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“…So this is as far as it goes.”

After the line that read “Break the tower,” no matter how many pages I turned, there were no dates beyond that day.

The neat, orderly handwriting suggested the writer had a meticulous nature—so much so that it wasn’t efficient for filling a journal. Even now, more than half the pages remained blank.

That was why the sight of a full two-page spread, marred by the rough, ink-smeared words “I don’t want to die,” seared itself into my mind. It was the raw mark of despair.

“……Well then.”

I closed my eyes and thought.
There wasn’t much I could decipher, but I’d learned a few things.

First, that humanity—including the writer—had apparently been cornered to the brink of extinction. So much so that they’d feared their own annihilation.

No—if I were to take these writings at face value, perhaps they had been wiped out.
Then what did that make us, the humans living now?

“………”

And who was this writer, really?
The skill to modify a golem as an afterthought was one thing—but why would someone who denied the existence of God be able to wield magic?

They spoke of evacuation as though it were nothing, yet what was this ruin? Even that ceiling which reflected the blue sky far exceeded the bounds of modern magicology.

What did they mean by “we did it”? What was “those words”? What did this writer see in their final moments?

“This is troublesome… the more I learn, the less I understand.”
“Master! How’s your side coming along?”
“Ah, just in time, Momo. I’ve roughly deciphered it, but there’s little progress to report.”
“Really? Well, I found something amazing!”
“Something amazing?”
“I was following that little Roomba and stumbled upon it! Come on, you’ve got to see this!”
“What now? I’m running out of stamina here.”

Guided—dragged, really—by an excited Momo, I was led to a small cave on the outskirts of the village.

It, too, had suffered from flooding; the ground was soft and muddy underfoot. And from deeper within, I could sense a powerful surge of magic power.

“That cleaning golem went in here?”
“Yep! And don’t be shocked, okay, Master?”

Momo stepped carefully, making sure not to slip in the muck.

The passage seemed to slope gently downward; the further we went, the more the floor changed—from mud, to rock, and finally to smooth metal panels. The terrain grew more and more artificial.

“What in the world…? A magitech workshop? But why would something like this be here?”
“Shh! It’ll notice us if you talk too loud. Look over there—Master, do you recognize that?”

Just before the tunnel opened up into a wider chamber, Momo crouched behind a rock and peeked ahead.

Following her lead, I also leaned out to look—and there they were.

Hundreds of golems, identical to the Saint’s attendant, we met at the village entrance, lined up in neat rows, hanging from the ceiling.

This wasn’t a natural cave anymore. If anything, it was… a massive golem storage bay.

“……Momo, whatever you do, don’t stick your head out any further. And keep your voice lower than usual.”
“I know, I know. If we startle them, they’ll all go waaah and rush us, right? I didn’t touch anything until you got here, so you should praise me.”
“Yes, yes, good job, very good. …Are all of those things on standby?”

The countless golems hung from hooks descending from the ceiling, their eye-like lights extinguished, arms dangling limply at their sides.

Considering the one that had attacked us when we first arrived in the village, we should already be well within their detection range. Yet none of them stirred an inch. That likely meant they were inactive—cut off from any magic supply.

“Still, that’s an incredible number. Could this underground facility really hold enough magic power to activate all of them at once?”
“Maybe that’s why they’re all asleep, because there isn’t any magic left. Oh—look over there, Master!”
“Cleaning! Cleaning! Cleaning!”

Where Momo was pointing, about five of the small cleaning golems we’d seen inside the houses were busily scrubbing the floor.

Given the sheer size of the chamber, it was far too much space for golems of their size to clean—but they scurried about tirelessly, their movements showing no sign of slowing down.

“Momo, those cleaning golems—have they been working here nonstop since you followed them?”
“Uh-huh. Maybe after they finished cleaning the houses, they just moved on to keeping this place spotless.”
“If that’s the case, their internal battery should have been long depleted. Did you notice them refueling anywhere?”
“You mean like charging? No, I didn’t see any outlets or anything like that…”
“Notice from Control Center! Notice from Control Center! Signal from E-01003 lost! Unit deemed incapable of autonomous operation! Initiating activation sequence for E-01004 and E-01005 for rescue!”
“W-what’s that voice?”

The sudden announcement from the ceiling made Momo clamp her mouth shut in alarm. The voice was inorganic, golem-like, but softer and more human than the cleaning golems’. If E-01003 referred to the unit Momo had buried, this was bad news.

“Momo, we’re pulling back. If the golems start moving there’s a high risk we’ll be spotted.”
“I can handle two of them—”
“No. If we cause a commotion here, the rest will wake up one after another. I want to investigate the back, but we should come back prepared.”
“Energy charging. Time to activation: 10…9…8…”
“Okay, okay, we’ll retreat for now! Get on, Master!”
“Drive safely—and don’t throw me off.”

As Momo sped us away, I glanced back at the storage bay we were leaving. Two golems were already in the process of waking. The sense of magic power in the entire room seemed to be flowing through the ceiling hooks into the golems. If we could follow that flow, we might get closer to the ruins’ secret—but two people weren’t enough.

“…Unpleasant as it is, we’ll have to borrow some help.”

I thought, racing out of the cave like the wind: how many people would it take to take down those golems? And who could I call—well, that man would be glad to lend a hand.