Maybe i didn’t explain myself clearly enough. The Animus are not only able to make use of an innate high-level perception ability. They can even learn to use high-level magic, and, given the right materials, build for themselves whatever body they desire.

Such power, and invariably coupled with lunacy?

No, Archmage, don’t say anything else. Our decision is final. Just the ethical implications would be enough, but what i have just said only makes it more obvious. We won’t risk Our subjects’ safety by endorsing the creation of machines that will invariably turn against Us. Let it be known here and now that We forbid the construction of Animus in all the lands under Our rule. This will be held under penalty of death.

May man not tangle with matters beyond his station. We the King, have spoken.

King Joseph the Third, High King of Truvia

Gorren registered Pip’s recognition, but pushed back his surprise. He threw a lightning-fast glance around, taking in his new sorroundings physically as well as spiritually.

He was in a spacious hall, almost sterile in its complete bareness. But there was enough light to see at least. With a sick, greenish cast, it seemed to emanate from the air itself, reflecting upon dancing, dust-like motes.

Gorren’s thoughts flickered over the immense quantity of dispersed Mana needed to kickstart and maintain the spontaneous accretion of even so minuscule Crystals in the air; then smoothly flowed to address the supposed Master of that shadow realm, the intelligence that had tried to kill him from the moment he stepped inside of the research wing.

Quandar’s avatar was massive, but not as much as he expected. Easily reaching three meters in height, it looked like a man; that is, if a man was made of plates of seemingly cast-off scrap metal hammered into a vague humanoid form, and that form had all the wrong proportions. One leg was thin and ended in a point, the other was uselessly long and only a double knee avoided awkward misalignment. An arm was enormous, almost as thick as the torso, with a massive hand reaching the ground; the other was but a jagged stump of metal. Greenish energy filtered out from between each plate of that grotesque body.

There was no neck. Green tinted light emerged from a hole in the torso like from a beacon, forming up into a clump around which the iron bits forming the head orbited. They didn‘t make for a complete form, allowing for green electrical discharges to flicker out, and to peer in the maelstrom of energies contained inside; like if the once-complete head had been crushed under a tremendous force and now only the energy inside kept the pieces from falling away. Thick iron cables jutted out from the back of the head, running down to reach the floor like some twisted mane of hair.

But what really defined Quandar, what revealed him for the mad intelligence that he was, was his face; a rickety, twisted approximation of human features, hammered out of metal bits and at that moment twisted in an expression of absolute maddened fury. There was no need to perceive the mad, angry power that emanated from the construct like heat from a forge to guess his mood; it was enough to look at the two furious green lights that glowered out from two faux-sockets.

Trough their mental bond, Gorren felt Pip’s absolute terror. There was no compromise there, no bargaining, no resistance. The weaker Animus was completely, absolutely powerless before Quandar.

In short, useless to him at that moment.

Before she could say anything bothersome, he sealed her, and then secreted her back in his cloak.

Free from that distraction, he gazed over his opponent. Irritating enough, the craftsmanship of the construct baffled him. Despite its apparently shoddy appearance, a quick glance was enough to say that it was leagues above and beyond what he could build golem-wise. To realize that it was extremely powerful there wasn’t even a need for that. The power of Quandar scraped against his perceptions with its intensity.

Umph.

“You surprise me.” He said. “After all that bluster, i expected to find many more defenses before reaching you.” He narrowed his eyes. “Or it’s just that your rage overwhelmed your better reasoning?”

Quandar didn’t answer. He just kept looking with that hateful gaze of his. He was trembling all over, Gorren noticed.

A deep hum gathered in the air, like the growl of something enormous coming from under the earth. It rose in intensity, setting the motes of greenish light in agitation.

Gorren realized that it came from Quandar. It was his growing snarl. A moment later, the construct let loose a deafening howl, a crazy sound that it was a mix of grating iron and a chorus of beasts.

Without warning, he exploded into action. He dashed forward, devouring the distance.

Gorren barely had the time to whip out his arms and summon a barrier before the massive golem slammed against him.

He grunted at the jolt shaking his bones, but his barrier held. Unable to hold his ground, he was launched backward, slamming against the wall. Quandar crowded against his barrier.

