Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Eastern Part of the Pythian Village---

Dust Crunched under his heavy boots as he reached the place Luf told him about. Looking around, he frowned grimly and slightly disgusted. The whole street was filled with withered bodies. Seeing the scene and connecting it with the crunch, made a shiver run down his spine. Maybe all the dust here was the bodies of victims.

He had a hard time thinking of many things worse than this. Maybe it was comparable to the memories of the war with the maritime empire in Y-City, but those times were still worse in his opinion, as it was his comrades that littered the streets, ripped into pieces, not a bunch of strangers turned to husks.

Judging by their attire and weaponry who seemed mostly untouched, it wasn't hard to guess that they were cultivators. Whether they were part of the alliance or not, he couldn't tell at this point. Still, he doubted all of them were hostiles. Whoever did this just didn't care about friend or foe.

Nervously, his right gripped the handle of the pipe harder, while the left did the same with the , the upgraded version of his original shield. It shared all the original functions, except that it was made of , had higher base stats, and added 120 to Strength and Endurance.

When he turned around the corner, he found the probably weirdest situation, yet. He found two confirmed hostiles fighting each other. Even weirder was that one of them was actually supposed to have died a little earlier.

On one side was a criminally handsome cultivator. His pale skin like jade stood in stark contrast to his fingers covered in crimson blood. The other was a lanky man hiding his face, swinging a rusty saber around.

How did the Priest of Corruption, who fled from Cade, get involved in a fight with the Dark Sovereign Caleb had supposedly killed? The thing was that he originally wasn't here for either of the two.

According to Luf, Alphalfa Bignoggin the Sword Summoner was supposed to go on a killing spree here. He was one of the participants of the tournament's first round and was a mix of swordsman and summoner. During the current chaos, his actions outed him as an agent of Spatia.

However, there were no traces of anybody, but those two duking it out. the fearsome corrosive saber the priest wielded clashed with the blood claws of the Dark Sovereign over and over. Although his hands sizzled, there were few signs of the Dark Sovereign suffering any damage from the holy weapon that had wrecked quite a number of people during the tournament.

Tekar was still deliberating who to take out first when the fight finally took a decisive turn, as the cultivator managed to grasp the priest's neck and wrist. Holding the saber at a distance, the claw choked the priest, who started withering at a visible speed.

“Jump'em! Sock'em!”

Within the blink of an eye, Tekar appeared behind the Dark Sovereign, and the curved end of the pipe struck the man's skull. With he had charged behind the cultivator and with he dealt three times the physical damage because it was an underhanded attack to a vital area.

The cultivator fell to the floor from the surprise attack and let go of the priest, who fell to his knees, coughing and gasping for air. His desiccated appearance quickly healed and would be gone in a matter of moments.

“Urgh! How-” The cultivator on the ground started struggling again.

Despite the tremendous boost of the legendary weapon, Tekar's active lack of physical damage despite his stats shone again. Despite suffering the strike to the head with perfect execution, the cultivator was not even knocked out, rubbing the back of his head.

“How dare you ambush me, the Dark Sovereign So Da-”

A second strike with the pipe shut him up and stopped him from trying to stand up. It triggered several effects of Sleep Paralysis, like blindness, and paralysis, but most importantly silence. Pressed down by the Curse of Burden and paralyzed, the cultivator was forced to shut up.

“I don't care what Soda you are, I prefer my beverages still.”

Tekar frowned, wondering how often he would have to strike the man in the head to end him once and for all when the priest suddenly spoke up.

“You are Tekar, right? Thanks for the -Clang!” he had been amicably speaking to the walking fortress when he suddenly tried to attack him and the floored sovereign, only for the attack to be easily deflected by Tekar's shield.

While the priest was still recovering his weapon, the pipe struck forward, quick as a snake, biting the Priest's knew. In addition to the satisfying crunch of the joint, Tekar hooked it with the bent end of the pipe and pulled the priest off his feet.

In a fluid motion, he brought the pipe back around and struck the sovereign's ribs, to add another layer of status effects and the curse of burden. After all, he didn't want the guy to run away while he dealt with the priest. Enduring the curse himself, he made only two steps forward.

The moment the priest of corruption looked up, the pipe broke his shoulder. Now this, was how it was supposed to be. Although the priest had fought on almost equal terms with the cultivators, his body was much weaker, despite recovering at an incredible rate. Flung to the side again, the priest groaned under the pain and the curse of burden.

“Originally, i didn't come for either of you, but since I found you, i will have to take care of you,” Tekar spoke with his calm, deep voice as he towered over the Priest of Corruption.

“Take care...of me? Hah!” he laughed out as intricate tattoos started glowing across his body. The saber jumped up and slashed across Tekar's chest, but it didn't cut anything. In the tournament, flesh and armor were decomposed by this weapon, but facing the master of defense, it could only slide off his personal shield.

“Although Corrosion is a higher concept compared to basic effects, I have 75% resistance against it. The damage of your weapon can't even get past my defense to touch my equipment,” Tekar explained, almost feeling sorry for the man.

“Haha, that means I can't damage you, but you can't kill me either! Just let me go, I will leave Urth quietly,” the priest offered a compromise.

“You are right, I can't kill you. As a matter of fact, I can't even deal enough damage to kill the other one. However, I can keep you here until I called someone that CAN take care of you,” he added with an amused smile, as he proceeded to call Luf for backup.

“I will send Cade your way.”

...

--- Cinema Dimension---

For the first time in a long while, the whole hall was absolutely silent. All gods present were watching various perspectives of the war with rapt attention. Even Seth decided not to complain that Minas Mar wasn't going all out, a it made for a more exciting battle.

However, a sudden clapping broke the silence. Happily slapping her hands together was a new figure sitting in the front row, right beside Hades and Persephone. She was a mountain of a woman, giving off a motherly aura. Hades looked over at his grandmother clapping excitedly.

“Yia yia, what happened?” he asked, leaning over to the personification of earth. She gifted him a bright smile, a witty glint in her eyes.

“Kuku, you will see soon,” she said mysteriously, not intending to spoil her grandchild's fun. For Gaia to be this happy, he had some ideas about what he was supposed to look forward to. Amused, the god of the underworld leaned back in his seat, waiting for the show to start.