Chapter : 1385

  The chest vents were open.

  Mina stood up. She balanced on the swaying stone. She wound up her arm. She wasn't a pitcher. She wasn't an athlete. But she was desperate.

  "For the future," she whispered.

  She threw the jar with everything she had.

  It sailed through the air, a humble clay pot against a god of metal. It spun end over end.

  It hit the edge of the central intake vent.

  Smash.

  The jar broke. A cloud of fine, grey dust puffed out.

  For a second, nothing happened. The Golem kept moving. Mina's heart stopped. Did she miss? Was the powder useless?

  Then, the intake fans sucked the dust inside.

  The Golem froze mid-swing.

  A terrible, grinding noise erupted from deep within its chest. The purple light flickered. It turned red. Then white. Then... nothing.

  The humming of the quartz stopped. The song of the earth was silenced.

  The Golem took one stumbling step back. Its arms dropped to its sides. The light in its eyes died.

  It tilted, groaning under its own immense weight.

  "Timber!" Lloyd shouted from somewhere above.

  The God-King fell. It crashed into the fortress with an earth-shattering boom that knocked Mina off her feet. Dust billowed up, covering everything.

  Silence fell over Ramos.

  Mina lay on the rubble, coughing. She looked up. The Golem was down. It was dark. It was dead.

  She started to laugh. It was a weak, shaky sound. She had done it. The librarian had silenced the story.

  "We did it," she whispered.

  But as the dust settled, she didn't see Lloyd celebrating. She saw him landing on the chest of the fallen giant, walking towards something. He wasn't cheering. He was staring.

  And the look on his face wasn't victory. It was pure, frozen horror.

  The dust cloud was thick, tasting of copper and pulverized stone. Lloyd landed on the chest of the fallen Golem. His boots rang against the cooling metal. He was exhausted. His muscles twitched from the aftershocks of the Demon Gates. His mana was dry. But he was alive.

  "Good throw, Librarian," he wheezed, giving a thumbs up to the distant figure of Mina on the rubble pile. "Remind me to never get in a snowball fight with you."

  He walked across the vast landscape of the Golem's chest plates. The machine was massive. It was a city block of engineering. Now that it wasn't trying to squash him, he could appreciate the craftsmanship. It was ancient, yes, but Wilfred had modified it. He had added new armor plates. New weapons.

  "Wilfred didn't design this," Lloyd thought, looking at the seamless welds on the newer sections. "He's a miner, not an engineer. He didn't have the skill to integrate the quartz drive this perfectly. Someone helped him. Someone gave him the upgrades."

  He reached the central cockpit hatch. It was sealed shut. Wilfred was likely inside, trapped in his own tin can. Lloyd considered knocking, but he was too tired for banter.

  He looked around the chest area. He wanted to see the modification. He wanted to see the signature of the engineer who had helped turn a relic into a modern weapon. Every engineer left a mark. A signature.

  He wiped a layer of soot from a smooth, hexagonal plate near the neck joint. It looked like a maintenance panel.

  Under the grime, there was an engraving. It wasn't an ancient rune. It wasn't the crest of House Wilfred. It wasn't even a magical symbol.

  It was a logo.

  A stylized, geometric insect with glowing wings. A firefly.

  Lloyd stopped. His breath hitched in his throat. The world seemed to tilt on its axis. The sounds of the dying fires and the shouting soldiers faded away. All he could hear was the rushing of blood in his ears.

  He knew that symbol. He knew it better than his own face.

  He reached out, his hand trembling uncontrollably. He traced the lines of the logo. It was precise. Machine-tooled. It didn't belong in this world of swords and magic. It belonged to a world of neon lights, corporate wars, and cold steel.

  "No," Lloyd whispered. "That's impossible."

  Memories crashed into him. Memories of his past life as KM Evan. Not the glory days. The dark days.

  The Firefly Corporation.

