The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 172 The Four Great Demon Golems: Iron, Stone, and Earth
Elion recalled the three rounds of combat that had just taken place, and then said:
"The reason why those undead soldiers' attacks were ineffective was partly due to their own weakness."

"On the other hand, it's also because demons, as supernatural beings, are almost a personification of the concept of chaotic evil, rather than a purely material product. Ordinary physical attacks are ineffective and it's difficult to harm their essence."

"If you want to effectively kill demons, you must either use expensive magical weapons or use cold iron weapons that are effective against demons."

[Magic Weapon]!
Unlike some Japanese fantasy series where enchanted weapons are commonplace, magical weapons are extremely rare in this fantasy world.

When physical combat practitioners face various magical creatures such as fire elementals, wind elementals, ghosts, and demons, using ordinary weapons will either be ineffective or completely useless.

Only magical weapons can truly and effectively kill these supernatural creatures.

In contrast to its important functionality, it comes with high production costs.

To infuse pure magic into a weapon, giving each physical attack a magical attribute, requires an extremely complicated enchanting process.

Even after Eldoron reduced production costs, the manufacturing cost of a single magical weapon was still over 1000 gold coins. Not to mention the market price.

Therefore, low-level warriors are unlikely to be equipped with magical weapons; at most, they might use some sharp, refined weapons. Even among mid-level warriors, not everyone is qualified to equip themselves with magical weapons.

This is why, in Elion's previous life, during several invasions of the Abyss, the armies of various countries were simply powerless to deal with them.

—The weapons that ordinary soldiers are equipped with are almost incapable of harming these supernatural creatures!
General Saul nodded:
"Magic weapons are too expensive to be widely deployed. Only small, elite units can use them."

"However, once the Cold Iron Mine is fully developed, the undead soldiers and our melee professionals should be able to collectively switch to Cold Iron weapons."

"Even so, the problem of the undead soldiers' lack of strength still exists. Even with the cold iron weapons, they are only suitable for dealing with the low-level cannon fodder in the demon legions such as the Fearful Demon, the Primal Demon, and the Quassai Demon."

"Even strong mid-level warriors and barbarians will quickly crumble when faced with the demon's stench, poisonous mist, and aura of fear!"

Thinking of this, General Saul said with a hint of disappointment:

"In fact, zombies are immune to toxins, stench, and mind-altering effects, making them excellent melee soldiers."

"Unfortunately, the quality is still a bit low!"

Elion glanced at the four human warriors who had recovered from the stench and finally stopped vomiting, and murmured a sigh:
"Yes."

"In this magical world, living people with flesh and blood are ultimately too fragile to serve as melee units."

"Toxins and toxic gases, mind control, mental shocks, fear auras, parasitic possession, instant death effects, weakening magic. There are far too many kinds of magic in this world that target living people with normal metabolism and mental abilities."

"Especially the supernatural abilities corrupted by demons, which involve a great deal of the above aspects."

"For example, the Shadow Demon's [Mind Claw] directly attacks the soul, the Fear Demon's [Stinky Cloud], the Frodo Demon's [Spore Cloud], and the Soul Reaper's [Aura of Fear]."

The Archmage Cassandra, who had remained silent all along, heard Elion's words and recalled the battle against the half-dragon legion at the Jade River in the eleventh year of the Empire's reign. She spoke with deep feeling:

"Yes, yes, Your Majesty El-Erian."

"When dealing with the half-dragon legion and the mind flayer slave legion before, ordinary melee professionals were simply unable to cope with the poisonous breath spewed by the half-dragons and the mind flayer slaves' ability to interfere with the mind."

"On the contrary, the weaker undead soldiers are not afraid of these abilities."

"If only we had a batch of advanced, more powerful undead soldiers!"

At this point, everyone had reached a consensus—

What Eldoron currently lacks is a group of elite melee units that are not "living" like undead soldiers, unafraid of the filth and bizarre supernatural abilities of demons, but of higher quality.

Seeing that the two archmages had reached the same conclusion as him, Elion nodded slightly and smiled:

"Perfect timing, as I have made new achievements in magical research in recent years."

“I have developed a brand new magical artifact that can make up for the lack of high-level melee units in Eldoron.”

"These creations do not possess the weaknesses of living people, and their combat power far surpasses that of ordinary zombies and skeleton soldiers. Most of them can even rival high-level warriors."

"I call it a [Golem]. It belongs to the [Construct] category."

Golem?

Component?
These two terms are still completely unfamiliar to the mages of the current Eldoran era.

"Your Majesty Elion, may I see the [golem] you spoke of?"

General Saul asked eagerly.

As a battle mage leader who abandons personal feelings and devotes himself entirely to military operations, Thor is highly excited about all magical research achievements that can enhance the army!
Elian calmly clapped his hands, creating a spatial rift leading to his private demiplane.

Four enormous sculptures emerged from it.

These four statues are made of different materials.

The statue at the very front is made entirely of high-quality steel, using meteorite iron imported from the Elven Kingdom.

Following closely behind is a huge granite statue, four or five meters tall.

The third is a large sculpture cast in clay.

The last statue was actually pieced together from numerous embalmed pieces of flesh and blood. It appeared the corpses came from the Mind Flayer's slaves.

