Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

They were completely exhausted and now they were confronted by an army of chimeras, a bunch of fresh angels, and something on the scale of an endboss. To make matters worse, the formations did not stop sucking in metal and creating more angels.

This was their hour of despair mere moments after they saw victory at the horizon. Many were heavily wounded and the pressure of the throne's eyes pinned them to the ground.

------

He had survived and endured being a slave for decades. Watching his family get killed, his children abused. Never able to do anything. He even had to protect the scum that tortured him. Today had been supposed to be the day of his revenge but reality once again showed him his own weakness.

Now he lay on the ground. Squeezed by an insurmountable power, and he felt his life slowly ooze out of his body. With each beat of his heart, he slowly bled out. Only despair waited for him in the darkness behind his eyelids as he steadily inched closer to death.

In his foggy mind, he could hear an impish voice. It was a lazy singsong in an alien language but he could clearly understand the question. All the questions, over and over.

"Do you want power? Would you give your life for revenge? What would you do to be able to stand up and fight? Are you willing? Are you sure? No matter the price, you are willing to pay?..."

"Everything." He was about to die, what was his life worth? If he could stand up to this power. If he could take revenge. Memories of his family flashed through his mind and what they had done to them. No price was too high.

The singsong changed to a background noise and a dark voice.

"Good, then take my power. If you can. The price has already been paid."

-------------- Moments earlier---------

"Al... can you take that thing?"

They were standing at a window in a hallway from where Seth had cast the fireball at the giant bubble. Seth was invisible again while Lynri and the dwarf were hiding behind the windowsill. It seemed like he had been too late to stop whatever happened.

Really, he only left for like 5 minutes and everything went to shit.

~ I'm pretty sure I can kill that mess of wings, but you guys will have to take care of the angels. ~

~Leave it to me! I shall prove to you my greatness once and for all! ~

"Can you take care of the formations?"

~ Pff, easy ~

"Okay, give me a moment to prepare, I have an idea to buff our numbers. Maybe."

He told Lynri and the dwarf to hide in an adjacent room and not listen o anything they may hear before he started.

He sat down cross-legged with his finger knotted in a bizarre way. With his head jerking from left to right like a metronome, he started humming a madness-inducing tune. It wasn't loud but easily penetrated through even the thickest walls.

It was a ballad he had learned for combat because he felt a connection to this demon. As it was not a forging ballad, he could barely use this rare song with all his skills combined.

It was a rhyme praising Xaphan, the Burning Skies. With this ballad, the bard could strengthen the power of a party's fire magic. Originally, that is.

Seth had a different plan. The idea was based on his experience with the demonic ballads and divine enchantments after becoming an infernal skald. Especially his encounter with Hermes. If he was cocky enough, he could try and haggle with these existences.

Using <Soul Trade> he felt confident enough to try it, at least with a demon. In this case, the rhyme acted as the phone number while channeling was the line.

As one of the greater and older demons known, the effect of the ballad descended automatically and Seth could feel the power that came through the connection created by channeling. But this was just the answering machine.

How could he reach the actual person? He kept up the chant and concentrated on the connection created by <Channeling>. Seth tried to force more mental energy and mana into the passive skill. The skill had leveled up during the last two weeks and he felt like he got closer to something-

<Ding! Your skill Channeling lv.4 had become Channeling lv.5!>

What previously felt like a tube that was too thin to take the energy he was trying to force into it, now happily accepted the power and an image appeared in Seth's mind. He saw a gargantuan humanoid figure sitting on a throne made of molten stone in the middle of a burning realm.

The throne was levitating in the sky as lava flowed into the abyss below. He was surrounded by clouds of fire and smoke, but he didn't look too majestic. He sat crookedly on the throne with his leg swinging over the armrest. His empty stare looked into the distance in boredom until he noticed the tiny presence of Seth.

A pEtItIoNeR CoMiNg hErE WiTh a pRoPoSiTiOn.

When his gaze fell on the blacksmith, he felt a terrible heat piercing into his very soul and scanning his mind. There was no way for Seth to resist such a big shot, but it caused no harm to him.

HmM, I LiKe yOuR DiSpOsTiOn. StAtE YoU BuSiNeSs

Seth concentrated on his intention using <Voice of Seth> without changing the text of the rhyme.

WhAt aRe yOu wIlLiNg tO PaY? ThEsE SoUlS ArE BrAnDeD. ThE PrIcE WiLl dOuBlE In tHaT CaSe.

With tears flowing down his face Seth used all the hard-earned priest souls to pay the demon god his fee.

GoOd. NoW DoN'T ReSiStT. I WiLl uSe yOu aS A MoUThPiEcE.

As his voice, tune, and the song changed to an almost inaudible whisper, Seth summoned Al'Salzar and Puffles, the Great. No matter what had happened that day, the Ivicer would stay the greatest surprise for Seth.

Jet flames of black fire and the stench of sulfur and smoke were their signals to attack.

-----------Courtyard------------

Fire filled his mind with unworldly pain. As his mind was filled with screams, so was his body as the hellish fire feasted on flesh and vaporized everything that had been him. When it burned all the way down to his very soul, he lost consciousness.

The ambers gnawed into his soul like a swarm of termites as their channels formed 3-dimensional runes that chained him to his new god.

The flames had just shot up but a new servant of Xaphan already opened his eyes. It had only been moments since he burned. Looking at his hand he found them completely unharmed, it was just that they had become orange-red demon arms with long black nails.

Even though he became a servant and owed allegiance to the demon god, it was different from being a slave. The only command that was given to him during his rebirth was to fulfill the desires he had before his death.

And he was not the only one. All of them were different, all of them had different reasons or desires when they accepted the trade. They were all the same, as the only command they had was to fulfill their own goal.

Almost thirty newborn Demons had been spawned onto the battlefield among the kneeling and desperate people. The gaze of Lehaliphon had no effect on them which aggravated the ball of metal feathers.

WHO DARES INTERFERE WITH HIS WILL!?

It commanded the angels to attack the demons, who clad themself into dark flames and instinctively started attacking the dozens of angels.

Lehaliphon had no time to prepare an attack of his own, as a curvy figure appeared before its eyes. A powerful spell suddenly sealed the throne and it felt the power of space pulling it away.

The giant angel made of feathers and eyes vanished from the stronghold. In its stead, a giant creature suddenly broke through one of the walls of one of the buildings.

A giant white centipede as big as a train broke through the wall and started climbing a tower with its sharp silver legs smashing into massive stone walls like they were tofu.

Marcel and the other had no idea what was going on anymore. They could only look in shock as the demons engaged the angels and chimeras in battle. It took them a while to notice that the pressure had vanished with Lehaliphon, and those who could, stood up to fight.

Seth could only watch the battle unfold from the giant hole Puffles had left when he charged up the tower. Being the mouthpiece of a demon god had completely exhausted his mana and mental energy. He could only sit there, drink potions and wait for his energy to recover.