Solar Ascension-Chapter 141: The Marionette

There was once a family, known for their talents in puppet control.

Their skills were so developed that their puppets looked like real life performers standing on stage, moving with grace, emotion, and a presence that could make entire crowds forget they were watching strings at all.

They were known as the Stringer Family.

During the age of the gods, they traveled from city to city, from temples to festivals, performing before mortals and priests alike.

Until the gods abandoned humanity, the Eclipsed started showing up, and humanity started wielding SE through cores to fight this danger.

And that’s when this family turned their art into something else entirely.

Channeling their SE into their string like solar tech, they became masters of battlefield control. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Just as they had with puppets, they were capable of using their strings in ways identical to their previous performances.

Hence they were grenated the title, Battlefield Puppeteers.

Their family stood at the forefront of the battle against the Eclipsed alongside the royal family, a couple of other noble families and the Transcendent ranks.

They were known throughout Aureum for both their skills and art.... unfortunately, nothing would last forever.

The destruction of said family came when no one expected it, and before anyone could react, they had already been wiped off by a tier 5 rift break, right inside their estate,

An event that should’ve been impossible, yet it somehow was.

Every single member of this family had been completely wiped out... Or so the world thought, but as fate would have it, one managed to survive and was placed under the care of the Grey Family.

And that survivor was none other than Marion Grey.

Ever since she was little, Marion loved dolls, especially ones with strings. She didn’t know why, all she knew was that she always felt extremely comfortable whenever she played with puppets.

This hobby had grown as she did, and unlike most Grey children who chose long range rifles as their solar techs when the time came, she chose strings.

But that decision wasn’t impulsive....well maybe it was, just a little bit.

But her knowledge of using strings as weapons was learnt from a conveniently placed book in the family library, written by someone known as Julian Stringer.

And in that book was a technique the Stringers hadn’t revealed to the world, one known as [The Marionette]

This technique allowed one to be both the puppet and the puppeteer.

[The Marionette].

At its core, the technique was not about strength, speed, or raw output of SE.

It was about detachment.

To activate it, the user had to abandon the instinctive sense of self.

Muscle, pain, exhaustion, even fear, all of it had to be reclassified as external signals, no different from the creak of a wooden joint or the tension of a string pulled too tight.

The moment the technique took hold, the world shifted.

The user no longer perceived themselves from behind their eyes, but from above and behind, as if they were watching their own body standing on a stage.

Their limbs became articulated segments, their joints pivot points and their core nothing more than an anchor where all the strings converged.

They did not move on their own anymore, instead, they were moved.

SE strings latched onto the body, weaving through muscles, bones, and nerves without physically existing there, overriding natural limitations with absolute, mechanical precision.

Movements that would normally tear muscle or shatter joints were executed cleanly, because the body was no longer acting on instinct, but on command.

Pain still existed, but it was distant.

Damage still accumulated, but it was measured, assessed, and compensated for in real time.

To the outside world, those who used [The Marionette] appeared unnatural, their motions were too perfect, too fluid, as if each step, strike, and turn had been rehearsed a thousand times before ever being performed.

It was like a performance.

And that performance was exactly what Devon was witnessing right now.

***

BOOM!

The golem’s fist slammed into the ground, creating a massive crater, unfortunately, its target wasn’t there anymore.

Before it could pull its fist back, strings wrapped around its and with the slightest bit of tug, the rocky fist completely crumbled.

A short distance away was Marion whose eyes were still blank, as she looked at her opponent.

The golem’s movements were visibly very slow right now thanks to the strings that were now restraining it quite easily.

From her perspective, the world seemed to have slowed down... No, that wasn’t exactly right.

It would be more accurate to say that since the world was nothing but a stage to her and she was a Puppeteer, every bit of movement that happened within was instantly made known to her strings just before they did.

More strings pulled tight.

The golem’s shoulders twisted unnaturally as opposing forces yanked its upper body in different directions.

Marion moved again, a lot faster than she ever naturally could, completely disappearing from the golem’s sight.

She reappeared right behind it, and the next second, its legs crumbled beneath it, knocking it off balance.

Before the golem could fully reach the ground, as its regeneration kicked in, Marion yanked her fingers back a bit, and the next second, invisible strings wrapped themselves around the golem’s chest.

The second she yanked the strings, they pulled the core right out of the golem’s chest, letting it suspend in mid air as the golem crumbled to nothing but rubble.

The core was held up by the invisible strings for a couple more seconds before it suddenly disappeared and an alert rang out.

[Time remaining: 00:00:00]

[Objective successfully completed.]

"Damn," Devon muttered as he looked at Marion who was standing a short distance away.

Slowly, she turned to him, her eyes still blank, but the next second they suddenly rolled back as she fell forward.

Fortunately, Devon moved just quick enough to prevent her falling to the ground as he caught her.

"I gotchu," he muttered as he wiped away the bit of blood that ran down her nose, before standing up with her, watching the hologram deconstruct