Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1246: Now, when did you

“Al what are you doing? Seth asked the sorceress. The flight back had taken roughly two hours before they reached the sapling of the Guardian Tree again. During the flight, they made sure to extract as much information from the demon as possible, which wasnʼt a lot.

Most of what the demon could tell them was what they already knew or could be inferred from the situation. The demon didnʼt know much more than the command structure of his own world and his direct superior, which was of little interest to them, as they intended to close the gate for good.

The demon, whose name was ThroʼWay, was at least able to confirm the overall function of hell gates, which could have been inferred from his babbling at the start. There were several receiver formations across every Abyss World, set up in hostile, worthless wastelands.

Birthing Pools were facilities installed to spawn these demonically engineered beasts. These facilities just screamed Maestro and it was confirmed that it took a Maestro to create and move the trypophobic nightmare.

The pools would pump out demon beasts to fill the surrounding wastelands. Driven by hunger and madness they would charge into other worlds, the moment a hell gate was opened and raze everything on that side to the ground to satiate their desires and instincts.

When the other side was leveled, the demons just had to stroll over and take what was left, potentially setting up these Birthing Pools on that new world, to create more troops and completely conquer the new world.

This approach was actually unique to the Abyss Alliance, as far as Seth knew. Based on his interactions with demons, Bragmomalʼs approach of using true demon troops and avatars seemed to be the more common approach.

However, success proved the Abyss right. The blacksmith could perfectly understand their approach. Creating nameless troops to fight battles instead of sending his own people into war was no foreign concept to him.

“Oh, donʼt worry about it. Just setting up a little farewell present to this world,” the spicy sorceress answered, as more and more magic lines appeared on the dusty ground and the dry air surrounding the tree. While Seth asked, the demon watched the spectacle in fear and awe.

“Such great magic as if itʼs nothing, you must be an ascended, right?” the demon asked curious. Seth already had this suspicion, but the ThroʼWay probably had a screw or two loose. The moment he saw something interesting, the fear and suspicions he held so far were blown away.
“After all, wouldnʼt it be a shame if this tree just withered away once the connection is cut?” Al asked, completely ignoring the demonʼs question, despite enjoying his sparkling eyes, as he looked at her with admiration.

When Al finished what she was doing, the surroundings changed noticeably. The cracked ground below the treeʼs crown darkened and the flame pillars, that rose to the sky here and there, subsided. The surrounding air also felt fresher and less dry and dusty.

“What did you do?” Seth asked curious about the changes.

“Oh, you know. A little reverse engineering and twisting the arcane forces that transformed this place into a hellscape in the first place,” she said, meaning that she had weakened the demonic influence in the area, lowering the burden on the tree.

“Cool, can we go if you are done?” the blacksmith asked, not really bothering to pursue that topic any further.

“Sure.”

With AlʼZalsarʼs magic, they rose in the air and passed the hell gate embedded in the trunk of the tree. They appeared back in the wooden hallway within the Guardian Treeʼs branch. Like this, their first visit to a demon world came to an end. ThroʼWay fulfilled his contract and the hell gate closed soon after they returned.

“Should we go straight to the next one?” Al asked after their first visit ended a lot quicker and with much less problems than expected. if it kept going like this, they might be able to finish within a couple of days.

“Give me a moment. Since we know what to look for now, I will make our lives from here on out easier,” the blacksmith asked for a break to do some preparation. Al followed him into the workshop, where Seth stopped at one of many storage cabinets.

“Oh, I see,” the sorceress exclaimed when she saw the rows over rows of golem eyes. The little scout golems were almost bursting out of the cabinets and Seth hurried to fill some inventory spaces.

“We will release these into the different world before we go to the next one,” the blacksmith started explaining. “ -And despite being slower than us, they will probably have found all the birth pools by the time we return from the third or fourth world,” Al finished his sentence. “Good idea,” she praised.

She accurately voiced out his idea. Ultimately, they would be able to know where exactly the Birthing Pools were before entering the world and travel there directly instead of having to rely on the Cloak of Hecate. It would save them a lot of time.

Following this plan, Seth released the golem eyes into the five remaining hell gates before he and Al entered the 6th one. It was another hellscape world, most likely under the same faction as the last one.

Before they left the tree, AlʼZalsar cast her magic to allow the tree to remain there. This time, they followed the Cloak of Hecate from the beginning, cutting down the time spent clueless walking around.

It was almost scary how similar their experience in the second world was. They reached the birthing pools a little quicker this time and were once again approached by a singular demon, though this time they looked more like a night elf with dark gray skin. ṝâƝó₿ËS

Just like ThroʼWay, they approached Seth and Al in an almost friendly manner when they arrived, trying to lure them into the underground of the birthing pools. This one also lamented the disaster caused by the Guardian Tree, which had wiped out the whole population of demon beasts.

Knowing what was coming, the two finished things even quicker this time. The only difference was that the night elf was specialized in assassin tactics instead of becoming a big brute. The end result was the same as he was quickly kneeling on the ground, his gray skin covered in black and blue bruises.

“A human creating a soul contract!?” the beaten night elf exclaimed just like ThroʼWay. In the end, the elf signed the contract and they returned to the hell gate. This time, Seth had brought Vegr, the golem griffin on the way back.

Originally, he wanted to bring Puffles, but the Ivicer said he had other business, so he had to bring the golem instead of the nightmare centipede. The night elf went a little off-script when they reached the tree.

“What happened here? What is this stuff?” The elf exclaimed when his bat mount landed on a grassy plain below the crown of the tree. Seth and even the sorceress also raised an eyebrow at the change in landscape.

Especially the blacksmith was immediately reminded of the scene of B-City. The massive Hangingtree, surrounded by a vast, grassy Savannah in the shadow of his crown. Just that this one was much smaller and had a menacing eye in the shape of the hell gate embedded in its trunk.

It looked like Alʼs magic allowed the tree to span its own field effect in this world. He was curious whether this had also happened in the previous world, but ultimately it didnʼt really matter for now.

“Donʼt worry about it. You just have to close the gate when we are through,” the blacksmith ordered the demon. His words also brought back Al, who seemed to be caught up in some thoughts. They rode Vegr through the hell gate, returning to Urth.

As the contract demanded, the gate closed behind them soon after their return. Two closed, five to go.