  They were a megacorp from Earth. A weapons manufacturer. They were ruthless. They were efficient. They were the ones who had started the wars he fought in. They were the ones who had sold weapons to both sides. They were the architects of half the misery in his old life.

  Chapter : 1386

  They were his greatest enemy. And they were supposed to be dead. Left behind in another universe.

  "How?" Lloyd croaked. "How is this here?"

  He stared at the mark. It wasn't a coincidence. It was the exact logo. The same angles. The same arrogant design.

  "Wilfred didn't find ancient blueprints," Lloyd realized, his mind racing with horrifying clarity. "He found them. Or they found him."

  This wasn't just a local lord getting ambitious. This wasn't just a magical threat. This was corporate expansion. Firefly was here. In this world.

  And if Firefly was here... that meant they had brought their technology. Their knowledge. Their lack of morality.

  "The quartz," Lloyd muttered. "The draining tech. That's not just magic. That's bio-harvesting. That's Firefly tech adapted to magic."

  He felt a wave of nausea. He thought he was fighting a fantasy war. He thought he was the only one with advanced knowledge. He thought he was special.

  He was wrong.

  He wasn't the only one who had crossed over. Or maybe... maybe Firefly had found a way to open a door.

  "The counterfeit soap," Lloyd thought. "The efficient mining. The sudden leap in technology."

  It all made sense. A terrifying, sickening sense.

  "Lloyd!" Mina's voice called out from below. She was climbing up the Golem's side. "Are you okay? You're staring at the metal."

  Lloyd didn't answer. He couldn't take his eyes off the mark. It stared back at him, a small, silent symbol that changed everything.

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  The dust from the collapsed fortress walls hung in the air like a thick, grey fog. The massive Golem, the God-King that had threatened to stomp Lloyd into a fine paste just moments ago, was now a silent mountain of cooling metal and stone. Lloyd stood on its chest, staring at the Firefly logo. His heart was hammering against his ribs, not from the physical exertion of opening the Demon Gates, but from the sheer, cold terror of what that symbol represented.

  "They are here," Lloyd whispered to himself. "The ghosts aren't just in my head anymore. They have branding."

  He expected the machine to be fully dead. The Anti-Aethel Quartz powder Mina had thrown was a spiritual poison. It should have severed the connection between the quartz and the ether, turning the Golem back into a very expensive statue. And for the most part, it had. The purple lights were gone. The hum of the engine was silent.

  But then, a sound cut through the silence. It wasn't the grinding of gears or the hiss of steam. It was a voice.

  "I am... sorry."

  Lloyd jumped back, his hand instinctively going to the hilt of his sword. He looked around. There was no one on the chest plate but him. Mina was still climbing up the side.

  "Who said that?" Lloyd demanded. "If you are a ghost, I am very tired. Please make an appointment for next week."

  "I never wanted... this," the voice came again. It was soft. It was weak. And it was terrifyingly human. It sounded like a young woman, her voice heavy with a sadness that felt older than the stone she was made of.

  The sound was coming from beneath his feet. From inside the machine.

  Lloyd knelt down, pressing his ear against the cold metal near the cockpit hatch. "Hello? Is someone in there? Wilfred, if you are doing a funny voice to avoid getting punched, it isn't going to work."

  "Father's creation..." the voice whispered. It was fading, like a radio signal losing power. "He made me to live... not to destroy. I am sorry for the pain. I am sorry for the noise."

  Lloyd froze. The pieces of the puzzle, which had been floating around in his head like a chaotic storm, suddenly clicked into place with a deafening snap.

  Elder Corin had said Anubis wasn't trying to build a weapon. He was trying to save his daughter. He was trying to transfer her consciousness into a perfect vessel so she wouldn't die.

  "You're her," Lloyd whispered, his eyes widening. "You aren't a computer. You aren't an AI. You're her."

  The Golem wasn't just a machine piloted by a madman. The Golem was the daughter. Or at least, the Golem Heart was holding her soul. Wilfred hadn't just stolen an engine; he had kidnapped a person. He had forced a sleeping girl to wake up and become a tank.

