Chapter 18 – Golems

I walked very cautiously through the wide tunnel, the walls of which seemed absolutely parallel, even and without a single marking or a scratch on them. At least, wherever I shone with my flashlight, the obsidian black surface of the tunnel walls, floor and ceiling was so perfect, it stayed in its original mirror-like state it was first created as, which was possibly thousands of years ago.

The walk was not very long. Only about twenty meters. Still, too long if you take into consideration what they were made of. I am not sure why they had to make the walls so thick when the material they were made of was indestructible. I doubt anyone ever figured it out, but I liked to think they made them this way just because they could.

Once I came to the other end of the tunnel I stopped at its precipice and carefully studied the room it led to.

This was another wide grotto-like hall, with a ceiling so high, my flashlight barely reached it; however there was a glaring difference from all the other rooms and halls I've seen so far.

This hall was decorated. Strange patterns, sigil-like markings, writings, and even images of strange things were carved all over the walls. The common similarity of all these images was its pointy, jagged edges reminding me of sharp teeth, fangs or horns.

But what took me by surprise the most were statues, or at least what looked like them. I could not say for sure from the distance but they look like they were not carved into the walls, but seemed to be rather partially submerged into walls. When I shone my flashlight at them, there was a very visible difference between the walls' surface and these figures' material, as if they were some bodies placed into niches. 

The statues had their eyes closed but I had a paranoid feeling that they would open them any moment. I mean, isn't it a common trope in stories where statues suddenly jump you? And with their sizes, even if one of them jumped me I'd be dead for sure.

Not to mention there were hundreds of them. At least the smaller ones. By smaller I mean the ones that were three meters high. There were dozens of statue-like things that were above four to six meters high.

Then there were also giants. They were only few in number. I could only spot four of them, each about ten meters high and looked very menacing. And then there was one that seemed to be a real colossus among all others, topping over others as if an adult among kids. My AI calculated fifteen meters in that thing, and it terrified me to even think what this thing could do if it started moving. Would I even be able to escape it, when its single step could take it across the space I would run in several seconds.

This dark silent hall filled with statues looked so eerie, it took me over ten minutes of carefully studying every inch and corner that I could see, before I dared to make a step into this hall. Otty's warning sounded in my head like a broken record on repeat. 

"Not wake. Not wake." I am not sure who he meant but I sure as hell did not wake any of these guys.

To my surprise, even after I took a step into the room, nothing happened. 

I stood there in total silence looking over almost every statue, waiting for them to jump at me but there was not a single motion, sound or any other proof they were anything but just statues.

Making a deep gulp, I made one more step. Still nothing. Then another. After ten paces, I finally breathed. Until then I did not even notice I was holding my breath the entire time I walked.

After a sigh I decided, I should just test it once and for all instead of fearing for every step I made. So I went back through the tunnel, returning to my backpack. Took out the first metallic object I could find, which was a carabine and went back into that hall.

Once I was through the tunnel I threw the carabine with my entire strength and intently watched the statues as I waited for a loud clang of a metal part hitting the ground.

When the carabine fell it sent a loud noise throughout the hall, echoing through it several times, definitely alerting of my presence, anyone who could have been alerted. But there seemed to be none. Nothing changed at all. No new noise, no movements, lights. Nothing. After ten more minutes of waiting I finally calmed down, breathing a sigh of relief.

After that I went into the hall a lot more confidently, however, I did not dive deeper into the structure but decided to carefully explore it from wall to wall. 

I walked along the walls watching over the statues that lined it until I reached one of them and stood in front of it, studying it from an arm's length distance. From this close up I finally could see that these statues were indeed separate objects and although they looked black, just like the walls, they seemed to be made of different material. 

Meaning they were not indestructible, or at least not as indestructible as walls. There were still plenty of materials I would not be able to break in my entire life even if they were not as robust as solid 4GM material.

"So are these robots?" I muttered. I did it partly to see if it would somehow react to my speech, but if it was a robot it seemed to be completely shut down and did not react to me in any way. Although they may have been programmed to only do what they were commanded to do, and as there was no one to give commands, they simply stood there like lifeless objects with no purpose.

I had a thought of taking one of these things and dragging it to my workshop to try to open it up and see what it's made of as well as try to hack into its head.

However, when I plucked up the courage to touch it, I was immediately shocked and pulled my hand away as if seared. I felt 4GM particles within it. This thing had Cry. Cry that only living beings could have. 

This thing was alive.

Something clicked in my mind reminding me of the thing I've just read in the files Elder Shalsheed sent me. I opened the file and read through it once more, comparing the data with the statues.

It looked different. At least their bodies did, so I did not realize it at first, but if it had Cry, it must have been the same thing, only shaped differently. 

The thing in front of me was…

*****

Three shining figures dropped from the sky landing near Elder Shalsheed, who shone so bright he could barely be discerned in the light beams.

