Chapter 196: The First Golem
Dornheim was growing too fast, and most likely, it was starting to become an eyesore for the neighboring kingdoms. We already had two kings hanging around our settlement. If a third one shows up on the horizon, it'll definitively prove my theory, I thought.
A separate issue that kept gnawing at me was the College. Why were they still inactive? What were they waiting for? But still, even if they attacked right now, I don't think we'd last ten minutes. Standard defense methods wouldn't save this village. I simply didn't have the people—well, except for Noah and Elyria—capable of fighting. That meant the manpower deficit had to be compensated for with technology.
"Golems," I said quietly in the empty room. "I think that's the best thing we can do right now."
I pulled a clean sheet of thick paper toward me, grabbed a pencil, and dove into the calculations. I had to design an autonomous combat unit from scratch, thinking through the anatomy of the metal body from the weight distribution in the feet to the hinges in the shoulder joints. The physical properties of the ores at our disposal fit this task perfectly, as long as I assigned their roles correctly.
For the internal load-bearing frame, the artificial skeleton, I chose Ocean ore. Its ultra-dense crystal lattice provided colossal fracture toughness and the ability to withstand any mechanical overloads.
I left the external armor and the protection of critical nodes to Omega. This heavy metal was perfectly suited for dampening the colossal pressure, vibrations, and deformations from enemy strikes.
Chaos had to be the power heart of the machine. The bright red, pulsating crystal contained a colossal, albeit unstable, reserve of energy. It would provide the golem with tremendous autonomy and drive power, eliminating the need to constantly recharge it with mana.
That left the question of movement coordination and command processing. Celestial would be responsible for that.
I drafted hour after hour, laying out the trunk lines, calculating the rotation angles of the joints and the dampening clearances. The candle stub on the edge of the workbench had long burned out, replaced by the first pre-dawn rays breaking through the cracks in the shutters. My eyes burned wildly from fatigue, and my back was stiff. Leaning back in my chair, I cast a glance over the finished, detailed blueprint. My head felt heavy. I just rested my arms on the table, closed my eyes, and instantly fell asleep right on top of the spread-out schematics.
I woke up because my neck and back were terribly stiff. Somehow getting up and securing my legs on my stilts, I made my way outside.
Right outside the workshop, I caught Noah, who was training as usual.
"Noah, I need ores from the storage. Bring Ocean, Omega, Chaos, and Celestial. And grab a couple of Sun crystals too. All calculated for one heavy anthropomorphic frame."
"Alright."
About ten minutes later he returned, dragging heavy wooden crates. Unloading them onto the ground, he stepped back a couple of paces and stood still, ready to observe.
On my own, while keeping my balance on my supports, I wouldn't have even been able to pull those chunks of metal out of the crate. Fortunately, Darwin happened to be walking by, inspecting the settlement.
"Darwin, grab some tools and get over here," I called out to him. "We're going to build an autonomous combat unit. The blueprints are ready, the metal is here. I need your help with the assembly."
Darwin walked over, peeked into the crates, then quickly scanned the blueprint I'd brought.
We set up the assembly site right on the street, on the patch we'd cleared yesterday. The work quickly hit a boiling point. Gradually, the others gravitated toward us: Marek came running first with a couple of burly local blacksmiths, drawn by the clatter of tools, and a bit later Elyria flew in from the forest, simply curious about all the fuss we were making.
"Marek, take the Ocean. Fire up the smelter, but remember—its melting point is only around three hundred and twenty degrees. Overheat it, and the lattice will warp, and the metal will lose its strength. We need the internal load-bearing frame for the legs and the axial hinges. Follow the template strictly."
"Darwin, you're on the external Omega armor plates. Work carefully; this purple alloy is incredibly tough, so fitting the joints by hand is going to be hard."
I roped Elyria into the precision work. Her dexterity was perfect for laying down the fine signal threads.
"Elyria, see these internal grooves in the frame? Lay the Celestial veins in there. They need to run from the head to the limbs parallel to the power drives. Make sure they don't touch the steel directly, otherwise the control impulses will dissipate."
As for me, balancing on my stilts, I constantly moved between them, checking the schematics, measuring the clearances, and correcting the joint angles. The blacksmiths forged the heavy skeletal elements, Darwin screeched away with saws, fitting the armor plates to the right dimensions, and Elyria carefully strung the glowing blue trunk lines. Step by step, the pile of ore took the shape of a massive mechanical body.
By dusk, the sun began to set behind the treetops, and with our combined efforts, we had only managed to finish one prototype. The heavy, three-meter hulk stood motionless on the wooden slipways in the middle of the cleared site. All the main nodes were in place: the internal Ocean skeleton securely held the structure's weight, the Omega armor plates covered the vulnerable joints, and deep inside the chest cavity, the shielded Chaos core flickered.
