Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Are you sure you don't need our help?"

Brock ruefully thought back to the moment, when Seth and Minas Mar left. If only Seth had taken him along, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Barely an hour passed by since the departure of Seth and the rest of Minas Mar and things were looking dire.

They had been afraid of an attack from the orcs, but instead, the whole plateau was suddenly filled with bizarre monsters that surrounded the fort like an ocean a nutshell. Especially the giant siege beasts, humongous four-legged monsters that stood face to face with them, despite the wall under their feet being 20m high... Not to mention that each of them had a boss tag.

At least the walls and shield held so far, but it didn't help his anxiety. Sitting in the middle of thousands of mid lv.80 monsters and facing eight lv.90+ bosses was a great burden on his nerves.

Despite having Elza and Marcel on their side, they already had a hard time driving back the normal beasts, not to mention these colossi. Maybe it was the wrong decision to come here. They should have just made a break for the Adventurer Guild's place.

Then again, after what Seth and Gin told them, there was no guarantee they would even be alive now if they did. They were in the middle of manning the defensive formations when a massive impact shook the whole fortress.

A massive energy impact had suddenly hit the protective shield, which was now flickering alarmingly.

"You have to be kidding me," an eagle-headed chimera guard exclaimed beside them.

"What is it?" Brock asked hurriedly.

"Look over there! It's a group of sorcerers!"

Following where the chimera pointed, Brock lifted a pair of magic binoculars to his face and looked at the edge of the cliff at the end of the plateau. As the guard said, he spotted a group of humanoid monsters in various robes and attires.

A group of sorcerers and shamans made up of goblins, hobgoblins orcs, and ogres. These were undoubtedly the forces of Kozdam! Was the kingdom working together with this grotesque monster horde?

"How is the shield doing?" Brock hurriedly asked the magicians in charge of operating the formations.

"It's weakened but stabilized for now," a chimera mage answered with the fur of his Hyena head drenched in sweat. It was evident that the sudden blow packed a punch.

"If they are really working with Kozdam, I doubt we can withstand this siege for long," Marcel concluded grimly.

Seth had not left a lot of manpower in the castle, so they were sorely lacking the numbers to withstand a siege of this dimension. But they didn't have to either.

"I will call Seth right away," Brock said resolutely.

The tower master had made it clear, that they should call the moment a situation arose they couldn't deal with. According to the blacksmith, they had ample forces to finish up the hive quickly if it was really needed to hurry.

...

Seth frowned. This thing's intelligence was obviously flawed, but it was also completely unresponsive to <Voice of Seth> and his other oratory skills. There was no information to be gleaned from this conversation. He had some apprehension to just attack them since they didn't attack first. On the other hand, he couldn't just leave empty-handed, could he?

They came here with a big final battle in mind, but their opponent was gone and a bunch of weirdos wasted his time. He observed the thing for a moment and decided to change his strategy. If asking nicely didn't work... Since he had some conjectures, he would just throw his suspicions at the thing and see how it would react.

"You are the creations of the Maestro."

He simply put this statement into the room. Although Seth could make out the reason why the Maestro would suddenly appear here instead of the hive, this had the highest probability of being true.

The things immunity to manipulation, the demonic aura, the names of the creatures, the absolute lack of aesthetics... The maestro was the only creature he knew about inside the holy land, that would explain all of it. Yet, the thing kept mum.

"Don't worry, you don't have to answer. I already know that only a demon could deliver such an ugly and lackadaisical piece of work. Was he drunk when he stitched your friends together, or does he just have four left hands?"

Now the thing finally showed a reaction. Its mouth warped into a displeased frown. Encouraged, the blacksmith kept talking smack.

" A collection of inferior materials and poor design choices. They are the tell-tale signs of a demon dabbling in stuff they don't know jack about, " he said with a mocking smile.

Its fists ending in ugly black claws balled tightly, but it didn't move or say anything.

"Calling himself a Maestro, when he's just an unqualified quack, stitching together corpses as a hobby. What a disgrace for his-"

Seth was just starting to have fun when his communication orb vibrated.

"Excuse me for a moment. Yes? Brock? What is it? I am in the middle of something. Aha. Aha,I see."

Seth squinted at the thing as he heard what was going on at the surface.

"Sure, Sure. I will be there in a hot minute, " he ended his call and turned back to the thing.

"As I was saying. An utter disgrace to his craft that should not be allowed to call himself a maestro with such meager skills. Well, then, if you will excuse me. I have to leave, " he said with a business smile and vanished.

He switched from Laraweg to the Helm of Darkness, instantly turning invisible and undetectable. After hearing from Brock, Seth came to the conclusion that this was obviously just a diversion and not worth spending any more time on.

The moment he vanished, the thing screeched in frustration. Or rather, It was the signal to attack. Chaos broke out in the boss room as the beast wave charged out from the shadows to try and catch him. Invisible didn't mean intangible after all.

However, Seth simply sprinted to the massive gate where he entered before. They were sealed, which meant that these monsters had power over the boss room and the dungeon. Had they defeated the hive and taken control, or was it given to them? Were the Kingdom, the Hive, AND the Maestro working together?

This was the only thought that slightly slowed him down. Seth didn't pay any attention to the magically sealed gate. He did a pirouette and activated the <Scorpio Star Escape> instantly appearing at the coordinate of Shaula on the other side of the door.

In the meantime, the monsters in the boss room went wild to catch an enemy that had long escaped. It was common sense that an adventurer could not escape from a sealed boss room. Yet, all rules had their exceptions. Especially, if a legendary item played a role in the situation.

While the monsters were rampaging in the boss room, Seth was already halfway back to the tunnel they came from. Hyper-Dynamic Vision which had become part of <Sight of Theia> made it tremendously easier for the blacksmith to make full use of the armor's tremendous speed.

Even when he was running at a speed of almost 100km/h he was able to see and process everything he saw clearly and react in time even without <3d Maneuver Assistance>. The only trace he left running through the deserted tunnel, was the gust of wind he left in his wake.