COI 26
The Isekai citizens hear the doll speaks for the first time, the doll is phasing as it can be seen pass through. Alche ask First and Second
"The doll talks"
"Kes'thar supposed to talk, because they are summoned for a reason"
First explained to him while the other co-workers adding more to the question.
"You mean spirits from the dead?"
"Could they do that?"
"Well shaman can do something about spirits"
Mixing in their views about shamans, First and Second never heard about the idea ‘From the dead’ It is kind of absurd to hear even more so comparing those religious fanatics.
"It's more like the remnant of their warriors' soul, if they are from the dead. It's more complicated to answer why they are here"
"Woni'es, maybe they are really are from the dead"
"If they are from the dead, then we're going to have a problem to those who died come back at us like some endless life. Imagine the possibility like that doll keeps coming back with all their glory to continue fighting until the end of our lives"
"What Woni'es is saying is, something will never change where the past kept coming back again and again"
Alche understands the theory, but it is no time to talk about it except what they know. Warrior's soul inside the doll
"Either it is really from the dead is coming back or a complete data of a warrior from their time with all their powers. Let's see"
The doll started singing where Gordon breaks his silence because of his curiosity.
"What are you?"
The doll stops dancing and look him as it waves its hands. Looking like a cute doll puts him off the mood of a serious fight but . . . the doll answered
"The name Pa'Yn, the pain doctor of the goblin tribes. You fight good, I'll be bringing back my golem now"
"Wait!"
Pa'Yn stops its spell and listen to him.
"How did Sork made you?"
Pa'Yn turns around were there are many people watching, looking the goblin named Sork.
"Hmm, looks human to me. If you really want to know. Ask the boyz, I was called anyway so . . ."
Pa'Yn resummons the golem from the ground as it rides again. Gordon didn't react and kept asking
"I want to know that are you the spirits?"
Pa'Yn answered him one last time
"The spirits are countless, and I'm a crazy spirit who talks . . . pretty nice huh"
Pa'Yn cast its rituals to the golem, as it now charging towards him. Gordon prepares to defend himself using his spears as pikes. Pa'Yn prepares itself to face those pikes with the golem charging in, it continues to go in as Gordon is suspicious by it. He checks his surroundings for any tricks, there is nothing but the doll itself possessing it without any changes.
The golem gets impaled, expecting to phase through like most spirit rituals would do but didn't. Pa'Yn gets flown away and gets swing by its golem to dodge the pikes, it passes through Gordon as he has the chance to catch it. He misses, and Pa'Yn is bouncing on the ground in an intense speed. Finally, it drags and stops, Gordon chases it down as the impaled golem leaving to struggle. Pa'Yn didn't had the chance to see Gordon reaching out to it with his weapon, the golem is already enchanted and stretch any parts of its stone limb to cast an earth spike to their direction. Gordon quickly hesitates and felt a powerful stone pike coming at him as he feels his feet with his magic that he can't control.
Stubbornly using his boots to withstand the rising stone pike and shatters. The spread of the shattered spikes hit the doll. Pa'Yn flies again as Gordon almost reaches his blade's tip on its head. Gordon steps gradually force the pikes to spread out as he casts a force field breaking the ritual below him. Causing Pa'Yn to get hit from the stone pikes yet again even further away. Gordon opens up his other magic item, a grappling hook and pulled it to him. Pa'Yn use its magic as fast as it could where it got pulled and stuck on the force field. Still impaled and pushed away then pulled by the hook, It cursed Gordon's stone pike into a ritual kept pushing away and turn into a tug of war.
Gordon uses his magic item on his boots to repel the ritual stone pike, and Pa'Yn becomes the ritual and negate it. Leaving a tug of war as the golem is breaking free from Gordon’s pikes. Gordon keeps it there as he changes target to the golem. Pulling out the rest of the pikes, leaving his double image to fight it. The image floats in the air with only the explosive spears at hand. The golem is ready itself as the image fights. Gordon weakens the force field while Pa'Yn slowly reach to his grip, giving the doubt of its lost. It commanded its golem throw its entire body at Gordon.
The image pulls out the talisman and tried to stop it. The golem is cleansed and only dusts pass through, the doll is impressed by it and cast a cursed to itself. Gordon grabs the doll and breaks all the rituals from what Pa'Yn is trying to do, but the main rituals didn't breakdown, Sork's ritual, and the doll was squeezed upon Gordon's grip with all his magics and his powerful crushing aura. The doll didn't break but says its final words.
"The spirits will give you what you truly deserve"
The doll's head pop out into the air and the image throws the spears at it. It explodes and bring him his victory.
