Clash of Domains

“Huh?!”

The doll stood utterly bewildered.

She had considered countless possibilities for what this Luo Zhen character might attempt: perhaps capturing her to meticulously analyze her composition, or feigning retreat only to scheme in secret, or even proposing a joint research venture to create that ‘Alice’ figure.

Yet, the one thing the doll had never anticipated was a marriage proposal. What was happening?

Sally felt her centuries of accumulated experience were insufficient to process this.

More importantly, as a man—even if his current doll body was beautiful—he was fundamentally still male. A man being proposed to by another man!

The sheer awkwardness of it all… Sally felt her entire being was thrown into disarray.

A shiver-inducing note echoed endlessly in her mind: ‘YOOOOOOOOOO~~~~~’

“Please, wait a moment.”

Taking a slight step back, the doll raised a slender hand to rub her brow.

Her usually gentle smile was replaced by a rare expression of bewildered frustration, tinged with a distinct chill.

“Are you saying that as a puppeteer, you wish to propose marriage to an alchemical doll who is also an Ancient One?”

“Yes! Precisely! This distressed response, completely devoid of self-governing program traces—ah, it’s absolutely marvelous! Forgive me, I’ve lost my composure again. I truly love you, beautiful Miss Sally! Let us together create the miracle of the doll world—Alice!”

Gazing at Luo Zhen’s fervent, vacant smile so close to her, the doll felt a sudden chill run down her spine.

Her alchemical body, an artificial creation, surprisingly showed signs of breaking into a sweat.

“Y-you… please put away the flowers first. That… I’m truly sorry, but I have no intention of forming a partnership with anyone at the moment. If it’s merely an exchange of alchemical golem techniques, I could still…”

An uncontrollable sense of dread caused the doll’s words to falter.

Before the doll could finish, the kneeling blonde youth’s expression fractured, revealing a hollow, icy demeanor.

“Why? As a puppeteer, I’ve already knelt and proposed to you. How can you, a doll, still refuse? This isn’t right.”

His fragile reason was torn to shreds by an inner madness.

Luo Zhen’s aura shifted from one of slightly wild gentleness to utterly twisted insanity.

The vibrant red roses in his hand began to wilt, and from them, slender, bright pale blue demonic threads extended.

The doll’s brow furrowed.

With a light step, she retreated ten meters in the blink of an eye, then nudged Rao’s leg, urging the already stunned horse to flee.

“Puppet strings? You had ill intentions just now! If I had hesitated and taken the rose, you would have used them to control my body, wouldn’t you?”

With a frown, the doll, having recovered from her frantic state, began to emanate an aura.

Greyish-white energy swirled around her, and the clothes beneath her black hooded cloak subtly began to transform.

Luo Zhen did not answer the doll’s question. Instead, he continued to murmur in a hollow voice.

“How can a doll refuse a puppeteer’s request? I merely wanted to give you some face… but now it seems… I must capture you. All of this is for Alice. Yes, for my perfect Alice. So even if I dismantle you, as a fellow doll, you should feel honored, shouldn’t you?”

Watching Luo Zhen, surrounded by pale blue puppet strings and displaying a hollow, fractured face, the doll laughed in exasperation.

‘Another soul twisted by the pursuit of a so-called “ideal”…’

“Heh heh… so you’ve finally revealed the true face of your mad and obsessive soul? I thought you were just a fanatical doll enthusiast, but I never imagined you’d be a lunatic driven mad by an ethereal ideal! A truly perfect genuine article simply doesn’t exist! Immersed in your pathetic, illusory dream, you will only drown yourself in the end!”

“How could that be? I’m not a madman… So just let me catch you, my naughty little doll.”

His hollow words droned on, a constant murmur, like self-affirmation or perhaps… hypnotism.

With a fractured smile, Luo Zhen brandished his threads and charged towards the sneering doll.

The scythe named Nightmare appeared in the doll’s hand, its blade wreathed in the shrieks of vengeful spirits, as it swung towards that twisted, obsessive soul.

“As a puppeteer, you charge at a demon swordsman without your dolls? Has your twisted ideology completely fried your brain?”

The threads, capable of effortlessly slicing steel, were utterly fragile before the mist-shrouded scythe.

The rapidly spinning blade easily cleaved through the intercepting threads, sending the still-recovering puppeteer flying.

“Cough, cough… It’s fine… Those imperfect dolls were long ago destroyed by me… Since my attacks can’t match yours… then unfold… my domain!”

