The Golem Conspiracy - Chapter 2

One hundred and thirteen days remain…

The next morning, Jac couldn’t help but think of his mysterious note that he received during the night. The brief sentences and vague questions; he was unable to figure out who it may have been from. It couldn’t have been any of his friends or other acquaintances. He wondered about the choice of words in the letter too; Eden, Adama and, of course, the Massiark. It was then that his thoughts turned to that of the pale stranger he encountered twice the day before. Though he didn’t appear hostile or antagonistic, his mere presence was enough to unnerve Jac, almost as if some unseen force was at work, something he would continue to ponder this as he went into town for the day.

As he walked towards the pathway after exiting the building, it was then that he noticed two young men just outside the apartment building. One with dark skin, wearing a black beanie hat with a single wing-shaped icon on his left temple, and a black shirt with long grey sleeves and a fiery-orange print of an occult looking symbol on the front; it looked like a piece of merchandise from a metal-band. The other man was white, with tired-sunken eyes and brown spiky hair, albeit with short back and sides, and wearing a black, hooded sweater. His midnight-blue jeans while seemingly clean were noticeably damaged with patchwork repairs on the knees and the ends of the legs; Jac immediately thought, ‘skateboarder perhaps?’ The two looked like they had just met up for something. “Did you find anything?” the one with the beanie spoke with a soft voice.

“Nothing,” the hooded one answered, his voice sounding gruff. “Given what these things look like,” he said as reached into his pocket, “they don’t exactly stand out.” Jac stopped as he heard the two speak. He then noticed the hooded one held what looked to be a hexagonal coin, silver with a thick black trim around its edge, and about two inches wide. On each face of the coin, there was an icon of what appeared to be a pair of shepherd’s crooks crossed over each other.

“Yuriel’s certain there was something here,” the one with the beanie said as he retrieved his own coin from his pocket, his had an orange trim instead of a black one, and its icon of a flame split down the middle into two halves, each one a contrasting shade to the other. “You don’t think he was wrong, do you?”

“If he was, not all that super for a celestial super-being, is he?” the hooded one sounded a little annoyed.

Jac couldn’t help but fix on the hooded one’s choice of words as he eavesdropped on the two; celestial super-being. It was at that moment the two men noticed that Jac was gawking at them. “…What?” the hooded one said with a blatantly confrontational tone of voice.

Jac then snapped back to his senses. “Oh, um,” he tried to find words to excuse himself, “sorry, I just…”

The one with the beanie, flustered, then stepped in and spoke. “S-sorry,” he said to Jac. “Don’t mind us.” The young man then thought he saw Jac exit the building but a moment ago. “Oh, actually, do…do you, um…” he stammered over his words with a shaky voice as he held up his coin to be Jac’s sight.

The hooded one interjected to speak for his friend, “Have you seen something that looks like this around here?” he asked as he held up his coin to Jac.

Jac stepped closer to analyse the trinkets. “…No,” he answered. “I can’t say that I have. Sorry.”

“Right, let’s keep looking then,” the hooded man said to his friend before quickly walking away from Jac, shocked by the man’s lack of manners.

“Sorry about him,” the one with the beanie, still flustered, apologised to Jac. “Thanks anyway.” He then ran over to his friend to catch up with him.

“What was that about?” Jac thought to himself, though an idea then came to mind; given the words one of them said, ‘celestial super-being’, like an angel, as well as the presence of the word ‘Eden’ on the letter he received in the night, it occurred to Jac that those two were probably involved with the letter. Were they the ones who left it themselves, maybe accomplices of the true culprit? With that in mind, he was determined to keep an eye out for them.

#

 Much later in town, Jac was analysing various notices and posters placed in shop windows; ads for products, job offerings and various groups promoting their activities with an almost unsettling level of evangelism, such as a club having more and more extravagant events planned almost three times every week it seemed. “They sound like cultists with this level of devotion,” said Jac. He looked at another poster. “…so does the shampoo ad for that matter.”

