Halochassis

“Mount Slam!”

Garruk raised his enormous warhammer above his head before bringing it crashing into the ground with enough force to shake the entire battlefield. The instant the hammer struck, a thunderous boom erupted through the streets, followed by a violent tremor that rattled windows and sent loose stones bouncing across the pavement. Cracks spread outward from the point of impact like lightning, ripping through the soil and stone beneath his feet. Then, with a deafening roar, the earth itself surged upward. A massive wave of boulders and chunks of broken ground erupted from the surface, rolling forward like an avalanche unleashed from a mountain. Buildings groaned as the violent earth rushed past them, while dust and debris filled the air, turning the battlefield into a choking brown haze.

Mastema and Armaros immediately spread their wings and took to the sky, narrowly escaping the avalanche of stone. Armaros, however, did not simply retreat. His crimson armor began to shift and expand as his mechanical wings grew larger, his body twisting into the shape of a gigantic dragon. Metal plates slid over one another with heavy mechanical clicks before locking into place, and his glowing eyes burned like twin furnaces. 

Hovering high above the battlefield, Armaros opened his massive jaws. A deep rumble came from within his metallic throat before a torrent of molten magma exploded from his mouth. The blazing liquid descended like a volcanic eruption, glowing orange and yellow as it splattered across the streets below.

The magma crashed directly into Garruk, engulfing his massive body in a wave of unbearable heat. Yet instead of burning through his flesh, his Autonomous Guard Block activated. His skin instantly transformed into glittering diamond, each surface reflecting the fiery glow of the magma around him. The molten substance hissed and bubbled against his hardened body, but it could not penetrate his defenses. Garruk remained standing, his enormous frame barely visible beneath the thick layer of magma. However, the attack created another problem. The magma continued piling around his body, trapping his legs and gradually hardening as it cooled.

“Time to test out the Ice Breath that our engineer installed,” Armaros said.

The dragon Halochassis inhaled deeply. Frost immediately gathered around the edges of his metallic jaws, and a sharp, freezing wind swept through the battlefield. Then he unleashed a powerful stream of ice breath toward the sea of molten magma. The temperature dropped so rapidly that steam erupted from the ground, creating a thick white cloud that obscured Garruk from view. The glowing magma rapidly lost its fiery color as layers of ice spread across its surface, transforming the once flowing lava into a solid mass as hard as cement. Garruk himself was soon buried beneath a thick shell of frozen magma and ice, leaving only a portion of his diamond hardened body visible.

For several seconds, everything became still.

Then a deep cracking sound echoed from inside the frozen mass.

Crack!

Another fracture appeared.

Crack! Crack!

The frozen shell began splitting apart as something enormous moved within it. Suddenly, Garruk roared and swung his giant warhammer with tremendous force. The ice exploded outward, sending jagged chunks flying in every direction. Pieces of frozen magma smashed into nearby walls and shattered across the streets as Garruk stepped free, his shoulders steaming from the sudden change in temperature.

“Useless!” Garruk shouted, gripping his hammer tightly.

Inside Armaros, Adzeel watched through the Halochassis’s vision system, his expression becoming more serious as he observed Garruk emerge unharmed. Magma and Ice Breath won’t keep him sealed, huh.

Before either of them could react, Garruk suddenly crouched and launched himself from the ground. The pavement beneath his feet shattered from the force of his leap, sending dust and fragments of stone into the air. His massive body soared upward with surprising speed, and he twisted his torso in midair before aiming his giant hammer directly at Mastema.

“Mastema!” Risha shouted.

There was no time to evade.

Garruk’s hammer slammed directly into Mastema with a tremendous metallic crash. The impact produced a violent shockwave that spread through the surrounding air, knocking debris from nearby buildings and shaking the windows of structures that had somehow survived the earlier attacks. Mastema was sent flying downward like a meteor. She smashed into the ground with such force that the street collapsed beneath her, destroying several buildings in the process. Stone walls crumbled, wooden beams snapped, and clouds of dust erupted into the air as her body carved a deep crater into the battlefield.

“Gah!” Risha cried from inside Mastema.

The white Halochassis lay motionless at the bottom of the crater for several seconds. Warning lights flashed across Risha’s interface, accompanied by a series of rapid beeps that grew louder with every passing moment.

[Hybrid Armor at 3%.]

