blacksmithoftheapocalypse

543. Vampire Territory

“Genevieve, you must know one of the ways that lead to the beyond.” the vampire pressed his sister.

This was his solution. Although the ethnarchs had used the Towers of Trial as stable portals and to transport a part of the city to the beyond, it didn't mean this was the only way. The boundaries of the beyond were unstable and constantly shifting, this meant it would constantly open new paths.

According to Vlad, she was the only vampire aside from him in Sigma. He concluded th...

542. Idyllin Mo

---Sigma, The Wards---

They were currently seated in a modern meeting room, together with Captain Hesing, some of his subordinates, and other leading members of the Wards. As a representative from Delta, she was a very important guest and this conversation was crucial, especially in the current emergency situation.

While they were waiting for someone to get Cade, Hesing explained their current situation since their leader and people were currently fighting another siege attack. 2022-08-09 15:34:46 +0000 UTC View Post

541. Genevieve

Seth had reached the northern shore of Urth just two or three hours after setting off from Hyperborea. However, his friends were not there.

Thanks to the Cloak of Hecate he quickly realized that his party had rashly entered Sigma. He didn't exactly why, but he suspected Leana was behind that. After indoctrinating the beastman for a long time, Mike would not have made such a dangerous decision himself.

With a sigh, the blacksmith also took course at Sigma. What else was he supposed...

540. Sister's Sorrow

---Sigma---

The heavy silver sword aimed for the shoulder.

„Urgh!“ she laboriously blocked and deflected it with her glaive.

Despite doing her best in the deflection, she was thrown back by the impact. She could feel her power waning and the aura on her spear weakened.

When had her brother become so strong? She felt so exhausted, they had been fighting for so long and he was still going strong.  He should have come back to help them after gaining such strength...

539. Eos

Before the blacksmith who rushed out of the temple stood a winged woman with a divine aura of crimson light, reminiscent of dawn. A voluminous many of curly golden hair flowed over her shoulders.

She wore a delicate toga made of thin, soft fabric that didn't leave much up to his imagination. Seth had to gulp when she gave him a beautiful smile.

“Oh, my. Nobody told me you were such a handsome young lad.”

Her gaze was unmistakable when her delicate soft fingers grasped hi...

538. Quest Rewards

Seth had no idea who Eos was. Although he had put some effort into researching mythology, there were simply way too many minor gods affiliated with the Olympian Mythology. He couldn't know them all!

“D-Does Lady Eos cherish this fine young man?” Seth asked diplomatically, pointing at the man he had messed up and dragged here.

Finding out he was a descendant of a god was problematic, since he didn't know Eos' stance towards Orian. From what he knew, there were some very concern...

537. One of the worst Crimes

“B-Brother, calm down!” Hermes held onto Apollo.

The god of sunlight was displeased, to say the least. The little blacksmith had actually borrowed the power of a demon god to bind the little Scorpio to himself. Yes, he had only sent one of the constellation's offspring and maybe he had underestimated little Set's skills.

But he was angry now and there was no way he would admit it.

“Stay Apollo. Let's find a solution before you do something rash.” Hades said imposingl...

536. Seth's Lullaby

Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!

Seth was speechless. This was not what he had expected.

They had set off from Day early in the morning and entered the Garden of Apollo, an expansive forest.  Seated on Puffles' back, the blacksmith was able to get an overview of the damage.

As the reports stated, there were large swathes of destruction with broken trees and deep ditches crisscrossing through the forest.

They followed the signs of destruction all the way to the center, but they led ...

535. Arrival

---Sigma---

The armored school bus weaved through the empty skyscrapers of the abandoned city.  They had to fly low to see the streets as the city was immersed in darkness.

From their flying vehicle, they were able to see many kinds of roughly human-sized monsters on the streets, though their silhouettes were hard to make out in the darkness when the sunlight didn't reach. The few of them that had <Nightvision> or an item with the effect were not much better off. Someth...

534. Once Again

Once again, after a while, a figure appeared on the road. It was a giant of a man, but so ugly only a mother could love him. He had swine-like features, crooked teeth, and a dull smile that made him look stupid.

It was about to become even more stupid when the giant centipede was running at him at full speed and only came to a halt a few meters before him. As shocked as he was, it didn't take long for the meat mountain to regain his composure.

His face warped into an even uglier, ...