“Jac!” Lili’s voice called to him. Jac turned to his right to find Lili, with Little Seth on leash, was rushing towards him.

“Hey,” Jac responded.

“Bark!” Seth tried climbing up Jac’s legs for attention.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Jac as he knelt down. “You get attention too.” Seth fell onto his side and wriggled around happily as Jac scratched his belly. “He has it easy, doesn’t he?”

“Yep,” Lili admitted about her dog as she too knelt down. “Just eats, naps, frolics and snuggles, and I don’t think there’s anything going on in his head that’s more complex than the phrase, ‘I am dog’.” She leaned down and spoke to her pet, “Nothing complicated going on in there,” she pointed at his head. “Am I right, Seth?”

“Bark!” Seth responded. Did he agree? Was he arguing? Or, true to Lili’s statement, was he simply saying, ‘I am dog’? Only he would know.

Lili soon noticed that Jac seemed troubled. “Anyway, how are you?” She sounded concerned. “Is something bothering you?”

“Is it that obvious?” Jac asked back. “Well, you will not believe what happened at my place last night.”

“Oh?” Lili’s interest piqued. “Do tell.”

“Around midnight, there was someone, I think, knocking at my door. When I answered it, there was no-one there and a letter for me on the floor in the hallway. It was like some vague fantasy message.”

“What do you mean by ‘fantasy’?” Lili inquired.

“Well,” Jac reached into his pocket and pulled out the black sheet of paper, “here it is. Take a look.”

Lili grabbed the paper and read the message. Seth also had a look at the paper with his head tilted in wonder. “Ha!” Lili couldn’t help but find the message funny. “What edge-lord wrote this? And Massiark? That’s a made-up word, surely.” She handed the letter back to Jac. “Though if you were awakened last night because of it, I can see why you’d be agitated.” The pair of them stood back up again. “You think it’s someone pulling a prank?”

“I don’t doubt the possibility. In fact, yesterday alone I ran into the same peculiar stranger at two different moments. And to make things weirder, there were two men looking for some sort of coin outside of my apartment building this morning, and one of them said ‘celestial super-being’ as they were talking.”

“If this is a prank, it seems more complicated than it’s worth. You think those guys are involved?”

“Maybe? No idea who they could be though, I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

 Puzzling over the quandary to a stump, Lili let out a huge sigh of frustration. “Well, just keep an eye out for anything, okay? It’s probably nothing but, you know, can’t be too careful.”

“Oh, believe me. I’m keeping the police in mind if the need calls for it.”

Lili nodded in approval. “Anyway,” she looked back down to Seth, “this fuzzy boy needs his walkies done.”

“You say that so venomously,” Jac jokingly remarked.

“Bark!” went Seth.

“Pupper!” Lili took offense. “Are you agreeing with that?” She chuckled.

#

 Time had passed that day and after going about it like it was any other, Jac finally made it back home to have a relaxing evening. Wearing just his shirt and jeans, he spent the whole time in his living room, watching TV, reading more of his book he obtained the other day, scribbling various notes and doodles and eating junk food. However, every so often, he kept thinking about the pale stranger, the letter he received the night before and the two men he encountered that morning. His worries would lead him to look outside his window to see if any of those three people would show up again. He checked several times, but he never saw any of those people.

It was very late in the evening and Jac looked outside his window again, resting his hands on the frame. He could see the pathway on the opposite side of the road from his apartment, brightly lit by the streetlights. And there he saw an unsettling familiar face; completely black attire, a Mohawk of bleached hair, and his skin was pale white, so pale that the streetlight seemed to illuminate it; this was the stranger again. Like before, his heart skipped a beat, his fingers gripped tighter on the window frame, and he couldn’t help but gawk. It was then that the stranger stopped walking and turned his head toward the apartment’s window.

 “Hmph,” he chuckled. “Isn’t this a surprise?” he asked Jac.

“Somehow I don’t think so,” the young man said quietly and nervously.

“Joshua, right?” the stranger guessed Jac’s name.