Risha stared at the warning in disbelief. Mastema’s chest core was flickering weakly, its light unstable as the armor struggled to remain operational. Every movement sent a painful vibration through the suit, while the damaged armor creaked around her. Yet despite the warnings, Risha clenched her teeth and forced herself upright. Her breathing was heavy, and her entire body trembled from the impact, but she refused to stay down.

“I’ll never be defeated by the likes of you!” Mastema roared.

Then something strange happened.

The gaps between Mastema’s white armor plates began glowing with an intense green light. At first, the glow was faint, almost like a spark hidden beneath her armor. Then it grew brighter and brighter until green light spilled through every opening in her mechanical body.

“What the...” Garruk muttered.

Mastema was undergoing a transformation.

The white armor began moving on its own. Mechanical plates folded inward before unfolding again, rearranging themselves with a series of sharp metallic clicks. Her shoulders expanded, her limbs shifted, and additional armor emerged from within her frame. The entire Halochassis seemed to be growing larger as its structure changed. Green flames suddenly erupted from the gaps between the armor plates, twisting around Mastema’s body like supernatural fire. They gave off no smoke, yet their heat distorted the air around her. At the same time, tiny sparks of electricity began dancing across her helmet before gathering around her eyes. Bright electric bolts flashed through the green flames, making her transformed form look less like a machine and more like a living monster.

“I’ll never let you finish your transformation!” Garruk roared.

He tightened both hands around his hammer and launched himself forward once again. The ground cracked beneath his feet as he accelerated toward Mastema, raising the enormous weapon above his head. His muscles strained as he prepared to unleash another devastating blow, intending to destroy Mastema before her transformation could be completed.

However, the moment Garruk brought his hammer down, something stopped him.

An invisible force erupted around Mastema.

The hammer halted just before reaching her armor, as though it had struck an immovable wall. The air itself seemed to bend around her body, distorting the dust and debris floating nearby. Garruk’s eyes widened as he poured even more strength into the attack.

“Graaaaaah!”

His muscles bulged as he pushed against the unseen barrier. His hammer trembled violently in his hands, and the ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure he was exerting. Yet the invisible psychic energy surrounding Mastema did not even budge. No matter how much force Garruk applied, he could not break through.

Then Mastema slowly raised her metallic arms.

A faint green glow gathered around her hands.

Before Garruk could react, a translucent psychic field suddenly formed around his entire body. The barrier sealed him inside, trapping him within an invisible prison. Garruk attempted to move his arms, but they refused to respond. He tried to step backward, only to discover that his legs had also been locked in place. His entire body was frozen, suspended by an overwhelming psychic force.

“What is this?” Garruk growled, struggling against the invisible restraints.

Mastema’s glowing eyes narrowed.

“If we can’t kill you from the outside, then I will kill you from the inside,” she said.

She slowly closed her fingers.

The psychic field around Garruk tightened.

A sudden pressure formed inside his chest as the air around his lungs began to disappear. Garruk’s eyes widened as he instinctively tried to inhale, but his lungs found nothing to draw in. His throat tightened as he desperately attempted to breathe, yet the psychic barrier continued pulling the air away from his body.

“Gah...!”

Garruk gasped and gagged, his powerful body beginning to weaken despite his immense physical strength. He tried to force his lungs to expand, but every breath became shallower than the last. His vision began to blur around the edges as the lack of oxygen slowly deprived his body of the strength it needed. His heart pounded violently inside his chest while a cold sensation spread through his limbs.

He was choking inside an invisible vacuum.

For the first time, the battlefield around Garruk began to fade. The sounds of collapsing buildings, roaring flames, and distant machinery became muffled, as though he were sinking beneath deep water. His vision darkened, and his thoughts became increasingly distant.

As oxygen deprivation began shutting down his brain, fragments of his life flashed before his eyes.

He saw the streets he had built.

He remembered the people who had once worked beneath him.

He remembered his battles, his victories, his wealth, and the countless moments when he had stood proudly above those who dared challenge him.

One memory after another surfaced, faster and faster, as though his entire life were being played before him in his final moments.

Garruk’s struggling body gradually became still.

For the first time in years, the Celestial Warden known as Garruk Stonehill found himself completely powerless.

