Jin scanned his surroundings.
He had initially been caught in the confusion. High-powered offensive magic like his Laser or Water Jet possessed such high directivity and destructive force that he hadn’t been able to use them for fear of catching bystanders in the crossfire.
But now that the chaos had subsided and only a handful of people remained standing, he realized he could use them without reservation—provided he carefully chose his line of fire.
"Beena, stay close to me."
"Wh-what? What are you planning, Jin?"
Jin didn't spare the time to answer the flustered Beena; he simply discharged his Laser.
His targets were the golems swarming around Elsa.
Unsure if the barrier from her Protect Ring could withstand a laser beam, he began systematically picking off the golems from the flanks rather than those directly in front of her.
To preserve evidence, he aimed away from their magi-devices, focusing instead on vaporizing their lower bodies.
"Th-that’s incredible..."
Beena, watching from his side, was past the point of shock; she was simply stunned. Every time Jin's bracelet flashed, the lower half of a golem vanished into thin air.
He repeated the process several times until the golems surrounding Elsa were finally cleared away.
"Elsa!"
With tear-rimmed eyes, Elsa watched the golems fall. She saw that it was Jin’s magic that had saved her.
"Jin-kun..."
Dragging her trembling legs, Elsa rushed toward him, only to be repelled when their barriers collided.
"Oof!"
Elsa landed on her backside inside her barrier. Jin gave a wry smile.
"Elsa, you have to deactivate the barrier first, remember?"
Scanning the area, Jin temporarily dropped his own barrier. Elsa followed suit, and he took her hand to help her up. Her grip was shaking.
Jin wanted to stay and comfort her, but the situation didn't allow for it.
"I’m sorry. But there are still golems crawling everywhere. If you can, please look after Beena."
"Wait, Jin?"
He patted Elsa’s head once and gently pushed Beena toward her. Elsa caught her in her arms.
"Barrier," they both commanded, redeploying their protection.
"I’m going to go help Reinhard and the others. You two get to the wall. At least that way, you won't be attacked from behind."
"...I understand. Please, be careful."
Though she had many things she wanted to say, Elsa understood the reality of the situation. With legs that still wobbled, she and Beena backed away toward the safety of the wall.
A short while earlier, at the Guest House.
Reiko had been left behind to watch over the rooms. She was currently in her visible form.
"...That fluctuation."
Reiko felt a massive surge of magical power.
"It is the same type of magic used by that golem Albus. The direction is the Royal Castle... toward the Great Hall."
Reiko began to walk toward the exit.
"Wh-where are you going?" asked Lyla, the member of the Royal Secret Maids who had stayed behind.
Reiko only murmured a single sentence in response. "Father is... in danger."
With that, she dashed out of the room.
"Hey, wait a minute!"
Lyla chased after her, but stopped short at the door.
"Eek!"
She gasped at the carnage in the hallway. Utility golems were rampaging everywhere. She had just seen Reiko shatter one with a casual blow.
"Awa-wa-wa!"
In a panic, Lyla retreated back into her room and bolted the door.
"Wh-what is happening?"
There was no one left to answer her.
Meanwhile, Reiko increased her output to the twenty percent mark usually permitted by Jin and sprinted down the corridor. Two security golems blocked her path.
"You are in my way."
Reiko swung her arm once. The two security golems were sent flying, smashing through the wall of the Guest House and shattering into pieces outside.
"It was definitely that magic," Reiko murmured as she moved.
The first pulse had been weak; the second was strong. Reiko had detected the second wave, which Jin had likely missed. It had originated near the golem standby area. This meant that every backup unit and utility golem on the grounds had been subverted.
As Reiko left the Guest House grounds, she found herself in a scene of pure chaos. Everywhere she looked, golems were locked in combat with ritters and soldiers.
The courtyard of the Royal Castle had become a battlefield, littered with the bodies of fallen soldiers and the husks of broken golems. The humans were clearly losing, but Reiko’s absolute priority was Jin’s safety.
Even so, the sheer number of attacking golems meant she couldn't ignore them entirely. She was forced to dismantle many of the machines in her path as she advanced.
"I-I’m saved..."
"What on earth is that girl?"
"A golem? No, an automata?"
To the wounded, Reiko must have looked like a guardian angel.
Security golems, ritter golems, utility golems—every machine in the castle had turned against humanity. Reiko cut a swath through them as she moved.
"?"
She noticed some out-of-place white, bird-type golems among the enemies, but she didn't stop to investigate. Reaching Jin was her only concern.
Finally, she crossed the courtyard and reached the thick iron doors leading to the Inner Palace. They were barred from the inside and wouldn't budge when she pushed. Reiko chose the fastest solution.
Destruction.
With a massive, echoing boom, the iron doors buckled.
"Surprisingly sturdy," she noted.
The gap was only about thirty centimeters wide. Considering she had struck it with twenty percent output, the door’s resilience was impressive. It was nearly ten centimeters thick, after all. Still, it was more than enough room for her to slip through.
Beyond the doors lay even greater carnage.
In the plaza before the Inner Palace, royal ritters and magi-ritters were making a stand. The royal ritters relied on their exceptional swordsmanship, while the magi-ritters targeted the golems' weakness: fire magic.
The common golems of this castle were made of bronze. The melting point of bronze with five percent tin is roughly 1050 degrees Celsius, and lower if lead is present in the alloy. Golems made of low-purity bronze would deform and cease functioning when subjected to intense heat.