“No,” he answered as he shook his head.

“Joseph?” he guessed again.

“Still no.”

“Jonah?”

“It’s Jac,” the frustrated young man interrupted with the correct answer.

“Yeah! That’s it. I knew it began with a Yod.” He then shook his head, “I mean J,” he corrected himself, “I knew it began with a J is what I meant. What brings you here then?”

“I…” Jac was about to say that he lived there before stopping himself, realising that may be a bad idea. “Nothing important,” he gave a flippant answer.

“Nothing important?” the stranger repeated with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Jac was awkward. “I wouldn’t…” Jac tried to wave off the whole ordeal, all the while it felt like the stranger’s stare from his intimidating red eyes was driving like a screw into his throat, preventing the young man from speaking. It took all his effort just to emit another unconvincing lie. “I wouldn’t worry about it?” he eventually said.

For seconds, the stranger’s adverse glare continued to drive its way into Jac. His eyes then rolled to glance aside before he shrugged. “Okay, then I won’t,” he responded to Jac with a smile and immediately continued his walk down the street.

‘What is going on?’ Jac thought as he shut the window and walked back to his living room, throwing himself onto the couch. ‘What is it about him that makes me so nervous?’ he rubbed the sides of his aching head as he pondered and puzzled. ‘And this is the third time we’ve met. It can’t be a coincidence. The letter; it has to be him. But just who is he? How does he know who I am? And what is he after?’

He rubbed his forehead to relieve a headache caused by the puzzling and worrying thoughts. ‘Maybe, if there’s a fourth time, I should just confront him.’ Jac didn’t know what it was about the stranger that agitated him so much, but perhaps if he could just summon the courage to just ask this mysterious man the questions that only he could answer, it would certainly be better that just worrying about it.

#

 Just after midnight with very little happening and little left to keep himself occupied, Jac finally decided to call it a night. He switched off all of the lights and television and tidied up his living room a little. ‘I was hoping to relax, and I spend moments getting anxious over nothing,’ he lamented. ‘Maybe I can just sleep it off.’

It was then he heard a loud tap against one of his windows, startling him. He stood completely still as he fixed his gaze on the window, uncertain as to what caused the noise, but it sounded like someone outside just threw a small rock at it. Mere seconds later, another loud tap, and Jac could clearly see that something was landing on the glass from outside. Cautiously, he approached, opened the window and shouted, “Who is that!?”

Like it answered, a small object flew through the open window and, “Ow!” it struck Jac in the centre of his forehead before ricocheting and landing on the living room floor. Rubbing his head to ease the pain, Jac peeked outside to see who was responsible, only to find no-one and nothing, the street was barren. Perplexed, he shut the window and walked over to the object that hit him. He knelt down and picked it up; it was a coin, just like each of the two men had that morning, hexagonal, two inches wide, silver and a thick coloured trim around the edge; this one was red. However, it did not bear either icon the other coins had; its faces were blank and pristine. Jac was at a loss for words; first the pale man in black, the letter, the two strangers and now the very thing they may have been looking for was sitting in the palm of his hand.

‘Just what is going on?’ Jac thought. Arising back onto his feet, he gazed at the coin in his hand. He rubbed his eyes in fatigue and disbelief with his other hand as the object started glowing, and it was getting brighter, and brighter, until eventually a flash emitted from it and, as if from nowhere, the coin was replaced with a sword-like instrument. The sight of this bizarre phenomenon shocked him, causing him to drop the tool to the ground in panic.

“Okay, no!” Jac exclaimed in disbelief. “Just no! This isn’t happening!” He vigorously ran his fingers through is hair and looked away from the sword that now sat on his living room floor. “This isn’t happening,” he looked back at it, “…wait, is it happening?”

