Attacks unched by Judges were ineffective. The soul-piercing golden swords cut clean through the air, each radiant strike meant to burn away corruption at its root— but they could not harm something that didn't possess a soul in the first pce.

  The giant puppet staggered forward, its wooden limbs groaning as if ughing at the futility.

  Each time a Judge drove a golden bde into its chest or skull, the wood merely splintered, then reshaped itself, joints bending back into pce with rope-like sinews.

  "Fall back! It has no soul to pierce!", barked Iriane, her white and gold mantle swirling as she drove her give into the dirt, calling for retreat. But the Hunters had already engaged too closely.

  The puppet screamed again.

  The sound rippled like a hammer of gss shards, crashing through the minds of the Hunters.

  Helmets cracked against the ground as men and women colpsed, clutching their heads, eyes bleeding red tears. The audience, already broken by the first scream, now cwed at their own throats, their shrieks mixing with the war cries.

  One Hunter attempted a Binding Rite, weaving chains of grey around the puppet's wrists.

  For a heartbeat, the creature slowed, then snapped the bindings as if they were twine, dragging the unfortunate caster into its chest cavity with a sickening crunch.

  From the fairground outside, Lea felt the reverberations of that scream tear through her bones.

  Her parasol trembled in her grip as golden light fred faintly at her fingertips, straining against the growing darkness of Malediction swirling within.

  Auger Maxwell didn't move. He leaned on his cane, eyes sharp, the corners of his mouth twitching with academic curiosity.

  "Mm. Not alive, not dead. An empty vessel… yet it persists.", his tone shifted, almost like a lecture, "Such animation… could it be the Path of Creation? That would expin the shaping of the body itself, wood, rope, paint, all given a sembnce of life."

  The puppet shrieked again, staggering Hunters with its resonance. Auger's brows furrowed deeper, "…No, Creation alone wouldn't cause that. That scream… that is Distortion. To twist memory and will, to turn the living into fractured shells of themselves. Perhaps… both, Creation and Distortion intertwined."

  He tapped his cane against the dirt, amused.

  "A fascinating colboration. Craft the vessel with one Path, poison it with the other, and you achieve… this."

  Lea's breath hitched, golden light fring stronger around her parasol as her Malediction answered the scream. "Then it's not just a puppet?"

  Auger chuckled, "Oh, it's far worse than a puppet, girl. This is a philosophy given form."

  Inside the tent, the Hunters were breaking. Their formations colpsed, their chants turning into cries as memories buckled under the sound. Iriane roared in defiance, anchoring a Zone of Crity with the power of Judgement and Order, her give glowing with white w— only for the puppet to lean close, hollow eyes glinting with mockery.

  The Zone shattered.

  "Iriane!!", someone screamed as the puppet's arm descended like a guillotine.

  Just before it struck, golden light burst across the fairground.

  Lea stepped forward, cloak fluttering, and her half-mask dawned on her face, parasol tilted back. Her eyes bzed with judgment's gold. She was trembling, unsteady, but her voice rang clear...

  "Stop feeding on them. Face me."

  The puppet froze for the first time, its mismatched joints locking mid-motion. Its painted grin cracked wider, a jagged mockery of amusement.

  The Abyss Hunters gasped at her presence. Some recognized the golden aura, others the bckened undertone beneath it.

  A Judge…?

  Even Iriane narrowed her eyes, "Girl… what are you?"

  Lea raised her parasol, twisted the handle, and unsheathed the sword hidden inside. Her lips curved in a small, nervous smile.

  "…Someone who doesn't like puppets."

  And she charged.

  She actually has no pn, but the understanding from Malediction creates one on the get-go.

  Act cool, strike fear, and do not get bodied by the giant puppet.

  She gnced back at Auger, who was still observing with interest.

  Lea has no time to digest the information given by her ascension, since people's lives are at risk.

  Malediction thrives on making everything around it worse, from either mental curses or physical curses, or, in common terms, beating something up physically.

  All through the ability calls Branding, a specialized version of Hex due to the effects of Judgement. As long as she can carve a Cursed Brand into it, she can damage it.

