In the past, there was a genius.
"[Born of the earth, drink the wind and fill yourself with water.]"
His name was Avicebron.
The genius golem maker of the age.
A severe pessimist who grew disillusioned with humanity, despised humanity, and avoided others.
And yet, a contradiction incarnate who sincerely wished for the salvation of the world.
"[If you wield fire, disease shall vanish.]"
The golem I am about to show everyone was something even he never managed to complete in life.
And only after becoming a Heroic Spirit in death did he finally create this masterpiece of the ages.
"[Injustice shall shatter its own skull, and righteousness shall lead its blood to purity.]"
Its glorious name was "Keter Malkuth (Crown, Light of Wisdom)."
A salvation golem modeled after the primordial human, Adam, meant to lead the world into paradise.
"[A massive frame like a cloud-capped peak, with the sturdiness of rock, bearing the countenance to protect all, rule all, and dominate all.]"
A replica of that.
No.
"[You are a lump of earth, and yet not a lump of earth. You are human, and yet not human.]"
It wasn't even that.
"[You are the one who stands in paradise, the one who rules paradise, the one who leads to paradise.]"
Not even a mere inferior copy.
"[You are our dream, our hope, our love.]"
It was nothing more than a failure.
"[The name of you who bears the ruach, the Holy Spirit.... is 'Adam,' the primordial human.]"
Wooooong!
Rumble...
"W-What? What is that? What's coming?!"
"It's different. Something's different. I don't know what it is, but it feels insanely ominous!"
Centered around me, new Magecraft circles appeared across the surrounding earth, even beneath the castle walls, and began to shine.
Then came the faint trembling of the ground.
The uproar of the men who were startled by it reached all the way here.
But it was already too late.
All preparations had long since been completed.
Now all that remained was to wait quietly until the gracious earth beneath our feet gave birth to "it."
"What the hell did you do, you bastard!?"
"Well, do I really need to tell you separately? You'll find out soon enough anyway."
"What?! You insolent fool, how dare you...!"
Through the communication channel of the command tower, Hyakinthos's voice came through, unable to hide his unease at the sudden change, yet still refusing to abandon his petty arrogance.
But I ignored him, took a potion from my breast pocket, and poured it into my mouth.
Obviously, my body still hurt like hell.
I felt like I'd only survive if I drank this.
"Khh, sweet. Still, life is strange. To think I'd go and make an event like this myself."
As I always say, though.
I am not some genius on the level of Da Vinci or Avicebron.
I'm just a man who takes the path someone else walked first and does it my own way.
All I have is the knack for following only the result, however I please.
For someone like me, this golem was nothing but a failure that brought nothing but frustration.
"Still, what can you do?"
First, the appearance and size.
Those were basic elements in design and construction, so even I could imitate them without much trouble.
It just cost an absurd amount of money to make.
Really... really damn, insanely much.
But that couldn't be helped.
According to my calculations, no matter how hard I tried to find substitutes, I just couldn't get away from the expensive parts.
Thanks to that, all the funds I had painstakingly saved over ten years vanished in an instant just to make this one thing.
And even that wasn't enough, so later I had to make up the shortfall by selling one of my more treasured failures to the Kingdom of Rakia after steeling myself for it.
I'm going to bill the Guild bastards for this later, no matter what.
Hm? Apollo Familia?
Their future is just having all their assets confiscated anyway, so let's not worry about them.
In any case, even after working myself to the bone like that, everything from that point on was nothing but trouble.
Its unique self-contained Reality Marble that erodes the world, of course.
Infinite mana supply through the ground, and the near-immortal regeneration that came with it.
And on top of that, combat specs that would grow to rival a divine spirit, along with sacred feats that would make even a devout saint marvel.
Every single one of them was a worst-case headache for me.
Professor Aviebron, how in the world did you make something like this?
No wonder geniuses are all like that...!
"Hm? Wait a second. Feels like I forgot someone again?"
Well, it probably wasn't important.
Anyway, after working myself to death, I finally did make it.
But the result was nothing more than a failure that couldn't even qualify as an inferior copy.
If I had to judge its quality by this world's standards.
It would be nothing more than a Goliath that only copied the appearance.
... No, but even so.
Maybe it was still better than that guy.
In any case, to be honest, it was a thing I'd be very embarrassed to show anyone.
As for its performance specs, the only parts worth mentioning were strength and durability on par with a Level 5.
Its agility, at best, was only at the level of a Level 3 adventurer.
And while its regeneration had somehow managed to keep up with that speed to a degree.
There was a clear limit to its output, so it wasn't as limitless as one might think.
In the first place, the core used as its heart.
The performance limit of that magic stone meant its maximum operating time was only about twenty-four hours.
That said it all.
And its self-contained Reality Marble?
If that were possible, then I'd have been another genius instead of this pathetic imitator.
In short, that was all there was to it.
The Keter Malkuth I made would not save the world.
It was merely a giant knockoff figure.
"Now that I say knockoff, I suddenly think of cheap Chinese lunch boxes."
Still, since I'd gone to the trouble of making it and spending a ridiculous amount of money on it, I'd kept it stored away, thinking I might find some use for it someday.
And in the end, I did use it like this.
No matter how shabby a failure it was.
If its opponent was only a bunch of Apollo Familia trash.
It would surely be a disaster they couldn't possibly handle.
"Well, it's a useless burden that's been occupying space in the Imaginary Numbers space. I was going to dispose of it someday anyway."
I smiled as I watched the earth giant slowly reveal itself from head to toe within the glow of the Magecraft circles.
In any case.
"Showtime. Since this is a rare festival, please enjoy it at your leisure, just as we prepared."
With the chalk in my hand, a Mystic Code, I drew truth, emeth, onto the giant's body.
Soon, the written letters seeped into its body and vanished.
With that, it was truly born.
"-Uoooooooh!"
A roar with the colossal volume of something that could bring the world crashing down.
Beneath it, the glow of the light mass gradually faded and disappeared.
And at last.
Thud!
The giant's thick foot planted itself firmly on the earth and rose.
Now then, it was time to dance to our heart's content.