Soul of Searing Steel

The golden puppet-like golem was almost twenty meters tall—even the draconic horse was no match. Its shell appeared smooth and reflected light like a mirror. The monster charged fiercely at the convoy. The earth trembled with its every single step. Dirt, rocks, and debris scattered everywhere, forming heavy clouds of dust.

As the golden golem charged forward, artillery shells rained down on its body. Yet, the armor-piercing bombs were only able to leave slight dent marks on its shiny, smooth shell. Some of them simply bounced off its shell. Every attempt to slow it down was almost ineffective.

Of course, Black had already noticed the movements of the golden golem. The eyes of the draconic horse changed instantly. It could sense danger from the approaching golden golem. There was a unique resonance between the two beings of the same level.

This golem was a powerful being equivalent to a Gold-tier!

Having endured so many attacks without any obvious damage, the golden golem was approaching the frontline of the convoy, ready to engage in a battle. Everything was about to explode! Two light points were seen luminously flashing from the eyes of the golem. In an instant, it lifted both of its enormous fists high into the air and hammered them down on an armored vehicle nearest to it.

The elves’ armored vehicles were made of special alloys. Though it was not impregnable, it was one of the toughest material that can be bought at a certain price. Ordinary golems would not be able to break through the alloyed armor even if they unleashed their full strength. The best they could do would just be a small dent on the vehicle. The personnel on board would only suffer minor concussions. And under the usual circumstances where they were well loaded with ammunition, each armored vehicle would be capable of steadily eliminating four to five normal grade golems while maintaining their stance.

However, it was like a mountain crushing on them when the golden Golem hammered its fists down on the armored vehicles. In fact, the armored vehicles were crushed like they were made of paper cardboard. The magic-enhanced core of the vehicle also exploded upon impact. The impact of the blast was powerful yet it barely damaged the fists of the golden golem.

Without the slightest hesitation, Black growled menacingly. The draconic horse did not plan to use its light beam attacks anymore. Instead, it charged right at the enemy before it.

The light beam attacks that Black had previously used were actually dragon breaths which were range attack belonging especially to the dragons. Each species of dragons used it differently. A Smelting Black Dragon possessed no organ that condenses energy in its throat and therefore, the energy condensed and gathered at its core in its chest.

Black knew better—the power of its dragon breath was strong. However, the attack was a form of high heart projectile. Such an attack might not be able to cause much damage to the golden golem as it was protected by its reflective shell. However, Black has terrifyingly sharp claws. At least the claws were a lot tougher than the body of the golden golem. So instead of using a ranged attack that might not be effective, it would be much more efficient to engage in a melee battle with the enemy. Black endured the excruciating pain as it let out a thunderous roar after ramming into a steel-solid rock body of the golem. The amount of pain was intense.

However, the enemy felt the pain that Black felt too. The cold gleaming claws of the draconic horse cut through the air and made contact with the right arm of the golem, leaving a few huge and deep cuts. Seizing the opportunity, Black moved closer to the golem and plunged its teeth into the huge cuts and tore the entire right arm off the golem’s torso.

With a missing arm, the golem instantly lost its balance. Black spat the heavy right arm of the golem to the side and swept its tail at the golem, bringing it down. Without losing a moment, the core in the draconic horse’s chest glowed brightly, charged with energy. Before the enemy could even get back on its feet, a beam of blazing light shot straight at the large wound on the left shoulder of the golem. The beam swallowed the golem from the inside, scorching its organs and body and lighting it up like a Christmas tree.

For a moment, the golem tried to get up but now, it laid motionless on the ground. Soon, its body began to collapse into itself, turning into a pile of golden rocks.

Until that very moment, Nielson was unable to react. The battle between the draconic horse and the golden golem happened too quickly for anyone to follow. The old elf was left completely puzzled. After the battle ended, the old elf managed to get hold of himself and then screamed, “An Adamantine-tier golem! There was actually an Adamantine-tier golem on the battlefield here!”

