“So, you don’t know anything about it?”

“I have theories, but more than that…” Michael shrugged.

“Right. And the Ascentionalists know nothing else about this?”

“No more than the Martials. They thought it odd too, but since it didn’t intrude on their plans… look, you know what my faction is like. If it doesn’t harm their objectives, they don’t really look at things they consider plebeian.”

“Plebeian.” He snorted. “I get that. But Michael, you know there are things that come above factions, right? Things that go beyond mere mortal bonds?”

“I do. Trust me.”

“Good. Because a pissed off Erea is one of them.” Alex said, sweating a little.

The reason they were having this conversation was because Michael was to join Alex on their weekly clearing missions. He had put together the perfect team for their current objective. They had to find a storage closet, in an abandoned room on the second floor, and then defeat the opponent within. His report mentioned that the opponent was most likely a monster, with low chances of it being a construct. Larger than a normal human and tough. The mission was estimated to be hard, but doable by a competent team. And Alex had handpicked it. Himself, Erea, Michael and Quora.

The perfect composition.

And then Melissa came in. Quora had backed out suspiciously and Alex had been immediately approached by the artificers, looking to get the girl to replace the dwarf. Alex had refused and asked Mihli instead. The Volpix backed out, too, which was followed by Melissa herself having a talk with him. A talk which he described as part sweet, part cajoling and part scary. So, he thought about it. Bob was too large. Micah too…. Micah. Laen was nowhere to be found. He had others he could ask, but that was when a Martial high-mage came to him, told him to add the girl to the team and walked off.

“And I had to. And now I have to do a mission with Erea and the girl who replaced her.”

It was somewhat amusing to see the normally calm young man about to lose his mind.

“Couldn’t you have just said no?”

“That’s not how we do it in our faction. You say no if you’re powerful enough to fight the fight. Or mad enough to make sure both you and the other loses, like Erea. But… no, I had to take her in.”

“Look, I’m sure we’ll be fine. I’ll even run interference with Erea. No worries.”

“Right. Thanks.” He smiled thankfully, before quirking an eyebrow. “By the way, you two a thing yet?”

“What thing?” A girlish voice sounded.

They saw Melissa walk around the corner with Erea in tow. Michael thought that the elf’s normally violet eyes now had a hint of red in them. They were certainly more violet than blue today.

“Look who I found!” She said. “I was coming to meet you, when I met my new teammate. We were just about to chat, when we found you two. Sad. But business is business, right captain?”

“R- Right.” Alex breathed. “I suppose you all received and read the mission briefing.”

“Yes, sir.” Melissa mock saluted. “From what I remember, the room is just a few minutes away, isn’t it? Well then, shall we?”

Erea moved even before Melissa stopped talking. She moved forwards, grabbed Michael by the arm, and all but dragged him after her. He heard Alex desperately try to distract Melissa by talking to her about their ‘battle formations’, but the elf’s rudeness was too plain for it to be so easily covered up. Still. Michael felt like laughing. The artificer had it coming.

Erea moved them ahead, out of hearing distance, before she started to talk.

“I hate her.” She murmured. “I swear, it’s the hardest thing I’ve done, abstaining myself from bashing her head in.”

“Why don’t you?” Michael asked. “Not that I think it would be a good idea, but I wouldn’t have thought you’d accept it.”

“I got a visit too.” She quietly said. “Just like Alex. Only, he’s the calm one. The rational one. Him they just told to take her in. I’m the lunatic. Me they told I’d be kicked out if I so much as sneeze at her.”

“…damn. The artificers really have got power, don’t they?”

“They usually don’t.” She complained. “That’s the thing. Or they didn’t act like they did. Guess they were hiding it.”

Or there’re more than Artificers behind this ploy.

“Hey, don’t worry. If you ever get kicked out, I’ll talk Regitris into taking you in. I’m already expanding my network of favors.”

“Thanks.” She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “And as much as I love to see you freak out, don’t worry about the new tutoring sessions. I’m not mad.”

“You’re not?” Michel asked, fearing deception. “And you heard?”

