No Time To Waste

Where did the thing come from? That was one of the many questions Kies had about the golem. When he asked Nyana about it, she couldn't give an absolute answer. "All we know is that the golem was dormant until a few years ago," she told him all that she knew.

The elves knew nothing about how long the golem had been there and why or what caused it to wake up. "If you want to find out more about its origins, you will have to follow its trail."

Learning more about the golem could help them come up with a way to deal with it. "Then let's do that," Kies went with Nyana's suggestion. She said that there were a few months before the golem would crush the tree so they had time.

Nyana yawned and said hazily, "You can start the investigation first. I need some actual sleep."

"Didn't you tell me that you only needed a few hours of sleep a day?"

"Yes, but that's only when I am carrying out a mission. I'm not a machine, you know. I need a good rest here and there, else I'll break down." The elf got up and stretched. She rubbed her eyes and walked off.

As she was leaving, she informed Kies of a few things. "If you need a room, though I never see you stay in one, there are plenty of guest rooms on the floor above this one. If you're bored, there's a library one floor higher." And lastly, "if you need to find me for something, save it for tomorrow. I need some time to cool down."

A library? That was something that Kies would like to check out, but it was probably going to be a waste of his time. As this was the elven capital, the books were no doubt in Elvish, meaning that he wouldn't understand a thing. It was a shame when there could be useful information in there, something like the history of the golem.

While Nyana left, Kies considered his options. He could start the investigation on his own or do something else. Even he needed a break once in a while like Nyana. He wanted to see what the capital looked like on the higher floors. A little sightseeing shouldn't hurt.

And so, that was what he did. He climbed up the floors to explore what wonders the elven capital had in store for him and continued up until he reached the top of the tree.

The main residential area was his first stop. From what Kies saw, the elves chose the branch for their home as it was the thickest and widest branch on the tree. There were also smaller branches branching out from the main one.

The population of Otane could easily fit in and live on this one branch alone, and it would still be spacious. Since the elven population was a lot less than that, each elf that lived here had their own miniature castle or something similar carved into the branches with enough space to build another two or three should they so desire.

The next floor, as Nyana said was the library. Though, it was a little more disappointing than Kies thought. It wasn't as big and grand as he hoped it was. There weren't many books but there were a handful of elves working on projects and doing research on the floor. But as it turned out, that entire floor was only part of the library.

Above, on the next floor, was the actual library, lined up with so many books. They ranged from ancient books that were so old that they might crumble into dust with a touch to fairly recent books that were written just yesterday. Knowledge was constantly being updated and stored here. It seemed that the branch below this one was a sub-section of the library dedicated more to research efforts.

It was interesting to see how different elven culture was compared to human culture. Otane's form of entertainment revolved around fighting while the elves spent their time doing experiments and research, mostly on herbs. Or maybe this was something that was limited to the elves in the capital. What did the other elves do in their spare time?

Skimming the pages of a few of the books, it seemed that the elves had every herb known to the world examined and researched. It was in another language so Kies didn't understand what was stated in it, but he didn't need to understand the words to know that extensive work and countless hours were spent on the herbs when there were hundreds of pages dedicated to each one.

Advancing up to the next floor from the main library, Kies found himself surrounded by straw dummies and target boards. Just like the previous two floors, everything was inside the hollow trunk of the tree and not outside on the branches, though some of the equipment did extend past out there. The messy interior of the training area was a vast disparity from what he saw so far. The place was empty and didn't look well-maintained but the equipment was all clean. Did no one bother organizing everything or was that another elven thing?

An arrow flew by, almost grazing Kies' face, surprising him. It was so fast that he couldn't even sense it. He didn't even hear it either. He turned to see where the arrow landed and found it impaled dead in the center of a straw dummy a hand's reach away from him. He then turned to see who shot it and spotted a lone elf walking his way.

The elf was wearing the same clothes that Nyana wore and had an identical bow, maybe a bit smaller, but it was hard to tell. She wore her hair back to keep it out of her face and carried a curved sword at her waist. "Careful, stranger," she said in a harsh voice, low and slow, giving Kies the feeling that she wasn't fond of him being here.

