blacksmithoftheapocalypse

571. Children of the Grave

The door that had suddenly opened slowly fell shut again. Sitting on his throne, presiding over his little realm of death, the shapeless shadow only fixated the door for a moment. His court kept dancing their eternal dance, the musician played their unending song.

He could even feel his power growing as if he was close to gaining even greater strength than he could have ever imagined in his life. Everything was good.

Until an eerie, demonic voice suddenly started filling in the ro...

570. The Ballroom

On their way back, the house finally showed some supernatural activity. Doors closed and the path's kept changing, trying to trap them inside.

But the house had not taken into account the era it was currently. Without a care Seth simply kept going straight, blasting through doors and walls. Although they were more durable than their aged looks could justify, they lacked behind the strength of the blacksmith.

They blasted their way through until Seth found a wall with a window and ...

569. Snatcher

Seth had no way to know the details, but he could imagine the kind of tragic death these children had gone through and he doubted the perpetrator had peacefully gone to the afterlife.

He shared his concerns with Sandra. Although he didn't really know her, she was the expert on these matters. Since he was too lazy to invent some excuse, he shared the secret of Undead Amity during his explanation.

“There was this kind of effect...” she mumbled but quickly answered his question.<...

568.Ghost Hug

The limousine returned to the road and drove through the empty ruins of the old city. Many houses that had long rotten and collapsed lined the road. After decades these should have looked worse, but the climate in this area had been quite dry, up until two years ago.

Since the mountains now kept accumulating mana and growing colder, everything was frozen and covered in a thin layer of dust-like snow.

Seth saw this sad scene and felt almost nothing except some curiosity. This was a...

567. A Test

“Please come in. I'm Sandra Irving, Mr.Mol's employee. I will accompany you on this trip.” she introduced herself emotionless.

The associate Tano spoke of arriving in a long black limousine at their agreed meeting place. When Seth looked inside he found a serious-looking office lady.  She wore a business suit, and small black-rimmed glasses, and her hair was in a tight bun.

She looked a little older than Seth,  maybe in her late twenties or early thirties and her who...

566. Hand shakes Hoof

The request of the goat seemed feasible. According to the soul trader it was about an old mansion in a city only a few hours away from delta in one of the cities that wee abandoned with the creation of the districts.

“Okay, but I want to choose two more souls from this floor in the future, and I get the souls on the first floor for free.”

If everything went well, it was barely a day trip for Seth. However, since the danger was actually unknown and the merchant had shown how im...

565. Obsessive Forger

Seth looked at the goat for a while. It was clear that the goat had no intention to give him these lost souls for something like equipment crafting. He finally nodded. They returned to the first floor where Seth started to explain what other souls he needed.

One was the soul he needed for the Gloves of the Firespirit. The blacksmith wanted a high-rated soul with a fire attribute that would honor the work of his master Tored and his friend Nädel.

The second soul was for Forgeright...

564. Goat and Soul

They stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do exactly.

“No need to be shy. Look around, take a gander. Ask me if you are looking for something specific. Evil souls of the worst Dark Lords, the soul of an untainted maiden, maybe? Whatever you need and for whatever purpose you have, Tano'Mol has it or can procure it. The quality and source of my wares are top-notch, documented, and certified.

But you probably already know this, as you came to Tano'mol's Soul Emporium, instea...

563.Tano'Mol's Soul Emporium

Seth's face lit up as it dawned on him, that Ember had really brought him to the right place. Once he knew what he was at, the conversation went rather smoothly.

As a friend of his niece and with with pockets of money the blacksmith had no problems getting the information he needed from Charred. The demon seemed also pleasantly surprised that Seth was not some pauper his niece brought, asking for a free favor.

Still, on Ember's behalf, he got the information almost for free, as mo...

562. Shade Territory

After his visit to Alison, the blacksmith had gone to visit the Bard College. Although he had visited quite a few classes intermittently, the only person he really knew was Ember, so she was obviously the first person he approached.

“Just what kind of horrid stuff are you cooking up?”  Ember the demoness asked perplexed after listening to Seth's request.

