The nine golems raised their hands in the air and once more, dimensional ripples emerged from above them. This time, however, the ripples were far larger and charged with far more power. At the same time, there were a smaller number of them totaling only nine - one for each clone - presumably because of a much larger cost.

As before, the heads of weapons poked out from them, though this time they were much larger, meant for hands sturdier and bigger than those of humans. And the weapons themselves were of massively improved quality. Li could not tell what they were, for they were not of Elden World, but he instinctively understood the weapons from before were nothing compared to these.

The first weapon – a massive spiraled spear of gold and crimson – shot forth, shining in the night like a miniature sun as it pierced through Li's heart.

Li put a paw to his chin in contemplative wonder, the shaft of the spear sticking out from his body and spreading fire across his fur. He was focused on what Lady Zhen had said before, about these being weapons from gods. He once thought that maybe the four gods of Elden World were the only gods in this world, but it was evidently not so, especially considering these were supposed divine weapons whose gods he knew nothing of. 

As Li continued to think, a skull-patterned hatchet whirled forwards and embedded itself into his skull. He did not really mind, though. He was taking damage, sure, and the wounds did look serious, but the beauty of the Howling Ursine was that it had no critical weak points that took bonus damage from being struck.

Not only was it massively durable and possessing of immense regeneration, the only way to kill it was to deplete its healthpool through pure damage. It shared this trait similarly with creatures like slimes, but even slimes could be efficiently taken down through attacks to their core or through the appropriate elemental attack that destroy them instantly. The Howling Ursine, however, had no such weak points.

So though these weapons could gouge their way into Li's heart and brain, the actual damage done to his health pool was of non-zero but minor consequence. 

"Why!?" shouted Lady Zhen as one of her clones pointed at Li, sending forth a rainbow bladed sword that sunk straight into Li's stomach. "Why will you not die!? Divine Weapons enact karmic judgement upon all that is below them, nullifying their entire existence. Your remains should have been scattered into dust, into pigments that not even the smallest of ants could behold."

Li shrugged. He took out the axe lodged in his head with a squelch. It would have been far too large for a man, but it felt comfortable in his own. Before Lady Zhen could react to recall it, he tossed it full speed at one of her clones. The axe slammed into the clone with a resounding, explosive impact, and it was as if a live fire had hit gasoline. The moment the axe blade touched the clone, the clone burst into flames before shattering apart from the physical blow itself and disintegrating into dust. 

"Looks like they're working as intended. That looks plenty like divine judgement," noted Li. "I assume it just means I'm above your gods."

Lady Zhen blanched, her pale porcelain skin becoming even paler. The fiery light visible through the crack in her head dimmed noticeably as her clone became dust. Quickly, she snapped her fingers, and all the divine weapons embedded in Li faded away before he could toss them back at her.

"Do you honestly believe I need those low tier items to get rid of you?" Li opened his mouth wide and took in a deep breath, the wind whistling as air surged into his chest in enormous quantities. His furred chest expanded, his defined musculature becoming distended and visible through his shaggy fur as the air stretched his skin taut. 

Lady Zhen quickly had her remaining clones move around her in a circular formation. "[Eight Trigram Formation: Immortal Vanguard]."

Lines of glowing blue formed between herself and her clones, drawing into a trigram filled with characters. A barrier formed around them, encasing them in a bubble of sturdy energy. 

Li had breathed in as much air as his enormous lungs could draw in. He looked at the barrier the golem had erected with anticipation. Would it hold up? Likely not, but perhaps there were more surprises she had up her sleeves? 

Li opened his mouth wider, his jaw dislocating and his cheeks tearing so that the two halves of his mouth pried apart at almost an one hundred eighty degree angle. Lining every single bit of his mouth were teeth of every kind - the thick and stone like molars of bears, the hooked teeth of crocodilians, and the jagged knife edges of sharks.

He unleashed the skill that the Howling Ursine was named after: the [Thousand Echo Howl]. He let out the air pent up within him, crushing in his stomach muscles with all the force he could muster as air and sound exploded from his hideous maw.

Lady Zhen could only widen her eyes as she saw the explosion of sound erupt and approach her, the sound shockwave so laden with energy that it was visible, distorting the space that it traveled. She saw the protective formation she had erected shatter into shards so small they were like dust. Then, for the briefest of instants before her body was reduced equally to nothingness, she heard the howl.

It was not just one voice, but countless others. The crying of children, the lamentations of women, screams of agony, of pain, of torture, of anguish, of sadness, of all emotions terrible and cruel. An auditory kaleidoscope of human suffering, as if just that one howl was a repository that had collected all the echoes of misery that had plagued man from the moment his primitive brain could begin to comprehend the very concept of suffering. 

Li watched as the sound wave reduced Lady Zhen and all of her copies into nothingness. He observed as it continued to pulse outwards omni-directionally, dissolving all the clouds in its way, clearing away the entirety of the visible night sky. 

