Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1196: Subordinate. Friend? Pet.

Another one to see the full extent of the change in the battle was Ceres, who returned to a mountain engulfed in purple light. Natina Durnham had finally stepped up personally. It wasnʼt just the big guns that had received the purple light. All the undead surrounding the walls of Delta were torches of purple fire.

All the undead in the air were burning in their master’s power and frantically tried to enter a hole in the barrier. That wasnʼt all. From the foot of the mountain came a sea of purple flooding up the slopes.

It was one of the few instances where the elemental saw the need to report back the situation, as it was slowly getting out of hand. Especially those that had kept the legend at bay barely managed to hold on-

“Ceres, are you still there?” Mary questioned as the Parrot of Doom had suddenly fallen silent. Ceres was high up in the air when he spotted Blotches and fell silent. Deep in its mind something clicked, seeing the big green oaf towering over his dying...subordinate. Friend? Pet.

“Ceres...?” it came from the commlink, but the question was unable to reach the elemental.

As emotions churned under the glittering surface of the lighting eagle, so did the clouds above as a storm was brewing. Thunder shook the mountains, as the sky roared in reaction to Ceresʼ displeasure.

Thunder rolled across the Central Mountain and the clouds had grown dark and heavy above the district. The early day had darkened under the dark heaven, cracking with lightning. Staring at the scene of the battlefield, pictures played in his mind.

The eagle remembered the scenes of the past when Blotches had just become his pet and started following it everywhere, how they played, the fun they had. Maybe the memories were a little skewed by Ceres’ own psychotic perspective, but they were real to him, nonetheless.

Death. This creature had to die. Unconsciously, energy gathered above the elemental. The dark clouds were pulled into a vortex of raging winds, incomparably stronger than the small storm the golem created before. It was as if the heavens themselves pointed a black finger at the ground to crush the filthy beast that had touched Blotches.

The orc shaman, covered in all kinds of flashy light, succeeded in creating a barrier, but he could only stare in shock at his impending doom. The barrier stood no chance against the bird covered in lightning, rushing down the index finger of death.
“Finger of God.”

Charged Ceres’ claws easily crushed the haphazard shield and tore into the orc’s shoulders. With an ear-shattering cry, the eagle opened his wings wide to the sky, calling the lightning. The next moment, the dark finger of clouds and wind, became a pillar of light, as Ceres drew all the power from the clouds above, channeling lightning into Uz’Roc.

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…

Like an answer to her interference, a pillar of lightning, thick as a city, descended right beside the central volcano, taking her vision away for several seconds. A sudden wave of pain and fear flooded back to her through her connection to Uz’Roc.

Inside the lightning that covered a whole valley, the legend’s body was burning away under the intense power of the attack. At this rate, his phylactery might have become useless, as his very soul may be purified by what looked like a heavenly punishment.

Uz’Roc pain and anxiety flooded her mind and mixed in with her own worries, to create an intense reaction of shock. For the first time, the possibility of losing one of her treasured legends appeared real to her.

This was different from the ones with potential like the leopard, or the Arachne. Of course, consciously she knew that there was always the chance that one might be destroyed in a tough battle, but unconsciously she never considered that to be possible.

Now it hit her and all the worries accompanying this horrid possibility, were added to the chaos. There was no guarantee that a legend would ever be able to recover its status after revival as an undead.

The immense amount of work and money put into defeating and raising them again would be lost.

Her status in the empire was intrinsically linked to these undead. Losing one of them would be a tragedy the Durnahms may never recover from.

…With just one of them falling Minas Mar might actually win here. Maybe she would lose even more? Then she would have to return to Spatia as a defeated dog. With the number of soldiers she already lost, if she failed here on top of that? No! She couldn’t allow it!

Answering the desperate pleas for help and cries of pain, the chosen of Kali focused her mind and supported the orc shaman with her own power to withstand the terrifying attack. When the flood of lightning, burning and tearing at his flesh finally calmed, there was not much left of the orc, apart from his head and a part of his neck and torso without shoulders.

At least his soul was not cleansed, everything else could be regenerated with time. If he had that time. When the orc opened his charred eyelids, he stared directly into the mechanical pupil of the lighting eagle. To improve the effectiveness of channeling her power she had also connected to Uz’Roc, sharing his vision and senses, so she too, looked the devil right in the eyes.

“Oh, you withstood that?” the golem bird asked. Its voice sounded curious on the surface, but it had a hidden edge, that promised that the orc would regret having survived.

“Heh, just some little sparks, can’t kill the legend of the plains! Even if you do this, I will just regenerate. If you kill me, I will simply revive, there is nothing you can do to stop me,” the roasted orc boasted with a meek laugh.

“Good. I like my playthings…durable.”

What Natina saw next was just darkness. What she received from Uz’Roc was just the feelings of mind-numbing pain and confusion. The necromancer had no idea what had just happened to her summon, but she couldn’t help but block the connection.

Uz’Roc was alive, but he was still taken off the board. Even if she destroyed his vessel remotely, it would take too long for him to regenerate from his phylactery alone. Still, the other legends now had the upper hand. It was just a matter of time for the situation to tilt.

“Did the special op set off? she asked angrily.

“Yes, my lady.”

...

---Delta---

“Stop them from entering! Fire!” Azul commanded the mage unit of the adventurers who decided not to evacuate. These people who decided to stay and protect Delta had been divided into several units under the members of Minas Mar.

A mass of spells of various elements, strengths, and timing hit the flock of flying undead trying to enter Deltaʼs barrier. For some reason, the hole in the shield was not closing, so only Iegoʼs energy net was standing between them and the city.

It was the sudden purple glow that allowed many more of them to survive Iego and flood inside, only to get finished off by the teams that had rushed over once the Rhino broke through. Although they were able to survive the Iego System, most survived it just barely, so it didnʼt take much to finish them off.

The situation was not hard to manage...depending on how long this was going to go on. Mana and arrows were finite resources, while this flock of death seemed endless. They would get tired at some point and then-

Azul caught a shadow rushing past the cluster of bodies emerging from the hole, directly aiming for a party of mages to her right. Her idle worries broke off as she rushed into action. This... was not an undead.