For the love of Mother Tree, that terrifying existence was so powerful that the army of the Confederation had to mobilize a few large-scale fortress cannons in order to kill it. But the situation that unfolded before them was simply unbelievable! How did a half-draconic beast take out such a powerful creature so easily? That volcanic dragon made it seem like a breeze!

After witnessing everything that had happened before them, there was no time to feel anything else besides shock. As Black had already just handled the greatest foe on the battlefield, the convoy and Black had succeeded in breaking through the besieging army force of the golems. Black did not take even a moment to catch its breath before charging towards the capital city of Babel Province at full speed.

—Capital City of Babel Province

Gray clouds covered the entire sky. Occasionally, the sky would sprinkle some water droplets on earth, moistening and cooling the air beneath it. With cold humid air blowing across the land, everyone could not help but pull the clothes around their bodies a little tighter. It was not the cold that was similar to the deep winter in the North. Instead, it was simply clammy, cold and wet.

Using the building by the outskirts of the capital city of the Babel Province as their temporary fortress, the military personnel of the Confederation were resisting the endless assaults and attacks from the golem horde. Gigantic rock monsters came from all directions of the city. Their enormous bodies large enough to easily stomp and flatten a Magic Enhanced Vehicle. No matter how tough and strong the buildings were, they all suffered huge damage after being rammed into by the golems.

Despite the fortification of the fortress, the army force of the Confederation was still facing a difficult time in defending against such an enormous number of enemies. If they were battling such a large force of golems in the outlands, they could have easily relied on the powerful maneuvering forces of the armored vehicles. In fact, the Confederation army had no reason to fear the golems if they were in the outlands. Even if they could not win the battle, they could have retreated and re-engaged into the battle again whenever they were ready.

But due to the fact that it was happening in the capital city, they had no option to retreat at all. There were several large-scale sanctuaries, each sheltering over hundreds of thousands of Elven civilians. The army was the only thing that stood between the refuges and the ferocious golem hordes. If even one golem were to get into the vicinity of the sanctuaries, blood will definitely spill into the river.

The sounds of the cannons firing and the heavy footsteps of the army continued to ring out through the streets. The repetition of the soldiers of ‘Aim! Fire! Aim! Fire!’ was barely keeping their spirits up. The sound of raindrops falling to the ground was wearing out their patience with every passing second. In the face of the endless horde of golems that seemed impossible to annihilate, the soldiers of the defensive army were extremely exhausted, in mind and in spirit.

Ever since the volcanic dragon left, the military army in the capital city had been trapped in the circle of the golem force for more than a day. From sunrise until sunset, the enemy force didn’t even retreat, not a bit. In fact, it seemed like their numbers were swelling and for the soldiers, it felt like as if time had stopped.

In a fortress that was temporarily built and modified from an ordinary house, several soldiers were mindlessly loading the barrels into the cannons. They aimed at the golems before launching the cannonballs towards their targets. Using the narrow intersection of the road to their advantage, they were able to resist the assaults of the golems with some tactics. The gigantic golems flowed endlessly into the streets of the city. These mindless monsters had no conscience at all. They remained unperturbed despite seeing their fallen comrades blown into pieces. They charged forward, ending up with the other fallen ones.

Each fortress was covering for one direction of the streets. Other than the few soldiers that were stationed in the fortress aforementioned, there were many other soldiers in the other fortresses that were entrusted with the responsibility to defend against the golem hordes coming from other directions. There were more than a thousand fortresses built all over the city with the purpose of blocking all the pathways and directions that could possibly make way for the golems to head towards the sanctuaries within the capital city of Babel Province. Their formation was good enough to form a perfect net that prevented the golems from invading the sanctuaries.

The attacking golems were merely Normal-tier and Iron-tier golems, but the defense mechanisms were very simple and stable. And perhaps, because of that, one of the golems that was probably an Iron tier, broke through the line of defense with its exceptionally tough body and continued towards the front of the small fortress.

