Hayden inwardly grumbled, but he also kept reminding himself that relying on Angela because of his lack of strength was perhaps unavoidable. However, if he completely abandoned thinking and let Angela lead him, then Hayden would truly be unworthy of being called a human being.
He can't completely slack off, otherwise that would be shameless!
"That's it, I understand."
Angela then placed her hand on her cheek, as if deep in thought, and calculated for a while.
“If you don’t want to defeat it head-on, you’ll have to find a way to divert the power of death so that Miss Panya can win on her own. But that’s not something I’m good at.”
So there are things you're not good at?
Hayden scratched his head and glanced back at the situation in the live stream. [Magical Girl Pazuzu] was still struggling, fighting against the endless stream of death.
Hayden now knows that the reason [Magical Girl Pazuzu] can't defeat so many deaths is because they aren't actually just its own deaths. Angela's suggestion to divert the power of death is indeed correct, but how exactly should that be done?
Shunt
Avoid direct confrontation.
Divide the enemy...
...As it turned out, Hayden actually came up with a solution from these few words.
A solution that was very Hayden’s own style, very much in line with his skills, personality and identity, and that even Angela couldn’t come up with.
"Ms. Echo."
He turned to the employees of Qiqimiti Entertainment Company and asked,
Do you have a printer here?
Ms. Eko, who had been staring at the live stream with a troubled expression, paused for a moment upon hearing Hayden's words: "Of course there is... What do you want to do?"
Hayden, however, had already reached out and started drawing a pattern on a piece of white paper.
"Of course we need to print some things."
They accumulated truths, but ultimately arrived at rash conclusions and solutions.
This is generally referred to as the "donkey's skill of Guizhou".
However, of course, for Hayden, this was just an everyday occurrence.
--------------------------
The situation is not optimistic.
Even now, [Magical Girl Pazuzu] is well aware of this.
The army of corpses surging from the sea was like an inexhaustible fountain of death. Even though the magical girls bravely charged into this darkness, unleashing flames and powerfully flapping their wings to knock down the emerging corpses, these shadows of death were countless.
We can't win like this. There are just too many endless corpses everywhere.
【Magical Girl Pazuzu】The crimson firelight was so bright that it illuminated the black sea, making it look like a setting sun resting on the water.
However, the endless death and corpses could blot out the sky and even swallow the setting sun!
If we continue like this, we will lose.
【Magical Girl Pazuzu】She didn't say it, nor did she show it on her face, but inside she was beginning to waver and feel fear. An idol can't let fear and wavering, can't let her psychological defenses be revealed to her fans—but to say whether she was actually afraid inside, it would be impossible for her not to be.
She had considered whether to back down, whether to retreat, or whether to withdraw now so that she might still have a chance to escape back—but a sense of pride prevented her from doing so.
Pania was originally just the youngest daughter of a middle-class family, a slave to capitalists, and enslaved by gods. Now, with the opportunity presented by the virtual idol, she has finally found her dignity and seen the chance to ascend to godhood and stand on equal footing with the upper class!
If she were to give up and run away now out of fear and a desire to save her life, wouldn't she revert to being a slave? She absolutely could not lose this opportunity. This opportunity was far too precious—more precious than life itself!
However, at that very moment, [Magical Girl Pazuzu] heard a strange sound coming from above. Her eyes caught sight of the comments from the viewers and their exclamations.
Finally, even she couldn't help but look up, and was immediately startled by what was falling from above: 【What!?】
In the lower reaches of the star realm, a heavy snowfall is now falling, blanketing the entire area within several miles and turning it into a vast expanse of white!
When the "snow" fell on her, Magical Girl Pazuzu realized that it wasn't snow at all, but tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of tiny white paper figures!
Strangely enough, after these tiny white paper figures landed on the corpses, the thousands upon thousands of corpses immediately abandoned the magical girl and instead reached out to the paper figures, grabbing them tightly and refusing to let go!
what happened?
This was, of course, Hayden's sorcery trick:
Since we can't win in a direct confrontation, let's use deception!
deceive
This is something Angela isn't good at, but Hayden is very good at!
161: Dignity!
Since ancient times, humans have used substitutes to deceive death.
For example, high-ranking officials and nobles in ancient Egypt would create special magical statues known as "Wushabuti figurines." These small statues were lifelike clay sculptures, enchanted with special spells, and imbued with the energy of a soul—only a tiny amount—that could protect their owners from decay and death, and ward off disease, calamities, and curses.
Looking at the ancient East, there is not only magic based on the same principles, but also strange and unusual arts derived from the same principles. The ancients said: "Those who achieve liberation from the dead all leave by attaching something to them, whether it be a knife or a sword, a bamboo stick or a staff, or the liberation from water, fire or weapons."
