Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

It was late evening and the last rays of a setting sun fell through the windows of Deltas System Church. Just like the streets outside, the inside of the church was oddly quiet and empty. So much so that the staff was even dozing off.

The clerk in charge of the teleport formation was propping his face on his hand. He almost slipped off in surprise and hit his chin on the table when it lit up without warning. The man looked up to greet the rare visitor, but he couldn't see anyone appear inside.

As he started suspecting whether it was a malfunction or not, a tall knight in a dark, intricate armor fazed into existence, almost giving him a heart attack.

Seth had the funny thought of simply smuggling everyone into Delta, so nobody immediately knew they returned, but he decided against it. It didn't seem like the weird disease had spread all the way to the Holy Land, but it was better when they all had witnesses that they were disinfected as they returned from outside.

Personally, the blacksmith didn't care about public sentiment, but if the members of the guilds with him had already lost enough. If they even lost their last bit of credibility for "threatening the Citizen by smuggling past the disinfection measurement in place", they may have held a grudge against him. Although this also really touched him, it did not cost him anything to have everyone gro through the proper measures.

"Where is Simon?" he asked the surprised clerk.

"T-The head priest? Could you be the master of Minas Mar?"

The head priest? Was Simon promoted while he was gone? It had barely been a month.

"I am, why?"

"I will go call him. Please wait for a moment." with that the clerk sprinted out of the room, leaving Seth behind.

He didn't have to wait long. Soon he heard the quick and heavy steps of the sprinting, rotund priest. His head was bright red like his robe. He was sweating and gasping, it was obvious he started running the moment he heard Seth had returned.

"Seth, you are finally back!"

"Hey, Simon. You really didn't have to hurry that much. Can you send him away?"

The blacksmith wanted to bring out the guild people from Legion, that way he could return to Minas Mar at any time. However, he didn't want to reveal legion's existence to just anyone, if not necessary, so he asked Simon to send the clerk away.

"Wha- Who are these people Seth? Wait- isn't that the guild leader of the Boulder guild?" "They are the remains of the guilds of Delta that set off to the Holy Land."

"Remains?"

"Yeah, a lot of stuff happened over there..."

Seth was sure these guys also wanted nothing more than to return home.

"Then, please walk through the cleansing membrane, but wait at the lobby. The curfew has already started and it's not a good idea to get on the street right now. We will prepare a room for you to stay the night," Simon explained.

"A curfew?" "What is that about?" some of them exclaimed.

The blacksmith was also surprised. A curfew was something unheard of to modern Urthans. Restricting someone from leaving their house after a specific time was some medieval practice they had never experienced outside of fiction.

"i guess there is a lot to explain..." Simon said belatedly. "Come to my office, I will explain everything thoroughly."

Since not everyone fit in the priest's office, the crowd was ushered to their rooms, while only their representatives, Gin, Brock, and Seth were in the priest's office to listen to the priest's summary of what happened during their absence.

"Everything started with that disease and the declaration of Martial law."

"Dafuq?! I was gone for like a month, what in the world happened here?"

Simon revealed how everything started with the disease Seth came across in the north. As they had feared some of the members of the expedition team had used Home Call during the chaos of their return. Despite their quick reaction and even getting their hands on an immediate countermeasure thanks to Seth, the disease had managed to dwell and grow in the darkness of Delta.

Those hit the hardest by these developments were obviously again the refugees of Sigma. Despite Minas Mar's and other factions' great efforts to siphon these people out into the wilderness to found new cities, it was hard to make new homes for the millions of people that made it out of Sigma.

The blacksmith and the others had not heard anything of it, as the search and countermeasures had been kept top secret to stop a panic among the populace. It was only some time after their departure that they failed to contain the disease completely and had to come out to the public.

Among the chaos, the leadership of Delta used the chance to improve their power. They called out the dusty regulation of Martial law, disbanded the weakened guilds, drafted adventurers to form a new force, seized equipment, and installed a curfew.

It was undeniable, that the measures seemed to work, but the landscape of Delta changed drastically. Independent, local powers had been mostly centralized, while the leadership kept supplying their new war machine through connection with foreign powers from the Pathworks.

Everything sounded like a dystopian development to the three men, who had a hard time believing it had come this far in such a short time.

"What in the world was Leana doing while this happened?"

"And what about our guilds, were they really disbanded?" Gin asked in a panic.

Simon's expression had been solemn the whole time, but a sad glint appeared in his eyes when he heard the name of the princess. He only nodded toward Gin, while he took a deep breath before turning to Seth.

"Leana isn't here anymore. They used her recent appointment as Governor, , the Dungeon Worm business, and the failed containment of the disease to call her back to Chrona for an interrogation. The current proxy is one of the people of the 12th prince. He... handles things differently. He supported the decisions of Ichabod Longbottom and his faction. Currently, the only thing Chrona does is maintain the defenses of Delta."

The room fell silent. The fact that Leana was gone was like a rock, that was stuck in their throats. At least for Brock and Seth who knew her personally from the evaluation. There was a lot to process.

"How is Minas Mar dealing with this situation?" Seth finally asked.

He didn't doubt for a moment that they were just fine, but he still decided to ask just in case he was about to return to an empty home.

"I don't know any details, but it seems like Minas Mar has been ousted. I heard Mary was still going strong, but without you and the others, she is fighting a losing battle against the authorities. They have a bunch of Chosen, the Hero, and the Slavemancer on their side."

"What about Cade?"

"The girl that was always with Leana? She followed Leana to Chrona. Before you ask, the Saintess of Samhach is faring well, albeit losing many of her followers to the disease."

"I see..."

This was unfortunate for Yvette, but at least Cade wasn't with the leadership. They didn't talk for much longer as Seth soon made an exit.

"I will return to Minas Mar now. I'm sure Mary and Jane can explain stuff in more detail for me."

He had been anxious to return. After hearing Simon's summary he was sure Mary and the others didn't have it easy. He could already hear the secretary's scolding for not leaving enough man power or something like that.