Miss Lathers probably thought Shade's strength would not hold out for long, so she quickly climbed onto the giant's chest. She noticed concealed seams on the puppet's chest and pried open the wooden cover with her longsword, revealing a dazzling heart-shaped ruby inside the puppet's chest.
The ruby was not especially large. For a puppet the size of a palm, it was roughly the size of a pendant.
She stretched out her hand and tried laboriously to remove the ruby, only to find that it was wedged tightly inside the giant's chest cavity and would not budge:
"Miss Lathers, please hurry!"
Shade shouted from the ground. The giant's body had begun to shake violently. Though Shade was not losing in the contest of strength, the binding effect of the Great Sin Chains was about to wear off.
"It's stuck too tightly!"
Miss Lathers shouted back. She tried to pry out the ruby with her longsword, but that did not work either. Looking more closely, she realized that the ruby had been glued in place:
"Oh, this damned puppet!"
The Sorceress muttered rather ungracefully, then extended her wooden palm:
"Fire!"
A faint flame appeared in the puppet's palm. The fire also scorched the puppet's body, but fortunately, the puppet body could not feel pain.
The flame melted the hardened glue. Once the glue had melted away, the ruby was removed as well. The giant's body crashed down, and Shade hurriedly dodged to avoid being crushed:
"Laguerre's Leap!"
He appeared beside the corpse, caught the panicked Miss Lathers as she fell, and carried her away from the dangerous area before the giant could collapse completely:
"I'm fine."
The injured puppet, Miss Lathers, found it difficult to stand, but Shade helped her to her feet. She showed him the heart-shaped ruby, her black