Gordon held the doll acting lifeless, but he looks at the stats and is not prepared. The audience saw the fight, and the doll didn't change its health . . . but the other stats already in zeroes. The Horsin saw Gordon's performance, leaving a bad impression for the upcoming future.
"He tried to break Sork's ritual and failed. That idiot"
The goblin vendor said it to the entire people who is near to her.
"Do you think he would win like that?"
"They say he is a monster slayer, right? Better end it than what's good for him"
Quail ask her
"What happened if he failed?"
"Hmph, watch the match. I'm sorry but I'm kind of disappointed with that doll and its golem. It's like it is testing him"
The doll returns again where Gordon's suppressive magic no longer take effects. The Kes'thar is made up its chosen spirit, and it chant again by what Sork's did
"Bom-sha-ka-lum-ka-lum (repeatedly)"
Gordon tries to silent it with all the skills, items, and magic he had. All of them has no effect, he tries to tear it apart but kept coming back. He pulls out again with the talisman but it kept chanting. Its body started shining again as he holds it firm and secure, the doll ended its chanting with its arm hold in place a familiar flame comes back. It burns the talisman right off
"The spirits told me that you can almost break the ritual . . . but"
Gordon use extinguish magic to cancel out the flames, he even added anti-rituals on it to ceased its powers.
"But how can a shaman like you, can do?"
It teleported into the air where Gordon uses his double image to counter-act. The doll burns the image but has no effect now, Gordon activities are all defensive measures. He no longer to lower his powers where his body worsens somehow, and quickly building up to his skills. Did the golem had something to do with him or did Pa'Yn actually done something to him? The doll notices his powers infused on something familiar, and it follows along the previous doll.
The image hit the doll as it crashes down after another swing of the image's weapon. The doll changed its mind, but look frustrated as it knows that the previous doll made a dent on him. Truly the pain doctor gives a special help for the future Kes'thar. Gordon takes a talisman and place it on himself, cleansing the curse right off him. The doll thought he was doom once the pain curses him, but Gordon always ready about those rituals and curses. Gordon quickly recovers as the image still follow through the doll. He can't hesitate any longer yet he watches them fight. The doll already knows his patterns as it moves from his image.
The doll finally got through the image as it tries the spears to fuse with his armor into a porcupine as the flames reached the image. The magic armor managed to block the flames but the ritual flames burned away the armor as it feeds away the mana of the image. The doll manages to burn the image as it burns what mana it holds. Gordon brings up his magic items, bringing along experimental weaponries, the doll is curious as it saw Gordon's equipment that carries on his back connecting by a line from a weird looking handle. It is the first time to see what he brought against it, but the audience see it as a familiar weapon from a ghost movie.
Gordon didn't hide of the shame for experimenting against spirits, if it works by those two nerds, then it might work this one too. Everybody in the audience is both disbelief and excited, as the Horsin crowd thought of it one of their secret weapons. First is looking at it in amazement
"WHAT KIND OF A WEAPON IS THAT?"
Alche can't explain it, as it looks familiar from a movie
"Well, it's . . ."
Rusic sees the design with runes markings on the weapon.
"Will that thing work? It put up a lot runes on it"
Iggy can't look at it as it was so stupid to see.
"Oh please, don't work"
Reya joins her as the other women were not hoping to be true too.
"If it does work, how are we going to . . ."
Gordon opens fire as electrical proton line burst forth to the doll. It didn't react enough by the strange fire power. It got hit and its flames suddenly went out and being pulled down like a rope and pulling it down like a leash. Gordon didn't have the other essential parts, the ghost trap, his connections didn't believe it would work and only finish what they thought it would be viable. It works, and the Horsin crowd is the only people were in awe while some crowd stood silence and began cheering awkwardly. The announcers are trying to make glorify remarks without any of the ghost puns. One of Cecilla's guest opens the idea and yell
"Ghost Busters!"
The locals heard it, and starting to ask the citizens near them what is it.
"That item actually taken down spirits? . . . How?"
The staff of Sister's hope highschool can't answer that, and it is more of a gimmick from what they thought. Rusic is the only one among the Horsin crowd knows about the runes and what it does, he's trying to understand the design to make into a weapon. Either follow the ghost buster story or explain that the runes have other powers that can actually harm the spirits. He continues to watch as the match is getting crazier by the minute.
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The doll keeps slamming on the ground from Gordon's weapon, the doll persists but can't do anything as the energy outburst its rituals. It forced itself to use the sun to burn around the area. As the sun closely blocks by the clouds, the doll has to do it quickly or the flames it releases will be in a weak state. A sudden burst of fire covered on Gordon's body and all around the match. The audience can't see while the flames quickly appeared, he pulled back his experimental item as the fire is damaging it. The doll breaks free where the flames put itself in a vulnerable state.
