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It began with a voice...
“Please, come to Hotel Krat,” a voice said.
And so, waking up, walking out of the confines of its slumber... the puppet obeyed.
It picked up a broken lamp and attached it to its waist.
It took a weapon and looked at its expressionless face in the reflection of its blade.
It pushed open the door of the train wagon and stepped out into a rainy night.
And then...
It began to take down any obstacles that stood in the path that had been set, one it obediently followed.
Death… is a concept puppets cannot understand.
It is not within their programming to wonder about anything other than what they’re being told to do.
For Geppetto’s puppet, it is simple.
Fight, lose, rewind and try again, win, move on to the next task at hand. Repeat and do as ordered.
Now, the Parade Master was yet another obstacle towards its path to Hotel Krat, preventing it from reaching its goal.
Thus, it raised its blade, preparing for battle.
The sound of the gigantic, headless shell of the frenzied puppet falling on the floor in a broken pile of metallic flesh was but a faint echo, as Geppetto’s puppet continued to run towards the Hotel, a beckoning light far in the background.
“Use the Stalker’s key to open the bridge door. Then get rid of the frenzied puppets that have seized City Hall. We’ll catch up at Hotel Krat when you’re done,” someone ordered.
And so it complied, going on its task as instructed.
In truth, it was not something the puppet had intentionally done.
Krat was filled with chaos and destruction, bits and pieces everywhere that could always be useful. It was only logical that the newly awakened puppet bent down and collected whatever that seemed to be interesting or found useful; be it a liquid vial, or a small rusty cog, or even a scrap of paper torn out from a newspaper.
While climbing up and down the tall buildings that made up the previously flamboyant city of Krat, Geppetto’s puppet’s eyes landed on a blue twinkle that softly shone, almost indistinguishable and hidden in a corner between two half-destroyed walls. Despite the orders given by its creator - of utmost importance no less -, Geppetto’s puppet still stopped short in its run and turned left into this little nook, then it crouched. It made sure that the metallic fingers of its Legion Arm did not inadvertently crush whatever it had discovered as it brought it closer for further inspection.
It was a small rock, glittering and shimmering softly, refracting blue light on its Legion Arm and giving it an almost fairytale-like glow.
The puppet found this rock fascinating for reasons it did not understand.
But it had already delayed its primary orders for far too long. Thus it did not question itself further. If it was harmless, then it would suffice. With such logical reasoning, it ended up putting the little glowing rock in its small back pocket, near where Gemini was attached.
Furthermore, It might have its use later, Geppetto’s puppet noted as it resumed its path towards what its creator had said to dispose of.
And if it ended up being but a useless trinket, then it would not do any harm to keep it stored away.
…Nor would it impede its missions should it omit to report this little rock to its creator.
Slain by an enemy.
Respawn at the nearest Stargazer.
Run back to where the puppet fell.
Destroy whatever comes in its path.
Geppetto’s puppet did not know why it crushed the small beautiful rock above this big chalice filled with glowing azure water. The dust it produced glimmered for a while before falling, making contact with the liquid and erupting in icy flames.
Looking far in the distance, it scanned itself, listening closely to the soft clatter inside its body. After a small moment, it finally concluded that its springs turned seamlessly, well-oiled and in no need of maintenance.
However, perhaps a few screws had loosened as batons rained down on Geppetto’s puppet, the metal under its synthetic skin creaking as blow after blow from those policemen puppets’ weapon mercilessly hit its body, until it broke and respawned anew at a Stargazer. This was probably why Geppetto’s puppet had stopped shortly before the entrance of Krat City Hall to take out this small rock it had silently stored away without being told to do so.
An urge to crush it - a small pull inside its complex machinery, a loose string suddenly stretched taunt -, Geppetto's puppet did just so, the stone easily shattering into dust.
Ultimately, Geppetto’s puppet had deemed that this seemingly faulty spring was not problematic enough to be considered necessary to report. It could still fight perfectly well and the piles of broken puppets left behind were a clear proof of its usefulness.
Its Legion Arm frizzled and twitched as Geppetto’s puppet pushed the heavy doors open and it readied its weapon, preparing itself for a hard battle as the towering body of an electrified policeman came crashing down on the ground, roaring a corrupted mess of sounds and claws cutting down the sculpted tiles beneath it.
Geppetto’s puppet immediately rushed forward, not wanting to waste any second, unwilling to let the gigantic frenzied puppet gain an advantage by landing the first hit.
However, Geppetto’s puppet was almost taken off guard by the second figure that came running alongside its left towards the Scrapped Watchman.
