The automaton took a single step forward, the sound of metal grinding against metal echoed through the chamber.
Arthur reacted instantly. A sword of pure golden light flared into existence in his hand, and he hurled it straight at the construct. But just before it struck, the blade halted midair and was pulled into the automaton's chest. The light vanished, absorbed completely.
"What…?" Arthur didn't have time to finish.
Briva and Elna launched their own attacks, an arrow wrapped in wind, a bolt of crackling shadow, but the same thing happened. The automaton absorbed their power, its chest glowing faintly before fading back to dull brass. Briva's arrow clanged uselessly against the creature's armor and fell to the floor.
Arthur grimaced, summoning a real sword and shield from his magic bag. "So it eats magic," he muttered.
The automaton's massive arm swung forward, piston-driven and fast. Arthur barely got his shield up in time. The impact rang through the room like a hammer on an anvil, and the floor beneath his boots buckled with a metallic groan.
"Arthur!" Leo shouted, stepping forward to help.
"Don't!" Arthur gritted out between clenched teeth. "Just find a way to open that door, or we're all dead!"
Elna and Briva rushed in beside him, dodging heavy strikes, striking back with their weapons. Sparks flew where their blades met the automaton's body, but the machine barely flinched.
Leo spun toward the orb. He needed time, and silence to think.
He closed his eyes, reaching inward toward his domain. Nothing. It was like shouting into a void.
'Damn it,' he thought. 'This place… it's cut us off. Even from our domains.'
The automaton's steps shook the room behind him. He could feel the vibrations through the soles of his boots as he tried to focus, desperately piecing through the last riddle in his mind.
Leo layered every protection spell he knew. Then he cast an illusion over himself, a bubble of silence that shut out the clang of metal and the cries of his friends.
The world went still.
He closed his eyes.
'Something eternal,' he thought. 'Like time… but not time.'
If it wasn't time, and not death, then it had to be something deeper. Something that existed as long as them, something no being, not even a god, could escape.
He could sense the fight raging behind him, the automaton's fists striking like thunder, but he forced the noise from his mind. The only way to save them was to solve the riddle.
A minute passed, maybe less. Then a single thought cut through the storm.
'Not even gods can escape…'
Leo's eyes opened. A small smile touched his lips. There was only one thing even gods could not flee. He stepped forward and placed his hand on the orb.
"The void," he said.
The orb pulsed once with golden light.
"The answer is correct."
The glow faded, and Leo let the illusion fall. Sound rushed back in, the hiss of steam, the grind of gears, and the ragged breaths of his team.
The massive automaton stood frozen mid-step, its arm still raised as if ready to strike. The crimson glow in its eyes flickered once, then dimmed to black. Steam vented from its joints in slow, uneven bursts before the entire frame locked in place with a heavy clang. For a long moment, no one moved.
Arthur stood with his shield raised, panting. "What took you so long?"
Leo smiled faintly. "Sorry. Tough riddle." He moved toward Elna, offering a steadying hand.
A sharp click echoed through the chamber. The door swung open with a sound of steam.
After catching their breath, they moved on. Beyond the doorway stretched a narrow corridor of brass walls and whispering pipes. At the end, another chamber awaited, and unlike the first one, this one was not empty.
The next chamber was larger than the previous, its floor divided into a perfect grid of one hundred bronze tiles, ten by ten. Each tile in the first row was engraved with a different animal shape, a wolf, a serpent, an eagle, a boar, and so on.
Across the room, carved into the far wall, the shape of an eagle glowed faintly with white light.
"I think we're supposed to step on the tiles with the same shape," Arthur said, studying the pattern.
"I'll try it," Briva offered, already taking a step forward.
Leo caught her arm. "Wait. That can't be all there is."
He scanned the floor, his eyes narrowing. "Only the first row has symbols right now. The next one probably appears when you step on the correct tile. But look…" he pointed to a small, dark opening near one of the tiles. "There are holes in every square. If you step on the wrong one, something's going to come out of there. And I'm willing to bet there's a time limit too."
Briva crossed her arms, unimpressed. "I'm fast. The glowing shape is an eagle, I can find it before anything hits me."
"And what if the symbol changes while you're running?" Leo countered.
That stopped her cold.
Elna glanced upward. "Can't we just fly over it?"
Leo shook his head. "If this place was built by the greatest mind of his time, I doubt he left a loophole like that."
Arthur sighed, thinking. "All right. Here's what we'll do." He turned to Briva. "You have the best reflexes. You go first. Step only when you see the correct shape. We'll watch the wall, if the symbol changes, we'll shout it out."
"And if the room blocks our voices?" Elna asked.
Arthur looked back at the glowing eagle and tightened his grip on his sword. "Then she'll just have to look at the wall too."
Briva nodded and stepped forward toward the first tile. She took a deep breath as Arthur placed a few quick buff spells on her, a shimmer of magic wrapping around her arms and legs.
Then she stepped onto the first square.
The tile glowed beneath her foot, and three new symbols appeared on the next row ahead. One of them was the eagle. Without hesitation, she leapt onto it.
The moment her foot left the previous tile, a dozen metal spears shot up from it with a sharp clang.
"Faster, Briva!" Arthur shouted.
