Chapter : 1365

Lloyd rolled down the window. He looked at the guard as if the man were a particularly boring insect.

"I am Lord Vane," Lloyd drawled, affecting a heavy southern accent. "I am here to see Lord Wilfred. I have a business proposition that involves a great deal of gold and the future of magical engineering. Tell him I bring the Star-Glass."

"Lord Wilfred sees no one," the guard grunted.

"What a pity," Lloyd sighed dramatically. He turned to Mina. "Well, Dr. Mina, I suppose we shall have to take our revolutionary fuel technology to his rival in the next city. I hear they are very interested in superior power sources."

He tapped the roof of the carriage. "Driver! Turn around!"

The carriage lurched. Lloyd counted silently. One. Two. Three...

"Wait!" the guard shouted.

Lloyd smirked. Greed was so predictable.

The guard looked nervous. "Wait here. I will... send a message."

Ten minutes later, the massive gates groaned open. The carriage rolled into the courtyard. It was filled with crates of ore and armed men.

They stepped out. A steward was waiting for them. He bowed low. "Lord Wilfred awaits you in the Great Hall. Please, follow me."

Lloyd offered his arm to Mina. "Shall we, Doctor?"

"We shall, My Lord," Mina said, taking his arm. Her grip was tight. She was nervous. But her face was a mask of calm disdain.

They walked into the fortress. They were in. The first wall was breached. Now came the hard part: lying to a fanatic without blinking.

The Great Hall of the fortress was less of a living space and more of a shrine to war. The walls were hung with ancient weapons. But the centerpiece was a massive table covered in blueprints and scattered crystals.

Standing behind the table was Lord Wilfred. He was a tall, gaunt man with wild grey hair and eyes that burned with a manic intensity. He wore a heavy leather apron over his noble clothes, stained with ink and oil.

He didn't bow. He just stared at them. "You say you have refined Aethel-Quartz? Impossible. It shatters under pressure."

Lloyd walked forward, his cane clicking on the stone floor. "Impossible for you, perhaps. But I am a man of vision."

He signaled Mina. She placed the ebony box on the table and opened it.

The "Refined Star-Glass" pulsed with a soft, inner light.

Wilfred's eyes went wide. He rushed around the table. He reached out, his fingers trembling. "Beautiful. The resonance... I can feel it."

"Don't touch," Lloyd snapped, closing the box with a loud snap. "The process is volatile. And proprietary."

Wilfred looked at Lloyd. For the first time, he saw him as an equal. "Who are you?"

"Lord Vane," Lloyd said. "And this is Dr. Mina. We are scholars of the Anubis school. We heard rumors, Wilfred. Rumors that a man in Ramos had the ambition to finish what the Great Maker started."

"Ambition?" Wilfred laughed. It was a dry, rasping sound. "I have more than ambition. I have the plans. I have the materials."

"But do you have the efficiency?" Mina cut in. Her voice was sharp. "We looked at your mining reports. Your yield is pathetic. You are wasting 40% of the raw quartz. Your machine will run for an hour and then starve."

Wilfred bristled. "My calculations are perfect!"

"Your calculations are based on crude ore," Lloyd said smoothly. "With my Star-Glass, you could increase the output by three hundred percent. You wouldn't just be building a golem, Wilfred. You would be building a god."

The word "god" hit Wilfred like a drug. He licked his lips. "Three hundred percent?"

"Imagine it," Lloyd whispered. "A Guardian that never stops. A power source that burns brighter than the sun. We want to help you, Wilfred. We want to see history made. But we need to know that you are worthy of our investment."

Wilfred looked between them. He was suspicious, but his greed and his obsession were stronger. He wanted the Star-Glass. He wanted the perfection they promised.

"You doubt me?" Wilfred sneered. "You think I am a mere dabbler? Come. I will show you. I will show you that I have already surpassed Anubis."

He gestured for them to follow. He led them to a heavy iron door at the back of the hall. He unlocked it with a complex series of keys.

"Behold," Wilfred said as the door swung open. "The Forge."

They stepped onto a balcony overlooking a massive subterranean cavern. Lloyd's breath caught in his throat.

