Saintess? Not Anymore! I'd Rather be a Destroyer-Chapter 384 - 321: Puppet

"Umm girls." Christopher called out standing before the closed door.

"What is it?" Shuwi asked.

"Someone’s at our door." Christopher said. .

A voice from outside snapped, hot and impatient. "Elena challenged us to a fight, today’s the date! Come out if you dare!"

Aurianna’s frown deepened. "You challenged people to fight? When did this happen?"

Elena’s eyes opened in realization and she blushed covering half of her face with her sheet. "A few days ago I challenged a lady to a fight. I met her in the training room. I agreed on the date, which was to be today. I did it to get stronger. If I don’t push myself, I’ll never catch up to you all. Everyone’s so much stronger. Everyone’s...special. I was given the title Pillar of Hope and I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do." her voice cracked as she began to tear up.

Aurianna snorted. "Personally, that’s dumb."

"Aurianna!" Kiana said with a frown. "That’s insensitive."

Aurianna folded her arms, "I’m being real with her she’ll never be able to catch up with me"

"Not you, obviously I’m talking about the others," Elena snapped, cheeks flushing. "I’m not that delusional."

"You’re really mouthy now, huh, vampire?" Aurianna leaned forward and pinched Elena’s cheeks.

"Stop pulling them!" Elena yelped, swatting weakly. Her cheek bloomed red on her brown skin where Aurianna’s fingers had been, she held it and glared at her.

"Christopher, can you get those people to leave? Elena’s sick, after all." Shuwi’s voice was gentle but firm.

"All right." Christopher said before leaving.

Elena turned to Aurianna with a look that would have been puppy-ish if it weren’t so stubborn. "Aurianna, will you stay by my side?"

"No sleep on your own," Aurianna said flatly, then stood up.

"Omg, you’re so mean. Can’t you pity poor little ol’ me?" Elena pleased sticking out her bottom lip.

"No." Aurianna’s expression didn’t change.

"Tch ... meanie." Elena pouted.

_______

On a peaceful Saturday. It was midnight as Aurianna slept peacefully on her bed with a satisfied smile just to be awoken by a loud cry that interrupted the peak of sleep, "Up, get up sleepy head! It’s time to work out!!"

Aurianna forced one eyelid open and found Elena grinning down at her. ’How the hell did she even get into my room?’ Aurianna thought, clearly annoyed.

Aurianna glared at Elena but she didn’t care and just pretended not to notice, closing her eyes once more and covered herself with a blanket hoping to drift off to sleep, but she was immediately interrupted by the bug bite type of pain she felt in her arm. Elena had bitten her?!

"Damn, your skin is actually super hard," Elena muttered, frowning as she massaged her gum.

"Why the hell should I work out with you? Did you forget I’m a Grand Human?" Aurianna’s voice was grudging, a crease between her brows.

"If you train me, I’ll get stronger. You’re sleeping, even though you technically don’t need sleep." Elena stated calmly. "Even Zeche’s up learning."

Aurianna huffed. "Just because you have energy at night doesn’t mean you must bother me with such mundane tasks."

Elena stood up and sat on the floor beside Aurianna’s bed, her eyes sparkling. "But it’s only you and Zeche who can stay awake this late. The others are of normal races and can’t stay up too long everyday. You’d be the best mentor and partner."

Aurianna stared at her, deciding whether or not to listen to Elena. She ran a hand through her hair. ’Should I just give her one of those puppets I made so she’d stop bothering me,’ she thought, annoyed.

"All right." She slid out of bed, feet hitting the cool floor. "I’ll give you a magic puppet. Beat it, I’ll give you a stronger one."

"Aww, why must I fight some dumb puppet?" Elena scrunched her nose.

"It’s not just any puppet." Aurianna opened a small portal to her inventory and pulled out a five-foot-six wooden puppet clad in battered armor. Its joints clicked faintly, and its face was an expressionless mask of carved wood.

"This was something I was working on," Aurianna said, running a thumb along the puppet’s shoulder. "I stopped for a while. But I guess it’ll be useful to you."

"Why were you making puppets anyway?" Elena asked curiously.

"Something personal," Aurianna muttered as she remembered.

At first, it was nothing more than a small personal project she had been working on with Eva. At first the project stopped because she was kidnapped but when she was back and at their new church she wanted to continue it again. However, Jade managed to stumble across it and suggested an idea. He called it the idea of a "double body" for members of the church.

The way it would work was simple in words, but much more difficult to create. Jugi, with his wood magic, would shape the bodies in a special way so they moved almost like real people. Aurianna would then add her magic, to give it a fleshy skin. And Jade... he stayed buried in research, trying to figure out how to connect a person’s mind to these puppets so they could move them like their own body. At the same time trying to find a way where as it’s easy to disconnect from them as well.

The purpose was clear. They were for missions where death was most certain. Instead of risking a real body, the person would connect their mind to the puppet and send it out while they stayed hidden in the church. It sounded cowardly at first, sending a puppet, however it’s better that a puppet could be destroyed when caught and would serve no use to the enemy.

A real person, however, if caught, could be tortured, and information can be extracted from them whether dead or alive. Mind reading magic existed afterall.

Aurianna obviously knew that if someone intended to betray her they would explode and die. But in the case where they don’t want to betray her and what’s more they can’t kill themselves to teleport back to the church, what then? And if there’s someone among the enemy who can use magic to extract information from that said member it would be easy for them. That’s why the puppets became a project they were all working on, so that they would be used in under cover missions.