Spellheart 9: Chapter 46 (Patreon)

I ended up getting a lot of use out of the Simulation Chamber. With Dean in my party, we were able to set another new high score, and the event grew increasingly popular for our attendance. The Simulation Chamber battles were already a sport that fascinated the Hearthwood, but our fights seemed even more packed than usual.

Afterward, I heard rumors that a few important Wizards from across the capital had arrived in the Hearthwood in a hurry to catch the tail end of that show. Watching people as powerful as the two of us fight could be very useful for their own cultivation efforts.

I was happy someone was having fun, since the reason I was using it so much was because I kept going for interviews with my evil twin and needed a way to work out my frustrations afterward.

He was enjoying my Personal Chambers a bit too much for my liking. He’d gotten good use out of the showers, and despite being a fusion of golem and robot, he spent every night relaxing on my soft, cushy bed.

I even caught him making himself a coffee with my coffee machine once! Why does a magical robot need coffee? He couldn't even drink it. He just sat at my desk staring at it.

“I should have locked him in the Cultivation Chamber...” I grumbled to myself. I’d been using the Cultivation Chamber myself for my daily rounds of Dual Cultivation with my matriarchs. Mac had thankfully moved all our stuff over as soon as I mentioned using the Personal Chambers to contain my evil twin.

The way the Cultivation Chamber contained zeal meant we could use other forms of cultivation as well at the same time, but I missed having a shower in the same room. Maybe the Cultivation Chamber would get a shower after a few more upgrades.

I met up with Dean for one more meeting. Try as we might, we had trouble getting much out of my evil twin. He had an infuriating habit of turning our interrogations on their head. We ended up answering about as many questions as we got out of him.

“Ready for our daily chat with your new twin brother?” Dean waved to me, running his hand through his hair to straighten it as he held back a yawn.

“He’s not my brother. He’s an evil energy clone focused on vengeance and locked into the same mindset I held when he was created. He’s permanently paranoid and sees threats from all sides.”

Dean shrugged. “But he plays a mean game of chess. Very aggressive. That bishop and queen opening right from the start got me three times!”

I shook my head. My evil twin did have a certain ruthlessness to him. I was more of a defensive player myself, but he attacked immediately and without the slightest bit of hesitation. I would like to think that the overly aggressive style left him vulnerable to attacks, and truthfully, it did. But those openings didn’t matter when his attacks were so brutal that I couldn’t spare the resources to exploit them.

“Mac, open it up,” I said as we reached the Personal Chambers. The room reconnected with the rest of The Wanderer, and Dean and I walked in.

My doppelganger sat in my office chair, eyes closed and concentrated. I could tell he was circulating zeal through his body, cultivating even now. Looking at him, I got the impression he’d been sitting in that same position unmoving for hours on end.

I grimaced. The only kind of cultivation I found myself doing for hours on end these days was dual cultivation. Had I lost the patience for it? Had my evil twin taken it with him when he stole a chunk of my soul and became an independent entity? I didn’t like that line of thought.

“Must be getting lonely in here,” Dean said.

My doppelganger cracked open an eye. “I am used to it.”

I crossed my arms in front of me. “I suppose you would be.”

“The offer’s still open on those thousand lovers...” Dean waggled his eyebrows. “Remember, you’re entitled to as least that much as a Demigod prisoner who’s behaving well.”

My doppelganger shook his head. “No. I have no interest in that.”

“Wait, really? No interest in a beautiful, warm, and loving women doting on you?” Dean pressed, surprise painting his face. “It doesn’t have to be an elf. We can get you catgirls, orc women, goblin girls, or heck, even a dwarf if that’s what you’re into.”

“No. Begin your questions. Or we could play another game of chess.” My doppelganger stared the two of us down.

I uncrossed my arms. “Wait, you’re serious? You have no interest in anyone?”

“As you have said, I am a robot and a golem. I lack the tools or the inclinations for such things.” My doppelganger folded his hands in his lap.

Dean and I looked at one another in horror.

“Wait, let me get this straight. You have no interest in women at all?” Dean asked, eyes wide and practically pleading.

“No. Now, these are not the questions you came to interrogate me for. Ask your real questions,” my doppelganger said.

I waved my hands. “Wait... wait, so your desire to protect the people of the Hearthwood was...?”

“Strictly platonic. Now, please return to the interrogation. You are getting off topic.” My doppelganger demanded.

Dean and I fled the room and slammed it shut behind us.

“Sorry, Theo. There are limits to how much I can take.” Dean panted.

I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe we should let him simmer for a few weeks. I’m not sure I can handle another interrogation like that.”

“Agreed.”