He grabbed the weapon by its handle and observed it. The blade distinctly looked like metal but rubbing his fingers along the smooth flat of it, the only sensation of texture that came to mind was that of stone. He also noticed, at first with his eyes and then by lightly tapping it to confirm, that the silvery edges of the blade were blunt, begging the question if it could even be called a blade since it couldn’t even cut someone by accident. Even the point at the top of it felt harmlessly dull. It’s most defining feature, however, was the hilt and handle of the object. Each side of the cross-guard and the butt of the handle had an implement that looked like half of a machine cog. And there were another two gear-like objects sat in the base; they looked like they could spin but were completely stationary.

It was then Jac very suddenly felt a horrible and agonising sting in the front of his head. He shut his eyes tight and gritted his teeth to cope with the pain as a series of strange images and sounds came to his mind, each one by itself disappeared as quickly as it came and thus, he couldn’t make out what they were. However, one stood out distinctly; it looked like Jac himself, from his own point of view, was being reached out to by a humanoid silhouette.

After the seizure-inducing series of images had finished, as if always there, someone peaked from behind the young man and spoke with a feminine voice. “Jac?” she asked.

“Gah!” a startled Jac exclaimed, jumping and putting some distance between himself and the creature. “Who are you!?”

She may have had a humanoid body, but she clearly wasn’t from Jac’s world. Blinding snow-white skin with parts coloured red around her wrists, ankles and the sides of her head which itself had thick silvery-white hair flowing down her shoulders. Most obviously strange of all, this creature had stretching from the back of her waist a large pair of feathered wings. Her garbs consisted of a long skirt around her waist, a large cloth wrapped to form a shirt on her torso and upon her shoulders was an old and tatty short cape with black and gray stripes and the cape was torn and frayed at the end. She held her out four-digit hands to try and ease her acquaintance. “Wait!” she implored. “I don’t wanna hurt you, I swear!”

Jac was completely perplexed by the sight of this alien presence. “Who are you” he asked again. But upon seeing the alien creature before him, the question was replaced it with, “What are you?”

“My name’s Nel,” she explained, “I think.” She didn’t seem all that sure. “I’m a Malak.”

“A what?” Jac wasn’t familiar with what Nel said.

“Well, the Malakim are from a realm called Eden,” she continued to explain. “Again, not sure how I know that.”

“Eden?” Jac couldn’t believe what he heard as he dropped the sword in his hand to the floor, he was so dumbfounded. “You’re not honestly telling me you’re an angel?”

“You’re right,” Nel agreed, “I said I’m a Malak. I don’t know what an angel is.”

“Really? ‘Cause the wings are bit of a giveaway.”

Nel spun around a little to look at the wings on her back, only for one of them to clumsily brush over the counter upon which sat the picture of Jac’s mother and the pendant beside it, knocking them onto the floor. “Ah! I’m sorry,” Nel was embarrassed and quickly grabbed the objects to place them back on the countertop.

Jac didn’t know what he should do. He didn’t feel threatened by Nel, though he wasn’t dropping his guard as he slowly reached down to grab the sword again.

“I think this was here,” said Nel as she placed the photo frame on the counter. “And this,” she did the same for the pendant before catching a glance of the engraved words on one side, focusing her gaze on it. “Sh…” she attempted to read it, “Shakobe Ay-ayrohn…Sohgahn? Kohgahn maybe?” She was obviously somewhat illiterate. “Hey, that’s very similar to…oh!” She soon realised and looked at Jac with wide-eyed glee, “Jacob Aaron Cogan! It is you!”

“Okay,” Jac panicked, “I’m scared again!”

Nel threw the pendant back down to the counter, leapt forward and, like an ecstatic and overly friendly child, quickly embraced Jac around his arms and torso. He struggled to breathe as she was holding him so tight. “I’m so happy!” she exclaimed. “I found you, Jac! This is the best day ever!”

“Okay, Nel was it?” Jac tried to writhe free. “Calm down. Just cool it and let go please.”

“Sorry,” she let go of him, looking concerned. “Are you upset?”

“I certainly have questions,” said Jac. “Why are you looking for me again?”

