Murai was lost in the stretch of flowing time that was hard to tame but crisp to feel. It felt flowy, like being lost in the depths of the sea that kept flowing and bearing on every speck of his flesh.
He felt his mana departing through his mana space, going to his flesh and muscles, and there, something grabbed it, mending and pointing it to his spine which led to the beak that was at the end of this road. It was the definition of his Beak's Peak. This time, it was so vivid and alive, that he doubted his body and mana was even his.
His skull was part of this flow too, somewhere in the pain and flow that was creeping like the suffering that was constantly shifting. Everything became weird. Reasonably speaking, his mind was no longer caring about any stress beyond some irrational threshold. When it became unbearable, it just shut down in his soul, or was it the Robust Spirit that overcame it? Changed him? Helped him endure something that he never tried before?
Putting it all on the line with his Peak felt different than anything else.
It was hard to say what was happening after he let his mana flow however it wanted, moving it to his beak. He felt nothing wrong or right as it almost happened outside of his body. He just felt content to let the flow end at his beak like he wanted. It was that simple, even if his core and body felt squeezed like dried cheese.
Time became irrelevant like the onlookers have always been, or how ground below his feet felt, and tension in the air wavered around his feathers.
It flowed the way it did, and soon, two ducks in different layers and styles faced one another. Both Peaks were ready.
They were close, almost touching one another, but the golem was slightly further since the glowing star at the end of its beak was twice bigger than its head. Its reach was better.
It shone bright, undulating pressure that must be a passive outcome of its pressed mana. Murai felt nothing much of it than pressure that he no longer cared for. His own Peak didn't outshine it, nor did he feel as if he stood a chance against this star. He was stubborn to stand straight, letting the mana flow to his beak in many tides that came through him.
He never unleashed such force through his Peak. He thought his body wouldn't allow it, as 10 seconds seemed like the most his Peak at the highest output was able to bear.
Now, it went over that point like a knife through butter, even though the knife felt like a mountain instead. The golem was visually striking.
By this point, 24 seconds passed since Murai started his Peak. It felt much longer for everyone present on this Island or himself. Lots of demons began to clutter in nervousness, and weirdly, Murai heard their voices as if they were talking to his ears. He heard noticeable sneers and fearsome remarks about how Levandis created a monster, or how this new Anatidae felt different from others.
Some intriguing comments would make him angry.
“I bet 10 days of food for our guy!”
“You sane?” a demon laughed. “10 days is a steal from you. I am in.”
“This technique, I heard that some old denizens died by this single and small thing, yet they were large like a mountain. Isn't that insane? Similar to our guy?”
“Stop yaping about nothing! This is a fucking fight for the pride of our Lady, you bunch of suckers! I bet 20 days on the little guy.”
“Which one?” a few of the observing devils asked at the same time.
Voices whispered, or shouted, speaking and yelping as if their time no longer mattered to them. This Island ended up as a show for them. It didn't count for their hopes or punishments.
This was their playground, their place where they proved themselves without any time limitations whatsoever. It was Levandis' playground, as much as it was theirs to prove their strength and power to touch the Hell Haven's structure and growth.
However, their deaths weren't important. Most often, deaths were always irrelevant in the grand schemes of anyone close to Chaos.
Each of them spoke without the ability to move since they couldn't miss out on this show. Be it from the pressure of the show or Mindarch's authority, or the set-up of this Islands as a whole.
Murai cared even less about it than the speck of dirt on his feet. He did the obvious thing he could do when he felt nothing about the golem was changing.
Golem looked to be waiting with his Peak. It was either stuck in action or it waited for something. That could become endless if that was the limit for an action, cause, or consequence.
He expected nothing else from a soulless machine.
So he stepped forward, feeling that he had met a threshold to an unknown reach of his Peak and mana that he hadn't encountered in this life. It felt stranger than usual. It wasn't a Resonance that was omnipresent across the universe. Nor it was a sudden recollection or whispers or flow of the Laws.
Calling it a Resonance of his Bloodline, or body and mana put together wasn't sounding that wrong.
He didn't test anything. No validity was there for him, nor answers. He just did what he felt necessary to not cry like a helpless duck that was pressing power over a mountain.
