“The mistake of one resulted in the end of all. The burden became the greatest mankind had ever seen. In the end, we were forced to bear the responsibility of our own doom. War was only the beginning. What came next, was the calm void. The silent withering of all things. Life was pushed back from this land, for it had become the territory of death.

-fragment of an ancient stone tablet”

* * *

Erin

“Around here will do,” Azcheron said, pointing to a tall dune, as he was crouching on the sand.

“Think they'll take the bait ? They do seem pretty busy with... whatever they're busy with,” Erin wondered.

“I trust they'll be rushing toward you soon enough, seeing how the first one was very eager to trample on our bodies. Maybe they're stuck with some annoying order like 'smash all invaders' or they have a conscience of some sort, and they don't like having people in their desert.”

Yeah, not that I'm exactly longing for these things to pursue me, but...

“Alright then, how do I lure them ? We're quite far. I can't reach them with by bow and I don't know if they'll even notice me from their location.”

Azcheron 'reassured' her. “Again, the first one spotted us from even farther than that. I think they have a good vision, or whatever they use to perceive their surroundings. And if it doesn't work I'll cast something to draw their attention on you. Don't worry, one way or the other we'll make them come.”

“Yes, great. I'm so glad,” she grumbled.

The plan was simple. Erin would stand on an elevated dune, where she would be spotted by the golems. The inhabitants of the Desolate Lands being very zealous in their slaughter of trespassers, they would without a doubt come to Erin with the intent of repeatedly jumping on her until extreme flattening ensues. Here came the trick ! Before Erin encountered a weighty demise, the golems themselves would encounter highly potent explosives, conveniently laying around on their way, triggered by Azcheron's flame. Meanwhile, the small golem with bits of civilization stuck in its body would find itself immobilized by Azcheron's magic, as to avoid being annihilated by the bombs along with its colleagues.

Azcheron insisted that if something went awry, he'd take care of it with magic. Erin still felt uneasy.

I do trust him with this plan, but there's no way anyone would ever merrily agree to this role. My new role, the best role, in this fantastic play. The human bait, Erin. Soon-to-be Organic-matter-stuck-to-the-sole-of-a-giant-foot, pleased to meet you.

“Well, time to get things done,” she finally said as she left Azcheron and went to the dune they had chosen. She glanced at the sun, and realized they had lost a lot of time in getting closer and designing a plan. It was already late in the afternoon.

This better be working or else it'll be one day and one life, mine, spent for nothing.

Once on her vantage point, she had a clear sight of the desert, and the golems in the distance. Yes, it was definitely too far for a bow. Maybe they should have set the trap closer, in fact. It'd take several minutes for the golems to arrive, if they were as fast as a horse at full speed. But they went all-out with the explosives this time, because they were spread in a large area. It wouldn't do for a golem to survive because Azcheron failed to ignite the bombs at the right moment. Waste of mana even if he managed to destroy it immediately after, waste of Erin if he didn't.

Now she realized she really had no idea what to do to catch the golems' attention. Maybe wave ? Maybe jump and scream ? Azcheron would think she went mad. As she was thinking that, he shouted. Asking for her to close her eyes, apparently. She complied, and even with her eyelids closed she felt a sudden brightness. Once she was sure the light was gone, she opened her eyes and glanced at Azcheron. He was waving and pointing toward the golems. They were running, now. In Erin's direction, of course, because even a blind man would have felt the flash casted by the Saint.

Now was the hard part, waiting and hoping for the plan to work. Already she noticed that the small golem stayed behind. No, it was more like he was coming, but much more slowly than the other two. She could not see why, it was too far, was it Azcheron's magic at hand ? At this range, it was unexpected. As always, the Saint was impressive.

A few minutes passed, and the golems would soon arrive to the trap location. Erin glanced yet again toward Azcheron, who nodded and went to hide behind a dune, and she did the same. They expected the explosion to be massive, and every bit of protection would be gladly accepted. Since Azcheron knew the location of the bombs, and the magic necessary to ignite them was simple, he could do it without even looking.

A moment after, Azcheron triggered the trap. A much more brighter and louder explosion than before. The ground shook, and the deflagration blasted sand and air with immense strength. She saw the top of a dune collapsing onto Azcheron, and it made her chuckle even though the moment was fairly inappropriate. Then the shockwave came and she found herself buried too. She managed to get out without trouble, thankfully.

Erin looked at the sky. It was darkened by a massive cloud of dust. The rumble was still echoing through the desert, but it should be more or less safe by now. She walked back to the vantage point, which was a lot less high than it used to be, to witness the results of the explosion.

The large pillar of dark smoke could be seen emerging from the ground, in the distance. The land around it was completely different. Erin had been told about how from time to time, stars and celestial bodies would fall from the sky, crashing into the human realm, causing destruction and chaos upon impact. If she had to guess how it must have looked, then this had to be the perfect image. A crater of burnt ground, and a huge grey cloud. The scene was mighty and frightening.

What came next was something that made her even more frightened. One of the golems was still running. Chunks of it were missing and it was charred, but it was moving, and coming toward her.

How !? Did Azcheron mess up ? But the explosion should have been big enough ! Maybe there are indeed different types and this one is much more resilient ? Shit !

“Azcheron !” she called out, but there was no answer. He must have been – again – still buried somewhere under the sand, and now the landscape had changed so much, even here, that she had no idea where he could be. She briefly tried to search for him, but the golem was approaching at a fast pace.

