Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Finishing the letter, Evin pulled out the ketricite robe from his bag and silently walked through door. A tall, metallic golem, reminiscent of the Type 11 with its humanoid form and blue eyes, greeted Evin with a staticky voice.

"M-u-u-u-u-urderer… Mur-r-r-r-rderer…" 

It being able to talk was definitely a shock. 

"This can talk?"

"Mu-u-u-u-u-urderer…!" 

It could not speak without stuttering in a terribly artificial way, and so far, it only knew one word. Evin felt that he wouldn't be able to communicate with it so easily.

'But why does it keep calling me a murderer? Shit, does it know what happens on the Island… Or does it do the same for everyone else?'

"Murderers-s-s-s m-m-m-m-must di-i-i-ie!" saying so, the golem instantaneously created an array of icicles and sent them towards Evin. 

These were definitely much deadlier than the weak spells that the Type 14 sent him. 

Evin hurriedly put the robe in front of him, being careful not to touch the ketricite side. The icicles all disappeared like they never existed in the first place, not even pushing Evin back with the force of inertia they should've possessed. The robe really was a great boon, as Evin could use it as a shield with one hand, but still be able to use magic. 

The Voice then loaded a few metal bullets into its accelerator and sent it flying towards the Type 11's neck. A spark came from its side, and Evin saw a small part of the metal in its neck being chipped off. 

'The fight might end shortly, because its neck is much thinner than the rat-shaped golems.'

But the next time the Voice tried to attack the golem's neck, it became surrounded by a circle of rocks, which wasn't strong enough to stop the bullet, but was enough to weaken it. It led the rock circle around its neck to shatter, but it wasn't a problem for the golem, as it could almost instantly recreate it.

This little setback didn't discourage the Voice, leading it to shoot twice in close intervals, allowing the second bullet to deal some damage.

But the golem quickly dealt with the problem by having the rock circle revolve around its neck. This way, even if the Voice shot twice, the second shot would still hit rock. 

"M-m-m-m-m-murdere-e-e-er!" the golem was 

<Get close and try to have your robe touch swirl around its neck,> a tall order came from the Voice. <It's going to get you exposed to some attacks, but trust me to keep your body safe.>

Evin, of course, didn't want to get close to his enemies, especially not an adult sized fully metal golem, but he pushed down his fears and dashed in. The golem immediately began shooting icicles at him, but with the robe, Evin didn't have anything to fear. 

When he came close enough to the golem, he swung the robe at it, allowing it to brush against the rock circle around its neck. Immediately, its protection was reduced to nothing, but it was the same situation for Evin. His left side was completely exposed, and Evin could feel the golem sending a punch towards it.  It looked unblockable in Evin's eyes, so he even began to prepare for the inevitable pain. 

But a small body of mud materialized over Evin's left side rib the last moment and absorbed the punch's impact for Evin. The next instant, two loud bangs went off right over Evin's head, briefly stunning him.

By the time Evin got hold of himself, he noticed the golem's head rolling off on the floor next to him, sparks coming off from its neck. 

"Murdere-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e…" its voice stammered endlessly, before it died out with a small cracking sound. Evin then looked back at its body, and saw it toppling over to the side.

<The metal bullets sure hit hard when I shoot at it point blank,> the Voice's comments entered his head. <I guess taking risks pay off sometimes, eh? If I had to do it the safe way, the fight would take at least half an hour I reckon… hmm, too bad I can't move the accelerator too far away from me, since its design is so complicated to maintain.>

Evin looked at the wound on the golem's party and saw a huge crescent shaped indent right above its torso. The point-blank shot was so powerful it completely destroyed the golem's neck. A fistful of metal, just gone like that. 

Then, a tile in the room dropped, revealing wo pieces of paper inside it. One of them seemed to be one of Morton's notes, but it was much shorter than the previous ones.

[Morton Golem Type 11. 

I learned many things from creating this golem, but I also developed many questions as well. Why is the shape of a humanoid so important in casting magic? Why is a rat so adept at learning magic compared to a normal humanoid child? What really is the difference between a golem that can cast magic and a Tier-4 Mana-beast?

All very difficult problems, but I'm sure we'll find a way to overcome them. But I'm more worried about the questions that arose next.

Why did a rat-controlled golem begin to etch curses on the walls when it learned to cast magic? Why did it begin to speak when we gave it an artificial vocal cord? Why does it know things that a rat has no business knowing? Do all rats know these things, and just don't have the ability to express them? What the fuck is happening?]

Evin felt a chill as he read the last questions written on the paper. He sent a questioning tone towards the Voice, but the latter was equally baffled.

<Don't ask me.>

Evin then read the second paper, which turned out to be another letter from the king. 

[Congratulations once again. It truly heartens me to think that someone from the first years is reading this letter.

I won't waste your time and brief you on the Type 12. As for its technical specifications, it's not much different than the Type 11. It's made with the same materials and also has the same output of mana. Its shape is also practically the same as the previous one.

But I must inform you that the fight would be much more difficult than what you've just faced. The main reason being, is that this time, you will be fighting against a human piloting a golem. 

Do you know what the main thing that separates humanoids from animals? Their unparalleled ability to predict and adapt to situations on the go.

Good lucking fighting the Type 12. Don't die.]

The letter this time was also quite short.

<Hmm… I'm starting to think that this wasn't written by king Seth,> the Voice said at the end.

<Why?>

<The author of these letters doesn't feel like a ruler at all. It's too friendly and kind. It was fine in his 1st letter, but you can't deny that this one feels much friendlier… By that logic, I guess you could say that the king isn't meant to be a proper ruler?>

<Why would being friendly to his citizens be a bad thing?>

<It's good to keep up a friendly appearance, but a ruler can't look this… eager. The citizens should be trying to cater to the king, not the other way around. The way he proudly calls himself a servant of the people, I thought he was just being… I don't know, random, but from this letter, I can kind of feel that he's serious about the whole thing. The fact that he wrote this thing himself and also wants every research idea to pass through him also fortifies this idea.>

<And why is that a bad?>

<Kings like these tend to be pushovers. It's like parents being unable to properly teach their children about being independent. They always try to do everything for them, turning their kids into really unproductive people. Reason being that the kids grow up to become people who expect everything to be done for them.

If a king acts the same, then the kingdom's citizens will turn useless… And I'm fairly confident that the king's running around, trying to everything by himself. That's not a king's job. A king's job is to order his citizens to do things for him. What's the point of ruling a country if you're not gonna do anything with it? Think about it. Writing this letter was the job of some scribe, but now that the king himself has written it, the scribe has nothing to do, while the king needs to waste an hour of his day doing another person's job.>

Evin listened to its reasoning, and nodded slowly, feeling slightly nostalgic.

'The Voice is really becoming talkative lately. I think we've talked more than we did for weeks. Before that, it always loved to talk about random topics.'

<Ah, I'm getting off topic… Let's focus more on the fight ahead.>