Interlude – Something Interesting?

“Haah…” I sighed, exactly the same as I did five minutes ago. The view from the gate walls was as boring as ever. The forest, of course, ever quiet. This was usual in Vazio: a town in the middle of nowhere where nothing happened.

Seriously, what was the point of this town in the first place? There weren’t any rare resources or dungeons. The town wasn’t a fortress or trade center. The closest city was at least twenty days away. There wasn’t even a path through the forest. Though, we managed to chug along just fine.

Today, like any other day, I kept a vigilant eye on the area just outside the wall, looking for anything suspicious. My report? The trees were a bit greener than usual, meaning that the summer season would soon be upon us.

That’s it.

What’d you expect from such an uneventful place? The last interesting thing happened five years ago, back when the moon shattered into the lunar field rotating around the night sky. A missive arrived from the capital, leading to the establishment of the Adventurer’s Guild. It was supposed to be a place to curtail the beast population within dungeons. Dungeons, as I mentioned previously, which didn’t exist anywhere nearby. The only quests that came in were those for lost pets. So, once again, completely pointless. Though now that I thought about it, the guild was somehow always busy.

I turned my eyes towards the sky once again, counting the clouds. There wasn’t much else to do. Most of my day was spent arguing with myself whether to count a single cloud as two. A riveting discussion.

It seemed like I wouldn’t even be granted that much today. The sky was clear – no clouds in sight. Even as I scanned the distance, there was noth–wait a moment. There might be one, but it was difficult to tell from so far. It seemed like a mountain was covering it up. Actually, why was there a mountain? There wasn’t supposed to be one.

I didn’t have a spyglass on me, so I ran down the stairs towards the armory. There was never any need to use one, but it seemed today would be that day. There were some mana telescopes embedded into the wall itself, but they didn’t work anymore. We weren’t reliant on mana tools, but times like–

“WOAH!” My foot slipped out, causing me to tumble down the stairs. It felt like the walls were shaking as I landed butt first on the floor. I guess I need to slow down next–huh?

The floor is actually shaking. It started as a small tremor, but it grew with each passing moment. I had a bad feeling, so I quickly scurried into the armory and grabbed what I needed. It was a bit hard to keep my balance, but a hand on the wall did wonders. The hardest part was heading up the stairs, especially since I was in a hurry.

As soon as I made it back to the wall, I looked through the spyglass. The shaking made it difficult, but what I could see was terrifying, sparking a hint of interest. It was a golem, at least four times taller than the trees of the forest, walking directly towards us.

I stumbled over to the nearby alarm bell and pulled the rope. The warning sound echoed, giving way to a muttering of confused voices. I could see the off-duty guards immediately rush towards the gate as I returned to observing the golem. Nothing much had changed, but I thought I saw a glimpse of red on its shoulder. I had no idea what that meant though. Luckily, the tremors were starting to quiet down, so I should be able to get a–

“What’s going on?!?” The door slammed open to my left. It was the commander, half panicking and serious. Other guards started rushing over as well, each with their own fearful expression. Honestly, I was probably the same – maybe a bit more enthusiastic.

I handed the spyglass over to the commander, trying to speak as calmly as possible. “There’s a golem, at least the size of a mountain, marching towards us.” Man, no matter how I said that, it sounded scary.

As the commander stared at the golem, he started muttering, “That’s…”, but it was so quiet I couldn’t hear the rest. I didn’t need to though; he raised his voice loud enough to reach every guard nearby. “Prepare for a siege! Half of you, bring out any working artillery from storage and get ready to fire! The rest of you, make sure the townsfolk stay in their homes. Have them ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice!”

““““Yes sir!”””” The other guards rushed around while I stood next to the commander, ready to assist. There were a few screams throughout the town, but it was mostly silent, though that wasn’t because the people were well trained. They just didn’t understand the incoming danger, especially with how uneventful the town normally was. Only the commander showed any real experience.

“It’s likely that the person controlling the golem is the Crimson Devastation.”

“The who?” I said, keeping a hand on the wall and my eyes on the slowly moving(?) golem.

“Crimson Devastation: a crazy mana user. It’s said that any one of her experiments is enough to wipe cities off the face of the planet, though no one really knows for sure. Most people who see her die almost instantly. There are rumors, but most of them are nonsense. One of them literally says she walks around naked.”

“What in the world…”

“Yeah, it’s hard to–”

“Not that, commander. The golem…”

“What about it?”

“...it’s stopped moving.”

“...it’s stopped?”

“Yes, sir.” The earthquake had ceased as well, so I was sure that my assessment was correct. It was… puzzling, to say the least. The commander also looked confused.

“Your orders?” I asked.

“...keep setting up the cannons. We won’t be able to do anything if the golem remains still, but it’s better to be prepared. Don’t let it out of your sight.”