Only the final touch remained. I took a small, faceted Celestial crystal. Pulling myself up on my stilts, I shoved it into the golem's forehead.
"Darwin, hold the bracket," I commanded.
Darwin quickly jumped over and clamped down the brace. I carefully inserted the Celestial crystal, aligning its facets with the conductors' contact pads. The signal lines immediately flooded with a soft blue light. The matrix closed. Taking a couple of steps back, balancing on my supports, I exhaled. "Commencing initialization."
I focused and said loudly:
"Command interface, activation. Priority one: Iron Everfall. Lock in biometrics and voice frequency."
Something clicked inside the metal skull. A second later, the golem's eye slits lit up dimly with a bluish light. The golem let out a low metallic grind—the drives were filling with energy from the core.
"Take two steps forward," I ordered.
The golem jerked, the pistons in its knees firing with a muffled hiss, and it took a heavy step with its massive feet, crushing the dirt. The ground beneath us noticeably shuddered. The workers crowding around, Marek, and Darwin all held their breath simultaneously.
They stared wide-eyed at the walking behemoth.
"No way..." Darwin said.
"It's walking on its own?!" Marek exclaimed.
"How is that even possible?!" Tira said in surprise, stepping closer to them.
Dumbfounded smiles slowly spread across everyone's faces—we had actually done it...
While a joyful hum rose around us, I silently reached into the inner pocket of my jacket and pulled out my pistol. I raised the weapon and took aim at the golem's chest area.
In that same second, a blinding flash of bright red energy erupted from the machine's chest cavity. And the heavy three-meter frame blew to pieces.
Everyone recoiled in fear. The blacksmiths grabbed their tools, Marek shielded the nearest worker with his body. Only Noah didn't even flinch, calmly watching me from the sidelines.
"What are you doing?!" Elyria literally flew up to me, her face contorted with anger and confusion. "Why?! We spent the whole day here, breaking our backs, assembling this metal, and you just went and destroyed it?! Have you lost your mind?!"
Instead of answering, I raised my hand and pointed a finger at the pile of smoking wreckage lying on the ground.
"Watch."
Elyria's anger instantly gave way to stupor. The wreckage on the ground began to twitch. Purple and blue energy arcs leaped between the pieces. The mangled chunks of Ocean and Omega plates, as if drawn by a massively powerful magnet, rapidly began flying back together into a single point. The metal docked with absolute precision, the seams sealing themselves, and the blue Celestial threads retracting back into their grooves. A few seconds later, the golem was standing before us again in its original form.
Gaston slowly stepped closer, staring wide-eyed at the resurrected machine. He shifted his gaze to me, swallowed hard, and asked quietly:
"Master Iron... you... you're sure you didn't just use your own magic?"
"No magic at all, Gaston." I lowered the pistol. "It's all about the design of the core's protective capsule. I engineered it in layers. The inner layer is made of Omega—this metal contains the colossal pressure and thermal energy of Chaos, preventing the core from detonating from the inside. The middle layer is an alloy of Ocean and Prism. Ocean provides incredible mechanical toughness against external penetration, and Prism keeps the capsule from melting, even if the golem is hit with directed fire magic or a thermal shock. On top of that, the Sun crystal inside constantly stabilizes and redistributes critical temperatures. Running inside this protected capsule are fine Celestial channels that output the control signals, while the control crystal itself remains shielded. In the event of critical external damage, the system simply short-circuits the contour, triggering a reverse assembly of the frame based on the embedded physical matrix."
Darwin, who had been carefully examining the golem the whole time, suddenly narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at its head:
"Okay, that makes sense. But if the core is that well protected inside the chest, then what do you need this Celestial crystal for?" he pointed at the golem's head.
I smiled slightly and paused for a moment.
"That's exactly the point, Darwin. It's a diversion. People subconsciously look for quick and easy solutions. Seeing a glowing crystal on the head, the enemy will think they've found a weak spot. We'll catch them on that mistake."
I adjusted my crutches, keeping my balance.
"Moreover, I hardwired a specific algorithm into the circuit: if this fake crystal is destroyed, the golem will intentionally shut down its drives and freeze for three to five seconds. The enemy will relax, believe in a quick victory, drop their guard... and in that exact second, the golem will reactivate and destroy the target."
Silence hung over the site. Marek was the first to slowly start applauding. Darwin chimed in after him, chuckling at his own failure to guess it, and a second later, all the other workers started clapping too. Even Elyria stopped pouting and flapped her wings in surprise. Only Noah remained standing motionless, but a silent approval could be read in his eyes.
This crackle of applause suddenly yanked me out of reality. A memory from my past life flashed brightly in my head. A massive hall, spotlights blinding my eyes, a stage, and me—standing in front of a crowd of investors, presenting yet another technological development. Back then, hundreds of people had clapped for me in the exact same way.
It's definitely nice when everyone claps for you, I thought.