19. The Iron Giant

They then started to leave their inn and headed to Sierokarte's place to ask what she had found.

After they arrived at Sierokarte's place, they were immediately greeted by Sierokarte who had been waiting for them.

"Welcome everyone, I have been waiting for you to come. I have information after examining the golem fragments you gave me."

"Hello Sierokarte," Lyria greeted Sierokarte back while waving her hand.

"So what did you find from the golem fragment?" Rackam asked Sierokarte immediately after Lyria greeted her.

"Hmm, after we examined the golem fragment, we did not find anything other than its armor being stronger than a regular golem," Sierokarte informed them.

Upon hearing that, they all looked a little disappointed because Sierokarte did not find something that could at least make their search faster.

"But after testing the armor fragment a few more times, we found that somehow it has a high heat resistance," Sierokarte continued her information.

Upon hearing that, they still looked disappointed because they thought high heat resistance was normal considering how hot this island was and how much lava flowed.

Sierokarte saw their reaction and realized that they did not fully understand what she meant.

"By high heat resistance, I mean it is very high, strong enough to withstand flowing lava."

"Very high heat resistance?" Io muttered to herself.

Rei, hearing Io's muttering, then asked her something, "Do you remember something, Io?"

Rei remembered that the Archduke was underground to awaken the Colossus, but he did not know how to get there because only the Archduke and Io knew the way. The Archduke had taken Io there before to see the inactive Colossus.

Hearing Rei's words, Djeeta and the others turned to Io.

"Do you know what it means, Io?" Djeeta asked Io.

"Maybe if the golem needs very high heat resistance, it's because they were made in a very hot place, like near flowing lava...." Io said.

When Io said that, she immediately remembered something and exclaimed, "Ahhhhhh!"

"I remember, I know a very hot place on this island!" Io told them.

"Really? Then can you show us the way to that place ?" Katalina responded to Io.

"Yes, let me show the way," Io then left Sierokarte's place alone, leaving them behind.

"Eh? Io, wait for us!" Vyrn shouted to Io who had already left, then he flew after her.

After that, the others also left and ran to catch up with Vyrn.

"Be careful, all of you!" They heard Sierokarte shout at them.

They walked through the Sarwa desert while following Io, who was rushing ahead of them.

Some time later, they found a cave surrounded by large rocks that seemed to hide its entrance.

"Oh wow, if we hadn't followed Io, we wouldn't have been able to find this entrance..." Rackam looked at the entrance of the cave, which seemed impossible to find without Io.

"I remember this, my teacher once brought me here to see the scenery around this place," Io informed them.

"So are you ready? After this, the path inside this cave will get harder, so we have to be careful not to fall into the lava," Io warned them.

Everyone who heard Io looked a bit worried... falling into lava? This is really dangerous, but since they were already there, there was no choice but to move forward.

They then began to enter the cave one by one, with Io guiding them.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

"I'm burning up!" Vyrn complained.

They all continued to walk deeper into the cave, and the deeper they got, the hotter it became around them.

"Wow, I can't believe you're still wearing your armor in here, Katalina!" Lyria looked at Katalina, who was still wearing armor made of iron in this place.

"It's so hot in here that I'm actually starting to get dizzy," Katalina replied to Lyria, but for some reason, she was looking at the wall and not at Lyria.

"Who are you talking to? I'm over here, Katalina!"

"Listen up, guys. We need to organize all the information we've collected so far," Rackam suddenly said to them.

"First up: that machine monster. That thing was definitely the archduke's handiwork, right, Io?"

"Yeah. The magic I sensed from it was his, no mistake about it," Io supported Rackam's words.

"And rumor has it the archduke teamed up with the empire to create something huge and terrible. But the Black Knight said he broke his promise to the empire and is even after Lyria now...No matter how I look at it, none of it makes sense. What's the archduke trying to achieve here?"

"The archduke was using monsters to target the girl who was with the Black Knight..." Katalina also said to them.

Hearing that made them wonder why the archduke wanted to kidnap Lyria and the girl who was with the Black Knight.

"Isn't it because Lyria can control primal beasts?" Suddenly they heard Rei speak.

"Eh?"

"Maybe on this island, there are primal beasts like in Port Breeze, and the archduke who found them wants to awaken them, so he needs Lyria for that."

Hearing that, they all fell silent because what Rei said seemed to make sense.

While Lyria, hearing this, felt guilty because since they started this adventure, it seemed like everything was because of her.

If she hadn't joined the Djeeta crew, maybe they wouldn't have been involved in all of this.

