Glaustro slowly counted down, heedless of my mounting concern. My hands, blessedly, remained sweat-free, but I couldn’t take any credit for that. It was a quirk I had noticed since my skin turned blue. My physique was moving more and more towards that of a demon, and I wasn’t sure they could sweat in response to emotions.
I shook off my distraction, focusing in on one of the cylinders with anticipation burning up my insides.
Finally, the count reached zero, and Glaustro ignited the rune matrix with a pulse of his mana. The cylinders lit up instantly. Then, as one, they each shot out a glowing rope that ended in a bolt of pure crystal.
As the crystals bit deep into the golem, pulses of power erupted from the original matrix on the floor and surged into the core, dancing along its surface. But once the power reached the bolts’ breach points, it was promptly sucked down along the growing ropes into the cylinders before it could do much at all.
The core shook in time with the cavern around us. It even lifted a few inches off the ground. But then my eyes flitted to Glaustro, he nodded, and I was moving.
I fed as much mana as I could into my blade, which erupted into a bigger conflagration than ever. Unable to keep in a feral snarl, I drove the weapon deep into the golem’s core.
Standing so close, I could hear the core’s crystal substance chime like the softest, most beautiful bell I had ever heard in my life, but I didn’t have time to admire it. Instead, careful not to touch the bolts sunk deep into the core, I started to slash viciously all over the surface. I aimed for the rune clusters where I could spot them, but really, my fear had taken over. Its grip on my heart drove me on as I did my part to assassinate a construct.
I did my part a little too well.
Glowing lines marred the surface of the core where I’d cut into it, and their glow intensified with every second. The bolts were starting to glow brighter too, struggling to draw away ever-increasing amounts of power.
As far as I could tell, Glaustro had put them in place to siphon off the mana the golem needed for activation, leaving the core a pretty but useless piece of rock. But with all the openings I had created, and the surge of mana being drawn into the core from the original matrix, the mystical substance found easier escape routes.
With a much louder whine, the core went still for a moment. Then mana erupted out of it in a violent explosion of force.
I was shoved backwards at a concerning velocity, eyes blinded from the light, helplessly flailing my wings in an attempt to do something. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind not to swing my sword around too, because someone caught me.
“I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” Glaustro shouted in my ear, and I froze, not wanting to hurt him accidentally.
It took a lot of blinking and a lot of groaning in pain, but eventually my eyes cleared enough for me to be able to see what was happening.
And what was happening was glorious.
The explosion of mana hadn’t decimated the cavern’s wildlife. Quite the opposite, in fact. Plants had shot up. Animals were glowing with power. The color of everything, and I do mean everything, had intensified and taken on more interesting, luminous shades.
In the few brief moments I was out of commission, the cavern had become a fantastical dreamscape. It was like a scene from Alice in Wonderland brought to life.
My wide eyes quickly found Glaustro’s, who merely grinned and nodded towards the core.
“Look,” he said, and I did.
The crystal had broken down into chunks, its inner glow and mystical nature entirely lost. Even the matrix it once stood on was scorched out and rendered useless.
So, that’s success on the assassination front. But then why…?
Bronwynn seemed to catch my confusion, because he stepped in with a massive grin on his face. “You wouldn’t know it at first glance, but this place is a major confluence point for the world’s mana. The golem was placed here to take advantage of it, and it was draining over ninety percent of this place’s mana concentration. Now that who-knows-how-many centuries of accumulated mana were released…”
He gestured vaguely around himself, and I couldn’t help but grin at his description of what had happened. Somehow, my actions had actually helped restore a piece of the world to what it was supposed to be.
For someone working for literal hell, that felt oddly comforting.
His explanation also neatly explained why I felt like I had a full-body sunburn. That much mana in such close proximity wasn’t a good thing for most people. In fact, a normal mortal probably would have been crispified from the inside out.
Me, on the other hand? I cast my senses inward, then felt tempted to do a little merry jig on the spot. The mana had sunk deep into my body, threatening to burn up everything in its path, but it was also healing everything it touched. And while the process left me feeling sore all over, my body strengthening had taken a serious qualitative jump forward.
Including, best, of all, my wings.
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I moved the appendages around tentatively, grinning at the newfound power in them. I couldn’t wait to test them out. And, seeing as the world outside was likely stripped of the infernal sandstorm now, I would be able to do just that.
I looked at the golem core again, then failed to suppress a snicker at the sight of Mia poking at some of the large crystal chunks. The cat girl looked dead-set on extracting some kind of loot, but seemed equally confused on how best to go about it.
Bronwynn sighed, but started heading over to her. “I’ll go help her. You are entitled to part of the golem’s remains, after all. We can’t know how well the plan would have worked without you. That surge of mana was pretty potent. Even with a weakened golem, we still could have had a nasty fight on our hands.”
Glaustro nodded in agreement, but did tilt his head at me appraisingly. “Speaking of, as the person who made and powered that runic matrix, I was in the running to claim the golem’s soul. Did your sword destroy it, or did it end up with you?”
The question was unexpected, especially since I hadn’t noticed a soul getting added to my purse. Then again, I was busy with a full-body ouchie at the time, so I wasn’t really paying much attention. Unsure of whether I should be hoping the soul was there or not, I dipped a hand into my purse.
Awareness of the souls I owned pushed into my mind in that familiar, vague manner, and I let out a little gasp of shock.