He tested the limits of his Peak many times throughout the last few days. Its mana consumption, power, and flexibility varied by the degree of channeling and input of mana. It had no official stages, even though it felt it should have some because it still had some aspects that could influence it.
Will of the Battleworld didn't give him any clarity over it, similar to the Blitz that he had to figure out himself. It was the same training and learning shit all over again, while nothing changed even after discovering Fatality and his familiarity over the 100 fights reached another level. He felt he had improved 20 times faster, opposite to the last Gate that lasted hours. And there, he had spent more walking through that fog than fighting anyway.
Here? He... still spent some time walking because of the bridges, but fighting was much more substantial and denser after he met his match.
Peak depended on factors that worked surprisingly well with any advancement in his mana flow, Peak's level, or simply training and figuring out the means of the channeling that Will of the Battleworld mentioned all those days ago. It didn't depend on Shaping all that much.
Peak was its own thing, as it was Bloodline ability that carried connection to his blood, Beast Core, and as he figured right now, it could manifest his everything... apart from his soul?
He didn't feel any changes in his soul apart from unnatural calmness and weird stress that he believed was caused by this Peak or his current spent condition. He was certain that his Peak was using his everything, and it gobbled it up like his Beast Core the mana.
What if his soul could influence the Peak? Wouldn't that be overpowered?
The flow of mana and channeling allowed him to work around the power that Peak possessed. The longer the better. Simple enough, but it had some other parts that touched on time and mana.
He hardly ever reached 10 seconds with it when he went all out. Now, it was lasting for 24 seconds already, which was way over any limits that he ever felt.
And it felt wrong and right at the same time. Was it some limit that he broke, or could his Peak do this if he went ahead and pushed it all out? Or was it a Breach into something caused by his soul or Robust Spirit? He almost thought it was, because this felt like Peak but not at the same time. It was pure mana, and the flowy glow of his beak was within his eyesight, almost blinding him.
Normally, his Beast Core would refuse to work after the 10-second mark and mana would get out of his touch.
Peak would end if he strained his channeling in such cases, mana would disperse, and core would get hurt. Upon that point, any further actions would destabilize the form of the Peak, making it impossible to restore. It was also causing the backlash to his spine, head, and core, but those weren't that harsh if his output was not that harsh.
Which was unlike that right now...
If he failed, there were some nasty repercussions ahead. He tested them numerous times, but not this much. Having a fine line between the limits was important. For example, the small flow of his mana to his Peak would give less power, but the same concept over the Peak. That meant the stress was much smaller, but his spine and beak were always tensed up. That state would go on for nearly 20 seconds long channeling, while his beak remained relatively stable and still not flexible.
Medium flow would go for 15 seconds with more power. High flow for 10, with 14 being the best he had achieved in terms of heated momentum and fighting, and that stressed the shit out of his core and neck. He almost felt his bones breaking.
It was his strongest kind of attack without any doubts, thus, Murai had no choice but to attack with something he knew moved past his limits.
It will be interesting, he reckoned.
Then, when his Peak was coming closer to the golem, he let it out. More waiting would only shackle them in place, so when he decided to act, the golem did so as well.
They both decided to step in, shattering the ground in a dust storm and light. Anatidae Golem moved forward further, letting a tremendous amount of pressure reach a certain crescendo. Then, it opened its beak, crashing the star around it and eating it. Its steps halted, and the air shook.
Its Peak exploded, aiming at Murai.
Reaching the same spotlight, barely any space was between them, making their fight so close, that humans wouldn't be able to lift their hands without smacking one another.
Murai felt the rising pressure on his Peak first, while his own dense power felt smaller in comparison. He wasn't sure why that golem closed his beak and cracked that star and exploded that mana. That act never made much sense to his Peak, but perhaps its Peak was different from his? Anatidaes should have plenty of variants of abilities, so Peak should be no different. His was more beginner-friendly, that was for sure.
He didn't change anything. He pushed his Peak against the golem's exploding surge of mana that felt like a tidal wave of light and pressure. It was wild like being in the middle of a tornado, or a flow of water that crushed down from a large waterfall. The pressure and light seized his sight.
Then, he slammed his Peak ahead, meeting its beak.
Ground cracked, Murai's feathers flickered and pushed inwards through the surge of mana and immense pressure. Both of their necks stayed in place, while feet flinched on the ground. Murai felt his bones creaking and neck twisting, and his legs surprisingly kept their form.