The puppeteer, kicked away by a black boot, leaned against a large tree, revealing an even more twisted smile.

The next moment, the world transformed.

A world centered around Luo Zhen instantly unfolded like a singularity exploding.

Endless yellow sand replaced lush green grass, and a ruined ancient city supplanted the dense forest.

Countless alchemical automatons—some broken, some intact, some grand, some simple, some massive, some tiny—rose from the sand, their inorganic eyes fixed on the two figures who had entered their world.

It was a world of twilight, where the golden sun dipped in the west, casting a layer of gold upon the countless crumbling ruins scattered across the sandy ground.

Amidst the swirling sand, the doll carefully hovered, clad in a dark demon-hunting suit, her silver-grey eyes fixed on the faceless figure resembling Luo Zhen, who stood atop a crooked spire.

“This is my N-Domain! In this domain, you cannot escape! Become my obedient experiment!”

Though it had no mouth, a hoarse voice emanated from the faceless figure on the spire, radiating malice towards the doll.

“A Mental World, then… This ruined ancient city’s decorative style… It seems you’ve inherited the legacy of the ancient Arcane Empire concerning automatons. And this ghastly faceless appearance of yours… You are ‘Deceitful Faceless’!”

The faceless figure, clad in a magnificent silver-embroidered robe, let out a grating, guttural laugh, like machinery that hadn’t been oiled in centuries.

“To think you’ve heard my name from millennia ago, this truly delights me.”

The faceless monstrosity on the spire waved its large sleeve.

The next moment, every automaton, both in the sand and among the ruins, rose to its feet, their hollow eyes locking onto Sally, who floated mid-air.

Deceitful Faceless was a morally ambiguous puppeteer active centuries before the doll’s own era. At his peak, his power neared that of a Saint.

He earned his name for his elusive appearances, often using faceless automatons as his proxies.

His actions were purely dictated by his whims; he might save people if in a good mood, or slaughter hundreds of innocents if in a bad one.

Ultimately, he sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people from a small nation in pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone.

This led two Saints of that era to track him down to his true form, where he was gravely wounded and subsequently vanished.

“However, after countless years, I am no longer the confused individual I once was. Now, my sole purpose in existence is to create the perfect maiden, Alice, in my mind. How could someone as devoted as I fail? How could such a sacred endeavor be thwarted?”

“Therefore, for my magnificent achievement, I ask you to become my property! Automata, attack! Seize it!”

“Do you truly think you’ve got me cornered? Alas… those madly devoted to an ideal are truly unreasonable.”

Sally sighed profoundly as she watched the multitude of automatons charging at her in a pincer movement.

The next moment, a blood-red moon descended.

The perpetually ethereal Nightmare Barrier finally bared its bloodthirsty fangs, violently colliding with this sandy world.

Around them, the air began to crackle with an unbearable, grating sound as the domains clashed.

“Do you know why nightmares inspire fear? Because they are inescapable!”

The dreamlike white flower sea now displayed a terrifying invasiveness.

Countless white blossoms began to spread, blooming everywhere: on the automatons, across the vast yellow sands, and upon the crumbling bricks.

The charging automatons stumbled and fell anew.

The boundless yellow sand transformed into mud, the ruins of heritage turned to stubborn rock, and even the golden sun in the sky was fragmented by the encroaching mist.

“Had this been Deceitful Faceless in his prime, I might not be able to contend with him now. But an obsessive remnant soul from a thousand years ago…”

Sally’s voice grew cold again as she looked at the faceless figure, now completely ensnared by flower vines and rendered silent.

“Then allow me to play the final movement for your mad dream!”

‘Shatter… this madman’s dream.’

In the stagnant air, a deep sigh and an excited chuckle seemed to echo.

The scythe’s handle struck the void heavily, and crisp shattering sounds instantly rang out in succession.

The world shattered.

A colossal black fissure tore across the heavens and earth.

The laws of the current reality surged in madly.

In mere moments, the two domains that had fiercely clashed were torn apart, returning to their respective origins—one shattered, the other intact.

The scene reverted to the depths of the dense forest.

The puppeteer, who moments ago had been utterly frenzied, was now plunged into a deep coma.

‘Having dreams is commendable, but illusory dreams only harm oneself and others, especially for someone as obsessive as you…’

‘Give some thought to how you’ll live your life now that I’ve shattered your mad dream…’

‘Alas…’

The doll cast one last profound glance at the pale-faced Luo Zhen, then pulled up her hood once more and vanished into the deep night.