Chapter 45: The Battle Begins

After this dungeon battle entered the second stage, Levi immediately felt much more at ease.

The unknown was always the most terrifying—like drifting alone in a pitch-black sea.

When you stared into the depths, you felt fear, not because of what was there, but because you didn’t know what was there.

And when the monster hidden beneath the sea revealed its true form, it became less frightening.

Because at that point, you only had two choices: fight or run.

Just like now.

Previously, everyone had feared the puppets because they didn’t know what the puppets intended—whether for good or ill.

But now, when these crude, shoddily assembled puppets lunged at them in attack, the choice became obvious.

Kill them!

Unfortunately, though Levi sounded brave, his actions at the moment had nothing to do with bravery.

Because the ones actually holding the line against the puppet horde were not Levi, but Katie and Henry.

The former smashed the puppets to pieces with her tiny fists, one punch per puppet.

Henry, relying on his broad shoulders and stout build, swung an axe he had picked up from the basement, chopping the puppets apart as though he were splitting firewood.

Levi, meanwhile, stood behind them, occasionally firing shots to finish off stragglers.

He had fully entered a “soy sauce” support role.

At least he wasn’t at the bottom.

That spot belonged to Anthony.

This playboy was not incapable of fighting; he simply seemed better suited to using knives.

But clearly, even if he could slit an enemy’s throat silently, it was useless against a puppet.

At most, he could scratch the surface.

So he was relegated to rearguard duty—keeping watch and cheering.

“Bang!”

Levi raised his gun again, blowing apart a puppet’s head.

He swept his eyes across the room.

These puppets were completely different from the ones they had encountered before.

The earlier puppets, bizarre as they were, at least gave a sense of human-like thought and movement.

But these puppets were utterly different—more like beasts inhabiting human-shaped shells.

They crawled on all fours across the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, clattering their teeth, wielding kitchen knives, frying pans, and whatever else they could find as they leapt at the group.

Individually, they posed little threat, but their fearless, suicidal attacks created plenty of trouble.

“Hey—————!”

Katie smashed another puppet to bits with a punch, but at that moment, two doll-sized puppets suddenly lunged from below, wrapping their tiny arms tightly around her legs.

“Wha… let go of me!”

Katie clearly had never experienced this kind of “boss begging to cling to her thighs.” For a moment, she was startled and at a loss.

The two puppets clattered their teeth as they clung to her legs, restricting her movement.

Katie wanted to grab them and fling them aside, but with enemies swarming all around, she had no time.

Fortunately, two gunshots rang out.

The puppets’ heads exploded, their grip vanished, and Katie immediately shook them off, tossing their remnants aside.

She turned to Levi with a smile.

“Thank you, Detective!”

Levi waved dismissively, scanning the surroundings again—completely unaware that both Henry and Anthony were now looking at him differently.

Neither of them was stupid.

The fact that they had been chosen as representatives in this squad was proof enough of their capability.

That was the root of their pride.

But at the core, they understood technique.

And Levi’s shooting just now had caught their eyes.

After all, the puppets had been clinging tightly to Katie’s legs.

In such a situation, most people wouldn’t dare fire, for fear of accidentally hitting her.

Even without considering her noble status, Katie was a key fighter in this battle.

If she were injured, it would be disastrous for the group.

So for someone to shoot in that situation, they had to be either reckless to the point of madness—or absolutely confident in their skill.

And for Levi to blow off both puppet heads in an instant without so much as grazing Katie, his skill was beyond question.

If they had faced him as an enemy on the battlefield, they would have stayed as far away as possible.

But as an ally… it was reassuring.

This squad lacked cohesion.

Other than Levi and Katie, who had worked together before, everyone else had just met.

Trust could only be built through skill.

If earlier they had thought of Levi as just a pretty face living off his looks, then now, at least, he had proven himself with that display of marksmanship.

After once more repelling the puppets, the group arrived at the door at the far end of the second-floor west corridor.

According to the laundress Old Lady, the strange young master’s room was here.

“I’ll go first.

You follow!”

Henry was dependable.

He gripped his axe and gave the others a glance.

Levi, Katie, and Anthony nodded.

Henry fixed his gaze on the door, bellowed, and kicked it open.

For a moment, Levi swore he hallucinated the roar of “FBI! OPEN THE DOOR!”

