Before dawn, on the western shore of Lake Azul.
The whole place was a wide, minimally inclined plateau surrounded by a vast wilderness.
A rocky mountain towered above its northwestern part, and on its slopes grew thick bushes.
The mountain was made out of granite and underground it possessed abundant resources.
A fort had been built to that place. It was a thing over 300 years old, but there were people who repaired and remodeled it.
The name of the organization that did it was the Unifiers.
“Ah, so we’ve finally arrived.”
The ‘hot flying ball’ came down from the skies, and from its basket three figures stepped down.
“I feel tired, Elena.”
An aging white-haired man with blue clothes said.
“Donald, you’re a human after all. I don’t feel that at all.”
A dazzlingly beautiful girl said. But she was surrounded by a cold atmosphere.
The remaining silhouette was obviously not a human. It was the golem number 457.
The three figures were surrounded by a crowd of other figures who came from somewhere.
“Thanks for the reception.”
Donald composedly said, and began walking out protected by the guard golems who approached them. Elena and golem number 457 also followed them.
A part of the wall of rock had been made into a door openable by only the superhuman strength of golems, beyond which there was a spacious room.
Traversing the large room, they were freely let to pass through a set of doors protected by golems. They climbed up stairs, and walked on through a long hallway.
Then at the end of the hallway Donald touched the door with his hand and the door opened automatically.
Inside there was a decorated room. On both the left and right side multicolored tapestries were hung, in front of which silver- and gold-colored golems were standing holding spears.
A scarlet carpet lay in the middle. Donald and Elena walked on it straight to the back of the room.
“Welcome back, Elena.”
A person sitting in the back of the room called out.
“I’ve returned, my lord.”
Elena replied to him.
“At last, it seems that the time for an all-out offensive has come, right?”
“Yes. The flying hot balls contacted and the countries are still in a state of disarray. If we now switch to the offensive, the Unifiers led by my lord will come to reign over this continent.”
Contrasting with her clear and beautiful voice, madness revealed itself through her words. But there was no one here who was suspicious of her.
It was because here at the throne of the headquarters of all Unifiers, the only two people were the top seat and the second seat.
In fact in the whole headquarters the number of people was less than 50. The rest were all golems.
“There are 500 old type combat golems. New type combat golems number 500. 200 all-purpose golems. The activation of a total of 1200 golems has been finished.”
“As expected of my lord, the preparations are ready. In that case have them sort”
Just when Elena had spoken that far.
“Reporting. A gigantic figure is approaching from the skies.”
An urgent report from a guard golem came in.
“From the skies, you say?”
The man who appeared to be the top seat of the Unifiers operated the Magi Tool attached to the armrest of his chair for some reason. Then a picture was projected in front of them in the room. It seemed to be a variant of the Magic Screen.
He switched the picture between various Magic Eyes installed outside the headquarters and successfully found the figure in question.
A deep black silhouette flying with the daybreak as the backdrop. It was quite a curious object.
It had four rings arranged to a square, and something was dangling from the center of it. That something appeared to be the shape of a gigantic human.
“What? What’s that?”
No one could answer. However, Elena glared at the human shape with eyes that seemed to burn.
“That’s a…! Undoubtedly, it’s an extension of Adrianna’s designs. I see, so this means the appearance of that Mysterious Golem Master, Jin, or whatever. We must give him a good welcome.”
Elena grumbled and turned to face the top seat of the Unifilers,
“Joule, have all the golems sortie. And Gigantes too!”
She gave an order. Not one bit of the respect she had when calling him ‘my lord’ until now could be felt. However, no one raised an objection to that.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Father, we’ll soon be approaching Kashamnoor.”
Reiko who was sitting in the navigator’s seat of Pelican-1 said. Incidentally Jin was sitting in the main pilot’s seat, but he wasn’t doing anything essential. He left it all to the autopilot of the Air Force golem’s Control Core.
“Got it. Standby at a high-altitude. How’s Titan-1?”
“Estimated to arrive there in about five minutes.”