Very slowly, I extracted my hand and gave Glaustro a wide-eyed nod.
“I, um, have it.”
That was underselling exactly what I had in my proverbial pocket at the moment, because the soul wasn’t just a greater or superior specimen. It wasn’t even radiant, which I would have felt immensely honored to own, however briefly. Oh no, the golem’s soul was ascendant. Two full ranks above the best soul I had ever owned.
“I take it the soul is valuable, then?” Glaustro asked, lips twitching.
I nodded like one of those bobblehead toys, briefly unable to speak. Finally, I managed a single word.
“Ascendant.”
Glaustro’s eyebrows shot up, then he looked around almost nervously. None of our unit was close enough to overhear, and they were distracted by what had happened anyway, but he still looked like someone was about to mug us.
He stalked over to Mia and Bronwynn. With a frustrated snarl, he helped the cat girl shove a few chunks of core into his own dimensional item, promising to handle that part of loot later. Then he hurried back over to me, growling under his breath.
“That explains why we had such strict instructions on what to do once we were done with our assassination attempt.”
Raising his voice, he let his next words ring out into the cavern. “Everyone, gather around immediately. We will be teleporting back to headquarters so we can report our success and claim our rewards!”
That, of course, got the demons organized and compliant faster than anything else he could have said. They clustered as closely as they could around the poor commander, who still looked like he was on edge.
Glaustro extracted another item from his ring, this time a black glass orb with something swirling with it. Then he started to chant. I noticed the newly mana-infused animals retreating to their burrows or simply fleeing in fright as his voice took on an otherworldly quality, echoing like something out of a nightmare.
I could understand the animals’ reaction. Glaustro’s voice was making actual, visible ripples in space, fighting to tear it apart. Runes swirled all around him.
Finally, as the chanting reached a particularly feverish pitch, he clenched his fingers and broke the orb. When it shattered, so did the space directly in front of him, and we were granted a glimpse of the barrier-encased crystalline settlement from which we had set out on our glorious conquest of the tree city.
“Follow. Quickly.” That was all Glaustro graced his troop with before he dragged Mia and me unceremoniously through the portal, Bronwynn on our heels.
The relative coolness of the city slammed into me like a hammer, lifting a fog of discomfort I hadn’t even been aware of. Somehow, even in that cavern system, the heat of Lagyel still won over the natural coolness of the earth’s insides. Not so in this wonderful city, though! Be it the spatial barrier or the many waterways, I felt more relaxed than I had in a while. A few minutes later, after a few liberally applied cleansing spells, our little group of four was clean as well.
Glaustro just grunted at me in exasperation, which seemed a tiny bit rude, but I didn’t hold it against the demon. Not when he looked more stressed than I had ever seen him. He had even left his unit to get through the portal on their own, without waiting to confirm everyone had made it.
“Is this really such a big deal?” I asked quietly, unable to keep my eyes from scanning the street around us in search for some kind of threat. Glaustro’s behavior had me on edge, which I was not enjoying at all.
“Yes and no,” the commander admitted, scanning the streets himself. “You have to understand. On paper, ascendant souls are ‘just’ worth ten thousand regular souls, but the math is not that simple. The ascendant rank is a qualitative change, and anyone who gives up a soul like that for a bunch of basic souls is an idiot.”
“I mean… I get that,” I ventured, like I wasn’t one of the idiots who got starry-eyed at the thought of so many souls to spend on items and ascension. “But what’s with the ‘yes and no’ answer?”
“Ascendant souls are inordinately valuable because of the experience and knowledge they contain. The process of reaching the rank is not simple at all, so living through it vicariously significantly improves your own chances. And that’s not even taking into account the kind of knowledge such a soul would have.”
“This is a golem, though…” I trailed off as I thought of my own superior tier golem soul, waiting for the day I became a proper demon and could munch on it for its secrets.
“Exactly,” Glaustro confirmed with a grin. “For a golem to reach such a rank upon awakening its soul and consciousness, its make must be exquisite. The value of whatever golem-making knowledge can be gleaned from the soul is priceless, even to a demon of Crewe’s station. Perhaps not back in the Abyss, where his power is not hobbled by the will of the world, but out here? During invasions?”
Glaustro left it at that, and my head swam with the implications. What would happen if the legion managed to reverse engineer the process of crafting these golems? I could just about imagine the procession of magnificent war machines, crafted through the combined resources of the countless worlds under demonic rule.
It would be a horrifying thing to witness. It would also assure our victory in many, if not all, of the middle- and lower-ranked worlds, by default.
“I… see,” I mumbled, giving up any thoughts of being allowed to keep my new trophy.
I mean, I knew Crewe had given the order to have the soul handed to him. I heard Glaustro say as much, loud and clear. But there was still a loot-goblin part of my brain that went all ‘Shiny! Mine!’ at the idea of the soul sitting pretty in my purse.
I distracted myself from the greedy thoughts by taking in the city around me. Strangely, it was even more bustling than before. Many more demons who looked like soldiers were strolling through the streets, all serious and focused on whatever work they were headed off to do. The merchants, too, had multiplied, their stalls set up along every street available for such endeavors.
There was an electric feeling in the air, and while I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of its cause, I could tell it had all the demons excited.
The war on Lagyel was finally moving away from its deadlock, and everyone wanted a piece of the action.