Villain MMORPG: Almighty Devil Emperor and His Seven Demonic Wives - Chapter 1769: Steel Waltz Guard

Chapter 1769: Steel Waltz Guard

Villain Ch 1769. Steel Waltz Guard

Larissa’s fingers brushed over a frost-covered railing as she stepped beside Allen. “And not just watched. Studied.”

The hallway stretched ahead of them, leading into a vast open chamber that pulsed with amber light. The snow trail they tracked had stopped here—because the snow had ended the moment they walked inside. The ground here was dry. Stained. Burnt.

Then… the sound.

-Click! Clank! Click! Clank!

Metal on metal. Rhythmic. Like heavy boots, or gears locking in time with each other.

From the far side of the hall, a shadow stepped forward.

No—marched.

The figure emerged into the dim light, moving like a music box ballerina made from bad dreams.

A puppet.

Not cute. Not quaint. Not Pinocchio.

This thing was tall, humanoid, with exposed brass ribs, a cracked porcelain face that flickered between a fake smile and blank-eyed coldness. It wore what might have once been a soldier’s coat—now torn, blackened, hanging from rusted wires where arms should’ve been.

And it kept marching.

-Click! Clank! Click! Clank!

Bella whispered, “Oh my god. It’s like someone tried to make a Nutcracker boss fight out of trauma.”

“I hate how pretty it is,” Alice muttered.

More emerged from the corners. Three. Then four. Then six.

Each slightly different. Some with missing limbs replaced by jagged metal. One had its lower half replaced by spiked wheels. Another dragged a long pipe behind it, sparks dripping with each step.

SteelWaltzGuard <Lv ???>

“Mechanical puppets,” Jane muttered. “Steampunk style. High-level mobs. But… they’re not hostile yet.”

Allen stepped forward slowly.

The lead puppet stopped.

Its head ticked. Rotated slightly.

A mouth opened where it shouldn’t have—beneath the face. Jagged, metallic, and filled with whirring blades.

A voice came through, but not its own.

“Welcome… Emperor.”

His grip tightened on his sword hilt.

The voice was filtered. Distorted. Glitched and low like it had been passed through too many hands.

“Enjoying… our work?”

Kafra’s voice snapped in their heads, panicked. “We didn’t script that. That’s not from us. Someone’s puppeting them—through the control tags!”

Allen’s lips twitched into a smile. Cold. Familiar.

“Figures,” he said.

The puppet’s head tilted again.

“You were not supposed… to come this far.”

Larissa stepped beside him. “We tend to ruin plans.”

“And what exactly is your plan?” Shea asked toward the puppet. “Hijack a snowfield and monologue through dolls?”

The puppet twitched once, like it was lagging. Then:

“Observe. Study. Replace.”

Zoe groaned. “I don’t like any of those verbs.”

Suddenly, one puppet jerked forward.

A single command line blinked across its chest.

EXECUTESEQUENCE012: TESTCOMBATEXECUTE SEQUENCE_012: TEST_COMBAT

Allen’s sword was out before it even moved.

“Combat test?” he muttered. “Fine.”

“Let’s test.”

The first puppet lunged with impossible speed. A blade burst from its wrist, jagged and spinning like a drill made of bones and cogs.

Allen sidestepped, slammed the blade down, broke the arm off with a flash of sparks. The puppet didn’t scream. Just reset. Reset again.

Another leapt forward.

Bella sent two fireballs its way, but one puppet caught the flames, absorbed the heat into its chest furnace.

“What the hell?!” Bella shouted. “It uses fire!?”

Alice hurled a Void Sphere—watched it warp around one puppet—then collapse.

“They’re resistant to magic fields!”

Jane’s undead rose, but three puppets clapped their hands in sync and the skeletons froze, then exploded in untextured shrapnel.

“Okay, this is bullshit,” Jane deadpanned.

Allen sliced through a puppet’s neck, only for another to sprout from its chest like a second torso.

“These aren’t just mobs,” he growled. “These are tests.”

Vivian leapt over two incoming slashes and cracked her whip, binding one puppet by the throat—only for it to unwrap its own head and reveal another mechanical mouth beneath.

“This one’s got backup heads!”

Zoe slammed her tentacles into the ground, summoning a tidal slam that knocked three into the walls.

Allen finally roared, activating one of the buffs.

[Avatar Integrity Buffer: Reinforced Avatar]

[Integrity Buffer: Reinforced]

His blade glowed red, lines of code flaring around it.

The puppet nearest him tried to hack into his movement.

Tried.

Allen didn’t move like a character anymore.

He moved like the error they should’ve been afraid of.

Slash. Twist. Decapitation.

The puppets paused.

One blinked. Actually blinked.

Then they retreated.

Doors opened again—into a deeper part of the factory.

[Bug Fragment Collected: 3/10]

A hallway of whirring gears and broken glass.

Allen panted lightly.

“They were just gauging us,” he said. “Seeing what works. What doesn’t.”

Kafra’s voice returned. “We’re trying to trace that code tag now. That wasn’t just a puppet command. That was an active operator. They’re in the system with you.”

Vivian spat on the floor. “Creepy bastard.”

Allen stepped through the door. “Then let’s return the favor.”

And deeper into the factory they went—

Where the gears kept turning.

And the puppeteer waited.

The next corridor was narrow and low-ceilinged, the walls close enough that the hum of machinery pressed in on them like a heartbeat in a coffin. Steam hissed through hairline cracks in the piping overhead, fogging patches of the dim yellow lights. The air smelled heavier now—burnt copper and wet iron, as if they’d stepped straight into the lungs of some old, dying engine.

Ahead, the sound of retreating footsteps—click, clank, click, clank—echoed against the metal floor.

“They’re running,” Zoe hissed, tentacles tightening like she was ready to leap.

“Not running,” Larissa corrected, her crimson eyes tracking the shadows ahead. “Leading us.”

“Same thing if I catch them,” Zoe muttered, already picking up speed.

Allen didn’t bother slowing her down. “Keep your spacing. Don’t let them funnel you.”

The group surged forward as one, boots and claws and tentacles pounding on the grated floor. They rounded the corner just in time to see the first puppet soldier glance back at them—porcelain mask split with a jagged crack down the cheek, eye sockets glowing like smoldering embers—before it bolted into a side hall.

Vivian grinned. “Oh no, sweetheart, you don’t get to leave first.” She cracked her whip, the sound snapping sharp against the walls as she vaulted forward. The whip wrapped around the puppet’s leg, yanking hard enough to make it clatter to the floor in a heap of sparking limbs.