Laojin’s voice was heard through a ManaCom. From the floatsink base to here there was a distance of about 50 kilometers and they had coordinated to arrive at the same time, but it was inevitable that the slowest Condor became the last one to arrive. A calculation error of a few minutes was probably no wonder.
“Alright. Have it turn off [Stealth] and approach the enemy while visible. Once the enemy notices they’ll surely do something.”
Jin was thoroughly in the mood for defeating them crushingly.
“Have the Army golems dropped off a small distance away from the place thought to be the enemy base.”
Just as Jin ordered, the ten Falcons landed about two kilometers away from the relevant location. The three Pelicans chose level ground and also landed.
With this the full line-up of Army golems was 100. They split into teams of ten golems each and formed a row.
The Raptor units circled in the air and monitored the ground.
Beyond the horizon, the sun started to rise. The surroundings were dyed yellowish brown.
While the light shined on, Condor-1 and the Titan-1 it was carrying came to sight. Since [Stealth] was off they were very visible.
“Oh, they’re here. Alright, have Titan-1 get just a bit closer to the enemy base and drop down.”
Just as ordered, Titan-1 landed in a location about a kilometer away from the enemy base.
As the sun rose little by little the light turned from yellowish brown to golden, then white. Within the light, the enemy base’s doors opened.
＊ ＊ ＊
100 combat golems that Elena had called old type appeared. Each one was holding a spear and a shield.
“First let’s try them out. Go!”
Elena gave the order and the combat golems began an organized march.
“Father, it’s the enemy golems.”
Jin and Reiko were watching them from the sky.
“Alright, let’s have the Army golems meet them. Land corps, go!”
A 100 vs 100 golem battle began. But this battle was excessively one-sided.
The Unifiers’ 100 golems formed a single line and advanced forming a wall.
Their attack could well be said to be in perfect order surely only possible for inorganic beings.
But their opponents, the Army golems, were no ordinary golems. Far from ordinary, they were the pinnacle of golems in this world.
The Unifiers’ golems readied their shields and thrust their spears out of the gaps. They were in a so-called phalanx formation.
The Land corps side wasn’t holding shields or spears. They were holding Vibration Swords.
They were swords made out of Magi Adamantite that could cleave anything they touched in two with microscopic ultra high speed vibrations caused by pouring Magic Energy into the blade.
The steel spears the Unifiers’ golems thrust out were sliced apart in the blink of an eye.
Then as a counterattack the swords cut through the shields they were holding and into their defenseless chests.
Those thrusts were accurate to the inch and destroyed the Control Cores in the golems’ central area.
＊ ＊ ＊
Ten seconds after contact, the Unifiers’ 100 golems were rendered incapable of combat.
Joule, the top seat of the Unifiers, who had been watching it through the Magic Screen was shocked.
“W-what the!? Even though they were old type, to think the combat golems were instantly killed!”
But Elena was measuring the true strength of the Land corps even while frustration was visible on her face.
“Next! 200 golems move out! Make sure not to assemble to a rank. Shields are unnecessary. Use swords.”
For the second battle, 200 golems came out. This time the 200 golems began their assault not in an ordered rank but in a scattered manner.
＊ ＊ ＊
“So this time it’s 200 golems. Land corps, retreat two meters from the 100 golems defeated just now. Form groups and meet the enemy as teams.”
Watching the battlefield from the skies the progress of the battle was well-visible. Even the layman Jin could gave orders as things were. Additionally, Ann was helping him.
To avoid the defeated golems the charge was slower. In addition, their postures were in disarray.
Aiming at that the Land units attacked.
If they aimed at the legs, the legs were cut off. Then slashing diagonally from the shoulder even the Control Core inside the enemy’s chest was destroyed, stopping their movements.
If they cut off the neck, the golems’ sight would immediately worsen and such golems were readily neutralized.
On top of the 100 wrecked golems that the battle started with, more wrecks piled up.
＊ ＊ ＊
Elena who had been watching all that said,
“Now, is it. Have the 500 new type combat golems sally out from behind those guys!”