Geppetto’s puppet did not have the time to assess the second figure, only seeing that its glowing white hair shimmered under the moonlight as darkness swallowed any facial features the figure might have had, rendering them unidentifiable. Though the blue contour of a long coat could be noticed and in their hand, the figure held what could be identified as an umbrella.
Such objects would not critically damage its body, Geppetto’s puppet calculated. Coming up with such a conclusion, Geppetto’s puppet dismissed the dark figure altogether and instead, focused its attention on the obstacle it had to take down.
The first hit from Geppetto’s puppet onto the towering policeman was a successful strike, scrapping a part of its chest plate and leaving a heavy mark on the gigantic frenzied policeman. However, it only exacerbated its enemy further and, with a deafening roar, it stood up on its leg, smashing its fists on the ground with powerful strikes. Geppetto’s puppet managed to dodge to the right without taking any damage though pebbles flew around and narrowingly past its eyes.
Asserting the destroyed floor where it had stood a mere few seconds ago, now littered with holes deep enough they reached the soil beneath, Geppetto’s puppet could only ready its weapon again, waiting for an opportunity to ripost.
The Scrapped Watchman did not hit it again, preferring to slowly walk to the side, mirroring Geppetto’s puppet’s movements, each waiting for an opening to take advantage of. The whole area was utterly silent aside from the sound of rock being displaced, crunching under their feet as they seized each other up.
Suddenly, the sound of a ‘pop’ came out from behind the frenzied puppet. Just as abruptly, the towering puppet roared, the air around them vibrating with power. As it howled, the Scrapped Watchman jumped up high in the air and Geppetto’s puppet readied itself to leap to one side, raising its weapon in case it could somehow parry the incoming hit. But unexpectedly, its enemy did not come crashing down on him. Instead, the white-haired figure that had stood away from Geppetto’s puppet, up until now, came into view with his umbrella open and looking up at the Scrapped Watchman as it descended upon him with deadly accuracy.
Gracefully, the figure twirled around in a flurry of azure flashes, closing his weapon in the process and, with a hand behind his back, finished by pointing his umbrella towards his enemy. As the Scrapped Watchman’s body was about to touch the white-haired silhouette, the umbrella suddenly opened with a mighty flop! and the gigantic puppet comically bounced off against it, breaking its momentum and crashing on the floor, forcing the frenzied puppet to scramble about to recover its equilibrium.
The shadowy figure did not hesitate a single second: as soon as the umbrella deflected the hit, he ran towards the fallen puppet and thrust the tip of his weapon against its body, effectively puncturing holes at critical points such as joints or plates where cogs were most likely hidden.
Watching the scene unfold, Geppetto’s puppet quickly recalibrated its assessment of the white-haired figure, switching the ‘Harmless’ label it had put on the dark silhouette to ‘Powerful Ally’. While doing so, it rushed forward to get a few hits as well while the enemy was down and poked by that umbrella.
By its calculations, Geppetto’s puppet’s chances of a successful mission suddenly increased by a large margin.
In the end, even when the Scrapped Watchman suddenly burst with electricity; even when shock forced Geppetto’s puppet to make a hasty retreat while its body momentarily malfunctioned, ridden with electric shock, the battle was easily won.
The faceless figure - despite being staggered and grabbed by the neck before being violently flung against the floor one, two, three, four times - always rose back from his prone form on the floor and came rushing back, almost as if completely unimpressed by the Scrapped Watchman strength prowesses. Enraged, the frenzied puppet’s moves became much more violent, solely focused on the white-haired figure.
Seeing an opportunity for victory, Geppetto’s puppet ran behind the Scrapped Watchman while it was focused on smashing the white-haired figure repeatedly into the ground, and hit its large body with all its force, cogs overheating with how fast they turned, each strike leaving a heavy dent on the policeman’s back. After a few more minutes of dodging the aftermaths of the frenzied puppet’s strikes raining down on the faceless figure and hitting the policeman's back until its blade could hit its core, the Scrapped Watchman finally fell down, lifeless.
Geppetto’s puppet, although low on Ergo, came out of the Hall relatively unscathed aside from a few scrapes here and there, its clothes stained by oil and a few burns from electric shock.
As soon as the Scrapped Watchman’s red eyes turned black, it turned around, marching towards the heavy doors down the hallway, needing to continue carrying out its mission, as ordered.
