[The Divine Guardian's Awakening | In Progress…30%...50%...70%...90%...]
With a suspicious frown, I stared at the translucent system window floating in front of me, silently waiting for it to show some kind of change...
*CRAAACK–!*
With a loud cracking sound, the bright light from the ancient door finally faded away, leaving a badly-cracked and dull stone structure behind.
As the light from the magical inscriptions went out, the bleak darkness from before returned to the dungeon tunnel once more. However, this time, this darkness brought a strong sense of foreboding along with it...
'Something...something is coming!'
Sensing the heavy atmosphere around me, I tactfully held my breath, not wanting to needlessly draw the attention of the source of this heavy feeling.
*Ping~*
[The Divine Guardian's Awakening | Complete!]
As soon as I saw that system window, I hastily took a few steps behind, getting away from the pile of rubbles that the ancient stone door in front of had turned into.
*RUMBLE~!*
My judgment immediately proved itself correct, when the entire dungeon shuddered violently right after I took my final step back.
Small pieces of stones and gravel flew out from the terribly cracked ancient door, before all of a sudden...
*BANG–!*
...the entire door violently exploded, sending showers of large and small stone pieces and boulders in all directions!
"Ughh...!!"
Some of those pieces of stone and debris landed on me, scratching my exposed body and tearing the remnants of my short-pants even more.
"GUOOOOH—!"
From the chamber beyond the shattered ancient door, a deep, reverberating sound echoed through the tunnel where I stood.
Just from the sheer intensity of that roaring sound, I felt a weak shockwave crash into my body.
Amidst the billowing cloud of dust and dense demonic miasma, I saw two golden-white colored glowing orbs suddenly appearing at the other end of the shattered ancient door.
[Tutorial Quest – Final Stage Initiated: Defeat The Awakened Divine Guardian!]
Following the two golden orbs, a faintly glowing humanoid structure slowly took shape underneath them, making it seem like a colossal creature was peering at me through the veil of darkness.
"Oh, dear lord.... Are you really telling me to fight that...'thing'..?"
*Poom–!*
A shockwave far heavier than before suddenly erupted from that 'thing', blasting away the thick veil of debris and demonic miasma, and revealing the entire tunnel corridor in front of me.
A ten-meter tall body with a humanoid shape stood there menacingly, its entire body glowing in a soft golden-white light.
...Yeah, 'it' was not a real living being, 'it' was a thing!
Or more specifically, 'it' was a construct made of stone, an extremely crude-looking imitation of a man's ultimate dream – a stone-made 'Gundam'!
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It was a freaking magical golem!!
"You gotta be kidding me..."
Incredibly huge pieces of stones and boulders stuck together in a human-like shape, every inch of its body was covered in a dizzying number of small, yet powerful sets of glowing magical inscriptions.
The dense mass of magical inscriptions were pulsating, coiling around the limbs of the stone golem as if they were glowing veins carrying its lifeblood.
With the veil of darkness forcefully dispersed by the shockwave emitted by the golem, the golem's intense torch-like eyes now bore down on me.
'Damnit...!'
Just from the overbearing gaze of the magical golem alone, I felt my body slowly stiffen like a statue.
Also, there was something odd going on with the golden-white light radiating from those orbs, as well as the radiance from the magical inscriptions carved onto the golem's body.
It felt like my bodily instincts were suddenly ringing alarm bells in my mind – like they had sensed something incomparably dangerous, and even more disgusting!
Thinking back on the original game's storyline a little bit, I quickly understood the reason.
'The Sun's Divine Light!'
The bright and pure glow this was giving off could only be produced by the Sun Goddess' divine power. Naturally, for a Demon King who was sealed by this divine power, there would be nothing that would feel as disgusting as it!
"This has to be some kind of joke, right...? This situation...really reeks of a rotten scheme."
I could already see the trouble brewing for me from a freakin mile away!
If this wasn't an open ploy to set me up against the Sun Goddess' church for as long as I stayed in this world, then I didn't know what was...
{...I see that you have finally broken through the Goddess' seal, O Great Demon King...}
While I was feeling devastated and furious inside, a deep voice suddenly brought me back into the world.
But looking at the source of those words, my jaw was left hanging open a little.
"..."
'...this stone golem can even speak?!'
I looked at the new window that was floating in front of me from a few moments ago.
[Final Stage Initiated: Defeat The Awakened Divine Guardian!]
'But there is no way I would just let everything go according to your plan now, is there?'
If that higher being who brought me here had some beef with the Goddess, then that guy would have to deal with her personally.
I wasn't going to accept becoming someone else's proxy in this conflict!
"Uh.... Um, excuse me, Mr. Golem? Ah, can I call you mister Golem, by the way?"
The golem tilted its head a little in apparent confusion for a moment, before seemingly gaining some sort of epiphany.
{...hmm? Ah, I see. As expected, staying sealed for so long by yourself would certainly be difficult even for a great being like you—}
"Wha–? No!!"
I immediately screamed out, seeing that the Golem somehow believed my intellect had deteriorated during the long isolation.
"Uhm, you see, I'm not actually the Demon King you think I am! I was just brought here by some weird being who has some beef with your Goddess!"
I decided to honestly plead my innocence to the wise-sounding Golem in front of me. Not like I had any other choice in this matter.
So if I had to make an attempt anyway, it was better to show a character that would most probably be a complete opposite of a proud Demon King!
"In reality, I'm just a human from another world! I was summoned just a few days ago! You have to believe me!"
The Golem appeared bewildered by the incoherent words I was spewing out all of a sudden.
"I-If you want, I can even prove it if just listen to me for a min—"
Perhaps feeling that enough was enough, as it raised a rocky hand in the air, hinting that I should stop speaking for a moment.
{...O Great Demon King, can you really not recognize me...?}
For some reason, when he said those words, the deep and wizened voice coming from the Golem seemed incredibly sad and hurt at the same time.
'Wait, what's with that respectful tone of his?'
{...I know that my current appearance might be too unpleasant and alien to appear in front of your eyes, and I wholeheartedly apologize for my powerlessness in this matter. Because even if you forgot everything, I can never forget the grace I received from My Lord...}
*Bam–!*
The colossal sentient Golem suddenly fell down on one knee, lowering itself and taking a medieval knight-like stance on the stone floor, before reverently bowing his head towards me.
The subtle glow radiating from the magical inscriptions carved on his body suddenly intensified, making it almost seem like a Sun had appeared inside the dark underground tunnel.
{...I am your faithful subordinate – First-ranked Heavenly King Dular – at your service, My Lord The Demon King!!}
The entire structure of the narrow dungeon tunnel trembled from the thundering voice of the sentient Golem!