  The puppet's right arm struck at her, coming so fast she would've had no way to dodge in time. So she opened her parasol, taking the hit, just barely... but it brought enough time for her to move to the side.

  Using the brief window, she carved a cross into its arm and fell back.

  "Hah... hah...", that took a lot out of her.

  Lea steadied herself, gazing at the puppet... and she ran away, much to everyone's disbelief. Even the puppet was surprised.

  This wasn't all to Lea's pn; she smirked and raised her hand.

  "Judgement."

  Above the cross she carved, her Cursed Brand, a golden sword swirling with darkness around it formed. The puppet noticed, creaking its body to move away, sensing something dangerous—

  The sword fell down— and twisted, striking the puppet's hand mid-movement. It was a homing attack. The strike dealt physical damage, cutting off the puppet's hand.

  Bht being an object, it felt no pain. In fact, it turned its head toward the city...

  It let out a scream once more, staggering the Pathstriders, even Lea, who was pretty far away, was also affected, dropping to her knees with covering her ears. She felt like she was going crazy...

  "It's going for the city.", Auger stepped up beside her, still not doing anything.

  She grit her teeth, "Do something...!!"

  "Incompacitating the puppet won't help, you need to find the puppeteer first.", he was not moving at all, "But I doubt you can handle the mastermind."

  "Still... I can't let people get hurt...!!", she stood up, struggling, "At the very least... I can't let whichever bastard did this... get away with it...!!"

  I must not...

  Using her sword as support, she rejected Auger's advice and headed for the tent, struggling to go. Her mind was a battlefield between the insanity brought by the puppet and her own malice, trying to gnaw at each other.

  What made it even worse was her own marks of Corruption, bring up and causing her even more pain.

  She still walks forward, because even if she was destined to be evil, to be someone who ruined others in the wake of her vengeance... if she could still save even one more person... she would do it without hesitation.

  It was hypocritical, she knows. Seeing how she ruined a person's life. Yet she was still a devout follower of The Three Rings...

  Protect others when you have the strength, offer kindness when you can...

  The teachings echo through her mind. Lea grit her teeth, moving forward...

  Seeing how desperate Lea was, Auger let out a sigh.

  He stepped forward, moving toward Lea. She gnced at him in confusion; he merely held his hand out.

  "I will help you, in exchange, will you be my Companion?", he asked, electricity sparks in his palm.

  Lea was even more confused, "What...?"

  "Just something to give you strength.", he chuckled, "The power of Bond and Contract, I'll be a great help to you, you just need to accompany me for a while."

  Lea was desperate... There was little choice. The Abyss Hunters are pursuing the giant puppeting, using any means they can to keep it out of the city. The Mystic Bureau should also be on its way, as well as Bishop Archon Rudiger...

  If she doesn't chase after the mastermind now, he could use this chaos to escape and get away...

  "I... accept to be your Companion...", she held his hand. She could feel his age and the journey he went through, the person in front of her wasn't a mere random old monster...

  He was a legend... that was what Judgement told her.

  In an instant, Lea felt the pain and corruption growing at her stop, banished like they weren't even there. Not only that, she feels more powerful...

  "Heh, this is my unique power... the Power of Friendship.", he hesitated a little, speaking that name. Not out of fear of something greater, but out of cringe...

  And Lea, too, feels the name was incredibly dumb and vague... what kind of power is that?

  Shaking her head, Lea stepped forward, "No time to lose!!"

  She ran off, while Auger merely strolled behind her, taking his time.

  "What youthful energy.", he ughed as he walked.

  "I'm 26!!", Lea yelled, whipping her head around.

  Lea and Auger stepped into the tent, the air already stinking of rot and varnish, heavy with the echoes of broken minds.

  Bodies y scattered everywhere, Hunters and spectators alike, twitching, cwing at invisible shapes, muttering nonsense between guttural ughs. The screams had cracked their memories like gss, leaving only shards.

  Lea froze when her gaze fell on Dan. He y curled in a corner, pupils blown wide, whispering apologies to no one.

  Her chest tightened, and she took a step forward—

  But Auger's cane blocked her.