Well, no time to think for now. I'll lure this thing away from here. It'd be so stupid if Azcheron died because a golem unknowingly stomped on the sand he was buried under... Still, how careless can this guy get ?

She started to run, and in the corner of her eye she could see the golem adjusting its course to follow her. Good. Was it good, though ? Erin wasn't sure what she could do in this situation. She had no bombs or explosive arrows, not that she had anything to light them or that she felt they could be effective against a golem that survived something that massive.

From here, she wasn't able to assert what the small golem was doing. Thus there was no way to know if he was still restrained, or running freely, in which case it would been that Azcheron was unconscious or had interrupted his spell for some other reason.

Erin tried to think of a solution. The golem pursuing her was sturdier than the others, and she had no explosives or weapon that could even make a dent in regular stone. She would not manage to outrun him, and she didn't know enough about golems to devise a plan based on their ability. She didn't know if they could get tired, she didn't know the method they used to see or feel the land and their target. The first plan that came to mind was to find a crevice or any sort of large hole, and to lure the stone golem as to make it fall in it. But she didn't know if there was any crevice around here, she couldn't afford to search because she didn't have the stamina nor the speed for this, and even then there was no guarantee that the golem would fall blindly for her trap.

The second plan was to find Azcheron. But with, worst case scenario, two golems trying to kill her, the idea was suicidal. If she could find a way to hide or to sneak away, she could gain enough time, but she didn't really want to try because the cost of failure was very high. Well, she'd die, basically.

So many interesting prospects. I should never have agreed to this plan. Now, now, Azcheron, isn't time for you to make your appearance and save the damsel in distress !? You bastard.

She kept running for a while, and at some point she didn't really care about her direction or anything. Her main concern was to keep the running golem away from everyone else. Not in an altruistic sacrificial behaviour of some sort, no. She still somehow hoped that she would stumble upon a proper solution regarding her stony, noisy, rocky issue.

The sky had an orange tint. How many times had Erin seen the setting sun with Azcheron, now ? She remembered it was like this when they first met. She was in a vaguely hopeless situation, but somehow she didn't feel like losing heart or resigning herself. The circumstances were the more or less the same now.

She glanced behind her. The golem was close, now. She hadn't noticed until now the deafening stomping sound that had been slowly, but gradually, getting closer. Yes, she was really too tired. Surely Azcheron would save her again. He had to, seeing as he was fairly guilty of endangering her, this time.

Run. Keep running. Do not falter. Even if it's meaningless, run.

Or else, despair will get to you, she thought to herself.

There was a faint flash coming from behind. Finally, she thought. Finally. Were you trying to build up tension or create a dramatic effect ? Well it didn't work. I already expected you to rescue me. God-damn jerk.

She looked at her pursuer once again, only to witness an enormous sphere of light where the golem should have been, that disappeared a split-second after. The stone giant – or the small chunks of legs that remained of it – crumbled in almost complete silence. The legs looked like they were cut clean. The noise of rocks falling on the sand felt soft and pitiful, compared to the loud stomping that was occurring until mere moments ago.

Erin halted her course. She was extenuated and drenched in sweat. She spotted Azcheron running toward her at an abnormal speed. Manasprint, she figured. He slowed down as he closed in on her. He also seemed all sweaty and tired from running. They stood here, observing each other for a time, before Erin spoke up.

“You're late. Fashionably late ?”

Azcheron knitted his brows. “No... Sorry. That was careless of me, getting buried again. I'm starting to hate sand.” He seemed almost regretful.

Erin snorted. “Heh.” She observed the spare rocks that were the remain of the golem. “What was that spell ? There was no sound, no explosion, nothing.”

“It was a mana orb. A big one, though. You'd use that to get rid of armies or castle walls, usually.”

“Ooh. Isn't it overkill, somehow ?”

“I...” He casted his gaze downward. “...almost panicked. A bit. I searched for you like a madman and when I finally spotted you I thought you were about to be gruesomely flattened.”

She smirked. No way she'd say something sweet like 'don't worry, I knew you would save me'. The jerk deserved to feel guilt. At this rate, she indeed would have been flattened, after all.

“Yes, yes, I thought about cursing you in my last moments. I almost died, you know, and it's your fault. That's an unforgivable thing to do to a lady of the Verald house,” Erin mocked, crossing her arms and trying to sound serious. She caught Azcheron flashing a smile.

Hehe. Too much ? Looks like the Verald thing crushed any remaining credibility I had.

“Why the heck did you even run so far, anyway ?” He was back to his usual self.

“To purposely make my rescue even more annoying and difficult, of course. You looked like you were craving for some challenge.” She looked once again at the golem's rocks. “You really don't need explosives, eh ? This one survived that cataclysmic explosion, yet you crushed it effortlessly.”

“Yeah... But the spell I used is rather taxing, you're not supposed to cast it with your own mana. And I honestly didn't expect anything to resist our trap.”

He does look tired. He also had to use magic to search for me. And... ah, that's right.

“What about the small one ?”

“I dealt with it. I just severed its limbs because restraining it while saving you was too much of a hassle.”

“Is it still... alive ? Functioning ?”

“I have no idea. But I left it in a rather good state so we should still be able to study it. Well, we need to find the others first.”

Hah. Can't I even rest ? Golems and explosions are the least of my concerns, I'll die from overwork at this rate.