Lord Of Puppets

<<Next day, Ariava told us that the emperor and the vampires leader ended up bending in, and giving into Ariava’s plan, resulting in Ariava being assigned in taking over the Warmur kingdom.>>

<<However, that obviously meant that Ariava would be completely unavailable for any other operations... But still->>

<<She will prevent the upcoming war.>>

<<But what after?>>

<<There is no telling if other nations could do.>>

<<So yeah... Focus on the task before, developing and getting stronger.>>

<<...Yeah... Just like before.>>

<<...Fuck.>>

<<...>>

<<Still, at least the empire was understandable about the situation and I was allowed to stop the production for the golems for the empire temporarily in order to restore the military strength as well as boost it further in order to possible handle the next possible assassination attempt.>>

<<Still, the next time the attack will happened, the enemy will be fucked.>>

<<The enemy brough around only 300 troops with them during that attack, and that was probably their upper limit.>>

<<The Mevon is still inside of the empire, meaning that the enemy really cannot bring large number of troops in the first place.>>

<<And that was the problem for the invaders that attacked recently.>>

<<In order to break through and don’t worry about the golems attacking them, they would had to exterminate over 1 000 golems that were outside.>>

<<It wasn’t that they "should", but that they "needed" to.>>

<<It wasn’t matter of choice.>>

<<Golems would instantly rush into the dungeon if the enemy would make they way in and attack them from behind....>>

<<Still, there was two problems the enemy didn’t expected.>>

<<The poison and explosives.>>

<<The enemy could endure it, resulting in them facing a good number of loses.>>

<<However, the problem is the time.>>

<<And that was the only real reason why we had won.>>

<<The enemy realized that they wouldn’t have enough time to both conquer the dungeon and escape before the empire forces arrive, forcing the Brutes to abandon their mission in order to survive.>>

<<Empire and me will be now much more on guard against these kind of attacks that involvers small army of elites... Forcing the enemy’s next attack to be possible much smaller compare to before.>>

<<...Still, I cannot let my guard down.>>

<<There are ways for the enemy to destroy me.>>

<<One of the ways I saw was that.>>

<<The demon summoning.>>

<<The enemy could summon demons or any other creatures to their side, summoning large number of allies or just summoning few powerful ones.>>

<<I’ve already seen first hand how dangerous demons can be, so I’m not letting my guard down.>>

<<...And there is also that possibility.>>

<<The enemy hiring somebody who could be in equal strength to the A-rank adventurer.>>

<<I’ve asked Porai about that possibility... And she said it is right thing to worry.>>

<<Still, she said that it also depends on what sort of A-rank adventurer we are talking about.>>

<<Are we talking about the one that can handle a small group of extremely powerful monster?>>

<<Or maybe a one that can handle an extremely large army of monsters?>>

<<There maybe also a one that doesn’t really handle combat well, but posses ability to provide powerful enchantments as well as healing to the large number of allies?>>

<<A-rank.>>

<<Be it a monster or a human.>>

<<Those who bare that rank are beyond dangerous.>>

<<...Honestly, I’m already scared after facing the B-rank.>>

<<But A-rank?>>

<<HECK! THERE IS EVEN ONE MORE RANK ABOVE THEM!?>>

<<If A-ranks are weapons that kingdoms wish to be in charge of, then what about S-ranks?>>

"...S-rank... Huh..." – said Porai.

"Ariava is definitely S-rank in terms of danger."

"I don’t know how she is compare to the other S-rank monsters... Maybe she is above many of them."

"...Maybe she is even SS."

"?"

{"SS?"}

"Yeah... SS are the ranks given to those who are beyond monsters that are already beyond."

"There are not many beings out there that reached that kind of rank, to the point people just call it made up rank."

"..."

"But I know one of the being from the history book."

"The Graveyard Spider."

"A giant spider like monster made out of countless bones. A living graveyard that in a form of a spider."

"This giant was apparently so large and tall that it stood above the entire cities."

"It was a pure death."

"Those who were caught in its shadows were devoured by its legions of death and then turned into its slaves."

