One Man Army

Mark

I'm starting to feel like those addicts you would find next to gas stations, looking for their next hit. I didn't think my thirst for knowledge would get this bad, but the only thing that has been somewhat curbing it is my lust. Of course Jess and Jane couldn't be any happier over that tidbit. I did relay my concerns with them, but they told me that I will just have to learn to control it over time. 

The problem comes whenever anything new, or things that my preconceived notion of what was possible is broken, causes me to jump at the opportunity. Similar to how a lion chases after its prey. To quote the main character of a gacha I used to play a lot of: "Rules are meant to be broken." The more I learn, the more I look into the finer details of each power system, the more I crave. It's like a never ending cycle. 

My way to solve the building rage and battle lust of my male form, and the extreme lust for knowledge and carnal desires, is to take on the smaller forms. When I take on a smaller form, those desires are much easier to manage. The root of the issue is that while my divinity is sealed, the desires that are central to said divinity are not. So here I was, in my smaller male form, sitting in the lap of Jess, while doing paperwork on my laptop.

"How are you feeling Mark? You're getting through paperwork at a faster pace than normal." Perhaps it's because two insatiable women aren't trying to distract me. I didn't look up since her breasts were on my head.

"I feel more relaxed in this form, therefore I can get through all of these notifications that the golems have been sending me. Did you know that Jane has been basically living in the forge ever since our first prototype of a growth gear? She should take a break from it." Jess giggled a bit at my antics, while I continued to type away.

"While that may be true, she does get plenty of rest. Considering how many nights we have been spending playing games or watching anime, I do believe she has just found something that brings plenty of joy to her." She lifted me up while I continued to work, and she shifted us to my desk, before sitting down again. 

"That is true, I think it's about time I start making more golems. It has been a while. Although for this one, I want to make something that doesn't quite start as a humanoid." I couldn't see it, but I had a feeling that Jess was smirking right now. 

"This wouldn't happen to have to do with a certain overpowered demon lord would it? Or perhaps that one creature that has a similar ability would it?" I started laughing to the point that if Jess wasn't holding me, I would have fallen. 

"Perhaps. I find the potential of their abilities to be crazy. Plus we can gain ample materials for them to grow." Once I finished that, I set down my laptop, hopped down from Jess' lap, then left my room, with Jess following behind me. 

As the two of us walked to the forge, a variety of golems bowed in my direction while we passed by. Some maid golems, others were builders, and various other production golems. A good amount of them were directed by Sebastian as he and Retzio were finishing up on saving the Fey. Outside of that, I crafted a bunch of general smith golems to assist with gearing up some of the more basic golems I have been making. Jess and Jane have taken to making more specialized gear whenever I made a powerful golem, homunculus, or group of them. 

Once we reached the forge, I spotted Jane sitting on the bench, staring at what is probably her latest prototype. 

"Welcome back to the forge Mark. Here to make some new golems? Or perhaps a homunculus?" Jane greeted me when We stepped inside.

"This time I'm making a new type of golem. I've been wanting to make one like this for a while, but it was a matter of getting strong enough, and getting the right materials." She nodded at me, before I got to work.

Jane

Seeing Mark in their smaller form was cute, until you realize why they were in that form in the first place. Mark didn't say anything as to why, but everyone already knew why. They were holding themselves back so their power didn't get out of hand. Divinity has its ups and downs, but having to rein in said desires while their divinity is sealed is one of the hardest things they could possibly do. 

At least they seem to be able to rein it in. However this has had some unforeseen effects on the golem race, since they were all a lot more active. This was a good thing regardless though. Time is going by faster than we all expected, so we all needed to move faster, myself included. Mark started working on a new golem, one in the shape of a slime strangely enough. 

Sebastian

My work with the Fey is almost done. Although Viviane has wormed her way into my burning heart. Although mother has deemed it to create me with the instincts of a dragon. Therefore, I took it upon myself to mark Viviane as a mate, although she didn't mind it at all.

"This means I get to be your mate? Amazing! My efforts were not in vain." She pumped her fist into the air as she started into the mirror, looking at my mark. It took the form of a tattoo that was a silver dragon. 

"While it has been the better part of a year, I didn't expect things to get to this point myself. Although we still need to save the rest of your race. We can focus more on spending time with each other afterwards. I do think it would be privy to tell my Mother though." She just smiled at me. Her smile was enchanting to look at. 