Garruk was born into a poor family of dwarves who lived deep beneath the earth. His parents were both diggers, part of the countless workers responsible for expanding their subterranean city through layers of stubborn stone. Their home was far removed from the sunlight of the surface, surrounded by rough tunnels, dimly lit chambers, and endless walls of rock. To Garruk, digging was never considered an ordinary job. It was simply a way of life, something every dwarf was expected to contribute to if their people were going to survive.

During the reign of the Demon King, living on the surface was considered extremely dangerous. Giant Demons and other monsters frequently wandered across the lands, destroying settlements and killing anyone unfortunate enough to cross their paths. Because of this, many dwarf communities retreated underground, building entire cities beneath the mountains where the Demon Army would have difficulty reaching them. Their underground homes provided protection, but safety came with a price. Resources were scarce, food was limited, and every new section of their city had to be carved from solid rock by hand.

Garruk experienced that hardship from an early age. His only tools were a simple pickaxe, a shovel, and his own strength. Day after day, he swung his pickaxe against the stone walls, listening to the sharp clang of metal echoing through the tunnels. Each strike sent tiny fragments of rock flying and left his hands covered in dust and blisters. He would continue working even when his shoulders ached and his palms became raw because every tunnel he helped create meant another family could have a little more room to live.

Food was another constant struggle. Most days, Garruk and his family survived on potatoes that could be grown in underground farms and earthworms collected from the soil. The meals were bland and repetitive, but they were enough to keep their stomachs from going completely empty. Whenever the hunters were lucky enough to catch a rat or a mole wandering through the tunnels, the entire family would treat it as a feast. The smell of roasted meat would spread through the settlement, drawing hungry dwarves from nearby homes who could only imagine what it would be like to eat such food every day.

Garruk’s childhood was already difficult, but it became even worse when tragedy took away his parents. One day, a powerful earthquake violently shook their underground settlement. The walls groaned, rocks fell from the ceiling, and entire sections of the tunnels collapsed beneath the force of the tremors. Garruk survived, but both of his parents were buried beneath the rubble. He was still a child when he lost them, leaving him alone in a world that had already taught him that survival was never guaranteed.

For years, Garruk believed the earthquake had simply been a natural disaster. Later, however, he learned the horrifying truth. The tremors had been caused by Giant Demons roaming across the surface. Their enormous footsteps were powerful enough to shake the earth itself, and their battles could cause underground caverns to collapse. To Garruk, the revelation was deeply personal. Those monsters had taken his parents without even knowing they existed.

That was why Garruk developed an intense admiration for the Heroes’ Party, the Celestial Wardens. When the heroes finally defeated the Giant Demon General responsible for countless disasters, Garruk watched their victory from afar and saw them as more than powerful warriors. To him, they represented the people who had finally stood up against the monsters that had destroyed his childhood.

Among them, Alexander the Chosen One inspired Garruk the most. Alexander’s overwhelming strength, heroic reputation, and determination made a deep impression on the young dwarf. Garruk began dreaming of becoming an adventurer himself, imagining a future where he could travel across the surface, fight monsters, protect innocent people, and perhaps prevent other children from suffering the same fate he had endured.

Garruk eventually tried to follow in the Celestial Wardens’ footsteps, although his path was different from theirs. Rather than becoming a conventional warrior, he became a blacksmith. His natural strength and dwarven craftsmanship made him exceptionally skilled at working with metal, and he began producing weapons and equipment for adventurers, mercenaries, and travelers. Garruk became a roaming blacksmith, traveling from settlement to settlement with his tools and portable forge, repairing damaged weapons and creating new ones for those who could afford his services.

His craftsmanship eventually brought him into contact with the very heroes he had admired as a child.

One day, Qinglong, the Ultimate Dragon Warrior, needed repairs for his weapon. The damage was severe enough that ordinary blacksmiths were unable to restore it properly, but Garruk accepted the challenge. He carefully examined the weapon, studied every crack and damaged section, and spent countless hours restoring it. The work was difficult, but Garruk’s determination and skill impressed Qinglong enough for his name to reach the other Celestial Wardens.

Yet Garruk’s greatest contribution came during the Demon Army’s invasion of Luminous City.

As demons poured into the city, panic spread through the streets. Buildings burned, people screamed, and soldiers struggled to hold back the invading forces. Garruk refused to flee. Instead, he used the skills he had learned as a digger and began carving underground escape tunnels beneath the city. With his pickaxe and immense strength, he broke through stone and earth while guiding civilians toward safer routes.