Its ally had disappeared as soon as the Scrapped Watchman’s body fell to the ground, shattering into blue dust and leaving nothing but a faint sensation of a dislocated joint into Geppetto’s puppet’s carefully crafted mechanical heart.
In the end, Geppetto’s puppet simply assessed that it could have gained a quicker victory if it had had the same umbrella weapon as the faceless figure.
As the puppet made its way into Venigni Works, it encountered more of those rocks.
Of course, the puppet took and stored them all inside its small back pocket.
If the puppet spent a few more minutes inside the factory searching for those small pieces of blue wonders, scattered around the corners of the building, the puppet judged that it would not affect the results of its mission.
King’s Flame, Fuoco, was an enemy to be wary of.
Geppetto’s puppet learnt it the hard way as it reappeared one more time at the Stargazer overlooking the giant pool of green liquid where Venigni hid away, near the entrance of Fuoco’s newly appointed rooms. Although its clothes thankfully remained on its body from one respawn to another, the smell of melted synthetic skin and burnt fibres still clung to the puppet as it ran back to the boss’ area.
And yet, the outcome still remained the same, no matter what it did; be it hit, dodge, parry, or even running away from the fire puppet’s burning attacks, nothing worked.
Geppetto’s puppet never managed to chip the frenzied puppet’s protective plates any more than a few miserable dents that resetted each time its body burnt down or got crushed under Fuoco’s heavy hammer.
It was only after the umpteenth time that, as the puppet almost ran inside the room once again - a light frown on its face being the only sign showing its displeasure -, the puppet finally acknowledged the familiar chalice.
As it remembered the way the ‘Ally’ had been a necessary help against the Scrapped Watchman, the puppet did not hesitate to put a hand in its back pocket and took out a single small rock that began to earnestly glow as it approached the blue chalice. With some force exerted with its Legion Arm, the remaining dust was sprinkled inside the chalice and the blue liquid was suddenly set ablaze, bathing Geppetto’s puppet’s face in a cold and yet comforting light.
With that done, the puppet once again traversed the brown mist that separated it from its enemy.
As soon as the puppet entered, the King’s Flame Fuoco awoke yet another time, menacingly raising its flamethrower and readying itself for battle. The puppet did the same, making sure to grind the blade of its own weapon with its Legion Arm before advancing inside the room, the shadowy figure appearing in a flurry of blue sparkles just beside it. Briefly glancing at the silhouette, the puppet analysed the figure’s apparel: aside from the weapon - now a giant sword that was surprisingly balanced on the silhouette’s slim shoulder -, he looked the same as before as he followed Geppetto’s puppet steps, his white hair swishing along with an invisible breeze.
Based on the puppet’s calculations, its chances of success rose by a significantly large margin once again and with a spring in its cogs, the puppet rushed forward, weapon at the ready with a determined expression on its face.
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The battle took much longer than necessary, but the puppet finally ended up victorious. A bit of Ergo still seemed to flow out of its body from where Fuoco had managed to crush a few internal structures, effectively breaking the puppet’s synthetic skin from where blue liquid flowed out, but it still was functional and as soon as its Pulse Cells were recharged, it would be as good as new.
Leaving the room with a pinched look on its face, the puppet changed once again the label it had put on the faceless figure, switching it from ‘Ally’ to ‘Occasional Asset’, remembering the way the figure had rushed in front of Fuoco and instantly died from overheat, leaving the puppet alone and scrambling away from the fire dump Fuoco threw at them.
The puppet had overestimated the figure’s strength, a mistake it ought to correct as it relabelled the figure inside its intricate programming, to be reminded of later if it needed to call for his help ever again.
The puppet had, as he travelled down deeper into the heart of St. Frangelico Cathedral, wondered what exactly was this faceless figure.
It was obviously linked to this glowing chalice with blue liquid that could burst into flames and those rocks he kept finding a bit everywhere around Krat, but aside from that, he was unable to come to any other conclusions.
He had considered asking his Father about it but said man was already very busy and a good boy should not bother his father when he was not requested, so he kept silent. As for Eugénie, Venigni and Antonia, they did not seem to know anything more; two of them being much more knowledgable about machinery than geology, while the puppet did not dare ask the Hotel’s owner, knowing those glowing rocks were not of natural origins. He also did not want to further dampen the woman’s mood by reminding her of anything that could be linked to her impending doom.
Unable to come up with any answers, the puppet fought his way inside the cathedral with those thoughts dancing inside his head, before finally facing the Fallen Archbishop Andreus.
This time, he did not hesitate to pull out a blue rock as soon as he saw the blue chalice standing just outside a beautifully sculpted wooden door.
