Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The girls were in little Gamma, so there was no need for him to go home early. After watching the guys train, he felt the urge to go to the workshop. While watching Tekar and Ortega sparring, Seth had also sorted out his thoughts.

He found the reason he had been so occupied with this incident. The blacksmith was unsettled because his friends had been in actual danger for the first time. Of course, there were other situations, but this one was unexpected. At no point had he thought that Ray or Lydia couldn't be pushed to the point that they had to flee.

Lydia had done well, but she also had two holy armaments, and several relic-rated armors as well as a relic-rated armor set. The unsettling part was that having this much was still just enough. Ray “only” had his legendary ring and he would have died if it wasn't for Sol'Fiam descending.

Maybe it was arrogant to hope that he could overhear everyone around him to the point that not even the prodigies in the world could harm them, but it had worked for a surprisingly long time. People with great classes caught up with them, Cultivators even appeared with comparable weapons and artifacts.

He had been very confident in his items and his friends, but this confidence was shaken by the incident in Emerald City. What was the point of all his items and all the golems, if others could catch up or compare? If this situation already happened with the cultivator and his own people, he couldn't underestimate the demons either.

The blacksmith brought out two of the three bars. Apart from these two bars, he also brought out one ingot of urthan , one of , as well as several more bars of dwarven and epic . There was little planning involved in his actions as he started heating the forge.

What he was most afraid of, was something happening to Mina and Fin, even more than his friends and other people he cared for. Seth didn't want to restrict them, but he couldn't always be there to protect them. What he needed was a guardian.

...

When the blacksmith's deep voice droned through the workshop, Sivri and even Cerberus looked up. Before their eyes, the blacksmith was swallowed by a cloud of fire. It was like the whole area around the anvil had become the furnace.

No instrument sounded this time. Instead there was the roaring of a storm, and the striking of the hammer, that accompanied his voice. For a moment, Sivri felt like she was going crazy, when the voice, the blaze, and the strikes shaped into a chaotic piece of music. There was no structure, or meaning she could discern, it was something completely incomprehensible to her mind. The next moment, her heart shuddered, as a dark, demonic presence descended in the workshop.

Her mechanical eyes focused on the anvil, where dark runes and an unmistakable haze were melded into an alloy of and . The bright metals were tainted by the demonic runes and the blazing flames. With rhythmic strikes of the hammer and the song of fire, a slender blade took shape.

After the blade was forged, he put it aside. No guard, no hilt, no pommel, it didn't look like a finished sword, but Seth made no move to finish it. Leaving the blade aside, he stepped back to the anvil and took the second bar of and an ingot glinting with a dark red sheen, even in the bright yellow shine of the flames.

The whole time, the song had not stopped for once. While the hammer rested, it was a crescendo of voice and fire. Then Charon's Obol joined back in, and the dark runes that had waited, suspended in the air, rushed into the metals as the blacksmith heated them with his own flames and began mixing them again.

Fold by fold, the metal got darker and darker while the silver and crimson sheen mixed to a metallic color of blood and darkness. Sivri stared and again, was able to see the haze of a soul. What kind of set was the blacksmith making? Or were it two separate items?

Shortly after, the dwarf golem's view was blocked by the wall of fire, as it changed color to deep murky red and raised the temperature even further. Only the melody of the song indicated, that the blacksmith was still working inside the frightening blaze.

It was so intense, that she feared melting down herself if she tried to get closer. What had happened for him to act like this? Sivri watched on cluelessly. Even the eyes of the silent Cerberus were glued to the cocoon of fire in the middle of the workshop. As the golems watched, the day grew old. People knocked at the door but had to leave with unfinished businesses.

At some point, the hammer fell silent, but the blacksmith kept singing. Slowly, the fire subsided, leaving the stage to the skald's solo. Through the gaps in the firestorm, she was able to see that the blacksmith was in the middle of engraving. He had never sung for this long, or kept singing while engraving something, what was he doing?

In his hand, she saw a small object shaped like an egg, glinting with dark metallic red. It was not a solid piece of metal but showed very fine and meandering patterns of holes and ridges. Finally, Seth put aside the egg it had been hours at this point. Yet, he didn't stop.

Next, Seth picked a piece of armor from the floor, where the golem had not been able to see it because of the flames. Without stopping, he started working on the armor, cutting grooves and inserting inlays. It finally dawned on Sivri, that he was not making a weapon, but a golem. She couldn't remember ever seeing Seth work on a golem since he usually used the Golem Forge.

Even while he was putting in inlays, the dark runes of his demonic song kept floating around and sinking into the armor. At least the color of the fire had turned back to a bright orange and she was able to watch him again. It was a shame she had not been able to see him work on the part of the armor. The dwarven craftsman in her was very curious about what kind of alloy he used for it, if any.

Like a machine, the blacksmith worked without tiring and Sivri actually got a little worried for him. But she didn't dare to interfere. From what she had seen, the blacksmith was going to finish soon. The last piece, the cuirass, was already in his hands.

At this point, the song changed slightly. A pale blue flame started dancing across the chest of the armor and the dark runes that had been suspended in the air were rapidly sucked into the flames. Erratically, the light jumped about, burning a dark pattern into the surface of the armor. A crest, looking like the setting or rising sun or flame, with stylized rays of fire that covered the whole sky, or in this case the cuirass.

Finally, the demonic presence vanished and the fires subsided. Seth assembled the pieces of the armor, and before Sivri's and Cerberus eyes, he installed the elaborate egg in the chest of the hollow armor like a decorative gem. A wave of mana flooded the armor and it came to live. It was really a golem core! At the blacksmith beckoning it grabbed the unfinished sword

Substituting the sea of flames, were the Waters of Styx, as they appeared as a big floating ball of water. Obediently, the armor golem holding the unfinished-looking blade stepped into the flood, to finally finish the process of its creation.

The moment it left the water, it was emblazoned with flame and knelt before its creator.