Both figures matched the light, while neither lost their beginning clash. Murai stood on his own, standing firm, while his feathers swayed in fast winds and stress. His Peak crashed at that wild power with more density over its mass, unlike the massive surge that was inside the golem's beak.
Then, the golem let it out as well, opening the beak. It was such a wild explosion, that Murai felt his eyes burned away. Light and dense, the Peak exploded onward, looking like the breath of a dragon. It was wide so it went over him and pushed further to the street.
It was like a dragon breath added with Peak. The pressure and roaring power pushed forth, causing incredible power to come out. It wasn't as piercing as he expected, nor did it hurt or push against his feet or neck. It went... everywhere.
His Peak withstood it by going against this wide power. Or to be precise, his Peak split this force so most of it didn't attack him. Most of this pressure was on his beak, which could survive worse things than this. Then, his feathers took the rest of the force by curving inwards and gliding the pressure away.
This breath was unlike his Peak at all fronts, which pointed at this storm without fluttering or losing. It pushed the pressure aside thanks to its pointy nature, glowing and putting pressure where it was the strongest: on its tip. That was what Peak was for him, or how the Beak's Peak worked the best across the Anatidae Species.
This golem wasn't able to reach that point, or was it a Peak of a different kind? That wasn't correct, as this was just an imitation of the Peak. Not the rightful one that worked the best with Bloodlines alone.
But its mana and power were still savage, making it suitable and not that different.
A single attack that pointed to one place was all Peak needed to work. It was a simple attack with a simple premise. Murai worked surprisingly well against this large mass of power that flew to him regardless of his Peak. Some of that power went past him, pushing against his head and eyes, and trembling his muscles and feathers.
He was still standing, even though this went on for seconds that felt longer than necessary. Stress on his spine and neck clashed against his senses which were dulled at first until they screamed at him like a dragon.
Pain returned. Vividity and stress over his mana and bones crashed against his spirit. He wished to cry, but he felt if he faltered, his stubborn acts would be in vain.
His gaze was fixed on his glowing visible beak. He was unable to see anything other than the light. Like the end of the tunnel, pushing against the stormy seas. The little beast in his mana space seized the flow of mana after the Beak blasted forward, allowing mana to come back into his mana space. It felt like a rush of adrenalin that seized Murai by yet another storm. He was no longer empty and dull, but pained when the flow returned. That was what caused the pain.
When mana came at his emptiness, everything nearly broke. It was internal pain that subdued the external stress. And he no longer felt that empty in his mana space, which felt better yet weird. Mana rushed to him again like the wild train, but it didn't change much, even though his Beast Core worked overtime and caused many negative effects.
It was hungry, unsurprisingly. And wild! So wild! The flow was turning to tides and the mana flow increased.
Murai felt an explosion in his heart causing no small distress. It helped purify his thoughts and tense his body.
He couldn't let more mana out if he already reached the maximum amount. All that mana did was calm his core and slightly empower his body which felt like gliding through the ground until hiding a massive wall.
He didn't move, however. Not even a little bit.
Nor the golem did.
Golem seemed to start the next course of action under some set of sequences it failed, or couldn't finish. Its Peak kept rushing its mana forth, but it was dimming, leaving cracked and destroyed buildings in the direction of its beak.
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Murai was within this line as well, alive but a couple of meters away. Some of his feathers looked haggard and bent like fallen dry leaves, his beak was in one piece, and little of his Peak crashed the remains of that star aside.
Neither won. They clashed to a standstill, but one ended better than the other. Golem hardly changed afterward. Its mana returned to hiding after unleashing this storm, right into the layer of power it had unleashed.
While Murai was out of his wits, he felt as if he went through space storms of the wildest Chaos Spaces. These were rougher, but in terms of feelings his current power, it felt like that.
His Peak took a massive toll on his spirit, mana, and mind, but he endured it.
And it wasn't over yet. Golem's runic structure was intact and well, its mana and movement unchanged. Like a pointed arrow, its beak jolted forward like its steps, arriving at Murai in the blink of an eye. It was strong and fast, carrying the same motion when they battled for the first time.
Murai was able to see it, sense it. He couldn't move his feet.
