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Suddenly, it opened its mouth. "The lack of techniques has been concluded. If you wish to surpass this stage, it's advised you use your techniques."

At first, Apollo was surprised. Although the puppet looked human, its voice sounded mechanical. As if the sounds were produced by the grating of a few mechanical pieces in its body. Nevertheless, Apollo was prepared for this. After all, he was aware of the lack of human abilities these puppets would possess.

"Interesting, I came bearing the same idea. With that being said, prepare yourself as well," Apollo replied. His aura changed, turning extremely volatile, which ultimately disrupted the area around him. The Infernal Ira Stigmata on his body flared, revealing scorching red lines flowing through his limb. 

In truth, this was the first time he changed activated the stigmata without changing into his demonic form. First, he wanted to test the threshold of his untransformed body. If it was strong enough, then he wouldn't need to remain worried about the drawbacks of transforming without taking on his Iraym Form.

Slowly, the lines solidified, branching off into small splinters. Those small segments gradually attached to his fingers and other extremities. Power deluged Apollo, amplifying his strength beyond a typical Zul Knight.

As a result, he conjured another Hellfire weapon, the two operating in conjunction. This made their effectiveness skyrockets as the edge of Apollo's weapon seemed blurred, contorting the air around it due to the heat emissions, 'What an imposing combination. The Hellfire fortified by the output of my stigmata.'

"Your actions are not congruent to obtaining victory," the puttered responded. Afterward, a spiral of water-like energy coated and wrapped around a sword the puppet withdraw from its waist.

A second later, the puppet moved. The ripples of water on its sword detached, flying towards Apollo with every swing. And, with the angles the slashes covered, it was worst than dealing with the 10 enemies beforehand.

'In comparison, this thing can fire countless attacks. Its attack speed is noteworthy,' Apollo praised. He didn't expect the difficulty to skyrocket dramatically. Even though the other phases bolstered the difficulty, it was still within Apollo's capabilities. However, this new enemy warranted more explicit reactions.

Apollo focused on the attacks and responded with his own. The moment his weapon came in contact with the slashes, repeated sizzling noises hissed throughout the atmosphere. The slashes then bubbled but remained intact.

In response, Apollo roared and severed the slashes with a serious look. Because he needed to exert himself so much, he was shocked by the power behind the slashes. 'These slashes were arbitrary, this puppet didn't even instill that much effort into it. If this is merely a haphazard attack, then I don't want to know what its other attacks are like,' Apollo thought.

Unfortunately, the puppet didn't let up in the slightest. After it fired these attacks towards Apollo, it dashed forward, creating a blanket of frozen water under its feet. Similarly, a layer of moist ice appeared at the bottom of its feet. 

Compared to the other puppets, this particular type of puppet was able to draw upon its source to manipulate energy. This made it many times more difficult to deal with as well as heightened its lethality to another level.

Luckily, Apollo's specialty was in direct opposition to this puppet. Without a moment's hesitation, Apollo conjured a large cluster of Hellfire and launched it towards the ice blanket at the floor.

Immediate destruction ensued, but Apollo was taken aback when he witnessed the recovery of the blanket, 'It's output is revolting! How can it recover so fast?'

Not even 2 seconds after the blanket turned to a pool of water in the middle, it recovered its former ice structure. A pale blue light facilitated this process and Apollo knew it was the energy within the puppet's source.

Meanwhile, a human-like sneer appeared on the puppet's face, "Not strong enough." A tinge of playfulness was hidden within the puppet's mechanical voice, and despite the attempts to hide it, Apollo picked up on it.

'It's toying with me? Interesting, could the creator have found a way to instill human reactions into this puppet? If that's the case, if this isn't the end of the puppet series, what else remains?' Apollo wondered, directing his full attention back towards the battle.

This time, Apollo amped up his assault. Before the puppet could respond, Apollo zoomed forward. Dark energy crept up his body, encasing him in a shadow, amplifying his speed to new heights. The sudden increase disrupted the established tempo of their battle, but the puppet didn't fret.

The puppet merely stabbed its sword into the center of the meter. At first, it seemed as if the action was trivial, but it wasn't. Numerous jets of water shot forth, following Apollo's movements closely. After some time, the water turned into ice, but one that was still under the puppet's controlled.

It lengthened and followed Apollo closely, even picking up speed in the process. Increased fluctuations impacted Apollo's mind, prompting him to look towards the puppet.

'It's gradually increasing its own output! Does it have individual control over its energy source? I hope that isn't the case. It'll be less problematic if the output increases when the puppet is stationary and allowed to gain momentum,' Apollo thought.

If the puppet could control its output, that meant it could also surpass what Apollo thought to be its maximum capacity. Should that be true, adopting a passive-aggressive style was not the way to win this battle, he needed to inhibit the puppet from weaponizing too much energy.

Some time went by and Apollo continued to gather information on the puppet. The worst of his worries were confirmed, this puppet could, in fact, control the output. When he altered his speed, the puppet responded in kind.

  'Very well,' Apollo determined. He had already made up his mind to deal with this issue.

Suddenly, he changed his path of travel and blitzed towards the puppet. The jets of manipulated ice converged on his position, but Apollo dodged them, weaving between their opening and knocking some of them away.

However, the ones knocked away caused Apollo's gait to destabilize for a moment. While it wasn't enough to warrant worry, Apollo still paid close attention to the attacks overwhelmingly close to him.

'The power behind each of these things outclasses the strongest strike an ordinary puppet could muster,' Apollo estimated. The appearance of his arms changed,  dark, magma-like sharp rocks encasing them. Naturally, this was his Infernal Arms technique.

Whenever he utilized this technique, it meant he was liable to take a more physical approach and sure enough, he dispersed his Hellfire weapon once again, but not entirely. Inspiration dawned upon him when the particles of his Hellfire passed by his arms.

A small yet continuous amount of Hellfire was fed into the crack of his arms, mists of ghastly steam emitted as a result. Apollo's eyes brightened when he witnessed this matter. The steam was the remnants of his Hellfire's properties. Whatever the material surrounding his arms couldn't contain was thrown.

But, his body autonomously kept the most potent energy.

Finally, the puppet experienced a change in expression. It didn't look dumbfounded, but it was shocked by the sensation Apollo's body was giving off. Despite the use of his regular techniques, the combination produced a foreign feel.

'While the mixture of Sins is hard to accomplish, mixing techniques is rather easy. Perhaps I should travel this route before attempting to worry about the matters surrounding Sins,' Apollo thought.

Nevertheless, he soon pushed this to the back of his mind. For now, his priority was dealing with the puppets. Once he was ready and close, the aura of a Perfected Demonic Massacre Wave seeped from Apollo's hands, forming quickly. 

In the time it took to blink, a wave was already hurled towards the puppet. The speed was mind-boggling, but the puppet possessed the upper hand due to the environment it created.

As the water seethed, a large ice prism was erected to deal with Apollo's strike, but this just made Apollo chuckled.

A splitting aura undulated from Apollo, separating the water 1 meter away from him, "Ah, the feeling of using my Annihilations after so long." While reveling in the sensation of his technique, Apollo released the Nether Severance.

Before the ice prism could recover, the onslaught of the Nether Severance had already arrived. The prism was cut clean in half, along with the body of the puppet. Compared to the rest of his first, this one suspended the most energy, but it was also the best lesson. It was due to the constant pressure that he was hit with the idea to fuse his Hellfire with his incomplete Sin Armament.

Regrettably, the was expected break never came. The next stage began immediately!

[The next stage will now commence. Your opponents will be 3 Exceptional Puppets.]