So I was a clay golem. A relic from times past, back when the realm was sunny and bright. Before the mana drain ravaged everything. Before the humans left.
My duty, for the longest time, had been to collect mana. Not to call humans. Not to save the realm. Just collect mana from the monsters around and bring it back.
I wasn't even supposed to think. I probably wasn't even conscious.
Then a human came back and I could not save him. Then a human came back and I could not save him. Then a human came back and I could not save him! Then a human came back and I could not save him!
Then a human came back! And I could not! Save him!
Then a human! Came! Back! And I! Could! Not!
Yes, the humans had taken shelter in a craft they called Earth. A devilish construct that could, if disturbed, annihilate our brittle realm. Yes, they were safe there, but one of them was not. And I could not help but wonder, shouldn't they sacrifice themselves for him?
Would that not be the human thing to do?
Yes, I could have an existential crisis and still forge armor plates just fine.
With Nasse's help both arms were almost done. The fire lizard had become better at this than even I was, and he didn't have hands.
Despite the furnace running hot, the lower deck was cool and fresh. The Parao sailed through the clouds, against cold winds that I swore pierced through even the planks.
"Dear friend," a mocking voice interrupted us, "let us change course."
The human had decided on the direction, saying it was a quest and so no, we would keep going no matter our new guest's protests.
Talking about the human, he was on the masts, impatient to arrive.
"Eh, Nasse! Kaele! Can you hear me?" We could. Well I could. "I think the fortress is under the clouds!"
Did he say a fortress?
Indeed, as soon as I got to the bridge and forced the ship to plunge through and below the cloud cover, we saw it.
First the dry desert and then, a mess of rocks as if the realm had burst there, with an ancient human fortress at its center.
The mana drain had turned the once mighty metal towers to rough stone, the tall walls likewise and the massive slabs that shielded them into broken rubbles. If not for its silhouette, it would have been just a mountain breaking off a flat plain.
"That's a fortress?" The teenager wondered. "I thought it would be more... medieval."
"We are lucky it is in ruins." I observed. "Its standard spell was starkiller."
That anything was left in itself spoke of its ancient might. Such fortresses were built on monoliths and stonehenges, able to fare against the underground and the air, to sustain sieges, to fight even against mana attrition.
It was the kind of marvels that, legend said, almost registered to the best mages when they unleashed an armaggedon.
Also, it was attacking.
I steered us to port to avoid a devouring deflagration. After many years of decay this void sphere was all the fortress could muster and it was already too much.
Ah. The human. Magic was overflowing from him. That fed the fortress and so the fortress had mana to spare. That was why our new guest wanted to divert.
Speaking of him, the wyvern skeleton flew before us. We were but a frail boat; he had the size of a quinquereme. The next detonations blasted on him in warped, mad swirls that failed to even dent his bones.
"Alright! We can get in!" The human rejoiced.
I didn't mind and steered accordingly while the ship kept gliding down to the ground, but I had a question.
Why? Other than the human system demanding it, why would go in?
Regardless, while the wyvern played with those defenses we slid under and reached the walls. There were more than enough breaches for us to pick. With the ship moored, even Nasse decided to follow. The monster probably judged safer to stay close to us.
I could tell that, among the rubbles, lay not just the ancient fortress's shields and shards but also the many corpses of its enemies. Monsters calcified by time.
No, a fortress was not meant to shelter people. It was meant to force others to attack it while people stayed safe elsewhere. And so as the old world fell the construct did its work. And long after there was nothing left to protect it continued.
"Watch out!"
Lightning scorched the rocks before us. Barrier! The next discharge rolled over our heads and dispersed. To call the flying spheres that infested the lower court elementals was too much; still they fell on us to try and break the barrage that held up.
I would have cast more spells but fortresses could also use the mana drain and there was no telling how much of it was still active.
So we just ran through the courtyard, across the masses extinct and the piles of debris, until reaching the inner fort.
Nasse put his legs on the petrified door and melted it open.
"What about Calisle?" The human wondered.
I pushed him inside. "He will be fine."
The locks humans had used to stabilize their refuge were placed in fortresses. Meaning the wyvern was used to cracking those mighty bastions like eggs.
In the hallways the fortress was trying to use void attacks but, whether damage or lacking the magic for it, all it did was making the walls crackle with energy. And collapse the ceiling here and there. My earthworks kept the way open for us.
"Down here!" The teenager had reached a small shaft.
He probably thought this had been a magical lift of some sort. But no. It was a magical conduit, part of the fortress' rituals.
Still, we jumped. While the human could count on his innate featherweight, I caught Nasse and held on the wall at the end to slow down my fall. We landed without problem, melted another door and watched the boy rush into the vast chamber.
