The gigantic golden statue resembled Selt to a tee, the only exception being the strange choice of gold as the material where Selt was almost completely black. Not only that, the pressure and essence that it exuded was almost exactly the same as his.

“Hey, Selt,” Sett whispered as to not arouse the suspicion of the fighting forces. “Do you by chance know anything about this colossal construct?”

‘Mine kindred, I believe that it would be in your best interest to think the words that you wish to convey to me, lest you appear to be a lunatic or a fool to the public.’

Sett felt foolish but was glad that the surroundings were too loud for anyone to hear his words. That being said, he felt great knowing that he could access his newfound arcane dictionary any time he wanted to, even if he was out in public.

‘And yes. The construct does indeed appear to be made in my likeness…’ Selt fell into thought for a few seconds. ‘Yes. If my mind does not fail me, I believe my followers assisted me in constructing this construct in my defense shortly before my altercation with my sister. Naturally, it was never used due to the fact that all my followers died. It has been so many years since I last infused my essence into it, I am frankly surprised that it still has the ability to move.”

It was not just a fluke that the construct looked exactly like Selt. It was because it had been made by his followers many ages past. This also meant that the vampires were only borrowing the power of Selt.

‘How is the crusader’s chances, Selt?’

Sett could not help but ask Selt’s opinion on the matter.

‘The crusader named Thomas is indeed of the third tier, but he is akin to a newborn bird. He does not yet know how to control his powers. Though the construct is only running at a small fraction of its original power, it is nonetheless something that I constructed in my prime. The crusader will not stand a chance at winning.’

Sett blanched. If the crusader lost, would that not mean that nothing would change. Would they not still be the prisoners of the vampires?

While the two spoke secretly in his mind, the combatants had finished their preparations. One golden statue without any emotion faced a man with sweat dripping down his forehead.

Then, without warning, the fight started. The golden statue's face split open in a moment, revealing a pitch-black crystal within it. It braced itself and fired an enormous beam of pure darkness that put the beams of light that the crusaders had used earlier to shame.

Wherever this beam went, destruction would surely follow. Hitting the reinforced stones, that made up the flooring of the great hall, it tore them apart as if it were playdough creating a huge chasm.

The beam arrived so quickly that Crusader Thomas barely had any time to react. Quickly putting one foot before the other and his shield in front of his body, the crusader enacted a haphazard defense.

The beam struck the shield with unbridled fury, sending shockwaves scattering into every crevice of the room. Thankfully, Sett and the other sacrifices were quite a bit away from the action. Even so, Sett still felt the reverberating shockwaves collide heavily with his body, creating a wild sense of discomfort.

Sett looked around to his fellow sacrifices. He felt glad that they had not yet awakened from their time in the heart of darkness, lest they find themselves in a new world of hurt. Still, it did not diminish the fact that they were likely to have internal injuries from the shock waves.

Shifting his vision once again, Sett saw the corps of crusaders approaching the platform. They were walking to the sides of the room careful not to disturb the fight that was happening in the middle. Luckily, the vampires did not appear to want to prevent the crusaders from approaching the sacrifices.

Safe to say that Sett would be quite infuriated to see the sacrifices he had gone through so much to save, be killed in the crossfire from a battle that happened hundreds of meters away.

Meanwhile, the battle pressed on. Crusader Thomas was no pushover and had hidden means as well. Being pressed down into the ground, he activated some function of his shield. It immediately radiated with great gusts of light, seemingly aiding and stabilizing the crusader against the attack.

Sett recognized the energy. He had, after all, felt the essence of the energy in his own body. It was light energy, the polar opposite of darkness. Thus, it was the perfect energy to cancel out the powers of darkness. But it was not enough. It was far from enough.

The beam attack of the golden construct lasted for more than thirty seconds and every second crusader Thomas was being pressed further and further down. At the last moment, before he looked like he was going to falter, the beam ceased.

The battle ceased for a moment as the two forces waited to gather their strength. The crusader looked horrible. He kept his stoic face, but it was clear from his posture and his slumped shield that he was not in any kind of ideal condition. The construct, living up to its non-living standards, looked barely faced. It simply stood still with the core in its head charging up for a second attack.

It was clear for all to see that the crusader could not take a single attack more.

“My goodness, Crusader Thomas. It appears that you are almost beaten.” The voice of the former master made it clear he was relishing in the crusader’s misfortune. “Surrender now and I will allow you to have a whole corpse.”

“Never!” Crusader Thomas spoke through gritted teeth, his anger and hate for Elias rising to unimaginable levels. “I will never surrender to the forces of darkness!”