Thanks to every fiber of his being, or luck, he was able to counterattack that thrust with the only thing that moved: his beak. It was closest and most under his touch. Up close, the golem's beak was thicker at the start of the mouth, traveling in a straight line onto the tip like a sword. It had some slight curvature, making it appear like an irregular duck's beak.
It had a different kind of shape from Murai's, whose beak was quite a bit longer and thinner, but the shape wasn't as foreign for a duck. His wasn't looking unnatural, if it made sense to him.
Murai had a flatter kind of beak, with sharper sides, and a similar tip that worked not one bit weaker than his opponent's. In a true matter of fashion, the beak of an Anatidae was their pride.
It was their everything, which this golem took for granted. Its beak was probably the most expensive part of its materials, right beside the running of its runes. That was at least what Murai thought when he felt its Peak and those clashes against it. Runes must've taken years to develop, which money would never buy.
The beak was of utmost importance to every member of this species. Murai wasn't an Anatidae in instincts, but his pride and slowly creeping positivity over this living changed his mind. He was what he was, and he wouldn't stand being trampled by a freaking impostor.
This foolish tool may as well disappear from the face of the earth, Dephts and who knew what else. No one would care!
Something in his mind snapped.
Murai moved his beak faster than he anticipated, deflecting the thrust away. His Peak dispersed alongside that stormy Peak, while his neck and spine still felt useful. Strengthened, albeit a bit slower than the golem, he went against it.
Beaks momentarily clashed against one another, and Murai felt the power behind the golem's every sweep and momentum. He wasn't sure of it now, but its movement got faster and power had more weight. It trashed his beak aside, bent his neck, and pushed him away.
He was sure it got heavier, as it wasn't any faster than before. It was smaller, however, thanks to shedding the armor away. Murai was faster, but it didn't change his power all that much. Mana glided onto his core, allowing some strength to return. He wondered how it was possible. He was utterly convinced he wouldn't be able to move after unleashing that massive Peak after enduring yet another Overdraft.
But looking at good things with confusion wasn't necessary.
Golem was more than capable of matching his every move, performing the set of motions and actions that didn't hurt it that much, and it matched his style and beak's swipes. Murai got angry again, feeling that he was playing against this tool.
He backed in a sidestep, hoping to take time to turn toward the Shaping that still might be useful. Golem pushed forward again, not giving him any time. Its beak slid off his side, and Murai clutched his beak, pushing and deflecting it away by screaming foolishly.
Some of the residual force traveled throughout his body, smacking him many meters away. It wasn't that bad. The majority of that force slid off his feathers. He felt similar kinds of hits in the past Islands. The tougher ones, of course. Sharper ones too.
Which made this golem rough and weird. If he considered the previous Peak, this golem looked much stronger than the enemies he had met so far. It was holding back, he feared, similar to the Acaman Golem.
Mindarch hadn't introduced it, so Murai had no way to know that.
Murai had almost no advantages apart from clear assurance of his defenses. He was yet to bleed, which was perhaps much more questionable than usual.
Looking at it from his perspective, his battle-focused mind wasn't that quick-witted. His beak helped, his mana was returning, so he had to adjust his strategy while his Beast Core surged and screamed at him like an angry and hungry dog. Why? It had its meaty flow, yet it was turning his mana space into a storm that stressed him more than the mana flow itself.
He wished to shut down his internal issues by taking a potion or something... He forgot he hadn't gotten any from Lisa before he entered this shitstorm Island. He ignored it for the time being, hoping that his mana space would endure it, and his Beast Core will calm in this rich and dense mana flow that flooded it.
This place was indeed a rich curse for mages and any Shapers. He had no doubts that any other mage would explode or become a cripple through enduring so many Overdrafts. Add to that this temple and things got worse.
Golem's attack failed to draw blood, yet it was far from over.
It was like an immovable force, and every damage that he inflicted upon it wasn't even noticeable, unlike the previous armor. Its metallic flat feet weren't weak at all. It put great stability to it, while its feet were thicker than his. It moved in place just fine, allowing its actions to turn its neck back on track. It turned, sensing Murai aside before pouncing at him.
In a split second, Murai dodged it in a jump and attacked its side, clutching his beak, and almost flapped his wings to add more momentum. As best as he could, he unleashed as many powerful thrusts with his Blitz as he could. Golem wavered a little in acts or calculations, but it took a split moment for its beak to follow.