“You must think yourself pretty slick, don’t you?” Quandar barked, looming over him. The bits forming his face moved with unnatural smoothness to form words, but his shrill voice grated over the ears. “Skittering about my Kingdom. Breaking my servants. Uh? Uh?!?” The barrier fizzled angrily where he pushed against it, but if the red and green crackles of energy intermingling and running across his metal skin gave him any discomfort, he didn’t show it.

Unpassive, Gorren held him at bay with his barrier. His mind ran with calculations about energy outputs, his and Quandar’s.

“You must think i am stupid! You really must! That i can’t even stop a single rat from doing whatever he wants. Uh? Uh?” The construct sounded livid.

Gorren reinforced his barrier, pushing him slightly back.

“Those are just the questions that a fool would ask.”

Quandar howled in outrage, and swung his massive fist.

Gorren let go of his barrier and moved aside. The blow smashed the wall into a cloud of dust and debris that enveloped him. With the sound of crumbling masonry deafening him, Gorren dashed out the way and back toward the center of the hall.

He glimpsed a greenish glow with his peripheral vision. Out of instinct, he dropped on all four. Something fizzled the air where his head had been only a moment earlier, then disappeared as fast as it had come.

A projectile?

Gorren slid to a stop, the tiles of the floor cracking under his feet.

Quandar emerged from the dust, green energy crackling all over his body.

Gorren lifted both of his hands into a ready stance. “Stop this foolishness.” He said. “I mean you no harm.”

Quandar spluttered a harsh laughter. “Sure, right! You entered into my land, broke my defenses and you meant nothing bad! Right!” He stomped hard, his foot sinking into the floor like a knife through butter. “Are you taking me for an idiot? Uh?”

Gorren felt irritation flicker. “You and your watchdog attacked me, fool. And then you didn’t give me time to explain before letting loose with your stupid snipers. I only want to…”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” The massive construct stomped his feet like a child during a tantrum. “I don’t care what you want, i don’t care!” He pointed a long finger against him. “Whoever dares to step inside my domain dies! And that’s it! It won’t ever change! It will always be like this! Do you hear me? Forever! And ever and ever and ever!”

Gorren gritted his teeth. There was no reasoning with that bucket of rust.

“If you don’t submit, you will perish.” He hissed, anger flaring. He was close to finally answering the questions that had haunted him. He hadn’t time to pander to the raving of a crazy machine.

If possible, Quandar was even more enraged. “You dare to step into my Kingdom and now you threaten me?!?” He stomped his feet. “You will see! I will teach you! How things work inside of here! I will make you see!” Still screeching, he turned aside and pointed the stump of his left arm forward.

The sudden built-up of energy hit Gorren like a brick. He dodged aside, as greenish light accumulated in the hole at the tip of the stump. A split second after there was a snap, and a green projectile exploded outward.

As he felt heat sear a side of his face, Gorren realized his mistake. It wasn’t a projectile.

Like a bolt of lightning that had been stopped and compressed, a spear of greenish energy protruded from the stump.

Perceiving movement at his side, Gorren whirled around and raised a barrier. A massive hand of the same greenish energy slammed against him. Fingers half his chest thick curled around his barrier, crackling fiercely where their energy clashed with the barrier‘s.

“Let’s see if being roasted alive cut that insolence out of you!” He heard Quandar jeer.

He’d have loved a disdainful reply, but his barrier was being pressed hard, and he had to focus on it. Even though its defense, he could feel the searing heat of the talons constricting him. No doubt about it, that was pure, high-level Lightning Mana, compressed and held into a material form. If it touched him, he didn’t foresee his flesh to be punctured as much as just sizzling away.

He curled his lip, forcing more energy against the mounting pressure.

The fingers scraped against his barrier, eliciting a storm of sparks. Gorren grunted, surprised by their strength. He tried to break the hold by pushing outward with his barrier, but soon realized that it was a lost endeavor. That squeeze was too powerful.

“Let’s see how a rat burn! Come on!”

Gorren liked to think of himself as a relatively patient person when it came to idiots. But Quandar was really pushing it.

He grunted again, and pushed harder. His eyes turned a glowing blood red, the light projecting shadows over his face. Under his efforts, the barrier pushed back the fingers, but still couldn’t break their hold.

