Chapter 961: Dismantle Them
Undead from the Undead Plane at least have weaknesses; if you use Holy Light or fire spells, dealing with them becomes much easier.
But alchemical golems have no particular vulnerabilities, and the number of alchemical golems in the Plane of Golems is no less than the undead in the Undead Plane!
With their overwhelming numbers, they could easily swarm and kill a Heavenly Mage purely by force of quantity!
If the Plane Path opens, Leon would absolutely leave the Blazeforge Realm at the first opportunity, or else he’d be doomed…
After thinking it over and sensing something was wrong, Leon summoned Krovitz and Wagner to the Gray Orc Fortress.
Upon seeing Krovitz, Leon had just started asking about the situation when Krovitz nodded gravely.
"That's right. There is indeed a Plane Path near the Gray Orc Fortress leading to the Plane of Golems. My teacher told me about it, and of course, this information can't be leaked to anyone else.
If it attracts the attention of powerful beings, the Gray Orc Fortress will be the first to fall. And if the Plane Path is opened, there’s no way the Gray Orc Fortress could hold…"
A glimmer of understanding flashed in Leon’s eyes—Krovitz really did know.
Outside the fortress, crowds of Gray Orcs had streamed out, hunting down the ever-increasing numbers of alchemical golems. Judging by their expressions, it was just another thrilling harvest season—no different from the ones before.
As we pressed toward the Nile Gorge, stray alchemical golems kept crossing our path. Most were in the teens, and encountering one above level twenty was a rare event.
Wagner took care of these golems. Lately, he'd been learning puppet alchemy from Krovitz and needed heaps of materials to practice with. The golems here, while unimpressive in rank, came in a dizzying variety—far more types than we ever saw in the underground base.
Every part Wagner stripped off the defeated golems went straight into his stash. I didn’t bother to intervene.
Back at the underground base, the alchemist teams would study these parts, picking out anything useful for future golem designs.
As we neared the Nile Gorge, the number of golems we ran into steadily climbed, and their levels kept rising too.
By the time we reached the gorge’s entrance, there wasn’t a single golem below level twenty left to be seen.
“What’s going on? This can’t be right. In all these centuries, we’ve never seen golems this powerful show up here...”
Krovitz stared at the pile of dismantled golems on the ground, his face tinged with disbelief. He knew all too well the kind of disaster a rift in the Plane Path could unleash...
I frowned. A ripple of spatial energy flickered nearby—a level twenty-five alchemical golem materialized out of thin air.
I reached out with one hand. The golem’s runes barely flickered to life before I tore it apart, reducing it to a heap of scrap.
“All because you summoned that Sky Rank golem with the ritual array...”
Krovitz opened his mouth, then dropped his head and gave a bitter laugh.
The golems we summoned before were never this strong—the most powerful was a level thirty-nine.
But this time, that Sky Rank golem—even unfinished, without its final transformation or extraordinary power—had still shaken the Plane Path to its core.
The Plane Path wasn’t truly open yet, but the rift had widened. Its influence stretched farther, letting more golems slip from the Golem Plane into Blazeforge Realm. And they just kept getting stronger.
I suspected the trouble didn’t end there...
The real nightmare might be that Sky Rank golem—the one that lost an arm—used the power of its summoning to keep the rift open after returning to the Golem Plane...
If more golems push through, the rift will keep growing. Eventually, the Plane Path could be forced wide open... and then all hell breaks loose.
I rubbed my temples, activating my magitech armor at full power to scan every ripple around us. The Wheel of All Laws spun under my control, helping me deduce the secrets hidden nearby.
Whenever a spatial ripple flickered, the Wheel of All Laws and my magitech armor worked in tandem, tracing those faint disturbances to deduce the Plane Path’s location.
We ventured deep into the Nile Gorge, but the Plane Path’s exact spot still eluded us. The golems, though, kept multiplying and growing stronger—level thirty golems began to appear.
When four or five level thirty golems showed up, leading a swarm of lesser ones, Krovitz finally realized I’d been right all along...
And I knew, too—this was trouble with a capital T.
The rift really was holding, and it was getting wider by the minute...
On both sides of the gorge—stretching for more than ten kilometers—swarms of alchemical golems closed in. Our escape route behind us? Blocked off by another mob.
All told, more than two thousand golems had us surrounded. Leading them were two humanoid golems at level thirty-five, with over thirty more at level thirty and above...
“Take them apart.”
I glanced at the motley army of golems, my expression unreadable. I tossed out the order as if it were nothing.
Shuban hefted his weapon, Slaughter, and charged first. With that massive blade, he looked like an armored humanoid tyrannosaurus—every golem he struck turned to twisted scrap, and any attack thrown his way was simply absorbed by the sheer bulk of Slaughter.
Only after Shuban charged in did Anderfa and Patchwork Golem join the fray.
Anderfa’s elemental storm and Patchwork Golem’s barrage of spells swept through the golem hordes like twin rivers, carving a path of destruction.
The golems, caught up like leaves in a gale of elemental fury, were shredded midair—raining down a shower of broken parts.
Since Patchwork Golem had been fitted with some Sky Rank components, one arm could now unleash a hint of that power—though true transcendence was still out of reach.
The spell flood tore through the golem ranks like a river, shredding everything in its path. With a trace of Sky Rank power in its frame, Patchwork Golem made the lesser golems too afraid to even attack.
Krovitz and Wagner stayed at my side, never bothering to lift a finger.
Most of the two thousand golems were only level twenty; only a few dozen reached level thirty or above. They fell with barely a fight.
In just a few minutes, the golem horde was wiped out. The ground was layered with parts, and Wagner grinned as he rushed to scoop them all into his pouch.
Some of the parts would be handed over to the alchemist teams for research, but most would serve as Wagner’s practice stock.
I didn’t mind Wagner’s scavenging. In the end, it all boosted our strength.
Bringing Wagner along was no accident—I’d need his control if we ever found the Plane Path to the Golem Plane.
Last time, closing the rift was as simple as using Wagner’s blood. That alone proved George once controlled this Plane Path—and this time, it would be no different.
Once the golem horde was cleared, the Nile Gorge was almost empty. A stray golem might sneak through now and then, but the Plane Path’s location remained a mystery.
If the Plane Path isn’t open, it’s nearly impossible to find—unless someone’s set up an alchemical array at the entrance.
But here? I doubted George would make the Plane Path so easy to discover...
Three days passed as we swept the gorge and its surroundings for golems, but the Plane Path’s location stayed hidden.
Meanwhile, fewer and fewer new golems appeared...
Suddenly, their numbers dropped to almost nothing.
It wasn’t just the Nile Gorge—the whole Four Seasons Plain saw a sharp decline in golem sightings. It was as if the golem frenzy had ended overnight...
For three days straight, not a single new golem showed up across the Four Seasons Plain.
A nagging sense of unease crept into my heart. Krovitz wore an anxious frown as well.
“Lord Merlin, this isn’t normal. This year’s supposed to be the once-in-a-century golem frenzy—it shouldn’t end so quickly. By tradition, this is only the beginning; the golem numbers haven’t peaked yet. Something’s very wrong here...”