"Such a shame. I can't see a single speck of you," muttered Li as he tried to mind traces of Lady Zhen. Instead, he only saw the empty night sky and a sheen of twinkling, uncovered stars above. "But I have to say the stars are much more pleasant to look at."

A whistling rustle shuffled through the air. Li's rounded ears perked up as he saw swirls of dust gathering at a single point, building up Lady Zhen's form again. This time, she looked far more disheveled, her hair frayed and falling to her sides, her eyes wide and almost rabid. The visible damage to her head had been healed as well. 

"You-you cannot kill me!" shouted Lady Zhen, as if almost surprised herself. Her mannerisms had lost their prior delicateness, and her gestures were wild, pointing at Li with flailing flicks. In between desperate, nearly manic laughs, she said, "So long as my souls remain intact, I will not perish. Only divine weapons may fully purge my being, but I will not make the mistake of lending them to you oncemore."

Li was surprised that Lady Zhen had managed to remain sane after hearing the [Thousand Echo Howl]. Though, he supposed it was not really a move meant to deal mental damage. That was just a neat secondary effect. It was a pure damage move that grew stronger the more damage he took.

Maybe he had taken too little damage? No, even at its base cast, the skill would have been more than enough to annihilate her. She had survived through another means.

"You would have been better off staying dead." Li shook his head.

He beat his wings once to appear in front of Lady Zhen. He bear slapped her, completely shattering her body again.

Oncemore, her form rebuilt itself. 

Lady Zhen blinked several times and seemed to gain some measure of confidence. "I knew it. You know only of the crude magics of this continent. You do not have the cultivation necessary to purge my form which stands at the brink of True Immortality."

She saw as Li reverted his form back to that of an Elder Leshen, the brawn and fur shrinking into bark and branches. "No matter what form you take, no matter how many times my puppet falls, I will create it again and again and again to fell you. I will not fail my emperor. I will not fail my people. I-,"

"Not another speech," sighed Li as he waved his hand. 

Lady Zhen had completely frozen mid-speech, her hand still raised to emphasize her words, her expression still teetering between fear and defiance. A bone-white tendril of wood protruded from her stomach, impaling her from the back.

Li had casted [Root of Vulthoom], the impaling tendril which rooted a target so strongly that they remained anchored in both space and time, unable to free themselves with teleportation or time-based magic. 

Though Li was hesitant to actively use eldritch power because of the risks to his mind and being sent to Valhul, he tired of the golem's talking and figured that as long as he was not overusing it, he should be fine.

Li had cancelled most of the Howling Ursine shift except for the wings aspect, which he now used to float casually towards Lady Zhen's frozen form until he was right in front of her. He crouched down to make sure his skeletal head was level with her eyes, almost like he was bending down to admonish a child. She could not move a single muscle to convey any reaction to him, but he could still sense through twinges in her life force what she was feeling. 

"It is my turn to talk now. From what I have observed, you cannot regenerate yourself far from your initial point of destruction, or else you would have done so to retreat. It also seems that physical force alone is unable to kill you." Li shrugged.

He sensed fear from her. "Relax. This rooting effect is not permanent. You know, now that I think about it, perhaps it would be a waste to kill you. I'm sure there could be a use for you."

He sensed a twinge of hope. 

"But what shall I do? You might have abilities to deconstruct yourself and disappear. You might have some kind of item that would let you escape my lesser roots, and I cannot waste my time guarding you forever."

He tapped his skull. "Ah, I know. How about this: [Shapeshift: Aspect of the Shoggoth]".

He put his arm on her shoulder in an almost comforting manner. 

He sensed fear. Fear that grew deeper as the arm mutated, the bark bubbling with viscous black ooze that expanded and gurgled, forming into the chaotic sludge riddled with mouths and eyes. Every single bulbous red eye rolled in their sockets to target their hungry gaze at her. The mouths closest to her loosed long, slithering tongues of rotting and pulsing flesh that grazed hungrily at her neck and face.

All she could do, however, was stay standing still, her soul trapped in a porcelain prison of her own design. 

"I sense so much fear," said Li. "What? You thought I would keep you sane or in a single piece?" Li waved his other hand in indignation. "Please. I like to consider myself a being of efficiency, and a dimensional prison of infinite torture seems wonderful to keep you secure and break you into tameness until I can reduce you into a little trinket to study. I suppose Sylvie would be quite happy to receive a few of your treasury toys."

He tapped his mutated arm. "Eat, little one, take your fill."

The sludge expanded rapidly, tendrils of it snaking around Lady Zhen's form. The mouths bit into her, taking chunks of her porcelain flesh. The white spiritual energy underneath sucked into the mouths, growing dim as the eldritch flesh soon made its way over her whole body, covering it entirely. 

The Shoggoth shrunk back to the size of Li's arm, and it was as if Lady Zhen had never even existed in the first place, her form completely and utterly devoured.

"Take care of her for me," said Li as he petted the Shoggoth. The creature hummed in its own way of purring, and he cancelled the shapeshift. The sludge quickly sank back into his bark. 

"Now," sighed Li as he peered down at Riviera. "I have to clean up this complete mess of a case."