Starting clash pushed his beak aside, but Murai sidesteped to move to the wingless direction of its body. Even if he had no residual force from the Peak behind, his beak felt hot in Blitz. He pushed whatever he had, unleashing powerful thrusts into its body that was wide open at the wingless side.
He cracked some feather-looking plates, creating a few decent holes further into them thanks to small openings between them that he created by force. They were almost unnoticeable, but when he put his Blizt forth, some widened and layered plates moved away. Its armor was long gone, thus its plated body in many layers was there for him to attack alone.
Now, its torso wasn't far from Murai's in shape, but it was slightly narrower because its fluffy feathers were nonexistent. Its metallic nature did need size and mass for the runes, albeit those plated armor pieces did provide some wonders.
As he pushed through some plates, there were more of them underneath, but in different metallic colors, and with notably denser runes around them. Mana was also slightly more notable as he succeeded, but Murai was hardly thinking about his Sonar.
These plates had fewer feather patterns on their side and looked golden, but this opening happened only for a split second. It closed when the golem trembled. Its wing and everything else were still firm when it noticed something wrong. It moved its feather-patterned plates, clustering them together. Around its neck and head, smaller plates of slimmer metallic feathers shivered and turned, making layers of very dense patterns.
With the armor gone, it wasn't looking like a golem all that much. More like a metallic duck.
As if nothing happened to it, the golem smashed with its beak, striking right toward Murai's wide-open torso. He was slightly surprised he was able to push these plates right now.
He took this hit and stumbled away. Murai scowled in pain as he rolled 10 meters to a distant building. Again, he felt powerful blunt force, rather than piercing pain. His muscles didn't appreciate it, nor his bones. His feathers took the cutting wounds much worse, he feared, but something about blunt attacks also pushed well against them.
It was a good discovery that taking hits very head-on hurt more. Murai felt his insides move, bones squeezing in pain, and his belly hurt. It wasn't that long ago when he felt every movement of his bones twisting in terrifying pain, while Iris laughed it off, joking it would pass away.
He remembered it far too well to his liking.
And he didn't want to repeat that experience ever again. That memento of pain flooded his mind. This golem hurt him, but it indifferently stood where it was, calculating him like a predator.
In some demon's eyes, it appeared like a victorious posture, thus some of them cheered, loudly proclaiming its victory. Those must be demons that bet against him, Murai thought.
Murai coughed some blood, which shook him as he hadn't felt that sort of damage. He was way too hurt without even knowing it. He clumsily got up with an ashen expression, feeling his internals and core seizing more mana that trashed around his body. It was all turning him weird because that golem smacked him quite well.
It didn't comfort him in any way, nor did it mean that his soul was unshaken. Not at all... He was still not over that Peak that went against something he considered way out of his league. Golem just utilized it wrongly, bending and winding that Peak like a massive explosion. There was no doubt that if that Peak was like his, his body would be in pieces.
He was far from being fine. Both mentally and physically. “So what... if you hurt me? Fucking tool. Clueless machine. Do you think you can calculate the havens? Touch my soul? Turn the tides agasint my favor? If it weren't for those weird internals of yours or your endless mana, you would be scrapping on the ground like a useless tool!” Murai quacked his will, unwilling to give up.
He hadn't stalled intentionally, but he did wait for his mana to return to a passable Shaping stability. He didn't want to put his core or mana space against any bad odds, but he already did it. It didn't feel great so he waited and used his beak alone.
He lied to himself, opting to ignore his pain, figuring his mana expenditure and core behind that wild Peak was far out of his mind. He forced it, so it was weirdly insensible. He didn't like to put his guesses anywhere where facts belonged.
He did attack it like an idiot, full and honest, so he wasn't sure how strong that Peak even was. He just pushed it against that storm, stressing his body. He did nothing to it apart from defending himself.
He hadn't felt the impact, so he didn't know what his expectations about it were. Not only that Peak eat all of his mana for a snack, but his Beast Core allowed that, devouring his whole body to let it work.
Though he could afford it, he didn't want to try it for a long time, nor did he want to use it right now. Even a small Peak would hurt his already stressed spine and neck. For him to use it, he had to be sure it would be fatal, otherwise, he would be in serious trouble.