***

The next two weeks saw me returning to my usual routine. I rotated through my matriarchs every night, doing a little dual cultivation with each of them. Amisra came to visit the Hearthwood as well and was serving as my eyes and ears in the capital. I wanted to know if Tivana’s mother, the Queen, had any plans for me. I wanted to reach the Demigod realm before she decided to check and see how many grandkids I’d pumped into Tivana.

She’d been quite eager for at least a hundred the last time I’d spoken with her, but so far, Tivana was still strictly focused on cultivation. I think the two of us had quietly come to the same conclusion.

It would be best to reach Demigod before she showed up if we didn’t want her to invite herself into the Cultivation Chamber to make sure I was sleeping with her daughter properly. That seemed like the kind of thing she would use her royal authority for. Given her father, Dean, was staying in the Hearthwood, that would be extremely awkward.

It was tough enough being in a relationship with his granddaughter under his nose, though I half feared the only reason he hadn’t come to me about that was because he was consciously choosing not to connect the dots.

But I ended up having to return to the capital far sooner than I thought.

A knock on my door roused me from my thoughts as I sat in my study, managing my schedule of kids to meet for the day. I’d just finished meeting three of my daughters who’d chosen to combine their time to get a little more of it. We ended up gardening, and I showed them all around what was left of the Sacred Grove.

I was trying to figure out what I’d do for my next meeting when Dean burst into the room.

“Woah, Dean! You can’t be opening doors like that in my Castle. Ask Mac if I’m... uh... busy... before you open them.” I set my pen and paper aside as I rose to greet my friend. Only then did I see the anxious look on his face. He was nervous about something.

“No time!” Dean said. “Look, Theo, I’ve got to go! The capital is under attack, and I can’t figure out how to operate your teleporter!”

I jumped to my feet. “Lead the way!”

The Teleportation Array I used was special, more so than what Dean was used to. The ones the elves designed were simpler and less reliable. Apparently, they also carried a risk of teleportation accidents, which could split a person in two. That was the source of most people’s evil clones, including the one Dean spoke of that turned against him.

Since I already had one evil clone and no wish for a second, I was happy The Wanderer had provided an alternative. Its Teleportation Array was much more reliable.

But the cost of that reliability was the fact that it ran off the energy provided by The Wanderer instead of regular zeal like Dean was probably used to. That was likely what had given Dean trouble. Prior to this, Mac had always done it for him.

“Mac, tell everyone I’m going to the capital. Get a team of aid workers ready. There’s going to be wounded. I want Melise and the other healers ready to help. Get some Earth cultivators ready, too. I expect we’ll have to stabilize some falling structures.”

[Ah. So that’s why your friend was kicking down every door he could find at hypersonic speeds.]

Soon, the two of us were at the Teleportation Array, and a command later, we were speeding on our way to the capital.

***

The capital of Deania was still packed. Now that orcs were no longer roaming the countryside, and after an evil witch from another world tried to turn everyone into vampires, I’d have thought people would be looking for somewhere else to live.

But apparently not. Any reduction in the price of real estate due to a nigh-apocalyptic invasion was soon undone, and the city was as packed as ever.

The homeless population living in the city’s slums was as large as it was when the city was under siege, and the wealthier shops lining the floating mountains looked busy and full.

But Dean’s gaze was focused elsewhere. He pointed, and soon, I saw what the problem was. The Planetary Defense Array had targeted the capital.

“Theo.” Dean pointed to the sky. Raining down like ants pouring from a disturbed anthill were golems. Hundreds of thousands of golems.

Worse, these were not run-of-the-mill golems like the kind shops in Deania might sell. They weren’t even the rare and technologically advanced golems we produced in the Hearthwood.

These were golems crafted by the Planetary Defense Array itself, manufactured by unknown means for one purpose. They were here to secure more souls to continue powering itself.

The Planetary Defense Array must have decided the capital was a good place to harvest more souls. Either that or this was the same sort of fate-altering scheme that had sent the dragons our way months back.

I spotted several distinct kinds of golems in the air above us. The most common were shaped like giant birds of prey. They dive-bombed the city, talons releasing blasts of energy strong enough to pierce the flesh of an ordinary elf or mage acolyte.

When they struck, they cut right through flesh and bone and carried the struggling and dying elf up to one of the nearby mountains. There, they’d finish her off and scarf down her wisp for transportation back to the Planetary Defense Array’s main complex.

Other, larger golems struck the ground like meteors. They emanated strength similar to that of powerful True Mages. They were made from four rugged stone and metal limbs and crawled along the ground in forms akin to turtles. They roamed the streets with turrets lining their armored backs and shooting at anything that moved. As I watched, dozens of mage acolytes fell victim to them, making their wisps easy pickings for the bird-type golems.

