Light And Darkness

“The Holy Golem looks almost no different from a normal Wood Golem at first glance.”

The Holy Wood Golem was slightly whitish.

Rather than painted white, the lumber itself seemed white.

“Look closely — it’s glowing.”

“Ah, you’re right.”

When I narrowed my eyes, I could see a faint white light coming from its body.

Still, compared to other Element Wood Golems, it felt a bit plain.

“In contrast, the Dark Wood Golem has quite a distinctive appearance.”

“Yes… it almost looks like even the surroundings are distorted.”

The other Dark Wood Golem looked extremely dark.

First of all, its body was pitch black.

The surface resembled lacquer but had a matte finish with no gloss.

If I dismantled it and used the material for furniture, it would probably become incredibly high-class… though of course I wouldn’t do that.

The Dark Tree absorbed surrounding light, and that trait seemed inherited by the Dark Wood Golem.

Darkness gathered over its surface as it absorbed nearby light.

When I pressed the Holy Wood Golem and Dark Wood Golem together, light and darkness canceled out into normal space.

When separated again, light and darkness returned.

Seeing that made me wonder something.

“Simurg-san, fundamentally, what are light and darkness? Magic basically has four attributes, right?”

Magic in this world was generally classified into four attributes.

The prevailing theory was the four-element concept — the world formed by four elements.

Fire, which created life itself.

Water, the source of life.

Wind, the breath of the gods.

Earth, the origin of humans.

Light and darkness existed but were categorized separately as non-elemental magic.

I suspected that might be why there were no light or dark Tree Guardian Beasts… but Simurg-san’s answer exceeded my expectations.

“Fundamentally, the basis of all magic is white mana produced by light magic and black mana produced by dark magic. Together they are often called ether.”

“…Eh, really?”

“The ether theory… that’s quite an old concept…”

“You know it, Nadja?”

“Yes. A dusty theory no one believes anymore.”

I had never heard of it, but Nadja apparently knew of ether.

The ether theory claimed all supernatural phenomena came from ether.

Magic worked because ether — black and white primal mana — existed.

Monsters were creatures altered by ether, and magic tools worked by using ether.

And finally, Simurg-san said aptitudes were also granted by the goddess through ether.

It was hard to believe. Nadja frowned deeply as well.

…The discussion suddenly became complicated, so I decided to set aside its truth for now.

Returning to the main topic — what these two Wood Golems could do.

“The Holy Wood Golem likely uses white mana… roughly comparable to simple healing magic.”

“With that bulky body, it’s a medic…”

When I ordered it to heal me, white light poured down from it.

It felt… kind of nice.

It resembled the healing magic a light mage once used on me.

“Oh! Not just fixing cracks — it actually fused them!”

When used on a Wood Golem, wounds healed rapidly.

Its true value appeared when healing other Wood Golems.

It could easily reattach severed arms and repair cracks instantly.

It also restored mana — when healing a Fire Wood Golem, the flames intensified.

Even after that level of healing, the Holy Wood Golem still had plenty of mana left.

It seemed capable of endlessly repairing Wood Golems.

Before, heavily damaged Wood Golems had to be patched together to function, but now they could return to battle without reducing numbers.

Next was the Dark Wood Golem.

“Try doing something only you can do!”

Not knowing its ability, I gave that command.

It fired a hazy black orb.

The round sphere struck the ground and vanished.

The ground where it hit was gouged out.

“So the Dark Wood Golem excels at ranged attacks…”

Other Element Wood Golems could launch elements, but not effectively as attack magic.

But this energy bullet was clearly viable ranged firepower.

Possibly stronger than a weak mage’s fire arrow.

“Let me test it against me once.”

Nadja cut the projectile in half and sheathed her sword.

“This black projectile… probably equal to beginner-level magic. Wider area too — more useful than a bow.”

A seal of approval.

Black projectile… it sounded cool, so I adopted the name.

This was the first true ranged attack for Wood Golems.

While firing repeatedly, I remembered something.

(The Dark Tree’s darkness intensified when clustered… what if the golems do the same?)

Testing revealed another trait.

When grouped tightly, instead of multiple shots they formed one large black projectile.

Five together produced power exceeding intermediate magic, capable of piercing defensive spells.

“If we stack the Holy Wood Golem’s mana recovery, wouldn’t that mean infinite ammo?”

Unfortunately not.

Healing from the Holy Wood Golem didn’t affect the Dark Wood Golem.

“White and black mana oppose each other. When combined they become neutral ether, effectively canceling out.”

I didn’t fully understand, but they had to be operated apart.

Holy Wood Golems would fight mid-range while healing, Dark Wood Golems would bombard from distance.

First we’d weaken enemies with golems, then if they closed in, Sandstorm and the fruit-armed villagers would fight.

That covered wartime response.

Now we needed a method against powerful aptitude users like Ashid.

After repeated trials and studying the light panel, I finally grasped the outline of the strongest Wood Golem I could currently make.

At the same time, we continued recruiting villagers.

Everyone in Wenti worked hard, contributing where they excelled.

Time passed quickly… and the moment Akabane-san said she’d reach the elf village arrived.

So I used tree teleportation and headed to the elf village with Nadja and Aira—