"I do believe you don't need to worry about that. I have already spoken to Miss Jane, Jess, and the golem goddess during my time here on multiple occasions. They have approved of me due to me keeping interest throughout this time we have been together. Although I am to make you the new king of the fey once we are to be wed." I mentally stopped when she uttered that last sentence. Of all things, I wasn't expecting to take up Oberon's position as king of the fey. 

"I understand that you might be hesitant, but my people already see you as a king. You spearheaded the way to saving the fey, building them a new town within this dimension, and allowing them to interact with those of the golem race in an amicable way. Many of the fey are joining others of the golem race on adventures across the dimension. Even going on quest with the newly formed adventurers guild that one of Miss Circi's subordinates manages." 

"While that may be the case, you need to take into consideration that my mother was the one that allowed this in the first place. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be able to assist the fey, regardless of how I personally feel." Viviane just smiled at me. 

"Whatever may be the case, it is already set in stone. I do apologize Sebastian, but there is no getting out of this. Everyone has already agreed to it, you just need to take up the mantle once all is said and done." I just sighed and resigned myself to my inevitable fate.

Mark

A lot of our time in this verse has been spent moving quietly. Basically utilizing the great war that's happening as a smokescreen to interact with the various factions. However, I knew at some point the other factions would get caught up in it, in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps not in an overt capacity to show full support for a particular faction, but more quiet assistance. 

One of them that would have probably assisted one of the factions would be the shinto and yokai factions. Thanks to Kinami's intervention, Yasaka basically has full control of the yokai. A feat that she couldn't achieve herself in the original cannon. It's only a matter of time before she prepares to have 'talks' with the shinto. They didn't make any moves to stop Yasaka or Kinami as they took control. This may have to do with Kinami's past with the shinto.

Either that, or they fear my wrath. According to Kinami, almost all gods and goddesses of the dead feared me due to 'scavenging' each of their realms for her soul. Each one of my children's 'past' kept getting crazier and crazier. I looked into, and by look into I just asked Jane or Jess, the past of Levi. Turns out that she has quite the history with the devil calling themself Leviathan. The name itself was taken directly with Levi in mind. Perhaps Lucifer wanted to try and create a devil version of her, but it only caused Levi to react in an 'interesting' way.

I may not have access to my divinity, but I could hear Levi praying for a harem every night in her room. She may just get exactly what she is asking for by the time she actively starts interacting with the world outside this dimension. I have been thinking of whether or not I should just escalate my plans in order to at least find Ophis. She is probably still within the dimensional gap being annoyed by Great Red. 

We were on our way to becoming the strongest faction, by the time the Great War ends, or perhaps well before that we will reach that point officially. I was typing away at my laptop in my smaller male form when I received a knock at my door. Jane stepped inside after a moment holding a slime.

"Jane, we need to up our timetable and start tripling our efforts to find Ophis. This will be Sebastian's next task once he finishes things with the fey. Although any of our agents on the outside should be on the lookout. While she may still be within the dimensional gap, I assume that she would make appearances outside from time to time due to Great Red." She smiled, and let the slime bounce around a bit until it decided to rest in my lap.

"I will get right to relaying out your orders via message and magic. Everyone will do everything they can to the best of their abilities. Malek over there has finished devouring several creatures of various powers that we encountered within the dimension. This 'skill' system that they utilize is very interesting to behold. Just the fact that Malek can obtain abilities from those they eat or completely devour is a sight to behold." I smirked as I rubbed the top of Malek's slimelike form.

I created another set of golems to follow Malek in the form of goblins funny enough. In this case though, it was not the normal fantasy goblins, but rather I made them similar to the ones in the reincarnated as a slime anime. I figured out the whole, 'naming' aspect of gaining power, and the evolution involved in it. I already apply something similar whenever I name my children, and they do the same when they name one of their subordinates. 

The big difference is the intent behind it. There is a reason that each of my children, excluding Malek, has just one subordinate each that are growing at a much faster rate in comparison to all of the other golems below them. Kuro, Bob, Sebastian's secretary Gislaine, Retzio's second in command Paldea, and Kinami recently named an assistant of hers that grew tremendously that was named Afton. Although I feel like that last one may have been influenced by her increased liking of some particular horror games. 

