along," the Black Knife responded with a hint of regret. Although the chance to cause a big ruckus was gone, being able to complete Yu Jin's mission quickly was not a loss.
"I don't agree! The Rooster, The Knave, you two, follow the Doctor's words and go see the Tsaritsa. I will hold them off." The Damselette's voice became firm for the first time; she rejected the proposal.
"Don't underestimate me!" The Damselette's habitually half-closed eyes opened completely, and for the first time, her numb and indifferent gaze held determination.
"Pfft—" The scene before them was moving enough, but the Black Knife's laughter broke the atmosphere.
"Tsk tsk tsk, Harbingers," the Black Knife said in a mocking tone, as if lamenting something:
"It seems you're not even as good as a common soldier. To find our whereabouts, he 'voluntarily' sacrificed himself."
"Now, all it takes is a soul crippled by one-eighth to send us away, and you won't do it?"
"Should I say you value sentiment? Or are you hypocritical?"
As the Black Knife spoke, she pulled out the Marionette's soul under everyone's watchful eyes.
It was a confused, trembling phantom of a young girl.
"Heh heh heh, feelings, once discarded, are very hard to get back. For this, you should thank us." After saying something nonsensical to the Marionette's soul, the Black Knife swung her blade down.
The blade passed directly through the Marionette's soul, and when it emerged from the soul, the blade already carried a faint white light.
And the Marionette's soul visibly shrunk by a circle. If measured carefully, one would find that the Marionette's soul was exactly one-eighth smaller than before.
"Attempted murder, yet only received such a small punishment, tsk tsk tsk, truly lucky." The Black Knife stuffed the diminished Marionette's soul back into the puppet's body, then casually tossed it beside The Knave.
"This little fellow isn't dead either, but what happens to him afterwards, we don't know." Along with the Marionette, a comatose Fatui soldier was also thrown over, accompanied by an extremely sarcastic remark.
"How about it? Do you still want to fight?" The Black Knife looked at the three silent Harbingers in the distance, somewhat eager to try.
After saying so many mocking words, they should fight, right?
The Knave gave the Black Knife in the distance a deep look, then pulled the comatose Marionette and soldier, and incidentally kicked the still 'playing dead' Balladeer step by step, disappearing into the night.
The Rooster followed closely. In his opinion, fighting the Black Knife was no longer necessary. Now, unless the Tsaritsa was awakened, there was no hope of victory.
Moreover, from all indications, the Black Knife truly came for Regrator and the Marionette, with no other intentions.
"What about you?" The Black Knife looked at the Damselette, who was now the only one left in the distance.
"Buzz—" The three pairs of wings on the Damselette's head flapped, and a long, sacred, low hum emanated.
The Black Knife felt the changes around her, and a faint smile curved at the corner of her mouth beneath her veil.
It seemed she could finally have a good fight.
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