This means that corpse liberation is a process of resurrection through the possession of an object or physical form. In ancient times, some people who achieved immortality through corpse liberation would leave behind a bamboo staff as a vessel for their spirit. This is because the hollow bamboo staff could serve as a substitute for a human form. During corpse liberation, the spirit would enter the staff and ascend to heaven along the hollow bamboo, leaving the bamboo staff as a substitute to complete the process.
Some more fashionable cultivators use swords as a means of spiritual sustenance. There was once the Yellow Emperor, also known as Xuanyuan. Upon his death, he was buried at Qiaoshan Mountain. The mountain collapsed, leaving only his sword and no body behind. The core of this sword-based ascension technique lies in forging one's own sword. Once forged, the sword is carried with one's body until one reaches the state where the sword is oneself and oneself is the sword—ultimately, during the process of self-dissolution, the sword can replace oneself, allowing one to ascend to immortality.
This process of the soul ascending, the true spirit manifesting, and the object replacing the person in death is the core of the corpse dissection technique.
The key to autopsy lies in transferring the "death" that one should have suffered to other objects, shifting the target of death, and having someone die in one's place.
That's right.
This is what is known as a "stand-in"!
A peruse of religious texts, classical epics, and folk tales from around the world reveals myths about death, along with stories of ghosts, immortals, and countless schemes employed to escape it. It's quite strange, really; these stories vary depending on the storyteller, but common themes resonate across the globe.
Death often remains unmoved by pleas, bribes, or other influences—but it can be deceived!
...That being said, deceiving death is by no means an easy thing to do.
Throughout history, how many people have tried to deceive death and achieve immortality? And how many have actually succeeded?
Like the wish-granting spell, this is an ancient magic that is theoretically possible but extremely difficult in practice, to the point that it has entered the realm of absurdity.
Modern arcane arts have largely abandoned ideas that lack repeatability, reproducibility, and mass production potential because they are too unreliable.
However, Hayden always found a way.
He was always adept at improvising, conjuring up new spells from all sorts of unreliable things to save the day. This prophetic insight, this natural intuition that transcended artificially adjusted intelligence, was Hayden's greatest and only advantage.
...What? You mean Angela? Angela doesn't belong to Hayden, or rather, Hayden might belong to Angela...but that's getting off-topic.
These things Hayden scattered to the bottom of the astral plane—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of tiny white paper figures—are his substitutes for deceiving death. This kind of magic, using paper figures as substitutes, originated in the era of deities and sorcerers, and was called "paper figure magic," which involves entrusting the human soul to a paper figure. Later, this paper figure magic, along with deities' yin-yang techniques, spread to Japan, where it was called "katadai" (形代).
They are all pieces of paper that hold a "spark of inspiration".
Form Substitution, as the name suggests, is the substitution of form for reality—of course, it can be used as a spell for "substitute"!
Hayden used a printer from Zizimiti Entertainment to make millions of paper cutouts, then sprayed Angela's breath onto them. The amount was small, about the same as Angela's usual breath, but that was just right.
If the amount of secret fire is too large, it's hard to guarantee that Goddess Mikt won't become suspicious. But if it's just a single breath, then it's merely a matter of extremely pure quality, and Goddess Mikt will simply think that Hayden's new technology is very impressive.
Although these flames of life are few in number, they are like torches in the dead of winter against the shadow of death. Furthermore, a large part of the connection and affinity between the undead army currently entangled with [Magical Girl Pazuzu] comes from her own audience and fans. These people are mostly fond of anime characters, so the shadow of death, drawn from their connections, immediately and urgently reaches out to grab those anime character substitutes falling from the sky.
Once they have these paper figures in their hands, they never let go.
How can you possibly catch [Magical Girl Pazuzu] if you refuse to let go?
The magical girl wasn't foolish enough to ignore this opportunity. Seizing the chance, she extended her lion's paw and slammed it down hard on the largest corpse in front of her! The corpse immediately shrank back, seemingly unharmed, but appearing somewhat disoriented.
Regardless of whose death it was, at this point it was impossible to tell which one was the real [Magical Girl Pazuzu].
"very good!"
Hayden, on the other side of the StarNet space, first praised it in the internal channel of Qiqimiti Entertainment Company, and then quickly called out.
"Little girl! Now! Get out of here! The deaths of others won't bother you now, and your own death won't be traced back to you! Take this opportunity to escape!"
Angela had fed Pania the Secret Flame Food for a month or two, keeping her body full of vitality. If [Magical Girl Pazuzu] obediently goes back now, she'll have a hard time dying even if she wants to!
However, upon hearing Hayden's words, the magical girl hesitated and did not obediently fly back as Hayden had instructed.