Last time she had gone as far as to show him where he could find books about the more barbaric, less glorious practices...

561. Second Dose

When Seth reached the laboratory, he found the door unlocked.

After Mina had to regretfully follow her duties and left, Seth had made his plan for today. Following a late breakfast, he went to visit the alchemy labs. It had been a bunch of weeks already and the blacksmith thought it was time to drink his second serving of Alison's wonder potion.

It was the first time he found the door unlocked and he couldn't help but enter. The sight stunned him a little. Except for ve...

560. The Fairy and the Cat

After enlightening her they talking for a little more. When Seth asked, Mary also told him that Drosi and his company had already reached Mount Agra and would return soon.

Seth had been a little worried when he didn't see the group during his initial scan of the tower. Since they would call back the Chimeras there was also the question of their future.

The blacksmith shared a few ideas pertaining to this with Mary, but ultimately he wanted to leave this choice to the individuals i...

559. News Arrive

As they waited for their food, they talked about what happened. When Seth and the others started talking about what happened on their Quest and in Sigma, Hoen and Wedan realized that they had been so distracted by the dragon scales, that they missed to ask the tower master for what actually happened.

The food came and they kept talking about what happened over the meal. The members of Yuelecat's Fur were so tired because they had been on action 24/7 since they returned. Although Sigma h...

558. Curse of Materials

This was the real curse of great materials. He felt incredibly apprehensive about just starting and wanted to plan every step beforehand.

He started off by thoroughly investigating the effects of the materials. Although <Blacksmith's Eyes> could give him a catalog entry at first glance, but he could gather more specific information with a closer investigation.

The dragon scales were a rather obvious matter.  Testing with them using the <Blueprint> skill he was abl...

557. Coping

Laying in his bed, Seth sorted his thoughts about this journey. After a good night's sleep, he was too lazy to get out of bed, but his mind was clear and kept wandering back to it, so he decided to consider the result of this quest.

The blacksmith still felt like crying when he thought of all the common souls he had to pay for the final step of his plan to work.  The worst was that this fight had not even ended the problem, as Sigma was still connected to the Beyond. Who knew what ...

556. Coming Home

When Seth could finally see again there was a blue sky above his head. It was tinged in a slight violet hue as the evening sun was sinking. He, and the part of Sigma District, were back on Urth.

Even though the city was empty and worse for the wear, they had managed to bring it back.

The blacksmith summoned Puffles and got on the Ivicer's back.

~Are we not returning to Delta?~ he asked as Seth steered him towards what was left of the Wards.

~We will take a look at the ...

555. Now you don't

Terrifying, hollow screams echoed across the cityscape of Sigma. The dark skies filled with sinister skeletal entities looked down on a scene of perplexity.

Unable to do anything against an invisible foe, deep gauges kept appearing across the body of one of their own.

The 13th Ethnarch kept phasing in and out of existence between attacks. Curses that withered stone and steel rained on the buildings, pressure bore down that made them crumble. 

But in return, it either go...

554. Now you see me

The shuttle was flying through the skies of Sigma, only the light of the raging fires below to guide them. In places it passed, where alien-looking spires hid between towering skyscrapers, a giant armored snake would suddenly appear.

Strangling the spires with its massive body, it easily crushed the tower to dust before vanishing again. It was not always a snake, at time it was a flying centipede that blew the tower apart with fiery light magic, a bird spewing lightning, or a weird nigh...

553. Somewhere Else(15)

---Muir Empire---

Adam really couldn't complain.

Of course, there were a lot of things that had gone wrong in his life up to this point. Like being turned into an Artificial Druid and losing most memories of his life before that.

But right now, sitting on a luxurious sofa with two subtle, well-endowed merman ladies in his arms, he really had nothing to complain about. They fed him some sweet foreign fruits while his hands were free to wander.

He had to admit that Princ...

We Are Safe

Update: I got a thingamajig to use my hard drive as an external one, and I have everything back. Chapters will resume as usual, with 3 at once later today for the ones we missed.

Have a great day

UPdate: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Hey Guys, just a little update.

