Jizo Mitama?
The plan to withdraw from the battlefield has completely failed.
As the Living Doll extracted all the Honkai Energy the earth's crust, the barrier was reborn in less than a breath.
Satou Yunona leaped out from the ashes of the [Ashes], carrying the boy with her.
As the two stood at the edge of the barrier, the normally aggressive Living Doll once again went into a daze, obediently kneeling on the messy ground, its kimono below its knees stained with dust and soil.
It now seems that the Living Doll may not possess the intelligence they previously imagined, and the reason for Living Doll behavior is likely related to the rituals of Kambara Village.
"... I'm sorry," the girl whispered to Su Qing'an, clearly a little disappointed.
In Satou Yunona's view, Su Qing'an, who had achieved such a level of performance with such poor Honkai Energy resistance, was already quite remarkable. On the contrary, she herself, who had been chosen by Honkai and transformed into Pseudo-Herrscher, had failed to complete even such a simple task, which made her seem rather useless.
Moreover, this is all based on the fact that Su Qing'an paid such a price.
Su Qing'an stood up. His strength was gradually recovering. The first time he had experienced the Stigmata clearly extracting his life force had left him in a very dazed state. Perhaps this situation would improve as he got used to fighting with the Stigmata.
He said to the girl:
You did a great job.
"The Living Doll's trump card has been revealed, and the Honkai Energy almost completely depleted now. If that thing truly exists, you should be able to find it now."
In the instant the situation changed, Su Qing'an adjusted his mindset. He calmly analyzed the pros and cons and comforted the girl.
Unlike before, he silently recited the Sword Heart Technique, actively transforming all his anxiety and unease into nourishment for his sword heart.
He only used this tactic frequently back in Changkong City, when he was dealing with his first massacre and escape.
I am far from mature enough. Even though I understand that anxiety is pointless and will only make things worse, my emotions still run wild.
"Also, now is not the time to dwell on this." He paused, then continued.
"Mm." Satou Yunona nodded in response.
It's good that the Living Doll isn't attacking the two. According to human intelligence, continuing to harass and stall for time would be normal, but for the Living Doll, it seems that this is enough.
As long as the barrier is not attacked, it may remain in a state of inactivity.
The two sides seem to be playing a game called "Statues," fighting to the death one moment and now peaceful and quiet the next, almost like playing house.
It's not impossible to continue breaking the barrier, but Satou Yunona understands that this barrier is linked to all the Honkai Energy that the Living Doll can control. The barrier created by such a massive amount is not the same strength as the previous barriers, and it would take a lot of effort to break it.
In Su Qing'an's opinion, even if the barrier is broken, there is still a possibility of follow-up methods. Rather than waiting for the Living Doll to keep coming up with endless tricks, it would be better to kill it once and for all.
The two men knew that if the Kambara Family were simply elite Zombie, there was no way they could be defeated in a short time.
A shot to the lower limbs from a fully automatic rifle will render the Zombie incapacitated, and a shot to the head will result in immediate death.
In theory, with the added obstruction of electric fences and landmines, coupled with gunfire, the villagers could even be wiped out.
However, Su Qing'an could still sense a certain unease, which was the reason he chose to decisively use the Stigmata.
In retrospect, even though they didn't manage to escape the battlefield, forcing out the Living Doll's trump card and making Satou Yunona's search easier couldn't be considered entirely meaningless.
The Honkai Energy imprint left underground by the power was completely dispersed when the Living Doll pulled out a massive amount of Honkai Energy.
Satou Yunona is currently reintegrating her powers into the earth's crust, re-covering such a large area of the underground—a rather massive undertaking.
She was able to do it during the ten-minute gap before the Living Doll appeared. Perhaps she could do it faster this time with experience, but it would still take some time.
Five minutes later, the girl successfully sensed a strange Honkai Energy fluctuation deep beneath the shrine. The wavelength of this Honkai Energy was almost identical to the nearby Honkai Energy mist, but it was even stranger, based on the senses of Pseudo-Herrscher.
This is why Satou Yunona has been trying so hard to find it. The Living Doll is like hiding a drop of strange water in the ocean. If you don't dry up the ocean, it's just wishful thinking to try to find that drop of water.
Even the strongest Honkai Energy sensory ability would be useless in this situation, but without any cover, Satou Yunona found it very easily.
That thing that only existed in their assumptions actually exists.
The true nature of the Living Doll, or its origins, are right before our eyes.
The origins of the quest in Kambara Village have finally begun to have their mysteries unveiled.
If Su Qing'an hadn't decisively chosen to use the Stigmata, they might still be engaged in a meaningless battle with the Living Doll.