Bob was an interesting one to say the least. If it weren't for him, Levi would probably be off the rails all the time when nobody was looking. Of course she is taking things more seriously now after being counseled for a while, but he is like the yin to her yang. Although it is purely on a professional level. Bob takes things very seriously and is like an uncle to Levi. He deserves a better name than Bob, but he didn't mind at the time so I decided against asking Levi to change his name. 

Bob was the only one who could fish wherever Levi did. Regardless of how crazy her fishing got, he was right behind her. As if to constantly keep her skills in check so that she would actually keep improving. Another crazy fact too, Bob grew so much, that he is currently as strong as both Levi and Arty her articuno. Combined.

Bob

I think back again to the time that I was first brought into existence by the Golem god. Not goddess, but god. Most wouldn't realize the difference, even I didn't initially. I did personal research on it to compare, then I sent the research to Miss Jess to decipher. What I discovered was that while each golem had infinite potential, not every golem had the same growth rate, and not every golem had the same growth rate for different fields. 

To give a good example, out of every subordinate of the royalty of the golem race, I was the strongest in combat. Each of us that were named by the royalty normally had a hidden ability or power unlocked that would evolve over time. I didn't have that. I didn't have some special power or ability that came with the naming. I was only slightly better than the other fisherman like me at first.

My growth rate in comparison to my peers among the other direct assistants of the royalty was lacking. The reason why I am the strongest in combat, even facing off against Levi and Arty was because of the extremes that I did to push myself in comparison to my peers. 

Several Weeks Ago

"Bob! Fight me!" It was a simple statement by the ball of energy that was Levi. 

"May I ask why you would like to request a fight with me, Lady Levi?" She looked at me and pouted. Most likely expecting me to accept her request right away. However, I have learned to not instantly go along with her antics. She would never learn from her mistakes if she was constantly enabled. 

"I wanna spar against you! I never saw you use your full power before. Not once since you constantly hole yourself up with training whenever we aren't going out fishing, or out on quests." The girl had the same sparkle in her eyes as our goddess had whenever she was curious about something. I wouldn't have to push myself so hard if a certain someone in front of me didn't put her own life at risk to fight a mythological creature of vast power.

"Fine, however if I win, you need to shape up and start taking Madam Ciri's advice seriously. Along with taking your position as royalty of the golem race seriously." She looked at me as if I told a joke with a smile on her face. 

"Pfft. Fine, and if I win, you have to let me do what I want for three months!" She pointed at me with a smirk on her face. Lady Levi once again proved that she was the most troublesome of her siblings. The chaos that she would cause if she was let free rein would be unprecedented. Of course she wouldn't do anything against her mother's wishes. That didn't mean there weren't a lot of things she could do that would inconvenience others.

"Then we shall move over to the training grounds. Also, just so you can't say anything extra if you lose. I will let you fight with Arty as well." She smiled as I teleported the both of us, but then I could see in the depths of her eyes the calculative side of her brain was moving. She was very prideful, but also smart enough to realize when things seemed too good to be true. Of course, she would never think that I would win if she was fighting alongside her phoenix friend.

Sebastian

Mother had requested that I referee for the match between Levi and Bob. It was strange. It looked like Bob was set up to lose this match. Levi was just as strong, if not stronger than the upper echelons of the biblical factions. She has been growing rapidly in order to be allowed to fish in places she was banned from. The same could be said about her phoenix named Arty. The ice phoenix grew by leaps and bounds since their first fight. It could even take on a humanoid form if it chose to do so, and is able to communicate with us normally. Although Arty seems to prefer to stay in their natural form. 

Levi and Arty were on one end of this special arena. It was created for matches like this that could get extremely destructive. It's the same arena that Father, Miss Jess, And Miss Jane utilized when testing Retzio and Loki. This time though, it was expanded in size with spatial magic, and the place looked similar to a roman coliseum. I was standing on a central stand at the center of the arena, Levi and Arty were to my left and Bob was to my right.

A large amount of the golem race took to the stands, taking breaks from quests and current non-vital missions to view the fight. What bothered me about this fight was two things. Father was watching this match in the vip stand made for them with Miss Jess and Miss Jane. It was them and not Mother watching, even if they were in their smaller form, they were still the one watching this. The second thing was how utterly calm Bob looked. He styled his long purple hair in a single ponytail behind his head. His piercing red eyes looked at the surroundings as if he had nothing to worry about. 