“Yes sir.”

~~~

It wasn’t long before dusk came and our preparations were complete. However, the golem remained unmoving. One of the few interesting things to ever happen to this town, and it ended up being nothing… again.

I told the commander as such and, after spending a few moments to think, he gave out our next orders. “The golem has not approached any closer. Something must’ve happened. We won’t be able to keep this state of emergency for longer than a week with our current supplies, so I will send out a small force to investigate. Gather up some camping equipment and a few days of food. Kryos, I’m putting you in charge.”

Huh? “Me, sir?”

“You’ve been the one observing it this entire time, so you’ll be able to notice if something happens. If it gives any sign of movement, I want you to return immediately. Do you understand?”

“Yes! Yes, sir!” Actually being able to explore the forest? Hell yes! I had no intention of dying, but I could feel my excitement rising. Finally, something was going to happen!!!!

The commander listed off a few other names that would be accompanying me. “Be prepared to leave tomorrow morning. Understood?”

““““Yes sir!”””” The other guards and I rushed to our homes, making sure to pack whatever we needed, before heading to bed.

~~~

When I returned to the gate the next day, everyone was ready to depart. The golem hadn’t moved at all, so it was likely that we would be safe. Still, we took as many precautions as possible. After all, none of us wanted to end up dead.

Using some enhancement magic to strengthen our bodies, we hiked through the woods on foot. We could’ve brought some horse beasts, but with how uneven the terrain was, the trek wouldn’t be any faster.

As… expected, the journey was uneven–sorry, rather peaceful. There were only a few beasts in the area, and our mana was recovering at an abnormally fast rate. The latter was a bit unusual, what with the moon shattering, but I wasn’t one to kick a gift beast in the mouth. I just wished there was something… you know… more.

The first day ended, with absolute nothing of note.

~~~

One the second day, we started to find large chunks of rock scattered across the ground. They likely fell off the golem as it moved, so I told a few guards to keep their eyes on the sky. However, nothing ended up happening aga–

“HELLO THERE.”

A loud female voice boomed from the clearing in front of us. It sounded like someone was trying to greet us, but at the same time, it sounded like a moan, making it difficult to determine what it said. Finally, something was going on!!!!

We readied our weapons, using mana sense to pinpoint the source of the noise. We silently creeped up on the voice’s position, which seemed to be right next to the golem’s feet, making sure to keep ourselves out of sight. Then, once we had it surrounded, I gave the signal, and we jumped out of the bushes.

“Freeze! We have you surrounded! Put your hands in the air and… umm… have some decency!” In front of us was a naked girl spreading her legs for the world to see. Well, I shouldn’t say naked, but whatever remained of her clothing was not covering up anything.

Was this actually the Crimson Devastation? It made the rumors the commander mentioned seem all the more true.

The girl looked at us with a confused, yet emotionless expression before standing up. Then, with a wave of her hand, she spoke.

“HAAOOO THHEEEERRR.”

“...uh, what?” I managed to ask. I was honestly expecting her to resist instead of… whatever this was. The girl sighed, slapping her hand against her forehead, before clearing her throat with a cough.

“Hello there,” she said again. Her pronunciation was weird, but I knew she was greeting us. No idea why, but a friendly chat was better than a fight. Of course, we kept our weapons pointed at her.

“Hello…so just to confirm, are you the Crimson Devastation?”

“Who?” she looked puzzled. Was she not then? I turned towards Jackson, one of the guards who could determine truth from lies. With a nod, he let me know she was telling the truth.

“Okay, a different question then. Did you make that golem?”

The girl shook her head, “No.” That wasn’t a lie either??? This was making even less sense.

“Then, how did you get here?”

“Woe up heir.” Looking at Jackson anymore would just give me a headache. Wait a moment…

“Do you have amnesia?”

“No.” How the hell was she telling the truth?!? Am I missing something??? “Tryin to ge to tow. How do I ge their?”

Her question snapped me out of my mania. “Town? Do you mean Vazio?”

She thought about it for a moment before nodding her head. Well, wasn’t this a series of unbelievable coincidences? Obviously she had to be lying, even though she was telling the truth. The other guards looked at me, but I was just as bewildered. However, she was being very cooperative…

Hmm…

Fine.

“We can take you back with us. However, would you be okay with us sealing your mana until then? It’s hard to believe what you’re saying in this situation.”

“Okay,” she spoke without hesitation. I yelled over for one of the guards to pull out the sealing cuffs. It seemed like this would wrap up nicel–

“Oh right, forgot about that.” Given all that was happening with the girl, I completely blanked on the golem. Standing so close, it was as if I was an ant. This could destroy our town with one step. It didn’t seem to be moving, but I didn’t want to leave it here alone. The owner or someone else might march it straight into our town. “Going to need to destroy it, or just prevent it from being used somehow…” I muttered under my breath. I would need to talk–

“Okay,” the girl said again before walking up the golem.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I screamed as she poked it with her finger.

As if the golem was made of dust, it disintegrated into the wind. The floating sand scattered throughout the forest, blanketing the ground in a thin film, almost imperceptible to the eye. What was once a towering monument was gone, as if it never existed in the first place. A ridiculous, impossible sight, so much so that my mouth dropped in glee.

The girl, seeming none the wiser, turned around with a blank smile.

“Let’s go.”