Chapter : 1383

He prepared to Void Step again, knowing he could only run. He could dodge for a while, but eventually, he would tire. And the Golem... the Golem didn't get tired. It just kept coming.

"Mina," Lloyd whispered, hoping she was safe, hoping she was far away. "I really hope you found something in that library. Because right now, I'm just a very annoying fly, and the swatter is coming down."

The beam fired. Lloyd vanished into the void just as the tower he was standing in was erased from existence.

While Lloyd was busy playing tag with a two-hundred-foot tall metal god, Mina was waging a war of her own. But her battlefield smelled of old paper and dust, and her weapon was a pair of reading glasses.

She was back in Elder Corin’s hut on the Whispering Crag. When the earth had started shaking—tremors that could be felt even miles away—she knew Wilfred had activated the machine. She could see the purple flashes of light lighting up the night sky like a demonic thunderstorm.

"He is fighting," Mina whispered, gripping the edge of the table. "He is actually fighting that thing."

Elder Corin sat in his rocking chair, looking grim. "He is dying," the old man corrected. "No one fights a Sovereign Golem and lives. It is math. It is inevitable."

"Math can be wrong," Mina snapped. She turned back to the pile of scrolls and books scattered on the table. "There has to be a way. Anubis was a genius, but he wasn't a monster. He built a failsafe. Every engineer builds a failsafe."

She was frantically searching through a stack of Anubis's personal notes that Corin had kept hidden for decades. They were chaotic, filled with diagrams of soul-transference and crystallization theories.

"The quartz," Mina muttered, scanning a page of dense text. "It's the key. The quartz acts as the battery. It draws life force and converts it into motive energy."

"We know this," Corin grunted. "It eats life. To stop it, you must destroy the quartz. But the quartz is inside the armor. And the armor heals."

"No," Mina said, her eyes darting across the lines. "Not destroy. Neutralize. Anubis wrote about 'Resonance Rejection'. He was worried about the quartz becoming unstable. He worried about a feedback loop."

She flipped the page. There, in the margin, was a scribbled formula. It wasn't a spell. It was a chemical recipe.

To silence the Whispering Crystal, one must introduce the Silence.

"The Silence," Mina read aloud. "What is the Silence?"

She grabbed another book, a glossary of archaic alchemical terms. She flipped through it frantically. S... Si... Silence.

"Here!" she cried. "'The Silence: A theoretical compound created by grinding Void-Stone and mixing it with the ash of a burnt Elder Tree. It creates a localized anti-resonance field.'"

She looked back at Anubis's notes. The diagram showed a fine powder being dispersed into the air intake of the Golem's core.

When the Silence touches the Crystal, the song stops. The vibration ceases. The connection to the ether is severed.

"It's a dampener," Mina realized. "It's not an explosive. It's sand in the gears. If we get this powder into the Golem's system, it stops the quartz from absorbing energy. It starves the beast."

She looked at Elder Corin. "Do you have Void-Stone? Do you have ash?"

Corin looked at her, surprised by her intensity. "I have ash. I burn wood every day. Void-Stone... I have a small meteorite I use as a doorstop."

Mina ran to the door. There, holding it open, was a black, heavy rock.

"This is it," she said, picking it up. "This is the bullet."

"You intend to make this... Anti-Aethel Quartz?" Corin asked. "Here? Now?"

"I have to," Mina said. She dragged a heavy mortar and pestle to the center of the table. "Lloyd can't kill it. He's just buying time. If I don't bring this to him, he dies."

She smashed the Void-Stone with a hammer, breaking off chunks, then threw them into the mortar. She added handfuls of ash from the fireplace. She began to grind.

It was hard work. Her arms burned. Sweat dripped down her forehead. But she didn't stop. She ground the stone and ash until it was a fine, grey dust. She poured her desperation and her fear into the motion.

"Faster," she told herself. "He doesn't have time."

Outside, another boom echoed through the mountains. The ground shook, knocking a jar off the shelf.

"He is still fighting," Mina said, grinding harder. "Hold on, Lloyd. Just hold on."

