The damaged golem staggered to its feet.
The mana cannon, spent of ammunition, detached and fell.
It must have been separated as it became redundant.
"Ugh...?!"
The moment John's voice rang out, the golem lurched.
It managed to brace itself and avoid toppling, but its movements at the edges were unsteady.
It seemed a disruption had occurred in its mana circulation.
Malfunctions were beginning to manifest due to damage across its body.
Originally, a golem was a construct that operated almost on the level of a miracle.
He had never seen such a precise weapon before.
Therefore, even a slight deviation could lead to collapse.
The more the damage accumulated, the more pronounced its effect would be.
"Damn it..."
The golem halted its advance.
Unlike moments before, it did not launch a ferocious attack; it simply held its ground, poised.
It seemed to have realized that lashing out blindly was futile.
Its operator, John, was gripped by a strong sense of wariness.
(Magical cannon is out of ammunition, and the beams can be reflected. Teleportation-based evasion is also available nearly without limit.)
The golem's attacks had all been insufficient to kill me.
While I was inferior in pure strength, there was an undeniable gap in the versatility of my abilities.
Manufactured weapons possess definite limits.
No matter how much ingenuity is applied, they cannot escape their design framework.
The absence of any concept of growth is perhaps their most significant flaw.
"…………"
I let miasma seep from my body to supplement my melted flank and one arm.
The repaired sections felt more like wood than bone, but that was no real issue.
My miasma-shrouded hand moved without obstruction.
It would hold, at least until this battle was over.
Meanwhile, the golem had been watching my state.
Maintaining a proper distance, it kept itself ready to fire a beam at any moment.
I had imposed crushing pressure upon it, yet it still showed intent to fight.
Even amidst disadvantage, John refused to concede defeat.
Rather, he had regained his composure and was searching for a chance to turn the tables.
Having shifted from rage, he now fell silent.
My intent had been to break his spirit and drain his will to resist, but instead, it seemed to have spurred him to greater resolve.
John was surprisingly tenacious.
Since then, his dominant personality hadn't resurfaced, and he maintained his sense of self.
This stubbornness and refusal to quit could be seen as a heroic trait.
To challenge the Demon King single-handedly, one must possess extraordinary nerve.
(That's precisely why I can't afford to be careless. I need to proceed steadily.)
As things stood, my options were limited.
First, I had to destroy the giant golem and seize the secret stone embedded within.
Then, kill John Doe.
Our prior conversations had made reconciliation impossible.
He could not be recruited into the Demon Lord's Army.
Yet leaving him alive would surely invite another troublesome crisis.
His ingenuity and technological prowess could not be left unchecked.
John was currently cornered, but any carelessness in approaching him was forbidden.
What I feared most was being exposed at close range to the Great Spirit's power.
The golem was still maintaining its high output.
Should its entire body be obliterated by a beam or similar attack, its soul could be damaged.
Since this affected my own resurrection, it was more dangerous than a clumsy holy attack.
Therefore, I had to neutralize the golem with a ranged strike, ensure it could not retaliate, and only then take the secret stone.
Having settled on a plan, I immediately began to cast my spell.
The golem responded by pointing both hands toward me.
It did not fire its beam, however.
As suspected, it was wary of being reflected.
The series of injuries had made John more cautious in his judgment.
This allowed me the space to construct my spell openly.
I dispersed my consciousness across the capital's greater region.
During that process, I sensed the corpses scattered throughout various locations.
Corpses of those torn apart by the undead, crushed under rubble, incinerated by a golem's beam, or killed in battle — all manner of dead bodies were found.
I synthesized them using the authority of the Valley of the Dead.
I also mixed in the wandering undead for good measure.
The synthesized mass was then summoned to my location.
Before long, a gruesome flesh lump crawled over the rubble and emerged.
It was caterpillar-like, formed from parts gathered from all directions, and piled up before the retreating golem.
With sticky, squelching sounds, a vast quantity of blood, flesh, and bone fused together.
"What... what is this...?"
While John stood there in shock, the flesh mass took the shape of a giant humanoid.
It resembled a red clay figure, standing as tall as the golem itself.
On its surface, faces and limbs of various people surfaced and sank.
As a finishing touch, I sealed within the flesh giant the resentment, spirits, and dense miasma that pervaded the entire capital.
This transformed the flesh giant into an undead wreathed in black flames — an aberration impossible to achieve through ordinary magic, a death giant that only a Demon Lord could create.
Hovering in the air, I addressed the motionless golem.
"Many among these are those you killed. Savor their hatred."
The moment I finished speaking, the death giant sprinted forward, dripping blood.
With a feral movement, it lunged and pounced at the golem.
"Damn...!"
The golem immediately fired a beam.
The undead giant did not dodge, pressing forward head-on.
Several holes were punched through its torso, yet it didn't slow down as it struck the golem and sent it flying.
"Guh!?"
The golem tumbled across the rubble, crashing through buildings that were still standing before finally managing to stop.
Its struck abdomen was dented and sparking.
The undead giant was a collection of corpses—not a living creature.
Therefore, vital points did not exist.
Every part of its body was composed of bone and muscle, burning grudges and spirits with miasma to convert them into power.
Due to its nature, it could only exist for a short time, but it had acquired enough combat capability to stand against a golem.
The undead giant mounted the golem, pressing its weight down upon it.
Then it raised its fist and hammered it down with savage force.
A physical attack driven by colossal strength.
The golem's defensive magic, already compromised, was breached in an instant.
The massive fists tore through the metal body piece by piece.
Exposed internal mechanisms exploded in rapid succession.
Self-repair couldn't keep up—and there probably weren't enough spare parts to begin with.
"Let—me—go, you bastard!"
John screamed, forcing the golem's fingers to fire beams in rapid succession.
The necromantic giant is effortlessly pierced through, but the flesh writhes immediately to seal the wound.
The barrage of punches does not cease.
The impact causes the ground beneath the golem to collapse.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it all! Why is this—me—aaaaaagh!"
The golem's arm thrusts forward, impaling the necromantic giant's torso.
Naturally, the attack does not stop.
On the contrary, the flesh clings to the golem's fist, trapping it so it cannot be pulled free.
John had lost his composure.
Even he was shaken by the unexpected attack.
The necromantic giant had stolen away the psychological advantage of the golem's size.
At that moment, the necromantic giant's head split open.
It had not been damaged by any attack.
It had opened of its own accord.
From within, a agonized roar erupted.
"—————!"
The necromantic giant's hands seized the golem's head.
With brute force, it pulled, tearing it apart.
The metal skull, compressed by the embedded fingers, was shattered into splinters.