Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

977  976. Church of Gatris

Oh yeah, this was closer to the place he was looking for. Following the priests through the maintenance route, they arrived at a subterranean facility built in what used to be the park house below the mall.

They had built new walls to create rooms in the garage, making it hard to navigate. Seth wanted to check the door they came past, but he didn't want to lose the priests down here. They didn't look like cells and <Life Detection> of his Terra Topaz Earring also found no signs, so the girl probably wasn't in there if she was here at all.

"Did you manage to learn anything more, after I left yesterday?" the one priest asked the other. They had been bickering about useless stuff before, but they started talking about work as they drew closer to their destination.

"No, it's a really weird item. I don't get how it works or how it could be so strong..." the other answered as they slowed down and came before a door. The one who just answered unlocked it by drawing a rune, before stepping in.

"Really, how would a stupid little lamb in these backwaters get her hand on such a thing?" the other answered as he followed inside. Seth also stepped in but stopped when he saw what was lying on the table in the middle of the room. They were just broken remains, but the blacksmith recognized his work, it was the remains of Golmini.

With the high number of Golems he had made, he, unfortunately, didn't even notice the small golem puppet Seth had gifted to Fin a long time ago vanished. The fairy had gifted it to a girl in Little Sigma not too long ago. This meant they had not only kidnapped that girl, but they had even broken a precious gift.

"I just can't fathom how someone managed to attach a soul to it." the researcher sighed.

"I heard they needed five paladins working together on a ritual to wipe it out. If we can-"

A gut-wrenching scream suddenly filled the room. When the other priest turned around in shock, he could only see the man who was speaking to him normally just a second ago, screech as he was engulfed in a bloom of pale blue flames. He could do nothing but watch as his colleague vanish in spontaneous self-combustion. The soul-shaking cries quickly stopped as it only took seconds for the man to turn into a pile of ashes.

His brain was still trying to comprehend what just happened when an unknown force grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall, with enough force to shift the bricks. A voice that did not allow any resistance crept into his ears.

"Where are the children?" the voice asked, making it clear that he would die a terrible death if he didn't talk. Inexplicably, an overwhelming fear grew in his chest. He wasn't afraid of death, he shouldn't be. If he died he would simply return to the embrace of his goddess.

He had always been convinced of this, but his confidence was shaking. And through the cracks came the fear that death was an absolute. Dying here, dying in that fire was the end. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't make himself believe that Gatris could save him.

"P-please spare me! Th-The lambs are gathered in their stables below, for the day of the ritual. I can bring you there so- Ahhh!"

The man turned into a pile of ashes and misery. <Calm Mind> at the max. level allowed Seth to keep a calm mind at pretty much any point in time. This meant that his current actions were quite deliberate. He made the calm judgment to leave nobody here alive.

Seth had been quite peaceful lately. He had reevaluated his past actions and found that he had sometimes overreacted, mostly because he himself felt never like he was in a position to show mercy.

Despite reevaluating the worth of life, the blacksmith felt absolutely no qualms about getting rid of some religious fanatics from a foreign dimension. Especially not after they destroyed one of his golems and kidnapped children for their nefarious means.

Seth had decided that it was time to put a foot down, against these invaders that treated their lives like nothing. The cultivators, the Demons, Spatia... these Churches were just small offenders compared to them, but how could they resist the big bad, if their insides were rotten?

The blacksmith wasn't even interested in their souls, tainted by the divine power of their goddess. Destroying them completely with the spirit flames of Hades was the best message he could send to this Goddess. The souls of her believers were simply vanishing.

Taking the remains of Golmini, he didn't stay around for long. The priest talked about below, which was probably one of the lower park decks. Why didn't he use golems to scout, or further interrogate the man? Had he killed him too early? No, he simply didn't need to.

Golems could be detected. People could lie, even in the face of death. He didn't need to rely on such untrustworthy sources. Seth pulled down the hood of the Cloak of Hekate and let Apollo take the Wheel. The stars in the hood affirmed the word of the priest, that he had to go further down.

He didn't run off looking for a path down. It was quicker to make one. The next moment a circular plate of reinforced concrete crashed down to the floor below. Using his fire like a plasma cutter and severing the floor below him, more and more plate crashed to the floors below, sometimes directly crushing unsuspecting devotees lured by the noise then and there.

This was no coincidence. If Seth perfectly timed it using <Life Detection> to know when they were below him. Of course, the rumbling did not stay unnoticed, but what could the hurriedly moving forces of the Church of Dark Mercy do, other than spontaneously combust in the face of the Ash Walker? Not even Dragon Newts were able to resist his advance when he decided to burn a way through.

Horror struck the Church of Gatris as an invisible force swept through their halls, turning their people to ashes on sight. Seth only stopped after he traversed seven park decks, arriving on the eighth. Now he could make out, that his destination was on the same height as himself. This had to be the floor where they held the children they kidnapped.

The place he wanted to reach was Felice, the girl who had received Golmini. Although he had come for another girl, he had a stronger recollection of her, since they met in person. As he followed the signal, he stepped into a room, that seemed like a mirror of the the central room of the mall above. Several floors of the park house were broken through to make space for the massive statue of the goddess.

However, this one showed her true face. It was still an incredibly beautiful woman, but where she wore a benevolent smile on the surface, it was a sadistic sneer, down here in the inner sanctum. On each level of the garage, surrounding the statue were barred cells with girls inside. At the foot of the statue was a basin filled with blood, and corpses of various beasts lay strewn about.

"Hurry! We have to finish the ritual before that thing arrives!" Priests were scuttling around, hurriedly throwing herbs and pouring vials into the blood pool.

"I know! This was the last vial! Hurry and get the lambs!"

As Seth had worried, lambs were always meant for sacrifice... however, none of the men got very far. The guy who ran off to the cells turned to ashes on his second step. The man that had ordered him felt a sharp pain in his knees, before losing balance and falling on his ass. It was hard to stand without legs.

"What is this pool and what were you trying to do to the girls?" Seth asked the man he spared. The blacksmith was an adept Alchemist, but his <Eyes of the Maestro> could not appraise this weird concoction.

Seth's voice crept into his head. The high priest felt the strong persuasion, but he was no small-fry these tricks would not work on him! He would never-

<Ding! Target had been afflicted with the Curse of Obedience for 1 minute!>

<Ding! Target has been afflicted with the Greater Curse of Lethargy for 2 minutes!>

<Ding! Target's Willpower has been lowered by 300 for 5 minutes!>

"This is the Blood of Gatris, a present of our mother. Together with the blood and soul of 50 lambs, it is able to give birth to a legendary avatar, that won't suffer the suppression of this world and bring her mercy to the heathens!" his mouth spoke without his consent, not giving him a chance to scream in pain.

Seth had already guessed that this man, the high priest, was harder to crack, so he severed his legs using the Ravenous Sog, causing several status ailments such as the Curse of Obedience.

"Is it really the blood of a goddess? What exactly is it?" Seth couldn't help but ask.

"It is a relic-rated concoction of high-level beast blood, alchemical ingredients, and the benediction of Gatris." the man readily blurted out.

"I see. I think I have a better use for this."

After he heard that, the high priest suddenly saw a sword appear from thin air that shot forward and pierced into the center of the basin.

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