Do-cheol's Fusion Rampage

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"Gah!"

I flew through the air after taking a direct hit from Do-cheol, crashing a good distance away.

"Ugh……."

It hurt—a lot. This was the first real pain I'd felt since returning from that other world.

"…What's going on?"

Something was off. The thing possessing Do-cheol right now was that Ent Master Brahim guy or whatever. Back when he was the Ent Master, he'd died after I punched a hole clean through him with one shot. For a guy like that, this power was way too much.

Do-cheol flailed his arms around excitedly. On his glossy face panel, an emoji of a thrilled grin popped up. It was kinda cute, but also weirdly infuriating.

"Soo-hyeok! Get it together!"

While my head was still spinning, Yelena rushed over and shook me awake.

"Ugh. Yeah, I'm good."

A clear mechanical voice boomed from Do-cheol's speaker. It sounded robotic yet like an announcer's tone—the more I heard it, the stranger it felt. He bounced around like a rejuvenated old man, full of glee, then suddenly froze.

"…Why's it acting like that?"

"Soo-hyeok! I think it's broken!"

"Obviously. No way it'd go that nuts otherwise……."

Crackle!

He muttered nonsense to himself, then sparks flew from his head. Soon, black smoke billowed from the speaker.

"Ha."

Yeah, it was definitely broken. What a mess he'd made on his own. Black smoke poured from the speaker near his head as he twisted his neck in a creepy way. Yet his face camera stayed locked on me.

"Hey. If you're gonna lose it, pick one thing."

By now, I had a rough idea of the situation. Immense strength incomparable to his Ent Master days. And a mental state where he couldn't tell if he was Do-cheol or Brahim. I'd thought we'd just lucked out fixing him, but this was a bigger headache than expected.

"It's a fusion."

"Fu…sion……?"

Yelena, who'd been watching from the side, tilted her head.

Golems are usually made by sealing a spirit into an empty shell. That raises an interesting question: what happens if you inject a new spirit into a golem that already has one sealed inside?

Typically, one of two things: both spirits annihilate each other, or they tangle up into something neither-fish-nor-fowl.

Do-cheol seemed to be the latter. The AI built into him had fused with Ent Master Brahim's spirit. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I didn't know the details, but that AI must've been something similar.

'They said it'd be like granting new life and we could use it freely. So that's what they meant.'

I'd wondered if it worked on golem principles, and looking back at Park Jun-tae's words and this mess, nothing else explained it. These people didn't even know about spirit arts, so it wasn't a spirit injection—but something analogous.

'Somehow… it hurts more than expected.'

This was bad. When two spirits fuse like this, they go berserk for real. They gain far more power than either could wield alone, but it's just temporary doping. Eventually, the spirit runs rampant and causes catastrophe.

'If it stays like this, it'll explode.'

A fused spirit exploding packs more punch than a decent bomb. It wouldn't wipe out the whole area, but this house? Gone.

'Can't let that happen.'

And one more thing: after all the hassle, we'd gotten him moving again. I didn't want to lose him now. If he went haywire here, getting a new Do-cheol was basically impossible.

"Whew."

"Soo-hyeok. What're you gonna do?"

"What else?"

I brushed off the dirt and loosened up.

"Everyone knows you fix electronics by hitting 'em a few times."

"…Is that a thing?"

Do-cheol, muttering to himself about Jasel or whatever, turned his head.

"Heh heh! Yeah, that's me. Your new master."

Boom!

The spot where Do-cheol stood cratered instantly. At the same time, the white doll charged at me like a bullet.

Do-cheol's arms twisted with massive tree roots. The enormous fist rocketed toward my solar plexus.

"Hup!"

Instead of dodging, I grabbed the giant tree-root fist.

His glossy face still showed an angry emoji. Then, suddenly, it shifted to a sinister smirk.

"Hm?"

Clank!

Do-cheol basically had a human shape, so his hands looked like normal five-fingered fists. But he let out a mechanical whir, and the fingers spiraled into a drill shape. Probably a built-in feature for farming.

Grind!

The drill pierced through the tree roots wrapping his arm and shot out viciously.

"Whoa!"

Was this a sneak attack? Do-cheol's mouth corners shot up smugly. Sorry, but I wasn't startled by the surprise.

"Transforming robot!"

"Guh……! Big corps really are on another level!"

Crunch!

I clamped down on the spinning drill. Sparks flew, stinging my palms.

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"I'll reattach this later!"

Rip!

I yanked off both his arms while gripping them tight.

