The street of Ikebukuro was no longer a place for people; it was a factory for nightmares. Everywhere we looked, the air was filled with a chorus of clicking and popping sounds. It was a wet, sickening noise—the sound of human bones being forced to move in ways the body was never designed to go. The people on the street—regular salarymen who had been going to work, teenagers who had been shopping, and tourists who were lost—were being pulled by those glowing silver threads.
They moved like broken, wooden toys. Their heads were tilted at scary, sharp angles, and their limbs jerked with every tug from the sky. They weren't walking; they were being dragged by their own nervous systems.
"Don't hurt them!" I shouted, my voice cracking as the first wave of puppets closed in. They held whatever they had in their hands—briefcases, umbrellas, kitchen knives—like deadly weapons. "They're still alive in there! Look at their eyes! The Puppet Master is just using them as meat shields!"
Maki grabbed the hilt of her sword, her knuckles white. She didn't unsheathe the blade because she knew that even a blunt hit from her could kill a normal person. "If we don't hurt them, they'll kill us, Ren. That's how the Puppet Master wins this game. He uses your kindness and your heart against you. He wants you to hesitate so his dolls can rip us apart."
"We don't have to hurt them," Nobara said, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the forest of silver threads glowing in the dark. "We don't need to break the dolls. We just have to cut the strings that move them."
[NEW MISSION: THE CLIMB]
* Objective: Reach the roof of the Sunshine 60 Building.
* Condition: Minimize civilian casualties (Current: 0).
* Enemy: 200+ Puppets / The Puppet Master.
The Wall of Souls
The crowd of puppets rushed at us with a sudden, jerky burst of speed. They weren't fast like trained warriors, but there were so many of them that they looked like a sea of grey and black clothes. I stepped forward, feeling the weight of the [Soul Link] pulsing in my chest, and raised both my hands.
"[Gravity Repulse]!"
I made sure not to use the crushing, dark power of the Void. I didn't want to pulverize them. Instead, I sent out a soft, wide wave of purple energy. It felt like a massive, invisible wall of wind. The puppets weren't injured, but the force was enough to slide them across the pavement like hockey pucks. They piled up against the cars and buildings, their silver threads stretching thin but not breaking. It gave us exactly what we needed: a small, clear path to the front glass doors of the giant skyscraper.
"Run! Go now!" I yelled.
We sprinted through the doors, our boots thumping against the polished marble of the lobby. The elevators were dead—dark boxes of metal that would never move again. The only way up was the emergency stairs. Sixty floors. Thousands of steps.
"Toge, can you stop them?" I asked, gasping for air as we reached the first flight of stairs.
Toge looked back. The puppets were already crawling over each other to squeeze through the shattered glass doors. He pulled down his high collar, revealing the snake-and-fang seals on his skin. His face was dangerously pale from the fight with the centipede, but his eyes were like cold fire.
"HALT!"
The word hit the lobby like a physical shockwave. The entire crowd froze in place. Some were caught with one foot in the air; others were mid-crawl. The silver threads hummed and vibrated, glowing a bright, angry red as they tried to force the people to move, but Toge's word was a heavy iron lock on their muscles.
"Go! Go!" Nobara urged, grabbing Toge's arm to help him up the first few steps.
The Higher We Go
We started the climb. It was a journey into a special kind of hell. Floor 10. Floor 20. By the time we hit Floor 30, my lungs felt like they were filled with hot coals. Because of the [Soul Link], I wasn't just feeling my own pain. I could feel the fire in Nobara's legs and the sharp, stabbing ache in Toge's throat every time he breathed. We were sharing the exhaustion, which kept us from collapsing, but it made every second feel like an hour.
The stairs were tight and grey, lit only by the flickering emergency lights that cast long, scary shadows. On Floor 35, the lights failed completely. Suddenly, the silver threads started coming through the ceiling tiles. They weren't attached to people anymore; they were hunting. They moved like snakes, wiggling through the air, trying to snag our hair or our necks.
"Watch your necks!" Maki warned. She swung her sword in a blur of green light, slicing a thread that tried to snag her wrist. "If they touch your skin, the Puppet Master gets inside your brain!"
"He's playing with you, little King," Valthazar whispered, his voice like ice water being poured into my ear. "The Puppet Master is just the worm on the hook. The Architect is the one sitting in his chair, watching your heart rate climb. Why save the knight, Ren? If you let Megumi die, his points will go to you. You could reach Level 60 in a heartbeat. You could have the power to end this game right now."
"Shut up!" I growled out loud, my voice echoing in the stairwell.
"Ren? You okay?" Nobara asked, her voice tight with worry as she climbed beside me.
"I'm fine. Just the demon talking nonsense again," I said, wiping the salty sweat from my eyes. "We keep moving. We don't stop."
The 59th Floor
Finally, we reached the heavy metal door to the 59th floor. We were completely exhausted, our clothes soaked with sweat, and our cursed energy levels were blinking red in my vision. But as we pushed the door open to reach the final hallway before the roof, our hearts stopped.
Standing in the center of the wide, carpeted hallway was a figure we loved. It was Megumi Fushiguro.
But he wasn't the Megumi we knew. His spiky black hair was messy, and his eyes were wide, glowing with a milky, soulless white light. Four thick silver threads were attached to his wrists and ankles, pulling him into a stiff, combat-ready stance. Behind him, sitting on a floating wooden chair made of human bones, was a small, pale man wearing a colorful jester's hat with bells that didn't ring.
[TARGET: THE PUPPET MASTER]
[LEVEL: 62]
"Oh, look! The main actors have finally arrived for the final act!" The Puppet Master clapped his hands, and the sound was like dry sticks snapping in a fire. "I was getting so bored. Megumi is a very strong doll—one of my favorites—but he's so stubborn. He keeps trying to fight my strings from the inside. Maybe if he kills his best friends, he'll finally give up and let me have his soul?"
The Puppet Master flicked his fingers like he was playing a piano. Megumi's hands moved automatically, his fingers twisting into a complicated shape—the sign for his most dangerous shadow.
"Divine Dog: Totality!" Megumi said. The voice was his, but it sounded hollow, like he was speaking from the bottom of a deep well.
A massive, black wolf with fur like liquid ink and glowing red eyes emerged from the shadows of the floor. It growled, a sound so deep it made the windows in the hallway vibrate and crack.
"Megumi, stop! It's us!" Nobara cried out, her voice breaking.
The wolf didn't care. It lunged at us, its claws ready to shred anything in its path.
"He can't hear you, little girl," the Puppet Master laughed, his jester hat wobbling. "He's my masterpiece now. And soon, the Void-Walker will be my King. Think of the upgrades I'll be able to buy with a King's bounty!"
I stepped in front of my friends, the violet marks on my hands glowing with a heat that felt like it was melting my skin. I looked at the black wolf, then at the Puppet Master, and finally at Megumi's empty eyes.
"Nobara, Toge... get ready," I whispered, the Void beginning to swirl around my boots. "We aren't just saving Megumi. We're going to break every single string in this building."