So, humans. They were powerful.
Legends from when the realm still had magic said that a single one of them could command the stars. That the strongest creature was but their pet. They could bring back the dead. Oh no, humans were strong! And I was in the presence of one.
And the legends were wrong. Humans were so, so, so much more unconceivably overpowered!
I could simply not move! Blinded so hard I believed that the realm had disintegrated around that human, me with it and those bolts of lightning shaking me to the core were the land reconstructing itself after the shock.
Just drowning in power.
When my senses barely recovered, lowering my arm I looked at the silhouette. A human! A woman with long black hair, pale skin, a crooked nose on her rugged face and the brown eyes of a falcon. She was looking around in a mix of loss and suspicion.
Not yet an adult, so, more like a grown-up girl?
Her eyes fell on me.
"Who are you? Where am I? What's going on?!"
Oh, the last one was easy!
"You are here!" I was finally able to blurt out, almost lunged at her. "You answered the call!" My filthy hands had had the impudence of holding hers.
I had to control myself, walked back and, still overwhelmed, kept repeating to myself "you are here" while holding my mask. Oh yeah, I was wearing a mask.
She was looking past me, at the walls covered with scribbles.
"Mistress!" I finally took a hold of myself, straightened my body and answered. "I am a worker of the Amber pavilion, you are in its basement and the realm is dying."
"Mistress?"
That's the part she cared about. I should not question the human understanding, it was beyond anyone's reach.
"Yes!" I joyfully confirmed and beat my chest with pride. "As your loyal servant, I will do anything you ask!"
But she had stopped looking at me.
Now her eyes were fixed on invisible patterns in the bright air. She moved a finger there, moved it around as if casting a spell, or just poking the emptiness.
"What is this?!" The human exclaimed. "No way. That's a bad joke, it has to be."
"Is there a problem?"
She remembered my existence, looked at me from the feet to the badger mask, then at the empty air again. It was uncanny, seeing such a powerful being, a human, so unnerved.
Maybe she had trouble spellcasting?
"Eh! Uhm..." She was looking at me again. "... What's your name?"
"I am a clay golem."
"Okay whatever. Can we talk anywhere else, at all?"
"But of course! The whole pavilion is yours. If you will pardon its state, I can take you to the dining room. Maybe a bedroom instead?"
"Dining room!" Her eyes had opened. "Could you, by any chance, sorry, if it's not too much trouble, give me a meal?"
Her whole defiant face had brightened into an almost charming plea.
"It will be my pleasure!"
I turned around, toward the stairs and barely one step in I stumbled. There was so much magic that my body struggled with balance.
So much magic that the spiral staircase was alit.
I faltered once more, got a grip, pushed myself and I stepped over the remains of the other golem in the stairs. Took me that far to walk normally.
The human was following behind with suspicion in her eyes again.
From the hole where the wooden door should have been, the mansion's hall opened to me in a new light. And before I could even take it in, we were attacked.
Monsters already!
Monsters like I had never seen. This one was a chunky lizard, its maw full of ragged teeth, an adamantine crest on its head and diamond spikes covering its back all the way to its tail. It had been holding on the wall and are you telling me this was a greyhound?!
What kind of greyhound looked like this!?
Was my mistress so powerful that magic had flowed all the way out and fed a famished beast into this monstruosity?
Well too bad, I had basked in it as well.
"Stop!" I yelled as the beast fell on us.
From my stretched arm the spell took shape. I hadn't used word incantation in, never, but it should at least push the diamond lizard back.
It disintegrated.
I was so stunned that I just waited there, expecting for my senses to come back. The realm had to have lapsed around me; a monster could not just disintegrate like that!
But no. It was gone. Just... gone.
I turned to the human. She looked amazed. Her lowered arms were still crossed in defense. Then, she almost stepped back in fear at my silence.
"Shall we?" I meekly offered and showed her the way to the dining room.
There were more than one in the mansion but the closest was next to the garden. Again, no door. No table. No chair. But with magic brimming, no, drowning the room I could remedy that.
Stone grew from under the tiled floor, flowed to take the shape of a thin, glassy table. More stone for the chairs that, too, turned into near-crystal. I walked toward my creation, pulled out one of the seats and offered her to take place.
She had run to the broken windows.
Outside, dusk had turned brightful, a reddish hue from the horizon that blasted against the high towers and city palaces. Each hill suddenly had earthly colors. Shadows stretched lazily all around.
In the garden, the fountains were letting out jets of boiling water. The rocky dry land had been replaced by a soft soil in which the first flowers started to bloom.
Vines slowly crept up on the mansion's wall.
"This! Rocks!" My mistress exclaimed.
I was busy melting more stone into silverware, molded a cloche and with the time she afforded me I engraved it with glyphs. A silly habit, given the circumstances, but why waste mana?
The glyphs activated, let a light steam escape from the metallic cloche.
"Mistress!" I called. "Dinner is ready."