With the fire raging inside the chalice, the puppet marched inside the room, knowing that despite the potential uselessness of the figure’s presence against a foe with Decaying abilities, he would take anything if it meant a step closer to victory. Unsurprisingly, the figure appeared with yet another great weapon heavily resting on his shoulder, the tails of his long coat silently flapping behind him as he ran with the puppet towards the decayed abomination in front of them.
The fight, as it turned out, ended up quite easily, the monster burnt down thanks to the Salamander dagger’s attributes that corroded the Fallen Archbishop’s green skin, coupled with several deep gashes that flowed out with pus, courtesy of the faceless figure’s weapon.
As the last words of Andreus’ regrets echoed in the large chamber, the puppet remained for a little while, looking at the dark silhouette that stood silently by his side. To say the puppet was curious was… well, the truth. As crucial as the figure had been in defeating Andreus by drawing the monster’s attention, while the puppet landed hit after hit as fire spread across the abomination’s skin, he was also wondering why the silhouette was helping him out.
Where did this faceless silhouette come from? Obviously from those rocks, though even Gemini seemed clueless about what those were.
Then, how did those rocks work? From what he knew, a rock could never create a tangible figure, let alone one that could move and fight without any clear orders given.
And... would the shadow become a threat should the puppet do anything the silhouette might consider wrong?
Did the faceless shadow have any ulterior motives?
He continued to look at the figure, who in turn seemed to look back at him, the only indication being that his face was turned towards the puppet. He had no eyes nor mouth and his white hair glowed so brightly it shone against the sharp blade of his trident that rested on his shoulder, the reflection sometimes catching on the wall in a wink of light, similar to Gemini, though much smaller and glaringly fiercer.
The puppet tilted his head, wondering what the figure would do. Maybe he would speak? Could it even do that? Never had he heard a sound come from the faceless shadow, even when he was roughly grabbed and thrown across the room, crashing against a wall with so much force it would have easily crushed the puppet’s sturdy metallic ribcage.
But no, the figure did not say anything.
Instead, he raised his chin, up and down, slowly, as if assessing the puppet.
The puppet’s eyes narrowed at first, wondering why the figure would nod at him without an inquiry first, but they suddenly widened, mouth slightly opening in earnest as he looked at himself and recalled the new clothes he had worn.
After battling Fuoco, the puppet had gone back inside the factory, hoping to find some more of those blue rocks before walking to the next area, logically thinking that it would be safer to have a few more of them should he ever encounter a dangerous foe.
Running around for a while, he had finally found in a far-end corner of the building a Trinity Room, where he had used the key gifted by Arleccino earlier on. The clothes he had found inside the safe had fit him perfectly and he had not hesitated to discard the partially burnt, partially oil-stained white shirt he had awoken with for the fancy blue tailcoat and white jabot decorated with a beautiful ruby. Gemini had praised his looks as he walked out of the room with his head lowered to look at his new pants and the beautiful blue colour adorned on his arms.
Unfortunately, after fighting so many carcasses, the beautifully embroidered clothes had suffered a few cuts and slashes and the ends of his sleeves ended up stained with green goo after so many mutated bodies exploding near him. However, it still looked beautiful and as he saw himself in one of the rare broken mirrors scattered around, the puppet had felt somewhat… something. As if his springs had stuttered before resuming their previous work, resulting in a small sway inside his chest that spread across his torso and inadvertently pulled the corners of his lips up.
Therefore, when the faceless figure seemed to look at his clothes, the puppet could not help but impulsively lift an arm, showing the beautiful intricate golden embroideries on his sleeves before turning a bit to the right to give a better view to the sides and the way it hug his waist without hindering his moves.
Truly, a perfect fit.
The dark silhouette seemed to agree as he suddenly began to nod in earnest and brought his hands together, clapping, though no sound came out from his action.
Nevertheless, it brought the puppet a feeling of warmth, a stutter in his springs once again.
As the white-haired figure began to disintegrate in a flurry of blue sparkles while he crouched with a hand on his chest, it nodded one final time, before winking out of existence, as if he had briefly existed only for the puppet alone.
The puppet stayed a bit longer inside the immense room, standing at the center near the Stargazer without doing anything despite the pool of Ergo brimming inside him, ready to be refined into strength. Only after a little longer, as he took the elevator down to the next area, did he allow himself to smile.
And it never disappeared as he listened to Gemini’s chirps while he looked at the sleeves of his coat once again, glowing with soft happiness.
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