Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“You can't be serious! I get the staff. I wouldn't expect anything less from an unapologetic cheater like Seth, but even you! How could the System god stoop so low? The Horseman of the Apocalypse? On a world that had not even been part of the Pathworks for five years!” the goddess of death and destruction growled and stomped, shaking the very pocket dimension.

As her tirade went on, the dimension kept darkening and her stomping created tears and cracks in its fabric.

“Mind your manners,” a seething cold voice cut through her hot-tempered wave of complaints, instantly cutting it short. One would have thought it to be the System God that had enough of her and spoke up, but it was actually Hades who had stepped up to put his foot down.

“This is not your home, Kali. This is not the place to vent your childish discontent. If you have no more business here, take your pathetic whining and petty complaints, and leave.” His voice had become deeper and deeper as he spoke. Age and darkness seeped through his taciturn facade, darkening the room and giving a glimpse at the abyss, that even gods could not disrespect.

Kali was still huffing, her impressive chest heaving with repressed anger, as she tried to reign in her own temper. Even she couldn't take Hades lightly. Even if the gloomy guy stayed silent most of the time if he spoke up, it was not a threat of violence, but the promise of death.

“...it's not fair. You cheated. Do you know how much I invested in her?” she finally pressed out, not willing to actually fight someone like Hades.

“On the contrary. You cheated,” the System God threw in. “You directly provided your champion with divine energy to animate the skeleton dragon. I ignored it at the time because it made for an interesting story arc across Spatia, but if you start acting so brazenly after getting away with cheating once, maybe I should punish you after all?” the god in the tacky star-studded robe mused. Although he sounded happy and friendly, it was clear that this was not just a friendly reminder.

Her eyes widened when the System god suddenly exposed her and she started sweating a little.

“I already lost my champion, isn't that enough?” she asked, not denying her actions. The empty robe stared at her for a long uncomfortable while in silence.

“Come on now, stop ruining the mood. Kali, why don't you sit down and watch a little?” Persephone was fed up with their antics and interrupted the silence with her amicable voice. The Queen of the Underworld, stepped past her scary hubby and took Kali by one of her hands.

The system god looked away from her, not saying anything, while Kali was awkwardly led to a seat in the front rows. The goddess of death and destruction ended up sitting in the second row with Persephone, right behind Hades' seat.

In the end, Kali was a mighty goddess, and losing a chosen like Natina was not that great of a hit, it was just that the necromancer was a very entertaining one to watch. But that was it, as long as the entertainment was substituted, there was no need for this to become any bigger.

And who knew, since Persephone had interrupted, Kali still had a chance to choose a champion on Urth.

...

---Outside of Delta---

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The song had come to an end and the valley fell silent. He was tired, but not as tired as he would have expected. Most of his fatigue was owed to the work of the previous days, as he was barely able to get any kind of rest.

As the rush and ecstasy of the song finally waned, they left Seth disgusted with his current state. Waving around his hands and wiping over the armor, he tried to get rid of the splatters of flesh, blood, and brain matter that were sticking everywhere. Fighting with the Staff of Seth was a real mess.

He used over and over until he felt somewhat clean again. Only then, did he have the peace of mind to let himself fall down on his ass and review the situation. They had such a good plan in place, but as they said “Man proposes, God disposes”.

Natina had almost managed to run off before they arrived. if it wasn't for Cromwel staying behind and being able to set up a spatial lock, all of their plans would have been for naught. After all, they wanted to teach Spatia a lesson, not all their secrets. Nobody was allowed to flee.

The bard was quite surprised with himself. Since the battle in Y-City, he had not been personally involved in a big fight, leaving the stage to others. Although he sparred with Monqiue and Jonah once in a while, they were always light spars, without going all out.

Even when the power of the force made him fight more recklessly than he would have usually, it was undeniable that he had gotten stronger. Especially thanks to the staff, he thought as his eyes wondered of the quasi-divine armament.

With his armor on one hand and the staff in the other, he had terrifying defense and offense, despite lacking a combat-specialized class. When he finally had the energy to look around, he inspected the situation in the valley.

Natina's purple magic across the valley was extinguished with her death. Apart from the ones that deserted, Diromold and Piotr, most undead turned to lifeless corpses. Seth's heart quivered when he saw the actual amount of death Natina had brought to others.

Was he any better? Their actions had over 20,000 people. However, Seth drew a clear line in the sand here. They were not some poor conscripts or simple mercenaries. The people that died at their hands were invaders. Soldiers by trade, paid to ravage and plunder under the banner of their empire.

These corpses littered across the valley, not counting the remnants of Urth's zombies, were low-level undead created from low-quality materials. Or to say it in Seth's more humble words, they were weaker adventurers and civilians, slaughtered to boost this death machinery.

Was this what would have happened to the people of Delta, had the Demons succeeded? To Seth, this was the true face of Spatia. it already showed in Y-City, but it was an empire that saw no worth in the lives of the weak unless they could become a stepping stone.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Thinking about it, had his fingers twitch with irritation. He didn't even know why he cared. No, he knew. It was because he could have been one of them. Any one bad decision or wrong step on his way and he would have become just like them trampled over after losing to a bigger fist. it was the same way he felt when he saw Donn'Chad's basement.

Would their victory here be enough to discourage and force like this? Or would it just lend itself to further provoke them? This loss probably didn't even hurt them, he concluded taking into account the other team of legends that suddenly appeared.

If they wanted to thoroughly scare them off, they had to get even more aggressive in the future. But this wasn't the time to sit around and reflect on such things. He had to finish up things here and return to Minas Mar.

Seth stared at the pile of bones at the center of the valley, right beside the gate. As the necromancer's direct summons, the skeleton dragon had lost all signs of life. It had turned into huge a pile of bones when the necromancer died under the blacksmith's hands. Wolfram, Bazilith, and Hellion were still vigilantly surrounding the pile of bones.

He heaved a sigh and got up. it was time for the most important part, count their losses and collect their loot.

“How is everyone?” he finally found his voice and called out. His voice carried by mana could be heard everywhere in the valley. He didn't have much time to check on everyone during his own fight.

WHOOMP-crackle

There was a whomp-crackle heard in the valley before Puffles answered his question first.

~Yep, the great me has finished his over here. ~ the Ivicer said in a much better mood, after offing the suffering lich mercilessly. It only took the blacksmith a quick glance at his status window, to find that Puffles had actually reached lv.199 after killing Piotr.

Tatzel had also made a great leap in levels, reaching lv.185. Even though Seth had also benefited from the battle today, he had only entered the 120s because of the victory over legends. Even with the 50k, he didn't have enough points to get to the next level... He just thought that he was quite strong, but at this rate, he would have legendary pets before even reaching the halfway point himself.

Seeing the two were fine, the blacksmith stepped over to Natina's corpse. Before inspecting the dragon corpse or the sea serpent, Seth turned to what was closest to him, picking up her weapons, equipment, and loot box. However, his inspection was cut short by the rumbling of heavy steps echoing between the mountain.

“I'm here to help!” Evee exclaimed, riding a giant Hydra.