“Bang!”

The door burst open.

Henry stepped inside with his axe, Levi rushing in right behind him, using Henry’s large frame as cover as he scanned the room cautiously.

His first impression was… far too stereotypical.

The room was filled with puppets of every kind, big and small.

Some were life-sized, others like the dolls little girls carried to bed.

They were made of different materials: cloth, wood—even metal.

Levi even spotted one that looked like it belonged in the category of robots.

“What the hell is this?”

Henry gawked, muttering under his breath.

Levi agreed.

With so many puppets packed into one room, the sheer quantity turned the scene uncanny rather than absurd.

If a boy who liked dolls seemed effeminate, then living in a room wrapped in hundreds of puppets could only make one think: “Is this still human?”

At that moment, a low voice spoke.

“I said, no one is allowed in my room.”

Everyone turned.

At the desk sat a boy, perhaps in his early teens.

He was a little chubby, wearing round glasses, giving the impression of a timid schoolboy often bullied.

Sitting in his chair, his hands were thrust into the backs of two life-sized maid puppets—one common method puppet masters used for manipulation.

The two puppets bent dutifully over the desk, working intently on something.

“What are you doing!?”

Henry glared at the boy, tightening his grip on his axe.

The boy muttered, staring at the desk.

“Why? Why do you all hate me so much? That’s why I hate you—I hate humans. Everyone’s the same. None of you care about me, only yourselves. I said I wanted to be left alone, but you keep coming in, saying it’s for my own good. If it really were, you’d listen to me—not do whatever you please!”

His hysterical fury unsettled the group.

He finally raised his head, eyes fixed on them.

“Puppets are better. They obey me. I tell them what to do, and they do it.”

As he spoke, the maids kept working.

Only then, as their eyes adjusted to the dim light, did the group see what lay on the desk.

A man.

Levi didn’t know him, but his uniform showed he belonged to the same unit as the squad they had seen outside.

Which meant—

“Carter!”

Henry roared, recognizing the soldier.

His eyes blazed with fury as he glared at the boy.

“You bastard! What have you done to him!?”

“He was too noisy.”

The boy lowered his head again, not even glancing at Henry.

“So I made sure he’ll never be noisy again.”

“You animal—————!”

Henry’s eyes turned blood-red.

The soldier’s body on the desk was split wide open, his guts and blood torn savagely out.

His twisted, pain-stricken face showed all too well the torment he had endured before death.

“Ugh…”

Katie clutched her mouth, face pale.

Even Anthony’s usual playboy smile vanished.

Only Levi remained calm, hidden behind Henry’s tall frame, scanning carefully.

From experience, Levi knew such cursed beings were always “mechanism monsters.” Unless you found their weakness, you could never kill them, no matter how many times you tried.

Henry’s fury was enough to make ordinary men tremble.

But the boy didn’t waver.

He focused only on the corpse, directing the maids to carefully stuff wood into it.

“I said stop! You bastard!”

Unable to endure the desecration of his soldier, Henry strode forward.

The others hesitated, unsure if they should follow.

But Levi didn’t pay attention.

He had activated 【Soul Sight】.

To him, the room was utterly different.

Every puppet radiated bright red soul energy, filling his vision like a thick fog in the world of black and white.

Through the haze, he glimpsed a vague shape lurking beyond.

Henry stepped into the fog.

At once, the red mist began to stir…

“Watch out!”

Levi lunged forward, slamming his shoulder into Henry’s waist and knocking him down.

At that same instant, a gunshot rang out.

A bullet screamed past, slamming into the floor behind them.

A figure emerged before the group.

Another soldier.

He wore the same uniform as the corpse on the desk.

But his belly was ripped open, exposing gears and wooden mechanisms that held his body together.

Like a puppet with its skin peeled back to reveal its workings, his throat even opened and shut around a mechanical compressor.

“Ugh…”

Katie covered her mouth.

She had faced monsters before—the Courtesan Killer, vampires—even killed them with her own hands.

But those, to her, were just “strangely shaped enemies.”

This thing, however—a human flayed and hollowed out, turned into a puppet—this was an affront to the limits of human sanity.

And it wasn’t the end.

One by one, more soldiers appeared.

They gripped weapons tightly, raising rifles as though guarding their master.

“Run!”

At that moment, Levi made his decision without hesitation.

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