Phoenie sidled along the narrow path alongside the river and approached the bottom of the waterfall, her eyes fixated on the statue. The thought of her distraction leading to a bone-breaking blunder spurred Theseus into following alongside her. The others were less enthusiastic about moving any closer to danger than they had to, even though the statue was a good twenty metres or so away and showed no signs of movement. Theseus thought back to his previous encounter with such a machine – if that was what it was – and could only recall it towering over the swimming pool, motionless. Did these things even move? As they neared the basin, a slight blue shimmer fluttered across the water’s surface and the familiar blue-haired figure of Faye Delphinus emerged, as if walking up from an underwater stairway. Was it another one of those strange ‘recordings’, or was this one the real thing? Theseus was never going to understand this shit.

“If you have made it this far, I must congratulate you,” she said, “You have passed numerous trials to reach this point in your journey and I hope you take heed of the lessons you have learned,”

Trials? What was this, an obstacle course? Had this whole thing been some kind of test put there by the ‘faerie’ girls?

“Now you face the final obstacle placed here to guard this passageway, and it is not one I believe you have the skills to deal with. The entity you see before you is a golem, the same entity as that which attacked your Academy. It is formed from Earth-based transmutational magic, which allows the user to reshape physical matter. In the case of a golem, a form has been created and imbued with a part of the creator’s chi. This gives it a degree of intelligence. Its nearest human equivalent would be a ‘robot’ controlled by ‘artificial intelligence’ based on a ‘personality matrix’. Do not be fooled by its physical nature, however – the golem is able to circumvent the laws of physics using its magical power just as any demon can do. Also its body is capable of regenerating from any physical attack so long as it remains in contact with the matter it needs to replenish itself. If its body suffers enough physical damage and it is unable to regenerate, the power that binds it together shall disperse, effectively ‘killing’ the golem. Unless you can somehow disconnect the golem from a physical source and then destroy its material form, I would suggest you do not continue forwards,”

The messenger melted into the water just as she had appeared. Theseus turned back to the others, who were cautiously making their way forwards. John was already at their side, the sight of Faye having spurred him forwards.

“That make sense to you?” Theseus asked him.

“Frightening sense,” he replied, “The idea they can do something like this with natural powers, rather than technology…”

“Forget the metaphysics, can you kill it?” asked Phoenie.

Theseus glanced at the spider-mech bobbing on the current and pondered its destructive contents. “Lady, we’ve got enough weapons to turn that bastard into dust,”

“Well then, just make sure you don’t bury us alive!”

“Relax. It’s made of rock, how hard can it be?”

Joel sidled over. “As hard as ro—“

“You finish that sentence and I’ll throw you at the bloody thing,”

John was inching closer towards the far embankment and its distant sentinel. “Well we can’t just blow it apart,” he said, “We’d cause a cave in for sure, and the laser-cutter won’t help if that thing can regenerate like Faye suggests. Same problem with the plasma – we could disintegrate the body, but if it just rebuilds itself…”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Phoenie, “You’ve got to destroy it when it’s not touching the ground!”

Chapter 50
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