By the stars…what do I do?

Everyone knew what it meant if Primis failed, but nobody knew how it would happen. Would she just die immediately or would the Golem have to murder the young girl?

Please…please just up and die right now, don’t make me do it.

Gus stared at Primis with his hollow eyes, watching the girl frozen in shock as he wished for her doom.

“Am…am I going to die?” She finally whispered.

The humans did not know how to answer. Gus didn’t either.

Please…just kill her with magic, a quick painless death with no one responsible but you, you sick fuck.

Yet the library was quiet, nothing had occurred. No words, no magic, just a dreadful silence as everyone waited to see what would happen. It wasn’t until Gus thought there might be a small chance for the girl to be redeemed that a small notification popped up in his head. With apprehensive fingers, he slowly opened his Trial Golem’s system where he saw an alert.

‘New Duty: Eliminate Failed Contestants’

‘Current amount [ 1 ] | Targets: Primis Pec’

No…no, no, no!

The Golem slowly stepped back in horror from the young girl, his eyes never leaving the face full of tears he was commanded to murder.

I…I can’t do it. I won’t do it!

Finally turning away from the girl, Gus’s legs began to pick up speed rapidly until they turned to a full sprint in the opposite direction. As he ran, more alerts began to flood his vision.

‘Return to the Target’

Never! There’s no way I’ll do that!

‘Mutiny is not a choice’

Then harm me, not them! I’m not going to murder that innocent young girl.

But the system did not care. The warnings repeated to pop up, covering more and more of Gus’s vision until there was nothing left to see but its last message. It was like the whole world became one singular warning for him. It was aggravating, distracting, and downright infuriating for the golem. Blinded by this world of warnings, Gus could not watch his step and ended up crashing into one of the walls of the library. He felt his body fall and hit the floor, and then…silence. The warnings stopped.

Then, as if to fill the void of noise, a familiar yet hideous serpentine voice slowly whispered into Gus’s head.

‘Then you should have chosen death.’

Gus wanted to scream at the mocking voice, yet suddenly found himself unable to speak. In fact, he couldn’t even move a single part of his body. It was as if had returned to that day when he had first opened his eyes, motionless in his body like a corpse.

Fine, turn me back to this. Just…don’t hurt those humans.

But then, in the corner of his eyes, he saw it. His stone hand which had been motionless abruptly twitched with movement. And then his arm moved too.

But throughout all of this, Gus was not in control.

Someone else was puppeteering his body.

***

The humans were staring at the fleeing Golem with both hope and dread. Can it really defy its master, the Merchant?

‘No…it's impossible’ thought Marco.

The taciturn leader hovered closely to the shivering Primis, watching in contemplation as he witnessed the Golem run into a wall and fall backward onto its back.

‘If nothing is done, most likely the Merchant will try to force Gus to kill the girl. And there’s no way we can advance to the next trial if something doesn’t happen. Do we really have to sacrifice her? Would the Merchant punish us more if we resisted?’

Cruel thoughts of just offering the girl as sacrifice circulated in Marco’s mind, but after some thinking, he decided to not act on such inclinations.

‘If I offer one, then what about the next one of us to fail? Who would save me if I were to be next? And what about Cricket? If I perished, no one would help her. Then…I guess I know what my decision is. We cannot allow Primis to die, at least without showing some effort. Now, the real question is how?’

Just as Marco was pondering, though, the Golem suddenly rose off the ground.

‘Could Gus help us with saving her?’ Marco thought as he turned to the standing golem.

At least…that was his thought until he noticed the Golem’s strange movements.

‘What…what is wrong with him?’

The friendly Golem that was once called Gus walked with irregular and disorientated steps toward the humans, its eyes only facing the ground. It was like a puppet that was being dragged roughly across the floors by a novice puppeteer.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘Or maybe…a puppeteer that wishes to torment its subject,’ Marco thought with a chill.

The golem continued to move eerily towards the humans, its target never changing. The contestants who had noticed the strange behavior of the golem backed away from it in disturbance, yet the stone monster never showed a hint of emotion at the scene like it used to. Instead, it was heading right towards the weeping girl, ignoring all distractions but those in its path.

“Primis…Primis, you have to run,” Marco whispered to the crying young woman.

“...what?” she asked in between her tears.

“There’s no time. Ms. Jasmine, take her and run!” Marco yelled.

“On it,” Ms. Jasmine grimly obeyed.

“Wait…what’s happening—?” Primis was going to ask before being yanked by the already running professor.

As the two ran farther away from the walking Golem, Marco turned back to stare back at the puppet.

‘Now…what do I do?’

He had the choice of heroically standing in front of the straggling Golem, only to be trounced into ground beef by its might, or he could just walk away from it like the rest. But if he did nothing, the Golem would eventually catch the pair.

‘Though…what am I going to do to stop it? Throw a fucking book at it again?’

It was hopeless…Marco could not find any way to stop the Golem from reaching the girl. They could not run, they could not fight, and they couldn’t hide. A familiar feeling of powerlessness crept into his heart, a feeling he never thought he would feel again after finally gaining power back in the modern world.

‘Damn it…damn it! I can never save anyone when it counts!’

