Deus Necros

Ludwig pulled out [Noctivex]. He didn’t say a word and simply held it between him and Andre.

The cube looked harmless at a glance, too small to justify the weight it carried in Ludwig’s mind. In the forge’s light, it reflected a dull darkness that wasn’t truly black, more like metal that had swallowed too much heat and never let it go. Ludwig kept his grip steady, letting the object speak for him. If he framed it wrong with words, he would poison the moment before it began.

Andre took a single glance at the cube and realized what Ludwig intended to do.

“This is why you wish to rule over metal…” Andre said as he tried to touch the cube.

“Careful,” Ludwig said, “It hates without reason.”

“I’ve had my share of weapons that despised hands that didn’t earn their trust or were of adequate worthiness to carry. Worry not.” Andre said as he grabbed the cube.

It lit up in red, almost wanting to consume Andre, but the latter didn’t force it, no. His hand didn’t tense around it, and his posture didn’t harden into a challenge.

He held it like you held an injured animal, firm enough that it couldn’t fall, gentle enough that it didn’t need to bite harder to prove it was still alive. The red pulse flared, then faltered, then steadied, as if the cube was testing him and finding nothing to push against.

“That… how did you do that?” Ludwig asked.

“That is what you wish to achieve. I cannot simply give you the answer. You must find it yourself.” Andre said as he got the cube closer to his face.

Andre’s eyes narrowed slightly, not with suspicion, but with the focus of someone reading grain in wood or temper in steel. He rotated the cube minutely, letting forge light slide across its surface. Ludwig watched the way Andre’s attention moved, how it didn’t cling to obvious things, how it went straight for the quiet details.

“I see, the metal here… It’s the same with your mace. This has never been forged in fire…” Andre said.

“How’s that possible?” Ludwig asked.

“It is possible, you see it here, the same with your other mace. They were both forged with heat, but not the heat of the forge. But the heat of anger and rage. It is expressing it right now as I’m holding it. An anger that cannot be quantified or measured. Hatred for the living, for the dead, for the world altogether, and hatred for oneself.” Andre looked at Ludwig.

The last part sat between them, heavier than the rest. Hatred for oneself. Ludwig didn’t react outwardly, but he felt the line find a place to sink into. Andre wasn’t speaking like a mystic. He was speaking like someone who had learned to read what metal remembered, and this metal remembered something ugly.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Andre said, “Since it would be too difficult without it to understand what you need to do…”

Ludwig’s eyes perked up. “And that hint is?”

“Understand before command… I cannot say more, or it’ll sway your mind. Think about this yourself.” Andre stood up and handed him the cube.

The cube settled back into Ludwig’s hand, heavier now that Andre had named what lived inside it. Ludwig felt its hostility immediately, a pressure that wasn’t heat and wasn’t weight, more like an instinctive refusal that pressed against his palm. Andre released it without drama, as if returning a problem to its rightful owner.

“I’ll be leaving now. The smithy will remain closed for the rest of the day. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t figure it out. It isn’t supposed to be understood in one try.” Andre said.

Ludwig nodded to Andre.

He was a smart man, a humble man, and a man with a lot of knowledge for his craft and his world. And that bled into his surroundings. He wasn’t of noble origin or upbringing. He was crass and rude, but honest to boot. He didn’t sugarcoat words and never tried to deceive or impress. He was a man with his heart in his hands, and that was probably why steel bent for him.

“I can’t even hold this thing without the Heart of Wrath imposing itself on it… Yet he was able to do so without the Heart…” Ludwig thought.

Something about Andre was different.

Ludwig took a calm and deep breath and withdrew the effect of the Heart of Wrath.

Suddenly, it felt like silence had begun filling the void that was left by the forever enraged heart. Ludwig always ignored it, but it had always been there. The Heart of Wrath was always shouting, “KILL! MURDER! DESTROY!” But since Ludwig’s undead nature simply didn’t care for emotional sway, he didn’t bother with extracting himself from the thoughts and simply blocked and ignored them. Now, he completely separated himself from the Heart.

[You Died!]

The message came as a surprise to Ludwig as he realized that by separating himself from the Heart, he immediately died and returned to his Undead nature.

Without wasting time, he tapped the Soul Letting Lantern, which cast a veil on his undead form and transformed it to his normal appearance.

“Would have been terrible if I were caught there… just doing that killed me…” Ludwig frowned. But he didn’t have a lot of time to waste. The Heart of Wrath can shut down, but it’ll only last a few minutes before it turns back on again.

He needed to use those minutes where he is ’dead’ or Undead to understand Noctivex.

He took a deep breath and said, “What is your story?”

