Savior in Shadow Slave

Murphy and cohort walked silently and cautiously in the Coral Labyrinth.

Everything was fine until Coral Labyrinth suddenly fell silent.

From the crimson coral stepped a figure—tall, slender, and wrong.

Six arms unfolded like knives in a dancer's grip. Its porcelain mask was cracked, its surface crawling with hairline fractures that leaked faint blue light. Limbs stitched from mismatched bodies moved with eerie grace—jerky yet fluid, like a puppet that had learned how to dance without its master.

It tilted its head, and the sound came—laughter, broken and layered, six voices speaking in dissonance:

"Ahhh… four little humans. Four little lights after such a long time. How… delicious."

Murphy's voice cut through the whispering fog.

"Positions."

Akame strode forward, Midnight Shard humming faintly in her grip. Her Aspect—[Aegis]—flared like a broken halo, ready to receive every pain there is.

"Six arms? Indeed, a weird creature. It's like a doll."

Lucas crouched low, spear ready. His breath was calm, but his eyes burned like sharpened steel.

"Just give me an opening."

Elizabeth pressed a trembling hand to the serpent curled around her. It hissed, its scales glowing with runes, her Aspect [Hated] twisting her hate into a pulse of healing.

"Stay close," she whispered, though no one knew if it was to the serpent or herself.

The Marionette stopped—then clapped its hands. The sound was sharp as breaking bones.

"Shall we dance?"

And the world exploded into chaos.

The Marionette blurred forward. Its movement was wrong—an erratic rush that bent the air, arms scything down in six perfect arcs from six impossible angles.

Akame met the first three strikes head-on. Steel clanged. Sparks screamed. Her Aspect absorbed the blows and reversed it with twice the power, and when the backlash came, she grinned through bloodied teeth as her counterforce detonated—launching two of the Marionette's arms wide.

"Not bad for a doll," she hissed.

But the Marionette twisted in midair, its body bending backward like liquid bone, the other three arms spinning into a spiral of cuts. Akame barely ducked, losing a strand of her hair as steel carved the mist behind her.

Lucas moved.

He dove low, sliding under the Marionette's legs, his spear carving deep slashes along its tendons. Some strange liquid hissed where it spilled, but the creature didn't falter—instead, it laughed.

One voice cried like a child. Another giggled sweetly. Another roared like a berserker.

All at once.

Lucas was gone again before the counterstrike landed, leaping off a coral root while using a poison on the tip of the spear to rain a storm of blows on its back.

"Two deep cuts—Akame, now!"

She didn't need to be told twice. She spun, Midnight Shard roaring in her hands, its unyielding edge cleaving through one of the Marionette's arms in a shower of liquid and porcelain dust. The severed limb twitched on the ground like a dying insect.

The Marionette didn't scream.

It sang.

"Arms are plenty… arms are plenty… arms—"

The stump split.

And from the wound, two new arms burst out, glistening and raw.

"Of course it regenerates," Akame spat, wiping blood from her mouth.

The White serpent moved like lightning, coiling around the Marionette's torso and neck, constricting with crushing force. Silver runes burned along its scales as Elizabeth's Attribute surged, her hate feeding its vitality. The hiss was a roar of hatred, as if the serpent itself loathed this puppet.

"Hold it—just hold it!" Elizabeth screamed, blood leaking from her eyes as she poured everything into the bind.

The Marionette jerked and thrashed like a broken doll on invisible strings, the liquid flowing where the serpent crushed its flesh. But instead of panic, it tilted its head toward Elizabeth.

And three more mouth sprouted from its neck and crotch.

One mouth smiled.

Another wondered.

And a third one lunged, its neck stretching grotesquely, jaws snapping inches from her face—before the serpent crushed it into the ground with a bone-shattering crack.

Elizabeth staggered, panting.

Lucas dove in, his Aspect peaking through it's infrastructure, spear cutting exactly where it was supposed to cut. Cuts blossomed across the Marionette's torso, shredding porcelain skin and splattering black liquid in violent arcs. But even bleeding, even broken, the creature laughed—its voices layering into an unholy chorus that rattled the coral trees.

Then the laughter stopped.

And the world went still.

The Marionette's body split down the middle.

Then again. And again.

The six copies spread across the crimson clearing like predators circling prey. Each moved with a twisted grace, dragging behind the broken echoes of warriors they once devoured.

One wielded a spear that hummed with phantom lightning. Another swung a cracked greatsword big enough to cleave coral in half. A third scuttled low like a beast, four limbs pounding against the roots with disturbing speed. The remaining three smiled through masks shattered enough to show fragments of human faces beneath.

Lucas swore under his breath.

"Six of them. And each feels like an Ascended."

Murphy didn't blink.

"They're similar to echoes. They only fight well if you let the main body control the rhythm." His voice was calm, sharp as cold steel.

"Akame—take the greatsword. Your Aspect will eat that weight alive. Lucas—spear first, don't let it set range. Elizabeth, mark the crawler; your serpent holds it while you bleed the others. You don't have to worry about injuries I will heal them."

His eyes flicked to each of them in turn.

"Focus. If any of you breaks formation, you all die."

The words weren't loud. But they anchored like chains in the storm.

"Understood," Akame said, rolling her neck as Midnight Shard glimmered like obsidian fire. Her hair clung to her blood-streaked face, but her eyes burned with savage clarity.

"Six arms to six bodies—it really went from bad to worse."

