They resumed their journey the following day, their fourth one in the cave complex.

Alys walked tensely ahead. Suddenly, she twitched and said, "Patriarch, two golems or heaps of stone ahead, standing still. Estimated time to get to them... two minutes."

Aaron nodded.

"You reported your findings well this time. But next time, use seconds."

The measurement units in that world were naturally different from Earth's, but even on Earth, he had had to convert meters to feet when traveling abroad. After visiting uncountable civilizations in his lifetime, he was so used to converting all kinds of different units to his home country's that he automatically translated them when he used them. Now, for instance, he was actually telling Alys to use aluskmon, a time unit roughly equivalent to 1.8773 seconds.

"Your skill only goes as far as just over three hundred feet ahead," he said. "In case of an emergency, if you can only speak a number before you're cut off for any reason, it would be better to make sure that the number refers to seconds so we can prepare ourselves for it."

"Yes, Patriarch."

"What do we know about golems? Or about stone golems, more specifically?" he asked.

"Golems are created artificially," replied Alys. "Some call them thinking treasures, but the Heavenly Skill Check Item doesn't work on them. Others call them artificial beasts, which is corroborated by the Heavenly Skill Check Level working on them. Golems follow their creator's commands without question. Stone golems, specifically, have great defenses, vigorous attacks, and slow movements."

"Are they preparing an ambush?" asked Aaron.

Alys shook her head. "No. They seem to be guarding a... magic door? I... I can't feel anything beyond the door!" she realized.

Aaron didn't blame her for not noticing it earlier, as she had just recently developed the detection skill. It was natural for her not to detect a door that could block such skills.

"Always make sure to pay attention to your detection range, else you might notice something wrong when it's too late." He was giving her good advice. Energy-blocking objects like the door were more common than she imagined.

"Yes, Patriarch!"

"Let's keep going at the same speed, but be alert for an ambush. What energy stone golems specialize in?"

She replied quickly. "Golems' energy specializations are tied to the material they are made of. Stone golems are Earth Elementalists."

Shortly after, they turned a corner and saw the golems and the door.

The golems were as tall as a human teenager and looked like heaps of stones of all sizes put together. Their faces were badly sculpted ones, almost like an after-thought. They were both Two Star Elementalists armed with metal spears.

The door they were guarding was between them. It looked like solidified purple light and was made of Arcane Energy.

Even everyday magic items had no trouble interacting with different energies, as proven by the door stopping Alys' Space skill. It was really weird for her to gain such a wrong perspective on the matter.

As soon as the golems saw the group, they moved to the side to leave a free path to the door and bowed slightly. "Honored guests," said one in a thick, hoarse, and loud voice. The voice came from the general direction of the golem, but the sculpted mouth did not move. "Our master invites you in."

Aaron nodded. "All right. Let's continue, then."

Alys and Tia stopped at the door, unsure of what to do. It had had no handle and touching a spell or magical item with no knowledge of what it did was a terrible idea.

"Excuse me," said Aaron, passing between them and taking a dagger from his waist.

Having people waiting at closed doors was a common power play that Aaron despised. Either give people your time or deny it to them at once! The powerful could be arrogant if they were willing to deal with the consequences, but such pettiness was pathetic.

He would tell it to the golems' master very clearly. He decisively struck the door with his dagger, right at its main weak point, using all his strength. That simple attack was enough for the door to shatter like glass. Its shards seemed to fall in slow motion, fading before they reached the ground.

"How?!" said a golem.

"No!" cried the other in despair, falling to his knees on the floor.

They didn't attack though, so Aaron ignored them, sheathed the dagger, and turned to his group. "Stay behind me and remember what I taught you," he said. "If we find the Mouth-Man, attack as planned. If we find a Champion beast instead, run, also as planned."

Though he didn't think they would find a Champion here, the possibility still existed, and he would rather not die for dismissing it wrongly. As for running, it was the only choice. They clearly couldn't keep to the original plan — having Alys use a small portal to steal the sword — now that they were expected.

After alerting them, he went through the door.

On the other side, he found an ambush that was now useless because he had just destroyed the door that would seal them inside.

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"What about the Herald of Light?" asked the king. He was sitting alone in his study, holding a ring with two shattered inlaid crystal stones and an intact one.

"He just arrived, he's waiting outside the door," replied the man on the other side. He was the last key player involved in the operation of the Sky Splitter Sword.

"But how?! The caves are a maze! It should take him at least twice as long to arrive!"

"From what I have observed since he entered the caves, he has a keen energy sensitivity and exceptional experience in dealing with false trails. The false auras and marks, instead of confusing him, helped him come straight at us. The only trap they sprung was the Psychotic Pigs."

The fear in the king's heart only increased when he heard those words.

Hundreds of false auras had been placed throughout the cave to mess with detection skills and tracking instruments. Physical tracks of humans and beasts of all kinds led to countless different traps and dead ends.

However, there was also a single secret path that allowed someone with the right knowledge, like the king or the man talking to him, to move unhindered through the caves. The only point at which they needed to pass through beasts was the cave of the Psychotic Pigs, and the pigs were under mental control.

Or at least, they had been before Herald of Light killed the Mental Parasite.

Now, the herald had arrived at the location of the Sky Splitter Sword, but the ritual that would make the king a Protector of the Light — and therefore make the Goddess intervene on his behalf — would only happen tomorrow. If the Herald of Light believed that the king had attacked him again...

"Surrender at once!" shouted the king through the crystal. "Surrender and give him the sword! Give him anything he wants! Then escape as quickly as possible!"

The man took a while to answer, and when he did, his words made the king freeze.

"We have a problem. He just destroyed the Arcane Door, and the Mouth-Man attacked him."