  "Pain..." the voice drifted out, weaker now. "So much pain. Please... let me sleep. The dreams were better."

  Chapter : 1387

  Lloyd felt a lump form in his throat. He had fought monsters. He had fought assassins. He had fought demons. He knew how to deal with enemies who wanted to kill him. He didn't know how to deal with a giant metal girl apologizing for almost stepping on him.

  "Sleep," Lloyd said softly, patting the metal hull. "It's okay now. The bad man can't make you walk anymore. You can sleep."

  "Father..." the voice sighed. "I miss... the garden."

  And then, there was a final, deep vibration that shuddered through the massive frame. It felt like a sigh. The last residual energy in the quartz lines faded completely. The Golem didn't just stop moving; it vacated. The presence, the soul that Lloyd hadn't even realized was there until this moment, was gone.

  Lloyd sat back on his heels. He stared at the Firefly logo again. The contrast made him sick. On one side, a father's desperate love trying to save his child. On the other, a ruthless corporation from another world turning that love into a weapon of mass destruction.

  "Firefly," Lloyd hissed. "You guys really know how to ruin everything. You take a tragedy and turn it into a product."

  He felt a profound sense of exhaustion. Not just physical, but spiritual. He had won. The threat was neutralized. Ramos was safe. But it didn't feel like a victory. It felt like he had just witnessed a funeral.

  He looked down at the hatch. He knew Wilfred was probably inside, either dead from the backlash or hiding. But Lloyd couldn't bring himself to open it yet. He didn't want to see the man who had enslaved a ghost.

  "Rest in peace, kid," Lloyd whispered to the machine. "I promise, no one is going to wake you up again."

  He stood up, wiping the grit from his face. He needed to get the Heart. Not to use it for his suit. Not anymore. He couldn't put a person in his suit. That was gross. And wrong. He needed to get the Heart to protect it. To make sure Firefly never got their hands on it again.

  "Lloyd!"

  He turned. Mina’s head popped up over the edge of the chest plate. She was covered in soot, her hair was a disaster, and she had a smear of grease across her nose. She looked absolutely beautiful.

  "I'm here," Lloyd called out. "Welcome to the top of the world. The view is terrible, but the company is excellent."

  Mina scrambled up onto the flat surface of the chest plate. She was panting, her chest heaving from the climb. She looked around at the devastation, then at Lloyd.

  "Is it... over?" she asked.

  "It's over," Lloyd said. "The machine is dead. The pilot is... well, silent. And the ghost has left the building."

  "Ghost?" Mina frowned. "What ghost?"

  "I'll explain later," Lloyd said. "It's a long, sad story involving bad parenting and ancient magic. Right now, we have a job to do. We need to secure the package."

  Mina nodded. She pointed to the center of the chest, where the armor had been cracked by Lloyd's earlier attacks. "The Heart chamber. It should be under the primary plating. If Wilfred installed it according to Anubis's original designs, there should be a manual release mechanism."

  She walked over to the cracked crystal armor. It was slippery. The surface of the Golem was smooth metal, polished and cold, and now covered in a layer of the fine grey dust from the Anti-Aethel Quartz. It was like walking on a frozen lake covered in snow.

  "Be careful," Lloyd warned. "It's slicker than a politician's promise up here."

  "I am fine," Mina said, stepping carefully. "I am a field archaeologist. I have climbed ruins. I have navigated tombs. I am not a clumsy damsel."

  She reached the edge of the cracked armor. She leaned over, trying to see into the cavity where the Heart pulsed with a faint, dying light.

  "I see it!" she exclaimed. "It is huge. Much bigger than the drawings. If I can just reach the latches..."

  She leaned further. She stretched her arm out. She shifted her weight.

  Her boot hit a patch of the grey powder mixed with hydraulic fluid.

  Zip.

  There was no friction. One moment she was standing; the next, her feet were flying out from under her. She slid toward the edge of the chest plate, which dropped off fifty feet onto a pile of sharp rubble.