The first person Captain Daneed easily recognized as his granddaughter, the other two were unfamiliar and wore the battle suits of the Anjan tribe.

The Anjan tribe, just as all other Andran race descendants, had blue skin and crystal-like shining pupils of their eyes. However, after millennia of evolving in the atmosphere of other planets, their skin has darkened to the degree of being barely discernible from black. Their hair in most cases was purple and the most dominant eye color was golden-yellow. 

Anjan and Andran had many conflicts, but under the rule of their Sect Leader they put off their disagreements, becoming members of the same force. An achievement old civilization had not been able to achieve. Even in the times of Demon war, the two clans never found a common ground to stand shoulder to shoulder.

"Third Elder." Said one of the newcomers. "I am Shakha Benik Fendri. I am the nephew of the Fourth Elder, he ordered me to come with you." He introduced himself; however, Captain Daneed already had an understanding of who he was as it was not hard to figure out which one of the two Anjans was Fourth Elder's disciple. 

Unlike his companion, he was not wearing a helmet of his space suit, instead only creating a construct of yellow light around his head. People with yellow power loved to boast their proves in 4GM control, often wearing constructs made of their Cry as decorations. 

A common trait of almost every yellow shine possessor. Just that this boy had a lot more Cry so he did not just make some decorations but even exchanged parts of his own suit with it. Foolish habit in Daneeds view. But it was their problem if this became the death of them, so he wasn't going to lecture the boy.

As the Fourth Elder was a Golden Yellow colored himself it was obvious his disciple was one as well, the same as Captain Daneed himself took in his granddaughter under his wing as she had the same blue 4GM color as him.

"This is my old friend Benu Benik Persh."

"It's an honor to meet you, Elder Shalsheed." Said Benu bowing.

"We have been companions from the time we were still apprentices and were through countless battles together, so we are very good teammates. I ask your permission to take him with us on this exploration. He would be more helpful inside than out there in the back." Explained the Fourth Elder's nephew.

"Alright. No time to discuss. Once we go inside, you two listen to my commands and don't act without orders. Understood?" Said Elder Shalsheed.

"Yes!" They both answered.

"This concerns you as well, Aini. The Citadel is not a playground and no place to be careless. Inside there are countless deadly machines, made with the sole purpose of fending off intruders far more powerful than you. Many of them none of you would even be able to even recognize before they strike you. So don't get ahead of yourself. Is that clear?" Said Captain Daneed, looking firmly at his granddaughter.

Shakha gazed at the girl with a straight face, seeming unperturbed, but his eyes seemed to tremble for a split second, the moment he laid his gaze on her beautiful face. 

Seeing Aininad nod in reply, Elder Shalsheed was finally satisfied and turned to the entrance he had created.

"Alright get in. And be prepared for battle." He said before he jumped into the hole. The darkness of the tunnel was instantly lit up by the bright blue light coming off his battle suit.

The other three followed closely after him.

They flew so fast it took them mere seconds to get through the thick layer that Elder Shalsheed had been breaking for a week.

The moment they came out of the narrow hole into the wide underground hall they were met with an entire army of robots with shining yellow, blue and red eyes.

"Golems huh?" Said Elder Shalsheed.

"Oh shit! They are huge!" Said Aininad.

"What the hell are these!" Exclaimed Shakha.

"No time to explain. You three distract the smaller ones, I will take on the big ones. Act in a group and cover for each other." Said Elder Shalsheed and blue light covered him from head to toe, spreading all around him in quick jagged patterns. A split moment later there was a second body around him that looked like a transparent knight in armor, more than fifteen meters tall.

Elder Shalsheed fell on the ground, landing in the middle of the enemy army surrounded by a group of giants from ten to fifteen meters high. The closest enemy, a twelve meter giant, instantly sent a punch toward him, but elder Shalsheed parried it with his hand and hit him with an elbow, sending him to the ground, where it crushed several smaller golems. After that he instantly swirled around evading a sword thrust of another giant and slashed the golem with his blue sword separating its body in two, simultaneously kicking the third giant golem in the head before it could take a swing at him.

More than ten enemies thrust, swung, kicked and punched at him, yet he moved and swirled among them, controlling the whole crowd effortlessly.

"Wow." Muttered Benu, before unleashing his own blue light and creating a huge shield and a sword. "So this is the Third Elder the Divine Sword King." He whispered looking at Captain Daneed in infatuation.

"Concentrate, Benu! You have plenty of time to admire your idol after we survive this." Said Shakha in the private channel as yellow constructs formed into guns that floated around him.

"R..right." Said Benu, concentrating on the upcoming squad of robots that were from three to six meters tall.

A blue bolt flew over Benu's head smashing into the rows of robots, but was met by the blue transparent shield and diverted to the side flying away without harming anyone.