  "Don't waste time.", he murmured. His eyes weren't on the fallen, but on the stage.

  The wooden ptform had warped into something unrecognizable, a shifting ttice of stairs, curtains, and painted doors that folded back into themselves, vanishing and reappearing at impossible angles. It pulsed faintly, as though breathing.

  "A byrinth.", Auger tapped his cane, "A fine work of Creation, at least Third Step."

  His lips twitched into a sharp smile, "And it reeks of Veil, illusion woven into the framework itself."

  Lea swallowed, eyes darting between Dan and the stage, "So it's not just a puppet show?"

  "Not merely a show.", His voice lowered, ced with interest, "It is either an ascension ritual or... a ceremony dedicated to a god..."

  Her sword trembled in her grip. The maze was calling to her, every door whispering with ughter. She clenched her jaw.

  "I want to help them—", she gnced at the people around her again, voice cracking, "—but if that thing escapes deeper into the city…"

  Auger tilted his head, studying her as though she were another specimen.

  Then, with a shrug, "Choose quickly, girl. That maze won't wait."

  Lea's teeth ground together. She turned her back on Dan, forcing herself toward the stage.

  "Then let's end this py."

  The curtains breathed as if alive when Lea set foot on the warped stage. The wood creaked under her boots, but the sound was muffled, as though swallowed by the air itself. She tightened her grip on her parasol-sword, golden embers leaking faintly from its edge.

  Behind her, Auger strolled up the stairs without hurry, cane tapping in a steady rhythm. His eyes gleamed at every shifting fold of the byrinth—doors folding into walls, stairs twisting into curtains, painted scenery reforming into passageways.

  The moment both stepped across the threshold, the world sealed shut. The fairground, the screaming Hunters, the puppet's rampage—all faded like the dim memory of a dream. Only the byrinth remained.

  Lea spun, heart hammering, but the entrance was gone. A door stood in its pce, red cquer, carved with grinning masks.

  "An enclosed realm.", Auger mused, brushing his palm across the wall as if feeling for its pulse, "Creation and Veil binding construct and perception into w. Once inside, the rules of the stage take precedence."

  Lea narrowed her eyes at the endless corridors ahead, "A trap, then. To keep intruders busy while the puppeteer hides."

  Auger chuckled under his breath, tilting his head, "More than that. This reeks of a ceremony dedicated to something higher. See how the passages turn in spirals, always folding inward? That is a liturgy written in architecture."

  Lea's stomach sank, "…A ceremony?"

  "The Paths grant power to those who walk them. Most cw their way up, as you have begun to, through struggle, through understanding, through devouring what resists them.", He tapped his cane against a stair that looped impossibly into the ceiling, "But there is another way."

  His voice lowered, reverent and mocking at once.

  "Gods."

  Lea turned sharply toward him. His eyes gleamed in the dim light.

  "Yes...", he said, relishing the word, "One may ascend not by tearing the Steps open with their own blood and will, but by offering themselves to a god. Ceremony, covenant, sacrifice… and in return, a blessing that catapults them forward."

  Lea felt her throat tighten, "So whoever's behind this..."

  She gnced around the spiraling corridors, every door painted with ughing masks, "They're using the puppet as a… sacrifice?"

  "Sacrifice, vessel, choir. Pick a word you like.", Auger grinned, "All this screaming, all this breaking of minds? It isn't just cruelty; it is an offering. And I would wager it's not the first."

  The doors around them rattled, painted eyes rolling in their sockets to fixate on her. Lea flinched, parasol raised.

  Auger only adjusted his gloves, amused.

  "Be cautious. If this byrinth is a stage for a god's attention, then every step you take will be… judged."

  Lea clenched her teeth, pulse racing. She thought of Dan lying broken outside, of the Hunters colpsing, of the city waiting beyond.

  Her voice came out rough but steady, "Then I'll py their game. And end it before the curtain falls."

  The corridor ahead shifted, peeling open into a yawning hallway lit by ghostly nterns. Somewhere within, ughter echoed. Lea moved forward, sword ready. Auger followed, his cane clicking on the stage-wood, his smile never leaving.