"Just what in the hell is that thing?" Aldred asked.
"It's probably a golem. By the looks of it, it seems like the creator is much more skilled than you," Stella said.
Aldred agreed to that. One of those statues could hold against four Ultra Golems. If not for the Spellsword's ability to devour mana, the golems might not even be able to defeat one of them earlier.
From his analysis, the statue seemed to be able to learn as well. Just like his golems.
The statue sent the rocks flying at the Ultra Golems. Each of those rocks was enormous and weighed tons. Even if the golems were not destroyed, it might suffer tremendous damage, and because of the golem's special material, it couldn't regenerate as well as his other golem.
The golems used their agility and flexibility to dodge all the rocks, sometimes cutting the rocks in half or blasting them with mana bullets.
The rain of rocks kept coming and they struggled to dodge, at least that was what the golems made the statue think.
In reality, they were positioning themselves to encircle the statue, and after a few minutes, they charged at it from four different directions.
Just like last time, two Ultra Golems attacked at long range, and the other two attacked from close range.
The mana bullets came at the statue before it stopped in mid-air and exploded. Two Spellsword appeared out of the dust cloud, coming directly at the statue.
The statue stopped the sword in mid-air only for the golems to blast its arms with the Vanquisher.
The golems then stabbed through the neck, piercing through, and cutting off the spine-looking object on the back of its head.
The statue fell to the ground with a thud.
"It's finally over," Aldred commented.
The four Ultra Golems approached the statue. It was taller and larger than them. They knelt, touched it, and began absorbing the materials.
Slowly, they consumed the whole statue and integrated its materials with their own.
Aldred checked to see if they have a telekinesis power from absorbing the materials, but sadly that wasn't the case. The materials did make it easier for the golems to fire mana bullets and absorb mana though, so it wasn't a lost cause.
"I cannot believe our golems fought those two statues for nothing," Dobbs said.
"It's not for nothing. They got to absorb materials that we never saw before."
"Not too useful, but I will stop complaining."
The golems proceeded to move forward and they saw a 2-meter-tall cross made out of black steel.
Aldred activated his godly eyes and noticed something inside.
Apparently, it was a chest in the shape of a cross. With Aldred's order, the golems pried open the steel cross and an orb floated out.
"That's a soul orb," Stella said. "From its aura, it should be the soul of a Platinum Rank."
Aldred's Phantom Doomblade appeared on his hand by itself. It flickered with life, seemingly hungry for the soul stone.
"Send the worker golems to retrieve the soul orb, and every other treasure the Ultra Golems found."
Dozens of worker golems entered the cave and scavenged everything they saw. One of them grabbed the soul orb and put it in a spatial bag.
Aldred wasn't brave enough to teleport directly into the cave, so he let the golems do the work for him.
The worker golem brought the spatial bag out of the cave, and then Stella teleported it inside the war room where Aldred was waiting.
The Phantom Doomblade flew at the spatial bag, ripped it, and then absorbed the soul orb.
The sword glowed and it trembled ferociously. Only after a few minutes did the light disappear and the sword calmly returned to his hand.
"This thing is becoming more alive by the day." Aldred looked at his sword. He could feel the immense power within it had increased.
"Your sword consumes souls. I wouldn't be surprised if it was really alive," Stella said.
Dobbs stared at the Phantom Doomblade with curiosity. As he stared, however, he felt like he was being stared back. The sword seemed friendly to him.
"Entering this cave is not a waste of time." Aldred smiled. "We should explore it, and see what we can get."
The Ultra Golems proceed forward. They entered a narrow hallway and then arrived at some sort of lab. There were broken pipes and tubes with green liquid spilling all over the floor.
Aldred frowned. "A lab?"
"Only Duria will make a place like this to perform their experiments. This place is not made by mages, dark mages, or ritualists," Stella said.
"Have Duria always placed their labs outside their nation?" Aldred asked.
"Of course. Duria is a military nation, and they have a lot of different factions fighting for control. To have control, they need power, and this lab must be owned by one of the factions."
Aldred frowned. Something didn't add up. The Devil Xenorph he defeated was a universe hopper, and it came from this place. So unless Duria did something to summon that Devil Xenorph from another universe it would be impossible for them to own this lab. Or maybe a person from another universe was teleported here and brought some Xenorphs with him.
Just thinking about it made him dizzy. There were too many questions, and he would not find an accurate answer unless he kept moving forward.
Passing the lab, they arrived in front of a large steel door. The Ultra Golem kicked it through and entered a dark, wide chamber.
The Ultra Golems detected a bunch of Xenorphs inside, and they fired the Vanquisher, blasting them by the dozens.
There was a steel bridge above the chambers, and people came sprinting on the bridge with some sort of sci-fi-looking weapons.
"Musuh! Musuh! Tembak!"
[Unknown language discovered. Translation begin]
"Intruders! Intruders! Fire on sight!"
The weapons fired a laser beam at the golems numerous times, but it did nothing to them.
The people wore some sort of gas mask, and their shock was visible despite their faces being hidden.
The golems retaliated by sending ten thousand mana bullets per minute at them, ripping them to shreds.
"Quick, keep going forward as fast as possible," Aldred ordered. Now that he knew there were people in here, there was a possibility that they might escape with a valuable item that was kept in this secret cave.
Whatever they hid under this volcano must be valuable.
The four Ultra Golems kept going forward, entering another hallway. Enemies came from different directions, firing their laser guns at the golems.
The Ultra Golem shot once and the mana bullets pierced through six people before exploding and turning their bodies to mush.
They proceeded forward, killing anything and everything that was moving.
In the distance, four enemies pushed a giant machine gun forward. It aimed right at the golems and sprayed bullets like it was heavy rain.
The golems swiped their left hands forward and an energy cape appeared, blocking all the bullets.
Their right hand transformed into Vanquisher in sniper mode and they blasted the giant machine gun.
They didn't even have a chance to scream before they died. The golems found another gate and shot it open.
Inside, they found a group of enemies pushing a large ball of spikes made out of steel.
Aldred's prediction was correct. These people did have something to hide. "Kill everyone and secure that large ball of spikes."