"I’ve read records of that monstrosity and read how it ended up swallowing most of the continent it was in."

"I’ve read even stories where the legendries heroes were devoured by that creature."

"They were probably A-ranks and S-ranks that fell victim to that creature."

"I can tell you with certainty after what I’ve read and what records I’ve managed to obtain.

"That monstrosity wasn’t just a legend."

"It was a real thing."

"And there is also that monstrosity."

"Ariava."

"Honestly, I’m terrified of her."

"I thought at first that she was a fake when we fought."

"I mean, we were somewhat fighting good back then."

"I wasn’t going all out on my end just yet as I was wary of her."

"...But then she shown us all."

"Her presence."

"She let me and the people with me know that she could had easily exterminated us all."

"That she was playing with us."

"...But honestly speaking? That was a lie."

"No."

"I knew she was hiding even more."

"She could had exterminated us all with ease, even when holding back."

"I don’t fucking know if she is SS or not, but she is definitely S-rank."

"At very fucking least."

"..."

"Still... Never mind." – said Porai as she stopped herself from asking a question while looking directly at Thauma, before then looking away from the golem after changing her mind.

"..."

{"Do you think we will be attacked again soon?"}

"Probably not."

"It may look like a perfect opportunity to strike the dungeon now, since you had lost a large number of golems and there is extremely large number of damaged golems."

"However, right now the empire is supporting us directly once again."

"...Still... It honestly won’t be easy to recover mate." – said Porai as she held a sheet of paper in her hand that held the records of the losses and the estimated number of damaged golems.

"Your golems do not possess the self-restorative ability, expect for the special and elite golems."

"Meaning that the large number of golems that were injured will need to be repaired manually."

"However-"

{"The repair factory aren’t finished yet."}

"Exactly."

<<Repair factory.>>

<<There was really no way I can focus on both my work and repairing every single one of the golems.>>

<<At best I should repair any powerful golems that were damaged and harvest any good parts that are still useful from some golems that are beyond repair or had been completely destroyed.>>

<<But for the rest?>>

<<Nope.>>

<<Too much time.>>

<<Even with all my skills and abilities I’ve learned as well as earned would not be enough to repair extremely large number of golems all at once.>>

<<So, what to do?>>

<<Create a golems that will be able to repair other golems.>>

<<The Repair Golems.>>

<<However, there is a problem.>>

<<Making golems understand how to repair a golem isn’t exactly an easy thing.>>

<<They need to understand countless different repair methods and what not and understand which body parts are different, not only in terms of their location, like a leg being leg, but what also they are made out of as well as how they should be originally.>>

{"I understand the importance of the repair golems, but preparing them and the suitable facility will take time."}

"Yeah... I know... But again, things are so chaotic that you need them... But at the same time, you need to focus on restoring your army... Which will be a massive pain in the ass."

"..."

"Still, I can’t say I’m looking at this with optimistic view."

"This is just prediction, but other nations may soon start acting up."

"Worst case scenario, they may end up forming alliances in order to stop the empire from growing."

"That was always a possibility... But now?"

"The fucking chances had increased to the alarming level."

{"Then we just what we did before."}

{"Honestly it annoys me, but we really have no choice here, don’t we?"}

"Nope. We never had."

"..."

(Again, a lack of a choice.) – thought Thauma.

(I can’t say that I’m not angry about this... But... Fuck.)

(This is way too freaking annoying.)

(A freaking repeat once again.)

(...)

(No.)

(It ain’t a repeat.)

(It is different this time.)

(True, I maybe once again fighting the enemy that is beyond me.)

(But so what?)

(I’ve was already stuck in that bullshit situation several times over.)

(But I never truly gave up.)

(I’ve already learned that being a freaking coward about it or letting panic take me over was most retarded decision there was to take.)

(So... Just shut up.)

(Shut up and work.)

(Don’t complain.)

(Don’t stop.)

(Only way forward to survive is to shut up and focus on your own work, Thauma.)

(This is the reality.)

(And you know it perfectly.)

(Just shut up.)

{{End Of Volume: 4}}