plumnovel Chapter 53 : Dealing with the Golem
Chapter 53 : Dealing with the Golem
Dealing with the Golem==============================
Damn, damn, damn, she hadn't realized this sooner!
Jiang Cheng cursed inwardly, gritting her teeth.
That was why she always said she wasn't all that smart—not only did she neglect this crucial point just now, but before this, she hadn't even left a convenient backdoor in the golem for herself to deal with.
But now was not the time for self-blame. After a brief pause, the golem was already charging toward Lyle and her.
In his hurry, Lyle had no choice but to hold the Sword in the Stone in front of himself, shielding Jiang Cheng behind him with his own body.
With a thunderous "Boom!", Lyle was slammed back, sliding more than ten meters across the ground.
A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Lyle's mouth. Injured again, he didn't even have the strength to stand, forced instead to kneel on one knee, painfully propping himself up with the Sword in the Stone to protect Jiang Cheng.
But clearly, the golem showed not the slightest hesitation because of Lyle's decision.
With a roar, the golem charged once again toward the two of them.
Damn, damn, damn! For the first time, Jiang Cheng, who had always believed in the convenience of magic and thought highly of mages, found herself hating that all the system had given her were magic-based abilities.
She absolutely couldn't let Lyle fall here!
It wasn't for the crisis of this world, nor for anything else—even if it was just for that sliver of feeling in her own heart, Jiang Cheng didn't want Lyle to die.
What a joke—he was her most beloved protagonist, the Hero she had cultivated herself; how could he fall here?
Gritting her teeth, she still didn't want to reveal her identity, so by this point, if she didn't want to switch to another identity to deal with the golem, there was only one option left.
Making up her mind, Jiang Cheng suddenly charged forward in front of Lyle's terrified eyes.
Raising her arm, Jiang Cheng blocked the golem head-on, looking every bit like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"Jiang Cheng!"
Lyle cried out in alarm.
The next second, the golem, brimming with unstoppable might, crashed into her.
"Boom!"
Blood and flesh splattered—Lyle almost couldn't bear to look in that direction, afraid that something truly irreparable would happen to Jiang Cheng.
The lower half of Jiang Cheng's arm, which she held out in front of her body, was brutally pulverized by the great impact.
But, strangely, the golem did not continue forward to crush the rest of Jiang Cheng.
For some reason, at this moment, the golem stood frozen in place. Magical fluctuations and crackling currents flickered occasionally, betraying the turmoil beneath its calm exterior.
Looking closer, on the golem's surface, the remnants of Jiang Cheng's arm were writhing, transforming into magic circuits that began to invade and corrode the golem.
Jiang Cheng stared viciously at the spectacle before her; the agony of her shattered limb seemed to have little effect on her.
"Cough," she hacked up blood, curling her lip. The side effects of being unable to use divine arts still hadn't worn off.
A gleam of savagery flashed in her eyes as Jiang Cheng retched up another large mouthful of blood, forcefully activating another divine art.
From her broken half-arm, several blood vessels shot forth, connecting directly into the golem.
Immediately, the rate at which flesh condensed and changed on the golem accelerated sharply.
Countless intricate circuits, made from flesh and blood, spread across the golem's surface, shifting and reconfiguring continuously.
After a long moment, just as Jiang Cheng's face had grown ghostly pale and she was about to lose consciousness from blood loss, those circuits finally stopped changing.
A glint of clarity flickered through the golem's eyes, and it began to move.
In Lyle's shocked gaze, the golem stepped back and called out,
"Master!"
"Hoo..."
Jiang Cheng let out a breath of relief, glancing with disdain at the thing that had nearly ruined everything. She replied,
"Don't call me Master, that sounds awful—just call me Miss."
"Yes, miss," the golem nodded, falling silent.
"How did you do that?"
Lyle approached in astonishment, looking at Jiang Cheng and asking.
Jiang Cheng shrugged. Having stopped the use of her divine art, the flesh at her severed limb was wriggling, slowly healing thanks to her innate gifts.
Turning her head, Jiang Cheng smiled cheerfully and said, "Just a few simple little divine arts, that's all."
"I have to say, that false deity who controls the mechanical priesthood really did add some fascinating divine arts to the divine art library." Chapters fırst released on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
"Although a divine priest's power tends to look a bit gory, this is undeniably a true form of mechanical divine art. Against nonliving things, these machinery-related divine arts make things way too easy."
While joking, Jiang Cheng suddenly wobbled and fell toward Lyle.
Damn, she cursed inwardly—she shouldn't have shown off like that; now she'd made a fool of herself.
To save this guy, she had forcefully activated super-level divine arts she still wasn't used to.
Although the effect was great, she was not proficient at all, and the forced activation had left her gravely injured inside. Fortunately, with her gifts, Jiang Cheng was already starting to recover.
"You're seriously hurt,"
Lyle said, carefully lifting Jiang Cheng into his arms as he looked at her severed arm and the blood streaming freely on the ground.
"No kidding,"
Jiang Cheng rolled her eyes, "so hurry up and use Healing."
It might not help much, but at least it would give Lyle something to do instead of stewing anxiously. Jiang Cheng decided that was worth it.
Nodding, Lyle raised one hand, his palm blooming with a warm, gentle holy light.
Bathed in this light, Jiang Cheng's already-regenerating arm healed even faster.
But more importantly, support magic from the holy light school really felt wonderful.
The warm glow was like a lazy afternoon sun, filling Jiang Cheng with an urge to just nap—the sensation made her unconsciously hum.
"Mmm~"
"What's wrong?"
Lyle asked worriedly when he heard her, "Is the wound getting worse?"
"No,"
Jiang Cheng replied, deadpan. "I was just marveling at how nice our Hero's holy light feels."
"When you're done being a Hero, you'll definitely have a future running a massage parlor."
Lyle's face darkened. He'd been worried for her, only to find she was teasing him instead!
With the aid of the holy light, Jiang Cheng's arm quickly finished healing, thanks to her innate talent.
"Alright, set me down,"
Jiang Cheng opened her eyes and said to Lyle.
"Better not,"
Lyle replied nervously, "You're still too weak, and your health isn't great to begin with. It's more comfortable for you if I carry you."
Comfortable? Jiang Cheng curled her lip—she was sure he was just getting addicted to carrying her.
Rolling her eyes, Jiang Cheng shrugged, deciding to let him have his way this time.
Given how many times he'd saved her today, she could let this slide for now.
"So, is the golem still dangerous?"
Lyle turned, looking anxiously over at the golem.
"It's fine,"
Jiang Cheng replied offhandedly, "The original circuitry has already been corroded by me. From now on, it'll only recognize me as its master. It won't belong to your old teacher anymore. Other than that, there won't be any issues."
"That's a relief,"
Lyle let out a breath.
Even though this was one of the few relics his teacher had left him, it had taken Jiang Cheng suffering such heavy wounds to resolve things. Letting the golem recognize Jiang Cheng as its master wasn't a big deal.
But...
Lyle lowered his head and looked at Jiang Cheng seriously.
"You managed to overwrite even a demigod-mage's circuit so quickly, and those flesh circuits look really familiar. You must know my teacher's magic circuit very well, don't you?"
Jiang Cheng instinctively looked up as she heard Lyle's words. When she fully heard Lyle's certain, unquestioning tone, it felt as if she'd been plunged into an icy cave.
So, her secret had finally been noticed.