However, a simple Fireball or Fire Bullet wasn't enough; it required at least a Flame Ball to be effective. And there were very few magi-ritters capable of casting such a spell.
Reiko wove through the chaos toward the Great Hall. Fortunately, most of the golems were already occupied with the ritters, so she faced little resistance. She accelerated her pace. In their desperation, no one noticed a small girl racing toward the heart of the palace at incredible speeds.
The interior of the palace was just as chaotic. Swords, fists, mops, brooms, and even serving trays were swung at Reiko.
"You are becoming a nuisance."
They couldn't hurt her, but they were in her way. Reiko spotted a broken utility golem nearby, grabbed it by the leg, and began swinging it like a club.
Reiko weighed thirty-three kilograms—she had gained three recently—and the sight of her swinging a bronze golem weighing over a hundred kilograms was surreal, but undeniably effective.
In a corridor five meters wide, the makeshift weapon scraped against the walls, scattering fragments while clearing a path through any golem foolish enough to approach.
"Weight itself can be a potent weapon," she mused, her pace never slackening.
Through a set of open doors, she saw the flash of a Laser—Jin’s magic—incinerating the enemy.
"Father! I am coming!"
Reiko pushed her speed to the limit.
Reinhard, Schwarzritter, and the remnants of the royal ritter corps were attempting to consolidate the survivors in one area.
Elsa and Beena had joined them, using healing magic to provide emergency aid to the severely wounded.
"There are too many of them!"
Schwarzritter fended off waves of attackers while simultaneously covering the royal ritters.
"Schwarzritter! Behind you!"
After punching a security golem aside, Schwarzritter rescued a woman from the brink of being overwhelmed.
"Th-thank you..."
It was Dominique, the envoy from the Celuroa Kingdom. She appeared to be unharmed.
"Stay here; it's relatively safe," Reinhard told her before sending Schwarzritter back into the fray.
The royal ritters were focused entirely on rescuing the wounded rather than fighting. One of them brought another victim over.
"Lady Elsa, please, he needs healing!"
"I’ll do what I can."
Elsa looked at the man and her expression hardened. It was Count Guarana.
His face was a swollen mess, his nose was shattered, and his right arm and left leg were twisted at sickening angles. He was coughing up blood—likely from broken ribs—and was clearly in critical condition.
After a moment of hesitation, Elsa cast her spells.
"Schmerzmittel. Behandeln."
She performed the necessary emergency treatment.
Amidst the fighting, a royal ritter cried out. "Look! It’s His Majesty and... His Highness!"
He had spotted the King and the Prince in the distance. They were shielded behind a wall of fallen golems, protected by a bronze-hued maid golem.
Even with a rampart made of defeated enemies, it was impossible to block every angle.
Lotte had just neutralized her latest opponent. Her arms were covered in gouges, and several of her fingers had been torn away. Her maid uniform was in tatters, her beautiful synthetic skin was dented and scarred, and her joints groaned with every movement.
"Lotte, are you all right?" Prince Ernest asked, his voice trembling with concern.
"Yes, Your Highness. I can still function."
As she spoke, Lotte intercepted the blade of a ritter golem with her arm, shielding the Prince. The cost was high; the impact finally snapped her right arm off at the elbow.
"No! Lotte!"
Lotte remained composed. "It is fine. I do not feel pain. For the sake of—Your Highness, look out!"
"Uwaah!"
Another security golem lunged.
"I will not let you!"
Lotte met the charge. But without her right hand to parry, she couldn't stop the security golem’s left fist from slamming into her chest.
The metal of her chest cavity buckled inward. Ignoring the damage, she pinned the golem’s arm under her right stump and gripped its head with her left hand. With a powerful shove, she sent the machine spinning away like a top.
"You're... you're amazing, Lotte," the Prince stammered.
"Yes. It is because Father built me this way."
"The one who built you..." the King started to ask, but he was interrupted.
"Watch out!"
A sword grazed the King. It was a ritter golem. For Lotte, missing an arm, this was a difficult opponent. Yet she didn't flinch, standing between the royals and the enemy to engage it head-on.
Lotte’s advantages were her speed and flexibility. A direct confrontation with a ritter golem was disadvantageous, but she did so without hesitation. That was Lotte’s nature—inherited from Maroom’s personality and Rianna’s combat movements.
The ritter golem swung its sword in a massive overhead arc. Lotte caught the blade with her ruined right arm. The shock of the blow tore the remaining segment of the arm from her shoulder, but it successfully blunted the strike.
She seized the sword with her left hand and wrenched it upward, using leverage to pop the ritter golem’s wrist out of its socket. The sword remained in Lotte’s grip.
Without pausing to adjust her hold, she struck the ritter golem’s neck with the blade while still holding it by the flat. The edge bit deep into the metal neck, slowing the golem’s reactions. Finally having a moment to grip the hilt properly, Lotte delivered a second, decisive blow.
The ritter golem’s head fell, but the body continued to move. Lotte thrust the sword down into the neck cavity, shattering the internal magi-device. The golem finally went limp.
"Lotte! Are you okay?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
Lotte had lost three more fingers from her left hand during the struggle, and she could no longer maintain her grip on the sword. She was clearly reaching her limit.
Just then, Lotte felt a familiar pulse of mana.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness... everything will be all right now."
"Wh-why?"
"What makes you say that?"
Lotte turned her scarred face toward the King and Prince and offered a small, gentle smile.
"Because Big Sister has arrived."