Bone Golem

My batch of goblin newborns had been born and I'd started another by the time Euri and Angie got to the guard. Nothing much happened, apart from Euri teaching me many more expletives and other means of verbally expressing rage and ill-concealed fear. I was now completely sure that my Creator was a necromancer. I was also sure that necromancers were not widely accepted as a real form of magic user. Unlike other users, necromancers didn't hold the advance of their own circuit as the highest principle. I would have thought constructs to be the utter pinnacle of convenience, but apparently humans disagreed.

It made a kind of sense after I thought about it for a while. Most of the humans I'd encountered weren't magically literate, if that's what you'd call my Creator, and had no ability to manipulate circuits. Given that, the only one in control of the golems would be the necromancer itself. From what I gathered, a feeling of weakness was one humans hated more than almost any other. Having a creature capable of crushing you doing your chores wouldn't be convenient or pleasurable but terrifying instead. Most that used circuits could easily kill the average citizens easily, but it wasn't as blatant a reminder as golems being used properly would be.

The streets started to empty when they left the adventurers' guild and had completely cleared by the time they reached the guard station. I wasn't sure why the guard station would be so far away from the adventurers' guild if both were military installations, but expecting humans to make sense wasn't entirely reasonable.

Almost nobody was outside anymore, though there were various whispers from corners and alleys. Some tainted with l.u.s.t, others with greed or hatred. The reduction of population made the mana much easier to read and control, but it also meant I had less subjects to learn language and context from. On the plus side, the language and context usage was quite different than it had been before. Now that I understood the cycle of days it was probably night. Unlike my preconception, night was totally dark except for a sliver of the sun where it always was. From some fearful whispers, that only made it worse as it felt like a lie that a perfect light source could still be visible but provide no illumination.

From other whispers, and Angie's confidence while walking, it was easy to assume that though the sun no longer shone, it wasn't dark in the city yet. Whatever source of light wasn't local to the street they were walking, so I wasn't sure about the source but it was clear there was light of some kind. I could have used a scry, but I was much more wary of Euri's ability to detect my circuits than Angie. Especially now that there were fewer distractions.

After crossing the whole city, Euri slammed on a door repeatedly for long enough for Angie to start shifting uncomfortably before it was opened by a man with pure wrath coloring his will. He was more radiant than Angie, but less than Euri. "Spawn take you if this isn't important!" I felt a circuit being built within one of his fists. It was quite an interesting circuit, too. I studied it carefully before deciding to incorporate it into the next batch of ogres. It was a skin-based augmentation and the ogres had mere hardness enhancements. This circuit was also a first composite, making it much more valuable as research. If it worked as I thought it would, the result would be much more deadly than normal ogres…assuming they didn't explode or mysteriously die. Maybe only half of the new batch. Limited to their hands and feet…that should be safe.

It was interesting, the ways these humans had learned to hide their mana leakage. The wrathful man chose to build the circuit in his hand, blocking the glow from escaping while Euri hid her power under a layer of skin that was purposefully allowed to rot into a buffer. Such means of hiding didn't work on me, nor did it seem to work on them. Euri's attention was grabbed by the hand and the wrathful man calmed down when he saw Euri. As soon as they noticed, a tinge of respect shot through both of them. Angie seemed oblivious. Was it a measure to recognize each other in relation to the common population? Wasn't magic a common practice? With the right education, anyone could be as capable as my Creator. Keeping it a limited resource didn't make sense.

"Girl saw a necromancer's c.u.m golem. Bastard has at least eleven female ogres. She only saw the edge of the camp before she got noticed. Best case scenario, all they've got is the eleven. Worse case, hundreds. Must have been building this horde for a long time." Wrath's will went still, fear and panic warring with determination and control openly in his will. Apparently he used a different method than Euri, as neither of the women noticed a change. Euri got impatient as a result, Angie felt a tinge of relief creeping in. Clearly he schooled his face better than Euri did. "Can't be one necromancer, can it? I mean…a dozen ogres is more than any necromancer I ever heard of. How would they even control that many?" Euri was starting to panic. "Maybe some idiot necromancer taught a demon…or something worse."

