A few years ago, Aurora had begun researching golems, knowing she was at a disadvantage compared to her sister. With only two elements at her disposal, earth and void, she needed to maximize every possible advantage. After all, they both possessed their family's famous void magic, but Elizabeth had far more versatility.
She quickly learned that summoning a golem and constructing one were vastly different.
A built golem had undeniable strengths. Since it was physically assembled rather than formed entirely from magic, it could be designed for maximum efficiency, making it stronger, more durable, and far less taxing on the caster. Unlike a summoned golem, which required a steady flow of mana to sustain, a constructed one only needed magic to bring it to life.
However, there was a reason they were rarely used in combat. Built golems were stationary by nature, meant for defensive fortifications rather than mobility. The inability to easily transport them meant they were more suited for guarding locations rather than active battle.
Because of this, Aurora had ultimately focused on summoning instead. The ability to create and adapt golems in the heat of battle far outweighed the drawbacks, at least in her eyes.
But her research hadn't been a waste. Constructing golems had unexpectedly improved her ability to summon them. The intricacies of laying the mana lines by hand had taught her how to refine her control, allowing her to reduce the overall mana consumption of her summoned constructs.
So she had kept at it, studying, refining, building whenever she had the chance. And now, standing above the colossal, incomplete golem, she couldn't stop the small smile that tugged at her lips.
This was her domain.
She was going to use that experience to obliterate this challenge.
"It's hard to see exactly what we're missing from up here," Lucian muttered, scanning the massive workshop below.
"Don't worry, it'll tell us what it needs."
Aurora's golem was already sprinting toward the core system of the colossal construct. Closing her eyes, she focused, using her connection to her golem to assess the unfinished machine. It was harder to read its structure through a summon rather than through direct contact, but she could still manage.
"Lucian, I need you to carve this symbol into its left shoulder using your tendril." As she spoke, she flipped open her notebook, sketching out a precise magical formula.
She didn't pause.
"Felix, see the stone block where the third leg joint should be?" she asked, continuing before he could answer. "You need to use your metal to carve it to match the opposite side."
Finishing the symbol, she handed it off to Lucian, who wasted no time getting to work. Meanwhile, she turned her full attention to the core.
There were three critical repairs needed to complete the colossal golem, one for each of them. And, unsurprisingly, the hardest was the ruined magical symbol etched into the core itself.
That was her task.
She took a breath. It had to be fixed.
The magic circle was deep and intricate, too intricate. Aurora quickly realized that, with her current mana sensitivity, attempting to repair it precisely would be inefficient. It would be faster, and more reliable, to rewrite it from scratch.
She had never constructed a golem of this size before, which meant she wasn't completely familiar with the full layout of its core magic circle. But between the damaged remnants and her own experience, she was confident she could reconstruct it.
Forming a clear mental image of the completed formula, she wiped away the old one with a single motion.
"Better to be bold," she muttered to herself, already beginning her work.
The spectators, especially those from Team Aurora, stared in stunned silence.
The other team wasn't far behind. The challenge was a race. And Aurora had just erased the magic circle completely.
"Okay, I know they don't know how close the other team is," Ethan said, his voice laced with confusion. "But we can all agree that that was kinda crazy, right?"
"I… I don't know if that was the right call, if I'm honest," Selene admitted.
Astra leaned back, hands behind her head. "It's Aurora we're talking about. She has to have a plan… right?"
Jace, however, wasn't looking at Aurora's work. His gaze was locked onto another member of their team.
"It's not Aurora I'm worried about."
Felix didn't look good.
The metal golem moved with precision, its sharp, molten-forged limbs carving into the stone. Felix had dropped the lava aspects from its arms, ensuring the metal blades could slice cleanly through the rock as they shaped the leg segment to match the required form.
From a distance, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
But if anyone actually looked at Felix, they would immediately see that something was wrong.
His nose had started bleeding again. Worse than before.
What he hadn't told anyone, not even his team, was that, as a child, he had discovered a way to amplify his brain's processing speed using mana. It allowed him to think faster, react quicker, analyze in real-time.
The problem?
The human brain wasn't built for it. The strain was immense, and the backlash could be devastating.
The first challenge had already pushed him past his limits, it was the longest he had ever maintained the technique. And now, with his body still recovering, he was continuing to burn mana to keep his golem moving, to keep carving, to keep up.
He could feel it. The exhaustion clawing at his mind, the sharp, pounding ache behind his skull. His body was deteriorating fast.
But he couldn't stop.
"I just have to hold on," Felix told himself, forcing his golem to cut another piece of stone away. "Just a little longer."
Lucian and Aurora trusted him to complete his part.
Another piece.
The rest of the team was counting on him.
Another piece.
He just had to hold on.
Another piece.
Do… his… part.
The next piece never came.
Instead, the sharp sound of metal and molten rock colliding with stone rang through the air. His golem crumbled, its structure failing just as he did.
Felix barely registered the impact before his vision blurred. His body swayed.
Then… Black.