The elf walked past him and plucked the arrow out of the dummy, picking the straw off of it before nocking it onto her bow again at lightning speed and shooting it at another dummy. The arrow zipped across the room at a frightening speed that cannot be matched by the eye. Once again, the arrow hits its mark with deadly-perfect accuracy onto another straw dummy.

"You're free to wander this place, but I must warn you, we don't take too kindly to those that destroy our home. So watch yourself," she told him. Kies knew that this was a warning due to what he did before. Yikes... He needed to be careful, or else he might find that he really would become a tree.

"Noted." Kies hurried out of the training ground. He had a feeling that if he stayed there any longer, the elf might decide that a live target was more fun than a stationary one. The following floor saw similar to the residential floor but the buildings were much more compacted. A deeper look revealed that it was the quarters or the barracks for the elven soldiers.

Kies saw the logic in placing the barracks this high up. At this height, the branches were more or so on the same level as the branches of the other trees. If something happened, the elves could quickly traverse, utilizing these branches to get to where they needed to be. After the encounter he had with the elven soldier downstairs, it was in his best interest to not stay on this floor for too long.

Kies got out of there as fast as he could and went up to what was the last floor of the tree. Any higher, and it would be above the clouds. This floor was different from all the other floors as this was where the trunk ended and the crown started. There was no room for any buildings unless the elves cleared away all the leaves, and considering how well the elves treated these trees, there was no way that they would do anything that would harm it.

There were many paths he could take in the form of branches, but it didn't feel safe. Above Kies, there were fruits lining the tree, ripe and ready to fall at any moment. Knowing his luck, one of the fruits would fall and crush him if he walked under them.

But he didn't need to go that far out on the branch. The view from where he was standing was already incredible as it was. The rays from the sun were entangled with the thick curtain of leaves, forming all kinds of patterns on the branches and leaves. Looking down, the glowing orbs or lanterns that were scattered all over the forest provided him with an amazing light show as they slowly drifted mindlessly in the forest.

Well, that was enough fun sightseeing. There was plenty that he had to take care of. He would have to do a lot of hard work to obtain that fragment. Kies darted his eyes to where the golem was. From up here, he had a better view of how big the thing was exactly. Using the inconsistencies of the materials making up the terrain, Kies was able to outline the golem. It was more or less half the height of the tree that he was on, which was very unsettling. As for the length and width, that was even more unnerving.

It was wider than the tree by four folds and the length was twice that. In short, if that thing came into contact with the tree, it was going down without a doubt. It would take an immeasurable amount of magic to destroy the golem, something that he didn't have. Well, it could be done if he were to overload his core and self-destruct onto the golem, but that was out of the book for obvious reasons.

The investigation was going to start tomorrow. Until then, Kies could try and solve this problem on his own. He was curious as to if he could put a dent in the thing. It was doubtful but who knows, maybe the golem was more fragile than it looked.

"Winds, you know what to do."

Hearing Kies' decree, the skies darkened. The winds pulled the clouds together into one massive ball of gray, blotting out the sun. He was going all in with this attack to see how much damage he could do. If the golem thought that it could destroy the tree easily then it was long due for a rude awakening. This should give it second thoughts. If it could think.

Like a meteor, the winds came crashing down onto the golem. Everything became silent as the attack descended. It sucked away everything. Objects, sound, and even other forms of magic. The starving monster collided with the golem and an explosion of a caliber that shouldn't be possible occurred.

Kies used what remaining magic he had left that wasn't used in the attack to contain the explosion to only that area. Even if the attack was successful and destroyed the golem, what use was it if it also blew away the tree alongside it?

A bellow that sounded like boulders smashing into each other cracked the air and an earthquake of an unreal magnitude shook the tree, nearly knocking Kies off balance. Luckily, the branch he stood on was wide enough so that he could readjust his footing to compensate for the tremor. Still keeping his focus on the golem, Kies did his best to contain the damage but it was getting difficult as the golem was thrashing about.

Some of the wind dispersed the bark, branches, and leaves of the surrounding trees, but there was no notable damage. Kies tensed, already imagining the angry gazes of the elves and the passive-aggressive voices they were going to bash him in. Hopefully, the attack would do enough so that the elves wouldn't totally trash him afterward.

Finally, the attack ended, and the immense shaking did too a moment after. Now, it was time to assess the damage he did, both to the environment and the golem.

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