Kanos’s breathing was still a chaotic mess. He sat cross legged on the stone library floor. His eyes locked straight onto the two meter tall stone monster in front of him. The golem was pitch black. A blackness that literally sucked the light around it until it hurt the eyes to stare too long. No face. No eyes. Just empty stone blocks connected by thick purple smoke from Kanos’s shadow ink.
"Move," Kanos ordered quietly. His voice was incredibly raspy.
The golem lifted its right leg. The sound of stone grinding against stone echoed heavily. The library floor vibrated when the block foot stepped on the tiles. The creature walked two steps forward, then stopped the exact second Kanos closed his left palm. No delay. No resistance. This creature was purely an extension of Kanos’s brain.
Sili backed up slowly until his back hit a bookshelf. The skinny guy hugged his leather bag tightly, his eyes bulging behind his cracked glasses. He had seen mutant monsters in the black market often, but this creature gave off a completely different aura. An aura of absolute nothingness. Sili even felt his breath catch just by standing too close to the golem.
"Boss," Sili called out shakily. "I know you are a genius. But taking this thing out of the safe zone is the same as lighting a firework right in the Sensor Bureau executioner’s face. The system will immediately trigger a red level alarm."
Kanos wiped the dried blood under his nose. He forced his legs to stand. Belida instantly grabbed his shoulder to keep him from swaying. Kanos’s muscles were completely stiff from creating that masterpiece just now.
"The system cannot read empty stone, Sili," Kanos walked slowly approaching his golem. He placed his palm on the creature’s stone chest. Incredibly cold. "Chitala already said it. This object does not exist in their world catalog. The system will only see it as empty air."
Chitala simply chuckled softly from his rocking chair. The old man packed fresh tobacco into his pipe. He did not look the least bit bothered that his secret room was just used to create a mass weapon of destruction.
"You need to be fast," Chitala lit his match. Thin smoke floated up. "The Sensor Bureau might not be able to see this room, but they have tracker hounds guarding every exit in the lower district. The moment you step through that illusion wall, you step back onto their chessboard."
Papuyu adjusted her gray cloak which was torn at the shoulder. The girl checked the remaining daggers on her waist, making sure everything was easy to draw. The burn mark on her shoulder was slightly better thanks to the potion she swallowed earlier, but her face remained pale.
"We exit through the northern sewage route," Papuyu said flatly. Her eyes glanced at Kanos. "I will walk in front. If there is a tracker hound, I will cut its throat first."
"No need." Kanos took a deep breath. His head was still throbbing, but he needed to know the absolute limit of his new weapon. "This time we take the lower district main route. Let them find us."
Belida immediately frowned. The giant knight pulled his black sword from his back. "Are you suicidal, Kanos? Your stamina has not even recovered enough to draw a single line of ink."
Kanos gave a faint smile. A smile with absolutely zero warmth. He turned his head toward the black golem next to him. "I am not drawing anything today, Belida. I am just going to watch."
Without waiting for anyone’s approval, Kanos walked past the bookshelves, heading straight for the solid stone wall that served as their illusion door earlier. The black golem followed behind him with footsteps that made the skin crawl. Papuyu stayed silent, then walked after Kanos. Belida let out a rough sigh before catching up, while Sili scrambled in the very back while continuously mumbling prayers.
The moment Kanos’s body phased through the illusion wall, the foul chemical stench from the toxic river immediately slammed into his nose again. Heavy rain and warning sirens from the upper city instantly shattered the silence. Kanos blinked. The blue interface panel suddenly popped up in front of his face again. His HP, Mana, and minimap turned back on. The Yomalvara system recognized Kanos’s presence once again.
[ WARNING! ANOMALY DETECTED IN SECTOR 4 ]
The red text flashed wildly at the edge of Kanos’s vision. He did not care. He chose to stand casually on the edge of the glowing green toxic river. Belida immediately took a defensive stance in front of Kanos, his eyes sweeping the dark alley across the river.
It did not take long. Two shadows dropped down from the roof of the old factory across from them. Thick gray cloaks. Silver helmets with the single eye logo. Sensor Bureau Executioners. They landed smoothly on top of a rusted iron pipe, completely unaffected by the heavy rain soaking their armor.
"Anomaly target confirmed," one of the executioners spoke. His voice was robotic, exactly like the one they killed in the warehouse earlier. "Initiating forced erasure protocol."
The executioner on the left raised his hand. Golden runes lit up brightly on his gauntlet. The air around them instantly distorted from the gathered magical heat. They were going to use an area attack to burn Kanos and his crew to ashes.
Belida was ready to jump and sever that executioner’s hand, but Kanos gripped the giant knight’s shoulder hard. Holding him back.
Kanos stared at the two executioners with a bored expression. He gave a command through his mind.
The black golem that had been standing completely still behind Sili suddenly moved. Its speed was absolutely illogical for a stone block the size of a wardrobe. The creature leaped across the toxic river in one powerful push. The stone tiles where the golem stepped instantly shattered into pieces.
The two executioners were clearly caught off guard. They unleashed white fire magic blasts from their gauntlets. Two massive pillars of fire shot straight out, slamming directly into the black golem’s chest in mid air. The heat explosion caused the toxic river water below to vaporize instantly. Sili had to cover his face with his bag because the heat wave reached where they were standing.
But from behind that white smoke, Kanos’s black golem burst through without a single scratch. The empty stone literally swallowed the raw white fire magic whole. No damage. No burn marks.
"System error. Target unreadable," the robotic voice of the executioner sounded panicked for the first time. The executioner tried to back away, shifting his footing on the rusted pipe.
Too late.
The golem’s giant stone hand snatched the executioner’s silver helmet. The movement was brutal and purely physical force. With one powerful crush, the sound of snapping metal and crushed bone echoed loudly over the rain. The executioner did not even get the chance to scream. His body instantly went limp, his silver helmet completely caved inward.
The second executioner drew a short sword from his waist, trying to slash the golem’s arm. The steel sword hit the pitch black stone. A loud clanging sound echoed, but the sword instantly snapped in two. That empty stone was far harder than system steel. Kanos’s golem spun its body, swinging its left arm straight into the second executioner’s chest.
BAM!
The executioner’s body was thrown dozens of meters backward. He crashed into the factory brick wall until he broke through inside. The wall collapsed, burying the executioner under a pile of rocks and scrap metal. Everything was over in under ten seconds.
Kanos took a slow breath. His head hurt worse. Controlling this golem drained his mental focus insanely fast, kind of like playing chess while running a marathon. But seeing the results, the pain felt incredibly worth it.
Belida lowered his greatsword. The knight looked at Kanos with a mix of horror and pure awe. "That thing just swallowed high tier magic without a trace."
"And their system cannot even lock onto a target to fight back," Kanos gave a cold smile. He walked slowly across the small iron bridge, approaching his golem standing quietly in the rain. Executioner blood dripped from its stone hand.
Kanos looked toward the factory ruins where the second executioner was buried. He needed intel, and he had his own way of getting it right now.