You wake up in a dying realm. You were born to kill and get killed, but no matter how good you get, the hunt brings you nothing. You are withering away.
One day, you read a message in the red ruins that talks of a myth. An oasis far away, in the desert, where monsters don't kill and mana persists.
You want to hunt. You want to live. And for your body to stop churning. Like worms eating you from the inside. So you prepare, and then you leap. You leave the red ruins and into the plains from which no one comes back.
That meant the magnal telling us its little story had been on top of its food chain. The most powerful there was.
You needed at least that to survive crossing those mana deprived lands.
And now it had found that mythical place it had read about. It could see the meadow with its grassy hills, its groves and fields of petals flowing in the air. It could see the numerous beasts looking so harmless, so close by and not tearing into each other.
"Let me join you!" That lizard pleaded.
And the human responsible for all this, that tall woman with teal eyes responded warmly: "Of course! You are welcome here!"
"Careful!" It's sky lynx pet warned again.
Most monsters lived too short to even grasp the mana drain. To them it was just hunger and a normal desolation. Those that lived longer realized their efforts were in vain. After all I had seen, I could believe a monster would go crazy like that.
"Kaele, what do we do?" It asked me.
Why? I was just the clay golem. They could play pretend all they wanted.
"Your mistress needs all the points she can get."
That calmed the lynx. It lowered its paw, let its mistress pass. The woman crouched again before that monster, close enough that in one move her head would have been munched.
She put her hand on the monster's head.
"You will let me? Really?" That reptile still thought. "I can't believe it's true!"
"Pacify!"
And with that word, and a moment of light, that beast morphed before my eyes. The heavy scales serving as a shell had turned smooth and shiny. The paperthin skin now bore a small coat and its claws had retracted into round paws.
With big eyes and a kind mouth, it spoke: "You... thank you! Thank you so much!"
"The pleasure is all mine!" The human returned. "If you need anything, just ask! We are all friends here."
Everyone cheered and after a bit more of chat the crowd dispersed. Back to the lounge to eat. I stayed behind with that new one, and the legged rapt monster that had come out to cower behind my legs.
It wanted to join the others but I was in its path and it dared not cross me.
"Let me read your thoughts." I said.
The beast approached, carefully, then put its muzzle against my palm. Mind like an open book.
"Why?! What have you done to me?! I wanted to join you, why!? Was it a trap? I fell for a trap?"
"What am I thinking?" The beast asked with its innocent eyes.
I got up and left.
All around us the meadow had started to die. It was still too early for its residents to realize but the good days were gone. How to explain that, if I ever explained it to that careless human?
Sponges. Until now the sponges had absorbed all they could against a massive influx. That was above what the mana drain could take and so everyone's magic grew.
Then as the human's aura quieted down under the mana drain, those sponges finally started to absorb less than they could. Still more than the drain took back. That short period, however, was gone.
Now the drain had overtaken what was left to absorb. The sponges looked damp but they were drying up.
The next day, the flowers' usual scent wasn't as strong anymore.
But the hamlet was oblivious. They still kept building, and playing and dancing together in that senseless madness of theirs. Two hundred and twenty points away from a lie.
I had been told to go see their latest construction. It was away from the village, on the other side of the pond. I crossed the hill and saw a workshop of clay and thatch that they were trying to pretty up with garlands of holly and daisies.
The beasts were never comfortable with me around. A clay golem was generally not a nice sight and my silver coat was for humans, not them.
Still, they welcomed me in and I watched as they poured molten metal in their stone furnace. Annealing. Hardening. Tempering. Through the molds and presses they joined the layers together.
They were forging an armor.
The sky lynx was there, on its two legs, approached and showed me the large room.
"It won't be as good as your craft, but Yuitsu said you were struggling with it, so I came up with this!" It bragged. "Tomo is handling the runes over there" it pointed at another building "and Suzu the clay!"
I picked a piece. It was definitely subpar.
"We need you to help with Muasin," that best kep going, "so, I hope you will accept our work."
"Muasin?"
"The snake! That monster that tried to harm Yuitsu! We need to find it and pacify it!"
"No." I put the piece down. "Finish the armor quickly. Do not seek that fiend."
"Wait, why?!"
The sky lynx pursued me after the entrance, not daring yet to just get in my way.
"The snake is weakened. It will hunt to regain strength. Don't serve it meals." And I clutched my necklace. "I will take care of it myself."
But that beast was not done. It got in front of me this time and stretched its legs.
"No! No, I will protect Yuitsu! I don't care if you are stronger, I will be coming too!"
"You?" My tone had veered into mockery. "Defending a human? A week from now you'll be feeding on her corpse and I will be the one putting you down."
"Lies!"