533. Dawn City

Dawn was a big city without a city wall. Like the light of dawn, many houses were built of sandstone with red, yellow, and purple hues. The outer residential areas were mostly compromised of one-story houses with thatched roofs.

Only the shops along the main streets were slightly bigger. There were also guards at these major roads, but it wasn't a problem, as they didn't hold any big interest in Seth. He was easily able to enter the city.

Towards the center, the buildings grew in ...

532. A little harsh?

Gleobem was writhing in pain on the ground.

~Seth! The connection is finally back!~ Puffles called out to him.

~Mom!~ Tatzel exclaimed.

“Please, I give up! I already dispelled the illusion!“ the satyr cried with bulging eyes and twisting goat ears.

Right, it was about time for the finale and to take his prize.  Since he had won, his demonic ballad came to an end.

“T-this has truly widened my horizons. Hehe, please take my panpipes.” the satyr mumbled...

531. Superstition, Fear, and Arrogance

--Cinema dimension-

“What a beautiful little bird,” Apollo exclaimed.

Apollo leaned over to his left, to whisper to Hermes With Seth's entry to Hyperborea, the god of sunlight obviously joined them. After all, this was kind of a bet between them and it was a lot more interesting to watch together.

He really made this himself?“ he asked intrigued.

Although he was not a god of craftsmen like Hephaestus, he was still a god of the fine arts. He could appreciate a bea...

530. Somewhere else (14)

„Aster? Are you alright?“ Paolo asked cautiously.

Aster has been acting weird lately. As the tank of their party, his demeanor was usually very calm and collected. But lately, he tended to become irate and mess up the party's coordination.

He would pull aggro at the wrong time, or attack hastily. More and more often he wouldn't react when they called him during battle. Marco and Paolo had been on their way to meet the others for a dungeon briefing when they spotted Aster in an...

529. Sicily

Puffles and Seth flew north over the ocean. It had been 45 minutes, but the shuttle was not in sight and Seth started getting worried. Was the injured Puffles too slow to catch up to the shuttle and Ceres?

~Hey! I know what you are thinking! How could the great me be the problem? It has to be something else! ~ the Ivicer said defensively.

~kek~ Tatzel chuckled.

Another reason for worry was Puffles flight time. Although the nightmare pillar grew even stronger, its air time st...

528. Calculated Risk

“It doesn't seem like he managed to catch up.” the hooded figure commented. It had been a few hours since they left the continent behind. The sun had already risen on the horizon.

“Maybe we could fly back to meet Seth on the way,” Mina suggested. She had doubts that Seth would still be able to catch up with them.

The party looked to Mike, their leader, who was currently the shuttle captain and pilot. He deliberated about the suggestion for a moment.

“You are right....

527. The Wards

---Sigma---

Bright light flashed across the night sky, traveling so far it could even be seen in the center of Sigma which was protected by a luminous hemisphere of light.

“Sir Vlad, there is someone that wants to speak with you.” a staff member announced her presence.

Sir Vlad was currently turned towards a big front of windows, watching the lights in the distant skies. He turned towards the door when he heard the staff's notice.

“Is it about the fight?” the p...

526. Collecting Souls

The weakened beast could not fathom what was going on. It was the 24th Ethnarch of the Beyond! A ruler of a region with uncountable minions. How did it happen that it ended up at the mercy of a mortal?

He had gone as far as to disgrace himself and beg for his life. Even offering power and wishes, was this not enough? Was this human so bent on killing him, despite everything it had to offer?

„Why do you ask for the number of souls? Are you going to judge me on the vain belief tha...

525. A Blacksmith's Instruments

“We have to land!” Mike screamed in a panic when a whale-sized zombie fish rammed into their bus.

With the others still in a stupor, Seth could only erect a fire shield around the shuttle, to protect it from harm.

“Don't land. Keep aiming for the ocean, I will take care of this.”

…

The pressure was gone now, but Leana had never experienced being frozen like this. To be grabbed by a kind of primal fear made her feel sick. Her <Fear Resistance> was lv.3 a...

524. 24th Ethnarch

It was a nice day but the silhouette of Sigma's skyline in the distance gave him a foreboding feeling.

Something felt...wrong.

“Mike, make sure to get some distance from the outskirts.” the blacksmith told the catman at the steering wheel.

“Ah, sure. “ Mike said and turned the shuttle a little so they would fly by Sigma at some distance.

“Don't you think we could enter Sigma and look for people that know something about your island?” Leana mentioned.