Lucas lowered his stance, spear vibrating faintly in his grip. His Aspect bled through as he started analyzing the weak points.

Elizabeth wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her trembling hand. The White Serpent coiled around her waist like a living blade, its runes pulsing bright, eager, hateful. She whispered under her breath—not a prayer, but a pact.

"They must die. All of them must die."

The Six-Armed Marionette clapped—or rather, all six bodies clapped at once, a mocking ovation that cracked the silence like brittle bones. Their laughter overlapped into an unholy choir.

"Ahhh… how pretty your hope is. How breakable."

Murphy's voice cut through the madness like a cold wind.

"Engage."

And all hell broke.

Akame slammed into the greatsword mimic head-on, her Aspect flaring in a violent burst. The first clash was seismic—steel screamed, shards of coral flew like shrapnel, and the Marionette's blade shattered while pretty much every bone in her broke.

A wave of sacred and holy light washed down as her broken bones and torn muscles mended.

The backlash detonated through the mimic, sending it careening into a crimson pillar.

"Thank god, you pack a punch." Akame roared as [Midnight Shard] drew her latent power, swinging it in an arc that carved a trench through the earth.

Lucas blurred forward, his spear precise. He only striked once—but exactly at its weakest point. Tendons snapped, porcelain cracked, black liquid sprayed in a spiraling halo as the spear mimic reeled back, shrieking through a broken mask.

"Engage it, Lucas!" Murphy's command came low and sharp. "Don't let it get its footing back!"

Lucas obeyed without hesitation. He pivoted, slicing the mimic's thigh with a low sweep before leaping over its counterstrike. His boots landed on coral as he coiled for another lunge.

"Akame, aim for the for the mask! Two steps left—NOW!"

She moved on instinct. Midnight Shard met the spear mimic's mask mid-spin. It shattered like brittle glass. The body twitched, spasmed—and stilled.

"One down," Lucas barked. His breath steamed like smoke.

But the crawler was already moving. A blur of pale limbs and snapping jaws tore through the crimson roots toward Elizabeth.

The serpent went straight into its mouth without hesitation.

Runes ignited, silver-white, as Elizabeth's Hate surged into boundless vitality. The crawler shrieked, thrashing violently, its limbs gouging deep furrows into the earth as the serpent ate it from within.

Elizabeth staggered, blood trailing from her nose, but her grip was iron.

"Eat it in its entirety," she hissed, voice shaking with venom. The serpent obeyed, its head appeared from within, black liquid geysering like tar under pressure.

The mimic's mask cracked. And from the fissure, a human eye stared out, wide, trembling, pleading.

Elizabeth froze. Just for a second.

It was enough.

The mimic's neck elongated in a grotesque whip, jaws snapping toward her face—

"DOWN!" Murphy's voice filled with [Nirvana], shattered the hesitation like a blade.

Elizabeth dropped as Lucas vaulted past her, his spear severing the mimic's head in a single whiplash strike. The crawler spasmed, the serpent crushing its head.

"Focus!" Murphy's tone was ice now. "They're wearing skins to break you. Don't let them in."

Akame laughed, wild and blood-slicked.

"Too late for tricks!"

She cleaved through another mimic, its stolen axe shattering in sparks as her Aspect detonated point-blank. Porcelain shards rained down like snow.

[Sacrifice] had already healed her every wound.

Three down.

Three left.

The remaining mimics tilted their heads in eerie unison. Then, their bodies convulsed. Cracked porcelain split open like eggshells. Black liquid spilled. Arms twisted, spines snapping, bone and silk knitting into a single monstrous shape—

A towering figure of limbs and masks, twelve arms writhing like serpents, its head a lattice of grinning faces.

Lucas exhaled through clenched teeth. "Of course it fuses too."

Murphy stepped forward then—not into the fight, but into command, his shadow stretching long across the crimson ground. He said, his voice soft as frost.

"Akame anchors. Lucas—cut every joint that moves. Elizabeth, bleed it until the serpent finds the spine. Do NOT lose rhythm."

And they obeyed.

Akame met the charge with a roar, her Aspect detonating like a cannon blast.

Her batter body healed anew by Murphy everytime.

The fused monster staggered, twelve arms flailing as Lucas tore into its legs in a cyclone of steel. Elizabeth's serpent coiled like living lightning, runes blazing as its fangs sank into the writhing spine.

The Marionette shrieked, a chorus of six hundred voices screaming in layered agony.

"NOW!" Murphy's voice cracked like thunder.

[Midnight Shard] roared in Akame's hands as she severed three arms in a single arc. Lucas's spear spun into fatal precision, carving deep into the creature's throat. Elizabeth drove her dagger into the crack between masks and twisted with everything she had.

Something broke. The sound was deafening.

The fused Marionette convulsed once. Twice. Then collapsed in a heap of shattered masks and twitching limbs.

[You have slain a Fallen Devil, Corpse Collector.]

[You have received an Echo]

Silence.

Only their breathing filled the crimson mist.

Akame stood first, soaked in black liquid, her grin feral.

"Was that… fun? Or did I hallucinate that part?"

Lucas leaned on his spear, panting. "If that was fun, I don't want to see your idea of relaxing."

Elizabeth just sank to her knees, blood on her lips, the serpent curling around her like a tired guardian.

Murphy stepped into the ruin at last, his coat spotless, his gaze unreadable.

'Who created it? It's just like 'that'. Albeit a bit different.'