Mark of the Fool

In the moments before Claygon had smashed the crystal against his chest, Alex had to fight his every instinct in order to keep himself from interfering. Every instinct had screamed at him, telling him his golem would get hurt, or worse.

Nor would it be the first time that he’d come close to dying.

Twice before, in battles with Ravener-spawn and the hidden church, Claygon had been so badly damaged that Alex had thought he’d been destroyed. His clay form had come close to being completely shattered by a petrifier, and the First Apostle had crushed his stone body at Uldar’s Rise, leaving Alex thinking he was gone.

Alex teleported back.

And now, here he was, bathing in the strange energies within the Ravener itself. What would happen to him? Would the energy blast him to nothingness? Would it overwhelm his golem core, turning it to cinders?

Would he crumble like the node had when the poison was injected? Or would something worse happen? Would the Ravener be able to reach into Claygon and take control of him through the dungeon core substance in his golem core?

Those questions flooded Alex’s mind, telling him to teleport Claygon away to stop him from risking his very existence.

But, he fought that urge, remembering everything Claygon had said about him having free will, about him making his own choices. Seeing Claygon bathed in the multi-hued magic…left Alex worried, and confused, but also understanding that he had to trust his buddy.

Trust the golem that called him father, even as the energy of Uldar’s construct washed over him and his body began blazing with its own inner light.

“Get out! What are you doing?” the voice of Uldar’s construct, seething with menace, echoed through the crystal structure. “What new treachery is this?”

Claygon blazed with a binding light, as if in challenge.

Alex’s mana senses seemed to catch fire; energies emanating from the node flowed into Claygon’s body…and he could feel the Ravener’s power mixing with his golem’s energy. Transforming it. Changing it to something new.

“Stop!” the Ravener commanded, horror joining the anger in its tone.

Whatever Claygon was doing, the Ravener obviously wanted it to end.

But the golem didn’t stop, and his light burned brighter with every heartbeat. Soon, the node’s multi-hued light was eclipsed by the blazing radiance coming from his transforming body.

Alex shielded his eyes against it, as all around them, the crackling noise from the crystals lessened. Their light was also dimming; Claygon’s golem core was taking in every bit of energy it could, absorbing it…

…making it his own.

‘Are you alright, Claygon?’ Alex thought through their link.

No answer came. At least, not in specific words.

Instead, Claygon’s emotions poured through their link, reaching Alex’s mind, coming to him as excitement, shock, wonder, curiosity, pain, desperation, confusion…all of it. But, there was no fear.

Not even for the fleetest of moments did Alex feel the slightest trickle of fear coming from his golem.

And he relaxed, deciding to keep trusting him, letting him captain his own ship down his own path. He would support Claygon, no matter where it led.

The air shimmered in the node.

Ravener-spawn appeared.

Alex gripped his sword-staff.

He would support Claygon no matter where his path led…and defend him from anything wanting to take him from his path. The young archwizard channelled Hannahs’s power, teleporting monsters away in pieces, teleporting heads, limbs or even getting rid of the creatures in halves. Claygon remained unbothered, yet more monsters were forming around him by the number.

And Alex raised his staff, channelling its power, summoning his own monsters to hold back the Ravener’s. To stop them, or break them.

“Leave him alone you bastards,” he snarled. “You’re not worthy even to touch the dirt on his feet!”

As if in agreement, air elementals swarmed over Ravener-spawn, striking them with lightning, or sucking the breath from them. Any Ravener-spawn slipping by, or defeating an elemental didn’t live long; Alex teleported them away…in pieces, or cast Cone of Ice, freezing them, then dropping them from high, shattering the monstrous ice statues on the ground.

Soon, every monster trying to get to Claygon was dead and…

…no more were appearing, no more were forming in the air around them.

It was almost as if the Ravener had given up, but Alex didn’t believe that. After all, it was a construct that had performed the same task for its dead creator for endless cycles over thousands of years.

It was many things: murderous, slavish, even foolish, to name a few…but an entity that just ‘gave up’ in the face of resistance?

It definitely was not that.

‘What are you planning?’ the young archwizard asked himself.

The node began to shake.

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Crystals hummed as tremors climbed through the tower, the node started to shrink.

‘Oh hells, it’s going to destroy the tower, ‘Alex thought, turning to Claygon.

“Buddy, we might have to–” his words trailed off.

The light was fading from the iron…no…

…not iron any longer.

The glaring light faded from his body, allowing Alex to make out what was beneath the radiance…to clearly see what Claygon had transformed to.

His general shape was unchanged: a thick bodied golem with four arms, one of which was still holding his war-spear. The fire-gems still blazed in his forehead and palms, the same crimson colour as they had always been.

The armour-like design covering his body remained true, as did his snarling face.

The material he was made of, though, was different.

His metallic surface had been transformed; certain areas of the formerly dark iron were gone, replaced by gleaming steel, while other parts were of an inky black substance.

“Father…I feel it…I have…transformed…” he said. “And now…I can help us…properly.”

The golem’s voice was confident. More sure. More assertive. The voice of one who walked his own path, and had gotten to where he wanted to go.

“Father, don’t teleport us out…” He raised his head toward the ceiling; the node was constricting, the tower collapsing inward. “…not yet…I want to show the Ravener something.”

The golem spun his war-spear, abruptly stabbing its blade deep into a wall nearby. Claygon flexed his fingers, slowly raising his arms toward the ceiling. Power gathered in the fire-gem in his forehead, blazing brighter than ever before. Power gathered in the fire-gems in his upper palms, burning with renewed light.

Alex had seen this before, he was ready for Claygon to display his new power…but something caught his eye.