“Right, I should explain.” Nel took a step back, and her wing accidently colliding with a glass tumbler on the coffee table in the centre of Jac’s living room. Thankfully, it didn’t fall and break but rattled in place. “Sorry again,” she said bashfully.

“Geez,” Jac quietly uttered under his breath, “down to every detail; how is this possible, I ask.”

“I’ve been looking for you,” Nel answered, “because I was told to. My memory’s hazy, but I remember that I was told to find you.” She quoted her mission in a dramatic accent, “Promise me this, Nel. Find Jac, Jacob Aaron Cogan. Make him your Judge. Remain by his side no matter what.” She dropped the accent and spoke normally again. “I’ve been all over this forested part of the city looking for you, and now I’m done!” She lightly clapped her hands to applaud herself, unable to contain her excitement.

“Okay,” Jac was still wary, “so who told you to do that?”

“I…don’t know,” she admitted. “I just know the words I was told.”

“Was it God?” asked the Mortal as he rolled his eyes, vexed by the possibility.

“I don’t know who that is either, but I’m not sure.”

 Jac was astonished. Angels were always believed to be mighty, wise and in some cases terrifying cosmic messengers of the heavens. Yet there seemed to be one standing before him, and she was clumsy, witless and unimpressive; she was more akin to a naïve youth than a grandiose creature of myth. It was almost comical enough to make him snicker. “I must’ve eaten something trippy,” he said, “because none of this can be real.”

 Nel tilted her head in confusion before stepping toward Jac and lightly prodding him in the chest. “Well, you seem pretty real to me,” she said. She looked back at the pendant on the countertop, “So did that,” she pointed. “That thing in your hand seems real as well.”

Jac lifted his hand with the strange sword still in its grasp, bringing it to view to contemplate. Then it suddenly glowed, every inch of it turned to light as its shape morphed and shrunk back into a coin, the same one that struck Jac in the head. He began to think perhaps he was knocked out by the object thrown through his window and he was dreaming. “Dreams always seem real when you’re in them,” he commented.

“Aww,” Nel seemed disheartened, “so none of this real and I haven’t actually found you?”

“You say that like you’re the dreamer.” Jac then had a thought. “We should really put this to the test.”

“How so?”

“Umm,” he scratched his as he pondered. “Just venture out the door, go into town and see just how out of the ordinary everything else is, I guess.”

“Is that how it works?” Nel asked. “I mean I can tell you that I saw some tiny animals digging through some rubbish on one street. Is that odd?” She clearly wasn’t familiar with what was considered orthodox or not in the city of Dust-Haven.

“That’s nothing new,” Jac answered.

“Alright. Would the fancy paintings on some brick walls be strange?” She was talking about some graffiti she saw earlier.

“Still no,” said Jac, ever tempted to say ‘define fancy’.

“Some drunkards?” Nel continued to suggest.

“That’s just your typical weekend.”

“Okay,” Nel still had suggestions, “what about…” She was then interrupted by a loud bang from outside. The pair rushed over to the window to see a fading green haze above the rooftops in the distance. It was soon followed by another bang, accompanied by a similar haze, bright at first before fading. “Oh yeah,” Nel recalled. “There’s a Golem in town as well.”

Jac glanced at his angelic acquaintance with a raised brow of confusion. “A Golem?” he asked. “Like, magical stone automaton, that Golem?”

“Pretty much,” Nel answered.

“The same one from yesterday, perhaps?” he wondered under his breath, recalling the figure he saw in the alleyway. “Now this’ll put this dream to the test,” Jac said aloud. “Let’s go see it!” He was quick to don his scarf and coat and bolted towards the apartment’s door.

“Alright then!” Nel was just as enthusiastic as she followed.

#

Jac burst through the main entrance of the apartment building onto the street, riled and ready for a strange venture. Nel quickly joined him, literally flying right through the door and clumsily ramming into his back and almost knocking him over. “Sorry,” she quickly apologised. “Not that used to flying.”

