Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

--Somewhere north of Gamma--

Sitting in the dark cell he was lamenting his own fate. Even with the world supposedly experiencing an Apocalypse, he had been managing well. He was lucky to directly start with the class of a swordsman and later managed to improve it to a paladin.

If it wasn't for the appearance of the Zarkists he may have found his fortune as a wealthy man. However, all his skills and improved physique had not helped to defend against the Zarkists, When he was running with a group of other refugees from Gamma, they suddenly met them.

They were people in clean equipment with a clear command structure. They offered help and shelter against the Zarkists. Seeing someone managing so well gave their small group hope. False Hope.

Now he was the last one alive. He had seen the people he came with slowly waste away under the constant tests and experiments. His great physique as a tank had become a curse, as he somehow endured all the pain and suffering until now.

Even if he wanted to end it, they would not let him. It had been days since the last test. They had injected him with something that made the muscles all over his body cramp and feel sore. This state had not stopped since then. He would constantly cramp and relax in pain.

His consciousness was trapped between waking and a state of delirium when he heard movement outside his cell. A key was turned and the door opened with a creek.

"Is this one still alive?" there was a hurried voice from the hallways.

"Hey, are you still alive?" a slightly softer voice asked in the room.

"Hngh!" he pressed out. It took all his concentration to just press some air out of his lungs to make a noise.

"He's alive." the soft voice told the person outside. "Give him a potion and see if it helps. If he is able to walk we will take him along to the others..."

…

"Who are you people?" the man coughed as he stumbled after the two.

"You could call us...law enforcers?" Megan sugarcoated their state as glorified slaves of Arget Nore. Although Chrona had made a deal to evacuate the survivors of Gamma, they obviously couldn't save everyone.

Like them, many people of Gamma had already entered a contract with their undead overlords to save their lives. These contracts couldn't be broken unless they died, which meant that they had to stay in the slowly decaying ruins of Gamma District.

Their group in particular were expendable enforcers or the people that had to clean up stuff, that weak undead were too stupid to deal with and intelligent undead were too high in rank to care about.

During the expansion of their undead domain that sucked all life force from the environment, they had come across a persistent sign of life in this area. Their team had observed the region for weeks before they found this secret base. One really couldn't underestimate Urth, the depths they as normal citizens had been unaware of could be quite horrifying.

She had heard through the grapevine that some of the apocalyptic events across the continent were rumored to be caused by illegal research facilities malfunctioning. One night, she had heard their superior, a dark elf, mumble about the horrors they had faced when trying to find a safe entry to Urth.

Many of which sounded like science-fiction horror plots to Megan.

They had been prepared for a raid when their scouts registered a change in the base. All signs of activity had suddenly stopped. This was why they had set off in a hurry.

"Hurry, Megan. We have to keep up with the schedule," Hugo urged from the front.

"Sorry, he can't walk much faster."

The man called Hugo looked at the only survivor they had found. With a sigh he came back and supported the man's other shoulder.

"Lift him, we have to hurry."

With that, they lifted the injured man slightly off the ground and started jogging along the corridor of cell doors. Megan was glad about his decision, although she knew that Hugo did not act out of the good of his heart.

They had already experienced the whimsy of the undead of Arget Nore. If they could not offer a good explanation or enough information from this place, they would have a bad time. A test subject from this place would take the heat off of them, although it might mean a terrible time for the poor guy they were currently "saving".

With Hugo's help, they managed to meet up with their collaborators in time. The five people were waiting at the junction of corridors for them.

"Did you manage to set the diversion?" Hugo asked quickly

They had observed the base for a long time and scouted it using undead insects, which gave them a good idea of the structure's layout. Except for some of the high-security sectors that even insects had a hard time entering. Their team was supposed to plant explosives in the living quarters of the facility to use the explosion as a distraction.

The other shook his head.

"I didn't need to. The guards are gone. We didn't see anybody. It's as if they vanished," he reported their findings.

"We also didn't see anyone below. There was only one person alive. It didn't seem like the place was used anymore," Hugo summed up their experience.

"We should proceed with our orders and try to find out what happened in this place in the meantime."

Everyone agreed with this, except for the captive who had no idea what they were talking about. Still, to him, they were his saviors and he would help, if it meant getting out of this place. Contrary to the man's expectations their orders had little to do with any altruistic motives.

They were to find and capture the head researcher and secure the research data for the Liches of Arget Nore. Getting the research subjects was a secondary objective, they had decided on themselves, in case their overlords intended to test the research data on them.

To outsiders, Liches may seem like intimidating and horrible beings of great power. As people who knew a little more, anyone on the team could attest that it was much worse than others may think. Liches were not inherently evil, nor did they hate the living as many other, lower, undead did.

They just completely lacked any form of empathy when it came to their research. They were like the evolved form of a crazy scientist, always hellbent on researching the limits of life, death, and undeath. Liches were a lot more frightening than some one-dimensional villain who was evil for the sake of being evil or enjoying the pain of others.

