In Another World with Absolute Awareness

Bliekon was trying to find a new home.

After traveling half the continent, losing many of her puppets to the human-demon war, and nearly losing her most precious belongings to a freakish rogue storm, her nerves were fried,

All she wanted now was a place for her and her puppets to rest.

’I don’t want to lose any more of them.’

Although she had fixed up a few of the damaged ones, there were still others who were worse for wear. She needed materials.

Living bodies she could extract the necessary organs from.

Souls that she could refine into Spirit Threads to make sure that her puppets were truly alive and capable of living.

Luckily, Walvaskaz was a chaotic place. As long as she did not damage the surroundings too much or kill too many of the myriad races, the empire’s guards wouldn’t care if a few limbs and organs were somehow taken.

Of course, she wasn’t going to kill anyone.

All she needed were a few living bodies. After harvesting what she needed, they could all join her family and become hers.

So, Bliekon began looking for appropriate targets, following them around to see if they lived a life worth becoming.

What did they eat?

What time did they sleep?

Did they indulge in vices and debauchery?

Were they sick or healthy?

...And many more.

She needed to survey her new family members thoroughly. Their organs needed to be clean and compatible, and their souls required purity.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be worthy to become a part of her collection.

Everything was going well until a few individuals had somehow noticed her puppets moving about.

’How?’ was Bliekon’s first thought.

A trickle of blood dripped down her lip, wondering why this specific area had somehow triumphed over her ability to blend in.

Who were these individuals trying to look for her?

What was their goal?

Would it affect her search for new materials?

”What the hell did I do wrong?”

Before the droplet of blood fell from her lip, she made sure to catch it with her magic. Not even that droplet could be put to waste.

It was the blood she had siphoned from a Celestial Fawn. The blood of a creature so innocent it was wholly incapable of consuming another life form nor snuffing out their lives.

Celestial Fawns subsisted only on the that formed the starry sky above. They reproduced asexually and only once every few 444 years.

It would be such a waste for even a single droplet to be lost—Bliekon would lament it for days on end.

”I need to calm down.”

Capture and interrogate. That was what she needed to do at the moment, to figure out the intentions of her stalkers.

Usually it was her doing the stalking. Now that she became a target, a stifling feeling welled up in her chest.

’Truly the empire of the myriad races.’

Despite being an ancient existence herself, she had always stayed far away from Walvaskaz.

And for good reason.

One of her was called , and it granted her an immense affinity for anything related to strings and threads. This was why she became a puppeteer, manipulating Spirit Threads over long distances.

But that was not all—her also applied to many hidden threads.

It was because she could vaguely perceive the threads that bound different fates that she had always avoided Walvaskaz.

Until now.

Something had changed. The world was no longer as organized as it should have been.

The tapestry that would have continued to be woven as this world’s history deepened... was frayed and torn.

It first started in the human domain before moving towards the myriad races. It was a tear that moved Eastward, relentlessly tearing everything in its way.

However, it was only in Walvaskaz, where the threads of fate were denser than anywhere else in the world, that the tear had slowed down.

Like a cannonball shot into foam that was kilometers thick, although it destroyed much upon its entry, it was bound to slow down.

Especially since the great Game of Walvaskaz was always drawing in more of threads.

That cannonball would soon be tangled up.

”I found you!”

Bliekon bristled when she felt someone observe the strings of her puppets, peering not only through their Spirit Threads and creeping towards her, but also observing their fates, bound to her own.

It was an unsettling feeling, but it singled out the most dangerous target.

So, she moved.

Hundreds of puppets, distributed across different streets, buildings, and floors, all gazed at a single individual. Their eyes, each enchanted with a different surveillance spell, glistened with mana.

Bliekon grinned as she hurriedly deployed her combat troupe to execute a decisive capture. Black-robed individuals filtered through the Soulless City of Grakkis, converging towards a young human male.

However, even before her surveillance puppets could peer into the human’s secrets—he disappeared.

”Huh?”

The shadows in her surroundings had grown deeper. Winds surged everywhere, kicking up dust and causing many of the myriad races to shield their eyes.

Bliekon manipulated her puppets, using their senses as an extension of her own.

Hurried footsteps, light impacts, leaps and jumps.

So many sounds filled her puppets’ ears, sounding eerily like the target she had just laid eyes upon.

Though she had failed to understand her enemy completely, she had grasped a bit of information.

His height, age, weight, gait, and even posture were all imprinted in the minds of her puppets.

However, it seemed like... all of her observations were being used against her.

The shadows squirmed, and the winds howled, mimicking the presence she had just memorized, making it seem like the human was appearing in multiple different places at once.

And yet all of them were also trying to hide their tracks.

The few most obvious ones were a blatant insult to her abilities.

Suddenly, she understood better what it was like to feel shame. It was a truly constricting feeling that burned her face and made her want to hide away.

She was being mocked.

All of her puppets were being called...

”Incompetent doll,”

Suddenly, a voice spoke into her ear, looming right beside her.