"Tsk." Said Aininad. "Two second charge is too weak." She said and sent another railgun shot from the spike that looked over her shoulder. This one penetrated the shield and blew off the head of the robot behind it.

"Four second charge huh? This halves the amount of shots I can make. No choice, close combat it is then!"

"What the fuck? These robots have Cry? How is this possible." Exclaimed Shakha, voicing their common with Benu question. He quickly dispersed his guns after seeing the Cry shield and reformed them into physical weapons. A second later he held a huge chain that whipped around, evading shields and cutting off limbs of golems.

"They are not robots, they are Golems." Answered Elder Shalsheed. His huge form moved quickly and casually, as if unperturbed by his size, evading the slash of the ten meters Golem's slash and cutting its arm off but had to back off before cutting its head as two more golems jumped him.

"Not sure I heard this name." Said Shakha

"Consider them a type of android." Said Aini.

"Even if it is so, androids are still just machines, they have no Cry." Said Benu.

"Well you could say they are Demonic versions of androids but these things are more biologic and a lot dumber." Said Aini flashing forward evading several punches and cutting off the heads of everyone she passed with two blue short blades, before making two simultaneous shots from her shoulders.

This time both projectiles passed through the bodies and hit others that were behind them. The two that she aimed at fell down, but the ones behind them continued to attack unperturbed as if the huge holes in their bodies did not matter to them at all.

"Oh cool. Shields can't protect them if they are shot from the back." She said and flashed aways as the six meters tall figure slammed a hammer made of blue light against the ground where she had just been. As she dodged away a rain of yellow spikes hit the ground all around her, but she managed to dodge.

"I never heard of it. So these things are alive?" Asked Shakha.

"Well, you must have heard of them by the name Biobots." Said Aini. "It's just that we archaeologists call them Golems more often."

"Biobots huh? I did hear about them from some old records, but why do you call them different names?" Asked Shakha

"Golem is a human word. The word biobots never took root among humans as they chose to keep calling these things after some creature from their ancient legends. The Golems in their stories had a core that had to be destroyed to kill the being. Without destroying it they would endlessly regenerate. Biobots are basically the same. They have an organ that serves as the accumulator for Cry and until it's destroyed these guys will keep coming back. Humans persistently called these things as Golems later affected other languages as well. Even though Biobots were mostly forgotten after Demons went extinct and can only be found in the Sects records and such ancient ruins, archaeologists still use the word Golem to this day." Explained Aininad.

"Hold on! These things regenerate?" Asked Shakha looking around as yellow spikes, disks and chains formed around him before he sent them through the room in a deadly volley, cutting everyone. 

While Shakha dealt the most damage, Benu served as a guard protecting him and keeping away anyone that got through the AoE attack. 

Both of them piled the bodies in small mountains by now, however, as they looked around after Aininad's words they noticed that most of the ones they cut started to twitch and struggled to get back on their feet, while the ones she put down, did not move. 

She killed less than them, but in general they did far less damage than her.

"Until you cut their mind from their 4GM source, they don't die completely and keep on regenerating. So make sure to cut off their head and shatter every part that shines if you want to really kill them. Even just their body part can still attack if it has a separate Cry accumulator. So crush everything that shines." Explained Aini. 

"Anything else to watch out for?" Asked Benu as he noticed an arm with blue blade attached to it crawled toward him and barely avoided it thanks to Aini's explanation.

"Well, these things are very basic. Beside regeneration they have only few Cry manipulation functions. Shield, sword, projectile and constructs for AoE, like that bastard sending spike over there does. that the bigger smarter ones can do. But the ones you should be most careful about are the projectile ones. If you are not careful you'll get sniped. But thanks to their eye color, you can see which one is which."

"I see, the Red eyed ones are the ones who might shoot and blue are close combatants, and yellow are AoE." Said Benu.

"Yeah. That's the gist of it." Said Aini.

"These bastards' are dumb and slow, so even a newbie can easily deal with one. That's why they are all so big in size, it's to compensate for their slowness with force of impact, so don't take their punches easily. Some of them have hadron innards and can place quite a punch." Said Elder Shalsheed.

"But their true power is in their numbers, they are made to wear their enemies out with their tenacity. This is merely the first group. We'll meet more of them deeper in the Citadel. We may not struggle now, but as we get deeper we will feel the strain more and more. So, take an example from Aini and aim for vitals to save your strength. You have to kill these things efficiently instead of fast as you just tried to do." He added while killing another giant.

"Yes sir!" Answered the two Anjan.

Blue and yellow lights filled the room as four people flew through the room, dodging attacks and laying to waste an ancient army of guardians in an underground maze. Meanwhile, skies above the planet were filled with laser beams and plasma shots of several spaceships engaged in battle.