Murai didn't even think there might be more foes coming after this golem. He was too focused on the task at hand.
And he did what he wanted when the golem began to move after 5 whole seconds of his stalling. That time allowed his mana to calm down. Somewhat...
Conjuring some mana, he let his Shaping shine in regular fashion. Slightly slim and sharp pointed arrows turned around his head. They weren't the best, but they weren't worse either.
It was time to seek more limits, and whether the Overdraft of his mana space would crash him sooner than him killing this tool.
Murai began a battle of attrition, where he went for less direct clashes. Since he would fail, albeit with somewhat good results, it was time to change his views and think outside of the box.
His beak was his only proper tool against this golem, but mana was shapable and everchanging. He had no doubts he could come up with something under his arsenal of spells to make it work.
His Mana Arrows weren't stronger than his Proper Mana Blades, but because of the Sharpness and his quick and heavy use of Shaping, their actual usefulness was much stronger than normal. He sent dozens of Arrows ahead, throwing one after another to seek changes or opportunities. He was looking for a golem to change as well, while another set of blades or his beak could move quickly to finish the job. That was at least his hopeful idea.
He was yet to know what those feathered plates had to offer besides incredible defense that he briefly moved away. Now, he doubted he would do it again, so it was time to use wits or more force.
Each arrow used a negligible amount of mana. Creating and pushing dozens of them in a couple of seconds was more than possible, albeit only in this temple for the time being. Outside, he would've been long unable to fight.
All he had to do was to let his Conjuring work, while Shaping would work with the rest. The rough appearance of Arrows was more than enough since all he needed was a good tip with Sharpness at the front.
Was that easy? It wasn't sounding like that at all when everything was happening many times per second, followed by the golem's moves that trashed his arrows or moved for his neck. Murai dodged and moved too, looking for chances and strategies.
His mind thought for some edge.
Some of the demons' mouths widened, and their vision was upon a wild barrage of Mana Arrows that kept coming at their target without any misses,
It wasn't as if the golem was taking them willingly, as it sidestepped sometimes, while mostly moving firm on the ground and taking the arrows as if they didn't matter at all. In truth, they didn't damage its proper plated body that hid under the previous armor.
This went according to the general defenses and rules that this golem had. An unworthy attack wasn't worth dodging or deflecting away. Arrows of this quality shouldn't pose much problems to it, let alone damage its core body.
Unfortunately, what its rules followed was common sense, and it hadn't taken into account what someone like Murai would assume. He used not only the quality of his mana that wasn't enough against it, but with enough quantity and numbers, he could look for a way to chip its plates away.
It worked slightly, almost unnoticeably, but when he turned his Sonar ahead, he discovered some diminishing mana coming from the previously damaged plates. His Blitz took care of them, while from here on out, he could work around them.
Dozens of Arrows stormed its side, where they began to chip away the upper layers of plates that he previously cracked. Golem didn't take it for nothing, of course. It wanted to finish its target too, so it pounced forward.
And Murai danced with it, dodging and running rather than moving to confrontation.
74 Arrows and quite a lot of mana behind later, the cracks appeared, until swelling and closing again when the golem trembled. Murai made his move then, crashing it with his beak next. He moved the layer of a few feathered plates, revealing a thin mana vein that was barely visible behind some plates that he forced open. He saw golden plates beneath them, close and kind of hot.
At that moment, Alarm Runes arose in the golem's runes. A Breach had been met once more, which wasn't anticipated.
Some rules changed and mana pushed through the plates, forming a meter-wide barrier that was way too overkill. It thrashed Murai a dozen meters away. It was not only enough against these Arrows, it would take any Blitz, Fatality, or Peak head-on without a crack. Why did it appear now when he crashed its wing and cracked the previous layer of plates?
Had he seen a weakness?
Arrows stopped coming after this hit. Murai's gaze was upon that barrier and motionless golem. Seeing those plates and a vein of interest, his Sonar surged again. It penetrated the barrier now, but not the golem as a whole. It bounced against his senses, so he set his sight on the wounds he caused, noticing the intricately patterned runes so dense, they were specially crafted with these golden plates in mind. Layered as well, they ensured to hide everything like a great formation that worked with runes and mana materials in mind.
