"You don't mean..." Song Yunyi swallowed with difficulty. "We-we have to..."
Bo Yi nodded, shattering the players' last hopes. "We have to help 'her' win..."
The instance's "intentions" were actually fairly easy to guess: after all, these two "Maidens" were clearly locked in a fight to the death, and only one could survive in the end. If the original "Maiden" won, they would effectively still have failed to "worship the Maiden."
So only by helping the "Maiden" they had worshipped win this battle and become the true, one and only "Maiden" could they actually complete their task.
After hearing Bo Yi's explanation, the players understood on a rational level, but emotionally... They looked toward the center of the room, where the two Maidens, one large and one small, faced each other in a standoff-if they ignored the villagers crawling all over the floor between them. Their "Maiden" had grown enormous after receiving their worship and offerings, yet compared with the Maiden Statue seated high on the platform, she was still several sizes smaller.
"How... how are we supposed to help?!" They weren't even in the same size class! How were they supposed to fight?
"And..." Bo Yu began worriedly, "according to the notebook, that 'Maiden' has been receiving offerings from generations of villagers. All those years of accumulated power..." Even setting aside faith, which the players hadn't actually provided at all, the offerings she had received and the number of arms already revealed behind her far exceeded those of the "Maiden" they had worshipped.
"The number of arms..." Bo Yi murmured, repeating Bo Yu's words. As if something had suddenly occurred to him, he turned to the other players. "I know what to do..."
"Help me hold those villagers back."
"Huh?" The others glanced at the villagers, who no longer