Briva didn't need to be told twice. She sprang from one tile to the next, her movements sharp and precise, each leap timed with the rhythm of the glowing symbols. Steam hissed through vents in the walls as more tiles lit up ahead.
She had just landed on another eagle when Arthur's voice echoed through the chamber.
"It changed! Bear, it's a bear now!"
Briva's mind raced. She was mid-jump, her boots just leaving the ground. In a split second, she twisted her body, kicked off the tile, and landed on the one marked with a bear's outline.
The pattern shifted again just before she reached the final row. Her instincts carried her through, one last leap, a flash of light, and she landed safely on the opposite platform.
Briva turned back, breathing hard, a grin spreading across her face. "Told you I could do it."
The floor lit up in white, each tile returning to its neutral state. The glowing symbol on the wall faded away.
"I think that's our cue," Leo said, stepping onto the cleared path.
Arthur, Elna, and Leo crossed quickly, their boots ringing softly on the cold metal. On the far side, Elna and Briva shared a quick high five before turning toward the next doorway.
Another narrow corridor awaited them beyond, and at its end, a new chamber.
After a second, the voice came again, calm, metallic, and toneless.
"Present to me something beyond my reach. You have but three attempts."
"Oh, come on. Riddles again?" Briva groaned, rubbing her temple.
Before anyone could respond, the floor at the far end of the room split open with a hiss of steam. Three circular platforms rose slowly from below, their surfaces lined with faint glowing sigils that pulsed like heartbeats.
"What are those?" Elna asked, gripping her dagger tighter.
Arthur frowned. "I think only one of us can do this part."
"There's only one way to find out," Leo said, stepping toward them. But before he could move any closer, Arthur stopped him with a firm hand.
"You should be the one to do this."
Leo blinked. "Why me?"
Elna gave a soft, teasing smile. "Because you're the smartest."
"I'm not…" Leo started, but the three of them had already stepped onto the platforms.
The moment their feet touched the circular platforms, shimmering barriers of light erupted around them, perfectly clear, yet solid as glass.
"Hey, wait!" Leo shouted, rushing forward.
Then came a deep mechanical rumble from above. Leo looked up, and his breath caught. Massive slabs of stone lined with jagged iron spikes were descending from the ceiling, above the platforms, slow but steady, the sound of grinding gears filling the air.
Arthur said something, but no sound came. His lips moved, and his expression was calm and steady.
Leo clenched his jaw. "A silence field…"
He reached out with telepathy, but the mental connection cut off instantly. Nothing but static.
"Damn it."
His friends could only smile at him through the transparent barriers, trying to reassure him.
Then, with a faint hum, an orb rose from the center of the room. It glowed softly, pulsing like it was breathing, waiting for him.
Leo exhaled and stepped closer. "Okay," he muttered. "Three chances."
After thinking for a while, he placed his hand on the orb and spoke clearly. "I am not alive but grow; I don't have lungs but need air; I don't have a mouth but I consume. What am I?"
The air in the room seemed to hold its breath.
Then the voice replied, cold and sure: "You are fire."
At once, the light around the room dimmed, and with a thunderous clang, the slabs above his friends dropped closer, slamming to a stop barely a few feet from their heads. Dust rained from the ceiling. The metal spikes gleamed inches above them, humming with tension.
Leo looked back nervously. "You just let me hear that? Bastard," he muttered, forcing a grin he didn't feel.
His friends smiled faintly from within their barriers, trying to reassure him. He gave a small nod and turned back to the orb. He needed something harder, something the machine couldn't so easily name.
He thought for a moment, then spoke clearly.
"I hide in plain sight, split things apart without cutting, and change everything I touch, though I leave no fingerprint. What am I?"
The silence stretched longer this time. Leo allowed himself a small, hopeful breath, Then the voice returned, calm and certain.
"You are light."
The metallic grinding came again. The slabs above his friends dropped another few inches, stopping just short of their heads. Dust fell in thin lines through the still air.
Leo's heart pounded. He turned to look at Elna, her eyes steady, her lips curved in that same quiet smile, before forcing himself to face forward again.
'This damn thing can answer any riddle,' he thought. 'So what can't it know?'
Then it hit him.
His eyes widened. The voice had never said riddles. It said: Present to me something beyond my reach.
Which meant… he could ask anything.
Leo looked up toward the unseen ceiling, the hum of the city pressing in all around him. There was one thing that he knew and no machine, no god and no creation could ever truly reach.
He placed his hand back on the orb. "Who am I?"
For several long seconds, there was only silence. The faint mechanical rhythm of the room faltered, as if even the gears were holding their breath.
Then the voice spoke, slower now, uncertain.
"You are… Leo Mantine."
The nails didn't move.
"It's wrong," Leo said with an smile.
He tried again, firmer this time.
"You are the Creator." The answer wasn't completely wrong but not right either. He wasn't the true creator yet.
"You are incorrect."
The light in the room flickered. The machinery trembled, grinding and clicking as if straining under its own logic.
Finally, the voice came again, fractured, glitching.
"You are… you… are…"
It broke apart entirely, dissolving into static.
Leo exhaled slowly. He understood now.
This city, this machine, could reach across all knowledge, all memory, all minds. But not this. The answer to that question existed only in one place.
If it could even be called a place.
And no matter how powerful this creation was, it could never pry the truth from the one being that kept it.
From Death.