Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The limousine returned to the road and drove through the empty ruins of the old city. Many houses that had long rotten and collapsed lined the road. After decades these should have looked worse, but the climate in this area had been quite dry, up until two years ago.

Since the mountains now kept accumulating mana and growing colder, everything was frozen and covered in a thin layer of dust-like snow.

Seth saw this sad scene and felt almost nothing except some curiosity. This was a past, not even his parents had experienced and one, not many looked back on with nostalgia.

Now monsters lived in these remnants of the past, but they didn't dare to leave the houses and approach the car driving by. The roads were broken and bumpy, but Seth didn't notice any of it in the car.

It made him really wonder what Tano'Mol, or his people, had done to the limousine. Unlike the prototype hybrid cars he saw in Y-City, the luxury car had no exposed signs of magic.

Soon, they approached a crumbled wall. Left and right of the road still stood two little pillars and the blacksmith was able to spot the two wings of a wrought-iron gate on the ground. They were rusty and overgrown now, but at some point, they must have been a very expensive and detailed work of art.

The road leading up to the dilapidated mansion seemed slightly more intact than the streets outside. The mansion, too, despite looking run-down and rotten, compared to most of the other structures in the town it was almost pristine.

It wasn't a mansion in the sense of a medieval and renaissance building, but simply a massive, really old house that was probably very expensive during its time. The kind that didn't look like one person or a family would live in, but rather a whole boarding school.

"We don't know what this mansion had been used back then, but we found several strong auras and many weaker ones inside. Originally, we wanted to enter the mansion in a planned operation within the next two years. However, our newest recruits thought they could prove themselves if they just charged in there... Now we have not only lost the small ones, but we also lost contact with the two rescue teams. I hope you understand, why I had to text your abilities beforehand."

Seth couldn't help but look at her with light surprise. Where did that un-asked-for recap come from? Did she feel guilty for testing him?

"When we enter, we have to be careful. Ghosts sometimes have very unique abilities, and there are many of them in there."

"You are also entering?" he asked.

He had not thought she would also join in, but his surprise made way for understanding when she suddenly changed into an exotic priest outfit. Several circles of floating paper talismans appeared and started rotating around her.

Now she fit a little better beside him in his armor. She looked like she was specialized in dealing with ghosts. It was a shame that Seth had no interest in picking a fight in this situation.

Unlike before, Seth donned the Cloak of Hekate. The blacksmith had wanted to experience what it would be like to face a hostile ghost. Now, he would rely on the Undead Amity effect of the cloak to take a look around. Just in case, he also wore the Wraithguard. He wouldn't need the set-effect of the gloves if he really intended to burn down the building.

They climbed up the long withered staircase that led to the entrance gate. Black lacquer was flaking of the dark rotten wood. The door stood ajar and Seth was afraid it would fall apart if he touched it, but there was no problem.

He just lightly touched the door and it immediately swung open with a loud creak. The ground of the entrance hall was so caked in dirt, that it was hard to tell what color the tiles were. The air was laden with mana, but nothing happened for now.

"It's unexpectedly quiet..." Sandra mumbled vigilantly.

However, she did not comment on the unexpectedly darkness inside. Despite bright daytime outside, the inside was enveloped in twilight.

Seth stayed silent and concentrated on his <Soul Capture>. He had never actively used this kind of sense before today. He had really only noticed this kind of effect during his fight in Sigma and increasingly more since he kept manipulating souls with more than just the skills given to him.

It showed him once again, that many skills were not as superficial as an entry in a character sheet. They had quite obvious automatic effects, but some had hidden functions that even the perk list did not mention.

Wordlessly, the bard prompted Sandra to follow him. He didn't even need to use the cloak's pathfinding as he simply followed the density of soul aura detected with soul capture.

It wasn't like in old horror movies, where the building and furniture bore witness to a regal luxury of long forgotten days. Most furniture had long been stolen, eaten, or rotten away by time and insects. Even the wooden paneling on the walls was peeling off and some of the ceiling paneling had also come down.

It looked a lot better than other buildings in the town, but it was far from a pristine horror mansion. What fit the description was how convoluted it's layout was. This didn't feel like a place people were supposed to live.

"Is that..crying?" she asked when they entered a hallway lined with doors on both sides.

They now followed the pitiful whining that echoes through the old building. Their steps led them to a big room, maybe the study or an office of sorts, judging by the fallen-apart shelves on the walls.

There was a giant fireplace, big enough for even Seth to stand in. In front of it, on the crumbly floorboards, kneeled a hand full of small ghosts. They were neither big, nor imposing, looking the children ranging between seven to ten years old.

All of them suddenly turned their head toward the two. Seth expected some horror scenes and Sandra immediately took a battle-ready stance. However, they didn't attack. Big teary eyes looked towards them.

Everyone froze for a moment before the smallest ghost, a small girl with a blond bowl haircut stumbled towards Seth. The blacksmith simply observed. He didn't think the little ghost could harm him, even if it tried.

And then she stood right before him and... hugged him. Looking up at him with her big eyes she started crying. Her emotions of fear, sorrow, and despair were transferred to him, not in a negative way like an attack, but by pleading for help.

Seth was not cold enough to not be moved. Unwittingly embraced the girl with Wraithguard. She could touch his cloak and he could touch her with the gauntlet. This might have been the first thing close to a hug the girl had experienced in decades. Was this the Undead Amity, or would this child have acted the same if he did not wear the robe?

Seeing the ghost children being not hostile, the exorcist lady beside him relaxed a little.

"These are not ordinary ghosts. They didn't stay out of their own will, but were bound to this place." Sandra explained after a short while.

Seth nodded, he already had such an assumption. They were very light, even the spirit blacksmith almost could not see them, but there were almost invisible chains attached to the children. They were not unlike the soul threads that some existences used to create a kind of immortality.

Just that these were not some thin threads but like forged chains. Forcefully created, artificial... man-made bonds.

"Should I try to break these?" Seth asked the little girl.

Her eyes became big, but she did not give him an answer. Taking it as a yes anyway, the blacksmith didn't draw a soul armament weapon. He simply dropped a small flame, a mere ember of soul fire onto the chain.

He didn't dare to just sever the chain in one go, afraid to harm the ghost. Instead, he minutely controlled the strength of the ember as it slowly burned through the bindings. After observing her reaction and seeing no adverse effect, Seth severed the chain in a split second.

With the chain severed, the links disintegrated and the girl looked up at him in surprise, before giving a bright smile. She slowly started becoming more transparent.

"She can finally go on... What did you do?" Sandra mumbled flabbergasted beside him.

The other children also started approaching, after they saw their companion vanish and Seth released them all. It was one of the rare moments where Seth didn't even think about the loss or gain of his deeds.

"You really managed to release them, but how were they even...?" the woman mumbled and went to the fireplace.

He suddenly heard her exclaim in shock. Seth, who had been a little shocked himself, got his head back in the game and stepped up beside her. His expression darkened when he saw why the woman had reacted so strongly.

The ashes of the fireplace were filled with fragments of bones. Human bones. Men, women, and yes, also remnants of children filled the pit of ashes in the fireplace.

"Some of them look almost fresh. Maybe some people from the rescue team came across them when they weren't as docile?" the woman assumed upset.

Seth could only nod. It was not unlikely that these children would attack and drag someone into the fireplace to burn alive if one didn't have the Undead Amity.

"Let's go. Even if we don't find anyone, we should make make sure to end the spook int his place once and for all."