The sun is block by the clouds, giving away a faded flames that once appear in a roaring blaze. Gordon sees his opportunity and acted on it. He looks at the sky as the sun being block as the fires started to weaken a bit. He searches within the flames where the dolls used the remaining of its recovered rituals to hide before it got spotted. Because of the flames is starting to weaken, his senses recovered a bit and remember he has other magic items to detect it. While the fire is weakening, he looks for an item that can withstand the remaining heat. The doll hides while it tries to ambush him.
The doll needs to recover the rituals' power where Gordon is tracking the doll and detect its rituals. It is now his chance as the fire burns around him, he found it and grabs the doll again repeat the process and this time the doll runs out its rituals. The doll says its final words
"I didn't have a chance, better meet the boss"
The doll quickly dies out and the flames mysteriously stop and disappeared in a blink of an eye. The doll remained as it should be, Gordon is squeezing it finally breaks its body into two including the head, the arms and the legs were remained. The body is finally turned to dust, and Sork can't believe another weird weapon place him to another defeat.
Sork is starting to trance in within the spirits with the remaining parts of the doll. Split in what it remains but only one spirit to control it.
"Call to the spirits, heed my calls. The Kes'thar is close to be destroyed . . . Da boss wunt be facing a gud humiski"
The doll calls out another chant
"Bom-sha-ka-lum-ka-lum (repeatedly)"
and Gordon wasn’t done yet, he brings his special weapon again, and burst of proton lightning onto the doll. The doll is starting to waver causing the legs to be disintegrated, only the arms are left. The doll is starting to shatter where the audience cheered on its final existence and Sork's new prison cell.
The doll keeps chanting again
"Bom-sha-ka-lum-ka-lum (repeatedly)"
It would be enough or not, but the doll's arms are burning where the lightning somehow flow through it. Gordon almost reaches his victory, as soon as it ended, the energy of the weapon runs out. Gordon checks on his weapon, it was drained and needed to be recharge. He knows about this experimental weapon, and never thought the runes required more energy than he hope for. Then again, he never thought it effectively destroying the doll. The doll's arms are landed on the ground chanting again
"Bom-sha-ka-lum-ka-lum (repeatedly)"
Where Gordon should do it himself and uses Fatal Strike.
Using all the extreme speed skills and perfect accuracy skills, he charges at it with magic. First is the magic, second is the weapon, and finally the ending combo of his Fatal Strike. The doll finally reacted and unleash its defensive rituals, the first attacks pierced it through, the second breaks the upcoming protection that are appearing in front of it, and lastly the last strike on the arms. The doll is so closely in reach as its arms are being torn off with only the partially piece hand contained what the doll had left. One last moment, the doll awakens another spirit into the world.
Gordon ricochet himself to the other direction as it somehow the hand parries him off in place. The doll is no longer recovers like before, where Pa'Yn was a support and fix the doll. Only a hand floating into the air, the elements gathered and form an elemental body. Stone body, Wind shells, and Fiery Aura of the sun are in place in such a small figure. The fire fused by the strong wind is unleash on to him. Gordon uses his magic defenses to the best he could, while the fire is starting to burn his mana and cycle away by the wind. He never experienced this kind of powerful coordination with the amount of debuffs.
Sun is fully block by the clouds as the fire lost its effects. Gordon restores his defenses as he looks at the sky, he understood it quickly. Like the doll who it depends on the sun using its flames. Gordon sees himself outnumbered by something he knew called as elementals. The elemental spirits surround the last piece of the doll, and only protecting by their existence. Where Gordon focuses on what he is targeting, he starts to remember his regrets should have follow up the rest of the experimental items.
The announcers were having a talk about it.
"Did the doll acting up something new?"
"I don't know, Cecilla"
"As a part of the guild, I never met this kind of monsters"
"If we face this kind of monsters, do you think we could win"
They pop up around the audiences to ask question as the two fighters waited for them to strike. The elemental spirits didn't speak and didn't do anything else as it waited for something. Gordon takes his chance to think clearer now and the doll is almost to his grasp, he fears what it can damage him and his armor like his image. He believes his anti-rituals equipment are weighing down even after the cleanse, the curses are persistent on his gears.
In his thoughts
"Sooner or later, my equipment will break down and feel the curses courses through me. This moment helps me hear the announcer clearly now. I'm guessing that this elemental gives me a chance"
Sork heard the elemental as he must show respects to the spirits.