In the palms of the golem’s lower hands, a different sort of energy was growing, gathering strength with every heartbeat, the light also increasing. Along his chest, a massive torrent of power throbbed, and the deep black substance of his form began burning with its own inner radiance.

Alex frowned; the light and power were familiar…the young archwizard had seen it before.

But where? Where had he seen this exact display of power before? It had been recently too, he just knew i—

Then his mind made the connection.

He remembered the Ravener charging its death-beams in the cavern; its black surface would shine with a near blinding radiance in the spot that the beam was about to fire from.

And that same internal radiance was now burning along the substance that formed much of Claygon’s new form…a substance that Alex was very familiar with.

Dungeon core substance.

Claygon had evolved beyond iron, taking on the Ravener’s most valuable energies as well. Now, his body was steel, along with the very same substance that his and his father’s most dangerous enemy was made of.

Alex’s eyes went wide. ‘Dungeon core substance’s mana conductivity is impossibly high!’ he thought. ‘If Claygon’s body now consists of that—’

His thoughts were cut off by a series of earth-shaking blasts.

Claygon’s fire-gems released chaos-tinged beams, thicker and blazing with more power than ever before. The depth of the heat coming from them felt as hot as being beside a cremation chamber.

Three more beams ripped from his lower palms and chest.

But these were not fire rays.

They were like the Ravener’s death beams. Smaller in diameter but with the same type of energy.

All six blasts hit the ceiling at once. Death-beams combined with the chaos-laced fire, building even more energy until—

“Father…teleport out!” Claygon cried suddenly, tearing his war-spear out of the wall. “Far from here!”

Alex didn’t hesitate, teleporting both he and his golem from the tower.

They appeared far from the node, and just in time—

For a sky-breaking boom to rip the darkness.

In an instant, most of the tower was gone; the explosion tore through the crystal as though it was a dinner plate, annihilating all Ravener-spawn nearby, turning the tower into a crater within the flat plane.

“What in all hells?” Alex shouted.

A mushroom shaped cloud formed above the landscape, one even bigger than the one left by the chaos bomb Carey had exploded at Uldar’s Rise.

“Claygon…that’s incredible!” the young archwizard cried, stunned.

“You took what is mine,” the Ravener’s voice came through the darkness. “You will give it back.”

“No…” Claygon said. “I will not give anything back…you helped give me life, Ravener. You helped…give me strength. You helped me…transform and transcend, finding new versions of me. You have helped me grow…but I will be better than you…”

“What is this nonsense?” the Ravener asked. “I do not even know what you are?”

As it spoke those words, more Ravener-spawn manifested from thin air.

Claygon lifted his head toward the dark skies. “Good. I will…show you.”

The golem spread his arms wide.

And parts of his body began to shimmer.

“I think…I can do this…” he said. “And if I do…it will make me happy…because I will be more like my father…and just as you admire your creator. I admire…my father...who…fights…with an army of monsters…”

“What?” Alex cried. “What are you saying, buddy? No way. No way!”

“And now…so can I.”

And without another word, the first spawn burst from Claygon’s body.

Emerging from his chest was an eye-stalk, followed by another, then another. The spawn was invisible; if Alex hadn’t been under a true seeing spell, he would not have seen the creature as it grew, its mass swelling as it surfaced, long legs spreading out, writhing in the air…

Then dropping from Claygon’s body, landing on the ground below.

A petrifier.

“How?” the Ravener sounded shocked.

“You…you can make spawn?” Alex whispered.

“That energy…it let me take more from the Ravener than it knew…my evolution is to be this…father. To be…better than what Uldar made,” Claygon said.

Spawn of all kinds took form, created by the golem: chitterers, gibbering legions, blood-hydras and spear-flies emerged from his form.

“Go…father…” the golem said. “I might not…be able to make…spawn as fast as the Ravener…but now…I have what I need to help you…and protect…all of us. I will take care of it…do what you have to do…”

Alex looked at Claygon, pride surging through him. “I’m more proud of you than I can ever express with mere words, Claygon.”

“Thank you…now…go.”

With that, the construct unleashed hell.

Fire-beams exploded from his gems.

Death-beams launched from his body.

And spawn emerged from his four-armed form, forging a growing army around him.

“You will die here. You are the ultimate of Usurpers!’ the Ravener’s voice hissed out in a sinister whisper.

It shot its death-beams at Claygon…but the golem’s own beams struck the Ravener’s, turning darkness to an inferno of explosions and thunder.

His spawn leapt on Ravener-spawn that Uldar’s creation had released, clashing with them.

Alex watched in awe, unable to leave as Claygon floated forward like a god of war, raining destruction down on Thameland’s ancient enemy. Death beams and waves of deadly magic struck the golem, but—where before they would have heated his iron form until it was steaming and glowing—now, not even the force of those beams could make him flinch.

“Go…father!” Claygon shouted, raising his war-spear. “Do what…you must!”

For a moment, Alex considered staying by his golem’s side and trying to exist in five places instead of four.

…but four had been taxing enough.

He couldn’t push himself any further now, not at such a crucial time, with so much chaos all around them.

Alex took a deep breath, watching his golem clash with Uldar’s creation…proud to see the closest being he had to a son standing up to an abomination made by a god.

And not even flinching.

“I’ll be back soon, buddy. I swear it.”

With that, he teleported away.

It was time to find the other nodes, now that Claygon was holding the Ravener’s attention.

And it was also time…for something else.

Within Aenflynn’s castle, inside the room that held Uldar’s throne, Merzhin opened his eyes.

“I think…I think I’m close,” he whispered. “Carey, Alex. Help me. I think I can tear this barrier down.”