The three followed the corridor into another room, but what was stored inside truly astonished them.
"What's going on? Why are there so many Xaviers here!?" Paimon looked bewildered at the Xaviers piled haphazardly in the room.
Shiki's pupils, however, instantly constricted to pinpricks. The scene before her reminded her of a plot from a certain play.
That's right, a dream indistinguishable from reality, soulless puppets, and… a brain in a jar…
At this moment, Shiki understood: Balladeer's target was actually her!
"Oh no!"
Shiki pulled the two of them and rushed out of the room, only to see a person suddenly appear at the doorway.
Wearing a straw hat, dressed primarily in purple, who else could it be but Balladeer?
Upon meeting him, Shiki immediately became tense, quickly entering a Selfless State. Not for any other reason, but because she hadn't even noticed when Balladeer had appeared there.
"Oh my, don't be in such a hurry to leave, my dear Shiki. You know, I've been looking forward to this scene for a long time."
"All the chess pieces played their part, but it took me a lot of effort to create dolls that could pass for the real thing."
Listening to Balladeer's words, Shiki suddenly thought of the deceased Hitomi Hanatani.
"The suicide incidents in Inazuma City, were they also your doing?"
"Naturally. Otherwise, how do you think an ordinary person would suddenly gain the ability to control souls?"
Balladeer had no intention of hiding anything. He wanted to infuriate her, causing her to lose her composure.
Shiki gritted her teeth, then opened her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and charged forward.
"Culprit!"
However, this was exactly what Balladeer was waiting for. Four illusory arms appeared out of thin air, firmly gripping the girl's limbs.
But Shiki was no pushover. The power of a Archon erupted within her body, and golden lightning instantly shattered the four illusory arms.
Yet, in that brief moment, Balladeer's fist had already pressed against her chest.
Bang!
Terrifying electro element exploded in her chest. With a single blow, Shiki was sent flying into the wall.
"Cough, cough..."
Coughing up a few trickles of blood, Balladeer truly lived up to his reputation as Raiden Ei's initial prototype. His strength was on the level of a Archon, far surpassing hers.
'So, the key to victory lies with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.'
Shiki gazed at the pitifully few lines of death on Balladeer's body, but in the next second, the black and red lines of death flickered a few times like a bad signal and then vanished.
???
'What's going on!?'
Before she could think, Balladeer was already walking towards her.
"Hmph hmph, you must have noticed it too, haven't you? Your Mystic Eyes don't seem to be working!"
"The abnormal Ley Lines combined with the artifact. The Overlay of the two is causing severe interference for you."
Of course, this was only directed at her; normal people were unaffected.
Shiki hadn't expected Balladeer to have modified the Ley Lines. Was Khaenri'ah's technology really that impressive?
"Turn to dust!"
At this moment, the Traveler transformed into lightning and rushed to Balladeer's side, then lifted her right leg high, injecting Geo element into the ground.
Spikes surged towards Balladeer in wave after wave, but he merely smiled dismissively.
"I'm not Childe. The moves you use against him won't work on me."
Saying that, a shield made entirely of lightning appeared around Balladeer. The Geo element spikes were pulverized the moment they touched it.
This overwhelming difference in strength left the Traveler slightly stunned. Could the difference in strength between Harbingers truly be so vast?
And at this moment, three spiraling sword lights appeared behind Balladeer.
It was Secret Sword: Tsubame Gaeshi!
"Hmph!"
Balladeer snorted coldly, and the illusory arms reappeared. Accompanied by three simultaneous clashes of metal, Balladeer remained unharmed.
This almost unresolvable Tsubame Gaeshi was thus broken by Balladeer.
Kujikanesada was firmly gripped by the illusory arms. No matter how much Shiki increased her electro element output, the opponent remained unmoved. It was clear that these arms were different from the initial four.
"How foolish. We're the same. If you can be immune to most electro element attacks, of course I can too," Balladeer mocked.
For example, just now, if his elemental output had hit the Traveler, she probably would have directly experienced "World, rejected me," but Shiki only suffered minor injuries.
The DMG caused by their elemental powers to each other was negligible. Now, it was a battle of who had stronger physical DMG.
Evidently, with electro element being almost immune and Mystic Eyes of Death Perception not working, Balladeer held the absolute upper hand.
Balladeer, both in elemental power and body, was comparable to a Archon. Just as Raiden Ei had said, the Shogun's construct was very sturdy, impossible to break no matter how much it was hit.
As a prototype, Balladeer was naturally the same.
"Hmph!"
Lumine imbued her wufeng sword with an Anemo element enchantment, then flung this Anemo element towards Balladeer.
The tornado and the electro element shield began to trigger a large number of Swirl reactions, and Shiki also felt the strength of the arms holding Kujikanesada weaken considerably.
Noticing this, Shiki quickly said, "Traveler, increase your Anemo element output! It can weaken his power!"
Upon hearing this, Souta threw out another tornado, and this time Shiki completely pulled Kujikanesada free from the illusory arms.
"Yo-ho, not bad, you actually discovered that."
"But you seem to have misunderstood one thing, and that is the gap between us!"
As his voice fell, purple lightning directly spread throughout the entire room. Souta, who was about to throw out a third tornado, was directly slammed into the wall.
"Ah!"
"Lumine!"
"You should worry about yourself first."
Although Shiki wasn't sent flying by the lightning, she wasn't feeling well either.
Twisting her body, she unleashed a reverse diagonal slash at Balladeer, but he lightly sidestepped the attack.
"I already told you, there's a huge gap between us!"
After dodging the slash, Balladeer's illusory arm suddenly shot out and clamped onto the girl's cheek, directly lifting her off the ground.
Shiki, lifted into the air, used all her strength to stab at Balladeer, yet...
Clang!
Kujikanesada struck the chest plate with a crisp sound, and then, this katana that had accompanied Shiki through countless battles, finally reached its limit.
Kujikanesada... broke...
"Tsk."
Balladeer clicked his tongue in displeasure. Even like this, she still wouldn't give up?
Bang, bang, bang...
Balladeer grabbed Shiki's back of the head and repeatedly slammed her into the ground. Soon, crimson bloodstains appeared on the floor, and the girl's face was also stained with blood.
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