“You’re still freaking out.” She sighed, amused. “But yeah. Can’t keep secrets in Gnosis. And after I saw the pull she has even on my faction… I know you got strong armed, one way or the other.”

“Pretty much, yeah. Any idea why she’s doing this?”

“I don’t think she is. She’s just a sickly-sweet little bitch.” She snarled. “But her faction’s pulling something. They’re working on both the Martials and the Ascentionalists, through us and you. Don’t know why though.”

They are. But not the Artificers. Her real faction is doling out the pressure.

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…

I wonder how much influence she can leverage, given that I’m not even a current target.

Michael had a thought then. That this wasn’t her faction applying leverage. The First Shadow had spoken and they seemed to respect his orders. If that was true, then this was just her pulling strings. Calling in favors. And those favors had to run out sooner or later.

Right?

“We’re here.” Alex called out, bringing Michael out of his thoughts. “This is it. If there are preparations you wish to perform, this is the time to do them.”

They had stopped in front of a large, square door. Wooden and old. It looked like… nothing special, really. Yet Alex had assured them that while the closet inside was large, it was also packed full of above average cleaning materials. It apparently had very high-grade Potions of Everlasting Shine. Michael privately thought that to be kind of lame, but he supposed the desks of those high and mighty mages don’t reach their level of perfection without magical help. And this specific closet had its own guardian.

Life at Gnosis.

“As discussed: Erea in front, Michael and me on the sides and Melissa in the back. Our new colleague only has general attack Spells, so she’ll act as a back-up.”

Erea snorted, but said nothing.

I’m with you on this one. Then why did she come along?

“Ready. Entering.” He said.

They walked in and closed the door behind them.

“|Light|” Alex spoke and his palm lit up, revealing the interior of the room.

It truly did look like a closet. It was a large one, true, but all its walls were filled with rows and rows of alchemical supplies, fabrics, specialized brooms, glowing mops, dusters and so on. A cleaner’s wet dream. And standing in the center of said closet was a lumbering figure. Easily twice as tall as Alex. Thick. Looking like it was sculpted out of a mountain, but with body parts more square than round in shape. Actually… it kind of looked like its body was composed of multiple parts, cubic in nature. With nothing joining them except pressure.

“It’s a golem.” Melissa whispered.

“Looks like it.” Alex muttered. “You sure, though?”

“I’m an Artificer.” The girl responded, looking affronted.

Sure you are.

“Right. Then is it dangerous?”

“It looks like an old model. Jointless. It’s made out of cubes, for the most part, and those stay together based on a magical attractant. But if it’s still working after all these years, then it is finely made. No chance of attacking its structure.”

“Damn explorers.” Erea swore. “They probably got a glimpse of it and bolted. Even a minute of observation would have told us more than we knew.”

“True.” Alex nodded. “But we’ll file a complaint later. For now, Melissa, any weak points?”

“Well-“

But she didn’t get to say anything further. Whether it was because it had finally felt their presence, because they had talked too loudly, or because Erea stealthily took a step forward, the golem finally noticed them.

It did something Michael hadn’t seen any other golem do. Something he wasn’t aware they could do. It talked. Well… it screamed. It had no mouth, but a high-pitched keening sound could be heard, warbling around the room.

It screamed and raised its hands, intent on charging them.

“What is it doing?” Melissa screamed.

“You’re the golem expert, you tell me.” Michael snapped. “|Barrier|. Stay here!”

He snapped the magical shield in front of her and moved with Alex and Erea to contain the golem. Not that the two of them had been idle.

“|Sticky Floor|! |Water Jet|, |Frozen Wind|. Erea, stop hitting its legs. You’re yanking him free.” Alex screamed.

He had managed to slow down the golem, which gave time for Erea to attack it. The elf was already using her favorite tactic of armoring herself with magic and using |Haste| to quickly pummel at the enemy. But as opposed to the other golems they had fought, this one wasn’t going down. It wasn’t able to hit the elf, but neither was it going down.

“|Trip Vine|. |Fire Bolt|, |Flame Dart|, |Fire Bolt|!” Michael shouted, before taking a sip of his mana potion.