“Not used to flying?” Jac was perplexed again, pointing at her wings, “But you’re…” He immediately gave up arguing. “Let’s just find that Golem.” He looked up again at the skyline, recalling where he saw the flashes and haze to guess where they could lead right before he darted off down the road, sprinting with all his might and stamina.

Nel followed suit, taking flight to keep up, though her unwieldy use of her wings lead to her taking a few wrong turns and occasionally crashing into walls, street signs, and lamp posts. Flustered as she was, Nel persevered.

Suddenly, there was another loud bang followed by the green light and haze, bringing Jac’s dash to an abrupt halt as he dug his heels into the road and skid the soles of his shoes along the tarmac. Jac looked up to see it came from the roof of the building to his left, four floors high.

Then there was another flash, and launching over the edge of the roof was a man plummeting downward, along with some kind of tool that resembled an old flintlock pistol. He hit the ground hard, landing on his waist, the sight of which terrified Jac, the pistol landing beside the stranger. However, despite the height he fell from and the force of his crash, he was still alive, groaning in pain as he retrieved the weapon and arose to his feet. Jac was confused by what he saw; not only was this person the hooded man he encountered earlier that morning, but as far as logic could tell him, this person shouldn’t be in decent enough condition to stand after that fall, if not dead outright.

Before Jac could process what was happening, there was third flash and bang from the roof. A second man, the other of the two strangers from this morning too, was also sent flying over the edge, spinning around as he headed for the ground too. More horrifyingly than the hooded man’s collision with the road’s surface, he landed forcibly flat on his face.

“Dan!” the hooded man shouted with worry, revealing his friend’s name. He ran over to his injured comrade, grabbed him and held him up. “Dan. Come on. Say something, buddy.”

Dan was dazed and whimpering from his head injury. “Nate…” he struggled to speak. “What’s happening?”

Jac didn’t have even a second to put any clues together as another figure, a towering and hulking one, emerged over the edge of the building’s roof. It jumped off the roof and followed the two men to the ground, landing on its feet leaving cracks in the road from the force of its fall.

Made of stone in some areas, clay in others, glassy eyes, clothed in robes, bandages and ropes; this seemed very much like the ‘Golem’ Jac found the day before. It wasn’t the same though; the clay sections were green instead of red, there seemed to be various twigs and weeds growing out of parts of it and, especially distinctively from the other, it was moving.

With its glowing green eyes fixated on the pair, it began approaching Nate and Dan, the former of which aimed his pistol at the strange construct. From the barrel, a beam of light darted towards and struck the creature. Nate fired again and again, but his enemy kept approaching, completely unfazed by the impact of the Mortal’s attacks.

Jac was overcome with terror as the Golem took step after heavy step towards the two strangers before him, the automaton-like being emitting something akin to an aura of grim determination to kill. Nate and Dan seemed helpless.

And yet, something inside Jac’s consciousness snapped, his shaking hand moved on its own towards his pocket, grasping the coin he obtained earlier. He was hyperventilating as the trinket glowed and transformed into the sword once more, the cogs on its hilt turning at a slow but noticeable pace. Then some words echoed in his memory, tempting words, the same words he read on the very last sentence of his mysterious letter…

‘What say you, hero?’

Enthralled by an impulse he couldn’t resist, he charged towards the Golem. As he drew closer and closer, Jac began to scream as, with both hands, he swung he sword back to wind up his strike. The Golem paused in its advance as it noticed the young man charge towards it. It turned its head towards its new opponent, but before it could react further, Jac jumped to lunge the sword forward and landed the edge of the blade into its left eye. With strength that a human being of his physique couldn’t possibly have, Jac’s attack knocked the creature off of its feet and launched it down the street, scraping several metres of the tarmac road as it landed.

“Wow,” Jac said aloud as he looked at his weapon, impressed by its power. “This thing packs a punch.” He then turned around and saw Nate looking him with his mouth hanging open with surprise and confusion.

“You,” Nate recognised the man coming to his aid, “didn’t we see you this morning?”

“Believe me,” said Jac keeping his eye on the creature as it recovered from the attack, revealing a large cleave over its left eye, “I did not intend for this happen. Is your friend okay?”

