Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The shuttle had crossed roughly half their path to the northern ocean when it became night.

"We should land for the time being and get some rest," Seth suggested.

Unfortunately, Seth had not thought of a golem pilot or sleeping in the bus. Mike was getting tired after piloting for a whole day and the others also didn't look fresh anymore.

The system came with a lot of quality-of-life features that allowed one to even stay awake for a long time without major consequences. Magic potions for stamina that worked similar to energy drinks also existed, but in the end, nothing could really substitute sleep.

If his memory didn't betray him they had almost passed the northern mountains and were getting close to the sigmaen sea. It was an inland sea nestled in a gap of the northern mountain range and Sigma District's door to the continent.

According to Princes Leana, this was the range where she lost contact with her scout teams. They decided to land and get some sleep before they reached the potential danger zone in preparation for whatever might be to come.

Mike landed the shuttle on a small plateau where they could set up camp. In addition to the security matter that the priests like Yvette, Bulko, and Fin were able to set up, Seth and the figure that accompanied the princess also brought out portable wards.

In this case, the ones the blacksmith brought out were prepared by Evee, Minas Mar's immortal witch. They were able to subconsciously deter monsters.

Those of the cloaked figure were military-grade products from Chrona. They erected a barrier to block attacks and even the cold mountain winds. They also had a function of detecting monsters, Leana explained.

"We should still make guard shifts." the cloaked figure mentioned after they set up tents.

"We can leave that to Ceres, Right, Ceres?" Seth asked the bird-bot.

"Oh, yes! I will burn anything that comes near!" It cried with blazing eyes.

Seth began to understand why Ceres was enough of a menace for Forgebrand to subjugate it. If this was its temper after spending several millennia locked into a spear, what kind of maniac would it have been during its lifetime?

"I will also send out some recorder golems to scout and surveil the vicinity," Seth added and released a bunch of small round recorder golems that

"Erm, Guys...?" they heard Lixiss as insecurely.

It didn't sound like she had good news. When had that elf become a harbinger of doom?

"... what is that?" she finished her question when the group came closer.

She pointed at something massive walking past at the foot of the plateau, maybe 30m below them. The waning light of the day showed the figure of a rider and his horse. Just that they were at least triple the size of a normal horse and human rider. But this was only what those without night vision saw.

For people like Seth, it was a completely different picture. Pale sinews and powerful muscles were visible as a pulsating mass with black blood coursing through yellow veins. In the twilight of dusk, he saw a skinless creature. A human torso joined to the back of a demonic horse with arms so long they reached the ground.

A sing big eye glowed menacingly in the dark and a toxic vapor flowed from the horsehead's fanged maw. What little, crippled vegetation had survived in these mountains was shriveling up where the beast had passed by.

Even if not the whole group was able to see this, all of them could feel the thick aura of malice that surrounded the thing.

"Oh, no! It's a Nuckelavee!" Fin exclaimed in terror.

"A what?" was the group's general reaction.

"A-erm..." the fairy struggled to come up with an explanation

"It's like a fairy of the ocean or a demon? It's a being of pure evil. But it should stay close to the ocean, what is it doing here in the mountains?" she answered agitatedly.

The fairy was frantically flying around. Seth couldn't remember ever seeing Fin this panicked. Was this thing such a big deal?

"Calm down, Fin. It doesn't seem like it has noticed us." the bard tried to soothe the fairy.

"Right, there is no need to take a risk and fight this, if you don't want to, Fin" Mina joined him with obvious worry for the fairy.

"Y-You are right. If it just walks past, everything will be fine. I-I'm sorry, I panicked for a moment." the fairy brute said, even forgetting her cute way of talking. It was the clearest sign of how flustered she was.

The situation had finally calmed down a little and Fin seemed to be better, however, Seth's face suddenly fell.

"...Oh no.." he sighed but his words were swallowed.

"DIE!" the mighty cry echoed between the mountains.

RUMBLE!

An ear-shattering thunder roared as a lightning strike comparable to the shot of an orbital laser illuminated the mountains in its blazing light. The pillar of light struck the Nuckelavee and completely swallowed the figure, scorching an area of several hectares.

Seth had noticed Ceres too late. The bird brain had not gotten the message and immediately attacked the moment it spotted the beast below the cliff. Blinded by the light, they took several moments to make out what the situation came to.

The demonic horsemen's outside was completely charred with steam slowly rising from the shambling monsters. It was still standing and didn't seem dead.

"Oh, no..." the fairy repeated Seth's sigh, but with utmost terror. Her eyes widened and she was hiding behind the blacksmith's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Fin. But it seems like we have no choice but to fight. At least we had a good first shot. If we hurry we might be able to finish it off." he assumed. The milk was already spilled, after all.

"No, no, no. This isn't over yet. You have to stay and hide. We don't stand a chance! It's over the moment you come in contact with its aura-"

"Die! Die! I said! Die!" they were interrupted by the elemental's cawing.

Ceres had swooped in and started hammering the humanoid head with its beak, crying "Die!" every time it struck.

A thick, dark vapor rose from the beast as it started healing at a visible rate and the dark scabs of burned flesh kept falling to the ground. However, it still kept stumbling as its bobbing head was struck by the golem's beak.

Even as its opponent was healing from the surprise attack, Ceres had no intention to let off. The arm covered in dark vapor started to slap, grab and claw at the agile bird that kept dodging its attack just to follow up with one of its own.

"This seems a little one-sided..." Yvette uttered, watching the bird wail at the giant horseman monster.

"What do you know!? A Nuckelavee can't be killed!" Fin lashed out at her.

A loud crash signaled another change in the battle below. The horseman had finally managed to land a blow and smacked the bird automaton in the mountainside. With the rising dust cloud, no one could see how Ceres was, but Seth knew it was fine. A <Adamantium> body was nothing to joke about.

"Cawk, It's too late. For you!" they heard from the dust cloud. At the same time, two golden feathers shot out and struck the chest of the horse and human torso respectively.

With a loud cry, a lightning barrier was suddenly erected around the Nuckelavee. Thick arcs of electricity were jumping back and forth between the feathers stuck in the beast and the ones on the ground surrounding the area.

None of the had noticed the golem preparing such a move. The best was trapped in a circle of lightning and unable to move as it constantly suffered paralyzing damage from the elemental's trap. It shot several more feathers, to give the magic more entry points.

"Kukuku, If I can't grill you in one swoop, I will slowly bake you until even your innards are burned crisp and crumbly." the bird cawed at the struggling nightmare fuel.

"I hope you usually have that bird under control..." Leana couldn't help but say, as she watched the psycho creation of Seth having fun in slowly cooking its enemy.

"Seth, you have to stop it. A Nuckelavee can't be killed. This will only lure more of them here." Fin finally said in a very serious voice. It seemed that by watching the fight she was finally able to collect her thoughts.

Her words reminded Seth of something else that couldn't be killed. He used <Clairvoyance> and concentrated on his <Soul Capture>. Is suspicions were confirmed.

There were a few ways supposed immortality played out and most of the time it had to do with the situation of the soul. Looking at the beast, it was very similar to a Zarkist but less elaborate. While a Zarkist's soul was bound to the mortal plane by divine chains, the Nuckelavee was simply not the main body.

It only contains a fraction of the soul and was continuously supplied mana to heal through the thing's connection to the main body or controller.

"Heh, don't worry Fin. It picked the wrong opponents... No wait, we attacked first. We picked the right opponent."