"Found it!" Satou Yunona said to Su Qing'an, who was keeping watch over the Living Doll beside her, her voice tinged with joy.
In this increasingly protracted battle, she finally found the key to killing the Living Doll, and of course she was happy.
"Thankfully, it wasn't an unexpected situation." Even the usually calm Su Qing'an couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
In their view, the key to the problem lies in the immortality of the Living Doll, and once this is broken, the Living Doll will be no threat at all.
Even with the Honkai Energy accumulated over ten years and the added benefit of this domain gradually eroded over five hundred years, the combat power unleashed by the Living Doll was still no match for that of Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
Even in terms of individual Honkai Energy fluctuations, it is not as strong as the Honkai Emperor, the strongest among the lower-ranking Honkai Beast. It is only its ability to manipulate the Honkai Energy environment that makes it somewhat troublesome.
Given their skill level, killing Living Doll wouldn't be difficult.
"Don't touch it directly yet. Gather all the Honkai Energy from underground and destroy it all at once," Su Qing'an cautiously decided.
Satou Yunona nodded her chin. She understood what Su Qing'an meant. If Honkai Energy were used to touch and grab directly, even Living Doll with a logical intelligence that leans towards mechanization would not be indifferent to something that concerns the very essence of its existence.
However, directly concentrating all the Honkai Energy destroy it could potentially allow for a quick victory and end the battle.
Satou Yunona's control over Honkai Energy is highly advanced; countless tiny roots slowly extend into the vicinity of that object, quietly meandering within a ten-meter radius.
She was very careful. Living Doll would definitely value its own existence, so a ten-meter distance was necessary.
These roots were all shaped by power, but at this moment, Satou Yunona reversed them all and transformed them back into pure Honkai Energy.
Honkai Energy, like trickles of water, converges into vast rivers and seas.
Then it condenses and compresses.
The Pseudo-Herrscher possesses near-perfect control over Honkai Energy. Without needing to know any techniques for manipulating Honkai Energy, she can achieve results surpassing Su Qing'an's reverse analysis of the Void Sword Qi, and even do it better.
Finally, all the Honkai Energy collapsed into a fist-sized sphere.
By this point, Satou Yunona's attack could no longer be concealed. The Honkai energy Honkai Energy, with their terrifyingly high density, formed after the sphere was created, and even ordinary people would subconsciously feel uncomfortable here.
"How dare a mortal blaspheme against a god?" The Living Doll was discovered.
It was the same fixed answer as always, but the words conveyed by this will descending into the mortal realm now contained a more complex tone.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions.
The villagers of Kambara Village, who had worshipped Living Doll over the past five hundred years, spoke here with a highly overlapping pace and tone, traversing the long river of history and time.
"How dare mortals blaspheme against God?" Those words contained the fervor of countless saints, and their extreme and profound sorrow and anger.
It is sad that some people do not believe in God.
That was anger at someone trying to blaspheme the gods.
A purple glow shone from the ground, and the Honkai Energy produced a crisp and powerful explosion.
The ground trembled and cracked, and a faint light flickered in the darkness of the night. A huge roar raged underground, enough to prove the power of this attack.
That should have been a deafening roar, but the words of the Living Doll still surpassed that sound.
Their hearts sank.
The object was not destroyed, and the Living Doll remained unharmed, even being forced into a second form by them.
The fog dissipated, and the barrier shattered.
All the Honkai Energy surged into the Living Doll's body.
Beneath the ground, a red arm guard overcame all obstacles and entered the Living Doll's body along with the mist.
The Living Doll's appearance changed; it transformed from a beautiful young girl doll into a demon without any concrete form.
Its appearance could only be described as a demon or monster. Black and red mist formed half of its enormous body, and the tattered arm armor it wore looked like decoration. It carried a huge katana wreathed in flames.
Although they had guessed that it wouldn't be so easily broken, this change was still unexpected for both of them.
It's perfectly normal for a boss to have a second form in a game, but it's not so interesting to encounter such a thing in real life.
Moreover, its appearance is too similar to the boss Jizo Mitama in the Honkai Impact 3rd game; it's practically a simplified version of it.
His current physical strength is insufficient to unleash his full combat power, while the Living Doll in this state should be stronger than before, a situation where one side is stronger than the other.
Purple flames flickered and burned in the empty eye sockets of the Living Doll. It stared indifferently at the two of them and raised its katana.
"How dare a mortal blaspheme against the gods?" it said, its voice like the tolling of a bell.
The scarlet katana swung down, with stray black flames scattering and falling in the process.
It felt like the final judgment.