novelraw Chapter 144: Dance of Silk Threads
Chapter 144: Dance of Silk Threads
After a brief respite, the Iron Triangle charged forward and violently smashed open the massive arched door.
A complex gust of air, a mixture of icy night rain, thick gunpowder smoke, and the stale, moldy smell from inside the theater, caused the ancient velvet curtains decorating the sides of the stage to flap noisily.
The interior of the theater was vast and dark.
Rows of seats in the auditorium, covered with white dust cloths, stretched backward like countless silent white ghosts waiting for the performance to begin.
Directly above the stage hung a huge chandelier constructed from hundreds of white candles.
The swaying, dim yellow candlelight illuminated the stage area, turning it into an ominous and eerie altar.
At the very center of this altar was a "Throne" piled high with human bones.
The UMA known as the "Master Craftsman" had just finished its masterpiece. After placing a new puppet at its feet, it slowly raised its head, which was stitched together from different skins.
In its eerie eyes, gathered from multiple races, there was no surprise or anger at the three "sacrifices" coming to its doorstep of their own accord.
On the contrary, Lin Jie read a sense of condescending appreciation in its gaze."Welcome... to... my... workshop."
A hoarse, synthesized voice, produced by several different vocal cords, echoed through the empty theater.
"Three... such... complete... and... vibrant... materials. Truly... it's been... a long time..."
Its gaze swept back and forth between Lin Jie's intelligent black pupils, Julian's large scholarly head, and William's warrior physique overflowing with strength and rugged beauty.
It was like a picky gourmet, appraising three top-tier dishes of different flavors it was about to enjoy.
"I... almost feel reluctant... to take you apart..."
Its stitched lips stretched into a nauseating smile.
"Enough nonsense!"
William's roar cut through the opponent's artistic-toned ramblings.
He gave this UMA no chance for a "pre-battle speech"!
The Winchester in his hands was instantly raised and loaded, and a prepared "Spirit-Dispersing Explosive Round" was fired without the slightest hesitation!
However, just before the bullet, shimmering with silvery-white purifying flames, could strike the UMA's body...
A "Spiderweb" woven from dozens of tough, nearly invisible threads emerged from the shadows of the stage, precisely intercepting the bullet's flight path!
"Bang!"
The bullet exploded!
The holy flames burst upon the seemingly fragile web of threads, causing only a slight tremor in the filaments.
The spiritual glow on the surface of the threads dimmed slightly as they dissolved and absorbed the flames. Not a single spark could break through the defense line!
The Limb Collector revealed its unique combat style as an "artist."
It unhurriedly rose from its bone Throne.
Its tall, disproportionately assembled body, pieced together from countless "parts," did not charge forward for close combat as William had anticipated.
Instead, with the posture of classical theater, it spread its arms on the stage bathed in the dim yellow candlelight.
It presented itself as a ballet dancer about to begin a performance under the gaze of thousands.
And then, it began to "dance."
Its movements carried a bizarre beauty.
At times leaping comically like a clown, at other times spinning gracefully like a dying swan.
Its disproportionate limbs twisted and folded in ways that defied ergonomics, as if the concept of "joints" did not exist within its body.
As its frenzied yet artistically rich "dance" began, a silent "symphony of death" was boldly unleashed within this sealed theater!
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
Hundreds, thousands of "spiritual threads," invisible to the naked eye and hidden in the dark corners of the theater, awoke like a symphony orchestra roused by an invisible conductor!
They surged forth from between the wooden beams of the dome, from beneath the white-cloth-covered seats in the auditorium, even from the cracks in the ancient wooden floorboards beneath the feet of Lin Jie and his two companions!
Threads shot in from all directions at lightning speed, aiming to entangle and slaughter the three uninvited guests before the stage!
The entire theater transformed into a three-dimensional meat grinder constructed from countless deadly "strings" as sharp as blades!
"Scatter!!"
William roared.
The Iron Triangle's combat formation immediately expanded.
The three of them formed a triangular back-to-back formation for mutual cover, elevating their focus to the limit. They began a dazzling display of extreme evasion and maneuvering within this invisible web of lethal "threads"!
Curator Julian, usually frail, now became the key to the defensive system!
He slammed the blackthorn walking stick he always carried as a "gentleman's cane" hard against the floor!
"In the name of 'Brá-Én'!" he chanted in low, ancient Gaelic.
Flickering deep green runes lit up along the rustic-looking wooden cane!
This was no ordinary walking stick, but a life-saving trump card Julian had always carried with him.
The core of the cane was a piece of "Holy Wood" that Julian had extracted from the heartwood of a "World Tree" remnant during a secret archaeological dig in the Brittany peninsula. The tree was said to have been planted by the great mage "Merlin" and had been dead for thousands of years.
In life, that sacred tree possessed powerful natural forces representing prosperity and growth.
