Maid homunculus (3)

Kaoru drew the maid homunculus's attention. In her hand was a brown potion, lid already popped open.

The color reminded me of cocoa, but… what kind of potion was that?

"My, my, my. Master, what do you intend to do with that?"

"Obviously—this!"

Kaoru threw back the brown potion in one gulp. If she was drinking it herself, it couldn't be poison, but…

"Ugh, guh, haaaaaah!!"

Mana exploded out of Kaoru's body.

"H-hey! What did you drink, Kaoru!?"

"'Fragment of the Chaos God'—this maid's hidden trump card! A powerful buff potion that warps the laws of nature and makes your mana effectively infinite for a short time…!"

"Goodness, how reckless of you, Master. That's a deadly substance that would kill any ordinary person who drank it… Well, for the prodigy of alchemy that Master is, a single bottle should be fine."

"I'm not ready to die yet! A little recklessness is nothing if it means survival!"

With that declaration, Kaoru gathered her mana. Her eyes blazed red.

"Haaaaaah… Super Alchemy! Dummy Core & Golem Generation!!"

Whoosh! The mana swirling around Kaoru converged into a single point, crystallizing into a glowing red gem. Then, with that crystal as its core, the room's walls cracked and peeled away, the debris gathering together to form a white golem—no, a golem girl. She stood about elementary school height with a neat bob cut, black accents framing her eyes, and her eyes themselves displayed "00" side by side like LED indicators. A cute mecha-girl type.

Why did it have such a girly appearance? Probably just her personal taste. That, and in a confined indoor space, a pilotable golem would be unwieldy. Or something like that.

The school backpack on her back… surely had some actual function, right? It wasn't just a hobby decoration, right? Well, it's cute, so I'd forgive her even if it was just for show.

"Hey Kaoru, can you actually beat that maid with this?"

"This thing's immortal as long as I keep pouring mana into it! As long as it doesn't lose, we win!"

"But your infinite mana's only temporary, right?"

"… …"

Oi. Don't tell me you didn't think about what happens if this drags out. Are you an idiot?

"E-even if it's temporary, this golem's power is real! Unless you can output more mana than me, you can't overwrite it! Go, Golem!!"

The golem girl's eyes flashed red with a mechanical whir, and she lunged at the maid homunculus.

"Ngh, you are troublesome indeed… However, with a Divine Artifact—"

Beep beep—'Divine Artifact Seal' activated

The backpack on the golem girl's back split open, and puff! Metal powder scattered everywhere. It was like chaff—and the instant I thought that, my own vision wavered.

"Ha-ha! Now you're just an ordinary maid! We won!… Huh? Karina? What's wrong?"

"Ugh, wai-, my body… is heavy… too…?"

"S-sorry! Were you using a Divine Artifact too!?"

"Crap…"

Kaoru apologized, looking sorry. But my consciousness was steadily going dark.

—Oh right, come to think of it, my body is a 'body made by a god'…!

"Karina, are you okay nya!?"

Misha seemed unaffected and was doing fine.

"Misha, prote… ct me…"

"Eh!? It's my turn here nya!? For real!?"

With that final plea, I lost consciousness.