He also grew in height a bit to the point that he was almost seven feet in height. He wasn't overly muscular, but rather compact. I believe that Viviane would call it a 'sleeper build'. He wasn't wearing fishing gear, nor was he wielding a fishing rod strangely enough. His combat outfit consisted of a purple jacket, black shirt, black pants, black boots, and purple fingerless gloves. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't assume that was their combat outfit. 

I examined Bob closer to figure out why I had such a gut feeling that something different was going on. Then I felt it, he's a homunculus. He became a homunculus just like Levi, and the rest of my siblings outside of Malek. Not even Kuro was a homunculus yet, let alone any other of the golem race outside of Miss Jess and Miss Jane. 

"Levi wai-" Before I could even give a warning to Levi, I felt a gaze. Father themself was staring at me with such an intense gaze that I felt like my throat was being gripped. I paused, then straightened myself. Now I understand.

"Something wrong Sebby?" Levi tilted her head and looked at me quizzically. 

"No, I will now announce the start of the match between Levi and Arty, vs Bob. Contestants get ready. I will toss a coin, the moment it hits the ground, the match starts." Levi had a feral smile on her face, and Arty mimicked their antics. Bob just sighed and tightened his gloves. He didn't even take a stance. I tossed the coin in the air and teleported to my seat beside Viviane. 

Mark

Sebastian almost ruined the fight, thankfully I stopped him before he could do so. Bob is a weird enigma. A happy accident if anything. He is the embodiment of effort can beat talent. When I first made him, he had no talent. Nothing that made him special. Sure, each of my golems have infinite potential, but that doesn't mean that they grow just as fast as each other. It's even more difficult if there is nothing that they specialize in. Bob was a normal golem given a fishing rod. At least, that's what I thought. 

Even when he was named by Levi and given a tattoo to represent that. That didn't change anything about him. The tattoo that he had showed Levi rolling dice strangely enough. I had no idea what that even indicated. Neither did Levi, or even Bob. Bob always lagged behind his peers at first, whether it was his fellow fisherman, or fellow assistants of my children. So at any moment he had down time, he trained. He never stopped training. The only reason he could fish everywhere that Levi could was because of how hard he trained. 

The fishing rod he was using was a normal fishing rod, trust me I checked. There was absolutely nothing special about it. He not only fished, but regularly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and magic. The only thing I discovered that made Bob special after all this time was that he had a will that was as strong if not stronger than my own. Bob thought it was because I made him in my male form that he got to this point, but no. It was all him. He did the impossible and became a homunculus through sheer fucking will.

The fight wasn't even a fight. It barely lasted a few minutes, and that was only because Bob let Levi throw all she could at him while dodging everything, or just straight up tanking it like it was nothing. It only took two solid hits to both Levi and Arty to knock the light out of them. After all that spell slinging that Levi was doing, I hope this will be a sign that she actually shapes up and doesn't act as spoiled as she has been. I love her to death, but she needed this, someone who wasn't one of her siblings, Jess, Jane, or me, to beat her. Let alone beat her and Arty. 

"The winner is Bob! Congratulations." Sebastian was sweating when he announced that, and everyone in the stands was quiet. At least until I started clapping. Everyone joined after that. Bob picked up Levi, and put Arty into their pokeball, before teleporting to her room and leaving her in her bed. Then he teleported back to his personal training room that Jess made for him. Bob was addicted to training, I swear he took after Might Guy and Rock Lee to a tee when it came to it. 

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Sup Peeps! Sorry for the late post, Life has been throwing me a ton of curve balls and I have been working two jobs to make sure I can pay the bills, you know how the economy is getting. I appreciate that yall have still been reading and enjoying it though. It makes me want to keep going on this no matter what. Thank you for that.

I am fueled by spite and community support, so if ya want to, please comment/review.

Outside of that, check out P.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/Oshimura (I am currently restructuring it atm, This is gonna have exclusive stories on it instead of early releases.)

K.o.f.i: k.o-fi..c.o.m/oshimura

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Also if you see any spelling errors be sure to let me know! I'll fix them up since I don't have an editor.

Thank you for reading and hope to see yall next chapter!