Having defeated the adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop, Rei and his group pressed onward.
Those who had fought alongside Rei in the recent battle had sustained a fair number of casualties, but still not that many.
This was not because the fighters under Mirusu were particularly strong. Rather, the biggest factor was that enemies simply avoided engaging wherever Rei and Seto operated during the battle, which naturally kept casualties down.
Or perhaps it was simply that Mirusu's side had greater numbers, allowing several people to gang up on individual enemies—a significant advantage.
There was no doubt that many of the adventurers hired by the Dolan Workshop, hoping to earn special rewards by distinguishing themselves, had prioritized killing enemies on their own rather than cooperating with allies to share the credit.
In a way, the situation had favored Mirusu and his group.
As a result, they had hardly lost any combat power—which was not a bad outcome for Rei.
And so, after that battle, Rei's group advanced without encountering any real problems.
"Hey, wait. We can actually see the Dolan Workshop and nothing's happened... what the hell is going on? I was sure golems would be waiting to ambush us."
One of the adventurers near Rei muttered, wearing an expression of utter disbelief.
The others didn't speak up, but there was no doubt many of them felt the same way.
Honestly, Rei shared that opinion.
He had expected the Dolan Workshop to still have a certain number of golems remaining.
True, many golems had been destroyed by Rei and Seto in the Slum District, but those were unlikely to be all of them.
Or perhaps they had replenished at least some of the golems lost in the Slum District battle.
And from the Dolan Workshop's perspective, they would not want to fight a battle inside the workshop—effectively their home base.
Doing so would damage the workshop, and the alchemists might be injured... or in the worst case, killed.
That was exactly why Rei had expected them to launch an attack before his group arrived at the Dolan Workshop, in order to minimize the damage.
Even if they had different information or a different way of thinking, whoever had spoken those words earlier had likely reached the same conclusion as Rei.
"From the Dolan Workshop's perspective, they've probably judged that they have no way out anymore. That's why they tried to fight in a location where they had the terrain advantage. At least, that's how it seems to me."
At Mirusu's words, the others nodded in understanding... and before long, Rei's group finally arrived in front of the Dolan Workshop.
"What do you think it means that there's no gatekeeper? Are the gatekeepers inside the building as combat reserves, or did they join the attack with those adventurers from earlier?"
Rei asked while vigilantly watching the building, ready to respond immediately if anything happened. Mirusu thought for a moment before speaking.
"I think they're probably inside the building. Though ultimately, a gatekeeper detail is only one or two people. In terms of combat power, there's no need to worry too much about them. First, I'll go talk to them. Rei, Seto, and everyone else, wait here. Maybe they'll quietly surrender just like this."
Not likely.
Rei was about to say as much, and those who had come with Mirusu looked like they wanted to say the same thing.
But even so, for Mirusu, if the battle could be avoided, that would be ideal.
If they fought head-on, they would win absolutely.
Because he believed that, Mirusu had said so, thinking they could avoid a needless battle if possible.
"Got it. Maybe... and I mean a real maybe, but we can't deny the possibility of it turning out that way."
Rei privately believed the Dolan Workshop would never quietly surrender.
But since Mirusu, who led this unit, said so, he decided he might as well follow those words for now.
Besides, maybe... a real maybe, they might actually surrender quietly.
"H-hey. Are you sure about this? Letting Mirusu go alone? What if they suddenly send out golems?"
A man next to Rei, watching Mirusu approach the Dolan Workshop, asked Rei.
To the man, issuing a surrender ultimatum to the people inside the Dolan Workshop did not require Mirusu to personally go alone.
Sending a proxy would have been sufficient.
Yet Mirusu had deliberately gone alone, so it was natural for the man to have concerns.
"Don't worry. If golems come out, I'll handle it."
In Rei's hands as he said that, Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear were gripped and ready.
If the enemy tried to do anything to Mirusu, he planned to throw the Twilight Spear immediately.
That said, that was only if a massive golem came out. If a small golem appeared, throwing the Twilight Spear would be somewhat difficult.
If small golems come out, I'll have no choice but to move in and attack directly. I'd prefer it doesn't come to that, though.
As Rei was thinking this, Mirusu eventually arrived in front of the Dolan Workshop's gate.
Naturally, with no gatekeeper or anyone else present, there was no sign of anyone coming out.
"Listen up! A capture order has been issued for the Dolan Workshop! It was issued by Dwanda and Robel! And Dailas went on a rampage inside the Holy Four Assembly, causing many casualties! I want you to surrender quietly! If you do it now, I think something can still be done about it! You're listening, aren't you!?"
Mirusu shouted, but there was no sign of anything... or anyone responding from the Dolan Workshop building.
For those watching Mirusu's actions, this situation with no response at all was actually not bad, given that at least Mirusu had not been harmed.
However... that wish for nothing to happen was shattered in the next moment.
Multiple golems burst through the Dolan Workshop's walls as if destroying them from the inside.
"Tch, I figured it would come to this. Or rather, I'm surprised there are more golems than I expected!"
Along with those words, the Twilight Spear Rei threw sliced through the air and destroyed the torso of the golem nearest to Mirusu.