“Nate,” Dan spoke in a dazed state, “who is that?” he inquired upon hearing Jac’s voice. Nate didn’t answer. Instead, he quickly flung Dan’s arm over his shoulder and lifted him up.

“That thing’s tough,” Nate told Jac about the hostile stone creature, “but we can’t leave it be. I’ll get Dan to safety and come back. Keep it busy until then.” With that said, Nate quickly fled down the road with his comrade.

“Right!” Jac impetuously charged towards his enemy again, who responded in kind.

“I’m here!” Nel shouted as she soon caught up. “What did I miss?” Her answer came at the sight of Jac locking his blade in the grasp of the Golem’s hands, each combatant trying to push back against the other. “Oh, there it is!” she remembered seeing the construct from her search through the city. She retrieved a small, ashen-white, wooden stick from the satchel tied to her waist, and with it conjured an arcane red light, shaping it into a wavy, unstable mass before gliding down toward the skirmish.

Jac continued to keep his footing as he held the Golem in place. Descending upon the struggle, Nel lifted the mass of light she formed and swung into the side of the stone-automaton’s head, throwing it off balance and releasing its grip on Jac’s weapon, who in turn pulled it back to thrust it forward, driving the blunt tip into the Golem’s body and pushing it back. “Nice!” Nel complimented her Mortal companion.

“You too,” he returned the kind words. “This shouldn’t be too hard.”

He spoke too soon as a couple of white beams of light fell from above and leaving small craters in the road, narrowly missing Jac and Nel as the urgently darted to the side to avoid them. They looked up at the same building Nate, Dan and their stone-opponent fell from; standing on the edge of the roof was another Golem, glowing white instead of green from its eyes and, instead of vegetation growing from it, this one was decorated with ornate, pearly-white crown and bracelets, appearing to be grafted into the construct’s body. Within its grasp was a sceptre aiming down toward the pair on the ground.

“Just my luck,” Jac bitterly commented, though whatever dread or concern he was feeling otherwise upon seeing his opponent receive reinforcement, he didn’t appear even slightly deterred from fighting further.

“Hey,” Nel tried to be optimistic, “two on two. It’s a fair fight now.”

“…Surrender!” a monotone voice exclaimed from the ornate Golem on the roof.

“Did it just talk?” Nel asked.

“Surrender, Judge,” it spoke again to Jac. “Cease and your death will be painless.”

“Excuse me?” Jac didn’t find the offer the slightest bit appealing. “How about we just pound you into dust instead?”

The Golem looked at its plant-covered variant on the ground. “Make it suffer,” it said. “The Massiark demands it.”

“I obey,” the green Golem responded with a deeper voice, but just as monotone.

#

Nate had taken Dan to another street, away from the dangerous combat between Jac and the Golem, holing up in a bus shelter. “Hang in there,” Nate said as he held his open hand up before Dan’s head wound as a circle of light appeared over Nate’s palm, and with it, Dan was wrapped up in a warm glow.

“Uh,” Dan tried to speak. As the glow enveloped him, he felt less and less fatigued. “Hey, what happened exactly?” he asked.

“The Golem sent you over the roof and you landed flat on your face. It’s okay, I’m fixing it.”

Dan held his hand on his forehead as he felt ashamed. “I’m an idiot. If Yuriel didn’t make me a Judge, I’d be dead.”

“If you weren’t made a Judge, you wouldn’t be getting involved in this to begin with.” Eventually, the circle of light disappeared, along with the glow that surrounded Dan. Nate took a deep breath, seemingly tired from something. “Alright, how are you feeling?” Nate asked Dan.

“Better than before,” Dan explained. “Still a little dizzy.”

“Right, you just stay here and take five. I’m gonna go back there and ‘vandalise’ that walking statue,” he said as he ran back to where he fled from.

“Nate!” Dan exclaimed with worry. “You can’t fight that thing alone.”

