The golem was eating a stone, which is his main dish, when he turned around because he sensed the party.
They had to face him now, the huge golem, which was much bigger than Anri and also bigger than any fir tree in the area, straightened up to let out a roar that could be heard throughout the mountains.
Slowly he reached out to grab Anri with his hand, then Ragnar yelled out only to give the other two courage.
"Dodge and think of the plan."
So did Anri, he actually dodged like Ragnar did, Neve actually disagreed, to get on the golem's back she stabbed her knives right into his hand to latch onto it, though his hands were made of stone and ice Neve still possessed the strength to do so, then she ran along the golem's arm but he noticed what Neve was up to and waved her away like an annoying fly causing her to fall into the snow.
Anri was already afraid for Neve, would the plan really work? He wasn't so sure anymore. But Neve stood up again, brushing the snow off her clothes, as the golem clenched his hands and made fists. While he doubted the plan, he looked at Ragnar, who laughed again, confidently cheering Anri up.
"It's going exactly according to plan, don't doubt it."
The golem lashed out and at that moment the demon king spoke to Anri, he had picked a good moment, now that Anri was unsure he would need a voice to stand in between, a voice to tell him what to do, should he trust Ragnar?
["Boy, if you follow his plan, you'll never outgrow his shadow, make your own plan, you're stronger, you don't need anyone above you, show them you have what it takes to be a hero"].
Anri was distraught, he looked to Ragnar who was looking at Anri the same way, his gaze fixed on Anri's eyes. Should he believe a demon king more than Ragnar? No, was his answer, and so he still resisted the temptation to break the plan. He narrowly avoided the fist of the golem, almost thinking alone cost his life, now he had to act and think less, he thought.
The demon king in his head didn't stay still this time though, he hated that Anri didn't follow his instructions.
["You will learn that I was right."]
Debris flew around Anri's ears, the splintered ground which the golem had broken up by its strike against it had moved in every direction, this showed them how strong the golem really is.
But Neve didn't remain inactive either, the golem had apparently already forgotten about her, she ran towards his back again, she seemed to be in his blind spot, because the golem didn't react to her, then she wrapped her blades with fire and stuck them into the golem, to hold onto it, now the golem finally noticed Neve and turned around, but she wasn't standing there, the golem was too stupid to notice that she was hanging on its leg, it jumped around and shards of rubble flew everywhere. Anri ducked to avoid the splinters, but Ragnar held his sword out as a shield and boldly gave orders.
"We need to immobilize him, Anri, try to get him to focus on us."
So now it was up to Anri, for Golem to focus on him, he thought about it, should he try magic, but then his power would probably be seen, no, he couldn't do that. He looked, around him, the huge splinters of the rubble could be seen, these he took and threw them at the golem.
"Here, take your rubble and don't spread it around here!"
He yelled out and kept going until the golem was completely focused on him. Neve took the chance, now that the golem stopped spinning she drew her blades and stuck them in higher up to get further up to the core, the golem noticed this too, but he had to get rid of Anri first, he took both arms to crush Anri between them, Anri however expertly dodged upwards, his training hadn't led to mastering his magic but he could harden his body that way.
Now Anri stood on the fist of the golem, which pulled it right back up and so Anri tried to shrug it off, to no avail, he stood firmly on it and held on to it.
Then Ragnar also ran towards the golem and swung his sword against the golem's leg, which cried out and could be heard through the mountains.
Neve used the time while the other two distracted the golem, again and again she pulled out her knives and stabbed them in higher up to get to the core, but when she reached the middle of the back she found no core, astonished she shouted to Ragnar.
"There's no core here!"
Ragnar was perplexed, he had never heard of golems without a core, which may have been because the one in front of them was not a golem. He pulled out his sword and took a strong swing to sever the leg of the supposed golem, but just at that moment the golem lashed out with Anri on his fist to stop Ragnar. Anri must do something now, but what? He couldn't just stand by and watch his new comrade get crushed before his eyes. He was conflicted, slowly his emotions urged him to do something, he took the book in his hand, the book of the Demon King, which at the same time started the laughter in Anri's head.
["In the end I was right after all, your plan must be above the plan of the lower creatures called humans, you must grow."]
Anri quickly flipped through the book while the golem is already in the process of moving its fist in Ragnar's direction and he is now firmly stuck in the golem's leg with his sword.