"Humiski did ya gud, but wut wud it wunt wid da hu's" (Humans did better than before, it makes true bosses want more)
Sork heard them, and only hear some of the quotes clearly as thousands of spirits are fixing themselves. Gordon felt the curses are still there, and only his bodies won't change while his mana and other abilities are recovering. He realizes that the elementals are in control of the curses.
Remaining to wait as long as they should. The announcers are having a long chat for sometimes now.
"Will they start fighting again?"
"I rather have a draw, right here. It feels like a drag fight now since the doll's transformation"
"The bets are still on, if it is a draw then there is no clear winner here"
The announcers stop the interviewer mentioning about the betting system as they know younger audience shouldn't be allowed to gamble . . . yet. The fight didn't continue where they now focusing on the Horsin crowd on the pedestrian overpass. One of them answers.
"I thought the ghost buster thing is quite impressive, it nearly taken out the spirits. Like your people are starting to adapt after a few matches huh"
"Hmm well, I . . ."
"What's with a hmm? Did you see that? I thought the last match was all the secrets of those two, the armored one and the guy with the long boom stick, and I never seen a much heavier weaponry"
"Did I mention that weapon is fictional from our world?"
"Fiction? Oh, you called it "fiction" type in your categories of weaponry, right?"
The audience were mix of laughter and embarrassment, and what's worse the only one who has talking to the announcer was other than
"Woni'es, JUST STOP!"
Andui reaches to his seat and giving them the wrong impression as she whispered loudly enough to his ear and not the microphone.
"But it is getting good . . . fictional weapons, now that's something the other city states would hear"
Everyone in the audience kept thinking to themselves if that rumor actually spread to the other cities, then
"Please no, the name change is enough to play a fool of themselves but magic items from a fictional movie or worse anime to come true. Then . . ."
First stops there and saw the elemental finally reacting.
"Alright, let's see what that thing can do now"
The announcers check on the match as the doll starts to move. Gordon sees the elemental uses fragment of his double image into a copy of the doll itself, then the familiar spirit returns. The first doll who kept waving up to the sun, is it the same spirit again? The elementals, stone body and wind shell, are making replicas of itself. The doll is starting to wave around in the air as it performing a ritual. Gordon uses his abilities and used the common enhancements, all the buffs like strengthening to himself. He focuses on the elemental first, and the elemental roars by the wind.
The doll stays there and began to move somewhere else as they fight. Gordon uses the same trick with the talisman but no longer have its effect and realizes that the items he had now already deteriorated, and his anti-ritual armor is faintly worse without him noticing. Gordon accepts the hit and knocks him back. The elementals retaliate.
"Pa'Yn had curse your ritual breakings, even it was cleanse away. Remember never take shamanism too likely, once touch by the spirits then next one can break it through"
Voices coming from his head where the spirits are now reaching his thoughts.
Gordon is splitting himself into a small team, five of them in total like the image before. Acting what roles are needed for him to take it down, from invincible tank to powerful mage, he can't take the slow match where he lost his anti-ritual items. The elemental pulls up something on a ground where totems appear, all in different designs of its heads and Gordon quickly charges in, among the five of himself only one is melee where the rest were all range. The doll sees this as its last opportunity and the spirits around it as it chants different this time
"Chlu Pa'Yn Chlu"
Gordon hears it as he thought it saying about Pa'Yn earlier, he thought it was the cause of the deterioration but he needs to focus defeating the elemental. The spirits where chanting and heard by the audience, they felt like a strong cry referring to Pa'Yn but heard like it was enraged. Sork hears the spirits and understood it, he starts to laugh again because of a familiar annoying cry. Gordon surrounds the elementals and use all his abilities from all direction, the tank polarizes the dolls power towards him while the range casting all the magics that will harm it. The elemental tries to counter it but pulled and misdirect to the tank's polarization.
Gordon's tank quickly blown away into dust where he quickly overwhelmed by the sudden shamanistic rituals. The elementals started to break apart receiving endless blows of spells with little effects of the anti-rituals. The doll stood there where it is now close to one of the remaining four images. One of them notice it but focus on the elemental, the last effective magic destroying the elemental are keeping it in use its next rituals. The doll stands there watch it happened as the audience is pointing out the doll is near to the fading elementals. The four images continue the attack, the doll didn't move where the rage of the elementals grew stronger.
