Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The group of craftsmen rode Puffles away from Minas Mar, to Seth's practice valley. Despite having a massive hangar for making big golems, they still had to get outside for this project. The valley where Seth had tested the Devil's Wheel Fiddle and helped Luf had been thoroughly flattened in the past and perfect for the first step.

To summon the Golem Forge on a colossal scale. With the size it needed to work on a colossal body, it even overshadows the peaks of the mountains, just outside the range of the bard's practice.

All materials were prepared. All of their inventories were bursting with crates of bronze scales. Seth also had the king's colossal. He had also deliberated on using foreign bones to substitute the ones cut during the battle, however, he had found a way to have the Golem Forge mend these bones. The cute of the space magic was so clean, that the chance of a structural weakness in the mended area was very small.

After summoning the massive forge, Seth loaded the blueprint for the Colossus of Rhodes into the crafting station, which was adapted from his idea of scaled golems. Seth and the three dwarfs had poured a lot of planning into the blueprint to create various greater formations, using the enchantments of the already finished scales, as well as new ones and smade of other materials.

Placing the materials in the station's inventory posed a small problem, as the body itself barely fit after emptying it from the materials and bodies still stored inside. In the end, they were only able to fit the body and a handful of crates into the station.

Seth imagined how they would have to feed it crates with materials as the Golem Forge worked. Like stokers who had to shovel coal into a steam engine, but they would have to shovel materials into the crafting station.

Of course, it was just an intrusive thought. Once the forge started working, the body would be on the crafting station, not in its inventory. At that tthey would be able to load up the space with the remaining stuff.

Apart from the scales and the body, there was also a more recent addition to the plan. Five of them to be exact. Tored and Grant, their enchanter, had spent ststudying the core reactor, Lydia had given him.

The five cores Seth brought out were the result of their research, Compared to the damaged original, they were not as complicated or intricate, but they were much easier to integrate and use as power sources.

Even Minas Mar had only five of these giant monster cores needed to make them in storage, as they had next to nobody who had a use for them. They were usually a material sought after by enchanters to power their formations and enchantment. One could also carve it into the nucleus of a staff or wand, but there were better materials for that.

It was a good thing, that the colossus would not rely on these. They were simply an additional power-up. The golem itself would be powered by the arrays of formations that covered its body. They only added the cores as an extra boost or backup.

“Okay, everything is ready. Shall we start?” Seth asked the others in excitement. The three craftsmen nodded. Especially Tored, who was fascinated by the process since his first tseeing the forge in action

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~Will the interesting thing finally come?~ Puffles asked sarcastically. The nightmare centipede was not impressed by the massive Golem Forge.

“Yes, I'm starting the crafting now!”

The massive machine turned on right after he said it. Magical lights cto life as the Golem Forge adjusted to the shape and size of the colossal King. Held by massive mechanical arms and clamps, the naked body of the colossus appeared inside the Golem Forge. Syringes and claws began their work on the corpse, as the first step was mending the damage and turning it into a corpse puppet.

The sight was... underwhelming.

~Why is it so slow?~ Puffles innocently voiced the thoughts nobody dared to utter. While the scale went up, the speed it was working at didn't! What they perceived as incredibly fast on humanoid size, now seemed to be excruciatingly slow...

“At this pace, it could take over a week just to mend the damage and reinforce the body,” Seth lamented. It was unsure whether the Golem Forge would be able to finish the work before the Pythian Games began.

Not only that, this meant the Golem Forge was out of commission until the colossus was finished. And Seth couldn't move it in the meantime.

“I also can't just leave it here. I would need someone to guard it...” he muttered.

~Not me!~ the Ivicer reacted quickly. Another three “Not me!” could be heard from the three dwarfs, motivated by Puffle's exclamation.

“Don't worry, I wasn't going to ask either of you anyway,” he said and took out the communication orb. “Heads? Cto my current Position.” Seth called Secret Weapon I. The supermassive golem Cerberus had crafted for weeks. Well, compared to the Colossus it was still just half the size, so calling it supermassive might have been too much.

They waited for about 30 minutes before the valley floor started shaking and the golem could be seen on the horizon. In the meantime, Seth had placed all the materials in the forge. Everything would run automatically from here on out.

“You stay here and make sure nobody interferes with the Golem Forge. When the forge ever stops, call me, got it?” the blacksmith instructed. The massive golem nodded eight times.

“Sorry for the disappointment guys. I didn't think it would take that long...” he apologized to the others embarrassingly. Of course, Seth didn't expect it to be super quick, but estimating several days just for the mending, not including the crafting process, was far outside his expectations.

“Don't worry about it,” Tored patted his shoulder. The dwarven master was happy enough to have witnessed the massive Golem Forge and Minas Mar's secret weapon Nr.1.

~Can we go back now? I'm bored.~ the Ivicer rent his heart without a care.

“Sure, let's go back,” Seth agreed with a sigh. Maybe it was just him who was disappointed? He had been looking forward to it and his expectation of a spectacular performance had blinded him to the taspect of it.

Slightly depressed, Seth returned with the rest of them on Puffles. He would definitely get double portions when they went for dinner later. It was that kind of day.

....

---Northeastern Mountain---

“Old man Xiong, the Aerial Strikers have found a clue,” the Golem Knight informed the master of the Snow Falcon Sect.

After another week without signs, the old man was about to lose his mind. On Urth, people would say that the chance for a missing child being found alive was next to zero after 24 hours, much less a few days. Qiao Ya had been missing for three weeks now. On the other hand, she was a grown adult and cultivator.

Not only were cultivators a lot harder to kill, but Xiong Peng had an advantage other parents and grandparents didn't have, her Soul Lamp. Despite precariously flickering, it was still lit, which meant that there was no doubt about his granddaughter being alive.

“Where is it?” he asked for the clue. The golem signaled him to follow and the two flew off on two Aerial Strikers. When they first arrived, the mountains were swarming with monsters, now most of them were slain by the sickle-swinging dragonflies, or fled at the sight of the flying death.

The place they cto was a misty and deep gorge at the side of a mountain. It was hard to see inside, but with the guidance of the golem, the sect leader noticed the signs of battle on the floor and walls of the gorge. He was about to ask something when the golem answered his question.

“They found some... remains that had the symbol of your sect. They are not in a good condition.”

Xiong Peng nodded grimly.

“Show them to me.”

The knight took the lead and went to the place the dragonflies indicated to him. The old man's face beceven more serious when he saw the desecrated bodies of his disciples. Despite something seemingly gnawing off their faces and ripping apart their bodies, he could recognize them.

“Did you place them like this?” he asked, seeing their bodies neatly lined up. Compared to the state they were in, this gesture seemed almost mocking. The golem shook his head.

“They were like this when they found them.”

“But who...?”

“I may be able to explain, human.” there was a voice from the mist. When they looked over, a short figure stepped close enough for them to see it.

“A dwarf?”