  "Whoa!" Mina yelped. It was not a dignified scholarly sound.

  Lloyd moved. He didn't think; he just reacted. He activated his [Steel Blood] to reinforce his legs for traction and lunged forward.

  Chapter : 1388

  He caught her wrist just as she went over the curve of the armor. He dug his heels in, sparks flying as his metal-soled boots scraped against the Golem's hull. He halted their slide a few feet from the drop.

  He pulled her up, hauling her back to the safe, flat center of the chest. She collided with him, clutching his jacket for balance.

  "I thought you were a mountain climber," Lloyd teased, holding her steady. His heart was racing, but he kept his voice light. "That was a very dramatic descent. Were you trying to test gravity? I can assure you, it still works."

  Mina was breathing hard, her face flushed. She looked up at him. She was safe. His arm was around her waist, solid and secure.

  "I slipped," she defended herself, though her voice was shaky. "It is... very slippery. It is an occupational hazard."

  "You are such a child when it comes to your hobby," Lloyd laughed softly. He brushed a bit of dust from her shoulder. "You see an old rock and you forget how to walk. You get so excited you try to dive headfirst into a robot."

  Mina straightened up, trying to regain her dignity. She smoothed her ruined dress. "I am not a child. I am a researcher. And this 'old rock' is the discovery of the century. Anyone would be excited."

  She looked at him, a small, playful smile touching her lips. "And besides... do you have the patience to handle such a child? A child who falls off robots and needs saving every five minutes?"

  Lloyd blinked. He looked at her. The sun was starting to rise behind her, framing her messy hair in a halo of gold. She wasn't asking about the mission. She wasn't asking about the Golem.

  She was asking about them.

  She was asking if he, a man with a complicated past, three potential wives, and a death sentence on his head, had the patience to deal with her. To deal with the scholar who got into trouble, the woman who challenged him, the partner who read history books while he sharpened swords.

  Lloyd felt a warmth spread through his chest that had nothing to do with magic.

  "Patience?" Lloyd repeated. He smiled, a genuine, crooked smile that reached his eyes. "Mina, I spent two weeks teaching goblins how to farm. I spent hours listening to noblewomen talk about drapes. I have infinite patience."

  He squeezed her hand gently. "Of course I have the patience for you. I think... I think handling you might be the only job I actually want."

  Mina's smile widened. Her eyes sparkled. "Good. Because I plan to find many more dangerous rocks. And I will need someone to catch me."

  "It's a deal," Lloyd said. "I catch. You study. And we try not to die."

  He let go of her waist, but he didn't let go of her hand. They stood there on top of the fallen god, surrounded by ruins, holding hands like two teenagers on a first date.

  "Now," Lloyd said, clearing his throat. "Let's get that Heart before the guards wake up and realize their boss is defeated. I really want to go home."

  "Yes," Mina agreed softly. "Let's go home."

  She turned back to the Heart chamber, moving much more carefully this time. Lloyd stayed right behind her, ready to catch her, ready to hold her, ready to be whatever she needed him to be. The war was far from over, but in that moment, on top of the metal mountain, Lloyd felt like he had already won the only prize that mattered.

  Getting down from the Golem was easier than falling off it, mostly because Lloyd used his chains to lower them safely. They retrieved the Golem Heart—a heavy, pulsing sphere of crystal and stone that felt warm to the touch—and wrapped it in Lloyd’s coat. Wilfred was nowhere to be found inside the cockpit. It was empty, save for an escape tunnel hatch that had been blown open. The coward had run.

  "He's gone," Lloyd noted, looking at the open hatch. "Ran away to fight another day. Or to complain to his corporate overlords."

  "We cannot chase him," Mina said. "We have the Heart. That is the priority."

  They left the fortress ruins behind, riding hard for the Whispering Crag. They needed answers. The Golem’s final words haunted Lloyd. He needed to know the full truth before he decided what to do with the artifact.