The two golems advanced at the same time from opposite sides.

Takeshi moved to the right to avoid being cornered. The golem on his left slammed the ground where he had been standing a second earlier, leaving a crack in the stone. The one on the right adjusted its trajectory and came straight for him.

Takeshi barely dodged the blow, feeling the displacement of air as the rock arm passed inches from his head, and rolled toward the center of the hall to gain distance.

Two active golems and Sylion standing at the opposite end of the hall, focused, hands held in the same control position.

’If I stay still, they’ll surround me, so for now I need to keep them moving.’

He began moving diagonally, forcing the golems to constantly reposition. Every time one raised its arm to attack, he was already somewhere else. It wasn’t elegant or efficient, but as long as he kept moving, they wouldn’t land a direct hit.

The problem was that he couldn’t keep that up forever.

He remembered the class where they talked about large objects and the energy cost each one required. Considering the amount of material the golems were made from, Sylion probably didn’t have that much energy left.

Suddenly, a third golem appeared and, instead of trying to strike him directly, launched itself forward with the full weight of its body.

Takeshi didn’t have time to calculate the full trajectory. It hit him from the side, lifted him off the ground, and slammed him against the hall wall.

The impact shook the entire left side of his body. The stone wall cracked where he hit. Takeshi fell to the floor and took a second to regain his bearings.

’That’s the golem Aoi cut down... did it regenerate?’

There were three again.

[they crushed him]

[poor Takeshi, he’s gonna die]

[this looks bad]

Sylion stepped forward a few paces and, in the tone of someone enjoying what he was seeing, said,

"Look..."

He mockingly pointed at Takeshi.

"A nobody who shouldn’t even be here. Trying to face me without a weapon, without anything or anyone backing him up."

He paused.

"You’re going to die in this mansion, and nobody outside these walls will even remember you ever existed."

Takeshi leaned against the broken wall, his left side aching.

[Life: 68%]

[Sanity: 50%]

[Points: 14]

He heard every mocking, contempt-filled word from Sylion.

At that moment, he remembered his past. The editor’s email with three paragraphs carefully explaining that his novel had no commercial future. Another publisher’s email with exactly the same result. The night he placed the manuscript into a folder and never opened it again. He remembered the night shift at the convenience store, the gray ceiling of his apartment, the feeling that the years were passing while he remained stuck in the same place.

He remembered all of it.

And he laughed.

It wasn’t forced—it was genuine and brief.

"You’re right..."

Takeshi replied.

Sylion frowned.

"I’m a nobody, and I always have been."

Takeshi slowly stood up, placing a hand against the wall.

"I failed at the only thing I ever wanted to do, and no one will remember me for it..."

He brushed the dust off his clothes.

"But that also means I don’t have anything left to lose."

Sylion looked at him with an expression that mixed confusion and irritation.

"That doesn’t change the fact that you’re going to lose."

"Maybe..."

Takeshi looked at the three golems.

"But I still have to try first, right?"

Ever since magic class, he had been thinking about something. It wasn’t a technique written in any book. It was his own deduction based on what he had learned: if energy could be infused into external objects, then it should also be possible to direct it inward. Not to create elemental magic or produce any visible effect, but simply to reinforce the body from within.

The usage would be minimal, constant, and wouldn’t require a high level of magic because it wasn’t trying to produce anything complex.

Takeshi closed his eyes for a second and directed the flow toward the muscles in his legs and arms.

The difference wasn’t obvious, but when the next golem strike came, he remained standing instead of being dragged away by the impact. The pain was there, but his body didn’t give in.

Sylion watched him absorb the blow, and his expression changed.

"What...?"

Takeshi used that moment of confusion to move toward a position where only one golem could reach him at a time. He forced them to reposition, gained space, and kept moving.

The fight continued. Takeshi wasn’t winning, but he wasn’t falling either. Every hit he endured with internal reinforcement was a hit Sylion never expected him to survive.

[he’s holding on]

[how is he doing that]

[SYLION’S FACE]

Sylion lost his composure.

He raised both hands, and the hall floor began to rise beneath Takeshi—a stone platform lifting rapidly toward the ceiling.

Takeshi didn’t have time to move. The platform trapped him and started carrying him upward. The ceiling was less than two meters away and getting closer.

’Why...?’

As the space between the rock and the ceiling shrank, Takeshi thought not about the immediate situation but about something he had been processing in fragments over the last few seconds.

He thought about the rejected manuscript and what had failed. Not the story itself, but the structure.

’Maybe the action scenes weren’t polished enough...’

He looked at the chat, still active, messages piling up rapidly, everyone following the situation in real time.

[COME ON TAKESHI, YOU GOT THIS]

[someone do something]

Suddenly, the donation notification sounded.

[You have received 2 Golden Tickets from Roberto_Botello: I NEED A POWER-UP RIGHT NOW]

’A power-up...?’

[Sanity: 50%]

[Magic: 9]

’I see...’

[Sanity: 40%]

[Magic: 19]

’That’s what I needed...’

[Sanity: 30%]

[Magic: 29]

Takeshi concentrated all the available energy into a single point. Not outward, not into his body, but toward the tip of his index finger, where a small sphere formed, no larger than a centimeter in diameter, holding all the concentration he could sustain.

’This is the power-up my novel needed.’

The sphere was charged, and the ceiling was less than half a meter away.

He threw it downward, straight at Sylion, who instinctively placed a golem in front of himself to protect himself.

The impact wasn’t an explosion. It was a concentrated discharge of energy that, upon contact with the golem’s mass, generated an intense white light that completely filled the hall for two or three seconds.

The stone platform stopped because Sylion lost concentration from the visual shock.

"What the hell!?"

When the light faded, the platform began descending slowly because Sylion was no longer sustaining it.

Takeshi landed and looked forward.

Sylion stood in the same place, blinking, hands lowered. The temporary blindness was obvious.

"You bastard, you’re going to pay for that!"

Takeshi crossed the hall quickly and directly, his right fist charged with what remained of the internal reinforcement. Sylion regained his vision just as Takeshi reached him.

"What...?"

Sylion saw the fist inches from his face.

He hadn’t said anything, but within seconds he went from confusion to fear and finally saw his life flash before his eyes.

"Wait..."

Sylion said fearfully. His voice no longer carried any superiority.

"Wait, don’t..."

Takeshi stopped his fist just two centimeters from Sylion’s face.

"Swear you’ll never try to hurt Nyx again..."

Takeshi ordered in a threatening tone.

"Not her, and not anyone close to her."

Sylion looked at the unmoving fist and then at Takeshi’s face, which at that moment held an imposing stare.

"I-I swear..."

He replied.

"I swear, I won’t..."

"That’s enough."

Takeshi lowered his arm and stepped back.

Sylion tried to remain standing for two more seconds, but his knees gave out. He collapsed to the floor, and in less than a minute he was motionless.

Takeshi looked at his own stats.

[Sanity: 10%]

[Magic: 49]

’What does this mean?’

He had questions for the deity about what had just happened, but that could wait.

First, he had to catch up with the girls.