Chapter : 1384

She wasn't a warrior. She couldn't swing a sword or cast a fireball. But she was a scholar. And right now, knowledge was the deadliest weapon on the battlefield. She was going to kill a god with a bowl of dust.

Mina finished grinding. The bowl was full of a fine, silvery-grey powder. It shimmered in the candlelight, looking innocuous, like glitter or sand. But Mina knew it was the off-switch for the apocalypse.

"Anti-Aethel Quartz," she breathed. "I hope this works."

She needed a container. Something fragile that would break on impact. She found a clay jar on Corin's shelf. She poured the powder inside and sealed it with a piece of wax cloth.

"I am going," Mina announced. She grabbed her cloak.

"You are walking to your death," Elder Corin said. "The battlefield is a slaughterhouse. You are a librarian."

"I am a Siddik," Mina said, her chin high. "And I am his partner. I do not leave my partners behind."

She ran out of the hut. The descent down the Whispering Crag was terrifying in the dark. The path was lit only by the flashing purple lights of the battle in the distance. She slipped, scraped her hands, and tore her dress, but she didn't stop.

As she reached the valley floor, she saw the scale of the destruction. The fortress was a ruin. The Golem towered over everything, a silhouette of nightmare against the burning sky.

She saw a tiny blue spark darting around the Golem. Lloyd. He was still moving. He was still fighting.

"He's alive," she gasped, relief flooding her chest.

She found a horse tied to a tree near the base of the trail—Lloyd's horse. She mounted it awkwardly. She wasn't a great rider, but she kicked the beast into a gallop.

"Go!" she screamed. "Run!"

The horse thundered towards the fortress. As she got closer, the heat became intense. The air smelled of ozone and crushed rock.

She rode through the shattered main gate. The courtyard was a wasteland of craters. Soldiers were fleeing or hiding. No one paid attention to a woman on a horse. All eyes were fixed on the duel of giants.

Mina saw Lloyd land on a ruined wall. He looked terrible. His clothes were shredded. He was bleeding from a dozen cuts. He was panting, his chest heaving.

The Golem raised both fists for a smash that would flatten the entire section of the wall.

"Lloyd!" Mina screamed. Her voice was lost in the roar of the machine.

She rode closer. She had to get his attention. She had to get close enough to throw the jar.

Lloyd looked up. He saw her. His eyes widened in horror. He waved his hand frantically, mouthing, Go away!

Mina shook her head. She held up the clay jar. She pointed at it, then pointed at the Golem.

Lloyd paused. He looked at the jar. He looked at her determination. He understood. He didn't know what was in the jar, but he knew Mina. She wouldn't be here unless she had the answer.

He nodded once. A grim, determined nod.

He turned back to the Golem. He needed to create an opening. He needed to get the Golem to expose its core intake vents.

"Hey! Ugly!" Lloyd shouted, his voice amplified by his remaining mana. "Is that all you got? My grandmother hits harder than you!"

The Golem roared. It focused entirely on Lloyd.

"Mina," Lloyd thought, preparing to jump. "Don't miss. Please don't miss."

He launched himself into the air, straight at the Golem's face. It was a suicide run. A distraction.

Mina watched him go. She steered her horse towards the Golem's legs. She needed to get to the ventilation grates on its massive chest. She couldn't throw it that high.

"I need height," she realized.

She saw a fallen tower leaning against the Golem's leg like a ramp. It was unstable. It was dangerous.

"Do it," she told herself.

She jumped off the horse and scrambled up the rubble. Stones shifted under her feet. The Golem moved, shaking the makeshift ramp. Mina stumbled, cutting her knee, but she kept climbing.

She reached the top of the ruin. She was fifty feet in the air. The Golem's chest was still above her, but closer. The vents were glowing purple, sucking in air to cool the massive quartz engine.

Lloyd was buzzing around the Golem's head, slashing at its eyes with his phantom swords, keeping it distracted. The Golem swatted at him, opening its chest plates to vent excess heat.

"Now!" Lloyd screamed, though she couldn't hear him. He dove downwards, leading the Golem's gaze away from her.