"That's just my guess, and I don't really care about what the archduke wants. But if he wants to kidnap my friend, I'll beat him up really really hard" Rei continued.

"Haha, you're right Rei! If he wants to kidnap Lyria, of course I won't let him," Djeeta spoke to them.

"Besides, as captain, I have a duty to protect my crew members!"

Listening to Djeeta made them laugh.

"Hahaha, you're right, young captain, and we as crew members also have the duty to support our captain," Rackam said to them.

"So you don't need to worry, Lyria," Katalina put her hand on Lyria's shoulder.

"You don't need to blame yourself; this is all the empire's fault. If they didn't keep wanting to experiment with primal beasts, maybe we wouldn't have to run away from them."

Lyria didn't expect them to know she was blaming herself, and now they were comforting her.

Lyria then closed her eyes and held her necklace while smiling at them.

"Thank you, everyone."

Lyria was truly grateful to have met all of them; she thought in her lifetime she would be in a dark room and only be able to read storybooks with Katalina.

Now she could have many friends and go on adventures like the books she used to read and see various views in this Skyrealm.

Meanwhile, Io felt a little jealous because she never had friends, and seeing them supporting each other made her want to join their group.

After comforting Lyria, they continued their journey deeper into the cave.

After a while, Rei suddenly heard the sound of iron colliding with each other.

"Hold it! Someone's fighting up ahead!" Rei warned them.

They heard Rei's warning nodded and took out their weapons, then began to head towards the source of the noise.

Upon arriving there, they saw two people they knew well.

"Hm? Is that who I think it is?" Rackam looked at the blue and red-haired individuals.

"Humph!" Sturm destroyed the golem attacking them by targeting its weak spots, as if she knew the golem's weakness.

"It's hot! A little too hot for fighting by this city boy's estimation!" Meanwhile, Drang was babbling as usual.

"Hey, it's you guys!" Rackam spoke to them after seeing that they had finished defeating the golems.

Drang, upon hearing Rackam, turned to see who had come to this hot place.

After seeing that they were Rei and the others, he immediately smiled and waved at them.

"Hey, everyone! And Rei, we meet again, I didn't expect us to meet so soon!"

Hearing Rei's name mentioned, Sturm immediately turned to them.

"Hey Drang, Hey Sturm," Rei greeted them and waved to Sturm.

"Hey.....Rei," Sturm tried to respond but her voice was too small, and she looked shy about waving back at them.

Meanwhile, Drang, seeing Sturm's reaction, immediately wanted to tease her.

"Heya Rei, you won't believe what happened after we separated before in the desert," Drang suddenly spoke, making Sturm realize what he was about to talk about.

But Sturm was too late to stop Drang, and he continued his story.

"After we left, Sturm started stabbing me relentlessly because we secretly left in the middle of a battle, and he was worried about you fighting so many golems," Drang said, wiping his fake tears.

"Owch owch owch, it hurts, Sturm, it hurts!" Sturm immediately stabbed him repeatedly without stopping.

"Haha..." Rei didn't know what to say at that moment.

"*Stareeee*" Meanwhile, Djeeta and Lyria were staring at Rei, curious about what was happening between them.

Sturm looked worried about Rei even though they were enemies.

"You know, it's a bit romantic, you and your enemy fighting each other but in the end, they end up liking each other and eventually rebel against their empire so they can be together," Katalina said to Rackam, nudging him.

"Haha, you're right, this is like a story from a children's book I read before," Rackam laughed hearing Katalina.

Djeeta and Lyria, hearing this, felt like their formidable opponents had suddenly appeared.

And their opponents had a very large chest compared to the two of them.

Io looked confused seeing all of them, weren't they supposed to be enemies?, but why were they chatting like they were friends and not enemies?

Rei, seeing Io's reaction, could only say to her, "It's a long story, so I'll tell you later."

Io nodded when she heard Rei's words.

"So what are you all doing here?" Katalina asked them.

Upon hearing that, Sturm stopped stabbing Drang and let him explain to them.

"*Cough* I assume you've already met the Black Knight?"

"Yes, we have met Black Knight... Could it be that black knight is the one that hired you!?" Katalina answered Drang.

"Ding-dong, you got it right, we came here because we found a clue to the location of the Archduke, so now we want to check that place."

"That's why we need to go ahead, and sorry, we can't help you like before," Drang immediately took out his blue ball and released a lot of water that touched some lava around them, creating steam.

The steam made Djeeta and the others have difficulty seeing.