The elementals couldn't last longer as the doll's hand is revealed, the elementals are forced to use its spirits to burst a portal from its fading body and starting gathering around it as it siphons into the unknown. Three of the images are pulled in then they sense its dangers. One remaining image is closing in to dealt the doll piece, The real Gordon switches to the last remaining image to the doll. The elemental pulls the rest of the image and blown out of proportion like a living bomb and exploded, causing the mana of the images to disperse. The portal once created is gone by the explosion clouded with mystery of curses.
Gordon watches it upheld as the explosion cause a massive image of the rituals. Smokes of different colors and lights that shines so close to dim brightness, Gordon sees the doll protecting him and heard its voices again.
"You did great humie, but it is better not to touch the curses. It is not worth a fight if you are not its enemies, we spirits are here because you exorcise us. It was fun"
Gordon sees the smokes trying to close in to him, and with his anti-ritual gear's effectiveness are gone and the doll is protecting him.
"Touch the smoke, if you still don't believe me"
Gordon tries to destroy the final piece, as it starting to break. The protection from the doll leaks the smoke onto him.
His skin changes as it reaches to his body. He fell ill and tried to use his potion to cure it, but nothing changes as a familiar common sickness surging in to his head. The doll barely saves him and at the same time he stubbornly trying to destroy it.
"Well, Humie, you seem to be going to lose soon. We can explain to you while the smoke clears"
Gordon didn't believe it but expected it to be true nonetheless. He never felt any harms from the rituals or curses because he studied it and uses other healthy means to ease the damage. Everything was planned except for the experimental ones and the full potential of shamanism.
"I lost? . . . Do you know why?"
The doll is with him as it tries to be brief.
"Slow and steady, that what let you almost destroy the doll. Your low usage of mana gives other spirits a disadvantage, like you knew that we are second handling it"
Gordon thought about it, and the beginning was quick until to the end where massive area of effect magic was not advice thanks to the research.
"I learn more about your shamanism before, but I still failed"
"More like you learn to the first time and try it for the first time too"
"Hey! I am monster slayer not a shaman killer"
"Don't try to impress us, but we are disappointed that you are not a shaman killer . . . laugh*"
Spirits are laughing at their own response.
Gordon almost forgot he is talking to goblin spirits. They love this kind of violence to each other. The doll continues
"We got lucky that the crazies know how to handle the weaknesses"
"Yeah I heard that Pa'Yn was the cause"
"That's right, and also the one who convinces to save you when the plague occurs"
Gordon first felt the sickness when he touched the smoke, and the doll grips it of an agreement.
"If you think about the plague, yup that's not good for you when you rest"
"What? Can you explain?"
"The sickness you have is from the past. It was one of the deadliest of this world"
Gordon can’t believe he is talking to the spirits as if they were alive as those goblins.
"Uhhmm, it's like you understand it. Better ask the one who summoned us, that goblin might know more how to say it. Ok? Will he really going to answer it? Nah, I won't believe this "he" would but there are other people who know about it"
Gordon wants to know one last thing.
"Why did you wanted to save me? This match is safe after it is finished"
"We spirits don’t know your ways, and won’t break our realities for you"
Gordon is going on in his head about this. He is so close to win, and lost by the strange portal.
The doll has nothing to say as it heals his sickness.
"Let's do it one more time humie, and this time use this trick"
The doll cast lore magic to his head and gives what Kes'thar truly enjoys. Gordon smiles at it where the doll already know what he is expecting
"You double crosser"
"Not even death could change us anyway"
Laughter coming from the spirits as he understands the lore pressed into his head. Return to his senses where his hand is infected by a disease and reaching out his arm, he sat down and the smokes finally clear. The ritual is gone and only the hand is rolling with the wind spirits coming closer.
The spirits of the wind what Gordon sees are there, filled with rituals will harm his insides if he breathes it. A man from another world is facing the disease of this world, and what's coming for him is sucking up all his pride and the realization of how weak the shamanism according to lore magic imprint his head.
"The spirits can bring back of the harshness of the world but never stay long as it always ends or cured"
. . .
"Hmm, weak but we never experience it . . . Sork, you just gave us the more reason to leave but we have our ways to end it . . . abundantly more when we learn"
Audience sees their hero sits down and sees his arm looking ill, his face is sickly, his strength fainted, and the magic consumed or destroyed by the rituals or curses. He starts to lie down and hears Cecillia crying out loud for him
"Don't give up! Please! I believe in you!"
Gordon can't face the spirits that can bring forth the past plagues where can be effective to his body. In his weakening breath he spoke to the floating hand doll.
"You're facing a man to the first time with excellence, grant me the honor for Cecilla"
The floating hand stops and it listens what he says
"Cecilla? Then one more match!"
Gordon smiles to himself where his luck never runs out, giving Cecilla another round as he sleeps on the ground.