The king's heart sped up in despair. "Order the Mouth-Man to stop immediately!"

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Aaron found himself in a cavernous stone-walled room, and the most noteworthy thing in it wasn't even the seven-floor pyramid made of purple Arcane Energy at its center.

No, the impressive thing in there was the army of golems. Hundreds of Two Star Golems in standby around the room, standing close to the walls. Hundreds more were on the pyramid itself, standing spaced along its entire length. Near the summit, there were ten Three Star Golems.

And on the flat top of the pyramid, the Four Star Mouth-Man stood beside a human.

Between both, piercing the pyramid's top and standing vertically, was a beautiful sword. Its blade was made of blue crystal, with many exquisite details carved throughout its length. The handle was made of white metal and delicate in appearance. Were it not for the abundance of Arcane Energy in the sword, anyone would consider it a mere decorative item, too fragile to be used in combat.

Aaron had finally reached the Sky Splitter Sword.

As he had suspected, there were no Champion beasts on sight, which made it a perverse trap. By spreading rumors of the Champion beast, whoever came would have the means to deal with it, which meant that only powerful, talented, creative, or well-equipped people would come.

When they arrived, however, they would encounter a trap formed by hundreds of golems and an Entropomancer, not a single Champion beast. Sometimes it was much easier to win against a single powerful enemy than against hundreds of weaker enemies!

Aaron observed the human. He was a One Star Qi Manipulator, a Three Star Elementalist, and a Four Star Vitamancer, dressed peculiarly: thick brown leather boots, dark gray workman's pants, and a white blouse with a brown leather vest full of engraved details and tan buttons. From his leather belt, on the right, hung a tool bag, and on the left, a golden watch chain that went into his pocket. Thick bronze-framed glass glasses hung from his neck and on his head, he wore a bronze-colored top hat with some metallic instruments glued to it, apparently by magnetism.

Everything about him screamed "steampunk engineer."

Aaron stopped walking shortly after entering the room and pointed to the man. "What in the seven hells is that?"

"A Soul Machinist!" Lana almost cried out in shock. "Patriarch, we have to kill him!"

Before Aaron could ask why, the Mouth-Man attacked. Suddenly, he appeared in front of Tia, and his ax didn't meet the resistance of a spatial shield as before.

The Mouth-Man was about to kill her!

However, Aaron had told the girls to stay behind him for that exact reason. The Mouth-Man had appeared next to Tia on the side opposite to Aaron and was already in the middle of the attack itself, but Aaron's body was filled with Qi.

He spun swiftly, much faster than mortal limits, and kicked Tia to the side, controlling the force so he wouldn't kill her.

The Mouth-Man saw that his attack was going to fail and disappeared from where he was, only to reappear in the direction in which Tia was being pushed toward. His ax was ready to decapitate her. But Aaron had already passed his leg over to Tia's other side and pulled her to him!

Tia ended up beneath Aaron, between his legs, where he could defend her perfectly against the Mouth-Man.

"Tia!" shouted Alys and erected shields way too late.

The Mouth-Man, having failed, was already back on top of the pyramid. The mouth appeared on his head.

"Kill!" he said in his high-pitched voice. "I want to kill you all so badly!

"Stop!" shouted the Soul Machinist to the Mouth-Man, then looked at Aaron. "The King of Illyria, Third Sentinel of the Southwest, Guardian of the Blue Ice Mountain, hundred and forty-third on the line of the Imperial Throne has a message for you."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

The Soul Machinist took a deep breath. "The King of Illyria asks for... forgiveness... and says he wants to compensate you for his past actions." A metal sheath full of inlaid precious stones and delicate carvings appeared in his hand, coming from the machinist's storage artifact, which wasn't on sight. He removed the sword from the top of the pyramid, sheathed it, and presented the sword in front of him with both hands. "He presents this Pinnacle Mystic weapon as proof of his goodwill and asks to meet with you in person to negotiate further compensation for previous disagreements."

Aaron frowned for a while, then his expression softened.

"Alys, make the sword float down here," he ordered, and she obeyed. "Lana, what were you saying about killing that man?"

Tia, once again shocked by getting so close to death, kept to the floor under Aaron's spread legs, who didn't seem to care about their strange position.

The Mouth-Man turned to the Soul Machinist and started arguing in a low voice. Aaron could hear what they were saying, but everything could be nothing more than a ploy to let his guard down. He barely paid attention to the Mouth-Man complaining about the orders to stop, or the Soul Machinist insisting that the king was the one who had given the order.

"Soul Machinists are immoral monsters, carnifexes in all but name!" replied Lana "They steal the souls of other beings, enslave them, and place them inside lifeless constructs! They compel said souls to obey like slaves for hundreds or even thousands of years!"

Aaron frowned. That was a really serious complaint. Enslaving innocent beings was, at the very least, a questionable act.

However, although the man had a certain death aura around himself, it was nothing too intense or too cruel. Even if he had killed some beings for their souls, it hadn't been anything too excessive.

At first glance, Aaron had no reason to attack. He was no hero of justice going around the world righting its wrongs. Not only was this his personal decision on how to live his life, but he also needed to consider the Cage. If he showed himself to be a huge advocate of justice whenever he saw something wrong happening, the Cage could wonder if Aaron had noble reasons for coming to this universe, like the destruction of the Cage itself.

That said, he couldn't simply ignore Lana's request. A wise Patriarch didn't do everything the members of the clan asked of him, but when his own maid asked for something in the name of justice and her reasons were reasonable, he needed to at least consider it.

The Mouth-Man could wait to die until Aaron finished questioning the Soul Machinist anyway.

He raised his voice. "Hey, Soul Machinist!" The man and the Mouth-Man looked at him. "Do you kill living beings to steal their souls?"