“Be not afraid, Dan,” a disembodied voice, masculine but youthful sounding, spoke to the Mortal. “It appears another of our kin has entered the fray…and with another Judge.”

#

Nate returned to the brawl, seeing the Golem fighting harder and with greater skill than before, throwing its fists to and fro, charging its entire bulk forward to crush Jac and Nel, they themselves making every effort to parry and avoid the strikes. Already acquainted with Jac, he was taken aback by a something new; Nel, since she had leapt into the fray after Nate had taken Dan away from danger. “Who is that?” he asked aloud.

“I know not,” said a deep yet feminine voice spoke that only he could hear. “I do not recognise this sister.”

Soon, Nate could see a white beam of light fall upon the duo, clipping into Jac’s shoulder and staggering him. Nate looked up to see the ornate Golem on the roof, pointing its sceptre at the Mortal and Malak combatants below. It fired another arcane beam.

“A little unfair, don’t you think?” Nate rhetorically asked, materialising his pistol once more and firing at the Golem on the roof, the bolt landing dead centre in its chest, throwing it off balance and bringing its focus, perhaps even ire, to the Mortal. Nate fired again, this time the shot collided with the construct’s leg, tripping it up and causing it to clumsily fall forward off the edge of the roof. “Head’s up!” he called out to Jac and Nel.

“What’s that?” Nel said as she looked to see the stone automaton plummeting towards them from above, urgently bringing her arms up to catch it. Nel turned out to be quite strong as she lobbed the heavy stone being aside.

Jac was all too focused on the other Golem, swinging his weapon to keep his attacker back. Though at the same instant the other robed construct fell from the roof, the plant covered one became more uncoordinated as its attempts to strike were more lumbering and without care for precision. Jac took this brief opportunity to push back, swinging his blade with two hands like a baseball bat and smashing the Golem several feet away, splinters of bark flung from its body, as did leaves and petals drift in the air.

As the ornate Golem recovered from its fall, Nel thought of something. “Jac?” she asked, “Did you notice that leafy Golem began fighting harder when the fancy one showed up?”

“Not just a coincidence?” he guessed.

“Don’t think so.” She glanced at Nate and saw the pistol in his hand, aiming at the ready to fire upon the Golems again. “I have an idea,” she said as she formed a ball of red light and launched it at the ‘leafy Golem’ as it still recovered, keeping it down a bit longer. “Hop on!” she told Jac as she pointed at her own back.

“What?” Jac wondered what she was planning.

“Trust me!” she insisted. Jac urgently complied and jumped onto the Malak’s back. She then darted towards the ‘fancy Golem’ and grappled it by the robes on its torso. “Leafy’s yours,” she said to Nate. “Have fun, whoever you are!” She then flew away with great haste, with her Mortal companion on her back and the ornate stone automaton in her grasp.

“Sorry!” Jac shouted to Nate as his group flew away. “I’m sure you’ll be fine!”

“Seriously!?” Nate exclaimed.. The Golem he was left with was certainly beaten and staggering, though Nate’s confidence in handling it on his own was found wanting.

#

“Just what are you planning?” Jac asked Nel as they soared above the city, the Golem still struggling in the Malak’s grip.

“This one was coordinating the other one,” she explained before mimicking its monotone voice, “Make them suffer, the Massiark demands it.” She looked into the Golem’s eyes, “That’s what you sound like, isn’t it?” she chuckled.

“For that matter,” said Jac as he too spoke to the Golem, “just who or what is this Massiark you’re talking about?” His interest was piqued; his letter also mentioned this ‘Massiark’, so what did the Golem know? “Well,” he pressed, “let’s hear it!”

The body of the clay-automaton began to radiate with a white glow, not just from its eyes. Its strength began to exceed what Nel could keep suppressed with her own might. It wrestled its arm free and slammed its open palm into Nel’s face, firing a blast of energy at point blank range at the same time. With the Malak injured and disoriented, the group veered violently off course and fell from the sky, crashing down, wailing in fright and confusion all the way.