She turned, saw the plates lined before the seat waiting for her.
"Roasted venison loin, with starter, soup and a mille-feuille for dessert." I summed up, my hand presenting each plate. "I hope it is to your liking."
The young lady approached carefully, in complete disbelief. Probably disappointed at the small dinner she was offered, but too polite to decline.
"Sorry to impose!" She bowed before adding, precipitously: "Thanks for the meal!"
She finally sit and the whole room shook.
"What was that?" She tried to get up.
I kept her seated.
"Pay it no mind, mistress." I reassured her. "It is only the monsters fighting outside."
Another shockwave had rubbles fall from the ceiling, luckily not on the table. With a little trick of the wrist, I made a napkin appear and offered it to her.
And so, despite the noise and sorry state of the room, she started to eat.
She seemed to like it.
That's when I realized I had given her nothing to drink. In haste, I molded a clay jug, engraved runes for wine and poured her a glass.
A new earthquake, seconds long, made me spill it in front of her.
I put the jug down, nearly breaking it in anger.
"If you will excuse me, mistress, I would like to go take care of the noise."
She had retreated on her seat, gave me a little nod. The human probably thought I was broken for letting myself lose my temper at so little.
She was an all-powerful goddess! What else could explain her behavior?
So I hopped past one of the broken windows, put my hand on the wall and let clay turn to stone, turn to marble, gold and silver, inlays for the staining glasses, only leaving the wood missing. That was the wall repaired.
Then, I started tracing a circle.
Not a small circle, mind you, that would not please my mistress. She needed some quiet and so I would cast the biggest barrier I had ever devised. Golden streams filled the air, branching, expanding, weaving and cutting across to form a massive aureole above the Amber pavilion.
Above the entire hill, actually.
Once finished, it lit up, fell on the ground and the entire abode filled with screams. Monsters caught in it, pushed back or trapped, being consumed by the crushing will of humanity!
This would be enough.
Or so I thought. I had not turned back that a warcry blasted from the garden stairs.
An orc from the bull horde.
It looked demonic now: its boarish face bore a small sphere above the forehead, a ball not the size of a finger that devoured all light. Its poleaxe had turned into burning black dust. Potruding bones cut through its heavy fur and muscles.
Also, it had casually ignored the barrier.
Okay.
The beast roared. I would not let it pester my mistress. If a barrier was not enough, then diamond spears would do the trick.
They crashed against him, breaking like glass. The third one smitten by its spectral weapon.
It walked forth, but was struggling. Not so casually ignoring my mistress' might. I took advantage of it, drew my circles and cast them all three at once. Teleport! Behind him. Chains! To hold him in place. And finally, my hand against his back: ice spear.
The next thing I knew I was colliding with the wall. My whole body in tatters. The orc had read my moves with ease, broken from my feeble hold, grasped my head and sent me flying. All that was left of me was the head, chest and an arm.
And by the time my body rebuilt, its hoof would be stomping my remains.
Behind him the barrier I had spent so much mana to cast - how much even I could not tell - was fading away. My fault. I should have tied the spell to something more solid than myself.
With that, the monsters that had so far feared the mighty aura of humans were now attracted. Climbing the hill's terraces, crossing the bridge, fighting on the stairs.
I would not have long to lament my shame. The orc was already raising his weapon.
The wall blew up!
And when the orc got back up, from the other side of the garden, it was regenerating half its torso on top of the other wounds.
On the hill behind, an entire tower started to crumble.
"Geez!" The young lady shook her long black hair and looked at me. "If you're in trouble just say it!"
I did not even know what to say.
"Also, I broke your wall, sorry about that." She joked, pretended to be embarrassed.
"It's your wall, mistress. I should apologize for bothering you."
"Alright, enough banter!"
The orc charged, met with my mistress' mace - where did she find a mace?! And stumbled back, somehow still alive. The poleaxe faded, the beast fell on its knees, arms limp. It tried to stand again, grunted, roared and the small sphere over its head started to crackle.
The head vanished.
"Enough with you!" The human groaned while catching back her mace like a boomerang.
With that the body just crashed on the garden's ground. Grass already starting its work.
The other monsters had reached the mansion. Hounds and lizards, the insectoid calcades from the underground and crushing a path for itself, a wilhorn. The towering mammoth, its back and flanks turtled by scales, had grown four pairs of tusks that oozed some black goo like monster blood.
"Are you okay?" The human asked me with a grin.
"I will be fine."
I only now caught on that she had abandoned her mystical clothes in favor of more common garnments, complete with a long dress and flowing ribbons.
"Cool! In that case..." she turned back to the monstrous crowd, cracked her neck, then casually tapped the empty air in that weird human ritual.
The monsters were approaching, the wilhorn first, pushing everything else aside.
"... Just let me assign my skill points and I'll be with you."
It took two minutes. Only because she took her time. She enjoyed it. A lot.
So, humans. They were powerful.