Chapter 61 – The War-Golem's Shadow
The war-golem moved.
It was not the clumsy stagger of a giant built from crude parts, but the deliberate stride of something designed to annihilate. Each step made the battlefield tremble, scattering Dominion soldiers and allies alike. Its body was a grotesque fusion of metal and bone, its frame powered by the glow of dozens of fragment cores fused into its chest.
Noah had seen monsters. He had seen the Citadel of Echoes consume men whole, and he had faced shadows that whispered madness. But this—this was war itself, given form.
"Steady!" he barked, though his own voice shook with the weight of what loomed before them.
Around him, his companions formed a wall against the oncoming terror. Kael braced behind his shield, planting his feet as though to anchor the earth itself. Lyra's bow trembled in her hands, though her gaze stayed sharp. Dominique's usual smirk was gone; her jaw was tight, her daggers drawn as though she were facing her own executioner. Elias, bloodied but unbroken, raised his sword in silent defiance.
They were tired. Broken. Outnumbered.
And yet—still standing.
---
The war-golem's first strike came without warning.
Its arm, a massive limb of iron plates fused with bone, swung through the air like a scythe. Noah barely managed to shout a warning before Kael stepped forward, shield raised.
The blow landed like thunder.
Kael was thrown back, his boots carving trenches in the blood-soaked ground, but he did not fall. His shield cracked, splinters flying, but he stood his ground.
"Is that all you've got?" Kael roared, voice hoarse but fierce.
The soldiers around them erupted in cheers, their morale bolstered. Even Noah felt a flicker of fire return to his chest.
But the war-golem did not pause. Its other hand slammed down, sending shockwaves rippling outward. Soldiers—friend and foe alike—were hurled into the air.
"Noah!" Lyra shouted. "The cores—its chest!"
Noah's eyes snapped to the creature's heart, where fragment cores pulsed like a cluster of burning stars. They glowed in patterns, feeding power into its limbs.
"Then that's where we aim!" he shouted.
---
The fight became chaos.
Lyra loosed arrow after arrow, each one striking true, but the cores were shielded by plates of shifting iron. Dominique darted beneath the war-golem's strikes, her daggers flashing as she sought seams in the armor. Elias charged from the side, his blade cleaving deep into its leg, sparks flying as metal met magic.
Noah surged forward, his sword igniting with fragment energy as he swung at the war-golem's knee. The blow bit deep, but the creature barely faltered.
Then it retaliated.
A backhand sweep sent Dominique flying, her body skidding across the ground until she rolled to a stop, coughing blood. Lyra screamed her name, loosing another volley in desperate fury. The war-golem didn't even flinch.
Noah's chest burned with rage. He sprinted toward Dominique, dragging her back just as the construct's foot came crashing down where she had lain.
"Still alive," she rasped, blood staining her lips. "Don't you dare count me out yet."
Noah's hand tightened around hers before releasing. "Then keep fighting."
---
Minutes stretched like hours. Every strike against the war-golem felt like hammering against a mountain. Their blades cut, their arrows pierced, their fire burned—but still it advanced, relentless, unyielding.
And worse—the Dominion soldiers rallied behind it, pressing harder, sensing the battle tilting in their favor.
Noah felt despair claw at the edges of his heart.
We can't win like this.
The thought was poison. He forced it down, gripping his sword until his knuckles bled.
"This is the moment," he shouted, his voice carrying above the chaos. "Not tomorrow. Not next week. Now! If we fall here, everything falls with us!"
His words lit something in his companions. Kael surged forward with a roar, slamming his shield into the war-golem's leg to stagger it. Elias followed, hacking at the exposed joint. Lyra's arrows found gaps in its plating, sparks bursting with each strike. Dominique, despite the blood on her face, climbed onto the war-golem's arm, daggers digging deep as she scaled toward its chest.
Together, they forced it to slow.
For the first time—it faltered.
---
But faltering was not enough.
The war-golem roared, its voice a sound of grinding iron and shattering stone. Plates shifted across its chest, forming a barrier of jagged spikes to protect its cores.
Dominique cried out as the armor shifted beneath her, throwing her into the air. Noah dashed forward, catching her mid-fall, the impact knocking the air from his lungs.
The creature's chest flared with light. Energy gathered between its hands, a sphere of crimson fire building.
"No—!" Lyra shouted. "It's going to—"
The blast came.
A wave of burning energy tore across the battlefield, disintegrating soldiers in its path, obliterating siege engines, carving trenches into the earth itself. Noah raised his blade, channeling every fragment he had left into a shield of light. The force slammed into him, tearing through his defenses, hurling him backward.
When the smoke cleared, the battlefield was unrecognizable. Hundreds lay dead. The fortress walls cracked, stone crumbling. And the war-golem still stood.
---
Noah forced himself to his feet, every bone screaming. Around him, his companions struggled, bloodied but alive.
"This isn't working," Elias panted, his sword trembling in his grip. "We can't bring it down like this."
"Yes, we can," Noah growled, though doubt gnawed at him.
"How?" Kael demanded.
Noah's gaze locked onto the cores. So many of them, woven together into a single chain of power. To destroy them, they needed more than brute force. They needed unity.
"The oath," Noah whispered.
"What?" Lyra asked, confused.
"The oath we swore," Noah said louder now, his voice raw. "We said we'd stand together, not as fragments, but as one. That wasn't just words. We make it real. Now."
He extended his hand.
One by one, despite their exhaustion, despite the blood and the fear, his companions placed their hands over his. Kael's massive grip. Lyra's slender fingers. Dominique's trembling but unyielding hold. Elias's scarred hand, steady as stone.
Energy surged between them, a resonance unlike anything Noah had ever felt. Their fragments hummed in harmony, their wills binding together.
For the first time, they were not separate.
They were one.
---
The war-golem raised its arm for another strike—but Noah and his companions moved as a single being.
Lyra's arrow ignited with fire as Kael shielded her. Dominique leapt forward, guided by Elias's strength. Noah's blade burned with the light of all of them combined.
They struck together.
Arrow, dagger, sword, shield, and blade—all converging on the war-golem's chest.
The impact was cataclysmic.
The plates shattered. The cores exploded in a cascade of light, fragments scattering like dying stars. The war-golem staggered, its body convulsing, before collapsing with an earth-shaking crash that silenced the battlefield.
For a heartbeat—silence.
Then, cheers erupted from the fortress walls. Soldiers screamed their triumph, voices breaking, tears streaming down soot-stained faces. The Dominion's ranks wavered, their morale breaking as their great weapon fell.
Noah stood in the wreckage, his companions at his side, all of them barely able to stand—but alive. Together.
He looked at the crimson horizon, now dimming as smoke drifted across the dawn.
"This isn't the end," he murmured.
"No," Lyra said, steadying him with a hand. "But it's proof we can face it. Whatever comes."
And as the battlefield quieted, Noah allowed himself a single breath of hope.