Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 352: Smoke Signals

”What do you mean?”

~ Well, technically you turned this guy into a crippled phylactery. ~

From what could be observed, followers of Zarkon were equivalent to a living lich. Their Soul was bound to the mortal realm, through the binding of the god, similar to how a Lich would attach their souls to a phylactery.

This made the physical body unable to die. Even if destroyed, it would simply regenerate.

To kill them one needed to either cut the chains, that bound the soul, or destroy the soul both were equivalent to destroying a lichʼs phylactery.

As the anchor on this plane, there was no chain to cut, the Champion simply possessed an immortal soul by the virtue of his class and blessing.

Now, this anchor was crippled because of the Whimsical Cure. It could not regenerate the body as fast as the item sucked away the life force. The phylactery was intact, the soul was alive but completely unable to act.

”Is it dangerous?” Seth asked carefully.

He had no experience with disembodied living souls… could the champion still use skills? The only time he touched a living soul was when he attached the hands to Eveeʼs soul.

~ Donʼt worry, itʼs safe. Currently, this soul does not even have an ego.~

”Wait-What? How is that a thing?”

~ It is more complicated but, you have to be either alive or dead to display ego. And the latter needs special circumstances to even happen like your skill, a ritual, or a terribly strong will.

Right now, he is neither. He is like a sent letter that is stuck in delivery. Neither the body nor the soul can harbor the ego while the body constantly tries to regenerate. ~

”So, right now this soul is just a ball of energy that canʼt defend itself.” Seth mention with a big smile.

It was not labeled a crafting material, but that did not mean Seth was unable to work with it. He had once done it with Eveeʼs soul, so he was theoretically able to use living souls. It was just that he could not create an item with it.

When he made the immortal witch handʼs they did not count as an item that gave him skill proficiency. Now, this fact was up for debate. With his new class, he might very well be able to play around with this new thing.

There was only one drawback, he could not put living things into the inventory space. Seth was forced to put the soul in a small pouch he tied to his belt.

Having finished this business, he turned around and his gaze wandered over the demolished army. Belatedly he realized that he had no idea what effect his deeds would have had on the actual battle!

In a hurry, he sprinted back in the direction of the caravan. He needed Puffles if he wanted to scout the area for a large battle. Since he had no need to hide on the way back he did not mind small trees and shrubbery in his way.

Wearing the Helm of Hades, he was an invisible freight train that simply ran in a straight line, flattening anything in his path. It was relatively easy since his armor reflected 50% of any impact back at the ”attacker”, in this case, the greenery.

Running in a straight line it only took him 15 minutes to return to his allies. He only gave a short summary of what happened and left dealing with the aftermath to others. They would only need to follow the almost straight path Seth had cut into the vegetation on his way back.

He got on Puffles and the two swung into the dark night sky to search for a place of battle. The only lead Seth had, was the small lake where the ladies had taken a bath. If he found it, he was sure that he would be able to find Mina and the others.

Unfortunately, this region was riddled with smaller and bigger lakes and ponds. He had confidently chosen this direction because of the numerous bodies of water… but there were more than he bargained for.

When Puffles flight time was over they returned to the ground and Seth got a closer look. These were not natural lakes and ponds. Seth realized they were a leftover of an old city that had once stood here. One that had been abandoned long before the time of the districts. He only vaguely remembered something like this from history class.

All the holes that were now filled with water were once surface mines or collapsed shafts. maybe it was worth taking his time and looking around here at a later point? After all, he had advanced mining skills and ore detection.

But first, he had to find the others. He was sure they had come as a rescue party. Somewhere Yulecatʼs Fur and other forces were fighting for their sake.

He had kept going west and south from where the caravan was but found no sign of a battle or even travel. Were they in the north or further west?

Seth had not kept track of how long he had searched until he finally decided to return for now. The blacksmith belatedly remembered that nobody among the caravan was able to kill Zarkists. He had forgotten in his hurry.

What would happen if they encountered a mutated beast that managed to escape? The only reason he was still calm was the number of chains attached to the soul in his pouch. If there had been any new Zarkists, there would have been additional connections, right?

In the distance, he saw a thick column of black smoke rising into the sky. This had to be the caravan doing their work. The place matched the main camp of Zarkon he had destroyed.

He decided to return there and search in a spiral from the camp as a center. However, he was worried that he was already too late to help at this point.

Seth fed Puffles his last potions and some of the liquor he had bought from Corvo to regenerate his mana to get back in the air as soon as possible.

Flying in a straight line they quickly arrived at the field of burning corpse piles. Seth did not know whether to laugh or cry at the sight. At the edge of the forest, he saw Yulecatʼs Fur and a bunch of other people together with a group of chimeras.

The problem was that everyone had drawn their weapons and were locked in a standoff with Marcel and Duhu standing between them, wildly gesticulating. Despite there seemingly being a problem, he was happy to see them unscathed.

Happy enough to play them a small prank. It had been ages since the others had seen Puffles, they would totally pee their pants when they saw the new and majestic Puffles 3.0 gliding through the skies.

”Letʼs give them a good scare, Puff!” Seth whispered.

~ The great me wonʼt take part in childish pranks just like that. ~

”How about more ice cream?”

~ Puffles, the Great is incorrupti-~

”I promised you as much as you want as an apology for Mina eating yours. I double that and add some more of the liquor on top.”

~… fine~

”What?”

~Fine, we do it.~

~ So much for Puffles, the incorruptible. ~ Al teased.

~Humph. I am getting ice cream and booze. What do you get? ~

The lich did not answer and stayed silent. But it was not a friendly silence.

In the meantime, they flew high in the sky so those on the ground could not detect them. Once they were above the arguing people on the ground the nightmare caterpillar went into a steep dive, like a free fall roller coaster.