Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

Chapter 208 To Slay A Devil: The Fate Of An Artificer

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"I shouldn't have expected anything less from one of us." The creature said as it got to its feat

"!"

'What is this thing?...'

While Dale was shocked by the revelation, Sarferato's expression remained stoic.

"Humph... You talk big for something that is just a specter, posing as one of us, do you think I wouldn't have recognized it?" He said as he grasped his axe tightly 

"Your voice and way of speaking may be the same, but never would he speak in such a way to me, not after so long."

"Where is he?" 

His voice deepened, it wasn't a question, it was an order.

"Ha!... You overestimate me, old friend… Time is a slow and insidious killer…"

/FLASH!/

Suddenly, Sarferato vanished, and by the time Dale reacted, the head of the strange creature was in the air due to it being cleaved by the double-edged axe.

"Then… I'll grant you mercy." He said as his right hand dug into the creature's chest it grasped something before pulling it out.

/CRACK!/

/Throw…/

Once he was finished, he threw the creature to the side, walking to Dale with a heavy expression, a small triangular structure in his right hand.

It had several small tubes connected to it, all ripped apart.

Sarferato looked at it for a few seconds before putting it aside with a look of disappointment and sadness.

"You must have some questions, I'll answer them all but first, we need to deal with the Portal."

"We'll talk once everyone is together." He said with a light smile as he passed by Dale

"... Understood." He said as he looked back at the creature's body

'That ended quickly... I expected nothing less from one of the Division Commanders, especially one that bragged about itself more then once.'

'He's the General of the Frontlines... Or was, either way, he was the kind of guy that rushed into the battlefield that destroyed even the past Commander.'

'He returned alive and in one piece, at least it doesn't look like he has any lasting injuries, or if he had any, they have long healed.'

'His only problem is time.'

'Testros is pretty strong himself, but if I were to compare both, then Sarferato has more experience, more knowledge on advanced techniques, he is stronger and more.'

'The only thing he might not be better at may be his understanding of the basics.'

'There was no Kill notification. Well, it would be too much of me to expect a reward despite doing nothing.'

'Still… Their fight might've been short, but the creature's challenge Rank was never displayed.'

'Why?... Is it because the creature cannot be considered a monster?'

'Though, it never did retaliate… Perhaps the creature never really saw us as enemies.'

'Either way, I just need to wait now.' He thought as loosed his shoulders

Looking at Caladgolg and his spear, Dale sat at a nearby box.

Silently, they waited by the portal and soon, many others started to appear from the other side.

…

/A few minutes later…/

/Shine!/

Under the strong rays of light from the sun, Testros, Dale, and Sarferato witnessed the ruins of the old Mage's Tower now half buried in the sand.

Previously, this balcony they stood on was several floors above ground, now they could literally step outside into the golden desert as if it was the ground floor.

And that was after the fissure opened in the desert, draining a lot of the sand.

Otherwise, they would've had to climb higher.

"I always knew this sand would one day consume us, that dammed beast." He said as he looked at the far horizon

"... It's almost hard to picture that one day there was a wall here." Sarferato said as he looked at the golden dunes

"It wasn't very tall, only four meters tall with a radius of about four hundred meters."

"A little city meant for mages, their little world away from Civilians and other annoyances as they liked to say..."

"Normally cities are built to support such Towers, but Resko's Magic Tower was constructed far away due to the fear of the dangerous experiments ever going astray… Like we saw before."

"..."

"There were a few instances when such distance did save us a lot of trouble, but it was quite the bother to move around due to the distance." He said with a light chuckle

"So?... What was it?" Dale asked as he sat around, the heat not really bothering him much

"... An old experiment, a bothersome type of Golemancy, an Ancient form of Magic that was lost together with the Old Empire."

"It wasn't really lost but more abandoned."

"The basics are still around, but they are nowhere near what the records say it could do, eventually, people just stopped researching."

"There was only one Mage that tinkered with it, he called it a hobby, I called it a waste of his time… At least for the reasons he studied it."

"Much of the Corps technology possesses some kind of Golemancy in it, things became like that after his takeover, so it would be too much to call it useless."