Chapter : 1366

Below them, suspended by massive chains, was a torso. A torso made of stone and steel, easily twenty feet tall. It was incomplete, but the scale was terrifying. Arms as thick as tree trunks lay on workbenches. Runes glowed on the chest plate.

It was the God-King. And it was almost finished.

"Magnificent," Mina breathed. She wasn't acting. It was terrifyingly impressive.

"The body is ready," Wilfred said, his voice full of pride. "The limbs will be attached tomorrow. And then... the Heart."

"You have it?" Lloyd asked, trying to keep his voice casual. "The Golem Heart?"

"Of course," Wilfred grinned. "It is in the Vault. Safe. Waiting for the infusion."

Lloyd looked at the giant machine. He looked at the guards patrolling the catwalks below. This wasn't just a workshop. It was a factory of death.

"It is... adequate," Lloyd sniffed, adjusting his monocle. "But the cabling on the left shoulder looks sloppy. Dr. Mina, don't you agree?"

"Amateurish," Mina agreed. "The mana flow will bottleneck."

Wilfred turned red. "It is temporary! I was going to fix it!"

"Show us," Lloyd said. "Take us down there. Let us inspect your work. If it meets our standards, the Star-Glass is yours."

Wilfred hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Fine. But touch nothing. The energies are unstable."

He led them down the stairs. Lloyd glanced at Mina. They were in. They had found the weapon. Now they just needed to find the Vault, distract the madman, and steal the key to the apocalypse. Simple.

They descended into the belly of the beast. The air grew hotter and smelled of ozone and grinding metal. The cavern was a hive of activity. Workers scurried around the massive golem torso like ants.

Lloyd kept up a constant stream of chatter. He criticized the welding. He questioned the alloy mixture. He asked about the thermal exhaust ports. He was being the most annoying, pedantic investor in history.

"And this joint here," Lloyd said, poking a massive steel piston with his cane. "Are you using hydra-oil or dragon-grease? Because if it's hydra-oil, it will gum up in cold weather. Have you considered the thermal expansion coefficient?"

Wilfred was getting flustered. "It is a standard pivot! It works fine!"

"Fine is not perfect," Lloyd tutted. "Dr. Mina, please explain the benefits of a dual-chamber compression system to our friend here."

This was the signal. While Lloyd drew Wilfred's attention to the left side of the machine, Mina was supposed to slip away to the right.

Mina nodded. "Of course, Lord Vane. But first, I must inspect the rune-etching on the rear plating. I believe I saw a misalignment from the balcony."

"Go ahead," Wilfred waved his hand impatiently, his eyes fixed on Lloyd. "Just don't cross the safety line."

Mina walked away, her heels clicking on the metal floor. She moved towards the back of the cavern. She didn't look at the runes. She pulled out a small device from her pocket—a spectral compass Lloyd had built using a sliver of Lilith Stone. It tracked high-density magical signatures.

The needle spun wildly, pointing towards a dark tunnel on the far side of the cavern. The Vault.

Mina moved quickly, dodging behind crates and pillars. She was a ghost in a blue dress. She reached the tunnel entrance. There were no guards here, which was suspicious. But the compass was pulling her forward.

She slipped into the tunnel. It was quiet here. The noise of the factory faded. The walls were lined with glowing moss. At the end of the tunnel stood a massive door. It was round, made of black iron, and covered in glowing red symbols.

"The Vault," Mina whispered.

She approached it carefully. She took out a monocle—one of Lloyd's inventions—that allowed her to see magical traps. The door was covered in them. Alarm wards. Explosive runes.

"I can do this," she thought. "I studied ancient sealing scripts. This is just a puzzle."

She began to examine the lock. It was complex, based on a rotating cipher of Anubis's own design. She needed to align the rings without triggering the mana sensors.

Back in the main cavern, Lloyd was running out of nonsense to say.

"And the color," Lloyd said, gesturing to the dark metal. "It's so... gloomy. Have you thought about painting it? Maybe a nice racing stripe? Flame decals?"

Wilfred stared at him. "Paint? This is a weapon of war, not a carriage!"

"Branding is important!" Lloyd insisted. "If you are going to conquer the world, you want to look good on the posters."

Wilfred was starting to look suspicious. "Where is your associate? She has been gone a long time."