...

523. Memories

An arrow pierced the ground just outside the lightning formation.

“Did you miss?” Leana asked confused.

However, Seth only kept watching the body of the beast. Moments later the body finally slumped down under the constant damage of the electric arcs.

“No, no I didn't miss.” the blacksmith said smugly, putting down the reaper bow.

The arrow he had shot was a soul armament and the place he aimed at was the soul tether that connected the bast to whatever source i...

522. Nuckelavee

The shuttle had crossed roughly half their path to the northern ocean when it became night.

“We should land for the time being and get some rest,” Seth suggested.

Unfortunately, Seth had not thought of a golem pilot or sleeping in the bus. Mike was getting tired after piloting for a whole day and the others also didn't look fresh anymore.

The system came with a lot of quality-of-life features that allowed one to even stay awake for a long time without major consequences....

521. Scarred Earth

For several minutes, everyone was pressed in their seats as the bus accelerated and left Delta and its floating islands behind.

It seemed that Al'Zalsar has also made some modifications to the bus pertaining to its speed. The mountain peaks below flew by as they traveled north. Seth was looking out the window when a soft hand grasped his own.

“Mina?” he whispered, seeing his girlfriend intertwining her fingers with his and grabbing his hand tightly.

She nervously looked ...

520. Ravenous Sog

“What is this?” Seth exclaimed when he entered the hangar together with  Yulecat's Fur.

Wedan, Hoen, and the other Lord of Minas Mar were already waiting to see them off. But what had drawn Seth's attention was the bus behind them. It was the bus Al'Zalsar had enchanted all the way back when Minas Mar rolled out to save Drosi.

It was obvious that they couldn't just walk across half the continent, through mountainous terrain, on foot. They had planned to use the bus and sa...

519. Somewhere Else (14)

---Sigma---

Every breath of cold air cut deep into her lungs. She couldn't control her heavy breathing as she ran alone into the old monastery. This place should be safe, the walls were thick.  It was a risk to leave the perimeter, but she had to see him. It might be her last chance.

The cold she was not used to was biting through her leather armor. It wasn't much warmer inside than it was outside. She took some turns and walked down a hallway lined with doors.

“How i...

518. Angelic Soul

Looking at the clock, it was 7 in the morning. He had slept for a couple of hours and still felt kind of empty inside. A side effect of his own ballad, but he felt refreshed enough to continue.

The blacksmith looked once more at the result of his painful work,

<Angelic Soul (Massive, Rare), Crafting Material,

The soul of a high-ranking angel that inherited some of its creator's powers in the domains of metal, binding, and subjugation.>

After Seth got rid of almos...

517. Soul rending

A mask containing the malicious soul of an archangel.

An item as cursed as it can be, created in a time of great urgency and a fit of creativity.

The mask made of gray metal showing a distorted expression seemed to look at its maker with a grimace of hatred and despair.

“Don't look at me like that,” Seth said ill-humored and flicked the mask in the face.

The reason he struggled with the decision of using the mask was its terrible ego. It was an utterly evil conscio...

516. Sudden Additions

A week later, Seth had finally finished everything he wanted to achieve before going on his quest.

A troop of 200 blade-armed Guard Golems ready to be deployed to their duty was waiting in a storage room.

He had finished over 400 rare and epic rings for the Turquoise Anvil and raised his <Goldsmith> to lv.4.

The accessory production on Hoen's side had also started off after the Tower drones had mined several metal veins in the vicinity.  With the help o...

515. Ancient Magic

An ice café at the edge of a busy pedestrian zone.

A sundae was quickly being emptied as if it was vanishing in time-lapse. When the class cup finally returned to the table, a tiny humanoid wiped away her ice cream mustache.

“Now, then, Leana suddenly asked to meet Fin. What can Fin do for you?” the fairy asked, looking up at the princess.

The princess was supporting her chin with a hand and looking down at Fin sitting on the table. Although she had just asked a questio...

514 Elemental's New Body

Before Seth could begin assembling the guard golems with the newly arrived armors, he first wanted to finish Ceres. The elemental had waited long enough in its dismantled state.

The blacksmith used the morning to finally finish the inlays and reassemble the body. All that was left was the almost as tedious process of fixing the feathers to the body.

Why was he even doing this? He thought to himself and he added feathers one by one, using a small spirit flame to weld them onto the ...