The cube simply shimmered as if not caring the least for Ludwig’s question.

“I guess that wasn’t honest enough,” Ludwig muttered, “Though I don’t fully feel your emotions. I can see that you’re still bleeding wrath… You see…” Ludwig trailed for a second.

“I thought about it a bit and realized,” he said. “That you seem like you’ve been… abused,” Ludwig said.

A small, almost unnoticeable shimmer flashed across the cube.

’A reaction…’

“Andre said it before, and now I believe it. Iron remembers abuse… You weren’t like this, were you? Resentment doesn’t come simply from nothing…”

The cube shimmered again. Quicker this time, but it lasted a fraction longer than before.

“Let me guess, since you don’t seem to be one of many words… Was it Morde’Xander?”

The shimmer became a blinding light.

“But I don’t understand. If he was your abuser… then why serve?”

The Cube vibrated this time as if refuting the statement, or so Ludwig thought.

“No, he wasn’t the abuser… was he also afflicted?” Ludwig asked.

The cube shimmered powerfully.

“I see… You both were victims… the King who murdered your master’s family…” Ludwig muttered as he opened his left hand.

[Nightbreaker] showed up.

“It would be unfair if I were to simply acknowledge the pain of one and forget the pain of another,” Ludwig said this time not just to Noctivex, but also to [Nightbreaker].

“I cannot say I understand your emotions, or if it is even emotion itself, it would be hubris of me to say I do. And I don’t want to lie to get what I want…” Ludwig said.

There was no reaction this time, and that was reaction enough.

“But I feel it, which is frankly a strange word coming from an Undead. To feel that is. No matter how hard I try, I’m not a living being. Feelings are things I’ve lost… But if I can’t feel your pain, the least I could do is understand it… I, too, was abused. Though it might not be to the same level as you two have… I suffered too…” Ludwig said.

The cube slightly shuddered, but not much.

“I understand how you,” He turned his face to [Nightbreaker], was forced to kill your master and his family… it is a pain that no one deserves to suffer or feel. And I understand your rage for it, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be enraged, that would also be Hubris. But I’m saying that I get it… It sucks. It’s fucked up… but it is the reality of things…” he turned to Noctivex.

“And I also understand you. After all we fought. And I saw you recover Morde’Xander’s body, time and time again, for him to fight again. I didn’t realize it back then, you weren’t protecting him. You were protecting your goal. Your vengeance. If Morde’Xander falls, then so does your revenge… all of your revenge…” Ludwig said as he squinted his eyes at the cube.

“You’re not one. You are many. I can see it. Not souls, not spirits. But resentfulness made a matter. No being has the right to command you, or to tell you that your revenge is useless or unjust.

You have been wronged. Though I don’t fully know the story, nor how you came to be what you are. But I know one thing, cause and effect.

No one wants to be a vengeful entity. They are turned to such things by external forces.” Ludwig said.

The cube and the mace both vibrated at once.

’Even Nightbreaker is reacting now… that’s new.’

“However,” Ludwig said. “I’ll have to say this, sadly, your revenge has now become wasted.”

The two items rattled as if refusing Ludwig’s statement altogether; it seemed almost like he made things worse after they started understanding him.

“Hear me out first,” Ludwig said as he held them tighter.

“Think about it for a second. You’ve been serving Morde’Xander for thousands of years. The families of the people who harmed you, them, and their descendants are long gone now. Your rage and hatred are understandable, undeniable, but it is aimed at the wrong thing. Thus, it is wasted.”

The two items shuddered, still denying, but it wasn’t powerful, as if saying that Ludwig’s words made sense, but they couldn’t just accept it.

“I know you can’t accept that. So I have a proposition for you…” Ludwig said.

A beat later.

“Unlike Morde’Xander, I cannot die. I’m immortal as long as Necros says no. And since I’ve yet to finish off the rest of the usurpers, use that rage of yours to help me.”

The two items shuddered, not sure what that meant for Ludwig. But he continued.

“I’m not asking for subordination. I only subordinate those who go against me and those who tried to kill me. I’m seeking assistance. Though I cannot appease your rage, I can at least do the second-best thing,” Ludwig said.

“Let you loose on all that moves and dares stop us. If your rage cannot be appeased, I’ll allow you to wreak havoc, even if you wish to destroy the world itself, if it were enough to at least calm down that endless rage inside you.

I will not chain your rage. I will give it purpose.

I’m no benevolent being that will suppress your nature; I will allow you to empty out your heart until you drop from exhaustion or reach satisfaction. So, what say you?”

A sudden quiet, then a notification popped up in front of Ludwig.