They had been in the forest for about 10 minutes.
“Hmm… Sir Shilo, I felt something strange earlier?” Lintis walked with her small head tilted, looking quite troubled.
Shilo stood before an ancient tree that had been sliced in half. He reached out to touch the black, cracked patterns on its surface. He didn’t turn around as he replied to her question.
“Please, go ahead.”
Although he was the one who had invited the Saint to join him, he didn’t actually expect her to do much. Since entering the forest, he had been entirely focused on the traces left behind by the recent battle.
“Do you remember the golem we mentioned earlier?”
“Yes, the source of this Filth incident.”
Though he didn’t know exactly what she was getting at, Shilo stopped his investigation and looked over at her.
“Right, right! That’s it!” Lintis exclaimed. “I suddenly remembered that Filth shouldn’t be able to erode a golem. A golem driven by a magic core has no life force, and Filth can only erode living beings!”
“In that case, why was that golem eroded?”
Hearing her confusion, Shilo’s expression remained calm. “It’s simple, Lady Saint. That was a man-hosted golem.”
Lintis’s eyes widened. “That’s impossible. Hasn’t that been strictly forbidden by the Church for a long time?”
A man-hosted golem was a magical construct that used a human body as its driver. Compared to a magic core, it had a higher potential and could automatically absorb surrounding mana for self-repair.
While it sounded convenient, the living being used as the host would have their consciousness completely destroyed. They would lose the ability to think and serve as nothing more than a tool for the mage. Because the method was so cruel, it had been abolished 50 years ago, right after the current St. Rosalind Empire was established.
Shilo shook his head. “Lady Saint, the regulation you’re referring to is not explicitly written in the rules designated by the Church. Furthermore, you seem to have a slight misunderstanding. The highest authority capable of setting rules in Isol City is the Lord—Count Joel Rockefeller.”
“Ugh… So is this one of those traditional ‘noble oppression’ plots?”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but the Lord hasn’t really oppressed the residents. He is simply…” Shilo paused for a moment before continuing, “He is simply negligent.”
Having said that, he didn’t give her a chance to ask more questions and changed the subject.
“Regardless, Lady Saint, we have been deep in the Black Forest for some time. Judging by the sword marks nearby, Knight Marcus has already encountered that golem. I think we need to move faster.”
“Ah… Right.”
Watching Shilo head deeper into the woods, Lintis hurried to catch up.
—
In a place they couldn’t see, located in the central region of the Black Forest, a middle-aged man wearing the same knight uniform as Shilo was sprinting for his life. He carried another man over his right shoulder.
Mid-run, the man suddenly banked to the side. A second later, a beam of black magical energy struck the spot where he had just been standing.
A strange, humanoid figure nearly 3 meters tall pushed through the trees and stepped out. Its entire body was sculpted from condensed mana-infused crystals and enchanted clay. Its surface was covered in a layer of dark red energy, but the shimmering patterns of light-purple and dull-gold light could still be seen flowing beneath.
The head lacked facial features, replaced by a smooth, runic faceplate. Its arms were thick yet sleekly lined, ending in clenched, magical gauntlets with ancient incantations etched into the knuckles.
Most striking of all was the semi-transparent crystal barrier on its abdomen. Despite the interference of the dark red energy, the figure of a young girl stretched out in an ‘X’ shape was vaguely visible inside. It was the mark that proved the construct was a man-hosted golem.
The middle-aged man looked back. His mouth twitched when he saw the massive crater blasted into the ground. Then, he looked at the golem that had already caught up. His expression turned solemn as he placed a hand on his sword hilt, looking as if he were about to draw his blade at any second.
In the next moment, he turned and bolted. The sudden shift in momentum even seemed to make the golem stiffen for a heartbeat, but it immediately resumed its pursuit.
Dark red magic circles manifested in the air one after another. Whenever an opening appeared, a magical beam was released. However, the middle-aged man seemed to have some sort of sixth sense. Every time an attack came, he was always one step ahead.
Unfortunately, the aftershocks caused by the magic beams were too large. Even with timely evasions, he was still being grazed. Over time, his knight’s uniform had become riddled with tears, and fresh red blood began to seep out. The man’s complexion grew paler by the minute.
“Argh! Stop, stop, stop shaking! I’m going to throw up!”
The voice came from the man in the priest’s robes draped over the knight’s shoulder. His face was ghostly white, and he dry-heaved repeatedly.
Sadly, the ride did not improve despite his feedback. In fact, it only made the middle-aged man carrying him explode with rage.
“Dammit, Lucas, you’re a freaking waste of space! I told you to use Holy Arts to heal me, and you’ve managed to fail the casting several times in a row! If you’re even human, I’ll eat my hat!”
“When I get back to the Church, I’m going to tell the Holy Knight everything you’ve done! I refuse to believe she won’t fire you!”
Perhaps because he was provoked by the man, the priest named Lucas actually couldn’t hold it back anymore and vomited. The foul-smelling sick clung to the knight’s uniform due to the high-speed movement. Because the fabric was already torn, some of it even made direct contact with his skin.
“LU! CAS! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!”
Lucas, bouncing up and down on the man’s shoulder, shamelessly wiped his mouth on the other’s clothes. He looked incredibly weak, yet he was equally furious.
“Keep screaming! Why don’t you scream some more! You think you’re so great? If it wasn’t for you being a total screw-up, Kulis, getting swatted aside by one hit, would we even be in this mess?”
“You think you’re the only one who can tattle? Believe it or not, the moment I get back, I’m telling the Lady Holy Knight that you spend every day buried in some woman’s bed! You haven’t kept up with your knight’s training for a single day!”
Hearing this, Kulis jerked backward violently, nearly knocking Lucas off his shoulder. Kulis himself was perfectly fine, and seeing Lucas in pain, he let out a malicious laugh.
“Heh, go ahead and tell her. Let’s see who gets fired first. Do I even need to list the things you’ve done?”
“I just spend my money on women. You’re a beast who messes around everywhere! Let me tell you, someone came looking for me last week to buy your home address. Just you wait! I’m going to tell her where you live the moment we get back!”
“Holy crap! Wait, wait, wait! You absolutely cannot give her that!”
The two continued to bicker back and forth, but their pace didn’t falter for a second. Soon, they reached the outskirts of the Black Forest.
Just as they thought they could escape, they discovered that the golem had somehow appeared in front of them.
The runic faceplate on the golem’s head glowed with a rainbow light as multiple magic circles activated simultaneously. A moment later, several magic beams struck at once, locking down every possible landing spot around Kulis and Lucas. It was determined to take them down.
With no way to dodge, Kulis had no choice. He set Lucas down and drew his sword. A massive amount of Holy Power gathered on the blade as he met the attack head-on.
The magic beams collided with the sword. An explosion rang out, and gray smoke filled the air.
Kulis managed to block the move, but his knight’s sword was destroyed as the price. The golem had already closed the distance, its attacks relentless. The shadow of its massive arm loomed over the two men.
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