From these larger turtle-like golems, I spotted more sparkling golem cores emerging. They seemed to have no bodies, and yet they floated away anyway.

It was only then I realized the creative trick being played by the Planetary Defense Array. These giant turtle golems were just vehicles to deliver its army, which would use whatever it found on the ground to assemble itself and enter combat.

Some of the cores surrounded themselves with bursts of wind and became wind golems. Others cloaked themselves in sparkling bursts of electricity. Still, more claimed the blood of elves who’d already died in the initial attack.

Their numbers were only growing, and soon, they’d be overrunning the city unless the various wizards dealt with them quickly.

But the wizards would have greater problems. The fiercest of all the assailants the Planetary Defense Array had sent our way were the humanoid golems. These behemoths stood nearly as tall as the model Argona and I had taken control of in the Hearthwood and roughly as strong.

Most were a head shorter than the ones we’d taken control of and were only at the wizard realm, but a few stood even taller than mine and were large enough to grab the floating mountains and hold them in place.

That was probably what was preventing the queen from smashing those mountains down on top of these invaders like Tivana had when faced with the last army that assaulted the city. Worse, they were shaking the mountains back and forth like overgrown children trying to shake candy out of a container.

Elves were falling from the mountains. No small number of people must have thought the mountains were safe from those big golems roaming the city streets on the ground and had thought to take cover in the air.

That was clearly a mistake, since now people were spilling onto the ground in large numbers. They toppled from their homes and businesses and were either caught by the bird-like golems swooping through the air to catch them or splattered on the ground below. There, their helpless wisps would meet the same feet as those caught in the air.

“Let’s take out those two!” Dean shouted. “I’ll grab the left. You take the right.”

“Got it!” The two of us shot toward our intended targets at high speed.

Dean hit the golem he was targeting with the force of a meteor. He punched a hole the size of his body clean through the thing and popped out the other side.

“Hey there, big guy! Pick on somebody your own size!” Dean shouted at the golem that was many, many times larger than him.

He shot through the golem several more times as I watched, poking more holes but not slowing it down in the least.

Seeing his lack of progress, I opted for a different strategy. I activated Might of a Giant and grew myself to enormous proportions. Within seconds, I could match the giant golem for height. Then I grabbed my target under the arms and suplexed him, driving his golem head straight into the ground.

“I’ve had enough of evil golems lately!” I grunted as I bent straight and jumped on top of the prone golem before it could get up. I planned to rip this thing limb from limb.

We finished off the two massive golems we were fighting soon enough, but one question still burned in my mind.

“What are Sam and your daughter doing?” I called to Dean, who was in the middle of jumping up and down on his golem’s face.

The city already had two Demigods. They should have taken care of all these big golems if this was all the Planetary Defense Array had brought to bear.

Dean pointed up. “Trying not to get harvested themselves.”

There, I saw the biggest and most ferocious golem I’d seen yet.

I stared at it, though the more I stared, the less I saw. It shifted and squirmed like it was only partially in this dimension and that whatever its true form was, it was located elsewhere. To me, it just looked like an eldrich horror of squirming appendages, with only a few parts of its body resolved enough to see clearly.

Its form was an amalgamation of high-grade ancient magitech and raw zeal. Every inch of it was covered in ancient runes that might have once meant something to the elves of this world, but whose meaning had since been lost to time.

It had a set of four enormous wings, more akin to sails than anything biological. They didn’t seem to be active, though. Instead, the enormous golem was supported by six spider-like mechanical legs. Each leg was as large as a skyscraper and should have been firmly planted into the ground around the city.

But like the rest of the bizarre contraption, the legs vanished roughly a kilometer away from the enormous golem’s body, like distant trees shrouded by clouds. They probably were anchored to the ground, just in a spatial dimension beyond my perception.

Up in the sky, I could see two figures fighting against the many tentacles that sprouted from the main bulk of the enormous golem. That had to be Sam and the queen.

“Should we rush up there and help them?” I asked Dean.

Dean shook his head. “They can handle themselves. They’re not trying to destroy the thing. Just keep it busy. They need us to drive off the rest of these big guys before they eat our city.”

Dean jerked a thumb behind him to the rest of the enormous golems rampaging throughout the capital.

“Got it. We clear the big guys up, and that frees the Wizards up to fight the turtle things. Then we can help with the big fight.” I nodded and rushed off after my next target. Dean peeled off and headed in the opposite direction.


<Note>

Should I make a table of contents for this book? I feel like a lot of people are having trouble digging up the first chapters because they were written alongside Paladin 4 and Amazon Apocalypse. I'm not sure how tough it is to track down all the chapters for you guys right now. Hard? Annoying? Okay?