There were carcasses of monsters even there. And then there were some alive.
Probably newborns that the human's overflowing magic had awakened.
Two felogs jumped on us, only to be felled by my slicing hand. We were in one of the spirit chambers and I finished a third beast with a stone spike.
"When did you get so strong?" Nasse wondered.
It wasn't me, it was the human. Even though he only walked with us, behind his freckles that teenager provided more than enough potency to level the whole place.
"There!" He triumphed while pointing the wall.
It looked like a normal wall but I quickly realized what the human had found.
It was a lock. The whole wall was made of a metal that could only be damaged by high-magic attacks. A threshold that would have been impossible to reach for the depleted realm, not without a human nearby.
Now, I could probably break the whole thing by just tickling it.
"Let's not touch it." I warned. "This anchors the chains that hold the human's refuge to this realm."
"Yeah, I know!" He shot back. "It says the chain is attached to a star! So... where is the chain?"
"In short, you are bathing in it."
There was a whole lot to it than that. Beginning with how the realm did not have enough magic to materialize those chains to begin with. So once more humans had used a series of tricks and all this wall really protected were the glyphs.
But yes. To tie a star, one needed a pretty big chain. Each link was probably bigger than a racetrack.
"Well, whatever, I got my points! We can go now!"
"Not yet."
We were near enough that I wanted to take that detour. I brought them along in the hallways and followed the old inscriptions on the walls, patterns that stretched and glowed faintly.
And sure enough, here was a caparace.
The insect was busy rejecting mana by shaking his chitin shell. Beyond him was a room with pillars around which floated the stelae. The fortress' records.
We said: The walls are breached. Monsters are entering. The fortress said: My fort is intact. I can still fight.
We said: Monsters are in the fort. No armor is left. The fortress said: I can use the monsters to fight monsters. I will continue.
How the fortress predictably fell was of no interest. Although having it adapt was a bit surprising but, given it was crafted by humans, what else should have I expected?
No, what I wanted to know was why, with the surge of magic, it had reactivated.
We said: Monsters roam free. All chambers are compromised. The fortress said: I can still attract more. The cities will be safe.
We said: there are no city left. Mana has dried out. Everyone is dead. The fortress said: nothing.
According to the records, it had kept fighting years after the complete collapse of civilization. It had kept killing the monsters that spawned in its midst. Used monsters to kill monsters. Absorbed their mana to keep going.
We said: Lay down your arms. You have done enough. The fortress said: nothing.
Because the fortress was gone. Everyone is gone. No one told me to stop. I fell more a decade ago.
And when that proved not enough, it cannibalized itself. All just to kill one more vermin in its entrails. A perfect killer to the bitter end.
Tell me to stop. I want to stop. I want to stop. I want to stop.
Beyond death we serve.
"You can stop now." The human said at my side.
I noted: "It's just records from long ago. We can go back."
And I stood there, immobile.
Yes, the records had veered off at the end. Given the mana loss, it was easy to understand. And since the fortress had fed on monsters for a while, it had probably grown its own heart at a point. So, all of this was natural.
So I could go at any time, now.
Instead of touching a random pillar with my hand.
Instead of putting my mask against said pillar.
The mocking voice of a wyvern echoed in the hallways: "You can come out. This derelict has gone silent."
"See?" The human smiled. "It can hear us!"
"It really can't."
With all inscriptions faded - safe those holding the chains - and even any monster heart gone, all that remained had been a memory, a trace. One could say, the last spasms of a giant.
"Why did no one come back?"
My voice had started to tremble.
"Everyone fought so hard, so why have the humans not come back? They were waiting in death..."
"Look," the teenager seemed embarrassed, "all I can tell you is, no one where I come from is even aware of your world."
How rich. We could now rest knowing our masters had forgot and moved on.
And if that was true, then the humans' will was to not disturb the realm. To leave it to its fate. To follow my duty, as a loyal servant, I was to never alter the balance.
So, Veleter was my enemy?
Or were the only humans who still remembered us, who still cared about us, the ones coming here, the ones answering our plea? Was that what it was? Wouldn't it mean, then, that we only served them?
Could I kill them all now?!
"We should leave him be." The magnal offered.
I had rarely heard Nasse so troubled. But then again, I could barely sense him at all.
So, rather than just let myself drop on the ground, I staggered to a wall, picked a sharp rubble and bought into an old habit of mine.
To save the realm means to change the balance. We can't end the mana drain but we can raise the amount of magic left. If true, then there is a golden hour, a point at which the amount is just enough for the haven to appear, but not enough for it to open.
In that golden hour, humanity will be defenseless.