As the title says, I encountered a series of unfortunate events. My Laptop decided to end itself today and I was as of yet unable to make it work again.

This isn't good, but the reason I tell you this is that my Dropbox folder did not backup my stuff, which means, that I lost the stock of chapters, I had saved up.

I will bring it for repairs next week and maybe they are able to recover the data, if not...well, we will see.

The conseque...

552. Plans and Suspicions

When Seth and the others arrived a the police headquarters they found it secured and guarded by vampires. Vlad had already met up with Leana and they set up a command structure to manage the present people and fighters.

Taking their current situation into account, Seth was not given any time for a break. While Yulecat's Fur and the others were given some temporary room, the blacksmith was forced to take part in a meeting to exchange their information and decide how to continue.

Cu...

551. Reunion

After Python breached through the masses of monsters she breathed a cloud of vampires at the city below. Or in other words, the vampires alighted from her body through her mouth. With Vlad at their helm, they charged into the dome to hunt the monsters that had gotten in.

The vampire had insisted on going in first, as he and other the vampires were faster and more numerous. Although Seth did not necessarily agree, he didn't refuse Vlad's request to jump into the danger.

“I will a...

550. Boys will be Boys

“Could you take Selene to the protective bunker? I have to get my son.” Elisabeth asked Leana in a hurry.

They had not talked for long but seemed to be enough for the woman to entrust her daughter to the princess. She was a little stumped but seeing the mother's gaze she nodded in agreement.

“Mama, don't go.” the little girl tried to stop her mother.

“Selene, be a good girl. The princess is still new here. She needs you to find her way to the bunker. Mama will foll...

549. Break

The flames were raging in the city just outside the dome. Tens of meters high, they devoured the masses of beasts that had been storming against the dome in their flight.

“So, this is what happened back then,” Leana mumbled, remembering the report of what happened in the forests of Alpha.

She was standing at the window of Cade's old room in the police headquarters and was looking down at the edge of the dome in the distance. Over the past hours, the last remnants of Sigma's ad...

548. Field of Flowers

She didn't know for how long she had been asleep. When she finally came to, her head was leaning against the cold glass of the bus window.

“What a pretty field of flowers,“ Mina mumbled, looking below with a hazy gaze.

“Wow, it's really beautiful.” a high-pitched voice agreed with her.

The small fairy had slept in her arms and woke up when Mina started moving. She, too, looked out the window at the field of bright blue flowers that covered the city, with their glowin...

547. Another Lullaby

With the troop of vampires in tow, Seth quickly reached the edge of the vampire land. The difference wasn't big. Looking down from the cliff that separated the vampires' land from the rest of the beyond like an island in the sea, he saw a dark desert of gray dust.

If it wasn't for the black pieces of shrubbery that bore witness to some previous existence of life, the vampires' land was no different from this desert anymore. This desert was what their land would also turn into at some po...

546. Tower of Trial

After briefing their plans with Hesings and the current leaders of the survivors, the teams from Delta set off using the armored bus.

They were lucky that there did not seem to be any airborne monsters in the beyond, this meant they had the air supremacy. Which was better for them.

In the dim twilight of the beyond they could not see the streets anymore, as they were covered in a roving mass of monsters. Like a sea of bodies and limbs, they surged against the barrier of The Wards....

545. Propaganda makes the Dream work

“Boy, how could you do this to us?“ a wizened voice asked.

“Why did you abandon us Leader?“  a man wearing the scraps of a uniform mumbled.

Their wails tortured the vampire who was held up solely by the blacksmith's strong hands grabbing his collar.

“All I need from you is not get in my way and everyone will get a happy end.” the bard whispered at Genevieve to the side.

She huffed but actually did not try to pick a fight with him. The skald on the othe...

544. The Beyond

---The Beyond, Sigma---

“So you are telling us we were transported to a place outside of the system and have to clear several dungeons to get back? All before these faltering defenses give out?” Mike summed up what Leana had just told them.

“Is that really the only way?” Mina asked unsure of what to think.

“ I am afraid it is.” Idyllin, who had revealed his identity to the party, answered her question solemnly.

“I'm sure that the people of Sigma will also...