Reminded of his dreaded past, Marco took a look at Cricket who was watching the scene with a grim face. But in her eyes, he noticed that there was only overwhelming anger. Unlike the rest of the team, Marco knew of the deep hatred Cricket held towards such concepts as destined death. It was as if she was cursed to always be followed by it.

‘It seems we are fated to hopeless futures, my love…to a future of misery! Why I can already see how that will play out, Golem!’

Letting out a quiet chuckle that Marco made sure no one else saw, he then finally stepped out of the Golem’s path.

‘A future of misery indeed…for us and you, Gus. If you're even still in there.’

There was nothing to say as Marco walked back to the conjugating humans. They all knew what it meant. Primis could not be saved.

***

No! Marco, don't do this! Don’t walk away! Stop me! Do anything! Hit me, break me, I wouldn’t care! Just don’t let me do this.

Watching helplessly from his inner core, Gus could still perceive the outside world with the help of his flames. Yet spectating was all he could do. His body was no longer in his control, long taken over by the system the Merchant had installed within him.

As his vessel continued to lumber towards Primis who was running with her professor by her side, Gus could only curse his fate. Despite warning the humans of the dangers of trying to ascend the staircases, the desperate pair decided to attempt the risk in hopes of escaping the Golem.

No, no, no! You’ll die if you do that! There’s no hope of doing that!

Gus wanted to scream out those words, yet every time he activated the proper combustion of flames for them, the noise was immediately silenced as it left his insides. It was as if the Merchant was mocking him for even daring to think of helping.

With no way of warning, the pair who had reached the staircase both immediately ascended its steps. At first, it almost seemed as if nothing was going to happen to the two women as they rose up the stairs. But then, on their final step, it happened.

Splurt.

Two painfully loud screams were heard from the top of the staircase along with the sound of something wet popping. As Gus’s body waited at the bottom of the stairs, he noticed the two women falling backward from the top, both gripping their faces in pain. Landing midway on the steps, a crunch could be heard from both of their bodies as their bones broke from the fall. They then proceed to roll down the rest of the stairs, blood emerging on the steps as something leaked from their face.

Oh no…

Gus watched helplessly as his body waited for the two women to be delivered right to his feet by gravity. Luckily, moans of pain could still be heard emerging from both of them as they finally stopped rolling, signifying that they were at least still alive.

Thank the stars…

But Gus’s relief was short-lived. The sight he saw was dismal. The two women were both missing their left eye, with only chunks of wet flesh remaining in their empty sockets. Ms. Jasmine’s left arm was dislocated and the hand on it was turning purple. Primis was in even worse shape, her head bleeding while both of her arms were broken like twigs. There might have even been rib damage based on how she was struggling to breathe.

No more…please no more!

But his body no longer listened to such commands. Approaching the wounded younger woman, it slowly raised its hand into the air with an open palm, preparing to bring it down on Primis’ neck.

Ms. Jasmine looked up in horror with her one remaining eye and tried to plead something in hurried words. But the possessed body did not care, taking its other free hand to grasp the professor’s head in a controlled manner to stop her from interfering.

Sounds of shouting, both pleas and anger filled the library. The humans from behind were screaming, yet Gus could not answer any one of them. It was a scene of betrayal, hopelessness, and most importantly, fear.

It was as if the Merchant had thrown Gus into hell, punishing him for the sheer audacity to have the arrogance to continue living.

And now, the nightmare was truly beginning, the future of misery that he had once peeked upon coming to fruition. No wonder he had wanted death before the vision was suppressed by Nova.

Nova! You bastard, do something! Syuna! Please!

Suddenly, the hand of the puppet’s body froze in the air from his thoughts. Primis, who had been closing her one eye in fear while frozen, noticed the pause and looked up at the Golem with a now opened hopeful eye.

“Are you…sparing me—”

CHOP!

As if it was in slow motion, Gus witnessed Primis’ head being chopped off by the swift stone hand as if there was no resistance. The muscles in her neck were torn instantly and roughly. It wasn’t a clean cut, but with such might it hardly mattered to the fragile Primis. It was as if a cannonball ball had plunged through her neck, crumbling the base that had once supported her top. The once shy but bright head of Primis plopped on the floor with her still one hopeful eye opened, fear not yet registering in them. Gus just could not take his eyes off it all. He couldn’t believe it even happened. It was just too quick.

A scream of anger and grief emerged from Gus’s left hand which was still grasping the professor. Snapping out of his trance, Gus realized he had control of his body and finally looked away from the decapitated head, noticing the blood that was now splattered on the stairs. Letting go of his hand that was holding the professor's head, he let his arms fall lifelessly to his sides as he continued to stare at the remains of Primis.

What have I done…

And then…as if to mock him, Nova finally spoke.

* < | Existence Consumed… | > *

What…what are you doing? Stop that… don’t do this to me.

But it was too late. A strange energy was already surging into his flames, strengthening it like he had never felt before. It was an intoxicating feeling, a pleasure he had never felt before in his empty husk of a body. But more than that… it was sickening for Gus.

Why…why did you do this to me, Syuna!?

Gus was furious. He was revolted. Not only was he forced against his will to murder an innocent person, but now he was even forced to consume her existence.

But most importantly, he was afraid. Despite being transformed into a golem, Gus always considered himself a human who was merely placed in a stone shell. His past had never truly left him.

Yet now…he no longer had the right to think that way.

I’m a…monster.

Gus was no longer human.