"nehcsoel"
Anri had found a spell, a dangerous spell, a spell that was however meant exactly for golems, he had found in the book a page for creating and erasing golems, there was now also a spell for destroying golems, it was indeed only a fake golem, however it only differed from a real golem in that the fake one had no core. The golem's hand disintegrated into its component parts and fell to the ground, the wave of disintegration progressing from the arm to the torso, and within seconds there were only stones left of the golem. Neve quickly noticed that the golem was disintegrating, she left her knives stuck in the golem and jumped off the golem into the snow, Ragnar also noticed that something was wrong, before parts of the golem could fall on him he just managed to pull out his sword to take several steps away. Anri himself, who was standing on top of the golem, just dropped, it was going too fast for him to have been able to back away or cast a spell. And so Anri crashed into the rubble and briefly blacked out.
When he opens his eyes again seconds later he hears Ragnar's voice calling, Anri himself is still slightly blurry in front of his eyes as he sees the boulder slowly moving over him, Anri was lucky in his misfortune, he landed in a huge cavity of the boulder and had only minimally injured himself.
When the boulder over Anri was cleared away he saw Ragnar reach out his hand to Anri, slowly Anri grabbed it and then was helped up with a strong pull.
"Are you alright ..."
As Ragnar pulled Anri up the latter's robe flew off his head and now it was out, Anri was a demon, they had realized that now, Anri could already see in his mind how they were going to fight him now, but they didn't, Ragnar just pulled the hood of the robe back over Anri as if nothing had happened and Neve rubbed the snow off her clothes again. There was a moment of silence before Neve broke the silence.
"How are we going to prove that we killed the golem without it having a core?"
She tried to ignore the subject, yes, she hated Anri, she had sensed for some time that he was not human, yet, he had saved Ragnar's life 2 times, could he really be that bad. She was lost in thought herself when the demon king turned to Anri again.
["We're going to have visitors, keep your eyes open, boy."]
He spoke this warning for good reason, for as Anri looked around he actually spotted a man wearing a mask resembling a demon's face and who was wearing all black, the man was standing on a hill. He just looked at her and Anri stared back at him. The demon king had apparently discovered his aura early on.
"Don't be unobservant, we're probably not done here yet."
Anri pointed at the man in the mask, who continued to stare at them dully and was now walking down from the mound toward the party, slowly, each step looking menacing and confident.
Ragnar picked up his sword and was already pointing it at the stranger and Neve was also ready with her fists to kill the one, only Anri stood there while eyeing the masked man, how had he found out the party was here, was he the creator of the fake golem? If so, why did he release him on the environment.
The stranger raised his flat hand towards the party.
"Vermin, how dare you destroy my golem!"
Shouted the man in the mask, he clenched his hand into a fist and swung it around demonstratively. The party remained quiet, only Ragnar said something, as the one with the highest rank.
"Who are you?"
The man laughed as if he thought the question could not be serious, then he stopped laughing and pointing to the horns of his mask said looking down.
"Huh, are you stupid or something? I'm a demon, you can tell! Are you blind or something?"
He started laughing, almost like a psychopath. The demon king, however, was enraged by the alleged demon's behavior, for he knew he was not a demon.
["He dares to sully the name of the demons! I will erase."]
The Demon King's anger was also now boiling up in Anri, he didn't know why, but to that extent he noticed that they were connected, for the feelings seemed to transfer.
"You are not a demon."
Sounded from Anri, the anger was so great that he let it guide him, these words provoked the alleged demon extremely, he just looked at Anri angrily and spoke.
"And you are? I'll show you right now that I'm a demon if you don't shut up."
But Anri can still stop himself from sending the fake demon to the underworld.
The fake demon just walked past the group, who didn't move a meter in shock from his aura and just let the stranger pass, he just went to the destroyed golem and threw away some huge stones as if they were feathers until he has Neve's knife in his hands.
"Mhh, I'll take these now."
He smiled at Neve, who would just love to smash his face in, but in the face of the strength that became apparent when the stranger lifted the stones, she learned to remain silent.
"I'll take my leave then."
Said the stranger as he waved the knives in one hand and then opened a portal into which he disappeared.
Neve now stood there without a weapon, she had lost her much loved knives, but instead of wondering why he was doing this, Anri was more concerned about what they should do now.
"Who?"
Neve asked Anri, she almost acted as if Anri had to know something about the stranger when she asked, just because Anri was a demon.
He just shrugged, Neve didn't expect him to know anything either, still, the hope was there.
Ragnar took a piece of the golem with him as proof that they had killed the golem, on the way back they kept silent, there was nothing to say either, they had to process the events of the day first and set off back to Oswald's village.
But after a few kilometers the party met Soth, the old merchant, he was passing through on his way to the mountains, where he wanted to buy ores from the dwarf mine. But on the passage there he also passed Oswald village, where he bought its specialty, the bread dough and wanted to sell it in the mountains.
When Anri saw Soth, he waved to him with joy. Soth also recognized Anri and stopped especially for the group.
"Well, what are you doing?"
