Kuro no Maou

At first, I thought the tremors caused an avalanche and so I quickly shifted my gaze towards the Crusaders — and instantly found the source.

“Wh-what in the world is that...... a giant robot?”

On the other side of the flocking war slaves, in front of the lined up catapults in the enemy front line, giant humanoid figures came rising up one after another.

Their dark grey iron bodies shone underneath the bright sunlight. Behind their full-head covering round helmets, a deep crimson eye could be seen.

Their cylindrical body looks exactly like a golem but... Even though there are quite a few big golems, I have never heard of one this big.

It’s easily about 20 meters. The catapults behind it look awfully small in size, making one feel like there’s something wrong with their scaling perception.

And there were a whole 10 of those absurdly huge golems.

“You gotta be kidding me...”

I unconsciously said that out loud in response to the immense pressure. However, this isn’t the dream world Last Rose created — it is the cruel reality, unfortunately.

10 of these huge golems certainly exist.

“Kurono! Those — they are probably the ancient golems!”

Lily came flying to me as I was still fighting against the chimera soldiers, still in my previous state.

I have heard the name and of its existence during class in school.

There are countless magic items in the ancient ruins which can’t be produced at present and the over-sized golems are one of those. Golems made long, long ago — and as such, they are categorized as ancient.

Majority of them are damaged, only leaving the huge bodies behind. However, there are cases of succeeding in reactivating them. Although there aren’t any in Spada, there’s a country which is using them as a weapon to siege a castle.

We were taught that they were strong and valuable weapons of the past but I never thought I would be seeing them like this. That too, 10 of them.

“Darn it, those Crusaders — they pulled such a big one out of the ancient relics?”

“Lily has heard about it before — bringing out the ancient golems from Media ruins.”

That probably happened before she met me.

I do remember hearing about Media ruins. After accepting a quest to survey a newly found area in that ruins, I left the Izul village and headed for the capital Daidaros. Now that I look back on it, choosing that quest was probably the turning point of my fate.

Even still, to think it would go around and I would come face to face with the ancient golems discovered in those ruins like this — I really don’t understand how this fate thing works.

“It’s still kinda unbelievable but since it has appeared, I assume they plan on using it to conquer the castle walls.”

I can clearly spot the sparkling light on the snow. The ancient golems were probably summoned by a magic circle. They wouldn’t be able to carry such a huge lump of metal all the way up the mountain if not like that.

“Hey, Kurono, what do we do?”

Although Lily came entangling her arms around my neck from the back, the contents of her question was heavy and urged a decision.

No, the answer is obvious from the start. We are here with the resolve to kill the apostles. We can’t afford to be afraid of a dozen humongous golems.

“Change priority to the ancient golems. For now, we will head back to the top of the wall and prepare for the interception.”

“And the chimeras?”

“Leave them to the others. Doing something about those is much more important now.”

“Alright, I got it, Kurono!”

As I heard her energetic reply, I ordered Hitsugi to pull me up.

“Goiiingg up~!”

She, too, gave an energetic reply inside my head and pulled me up with momentum using the bind arts.

Although both my hands were full with the cursed hatchet and the Gatling gun, the chains from my waist and shoulders helped my stand upright even in a vertical plane. With Lily still clinging on to my neck, I rose up right above the castle wall.

“Get outta my way!”

I kicked off a chimera soldier which suddenly came blocking my way and safely returned to the top. It took about 5 seconds.

“Welcome back, Kurono-san, Lily-san.”

“We’re back~”

Fiona came welcoming us back once we landed on the castle wall. I am sure she also had it rough going left and right along with us but she properly kept providing support. As expected from Fiona.

“Fiona, we’ll get those huge golems next.”

“1 vs 1... no, ganging up one together would have a higher chance of success.”

Even though we would be going against those stupidly large lumps of steel, Fiona instantly started suggesting plans to intercept without showing any signs of hesitation. Her face had no enthusiasm either — she spoke as if we were just going to hunt a flock of weak monsters efficiently.

“Is that really as tough as it looks?”

“More than that, actually. After all, ancient golems which are used to siege castles are even rare in the Sinclaire republic. Judging from the looks, they seem to be the mass production model but that doesn’t change the fact that they will be extremely strong as castle sieging weapons. At the very least, a single individual can’t do anything about them.”

But that was with a proviso — that that’s the case if it’s a normal soldier.

We are rank 5 adventurers and have even received special privileges such as the Order Raid. We must at least work the same as 100 people or I would feel sorry for the Spada army.

“I would like to get 1 down by ourselves... no, make that 2.”

“Going for the impossible is forbidden, Kurono-san. If we were to run out of mana here, the Element Masters would have to make a quick exit.”

That would be troubling. I am not participating in this war with some flimsy determination like running full speed at the start of a marathon to be in the first place for 10 seconds.

“Hmm, you’re right. We need to trust on the Spada army here.”

For now, we should focus on getting one down. There’s no meaning if we make a half-hearted attack just for it to get blocked.

“Once the enemy comes into range, we will shower it with maximum firepower. Lily will be using the Meteor Strike and Fiona, the Golden Sun–”

Giving out those instructions, I started preparing for my attack as well.