"You don't want to protect Yuitsu. You just want to hunt. When the pacification breaks off, you will tell that to me yourself. Get the armor done. Stay away from the snake. And then die."
I pushed it out of my way and left it standing there, aghast.
But it didn't matter whether that slave was angry or scared. The pacification would ensure it served its mistress. And with them making that armor for me, I had more freedom.
Because that silly monster was right. The snake was still alive, hiding somewhere under the meadow, licking its wounds. Even though this place would die before it could regain any decent strength, it would stay around.
That devil, that... Muasin hunted humans.
And so, while everything decayed around me, I hunted it in turn.
Few entrances to the tunnels were left. With earthworks, I could find one. I could make one. Once below, in the galleries, I could track any small presence.
And more importantly, I could collapse entire sections.
So my new task began. Seek its trace. Close the tunnel. Fill the cavern. The rumble of stone and dirt was my only companion. It was there. Fleeing me. That snake was silent and swift but could not escape me forever.
Yet I also had to check on the pacified beasts.
Another day had passed in complete denial. Those creatures had organized a festival. Their bonfires lit up the evening.
More monsters were crossing the desert, begging to be admitted. Of the few that made it here all arrived weakened to the breaking point. The human had asked me to patrol the meadow's edge and so I did.
Then a beast got killed.
From the corpse alone I could tell it was the snake. From the location I could tell it wasn't just wandering. Those fools were hunting for it regardless, and paying the price.
"We need to find her!" The beasts shouted. "Muasin is breaking the oasis' peace!"
"Muasin must be pacified!" They insisted toward the human.
That woman looked embarrassed, hard-pressed on all sides. She wanted to appease them but struggled to find the words. "Kaele will find it, just have patience."
"Because of Muasin, the oasis is losing its happiness!" A beast complained. "We need to pacify her or the peace will be broken!"
From that point on, all of the joy and festivities slowly waned. Not because of a threat but because the meadow was dying. The mana drain slowly pressed its intangible maw.
I tried not to look at it but when crossing the fields to reach a cave, I could catch petals in my clay hand. They were wilting.
There was almost nowhere left for that snake to hide. It had felt it and started to lay traps but all that did was stall me if barely.
It reeked of desperation.
Back at the ship, even though the human was onboard, the court was gone. Beasts were not following her anymore. She said she wanted to be alone. I thought otherwise.
The only one with here in the lounge was that sky lynx, up on its two legs, and they were having a quarrel.
I reached the deck, looked in that direction and saw the lynx storm out, furious. It saw me and stopped.
It was looking at me as if caught mid-crime.
It wanted to get past but I stopped it with a hand. "Let me read your thoughts."
"Why?!" It roared. "So you can mock me some more?!"
But it had no say, no choice. My palm touched its temple.
"Can you hear me, monster?! I will not let anything happen to her! I would rather die than see her sad! I will save her no matter what!"
"Happy?!" It shouted and my hand left him.
"What did you two discuss?"
"Ask her!"
And it stormed off. It could have slipped away in a flash but chose to just run instead. Because its uncanny speed consumed mana.
Inside, the human was hitting her head against the wall repeatedly.
"Ah. Kaele." She offered me a sorry, amused smile. "So, this is it right? The sad part?"
"What did you two discuss?"
"As cold as always." She sighed, gestured for me to sit.
I looked at the chair. Then, after a second, I sat. She moved to do the same.
"We had reached a perfect relationship." She almost laughed it off. "A hundred percent. I was dreading his wedding proposal, but he... he asked me to set him free."
She got nothing from her trusty clay golem. So the human let herself fall on the couch.
"I thought I would transform him into a human! Or even a beastman, you know, I am desperate enough." She chuckled. "I don't... even remember what being in a bed with a man means, you know. It's like my name. And address. And company. It's all a blur."
"Focus." I scolded.
"I am focused." She waved me off. "I've tried to catch up on a lifetime in weeks! And I don't regret a thing. You know. Not a thing."
I got up to pick a bottle and serve her a drink. She picked the glass.
"Now that it's over, what's wrong with letting go? I don't need a lover. I need him to be happy. But I got cold feet. I am not ready to end it. I guess, I am still afraid to die? Selfish to the bitter end."
"Selfish is good, selfish keeps you alive."
"Oh, you don't have to tell me that twice." She laughed again. "I want him to be free. I want him to survive me. Eh, Kaele, don't you have..."
"Stop." I picked the glass to refill it. "I am angry at you like you would not believe. But I am a golem. I will protect you no matter what."
She got up, startled, then went into a nervous laugh. "You were a golem? This whole time?!"
My mistress spent the whole night laughing at the funniest joke the human system had played on her yet.