It didn’t matter.

Suddenly, Gorren let go of his barrier. The claws snapped shut, but too late. Projected by his telekinesis, he was already flying in the air.

“What?”

Trying not to get too satisfaction from Quandar’s surprise, he vaulted and dashed toward him.

The energy arm swung, trying to catch him, but he vaulted over it.

“Not so fast!” Quandar screeched, and stomped down with his larger foot.

Gorren felt the surge of Mana a moment before the floor erupted. Debris pelted him, followed by a mass of metal spikes. One took him at the stomach, punching out the air from his lungs.

He was thrown upward, and before he could reassert control over his momentum the energy hand came swinging.

Gorren summoned a barrier and braced himself for impact.

The blow was terrifying. Pain exploded in his chest, and he was sent careening through the air. Spinning, he lashed out with his mind, reasserting control. He stopped a hairbreadth away from the wall, just in time to see the hand cover his vision.

With a yell, he threw out his hands, blasting it away with a focused wave of force.

Falling down on all four, he whipped out with his hand, unleashing three globes of darkness in rapid succession.

Quandar roared in outrage, and threw out his massive hand, enveloped by green energy. The spheres exploded against the gigantic palm. Black flames lashed out only to be smothered when Quandar slammed his hand against the floor.

Gorren and the construct exchanged a split-second look, cold and unpassive the first, rabidly angry the latter.

As the gloving hand disappeared, Gorren started running.

He traced a quick path perpendicular to Quandar’s position, his gaze never leaving his opponent. On his part, the construct remained still, following him with the muzzle of his arm-cannon.

When the Mana surge hit, Gorren was ready.

He jumped, the energy hand punching the air under him, and unleashed three dark spheres. One shot forward, the others traced curved trajectories.

Quandar slapped the first out of the air, but couldn’t avoid being hit by the others. Black flames raged against his body, blackening and scorching plates. With a screech, he put them out by unleashing a blast of greenish energy.

Gorren was already gone by then, slipping through conjured shadows.

“I told you!” Quandar screeched with malicious glee. “I can see you!”

His hand swept through the darkness, forcing Gorren to roll out of the way.

“I can always see you!”

The hand swept close by, bathing him in blistering heat. Gorren gritted his teeth. Raising both hands, he stopped an overhead blow with a barrier, the two energies clashing fiercely. Grunting with exertion, he pushed the hand away and whirled around, unleashing dark spheres one after the other.

A trail of spikes shot out of the floor. They blocked some of the spheres, exploding in black flames, but some passed.

“See?!” Quandar screamed, even as the spheres exploded against him. “I told you! The land itself raises to defend me! You fight the Lord of this Kingdom!”

As he laughed, the hand retracted, merging into a swollen mass of greenish energy. Quandar let out a sound of exertion. The greenish clump inflated, became an enormous mass.

Gorren narrowed his eyes, and moved. A torrent of raging energy enveloped him. The attack engulfed half of the hall, setting the air aflame. The tiles cracked under the heat, and splintered as the lightning cursed them. When the blast subsided, only a twenty-meter wide blackened mark remained.

Quandar laughed and whooped at the devastation. “What do you say now? Eh? What?”

“That you talk too much.”

The construct’s head snapped to look down, features twisting in surprise.

Body still tensed from a dash, a glowing hand drawn back, Gorren was there, frowning fiercely at him. As much as Quandar seemed able to always find him, he couldn’t keep up with his presence when the Mana raged under such a huge attack. Sneaking away while letting a shadow taking the brunt of it was but a puerile exercise.

Almost point-black, Gorren unleashed his energy against the construct.

Quandar screamed as he was blasted away. He slammed against the wall, debris scattering around him. Almost immediately, he tried to move, but telekinetic bands of force appeared around his limbs, constricting him. The construct bellowed in outrage and struggled, but couldn’t free himself.

“Submit.” Gorren hissed. His hands glowed with a fierce red light as he pointed them against the struggling machine.

“No! No! No!” Quandar only redoubled his efforts. “You don’t get it!” He said, almost like he was trying to explain something obvious. “You enter in here. I kill you. These are the rules!”

Gorren clenched his muscles, struggling to contain that mad machine.

