Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Using music to manipulate the soul and bring out the desires and instincts, to be used as the blueprint for the body.

Oz was right, Seth would not have come to this conclusion on his own before the party. He had kept looking at it from the perspective of a blacksmith. Music and the skills of an infernal scald were something he had thought of as an add-on for later.

He realized now that he had been wrong. There may be many approaches that could work, but this one might be the best one for him. With Oz's input, his research took a new turn.

And he had been delivered a convenient test subject. The living soul of the champion of a god that was known to unleash the desires of his believers.

People often said that music could touch the soul. Seth had thought it was just a proverb until his enlightenment. Oz had insisted on it from the start.

The infernal scald soon found out why it was so clear for Oz. Demons had always dealt with souls, more than most other races. Seth found quite a few books at the library of the college to help with his work.

He did not have to do all the work himself, there existed many songs that were meant to directly manipulate the soul. These were mostly songs he had never bothered to look at, as they were meant for entertainment.

Again, he found his horizons had been too narrow.

He had looked for ballads to forge and songs to support, even those to attack like "Soul Shock". But he never cared to look for those to entertain.

These often had a profound effect to evoke even stronger emotion by touching the listener's soul. Using the soul of the Champion of Zarkon, he was able to study the effects on a soul and the resulting reactions.

According to Oz, a living Soul would give the best results. Just like how Undead lacked a wide range of strong emotions, the souls, or rather the remnants of souls Seth used, often lacked strong emotions. To develop the needed spell array, it was easier to use this soul at first, which gave stronger reactions.

Although Cade had sounded urgent with her request, he could only feel sorry for putting his own matters first. But he had already finished the item she wanted, he just needed to put in the soul. Once he was done, he could finish it and immediately contact her.

...

"Hey, Seth." someone approached him in his workshop a few days after the party.

"Oh, Al! Great timing. Come take a look, I think I am really close."

As the Sorceress approached, Seth suddenly started a deep chant, accompanied by the play of his lyre. A shiver ran down her spine as she became restless. On the ground, a circular spell array lit up and glowing runes started engraving on the soul floating above it.

However, after several minutes the lights started flickering as the ground heated up. The molten stone floor broke apart the array and the experiment failed in a shockwave of energy and smoke.

"Ah, damn. It failed again."

Al'Zalsar looked at him in shock. When had this numbskull improved this much?

"Let me take a look."

Listening to his theories and explanations, the sorceress could only nod. The idea of tickling a blueprint out of the soul was a creative approach she would not have thought of.

It did not necessarily mean that it would recreate the body that the soul possessed when it was alive, but it would create the most fitting body.

"Show me how you draw the spell array."

Seth took about 10 minutes to draw the improved magic circle with arcane chalk. The moment he stood up and proudly looked down at his work, he got a slap to the back of his head from Al.

Now, she knew the reason why it did not work, and it was aggravating. The circle and theories were correct. The reason was:

"It's your shitty handwriting, you dimwit! No wonder the array failed with the kind of sloppy mess you scribble on the ground."

"What? That can't be true!"

"But it is. Look, you made several mistakes," she said before pointing out at over ten places in the complicated sketch on the ground.

"Listen, I don't have the time to give to a refresher on spell array writing. The reason I came was to get my Dragon Bane."

"The ring? Why?"

"Because it's mine. Isn't that enough reason? I already lent it to you for such a long time. I think you can do something equally powerful yourself now."

"But..."

"No buts...Stop looking at me like that. No, No. I said..." the sorceress could not withstand the secret technique Seth had learned from Fin, puppy eyes.

"How about this. I will enchant you a replacement?"

"And help me adapt it later." Seth suddenly increased the price.

"...Okay. Okay."

Seth had lost a powerful anti-dragon ring, but he gained the promise to get a replacement and help for later. Someone else may mourn the loss, but it was worth it for Seth. It saved him a lot of time.

Fixing his handwriting was easy if he used the system guidance again and again. But even if this array would now work, he would have to adapt it to Al's and his own golem technology. It would go a lot faster with her help.

All that was left was refining the technology using refined souls.

---------

"Pip, could you guys come over for a moment? I want to show you something."

They were just helping Otto tend to the herbs and plants when Seth suddenly appeared in the subterranean herb garden. This was the foundation for Minas Mar's potion business.

The plants, the smell, the work here reminded Pip and the others a lot of their happy times with Karina, and it was their favorite place in all of the tower. The Pharmacist otto was also very nice to them. Pip never had a grandfather, but Otto was the closest to it.

"Of course, Tower Master," Pip answered politely.

"Come on, I told you to keep calling me Seth."

"Please excuse me, Tower Master."

Having seen Minas Mar and the kind of power and status Seth had, Pip felt awkward to act as casual with him, as she had on the journey.

"Fine. Come with m, I wish to show you something," he told the children with a mysterious smile.

They followed the tower master through the herb gardens all the way to a door they had never seen. It wasn't that they had never been here before. This was new! When had this door appeared here?

The two great door wings swung open as he got closer. Behind the doors was an expansive cave. No, not a cave, a wide hall with a high ceiling and ground made of fertile soil. The wet earthy smell filled their noses as they followed Seth in.

"You stay here and watch," he said with a chuckle before going to the middle of the room. Then he planted two spheres in the soil and sat down with crossed legs.

As they watched him a silent whisper entered their ears. Was the tower master singing? But it did not sound like music. As Pip listened, memories of the forest started surfacing. The rustle of the leaves and creaking of wood as the trees swung in the wind. The cool, humid air smelling of earth and vegetation.

Small dots started lighting up on the ceiling, looking like a sea of stars. With his lips still moving, the tower master stood and slowly backed off from the center of the room. Walking backward he came closer to them.

As he walked, the tune changed. Pip remembered the few good times in her life. Snippets of spending time with her parents, playing with the others in Karina's Grove, the moment Karina accepted her as a disciple.

In the center of the room, a small offshoot became visible. They had just spotted the small plant when it rapidly started growing. The stars on the ceilings became brighter and brighter as the sprout became a small tree.

Its trunk grew thicker, and the crown grew wider and ever closer to the ceiling. The ceiling that had felt as far away as the night sky was covered by the wide crown of the tree.

They knew this tree. It was a lot smaller, but the presence they felt was the same.

A bundle of roots suddenly emerged from the ground. Twisting, tightening, turning, it took a humanoid shape and before their widened eyes a sleeping beauty took shape. She peacefully laid between the massive roots of the tree.

She looked just like Karina!

Hot tears streamed from her eyes, but she did not dare to run to her while the tower master was still singing.

A big warm hand then grasped her shoulder and she looked up.

"Let's go to her. " Seth said smiling down at her. His words had just ended when everyone sprinted to the dryad's side.

"Master!" "Master Karina!" everyone hugged the sleeping dryad and called out her name.

"Hmm...What is? Are you...Pip? Livina? Paul?"

Master Karina was really back! The children's faces were covered in tears and snot as they looked up at the waking tree spirit.