"However, he always tended to take it too far, be it in normal studies… Or even in his personal life."

"He?..." Dale asked, albeit he was already somewhat aware of who it might be

"Who else? The Division Commander in charge of all Magic with the Corps, One of the Grand Artificers of the Empire, Elriharad Qrubin."

"You should know him at the very least, his name was in at least a fifth out of all Magic related tomes and books of the Corps." He said as he turned to Dale

Obviously, Dale knew.

Out of the ten books he read about the basics of magic, at least 8 of them had his name within the first three names of the authors.

At first, he didn't know who he was, only that he was likely pretty influential, but it wasn't until he learned of the other Division Commander's names that he realized who he was.

Even so, that didn't mean he knew much about how they operated, Dale had bigger priorities then to read about the organization of a military force that vanished 100 years ago.

But knowing a little bit more about the greatest Wizard of the Corps, he asked:

"But then… Why would his experiment want to do all of this?"

"I can't quite tell, Qrubin was an egocentric man… Despite the fact he called himself a philanthropist."

"Age did help settle that back, but that Golena seemed to posses a shard of his Ego… A past one."

"Qrubin was a very talented and dedicated man, staying days in his laboratory doing who knew what, yet, he still managed to give his formal work as the Division Commander and eventually his family time, even if the latter was short…"

"He updated and created many books, it helped us go through the shortage of materials, without him, the Wall would've long fallen, many of his mechanisms and spells still last to this day, proof by the fact that Golema stood all this time."

"His Golema's personality reflects this perfectly, he recognized you and it also possesses a certain sense of time, it carefully processed that and made a judgment…"

"This in itself already surpasses what I knew about this form of Magic… Before the Wall fell, Qrubin might've succeeded in granting Ego onto his creations, or at least, something very similar to that."

"That was why I hesitated, I was fearful of damaging what may as well be his last remnant in this world… But I had to make the final choice."

"If the Golema possessed even a fraction of his Magical ingenuity, then it must be discarded as soon as possible, and it just so happened that it was also not attacking me."

"And the very reason why you lived so long, it was thanks to his rather self-centered personality and his devotion to the Corps that made it spare you… As I do not believe Qrubin would've spared an intruder, not under normal circumstances."

"Had he done so, you would've been conscious right now either way, even with his past Disciples whenever they did something like you did, Qrubin wouldn't stop with only what he did to you."

"He must've taken an interest in you." He said with a smile

"..."

'I'm flattered?...'

"This sums up everything I know about it, likely a relic left to rot in the dark halls of the Tower as its energy depleted, it must've been awakened by us when everything reactivated."

"Though it doesn't explain how it was aware of how much time had passed and the outside..."

"Albeit I never knew what became of Qrubin, from the sightings of some of the surviving soldiers in the past, they told me he had been one of the first to fall, albeit his body was never really seen."

"He must've survived and somehow filled this Golema with his knowledge of what happened, either that or he was like the others who had already given up to a certain extent..." Sarferato said as his expression turned dark, he was clearly not in the mood to proceed in this subject

"This is something I'm unfamiliar with, I can't quite explain it's line of reasoning, if it had any to begin with, everything I said here are mostly assumptions after all."

"Does that answer your questions?"

"... Mostly, though I still feel a bit awful…"

"Hohohoho! That's normal, Qrubin was famous for leaving that sort of impression on others."

"I myself still can't believe he managed to have a happy Family…"

"..."

The mood suddenly quietened down.

"Anyway… We're here." Sarferato said as he gazed at the desert

"Much of it has been eaten away by the Desert, but this is it, the North."

"We should make haste then." Testros added as he turned around

His silence spoke leagues of his emotions...

"Correct, the beast must be slain."

"Once we're done, we'll make our way back and lead everyone into the Village and commemorate a victory!"

"One that might as well be the first in a Century."

"..."

'The more I would like to agree with him, we still have many bigger problems than a Greater Devil…'

'But for now, I guess this is enough.' Dale thought as he put his helmet back on, following the two old soldiers back into the Tower

It was time to ride Ubuk into the forest once more.

'Hum... When will my Quests update, I wonder?'

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Notes

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