He focused particularly on rescuing children and women trapped in the chaos. His hands became bloody from digging, his clothes were covered in dirt, and exhaustion constantly threatened to overwhelm him, but Garruk continued working until the tunnels were large enough for people to escape. Every time another group reached safety, he returned to the collapsing sections and continued digging.

When the invasion finally ended, Garruk was hailed as a hero.

The Celestial Wardens recognized his courage and determination, eventually accepting him as a new member of their party. For Garruk, it seemed like the dream he had carried since childhood had finally come true. The poor dwarf who had once survived on potatoes and earthworms now stood beside the greatest heroes in the world.

After the defeat of the Demon King, Garruk’s life changed completely.

He acquired everything he had once dreamed of having. Gold flowed into his hands. His reputation grew. His name carried weight among nobles, adventurers, merchants, and commoners alike. He possessed strength, influence, fame, and the title of Celestial Warden. The poor underground digger had transformed himself into one of the most powerful dwarves in the world.

Yet there was one thing Garruk could not obtain.

A wife.

Despite his wealth and heroic reputation, Garruk struggled to find a woman willing to marry him. He became increasingly convinced that his humble origins were the reason. In his mind, he was still being judged as a peasant dwarf despite everything he had accomplished. Whenever women rejected him, Garruk did not question his own personality or behavior. Instead, he blamed his bloodline, believing that women simply could not see past his origins.

His resentment slowly grew into bitterness.

Rather than accepting rejection, Garruk decided that he would become so wealthy and influential that nobody would dare look down on him again. His pursuit of wealth soon led him down a path that completely contradicted the ideals he had once admired in the Celestial Wardens.

He entered the slave trade.

At first, Garruk captured dark elf children and sold them through underground markets. The money was enormous, and the people purchasing them cared little about where the slaves came from. Garruk eventually expanded his operations to other races, including goblins, mermaids, and even humans. His connections with corrupt nobles allowed him to operate with remarkable freedom, while wealthy clients with disturbing desires paid enormous sums for the people he supplied.

Every transaction made Garruk richer.

Every transaction also pushed him further away from the hero he had once wanted to become.

His wealth eventually became enormous, and Garruk began believing that money and status would finally make him irresistible. He convinced himself that women would eventually recognize his value once they saw his title, his possessions, and his influence. With this confidence, he decided to court a priestess working within the Adventurer’s Guild.

Garruk expected his reputation to impress her.

Instead, she rejected him.

The rejection was humiliating, especially because it happened despite everything Garruk believed he had achieved. His pride could not accept that someone could look at his wealth, his accomplishments, and his title and still decide that she wanted nothing to do with him. Worse, the rejection became known among other members of the guild, turning Garruk into the subject of ridicule and gossip.

His humiliation transformed into hatred.

Rather than accepting that the priestess had the right to reject him, Garruk began looking for a way to punish her. His thoughts became increasingly twisted until he conceived a cruel plan to assault her and destroy her reputation afterward. He also wanted to hurt someone else in the process: Captain Han, a handsome Divine Knight whom Garruk had secretly envied for years.

Captain Han represented everything Garruk believed he lacked. He was respected, handsome, admired by women, and born into a prestigious position. Garruk had spent years accumulating wealth and power, yet men like Captain Han seemed to receive admiration effortlessly.

So Garruk decided to use his influence against him.

After committing the assault, Garruk manipulated the evidence and arranged for Captain Han to take the blame. He used his wealth, connections, and reputation as a Celestial Warden to influence the investigation. Witnesses could be pressured, information could be hidden, and officials could be persuaded to look in whatever direction Garruk wanted.

The law, which Garruk had once dreamed of defending as an adventurer, became another weapon in his hands.

With enough influence, he was able to bend the truth until his fabricated version of events appeared believable. Captain Han’s reputation was dragged through the mud while Garruk maintained the appearance of an innocent and respected hero.

And that was the moment Garruk’s transformation was complete.

The frightened dwarf child who had once looked up to the Celestial Wardens as symbols of hope had become the very kind of person those heroes should have opposed. He had started his life digging tunnels so people could survive beneath the earth. He had once risked his life to rescue women and children from demons. He had once dreamed of becoming a hero like Alexander.

Now, he used his title, wealth, and influence to exploit the powerless and destroy anyone who stood in his way.

Garruk had spent his entire life trying to escape poverty.

In the end, he became rich enough to buy almost anything.

Except redemption.