Normally, a golem's weak point was the core inside its body, but the Twilight Spear's strike had enough power to destroy the torso itself.
Of course, among golems, there were unusual variants with their weak point core located in the head instead of the torso, or in some cases the arm.
However, even such unusual variants, if their torso—the central part of the golem's body—was destroyed, could not move no matter how intact the core remained.
That held true even for high-performance golems made using human souls.
"Whoa!"
At Rei's sudden action... or more precisely, at the tremendous power of his thrown strike, the onlookers all raised voices of surprise in unison.
The cries of surprise may have been largely due to the fact that despite being thrown, the spear returned to his hand thanks to the Twilight Spear's ability.
"Hey, don't just stand there spacing out! They've sent out golems! At this point, the Dolan Workshop has no intention of surrendering quietly!"
At Rei's shout, those who had been stunned by the previous strike snapped back to their senses and drew their weapons.
Watching them do so, Rei was the first to dash forward alongside Seto.
Incidentally, Mirusu, perhaps judging that staying in front of the gate would only make him a target for the golems, had been running toward where Rei's group was...
"Mirusu, jump left!"
Seeing a golem that had come near the gate drawing a bow attached directly to its arm, Rei instinctively shouted.
Mirusu reacted swiftly to Rei's cry and jumped to the left.
And the arrow the golem fired pierced through the spot where Mirusu's body had been a moment before.
However, it was an arrow fired by a golem roughly five meters in size.
That arrow was not an ordinary projectile like those used by humans, but rather one used in ballista-type weapons—something large enough to be called a spear.
Such a massive arrow tore through the space where Mirusu had been and flew straight toward Rei.
"Hah!"
It was an arrow that an ordinary adventurer would have found difficult even to evade, but to Rei, it was as if a spear had been hurled at him.
He swiftly swung Death Scythe and slashed the giant arrow out of the air.
A stir ran through those behind Rei, but he of course paid no attention to what was happening behind him and kept running, passing Mirusu as he charged into the Dolan Workshop grounds.
Running alongside Rei was Seto, and together the man and gryphon easily entered the workshop grounds. Their first priority: take down the bow-wielding golem.
Rei had deflected its arrow effortlessly, but this was a golem that carried a ballista—a famous siege weapon—as its armament.
Rei could deflect it as he just did, and Seto could also handle the arrows without difficulty thanks to his high physical abilities.
But... that was only because it was Rei and Seto.
As for anyone else, particularly among the adventurers currently behind Rei's group, whether anyone could deal with it was questionable at best.
That was exactly why Rei had judged that neutralizing the golems first was the right move to reduce allied casualties.
Rei had closed the distance to the golem, but surprisingly, the golem had already prepared its second shot.
It was an action that an ordinary golem could never pull off, but the fact that it could do so without issue was a testament to being a golem that used a core made from a human soul.
Still, one more shot at most.
The speed at which the golem prepared a new arrow was quite fast, but considering the speed at which Rei and Seto were closing the distance, one more shot should have been the limit.
Rei and Seto approached the golem together.
In a situation like this, if a human had been firing the arrows, they would have hesitated over whether to target Rei or Seto.
Some wouldn't hesitate, but most opponents would.
A golem, however, had no such hesitation. It fired another arrow straight at Rei.
Since Rei had deflected the first arrow with Death Scythe, the golem had probably recognized him as the more troublesome opponent.
In a way, that judgment was not wrong. It was not wrong, but... leaving Seto unattended was a blunder.
"Grrrrrr!"
With a roar, Seto charged at the golem.
To Seto, the enemy golem had attacked Rei twice.
It was an opponent that could absolutely not be forgiven.
Kicking off the ground, he leaped and lunged toward the golem's head.
The golem had been attacking Rei, but it apparently judged Seto's presence as dangerous.
Even so, it likely did not think it could intercept Seto if it tried to attack him in the current situation, so it raised the arm equipped with the bow.
The golem probably did not want to use its greatest weapon as a shield, but since Seto was lunging from the direction of the bow-equipped arm, it had no choice but to do so to block.
"Grrrrrr!"
Seto unleashed a strike using the Power Attack skill.
Those who saw it probably could not comprehend the scene before them at all.
That was because the golem had been shattered to pieces by Seto's strike.
Of course, they knew Seto was a gryphon.
Even so, for the onlookers, this situation was completely unexpected.
Among them, the only one who did not appear particularly surprised was Rei.
Precisely because he knew Seto's strength, he could trust in him.
Perhaps because it was a high-performance golem using a human soul, it had half-reflexively used its bow-equipped arm as a shield to try to block Seto's strike—a quick judgment.
In fact, if the attacker had been not Seto... and of course not Rei either, but Mirusu or the other adventurers, blocking that strike would not have been particularly difficult.
However, this time, it could only be said that they had clearly picked the wrong opponent.
At the shattered golem, the other golems were surprised for just a moment—or perhaps unable to make a sound judgment—and stopped moving.
Among them, Rei alone had not stopped. With Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear in hand, he charged at the remaining golems.