“Save your locking Spells.” Alex shouted. “I’ll handle that. Erea, he’s not going down. Either go for something heavier or attack from range.”

“Wait!” Melissa shouted. “I’ve got something.”

Which was nice, but she didn’t tell them what she planned to do. She just did it.

“|Assume Control|” she confidently said. “|Lesser Bond Creation|. |Obey|!”

Michael didn’t know what the first two were, but the third one was definitely a Spell. He watched as the golem stopped, frozen. It didn’t shut down, hands beside its body. It just froze, mid-motion. It looked like a really blocky statue.

“Whew!” She grinned. “Was a little worried there, but I knew I could pull th-“

“Ki-“

The sounds had come from the golem, which had flinched. It had moved, at least an inch in all directions. And it sounded like a word.

“Kill-“

“It talks…” Alex said, in shock.

Michael had no idea how it was talking, since it didn’t have a mouth or orifices of any kind. But its voice was like screeching, dissonant and eerily angry.

“Kill. The. Makers.”

And it pointed a blocky hand at Melissa. Who had gone chalk white.

“I- I-“ She stammered.

“You fucked up!” Erea helped her. “Alex, I’m going in. Buy me a moment.”

“Wh- Really? Fine. Michael, blast it! Don’t stop until Erea charges.”

“Got it!”

They both unloaded everything they had. Michael was casting with one hand and drinking his Mana Potion with the other. He must have fired his two attack Spells continuously for nearly a minute. He even threw in a |Bolt| Spell. It was just as he finished his Potion and threw the bottle at the golem in a fit of pique that Erea called out.

“Done. Stop firing. Charging!”

He only managed to get one good look at her, but it was enough to see what she had done. She was now wearing no Spell armor and she had even dropped the leather armor she was normally wearing, revealing a thin, slim undershirt of what looked like silk. Thin enough that was he not in a fight, he might have gotten a completely different reaction.

All the earth that had been part of her armor, however, had gathered around her fists and forearms. Like Bob’s spell, but so much bigger. He had no idea how she thought to fight with those giant earth gauntlets, since he thought even keeping her arms up would be a bad idea.

But the elf just caught his gaze, winked at him and charged the golem.

Michael and Alex, in their desperate attempt to keep it back, had blasted through all the Spells entangling the golem. So when she came at it, it came at her too. They reached each other in seconds and the giant golem lifted its arms up for a double hammer hit. It would have broken her bones, given her state of undress.

Yet the elf just… blinked.

Or that’s what it looked like. Her fists blurred and Michael lost track of how many punches she threw at it after the first three. The sound from the hits was like if someone had recorded a jackhammer and blasted it through concert speakers. They were powerful. He saw the golem’s body visibly vibrate from the force of the impacts.

However, her furious attack had an impact on her as well. One was that after her punching session, her gauntlets all but evaporated, clouds of dust filling the room. Two was that the elf was spent. She fell to her knees, in front of the golem. At least the lumbering thing stepped back, shaking.

Michael ran forward, grabbed her and heaved her up, dragging her back to Alex and Melissa.

“My savior.” She tiredly grinned.

“My lunatic.” He retorted, more worried than amused.

Alex came to her, trying to give her his Mana Potion, but she refused.

“I drank too much. Can’t digest anymore.” She said. “Alex, I’m out of mana. And Skills. Is it dead?”

“Wait, you’re the one who should tell us that.” Michael told her.

“Nope.” She said, smiling. “Head hurts. Vision blurry.”

“Damn it.” Alex cursed. “She’s out. Melissa, can you tell us if the golem is still a threat.”

“I… I hesitate to use another Spell on it, yet… well…”

In the end, she didn’t have to do a thing. Because the golem moved forwards, through the dust clouds, until it was clearly visible. Visible enough that Michael saw a small, long crack on his torso, from Erea’s furious barrage.

And they all saw the golem raise a hand, straightening a thick finger to point at the crack.

“We can’t beat it. We need to retreat. Maybe it’ll stay back to guard the closet.”

So. This is what it feels like to lose.

The golem then used the same hand and the same finger to point at them. No. At Melissa.

“Kill the makers!”

“Run!” Alex commanded.