Having not lifted its arm nor doing anything else, the golem rammed straight into the fortress. It relied on its own weight to knock down the entire fortress. The walls collapsed, followed by the ceiling. One of the soldiers could not escape in time and a collapsing wall had trapped his entire lower body, turning it into a pile of bloody mess.

The other soldiers in the other fortresses aimed their cannons at the golem after seeing what had happened and blew it into pieces. The trapped soldier knew his death was inevitable — there was no way he was going to survive that. He made peace with that fact that he was dying and tried to say his last words. But before he could even say a word, he lost consciousness from the amount of blood loss.

“No! You can’t die yet!” shouted a half-elf, a comrade of the soldier, who was holding the bloody body. Both hands of the soldier were completely covered in the blood of his comrade. The half-elf’s grievant cry did not do any good—no one could survive with only his upper body.

With the rapidness of the golem invasion, no one was given space nor time to grief or mourn their fallen comrades. Though one of the fortresses was destroyed, the soldiers who manned the fallen fortress could be mobilized to the other fortress to continue and contribute to defending their city against the invasion of the golems.

Both sides of the war were unequally fair. On one side, there were relentless and bloodless monsters which know no rest. On the other side were ordinary elven soldiers that needed the terrains of the area and powerful equipment that could be used to their advantage. Although it sounded cruel and cold-hearted, they might even have to sacrifice the lives of the comrades in order to defend against the unstoppable hordes of the golems, especially after the emerging of the Mithril-tier golems. Only the large-scale fortress was equipped with armor-piercing ammo. If the smaller fortresses were targeted by the golems of the Mithril-tier, then the only option for the soldiers in those fortresses was to abandon the fortress and flee.

Just as the soldiers were about to move to the other places, heavy footsteps were heard coming from a distance. The rumbling footsteps shook the buildings in a slow but steady sway. One could only imagine the size of the monster to cause that sway.

A few seconds later, as everyone feared, an enormous shadow of a monster emerged. It came from the corner of one of the streets and stomped on the buildings like it was nothing but a toy. Everyone was extremely shocked by the size of the creature.

The veterans who had fought in the battle in the Valley of Cold Winds many years back knew what kind of hell that thing could bring to the city. That was the strongest unit that they ever encountered since the first invasion of the golems—an Adamantine-tier golem!

“We’re done for this time… we’re going to die!”

The only thing pushing the soldiers to retreat was their basic survival instinct. The soldiers stared at the outer shell of the Adamantine-tier golems—shiny and smooth like a huge moving mirror. Their eyes were filled with despair. All of them were ready to die. No one had any energy or will left to resist the inevitable and impending death. They knew too well that the bows and arrows, the Alchemy weapons and instrument were no match to this monster.

However, just when everything seemed to be lost, a thunderous roar rang out through the city. Another gigantic shadow suddenly emerged near the golem. It charged straight at the golden golem. In an instant, the creature pounced on the golem and brought it down to the ground, clawing at the monster and tearing the body of the golem apart, showing no mercy at all. The high heat Element that was emitted from the body of the creature dissipated every single trace of the cold in the atmosphere.

The jaws of the military personnel dropped as they witnessed the attack of the beast on the golden Golem. They were not able to speak for some time. Along with a light beam attack that was discharged from the core of its chest, Black had completely destroyed the Adamantine-tier golem. Cheers and praises rose over the streets.

— Main city of Moldavia

“So you too, cannot be sure of when the dimensional passage will reopen again?”

The black-haired warrior, who teleported from the scene, sat in the living hall of his own mansion. He frowned as he looked at the holy knight standing before him. His expression seemed deadly serious. “Does this mean that we can only wait for the next time it happens again?”

“Maybe.”

The holy knight shrugged as he took a sip of tea from his own cup. He blinked his eyes as he helplessly said, “I am not a mage after all… perhaps we should summon someone who knows magic. Well, you know, we need experts for this.”