A screeching mechanical scream erupted as sparks flew from his shoulders. Black fluid leaked from the severed joints.

"Ugh. Fixing this is gonna be a pain."

Armless, Do-cheol thrashed wildly. Kicking nonstop without arms was kinda impressive. Most things lose balance without arms.

"Hey."

"Take a quick nap and wake up refreshed."

Flick!

I snapped a knuckle on his forehead. A dull pop echoed, and the light in his face panel faded.

Hiss……!

Do-cheol collapsed like a powered-down toy robot.

"Phew!"

"S-Soo-hyeok! You take him down?"

"Nah, can't destroy him. This thing costs a fortune."

I started gathering the half-wrecked parts. First, I laid out the main body and roughly reattached the arms. Just jammed them in, so black engine oil-like fluid kept leaking from the joints.

"Ha. I've only ever watched this stuff, never done it myself."

Over a decade ago. Memories from first meeting Dwarf Master Urgen surfaced as I tried to recall.

I dug deeper, and the day's events came flooding back.

'How dare a demon set foot in our sacred mines!'

Back then, I was still a demon, so it was a rough first encounter. He'd sicced a giant construct on me to mince me up. With help from Reinhardt and the others, we'd toppled it. But one of Urgen's dwarves injected another spirit into it, causing a fusion that trashed the mine.

Urgen had smashed the fused construct himself and used that spirit art.

"Yelena. Hold his legs."

"Got it."

Crunch!

I locked his legs in place and bit my thumb hard. Then, using the blood, I started drawing runes on Do-cheol's face panel.

"Something like this……!"

A circular base with snaking serpent marks. Lightning runes orbiting around it.

Not every double-spirit golem results in annihilation or rampage. Rarely, they fuse into a new spirit. This rune was like a groove to imprint that newborn spirit.

Flash!

A familiar noise leaked from Do-cheol's speaker—the same odd static from when we first grew otherworld crops.

Boom!

"Gah!"

His face panel exploded in a flash. Thicker black smoke than before billowed out.

"……."

"Success? Soo-hyeok?"

"Ah, come on. Don't jinx it."

"Eek."

The downed Do-cheol screamed. The mechanical announcer voice was unchanged.

"Failed?"

I held my breath, watching closely. Urgen could calm fused golems like this, but that was him. I'd only watched a few times—no guarantees. Plus, the AI in his head? Unknown origins. I anxiously monitored.

Sizzle!

His half-smashed face sparked, and an emoji appeared—a wincing, headache-y grimace.

"Oh."

The venom was gone from his voice, and he used polite "Master." Better than his raging just now.

"You with it?"

"How you feeling now?"

"Robot. You wanna kill Soo-hyeok?"

"Ow. Such bad luck talk."

"Phew."

Seemed like success, more or less. No hostility like before? Halfway there.

"…What?"

All that "mm"-ing at the start of sentences felt problematic.

Crackle!

Do-cheol spouted gibberish, then slammed his head back. His faintly trembling limbs went still.

"Aigoo."

"He dead?"

Suddenly, tree roots coiled around his neck and roughly tore his head from the body.

Rip!

"Gah!"

It was grotesque—I yelped involuntarily. Self-decapitating like that.

"Mm?"

The lone head looked refreshed, like it'd just had a good meridian massage.

"Wh-what happened?"

"What does that even……."

Gibberish overload, but seeing his state, I got the gist. The tree roots around his head migrated to the top, forming a propeller like a helicopter.

Whirr whirr whirr.

The wooden propeller spun vigorously, lifting his head into the air.

"Oh."

Up close, it looked like a TV floating midair.

"Whoa……."

"Soo-hyeok. Is this properly fixed? Feels creepy."

"Mm. Yeah, kinda iffy for me too."

I'd hoped for a transforming robot, but now it was a floating head-TV.

'Still a robot, I guess. Kinda works.'

"Do-cheol. So, what functions you got?"

Maybe he could recombine with the wreckage…….

"…Oh yeah?"

Massage, huh. A massage chair would do better. But better than nothing.

"Give it a shot."

His floating head circled me. Tree roots sprouted like tentacles.

Thump thump!

"Hm."

The tentacles patted my back repeatedly. Stronger would've been nice, but it lacked oomph—kinda meh.

"Hmm… not bad, but……."

"Huh?"

"You just said 'die'……."

"…What?"

Do-cheol turned and extended tentacles toward Yelena. Unlike with me, he gently kneaded her shoulders with roots.

"Oh! Soo-hyeok! This is awesome! Super refreshing!"

"……."

Somehow, we'd gained another weird squad member.