Sett felt his heart beating faster. If there ever was anyone that Sett truly admired, it was this man. A warrior who spat in the face of defeat. A man who would sacrifice his own life so that others could escape. In the future, Sett would endeavour to be like that man. But how could he learn to be like that man, if he was not around to learn of his mannerisms?

Sett knew, right then and there, that he had to save the man. But how? He was, in Selt’s own words, a weakling. He would not even be able to fight against the vampire master, let alone the construct.

Sett paused as another path of action emerged in his mind. What if he did not have to fight the enemy? What if he could affect the construct in any other kind of way?

Finally, Sett saw the light of hope once again. Or rather the darkness of hope. Sett’s thought process had been trapped in that of his old life, he needed to think like an ascendant. The very same dark essence that coursed through his veins, resided in the construct as well. If he could control the former realm of Selt, would he not be able to control or at least disrupt the construct that Selt had made?

Submerging himself into his mind, Sett did not even notice the hands of the crusaders that had come to bring him away.

He was right. Sett almost yelled out in delight. He could easily locate and feel the construct with his mind. It was like a beacon in the stormy night. Sett’s mind quickly arrived before the mighty thing.

Sadly, he quickly noticed a problem. His mind was not the only one here. There were, in fact, countless others. It was more than likely to be those of the vampires. Odds were that they had transferred their minds when they infused their blood into the construct. Each of the vampires controlled a body part, ensuring that the mighty construct moved without Selt’s input.

That explained a lot of things. Sett would never have expected something that was made in the image of a god to be so… clunky. Their subpar coordination afforded the crusader with single a pivotal advantage since the construct could not move or fight with hand-to-hand combat. Still, the dark energy beam was more than enough for the vampires to secure their victory against their foe.

But how would he deal with the vampires? Sett had never fought with his mind and he had no idea where to even start.

‘Mine kindred. Do not think so little of me.’ Selt who had chosen to remain quiet throughout most of the battle butted in. ‘This construct was made at the height of civilization. Unlike the archaic ones, this one has the forethought of countless engineers built into it. Though the so-called vampires have managed to suppress the failsafe protocols, they still exist beneath the vampire’s foolish magic.’

The words of Selt had given Sett an objective. Uncover the failsafe.

‘But how do I trigger the failsafe?’

Sett simply could not make sense of the construct that simply appeared as a slab of darkness in front of his eyes.

‘Just hit it with all your power. It should reboot after that.’

Sett blinked. Since then, had the archaic god of darkness turned into a muscle-headed IT person? Was this not like asking him to turn the computer off and on again? It felt wrong to treat a magical construct like a simple laptop. But then again, the world of magic was likely to have to advance in the same way as the mortal world technology did.

Still, to hit it with all his power was a bit above what he would have imagined. He would have perhaps have thought that he would have to wage war on the vampires’ minds, but not this.

Sadly, there was no time to figure out another solution, never mind how much Sett wanted it. In the great hall, the construct had charged almost all the way up, evident by the swirling black energy that clustered around the core.

It was just about to fire, something that Sett could not allow.

Sett sighed and hoped. Hoped that this was not a truly bad idea. Then he transferred all the power he had in his body directly to the construct. It was comparatively much easier than he would have thought. He was, after all, a few hundreds of meters away from the machine. He could only chalk it up to the fact that he and the machine were connected via the dark essence.

In Sett’s mind’s eye, the construct lit up like a black beacon when the energy he had summoned collided with it. The vampires’ minds that had been attached to it immediately yelled out in pain as their consciousness was flung away from the machine and straight back into their bodies. In the material world, the vampires looked to have collapsed without any reason.

The golden construct then dimmed greatly. It would seem that Sett had succeeded.

The outside world was filled with confusion on both the vampire’s side and the crusader’s side. The crusaders that had been ferrying the sacrifices out of the building had even paused in their work to stare wide-eyed at the scene. One could not fault them, only moments before they were about to lose their superior and now the mighty executioner had suddenly stopped mid-strike.

There were only two people in the room that only stared at the construct for a few moments. The moment after it dropped, they immediately directed their eyes in Sett’s direction. Those eyes were naturally Crusader Thomas and the former master. One pair of eyes was filled with wonder and the other rage.

Sett gulped and immediately tried to act like the other sacrifices, pretending to be passed out completely. He wanted to curse out loud. The two ascendants had felt his interference.

Of course, they could feel him overloading the construct with his power, even Sett, who was a newcomer to the field of magic, could figure that out and yet Selt had advised him to do it anyway. Was Selt not the one who told him to be as inconspicuous as possible?

One problem had been solved and yet another one arrived at his doorstep. At this moment, Sett longed for his former peaceful and conflict-free life.