Gray Marionette leapt backward, her metallic lower body scraping across the floor with a harsh grinding noise.
Phaga halted his attack immediately and turned to look back at Lycaon.
At the same time, Black Marionette also stopped her assault, ending her deadlock with Lycaon before leaping upward.
Her black, slightly wrinkled ballet skirt sliced through the air, sweeping right over Phaga's head.
After landing, the two Marionettes held hands and slowly retreated together.
Suddenly, a purple crack flickered into existence.
The moment the Twin Marionettes withdrew, the fissure tore open completely—
and in the blink of an eye, the two Ethereal figures disappeared.
The next instant, the Twin Marionettes reappeared at the center of the stage.
Hand in hand, the two Ethereals leaned against each other.
Sometimes leaping gracefully into the air, sometimes spinning across the dance floor—
as if to soothe the earlier tension, they displayed a level of refined dance performance worthy of a national banquet.
"What… is this?"
Ellen murmured, frowning in confusion.
[Hehehe!]
A mischievous laugh drifted beside her, and Ellen instantly remembered—
the black-and-white doll was still at her side.
Her heart tightened. She swung her blade at it!
But this time, the doll made no attempt to evade. Instead, it lifted its tiny hand.
Instantly, a mass of black water appeared in its palm.
It spread like a cushion.
The moment Ellen's scissors touched it, the blades sank inward, swallowed by the liquid. She couldn't drive them forward at all—
nor could she pull them back.
Ellen grit her teeth, eyes flashing with predatory intent as if she would lunge and tear the doll apart in the very next heartbeat.
But the black-and-white doll remained perfectly calm.
[Hehehe, Shark dear—possessing the ability to freely move through the 'Cleft Prison' means you finally qualify to truly fight the Twin Marionettes rather than be slaughtered like lambs.]
[But… it is only qualification. You've merely gone from getting beaten blindly to at least knowing where the blows come from. Defeating the Twin Marionettes? You are still very, very far away.]
[In other words… aside from angering the Twin Marionettes, you haven't accomplished anything at all!]
The doll's laughter grew wilder and more frenzied.
Ellen's heart jolted. She suddenly sensed something—
and snapped her gaze toward the Twin Marionettes.
Right at that moment, the dance reached its peak.
The Twin Marionettes clasped hands and began spinning—
and thousands of dark blades blasted out from beneath their skirts.
Like a swarm of locusts, they rushed away from the dance floor.
And the instant they left the ground, they plunged into spatial fissures scattered across the hall.
Like immeasurable quanta, the blades vanished into one fissure and erupted from another.
Nearly every fissure in the space activated at once, sending thousands of blades weaving and ricocheting between them.
A suffocating cloud of black steel hung over everyone's heads, heavy as dread itself.
Suddenly, Ellen's eyes snapped backward—
a spatial fissure had opened behind her, unleashing countless dark blades.
She instinctively tried to lift her scissors to block, but they wouldn't move.
She turned—and discovered the black-and-white doll practically hugging the scissors.
One side of the scissors was glued to its black-water body; the other side was chained to the ground, held fast.
The doll stuck out its tongue.
[Nope!]
[Unless Sharky sweetie calls me "dearest Black-and-White—AAH!!!"]
A cold gleam flashed in Ellen's eyes.
Her shark-bloodline ferocity surged.
Her grip tightened with explosive force—
shattering the doll's watery restraints.
The black-water chains snapped.
Ellen spun her giant scissors, swinging them in a dense, airtight arc—
clang clang clang—blocking the oncoming blades.
[My butt! You hit your big sis's butt! Miss Shark, be more gentle!]
Human emotions do not align—
Ellen's body was tense, mind focused to the extreme.
Meanwhile, the black-and-white doll was screaming, clinging helplessly to the scissors.
Stuck to the weapon, it had become her shield, taking the brunt of the assault.
Within seconds, several dark blades—launched by none other than its own master—had stabbed into its body.
The one lodged in its backside was especially accurate.
But under this endless pressure, Ellen had no room to spare for the doll's suffering.
Because the fissures connected—
the blades that had attacked behind her now burst forth from several different directions!
A mere glance told Ellen—
simply spinning the scissors would no longer be enough to block them all.
What now?!
Ellen bit down hard, her mind racing desperately.
Just then—
A miserable voice drifted from the blades.
[Ow… it hurts. The stink-vampire's rubbing off on me. Sharky isn't gentle at all.]
[I'm hiding in a water sphere for now.]
Before Ellen's stunned eyes, black water enveloped the doll entirely, shielding it.
Eh?!
Ellen blinked, then her eyes lit up.
She suddenly shouted,
"All of you—use your W-Engine attributes to shield yourselves!"
She slammed her blade into the floor—
[AAAH!!! My sister's butt!!!]
With the impact, the doll's water sphere burst instantly.
The dark blade already stuck in its backside drove deeper—
almost swallowing the doll whole.
Its scream echoed within the burst water.
Dozens of ice spikes erupted from the ground, fully shielding Ellen.
Hundreds of dark blades slammed toward her—
only to rebound and scatter across the floor.
The others followed Ellen's lead.
Lycaon stomped out ice spikes.
Rina wrapped herself in plasma.
Phaga coated himself in crystallized ether.
Corin...
looked around pitifully.
"What should Corin do…?"
Eous was even worse—falling flat on the ground, clutching her head and screaming,
"Phaga! Lycaon! Ellen! Help me!!"
The blades descended.
Corin gripped her chainsaw, ready to fight to the death.
"Corin will try her best!"
Eous shrieked with everything she had,
"Help!!!"
Whoosh—
Just as Corin swung her chainsaw, a sudden wind swept past.
A suspended pool of blood drifted into view.
"Huh?"
Corin gasped as droplets split away from it—
spreading out in the air, forming a protective net around her and Eous.
"[Blazing Sacrifice]!"
A deep voice rang from within the ether crystal—
and the sky filled with blood droplets erupted into roaring netherflame.
Every dark blade that touched the flame burned instantly and fell powerless to the floor.
"It's Mr. Phaga!"
The ether crystal shattered. Corin saw Phaga stepping out, and cried out joyfully.
"Corin, guard the Proxy."
Phaga said nothing more.
He wiped his right hand across the wound on his left palm and stepped forward.
The barrage of blades ended.
The Twin Marionettes had stopped spinning even earlier.
They now moved slowly with the softening music, as though waiting for the next crescendo.
"Tsk. How troublesome."
Phaga spread his wings.
"I can't let you two keep dancing. With these spatial fissures, any sustained ranged attack of yours becomes unbelievably difficult to handle."
"So…"
His eyes flashed.
He stepped forward—
—A spatial rift tore open.
A rift opened before the Twin Marionettes.
And Phaga emerged from within, right before them.
His vampire claw-blades sprang forth, netherflame blazing in their glow.
"Let's dance together!"