“I don’t care about no rule, you stupid bag of bolts. You will submit.”

Quandar snarled and screeched, growled and wheezed, refusing to obey.

Gorren flinched, and reasserted his bonds. He was going to keep him there until the end of time if necessary. “I don’t care about you or your stuff, you fool!” He said. “I just want to know what you were doing in here before the Catastrophe struck!”

It was like he had thrown a switch.

Quandar immediately fell motionless. Gorren blinked, taken aback. The construct’s frenzy was gone, replaced by a surprised expression. Quandar was watching him like he was seeing him for the first time.

“You…” The Animus sounded almost dazed.

Gorren felt a flicker of hope. Maybe he could resolve that matter peacefully.

He was still formulating that thought when Quandar exploded.

“So that’s how it is!” The Animus roared, his voice reaching such an intensity that Gorren stepped back out of instinct. “You’re Him!”

He gathered up his limbs and, with a mighty roar, his body surged with blinding energy.

Gorren felt his mental tethers snap. Taken aback by the sudden surge, he threw a full-power barrier, just in time to catch Quandar’s massive form slamming against him. The blow sent him staggering back, but he held on, facing the construct.

“This is why!” Quandar screeched, the barrier fizzling against the metal bits of his face. “This is why you managed to pass through my defenses! You’re Him!” There was such poison beyond that accusation that even Gorren had to take notice.

“Him? The hell are you talking about?” He said through gritted teeth, pushing back against the construct’s bulk.

Lost in his frenzy, Quandar wasn’t listening to him anymore. “He told me you would come! And I’ve prepared! For one hundred years! You won’t manage to destroy me! He told me you would try! You will fail! I am prepared!”

Gorren didn’t understand a word of what he was saying, and was just about done with the nonsense that busted machine kept spouting out.

He unleashed a wave of force, sending him staggering back in a storm of imprecations. He followed up, but Quandar’s mana flared once again. A thicket of spikes, each as thick as his torso, stabbed out of the ground. They smashed themselves to pieces against his armor, but he was forced to stop his attack.

Quandar didn’t lose the chance. With a speed belying his bulk, he jumped away, putting distance between them. He barely touched the ground that he was stomping toward the exit of the hall.

Alarmed, Gorren smashed his way through the spikes. There was too much that rust-bucket had to explain to let him escape. With an angry snarl, he took flight, bypassing the obstacle entirely.

Passing through the doors, he found himself into a spacious corridor. It branched left and right in the middle, but Gorren had eyes only for the central path, where Quandar was shambling away.

“Stop!”

Gorren flew after him.

Despite being forced to hobble by his mismatched limbs, the construct moved with a surprising speed. Still, Gorren was sure he could catch him. Almost if hearing that thought, Quandar lashed out, hitting the wall with his massive arm.

With the cracks of crumbling masonry, a multitude of spikes exploded out of the walls, instantly obstructing the passage.

Gorren found himself hampered, and was forced to smash his way through. When he managed to pass, he had a glimpse of Quandar’s slipping through the exit of the corridor.

He followed him, but as he passed the threshold he came to an abrupt stop.

He found himself on a stone shelf, watching down on a vast depression. The place was enormous, large enough to pass for a small valley, its sides made-up of crumbling masonry, a sign that it had formed after a massive collapse.

Gorren blinked in disbelief at the ramshackle fortress occupying the center of that strange place. He saw battlements and towers built out of scraps, all manned by the motionless forms of who knew how many golems. They had to be hundreds.

A movement down there attracted his attention.

Gorren’s eyes widened as he realized that it was Quandar, the construct unleashing cascades of dust and rubble as he ran toward the fortress, shrieking and jibbering.

He hadn’t the chance to move that whatever Quandar was shouting found an ear. The fortress seemed to power up, a deep hum starting to emanate from it as the golems started to move.

Gorren noticed cannons being brought to bear, while dozens of snipers took positions.

He hesitated. He was so close! So close to finding some answers!

A projectile thundered through the air, exploding against the crest leading to where he was. Gorren saw the plume of earth raised by the blow with gritted teeth. No, it was impossible. That place was impregnable.

It was a hard pill to swallow.

With a snarl, he kicked a stone, sending it flying against the fortress. Furious, he turned and retreated back inside.