The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

"You know what?" I scratched the back of my head. "I feel like the external gates are a waste of resources at this point."

Hestia cocked her head to the side and gave me an incredulous look. However, a few moments later, she laughed. "Don't you dare dismantle them!"

"Hahaha! Oh, no, no. I wouldn't." I laughed as well, looking at the Bernan soldiers who followed in Cridinas's footsteps. "But the bait I threw is almost unfair. It's true that pushing an army through the gates usually means the city can't effectively defend itself. However, it isn't even a trap; the gates are still open to save as many people as possible."

In the distance, Avalon's Wrath felled another Siege Golem of Berna that had been hopelessly throwing large boulders at him. His warhorn was akin to mocking laughter as he slowly advanced toward the remaining Golems, seemingly impervious to anything the enemies threw at him. How the Bernans, seeing him in action, could believe that they stood a chance of attacking my city was a mystery to me. I then sensed Hur'zhun himself entering the gatehouse, and I decided to confront him personally. He could be one of the deities of this world, but within the confines of a Dungeon, he was nothing more than another adventurer.

•••

Fagnar rushed towards the castle, waiting for its gates to close and the drawbridge to rise. The absolute madness of the God he had followed his entire life corroded his will and clouded his judgment. However, as he advanced with the army, he noticed their shields held against all reason. The enemy fire should have already cracked the shields of the frontal formations, but nothing like that happened. Lord Hur'zhun was leading this charge, and surely, he exercised his might to ensure their victory. They were so close to the city, and yet the gates were still open. Could that mean that some faithful were inside? As his thoughts rushed through the possible scenarios, while he silently asked and replied to his own questions, his army's frontal ranks reached the gatehouse. However, that was a moment that changed everything. Once Hur'zhun crossed the bridge, there was a sharp and metallic clang of a chain unwinding. The gatehouse's portcullis dropped heavily, crushing a few men under its weight.

"Mages! RAM THE GATES!" Fagnar yelled, and many soldiers repeated the order.

The soldiers closest to the Gatehouse ducked behind their shields, hoping that a piece of wood and a thin metal sheet would protect them. The magic that protected them started to fade because all the mages focused instead on the spells that, in their opinion, would be enough to destroy the gates. Fagnar knew the attack should be called off, and they should have tried to retreat. As the first siege spells hit the gatehouse, Fagnar finally crossed the invisible line and almost turned around.

"Gods! This is a Dungeon…!" His eyes went wide, and he finally understood how foolish their actions were. "Defensive formation!"

A city of this size would have had many more gates, and definitely… the Dungeon was definitely going to attack them. Suddenly, he wasn't so sure about the power of his God. Something was odd, even wrong. It took him way too long to understand what was bothering him, but a cold sweat covered his back once the realisation dawned upon him. He couldn't hear the sound of battle from inside the gatehouse or even the voices of his men who entered it. Even the soldiers nearby gave him strange looks as he slowly approached the gates. He raised his hand to call off the mages, and the only sound that could be heard was coming from the enemy Golem massacring his. An eerie silence spread through his forces, but before he could give the order to retreat, a fog rose around them, covering the area in a thick, white veil. The soldiers were frightened and huddled as close to each other as possible. They abruptly couldn't see the blue sky anymore or even hear the clashing colossuses nearby. The eerie silence spread like some kind of disease. Some of his soldiers were unprepared for it and started panicking. A few of them ran away into the fog, and a few moments later, everyone could hear their screams.

"We are all doomed..." A soft, emotionless whisper broke the heavy silence.

•••

Not so long ago, he was no one. He was an orphan, rejected and discarded by his parents. However, he never despised the people who gave life to him. He struggled and strived to carve his own path in life, but he wasn't lucky. Not so long ago, he became an adult, but the class-giving ceremony turned out to be another disappointment in his life. He never received a name and it turned out that he couldn’t obtain a class. It was a rare situation but not unheard of either. Just another hardship in his life. Still, it wasn't enough to break him. Then, he was brought to Avalon, and he stood in front of King Theon. Amongst thousands of men and women, it was he who had focused all of the great king’s attention. That day, his life changed. That day, he received his name.