But after millennia of existence and its subsequent death and decay, its heartwood remnant, due to the principle of things reaching their extreme and reversing, had condensed a completely opposite force of decay.
Julian grafted this "Holy Wood" core onto ordinary blackthorn wood and had a master alchemist from the Paris branch etch ancient Druidic runes onto it.
He created this seemingly plain Grotesque Armament, which contained two opposing spiritual force fields: growth and decay.
Julian named it 【Withered Thorns】.
"Attenuation!"
Julian growled, channeling his mental energy into it.
A "Field of Attenuation" carrying an aura of decay radiated outward from him.
Those sharp, cutting "spiritual threads," upon entering the field's range, had their flight speed and cutting force weakened by at least forty percent, as if sinking into an invisible quagmire!
This created reaction time for William and Lin Jie to visually track the enemy's attack trajectories.
William pushed his battlefield intuition and the special ability of 【Zulu's Gaze】 to the limit!
He wore it like a tactical monocle directly over his right eye.
In his vision, he could see the subtle "air disturbances" and "energy fluctuations" produced as the threads, composed of "spiritual energy," shot toward them!
Within this world constructed of threads, he repeatedly predicted, rolled, and dodged those lethal attacks with incredible postures.
And Lin Jie played the role of the "sweeper"!
His task, with the dual assistance of William's "early warning" and Julian's "slowdown," was to use the Guardian Divinity-infused 【Serene Heart】 in his hand to shoot and sever those "core attack lines" that posed the greatest threat and were the hardest to avoid.
"Three o'clock direction! Three strands!"
William's roar was the most precise battlefield coordinate!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The revolver in Lin Jie's hand became a precision rapid-fire tool. He completed three precise shots within two seconds!
Three streaks of silver light accurately struck three threads that were attacking from tricky angles toward the back of Julian's head.
"Twang! Twang! Twang!"
Three crisp sounds, like metal strings being forcibly snapped, rang out.
The tough threads, hit by the alchemical bullets, curled and snapped like spider silk scorched by intense flames.
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Jie immediately rushed forward, attempting to touch the severed ends of those "threads" that had just been cut and were rapidly retracting.
He wanted to use 【Reverberation Touch】 to analyze this UMA's "energy control" method, to find a way to dismantle its attacks from the root.
But just before his fingers could touch the threads, the severed ends suddenly snapped back, then melted back into the deeper darkness above the stage.
It was too fast for Lin Jie to conduct any effective "interpretation."
"No good! Its reaction is too fast!"
Lin Jie realized this UMA's level of "caution" far exceeded his imagination.
It simply gave them no chance to study its "core technology"!
Time passed second by second.
This "dance" of extreme evasion and precise shooting might look spectacular, but Lin Jie knew it was a slow, bleeding death for them.
Julian's "Field of Attenuation" continuously drained his mental energy.
William's highly concentrated "battlefield prediction" was an immense drain on both his physical stamina and willpower.
And the number of alchemical bullets in his own hand was limited.
They were being boiled alive like frogs in gradually warming water.
The "artist" on stage seemed never to tire, still performing its lethal ballet.
As Lin Jie's mind raced, trying to find a way to break this seemingly unsolvable "bullet hell" scenario...
A faint "pattern" he had previously overlooked quietly surfaced in the tense, blank ocean of his thoughts.
He noticed that while the UMA's "dance movements" and the attack trajectories of the threads appeared seamless overall...
If one broke down and observed its movements in parts, a bizarre internal conflict became apparent.
Relying on his keen observational skills, Lin Jie immediately locked onto the key issue.
He saw that when the UMA performed movements requiring strength and explosive power—for example, flinging out dozens of threads for a wide-area covering attack—its right leg would always erupt with brutal force.
But simultaneously, its slender left hand would subconsciously make a subtle, evasive, and elegant gesture, as if resisting.
This hand itself seemed unwilling to participate in such "barbaric" violence.
And vice versa. When the UMA performed delicate attacks requiring precise and intricate control, the slender left hand would display butterfly-like agility and lethality.
But the "strength"-oriented muscles of the right leg would subconsciously tense up, causing a slight delay and stiffness.
The "soul" of the leg seemed unable to comprehend such fine manipulation.
Inc coordination.
Internal conflict.
Lin Jie's mind suddenly cleared.
He had found the most fundamental, fatal design flaw of this "perfect" monster.
The UMA's body was not an organically unified whole. It was merely a patchwork monster forcibly assembled from "excellent parts" taken from different hosts, each carrying different muscle memories and subconscious instincts.
Its powerful "central processor" could force these parts to execute perfect movements, but it could never erase the subconscious imprints belonging to their original owners, deeply engraved within the parts.
A warrior's soul could never understand an artist's elegance.
An artist's soul would also instinctively resist a warrior's brutality.
This irreconcilable internal conflict and delay between the parts themselves, and between the parts and the "central processor," was the fatal flaw within the "Dance of Threads."