Said Soth in a friendly voice so that you would think the sun was shining from his face, then he looked to Ragnar.
"I'm glad to see you're doing well again."
Ragnar knew that Anri had helped him, but that Soth had saved his life much more was known only to Anri and Soth himself, so Ragnar was confused and just nodded his thanks.
Neve, meanwhile, looked at the merchant from a bit of a distance; she didn't know him, after all.
"Do you know him, Anri?"
She asked, not wanting to sound rude, but she definitely managed that.
Anri nodded and looked at the old merchant and explained the situation to them.
"We had a mission in the mountains to defeat a golem."
He was already talking a lot more by now than he did a few days ago, his confidence slowly going up the mountain the more he saved people from death.
"Unfortunately our party member lost her weapons, while we're on the subject, you might have knives for sale."
Anri had hopes of finding replacements for Neve directly, after all, she would need to find new knives quickly to do a job again and Soth would surely give them a discount.
But Soth unfortunately had no weapons for sale, so he shook his head, however, he came up with an idea.
"The blacksmith in the capital is a good friend of mine, his name is Zen."
He took out a piece of paper and wrote something down, then he took out a stamp that used magic to leave Soth's mark on the paper.
"Show him this and he will know that I sent you, he will surely give a hefty discount for you."
Gratefully accepting the paper, Anri asked the merchant out of pure politeness
"Thank you very much, and what are they doing around here?"
The merchant took out a piece of paper, where large was the seal of the Heroes Academy.
"I need to get ores from the dwarven mine in the high mountains on behalf of the Hero Academy, it seems the weapon ritual is starting up again."
The weapon ritual, Anri knew exactly what that meant, it was one of the days Anri would have loved to experience in the academy, because on this day the new students gain the ability to forge a weapon with their aura, for this the academy specially fetches a special ore from the dwarf mine that absorbs and adapts to the aura. Thinking about this immediately brought Anri back to the thought of Vaelus, would Vaelus now determine his weapon? What did Vaelus' weapon look like? Then more questions came into his head, had Vaelus already learned a lot? Was he getting much stronger?
Anri blanked out the questions and turned back to Soth, he didn't want to keep him too long.
"Thank you for talking to me, it was nice to meet you again".
Said Anri to Soth, who was happy to be thanked, to his knowledge he had always thanked himself for conversations and never heard any thanks from others. Friendly, Soth thus returned the thanks.
"It has also pleased me, may our paths cross again."
Slowly, Soth's carriage continued towards the mountains and the party slowly continued towards Oswald's village, without any anticipation of what they would find there.
As they continued on their way, Ragnar brought up a subject that was uncomfortable but needed to be addressed if the party was to continue with Anri in the future, so he asked him.
"Are you human."
Anri didn't know what exactly to answer because he didn't know himself, was he human, or was he a demon? He had no real idea, so he answered with what he thought.
"I don't know."
The answer was not what Ragnar wanted to hear, nevertheless it brought some peace to the group, he was not sure, to Ragnar that meant he could not be a demon, a demon would know he was a demon, furthermore a demon would never save a human. Neve on the other hand was unsure about the statement, she found him strange, on the one hand she believed he was a demon, on the other hand he had saved Ragnar's life twice, no, in her opinion Anri could be both, human, but also demon, even if she herself didn't know how that would work.
Already from kilometers away they saw the glow in the night sky, however, it was not the moon, but a huge fire, Anri had to look closer now to recognize the situation, he did not want to believe it and rubbed his eyes, Ragnar also seemed to have not expected the event and Neve was also worried. Oswald's village was on fire. It didn't need any words that all three of them ran towards the village and were ready to fight.
Arriving at the village, there were no dead but also no living people, had they fled? Slowly the party made their way between the houses on fire until they arrived at the campfire where Oswald had been sitting the day before, then they all heard Oswald's voice from near the warehouse.
Ragnar reacted immediately, shouting out.
"Oswald, hold on!"
The group ran to Oswald's voice, not knowing what might be waiting for them there, Anri once again asked himself many questions, were they goblins? Dragons or even demons?
No, it wasn't any of them, when they turned the corner and saw the warehouse, they were sure it was robbers, those robbers that Anri had put to flight earlier in the canyon, they had been following Soth and had seen the village as a way to get goods quickly, but they hadn't reckoned with Oswald, he had already eliminated most of the robbers, they were lying all around him, however he himself had also taken considerable damage, the sword in his arm was too heavy because his arm was full of cuts and his legs too weak because he was already old, his body was untrained, nevertheless, in his head he knew everything about swordsmanship, he was even a true master of it.
"Come, only if you dare!"
He shouted to the remaining robbers, who were not badly astonished when their comrades were killed by an old gentleman.