"The shields are at forty percent, Lord Ares."

"We got it," he acknowledged the voice of his friend and subordinate, unable to see him. "There are only two of them left anyway..."

"You mean three..." A second officer started to correct him but stopped mid-way.

Ares grabbed the much smaller Siege Golem in his right arm and effortlessly lifted it into the air. He raised his left arm and fired the Titan gun from point-blank range, cutting the Golem in half.

"Just two..." Ares confirmed calmly and turned his gaze upon the remaining adversaries.

He couldn’t see his friends and officers who supported him because Ares was now one with his Titan.

He was Avalon's Wrath.

Ares threw the remnants of the upper part of the Golem, hitting the remaining enemies in close range. With a mighty ring of a bell, the lifeless shell collided with the still-working siege engine, overturning it. The shields deflected a few stray spells, but Ares ignored them. He steeled his resolve, feeling the protest of his Titan, who wanted to squash these annoying insects.

"There will be plenty of time for that later," he mused to his machine, feeling it agree begrudgingly.

"Shields at thirty percent, my Lord!"

"Your cannon is overheating slightly."

"Noted..." Ares almost sighed, entirely focused on the battle.

Ares aimed his cannon at the Golem, which hunched slightly in a mockery of a run. It tried to ram the Avalon's Wrath, hoping its mass would be enough to topple Ares' walker. The Siege Golem was so slow, even when trying to run, making it easy to aim at it. As Ares pulled the trigger, he felt an unpleasant slap to his gun-arm that forced him to miss. He roared, outraged by the impudent parody of a Titan that had hit his hand with a rock. He looked down at the lying Siege Golem, who tried to stand up, noting it was the one who tossed that rubble. Ares ignored the rushing Golem, overwhelmed by the Avalon's Wrath outrage, and walked forward, intending to crush the lying enemy. The much smaller Siege Golem collided with the Titan in a ground-shaking embrace. Ares looked down through Avalon's Wrath eyes at the pesky enemy while the impact rang through the superstructure of Titan, and to their surprise, they had to take a step back to regain their balance.

Avalon's Wrath warhorn echoed through the plains, and Ares grabbed the head of the Golem, who had tried his best to topple them. Ares focused and changed the active spell on his right arm. With four clangs indicating the movement of the Titan runic bracelet, a lightning field activated. The Titan’s sharp claws closed on the head of the Siege Golem, biting deep into the metal flesh of the adversary. Ares was applying more pressure with the claw, and the Golem's grip weakened with each passing moment. Finally, there was a muffled explosion as the light in the Golem's eyes died out. Ares pushed away the dead enemy and directed their gaze at the last enemy Golem, who was still trying to stand up. Avalon's Wrath and his pilot were as one in their personal quest to punish the Golem that made them miss their shot. Just a few more steps, and they stood above the Golem. They raised their leg, and with a grim sound of their warhorn, they flattened the head of the final Bernan Golem.

"Shields at ten percent, my Lord," the voice of his officer reached him. "Shields are regenerating."

Ares and Avalon's Wrath didn't pay attention to the voice; instead, they focused on scanning the nearby forest. Soon after, they discovered what they were looking for and aimed their cannon.

•••

"Impossible..." The Grand Master of the Order of the Summoners wiped at the blood that started running from his nose when the connection with his Siege Golem was abruptly and violently cut.

"What is that thing?!" Yellar, one of the most skilled summoners, yelled with anger.

"We must retreat, Master Ehivis!" Someone else urged the group, and the Grand Master heard several other voices approve of that idea.

"Silence, you fools!" He coughed up blood and drank a healing potion. After drinking it, he angrily tossed the empty vial at the nearby tree. The sound of shattering glass silenced his subordinates much quicker than his previous order. "Lord Hur'zhun and Lord Fagnar lead our army into the enemy fortress! If that Golem decides to fight them, I fear we will be doomed."