Wrath noticed the growing panic in Euri's voice and his determination won out. Well, well, what discipline. I had to admire that, if not the cracked circuit in his hand that had ruptured due to excess mana causing his hand to start bleeding. "Don't worry. We'll hold out so long as they don't come here before we can marshal the guard and call back your compatriots. I'll call for more reinforcements. All we need to do is hold out for a week at most. We can hold out a week against ogres. If not…maybe the wizards will help?" He turned to Angie. "Did you aggravate them? Did you notice anything to suggest they were heading here? Did you notice goblin scouting parties before seeing the ogres? What about goblin activity in the area, any abnormalities recently?"

What a smart man. Looking for clues Angie didn't think to question. Or maybe she had. "No abnormal goblin activity, scouting parties or otherwise…but it was quiet. Too quiet. We'd usually meet more creatures with how deep we went. That was weird about the encampment too, it was hidden. No ripples, no pressure, no nothing. I thought it was an illusion. Master said the scry was perfect. Master said even illusions couldn't hide their formation lines! Master is a class three mage! A fourth tier class three mage!" that relief was gone again. Euri had been comforted by Wrath's calm demeanor, but now Angie was panicking. Her panic was much less restrained, though. Her scream drew another person to the door, this one far brighter than Euri.

I drew myself right against Angie's clothes and pooled on the ground, making myself as hard to notice as possible. This one had enough of a ripple that she could probably feel the distortions in her ripple. If she didn't, that would leave her even more incompetent than I thought humans to be. The constant wind helped me hide, making the slightest distortion around the edges of objects less noticeable than they otherwise would be. Unless she was even less competent than I feared and any hiding was more than was necessary. Honestly, it was pretty likely. I wouldn't risk discovery on likelihood I didn't understand, though. Not unless there was an aspect of perfection at stake.

"They're just ogres, right? What's got you so worried, adventurer? Even necromancers can't give ogres the strength to break the walls. Doesn't matter how many there are." Strangely, the common respect Euri and Wrath had for each other didn't seem to include this person. Perhaps because they sought to hide their power while this one flaunted it. "A veteran should have more class than to rush here in a panic for mere ogres. Truly, has the guild fallen so far that you can't even dispatch some measly, mindless, overgrown goblins?"

Euri's fear was utterly eradicated by the rage that filled her will. Was this going to get interesting? I hoped so. I wanted to see more of the humans and their circuits. I was very good at what I'd learned to do, but they'd had much longer to think about it. "With respect, breaking the walls isn't what worries me. They don't need to knock the walls over to eat us, Lady Grace."

Lady Grace scoffed, her contempt coloring the air. She didn't even try to hide anything. What a blatant person. Utterly the opposite of my skulking self. That I couldn't be as arrogant irritated me a bit. "What's to fear? They're big, but our walls are bigger." Not entirely true. While the walls were significantly taller than the ogres, that didn't mean my worshippers were smaller than the walls. The few that had started advancing into the third composite were already as tall as the walls. They'd completed maybe half of the first part of the third composite, so they probably weren't done growing yet. "You're far too old to be trembling like a girl. Prepare the guild for war. If they don't come to us, we'll go to them once we get reinforced. It seems a simple issue, does it not?" She turned and left, leaving a dense air of condescension and disdain.

Nobody else said anything until they were all sure she was good and truly gone. "If she wasn't a farmer, I'd tear her smug lips off that smug face so hard her scalp followed!" Euri snarled under her breath. Her hatred was so deep it was hard to believe it wasn't personal. Grace hadn't known Euri, but maybe Euri knew Grace? "Spawn should expunge such a stain on humanity."

Wrath's will showed only amus.e.m.e.nt, but the hefty slap he delivered to Euri didn't agree. Shock and anger colored her will in response. "I may hate her, but you can't just utter treason in front of a guard, Euri." He shrugged, not an ounce of apology coloring his will. Maybe he didn't hate Grace as much as he claimed, or he just really wanted to slap Euri. I hadn't been planning on attacking the city…but I kind of wanted to see their reactions when my gargantuan worshippers knocked over the walls they held so much faith in. There were also the many circuits I could learn in a pitched battle against my worshippers. I also wanted to test how far Wrath's devotion to his job went. There was always the threat of my ogre forces dying…but I didn't have to commit all of them to get the reaction I wanted.