Hayden wasn't stupid; he immediately saw through the girl's scheme and angrily yelled, "You little brat, are you courting death?! You think you can take advantage of my help to defeat your own demise?!"
What is [Magical Girl Pazuzu] planning? She's obviously trying to take advantage of the opportunity Hayden created for her, instead of advancing, to rush in and kill herself. That way, she can complete the ritual and become a god!
To use a phrase from those old cultivation novels, this was her way of taking advantage of Hayden's help to overcome her tribulation. This way, it would be much easier for her than if she relied on herself.
Hayden, seeing this, was so angry he wanted to stew the girl—he had come to save her out of kindness, and the person he saved actually wanted to use his strength to gamble her life on a huge comeback. What kind of behavior is this?
"As long as the green hills remain, there's always firewood to burn. If you retreat this time, you'll know what to do next time, making it at least 90% easier. What's the rush now?!"
Therefore, Hayden was absolutely furious.
"Pania! If you continue to entangle yourself with these deaths, then no one in heaven or on earth can save you!"
He was so angry that he even started imitating the way Pazuzu speaks.
Upon hearing Hayden's words, [Magical Girl Pazuzu] loudly retorted on the company's communication channel: "Next time? There aren't that many things in this world that can be done over! Victory or defeat is decided in a single battle, life is only lived once! If you think of retreating at the first sign of difficulty and trying again next time, then what's the point of cultivating immortality and seeking eternal freedom?"
[My advance will never cease! I will traverse the path to immortality and freedom, without fear, without retreat, without regret, until I ascend the throne of God!]
Where did this tyrant come from?!
If her words were just a childish display of adolescent delusions, it would be one thing. However, after saying this, [Magical Girl Pazuzu] actually stepped forward and charged towards the greatest shadow of death.
My dream will surely triumph over death!
She pointed the lion's right hand at the sea, about to unleash a burst of light and lightning—but when she lowered her hand, nothing appeared.
Nothing happened.
【……ah?】
The magical girl froze for a moment, then quickly waved her arm again, but no hot air, flames, or power came out of it at all.
Where is my power?!
Upon closer inspection, she could feel even more strongly that the almost inexhaustible power of [Magical Girl Pazuzu] was now rapidly dissipating like a floodgate opening!
what happened! ?
She looked up at the sky and quickly looked in the direction from which Hayden's voice came.
There was nothing special there, no dazzling light. Hayden, across the vast star realm, stretched out his right hand towards her, grasped it, and pulled.
With just this simple movement, something in the unseen realm collapsed instantly. As if an energy conduit had been severed, [Magical Girl Pazuzu]'s astral form began to shatter and disintegrate! She couldn't use any of her songs or powers. Her entire astral form lost control, rising into the air and beginning its journey towards the upper reaches of the astral plane, back towards the material world!
What kind of witchcraft is this?!
"Your power? You have no power whatsoever!"
Hayden pulled her back while grumbling harshly.
"The power of 【Magical Girl Pazuzu】is drawn from death and the astral plane by using the name of the deceased Pazuzu as a guiding light and the faith of the living as a hook! I am now using the Substitute Technique to change direction, and all of this power is dissipating."
He had come to save the child purely out of kindness, but the brat didn't appreciate it, so Hayden was furious.
Adding to the urgency of the situation, Hayden became even more enraged and blurted out harsh words: "Without [Magical Girl Pazuzu], you, a mere 'Pania,' have absolutely no power!"
These words hit Pania hard, leaving her stunned.
Hayden reached out and ripped, and Pania immediately felt as if a piece of her flesh had been brutally sliced off. The astral body of [Magical Girl Pazuzu] was thus torn off by Hayden, severing its communion with her.
What terrifying witchcraft!
Hayden was able to do this partly because he had been involved in the [Magical Girl Pazuzu] project for the past two months. Given his modus operandi, having been inside for so long, he would have long known which backdoors he could exploit.
On the other hand, it is probably only a magical genius like Hayden, who was skilled in unorthodox methods, who could come up with such a substitute method on the spot and put it into use immediately.
At this moment, the costume that Pania had painstakingly and skillfully portrayed was suddenly no longer hers when Hayden reached out and ripped it off!
Hatred! Boundless hatred surged up in Pania's heart!
She had thought she had regained her lost dignity, but now that dignity had been lost again! Tragically, she had lost it all because of Hayden's distant gesture!
Was it because Hayden was more intelligent and stronger than her? Yes and no!
It's because the power of [Magical Girl Pazuzu] ultimately doesn't belong to Pania herself, but to the company, to the capitalists! That's why it was so easily taken away!
Pania, who has enjoyed the power of the suit for the past two months, now deeply feels her current weakness! She desperately needs greater power!
Only with strength can there be dignity!