"But what can we do?! You fought it yourself, and you failed, like us all." Yellar lowered his head respectfully but in resignation.

"Think! There are ten of us, plus the support team. We will take over that Golem and turn it against the city!"

"That might work..."

A loud boom from the enemy Golem's warhorn gave them pause as its enormously large cannon aimed directly at them. Everything drowned in silence for a moment, but the moment passed, and the entire forest itself seemed to try to run away.

"SURRENDER." The deep and slightly artificial voice was accompanied by a gradually brighter glow forming inside the barrel of the magi-gun.

Ehivis grunted in anger and focused on the enemy Golem, feeling Yellar's magical support. The rest of the summoners stood frozen in fear, which angered the Grand Master. However, with the help of his most talented student, Ehivis was almost sure that he would succeed in taking over the control over the giant. He felt a strange unease as he closed his eyes, readying himself to face the enemy summoner. He had performed the somewhat complicated spell many times before, yet this time was different. Ehivis found himself in a vast room filled with dim light. Behind him stood Yellar, who was looking around nervously. Everything he saw and felt was clouded as if caught in dense fog. That wasn't something Ehivis was accustomed to. He felt the presence of something immensely powerful and belligerent. He was caught by that presence and flinched, exercising every bit of his willpower not to break under the strain of the two glowing eyes looming in the distance. However, Yellar's presence suddenly faded, accompanied by a single dying gasp.

"You are not strong enough..." An amused voice called to him from the surrounding darkness.

"How can you harness such power?" Ehivis barely had the strength to ask the question.

"Have you ever gazed upon the mountain and made it flinch?"

Ehivis gritted his teeth as he was violently pushed away. He felt his strength and mana being syphoned away as the Golem he had tried to control focused on his entire being. With a mix of fear and awe, Ehivis gazed upon something so utterly unfamiliar yet reminiscent of something he knew well. It wasn't a Golem, yet it possessed a Golem Core. It wasn't a monster, yet it possessed a monster's bloodlust. It wasn't a familiar, but it possessed a familiar's instincts. It wasn't anything like them, yet it was something between them all. His willpower eroded under its dreadful gaze, stripping him of all his delusions.

"No..." The Grand Summoner of Berna managed to whisper before he lost his vision.

"This is what it takes to pilot a Titan," the voice said as if from a distance, and Ehivis realized that he was dying.

•••

Hur'zhun was disturbed by the sight in front of him. He had entered the castle gatehouse, surrounded by Berna's soldiers, yet he was alone in the fog. Then, after what seemed to be hundreds of years, he found himself in a magnificent meadow full of flowers and basked in the soft light of the sun. But there was a familiar scent in the air.

"Kitsune..." Hur'zhun snarled with annoyance. "So it was you who orchestrated this..."

"Oh, you are giving me too much credit," a woman's voice replied. "I must disappoint your hubris, but until recently, I wasn't even remotely interested in your existence."

"Watch out, Mortal..." He tried to locate her without any success.

"No bull. You should be watching your mouth." A cold, male voice somehow managed to terrify him.

"Ahhhh, of course. Your hero, Kitsune?" Hur'zhun almost laughed, thinking about how to make use of such a man. "Hero, you know who I am..."

"Oh, I know." A man stepped out from thin air, most likely from under the veil of illusion made by his Kitsune. However, there was something wrong with him, causing Hur'zhun to step back. "Hahaha... It's too late for that, bull. You can't run away from me."

"Who... What are you?" Hur'zhun asked, terrified.

The man continued to advance on him slowly, and he, the Great Hur'zhun, couldn't help but retreat shamelessly. However, there was no exit to which he could retreat. The man was smiling in what seemed to be a friendly smile, but there was ice in his eyes. But when he finally spoke, Hur'zhun immediately regretted his decision to personally attack Avalon.

"Me? I'm just a Dungeon..."