“Mo Na’s here, Mama.” Responding to my call, Mo Na came running towards me with little Cinderel following closely behind. The moment she came up to me, she leaped into my embrace and hugged me tightly, stubbornly refusing to loosen her grip at all. As she did so, she blissfully rubbed her tender face against my own…’I swear, she just loves to cling to me so much.’
“Woof woof woof.” Cinderel stood on both her little paws while clutching adorably at my shins . As she did so, her puppy dog eyes would give a pleading look that went straight to my heart. How could I reject such cuteness?
With two little fellows to placate for the time being, we ended up standing there for a long while till the rest of our wandering companions came back from their respective strolls.
After briefly explaining the situation to them, I left in search of the weapons factory with Mo Na, No.3 and Big 4.
The castle had three main pathways running through it, one led to the main hall, the other led to the garden and the last led to, if I wasn’t mistaken, the so-called weapons factory.
The existence of this factory was made known to me by Lucifer’s clone. He mentioned that the golems were all stored there and while he didn’t mention how many there were, it should be quite a number. In all likelihood, these abyssal golems were probably a gift left for the person who awakened him…well calling it a gift wasn’t exactly accurate either.
After all, Lucifer’s goal was to destroy the world. In that case, helping me, the person who so happened to ring the bell on the world, signifying its doom, was only to be expected.
Even his core, the feather of Lucifer, was given to me. Thank to that, my bloodline evolved into that of a Fallen Angel’s…in fact, my bloodline was, strictly speaking, more noble than most Fallen Angels; normal Fallen Angels only had the blessing of Pride on them while I had three.
Ferti’nier once told me that there were Devils who possessed two sins as well. Such Devils were often more powerful than those that only had one. In that case, a guy with three sins like me couldn’t be weak!
As I was busy musing to myself, our entourage reached the bottom of the palace which was more like a basement than anything else. Because the entire palace was carved out of a mountain, it wouldn’t be wrong to call it a cave either.
Thanks to their inherent size, Nola and our two Cerberuses could only wait outside for us. Thus, our party consisted of No.3, Big 4, each taking the front and back respectively while Mo Na and I stayed in the middle. In order to avoid any potential accidents, I decided to bring the Black Blood Queen Ant along as well. As of right now, she was leading the way through the palace.
Bringing her along served two purposes. One, with her acting as our vanguard, anywhere she safely crossed would most likely be safe and devoid of traps. Two, since the golems were made of ant poop, it would be a lot more convenient to have her sniff them out. After all, her nose was rather sensitive and sniffing out poop should be an easy task for her.
Ever since I evolved into a Fallen Angel, the queen ant became absolutely subservient to my commands. To her, I was a master to be worshipped; she dared not have any rebellious thoughts at all.
Throughout the tunnel-like hallway, there were sporadic lit braziers lining the cave walls, acting as illumination for us and the tunnel. As I quietly followed the lead of the Black Blood Queen Ant, I tightly gripped the Gem of Authority in my left hand while my right held onto Mo Na.
The tunnel itself was rather straightforward and it didn’t take long before we found the weapons factory. To be honest, finding the factory itself wasn’t at all difficult because the entire road was littered with golems. Before entering, I would often worry about the possibility of a trap along the way. After entering and seeing how many golems there were inside however, I realized that it was an unnecessary worry on my part. Every ten steps we took, we would come upon a guard post manned by a contingent of golems. Every five steps we took, we would come upon a patrol of golems. With such a fearsome army guarding the place, was there even a need for traps?
Furthermore, with how powerful the golems actually were, would traps even make a difference to an opponent whom the golems couldn’t defeat?
From a glance, I could tell that the golems here and those outside were all of the same model. Even their movements and appearance was basically the same except for one striking difference: those in the factory weren’t damaged at all. Based on that, it was easy to conclude that they had never encountered any opponents at all.
Even now, I still had no way of confirming whether or not the golems possessed something similar to memories. Whatever the case, they never once stopped the queen ant from proceeding forward and instead let her pass naturally. Us, on the other hand, were given a much more wary welcome. Their eyes would lifelessly stalk our every move at which point I would raise the Gem of Authority for them to see.
Upon looking into the gem, the gem itself would emit a strange red light, the kind that flashed past as if it was a scanner.
Once that happened, the golems who were probably about to pounce on us just moments ago immediately became docile as if they were guard dogs whom I had raised from birth. They would stand there silently and await my command.
“That stone is so cool, Mama! Mo Na wants to have a go too.” Mo Na swung my arm back and forth and mustered the most adorable voice in her arsenal to ask for that stone.
By now, I had basically uncovered all the functions of this gem. For example, I could use it to flash the golems a red light signal which would make them obey my command. On top of that, I could hand over authority to someone else temporarily. If I were to hand over command rights to Mo Na temporarily, she could go around subjugating golems in my stead. Furthermore, even after all that, the command of those golems would still rest with me. As the temporary user of those golems, Mo Na only had the right to use them, not command them.
The transfer of command rights was only temporary. I could, at any time, decide to withdraw those rights since the gem itself was bound to my soul. As long as I was still around, this authority would never leave me. Also, I discovered that I could actually allow Mo Na to control the golems without actually handing her the Gem of Authority.
However, the one drawback to that would be if she encountered any stray golem who still wasn’t put under the command of the gem. At that point, the golem would attack Mo Na as always.
Truth be told, the fact that these golems were still functional after 80 000 years was truly astounding.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the ancients humans were amazing. After all, these Abyssal Golems were modelled after the work of the ancient alchemists.