—【Iron Golem】!
——【Rock Golem】!
—【Clay Golem】!
—【Flesh Golem】!
"Are these sculptures walking on their own?"

"Is it a moving sculpture? Was it affected by a spell like [Animated Object]?"

The soldiers of Eldoron curiously raised their heads to look at the four enormous sculptures.

"Your Majesty Elion, are these sculptures the powerful melee units you mentioned?"

General Saul looked at the large sculptures, three to five meters tall, with some bewilderment and said with skepticism:
"Do these sculptures really possess melee combat abilities comparable to those of high-ranking warriors?"

To the average person, these sculptures appear enormous. But to professionals, they are nothing special.

Even a random ogre can be over three meters tall, but its strength is only equivalent to that of a relatively strong low-level warrior.

Moreover, judging from their appearance alone, these sculptures don't seem to possess any special magical abilities like dragons. Elian laughed:
"The golem is not just a moving sculpture."

"Words are useless; let's try it out in practice."

Elian pointed to the enormous statue made of rock:
"This is the [Rock Golem], which ranks second in strength among these four common golems."

"Let this golem have a go at the Berserker."

General Thor nodded, maintaining his focus on the summoning spell, and issued new commands to the summoned berserker:
"Attack that statue."

The berserker received new instructions, its ferocious eyes fixed on the golem, ready to pounce and tear apart the new enemy.

However, the next moment, the towering demon, shaped like a giant toad, narrowed its menacing eyes, as if sensing some unknown fear:
"Wagu, Guraguru!" (Abyss language)
The enormous demon roared hoarsely, twisting its body desperately in an attempt to break free from the summoning spell, but it could not escape the control of the near-legendary archmage.

"Is this demon...fearful? Unwilling to fight?"

General Thor was startled and gripped the Berserker's right hand even tighter, increasing the force of his control.

"Waru!"

Under the summoner's control, the Berserker could no longer resist, roared, and pounced on the tall rock sculpture.

A thick, black, foul stench spread from the giant toad's bumpy, spiky skin.

The black, foul stench enveloped the rock golem in an instant, but the statue, like a loyal guardian, remained unmoved.

—The golem, which has no metabolism, is obviously unaffected by this filthy stench of the abyss!

The berserker rushed straight to the rock golem and began frantically clawing at the slightly taller statue.

Click click click.

The berserker's claws struck the stone statue, but only sparked a few sparks and left shallow scratches.

Physical attacks are ineffective!

Undeterred, the berserker suddenly leaped up, opened its blood-red maw, revealing rows of menacing fangs, and snapped its jaws into the statue's left shoulder.

crunch.

Several of the berserker's sharp teeth were broken, and foul blood flowed from them. It retreated with cries of pain, staring in terror at the golem in front of it.

General Saul's pupils contracted slightly as he keenly detected the anomaly:
"The surface of this stone statue is far too hard. It must have been strengthened by supernatural means!"

El-Erian explained:

"All the golems' surfaces were coated with alchemical anointing, making them exceptionally hard and virtually immune to conventional physical damage."

"To severely damage these golems, you either need to use adamantite weapons that are effective against them, or you need to reach a certain level of strength, possessing the immense power of an adult dragon or giant, capable of sending bricks flying."

Clearly, the vast majority of demons neither use weapons nor possess physical strength comparable to giants and true dragons.

Indeed, demons possess both bizarre and filthy magical abilities, as well as considerable melee combat skills, making them extremely difficult to deal with.

But this also means that they are mediocre in both aspects!

After realizing that physical attacks were ineffective, the Berserker Demon retreated repeatedly to create distance, roared again, and activated its spell-like ability.

Suddenly, the shadow beneath the berserker demon twisted, revealing a filthy humanoid figure that leaped out of the shadow and pounced at the rock golem.

This pitch-black shadow, seemingly formed from pure malice and evil, was almost tangible.

—【The Unholy Strike】!
This spell, also known as Shadow Strike, is one of the demon's signature dark magic spells.

"These sculptures are exceptionally sturdy, impervious to ordinary physical attacks. But if it's a magical attack, that should be their weakness, right?"

General Thor speculated that he was simultaneously controlling the berserker, ready to withdraw at any time to avoid causing too much damage to these precious golems.

However, just as the filthy shadow was about to touch the rock golem, rings of runic light suddenly lit up on the golem's surface, forming an invisible anti-magic barrier.

The shadows of filth, evil, and depravity vanished the moment they touched the rock golem.

"Gululu!"

The berserker trembled, wanting to escape, but bound by the summoning spell, he had no choice but to continue fighting.

The demon, resembling a giant toad, gritted its teeth and unleashed several more evil spells.

For example, the [Chaos Hammer] represents chaos, and the [Profane Words] blaspheme against darkness.

But all of this magical energy vanished when it touched the golem.

"Even magic is ineffective?"

"At least, the Berserker's mediocre spellcasting ability is no threat to the golem at all!"

General Saul was quite surprised.

El-Erian explained:

"The golem's body has a herbal coating that resists magic, making it immune to most spells that directly affect it."

"As I have described, the golem is not a moving sculpture, but a supernatural creation with highly mysterious properties."

"Then, Rock Golem, begin your attack!"

From the moment it began, the rock golem simply stood still, enduring the berserker's fierce attacks without retaliating.

And now, the golem has made its first move!

(End of this chapter)