It was way too overkill for a golem of this size, but it worked flawlessly to hide mana when it could.
He expected something insane, but it was shockingly overkill. He wasn't surprised when the golem remained in one place. He was sure he wouldn't be able to damage this barrier in any form. The mere idea that he worked with that edge and cracks in his mind was enough of a surprise.
It was good it remained still. Luck was part of victory and he had no trouble with winning around mistakes or his questionable ideas.
However, the question of winning was still not clear like everything about this golem. Murai planned to change it, wishing and fishing for some answers like he wanted. He dug deeper, spending no small amount of Sonar power to push through the opened-up plates and a vein that went deeper. It was yet to close, so he had to be quick.
He was sure it was his time now, so he turned his Sonar into a weapon, discovering the runic structure through that vein that went to the core. It was hiding deeper than he thought. He worked through little things that were dense and rich, barely making sense to his current understanding of the Sonar, but he didn't need specifics or some secrets.
He needed outlines, a barebone layout, and answers. A sketch of a plan, or so he thought, was enough to expect from his Sonar.
Golem had a magnificent Artificial Core that was also weird, as he barely noted its layout or vision, but he noticed the runes and general structure. He knew it existed, and just as he did, his Sonar ceased to exist after many flashes of ideas came to his mind. He saw something insane. Numerous things.
The wound closed but something else pushed against him. Pain flared up from his mind and core, and the backlash of forcing his way through the golem was dozens of times tougher than he thought. It forced him out.
But he had seen it! Felt its size and intricate runic layout. It was far bigger for his Sonar to see it all and he realized what it was.
“T-this fucking thing? It... has a freaking Everflower for a core!? What in the actual moon made this thing? How could someone push that thing against me? No wonder its mana from before was so vast, but its vastness was all to it. It is locked behind such tight formations that one can't even sense it unless one pushes his way through them. If it would be as qualitative as its mana quantity, I would be dead.” Murai deducted the facts as soon as he went over the last flashes.
He saw or felt nothing clear. Runes weren't obvious to him, while this Everflower discovery was enough of an answer for most of his worries.
He won't be able to kill it at all. There was no way it was possible when he recovered some wits and barely fought through its plates. And it was just a little bite into the whole picture. Murai felt more layers of this golem below the golden layer.
There were about a dozen of them, with each having some aspects of runes and power, acting as shields, formations, armor, and locks. Each had a specific flow that worked around that Everflower. He destroyed just pieces of the poorest point of these layers, uncovering the one underneath that was slightly unkempt as if made in a hurry.
This golem wasn't that old, Murai assumed.
It was impressive. There were clear differences and masterwork behind these layers, forming formations that he couldn't understand. It had a purposeful structure and work of an artist.
Its source within it was what shocked Murai the most. It was little, barely a few thumbs wide and tall. It was a cubic glowing matter, barely viewable thanks to the Everflower inside of it. It was like dense light and fog at the same time but so powerful that it pushed against his awareness. It was powering this whole golem, but... in locked and tight manners and clear limits.
There was no way if a golem with such a source attacked him with power of that sort, he would live. A clear flow within it revealed few purposes, but Murai had his guesses. That armor that he had already destroyed wasn't important. These layers were, while its powers and acts were just a test.
As he dug deeper, close to that Everflower, there was a surprising set of runes that Murai recognized with a brief look. It was a travesty for any runesmith to use such a set with Everflower in sight. But it was what enabled this fight to begin with. Someone set chaining runes upon it, bending the flow of mana to be small like a tight stream of a few veins from a large mountain. And it was recently made, following the weird cube around the Everflower.
They obscured mana flow, making the flow of mana hidden, while leaving the mana at the core. That was why he hadn't felt much from it, since they were part of the plates and all of the layers worked with it. Then, the weird thing was that cube surrounding the glowing Everflower.
Since he breached through the layers with his Sonar, he discovered the truth. Golem's power was heavens lower than it should be. Normally, no one would ingrain runes onto a golem that would obscure it like a fool, because they were a pain in the ass to remove.
But there they were, locking its power.
Murai discovered someone really curious and lofty enough to use Everflower for an Anatidea Golem wanted to see this fight.
In a twisted sense, he wasn't surprised.
Some God was behind this, or a bunch of them.