The ethereal limbs pierced through four different Carpenters, incapacitating them and throwing the puppeteer’s strategy in disarray. With their line of fire clear, the soldiers focused their spells on the ten fallen creatures, killing eight of them in one fell swoop. Now that they outnumbered and outmatched the creatures, the soldiers had no problem dealing with the remaining Carpenters on their own. Lith activated Life Vision to check what was happening inside the Marquis’ office before deciding what was the best course of action. Manohar’s and Mynna’s life forces were still active, which made him sigh in relief. ’A purple core Carpenter is the last thing I want to see. I wonder why whoever captured them didn’t escape while we were dealing with those flesh bags.’ Lith thought. ’I can answer that.’ Solus replied after assessing the situation with mana sense. ’I can sense two more Carpenters in there and they belong to a completely different league compared to the ones we faced before. ’Not only did they assimilate mages instead of nobles, but they are also taking their sweet time to arrange their bodies in the best possible way. With each second we are wasting here, they’re getting stronger and more efficient.’ "Did someone escape the perimeter?" Jirni asked via her communication earpiece. "Negative. We have captured and quarantined all those who came out of the house." A female voice replied. "This means we have a huge problem." Jirni said to the rest of the team. "If there was someone capable of defeating Manohar fair and square, they would have already left the room and rampaged their way out of here. So, either there is a secret passage leading outside of which we are unaware of..." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 "That’s impossible." Lith interrupted her. He needed to make haste, otherwise based on Solus’s reading soon the Carpenters would become so strong that he wouldn’t be able to defeat them without revealing his abilities. "I didn’t trust the Marquis’ word nor the house’s blueprints. Both Manohar and I searched the room with earth magic. No secret passages." "Or they are still holed up in there, waiting for us to fall into their trap." Jirni nodded, surprised by his unusual unrest. "I can’t think of many ways to take down a member of the Queen’s corps that fast. The most likely hypotheses are a traitor in our midst, an array, or both. We can deal with a traitor by shooting down whoever is still conscious, but an array is another story entirely. Lith?" Lith snorted in exasperation while walking toward the office and chanting the array detecting spell. ’Solus?’ He trusted her mana sense much more than a basic Warden spell. ’No array aside from those which protect the house. There is a strong residual mana, but it could be either because of Manohar’s spells or from whatever has been used to stun him.’ "Nothing. I still think it’s a trap. You guys remain here and prepare for the worst." Lith took a multi colored potion from one of his pockets and drank it in one gulp. It was a top grade alchemical concoction that temporarily boosted its user’s physical abilities to a magical beast’s level. Lith didn’t really need it, but it allowed him to use fusion magic without arousing suspicions. The moment Lith was about to touch the door’s handle, a huge clawed hand the size of a table pierced the hardwood up to its writs. Lith’s chest would have suffered the same fate if he hadn’t kept Life Vision active the whole time. Dodging the attack with fusion magic had been easy. Pretending to be unaware of the danger, not so much. He jumped back at the last second as a completely formed Carpenter charged out of the room, quickly followed by a second one. They were different from those Lith had faced before. They were humanoid creatures, around 2.5 metres (8’2") tall, with a blood red skin. They had extra mouths on both their abdomen and left shoulder. For a second, Lith thought they had some kind of blue halo around their head, before realizing they were a series of glowing eyes which allowed the creatures to see in every direction at all times. ’Those bodies are unnatural.’ Lith thought. They reminded him of Gadorf the Wyvern’s human appearance. ’Not even by using two like me as building materials, they could have muscles so thick and bones so strong. These Carpenters are the result of Body Sculpting.’ The first Carpenter opened his left palm, releasing a fireball at point blank. Once again, Life Vision saved Lith’s skin. Even if none of the creature’s mouths were moving, Lith had seen the mana amassing on its hand and moved accordingly. The blazing sphere missed its primary target and hit in the middle of the group. Lith’s companions managed to dodge only because they were distant enough from the caster to have the time to react. Tista used air fusion to come out of it unscathed, while Jirni was caught by the fringes of the explosion despite her timely jump. She had to roll to disperse the momentum. Dorian did the same, but without her training, the shockwave sent him crashing against a wall. ’Son of a gun!’ Lith thought as he extended his right hand and pretended to use the spells stored inside his rings while actually unleashing the true spells he had ready. ’He aimed the fireball so that if I dodged it, the spell would not go to waste. We must avoid lining up.’ A barrage of air blades struck where the major arteries were supposed to be while lightning bolts bombarded the Carpenter’s chest. They were supposed to turn it into a charred corpse, or worst case scenario to stun it long enough for the Plague Arrows behind them to cripple its strength. Lith felt his life was becoming a play about Murphy’s law when anything that could go wrong did go wrong. The air blade cut the Carpenter’s flesh to the bone, nearly chopping off its legs and head. Unluckily, not only did just trickle of blood spurt from such deep wounds, but also the cuts were so clean that regenerating them took the creature less than the blink of an eye. The lightning bolts struck their target, leaving behind only blackened dots as proof of their brief existence. The cuts and the bolts combined effects locked the creature into place, preventing it from dodging the Plague Arrows. The Carpenter used its giant right hand to intercept the darkness spells, swatting them like they were flies. The flesh on the limb rotted and fell, revealing that the hand was composed mostly of bones. The Carpenter activated its vortex. It both helped the creature to counter the Plague Arrows’ effects before the hand could fell off and left Solus astonished. ’This is really bad! A fully formed Carpenter can use both of its cores at once.’ She explained as the creature waved its healthy hand and unleashed the tier four War Mage spell Chasing Lightning. Five bolts of electricity came out of its fingers, with each lightning resembling a snake in both motions and appearance. Lith knew that dodging them was pointless. As their name implied, they wouldn’t let go of their prey. ’What does it mean?’ Lith replied while setting up his defense and sending invisible strands of spirit magic against the vortex to poison it. ’It means that the vortex is located in the secondary core, so even if you corrupt it with your mana, the Carpenter can still use it to accumulate a mother lode of world energy until the auxiliary core crumbles.’