Chapter 77: The Sage Confronts the Ultimate Weapon

The metal arm which had emerged from the ground was smeared with soil.

Its fingers opened and closed awkwardly.

It seemed as if it was trying to do something.

Eventually, its elbow bent and the palm touched the ground.

From a distance, the ground exploded again.

What emerged from there was yet another arm.

After repeating the same things the first arm had done, it also touched the ground.

Power was infused into both arms, which caused the fractured earth to collapse.

Along with that, a hemispherical metal popped out from the ground between the two arms.

The metal hemisphere was about the size of a castle.

There was a horizontal gap near the center of the hemisphere, from which two blue lights appeared.

Somehow, I felt a gaze coming from there.

Apparently, those blue lights functioned like eyes.

In other words, that hemisphere was probably its head.

No way. Is that…?

As I was stunned into motionless, the arms on the ground straightened themselves.

The thing that was dragged out from the ground was a body of steel.

Its body consisted of just the torso, and its chest area was especially thick.

There were lid-like parts scattered about on its body.

All of them were closed right now, but surely, there must have been a mechanism that could open them.

According to the flow of magic power, its power system seemed to be concentrated on its torso.

Following that, the left and right legs were slowly pulled out from the ground.

The feet crushed a nearby building into rubble.

A large amount of earth and sand fell along with the rolling dust as the legs landed.

Both of those legs were quite thick, probably made like that for the sake of stability.

They firmly supported its upper body.

Occasionally, white steam would be ejected from various places.

The thing that stood there with heavy movements was a tremendously huge golem. 

I wonder how tall that thing was?

Even though I currently hovered in the air, I still couldn’t see its top unless I looked up to the point it hurt my neck.

From that golem’s perspective, we probably weren’t much different from insects.

So, this giant golem must be the ultimate weapon of the Magic Kingdom.

I observed it further and paid close attention to its torso where the power was focused on.

I felt a dense power similar to that of the Great Spirit there.

It seemed the mystical stone was installed there.

This golem could probably move because of the power supplied by the mystical stone.

I could already deduce without having to sense it.

It seemed that by activating the golem, the concealment spell engraved on it was released.

I analyzed a myriad of inscriptions applied on the golem.

Although I couldn’t do an in-depth analysis on it, I could still find a number of significant structural flaws.

It was unclear how it was capable of moving normally.

On top of that, the fuel consumption was too wasteful.

Considering all of those facts, they indeed needed the mystical stone to power this golem in order to activate it.

Had they switched it with any other magic catalyst, it was doubtful whether it would be able to move even one of its limbs properly.

The golems accidentally reached their best possible performance by meshing defects together.

The power provided by the mystical stone was amplified dozens of times, which allowed the operator to command the golem properly.

Unbelievable. This is ridiculous. 

I felt a bit dizzy as I saw that.

Was that really possible?

Since it did exist in front of me, I could not deny it by any means, but it was hard to honestly accept it.

It was practically a collection of miracles.

At that moment, I understood.

The completion of the giant golem was supported by the World’s will.

The rough idea and the design might have emanated from John’s knowledge.

However, that alone wasn’t enough to clearly grasp it.

The will of the World covered up for all the flawed parts.

This felt just like the awakening of the previous hero.

It was a law that was put into effect only when it was for the purpose of destroying the evil called the Demon Lord.

Even so, I had no leisure to keep escaping from reality.

It was because I had to deal with this weapon of slaughter.

“How's that?! Surprised? This giant robot's gonna kill yah.”

John’s triumphant loud voice echoed.

His presence could be detected next to the mystical stone.

He didn’t control the golem from far away, but instead, chose to get inside it in order to direct it.

Judging from the inscriptions used around John, he probably used pseudo possession by means of spiritual magic.

He moved the golem's body as his own.

That enabled him to move it with a precision higher than what normally operating it could achieve.

It had the drawback that it was difficult by design, but there was no need to discuss that.

The World’s will would just validate it despite that.

There was no meaning in picking out details.

I didn’t feel angry about that.

I was already used to being put at a disadvantage.

I stood where I did while knowing all the obstructions that would come at me.

In addition, there was another reason why I could stay calm.

Because, this meant that the World’s will wasn’t absolute.

The Hero and Saint were both defeated by the current Demon Lord.

I had proved that destiny could be overturned.

That was why I just had to win this time as well.

“Won’t yah fight back? If yer gonna be a killjoy then, I’ll attack first.”

John snorted and the golem began to move forward.

The capital was further destroyed with each step it took.

The steam blowing metal giant kept moving its leg without any care for that.

That’s absurd.

Taking a glance at the crumbling cityscape, I jumped away and took a distance.

At the same time, I also dragged Logan towards me using magic.

It felt as if an endless wall had come upon me.

I told Logan as I checked the distance with the golem.

“It’s dangerous here. Stay away.”

I transferred Logan away without waiting for his reply.

The transfer destination was the Demon Lord’s Army.

As expected, I had no confidence that I could fight while protecting him.

It was because my opponent this time was just that great.

I then used telepathy to communicate with Grom.

“Can you hear me?”

“Yes, Demon Lord-sama! I can hear you loud and clear!”

I could hear Grom's tense voice.

I could tell that he had straightened his back without having to see it.

I just told him the bare minimum.

“I did find both John Doe and the mystical stone, but I, somehow, ended up fighting his golem.”

“I thought I had felt a tremendous magic power, so it was that… is Demon Lord-sama alright?”

“I’m okay. Keep the Demon Lord's Army away from the center of the capital. Prioritize the safety of our subordinates.”

“Hah, roger that! Best of luck!”

I ended the telepathy after Grom approved, and then contacted Luciana and Henry in the same way.

With this, I could relax in regards to the safety of the Demon Lord’s Army for the time being.

“Yah done chit-chatting? About time yah focus here.”

I heard John's advice.

Then, the golem‘s shoulders unfolded and something emerged from them.

The tools that popped out were magic cannons.

Dozens of cannons were lined up on both of its shoulders.

“Eat this.”

The golem’s magic cannons fired at the same time.

The roaring shells rushed towards me.

I avoided it using short range transfer magic and then retaliated back with magic.

A lightning fell and exploded right on the golem’s head.

A dazzling light fluttered along with the roaring sounds that reverberated.

It was powerful enough to destroy an army with just a few of these thunders.

However, the golem was unscathed.

Protection magic was deployed on the surface of its head.

That prevented the magic from hitting it directly.

It demonstrated that the overwhelming output of the mystical stone had exceeded the power of my magic.

“…Hmm? Yah did something?”

John deliberately said so.

He operated the golem so that it looked like it scratched its head.

It produced unpleasant noises of metal being rubbed together.

I watched the situation unfold as I stood there suspended in midair.

I didn’t get provoked by that, but instead I turned my focus on analyzing the golem.

So that’s it…

John acted arrogantly, but its power was the real deal.

It was the result of the great power of the mystical stone being boosted dozens of times.

It surpassed me in terms of pure power.

It wasn’t a realm humanity was capable of reaching.

That giant golem was an exception amongst exceptions, an absurdity in itself.

However, it doesn’t matter.

I was the Immortal Demon Lord.

I was the pinnacle of evil that declared war on humanity.

I couldn’t stumble in such a place.

The enemy was basically, just a much bigger golem.

There were tons of ways to defeat it.

Since both of my goals now happened to overlap, I would do everything in my power to deal with it.