"*Cough* *Cough* Those Empire people!" Rackam coughed because of the steam and saw them running away.

"Don't let them escape!" Io shouted and started chasing them alone, afraid they would capture her master before she found him.

Djeeta and the others followed Io from behind so they wouldn't get separated in the cave.

They continued to run after Drang and Sturm, but they had to stop chasing because the path they were taking was getting more difficult.

After walking for a while, they began to see a factory that looked quite old and was already somewhat dilapidated.

"Huh??? A factory? Why is there a factory here??" Vyrn was surprised to see a factory underground like this and surrounded by lava.

"Maybe this is where the Draph used to make many golems," Io told them.

"Which way did that joker go?" Rackam looked around the factory but didn't find Drang and Sturm.

"Looks like there's an entrance over there!" Vyrn informed them.

*Booom* Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard nearby them.

"That sound... Did they use explosives on the door? We might still be able to catch them if we hurry!" Katalina quickly moved towards the entrance that Vyrn mentioned.

They began to enter the old factory and as they entered, they could see many broken golem pieces and some golems that were no longer active.

They walked through the hallway, Io started calling out to their teacher, "Master! Where are you? You are here, aren't you?"

"Eek!" Io suddenly screamed as she saw a large skeleton that looked like a Draph's bone.

"Are these... Draph bones?" Rackam spoke while looking at the large bone.

"It can't be... Are they the master's? No... that's impossible..." Io started to panic when she thought the bone belonged to her teacher.

"Relax, Io. They're incredibly old and weathered." Djeeta told Io as she noticed the fragility of the bones.

"Did the Astrals force Draphs to work here?" Vyrn tried to think why there were Draph bones in a place like this.

"Let's meet this archduke of yours. He may just be able to explain what's going on here." Katalina said to them.

Hearing that, they nodded and finally continued their journey through the hallway.

Meanwhile, Rei could sense a dark aura from within the hallway, similar to when they fought against Tiamat.

'Dark essence again?' He thought about what could emit this aura.

As they got closer to the end of the hallway, Lyria suddenly warned them, "I'm sensing a surge of power from... something big..." Lyria closed her eyes and tried to sense its aura.

"Is it a primal beast, Lyria?" Djeeta asked Lyria.

"I don't know... What is this? I can't... hear its voice..."

Hearing that made them a little worried... what if it's another primal beast affected by dark essence like before?

"What in the skies has my master been creating?" Io tightly gripped her staff while staring at the end of the hallway.

<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >

When they were close to the end of the hallway, they then looked at each other and nodded to each other.

They then entered the room and could see a golem that was much larger than the golems before.

[IMAGE]

"Is that... an iron giant??" Vyrn exclaimed when he saw such a huge golem.

"L-Lyria, I need answers. Is this a primal beast?" Katalina panicked and asked Lyria.

But before Lyria could answer, Katalina, Io immediately shouted at the golem, "Master? Are you here? Master?"

Shortly after Io shouted that, they began to see someone emerging from behind the large golem.

"You've arrived at last, I see. This foolish disciple of mine..."

They could see that the person was a draph with two large horns, white hair, red eyes, and a white beard.

[IMAGE]

"What are you doing, Master? Let's go home! Together!" Io looked worried about her teacher because she had never seen him so full of anger.

"If you've made it this far, Io, you must have seen them, yes? The corpses of my kinsmen, long forgotten." Archduke continued speaking as he stared at them.

"The Draph bones we found on the way here..." Lyria whispered, remembering the bones they had seen earlier.

"My brethren were made servants of the Astrals during the War. They created primal beasts here. The craftspeople who work here today are descendants of those hardworking souls. They stole the technology of the Astrals and made it their own. This iron giant is a remnant of the dream they shared to fly the flag of rebellion and take back what was rightfully theirs.

Colossus... A primal beast forged in steel to deliver my people from bondage! I will finish what they started by breathing the breath of life into it... And kill every astral at any cost!"

The more Archduke spoke, the darker aura Rei could feel from him.

"Hey, guys, I can sense a dark essence from that Archduke!" Rei warned them.

"Dark essence again!? So this is all because of the empire!" Katalina heard Rei's words and began to feel angry.

"Tch, I knew it. This is all because of the empire." Rackam also looked annoyed after hearing Rei.

"Master..." Io looked sad when she heard Archduke's words, which were very different from what she remembered.

"Storytime is over. Proceed no further. Ignore me at your peril, for I will show no mercy even to you." Archduke then began to activate Colossus and prepare his magic to fight against Djeeta and the others.