According to their initial reconnaissance, there were three points of interest they could not scout beforehand. What they were searching for were the high-priority research facility where the head researcher was located and the server farm, that would most likely hold the backups of research data. They suspected them behind two of the three sections in question. To secure the mission objectives, they had to split up and check all three.

Hugo, Megan, the research subject, and two of their comrades went together. Despite the explosion, the path was eerily silent. There were no guards or researchers. The base was completely desolate.

The blast doors that divided their destination from the rest of the facility stood wide open. The hallways behind were lined with laboratories that looked completely ransacked. This was most likely the research facility they were looking for, but someone had been here before them!

Inside the laboratories, the floors were covered in blood. Someone had made sure to get rid of the researchers in this place. Carefully, they walked down the corridor. Although the blood had already dried and there was a distinct stench in the air, they were ready to react in case the attackers were still there.

"Kuk, and here I thought I faked my death successfully. Did you come back to make sure I was dead? Or did you forget something?" a manic voice suddenly asked.

"No, no. I don't think you forgot anything, you thoroughly ransacked my research." the voice turned melancholic.

"You force people, you use people and then you discard them. Fucking bastards!"

When they turned to the room, they found a researcher choking on their own tears. Broken glasses had stabbed into their own eye, and there was a huge stab wound close to the heart.

"Who are you? Why is this place so empty?" Hugo asked seriously.

"W-Who am I?" with the one good eye the researcher looked at them. "Pft, I see, you guys are from Arget Nore. I recognize the stench of undead on you. I'm Dr. Cromwel, the lead researcher of this facility."

"Good, then today is your lucky day. You will come with us," Hugo said and crouched down to feed a health potion to the doctor.

"Hugo, get-!" Megan saw a glint in the broken glasses and felt a special aura in the air, but it was already too late. The doctor had suddenly grabbed Hugo's neck and tumorous growths started deforming the man's throat as he started choking.

"Shit! He's a chosen." Megan exclaimed and they all retreat several steps to get out of the researcher's range. For better or worse, as followers of Arget Nore, they were trained to detect divine energy, as the power of most gods was the nemesis of the undead.

Without so much as a twitch, the doctor ripped the broken pieces of glass from their eye and drank the rest of the potion.

"I'm really sorry, but I can't let myself be captured by those undead nutcases. I have some business in Y-City to take care of," he ended with a vengeful glint in his eyes.

"You have the choice. Let me leave and live, or fight me and die," he offered coldly.

Megan stared at Hugo on the ground. Just a touch from the man could end deadly. While the three underlings from Gamma looked serious, the test subject seemed torn between jumping the man who was responsible for his suffering and fear for his life.

As the highest ranking member left, Megan finally made the decision to let him leave and step aside, as an ear-shattering siren sounded and red alarm lights flooded the laboratories.

"What is going on?" the people from Arget Nore exclaimed, while Dr. Cromwel cursed.

"You! Are there more of you?! Shit, someone triggered the self-destruction protocol. Not even those bastards were dumb enough to do so!"

He ran outside and the others followed, only to find the blast doors shut tightly. There was no way out. Cromwel wiped his face in stress.

"I barely managed to survive and you numskulls proceed to blow us all up..." he lamented.

"I can't use home call!" one of the people from Arget Nore exclaimed in surprise. "Obviously, the self-destruction comes with a hermetic sealing of all exits and a space lock. Why do you think those bastards didn't trigger it?" Cromwel scoffed exasperated.

"Is there no other way out?" Megan asked the doctor.

Now that they were all locked in, they sat in the same boat. Cromwel thought for a moment at her question. He suddenly opened his eyes, but he didn't seem to like his own idea he came up with.

"There might be a way to survive.."

"We can escape?" one of the underlings asked joyfully.

"No. I said survive. Not escape. Follow me."

He led them back to his ransacked office where he proceeded to pull a cupboard away from the wall, revealing a safe. Opening the safe, he brought out a small stand with test tubes.

"What is this?" Megan asked hesitatingly.

"Do you even know what we worked on here? We created the Elixir of Immortality if you want to be pompous about it."

Not without some pride, Cromwel explained that they had worked on creating a serum by experimenting on Zarkists, undead from Gamma, creatures caught in Sigma, and samples from a subject from their lost laboratory in Omega.

More impressive than the research, was the range of influence Cromwel talked about. There were still organizations with connections all across Urth...

"Those bastards immediately started killing and looting when we finally managed to create a stable serum. This stuff is the prototype. It only has a 30% chance of success and even if it does, there might be some unwanted side effects... but if it succeeds, we have a chance to survive the explosion of the facility."

Everyone stared at the small test tubes.

"Who are these "bastards" you keep mentioning?"

"The Scene, an organization from Y-City. They supplied Zeontech with some of the materials. I didn't know they had already infiltrated us so deeply." As he explained, the countdown for the last 10 seconds of the self-destruction sequence started.

"Well, then. Bottom-up, good luck to you all. We may see us on the other side." Cromwel said almost jokingly.

All of them chucked a test tube in one go, just seconds before a terrifying explosion vaporized them, and any traces of the facility.