Chapter 131 – Chaotic Melee
Content warning: this chapter is a bit bloody.
“Argh!”
The emergency exit door was blown off, and two golems rushed at the King and the Prince. However,
“I won’t let you!”
Protecting them was the bronze-colored maid golem.
“Lotte!”
Lotte, with her delicate hands blocked one of the attacking security golems, and in addition flung away her opponent.
Her arm was barely dented by it, but not minding that she challenged the other golem, and with a splendid twist of her arm wrenched that one’s arm away away too.
She then grabbed the other arm, swung the golem around and sent it flying.
Lotte then turned to the royals and informed them of the present conditions.
“Your Majesty, your Highness. It seems likely that most of the golems in the castle are on a rampage.”
＊ ＊ ＊
Combat golems like security golems and knight golems came pouring from the other exits and entrances too.
Jin and Beana were inside the barrier, and none of the golems’ attacks could touch them. Despite that,
“Beana, are you alright?”
“Whawhawhawhawhawhat’s gogogogogogogoing on?”
Jin lightly patted the panicking Beana’s shoulder to calm her down,
“Settle down. You’ll be fine as long as you’re by my side.”
He told her, and began to explain the state of things.
“The golems in the castle have probably been hijacked.”
“But how!?”
Jin then briefly told the story of the golem ‘Albus’ he had an encounter with together with Reinhardt.
“The Magic Energy I felt this time was several hundred, no, several thousand times stronger. Moreover, both [Erase] and [Writing] were used. You do understand what this means, right?”
Beana nodded with a pale face,
“Right… We don’t know who the opponent is, but the golems obey only that opponent’s commands, is what you’re saying.”
“That’s right. Perhaps the only ones that have not been hijacked are my ‘Lotte’ and Reinhardt’s ‘Schwarz Ritter’.”
Jin paused for a moment, then continued.
“I don’t know if I should call it lucky or not, but it looks like they could give only simple commands with [Writing]… That is to say, commands like ‘act violently’, or ‘attack people’.”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Schwarz Ritter, crush it!”
Reinhardt analyzed the current situation just like Jin, and he came to the conclusion that this state of affairs was extremely bad. It looked like everyone in the hall simply couldn’t be saved, and so Reinhardt searched for Elsa and Earl Kuzuma. He had lost sight of them during the outset of the mayhem.
Reinhardt surveyed his surroundings and gave orders to Schwarz Ritter.
Right now, he had knocked down a knight golem that had come from outside.
“Take that guy’s sword. Alright, now come here.”
As fast as he could, Reinhardt had Schwarz Ritter acquire a sword. With this he would have a means of attacking.
“Elsa! Lewis! Where are you! Are you okay!?”
Reinhardt called for Elsa and Earl Kuzuma. As an answer to that,
“Reinhardt! I’m fine!”
Hearing that voice, Reinhardt’s moment of relief was only brief, as Earl Kuzuma was attacked by a golem.
“Schwarz Ritter!”
The golem attacking Earl Kuzuma was Zingel, and in the nick of time Schwarz Ritter sliced its leg off.
“Thanks, you saved me.”
Reinhardt came running to Earl Kuzuma, told him to stay by his side, and,
“Barrier.”
He activated the Ring of Protection he got from Jin. Now for the time being the two of them would be safe.
“Where’s Elsa!?”
That being the case, the next concern was Elsa.
Elsa had been isolated.
She wasn’t wounded thanks to the Ring of Protection she had got from Jin, but golems everywhere surrounded her.
“Rai-nii…Jin, kun…”
Because of the barrier, the golems had come to a stop 30 centimeters away from Elsa, but at the middle of them Elsa seemed anxious and about to burst into tears.
“Help…me…”
＊ ＊ ＊
“Sheet, what’s going on!”
Most of the nobles were lying on the floor completely ignorant of who did what. Half of them had been struck unconscious by their own golems by their side, or otherwise seriously injured.
“Ceres! It’s me! Don’t you recognize me!?”
Celuroa Kingdom’s Magi Craftsman Stearina’s crystal golem Ceres was no exception to the rampage.
But since its body was made out of crystal, it was weak to impacts.
Its hand swung and missed, accidentally hit another golem that was passing by, and was smashed to pieces.
“Aah! Ceres!”
While swinging its remaining arm it hit a wall by accident, and in the end Ceres lost both of its arms. Since there was no longer a danger of getting hit, Stearina was clinging onto Ceres,
“Please! Just stop already! I don’t want to see you get broken!”
While saying so, Stearina used Craft Magic.
“[Writing].”
For now, the only ones who could use [Erase] were Jin and the mystery golem. Therefore to stop Ceres, Stearina chose to use [Writing].
After that, Ceres’s control instructions became a mess, and it halted.
Her moment of relief was brief, as Stearina took a golem’s blow to the head from behind, and lost consciousness. At the same time, Ceres was also destroyed by that golem.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Urgh!”
In the middle of remarkably high screams was Tauros. Even though it didn’t have a sword, just the mass of a gigantic tower shield as tall as a human was enough to be a dangerous weapon.
With one swing it could blow away three or four people.
“Sto-Stop it, Tauros!”
Tauros’s Magi Craftsman, Jade Nepheloi tried to desperately stop Tauros.
But it didn’t stop. In the end, the tower shield Tauros swung around grazed Jade’s arm, and blood spilled out.
“Eee!”
It was just a scratch, but Jade went white as a sheet and fled. However, another golem was already waiting ahead.
Fortunately for him, that golem was a female-type. Therefore, when he took a blow it only resulted in a broken rib.
Although, because of the pain Jade collapsed on the spot, spat out blood and fainted.
＊ ＊ ＊
“King! Prince! Are you safe!?”
Finally a group of Imperial Guard knights came running. They numbered 15. They were each clad in armor full of scrapes and dents.
It was only natural, as to just reach this hall they had to take on dozens of golems.
“Spread out! Move in groups of threes!”
The commanding officer instructed. They were not to have blind spots when defending against golems attacking from all directions. With one person each being responsible for their own 120 degrees they made gradual progress.
They had to rescue the King and the Prince, but it was absolutely necessary to also rescue the country’s other leaders like the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finances, the Minister of Defense, etc.
“A, a- aaaahh! St-stay awaaay!”
“Dammit!”
Just then, one of the Imperial Guard knights slashed at a gilded golem who was attacking a fat Earl. However, it was sturdier than it looked, and suffered only a shallow wound.
On the other hand, the sword of the knight who struck it chipped.
“Sheet, so the appearance is deceptive.”
Because it was slashed, the golem’s target changed and it turned from the fat Earl to the group of knights.
“It’s coming, be cautious.”
All three of the knights gripped their swords tightly, prepared for battle.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Sheet! Don’t get in my way!”
The commanding officer of the Royal Guard knights, Kelly, was crossing swords with the golem Beana’s teacher Gladia Hampton had built, Iron.
It was a nuisance since it had grabbed a sword off one of the already defeated security golems.
A normal security golem was about one head taller than a human, and that meant its reach was longer. Its body weight was three to five times more than a human’s, and the same went for its power.
The custom-made Iron was evaluated by Jin to be ‘standard’, but nonetheless it had a higher performance than a security golem. For this reason it could cross blades equally with the commanding officer of the knights, and a normal knight wouldn’t likely be a match for it.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
The hall was dominated by chaos, screams, and clanks. Mixed in with the smell of iron, the scene had turned ghastly.
Most of the participants were wounded or passed out, and some unlucky ones had already stopped breathing.
In the middle of it all, at last a counterattack was starting.