As Unwan walked toward the Mechanical guardian, he kept thinking about how on earth he was supposed to lift it. Luckily, there were no Night creatures nearby. Not even their distant cries could be heard.
The Mechanical guardian had already retracted its mace and was trying to push itself up with that arm and its sword hand. But both were useless for the task. Their short length betrayed them, despite being roughly the size of a human arm.
Unlike a human, this guardian couldn't bend its back or stand on its own. Falling over for it was as good as the battle being over. Not that it could technically be killed. But if it broke, the spell that created it might unravel.
'How much damage would destroying this creature do to its owner?'
Unwan didn't want to think about that. But he did notice something funny. In theory, the guardian could fire its chained mace the same way it had killed the night creature, anchor it somewhere, pull itself forward, and stand up. Yet it acted as if that idea had never occurred to it.
Unwan wanted to laugh, but the pain in his body crushed that urge immediately. After all, how could someone about to break into tears possibly laugh?
"So… you're not only responsible for this fountain and that statue, but even these roads too. And the Night creatures as well, huh?"
As always, the guardian did not respond. It simply stared at the approaching human, then its weapon-holding hands. Those metal constructs shaped vaguely like human hands slowly reached forward as if trying to wrap around something.
But nothing happened. The guardian's main body twitched and strained, yet nothing changed.
When Unwan finally reached its side, he understood why.
The sheaths of the guardian's Themir weapons were attached to the back half of its body and it had fallen on its back.
Before he could stand the guardian up, there was another problem he had to solve. It was roughly five hundred kilograms. Lifting it would have solved two problems at once, but not only could Unwan not lift it, he could barely even nudge it.
But unexpectedly, the solution to the first problem turned out far easier than he had thought. At least, easier to say.
He knew the guardian's own actions were useless… yet suddenly realized that Unwan himself might be able to simply shove it into place.
But that was far from easy. Unwan pushed with everything he had, trying to roll the guardian over. The thing felt like a boulder no human could ever hope to move. The only thing that saved him was his mind. Instead of trying to lift it, he tried to roll it, because the guardian's body was humanoid enough to have a somewhat flat side, ignoring the legs.
It took Unwan five minutes of grueling effort to roll the guardian over. He barely managed to pull his fingers away before the body slammed against the ground with a heavy crunch. Otherwise, he might have been screaming in pain right now…
Finally, the weapon sheaths activated and, after a few mechanical motions, wrapped around the two metal weapons.
Unlike before, the guardian could now roll itself freely. Its arms were designed to do this with no difficulty.
"Hey… your arms work exactly the same way mine do."
At that moment, Unwan coughed up blood again. He ignored it, but the timing startled him. His remarkable regeneration meant this blood cough happened much later than the previous one.
Still, Unwan paid it no mind. His thoughts were fixed only on completing this task, settling whatever strange debt he felt, and continuing his journey.
'How… how do I make this thing stand up?'
Dozens of thoughts rushed through his mind every second, yet all of them were useless or required some object he didn't have. Unwan stood there thinking for over two minutes, an eternity for a mind under pressure. His mind hated such unanswerable issues, often trying to flee from them. But Unwan forced it to work.
Then suddenly, he lit up with joy. Despite the pain, he smiled.
Besides, the pain had lessened anyway.
He looked at the guardian and said happily:
"Ewreka!"
He had found the solution in his memories, strange experiments from history. A full plan formed in his head.
Unwan approached the guardian again. It still sat leaning forward on its two arms as if it were stretching out its legs. Unwan slowly reached toward its right arm and pressed inward on the shoulder joint, the place where the arm met the torso. As he expected, despite its complex construction, the joint folded in a surprisingly simple way.
The round joint, large enough for a human hand to grasp, slid inward. Unwan guessed correctly and rotated the arm to the right. After a ninety-degree turn, there was a sharp click. Then the arm dropped to the ground.
Not fully understanding what was happening, the guardian now with one arm missing and barely holding itself up with the other, began to detach its left weapon sheath as if to draw its sword. But it stopped a second later.
Unwan picked up the fallen arm. It looked like a normal human arm, yet weighed two or three times more.
'What else did he expect with a Themir mace hidden inside?'
He slid the arm under the guardian's body, then removed the second one as well. Whatever was happening, the avenue was no longer safe. As long as Unwan could run back to the guardian, no night creature could harm him.
But now he was left in total darkness, in total danger.
And yet… Unwan didn't care. The process itself excited him, and he didn't want that feeling to fade. He placed the second arm behind the guardian's leg and wedged it into a small space beneath the body.
Then he walked to the front, grabbed the guardian's head, and pushed with all his strength. The body was flat enough—and if the arms were also flat, why couldn't they act as wheels?
Unwan's steady, forceful pushes began to rotate the body very slowly.
But speed wasn't what he needed. It was one of the least important things here.