Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Everyone, calm down! They have deployed something like the Soul-Cleansing barrier around Agra. You will be fine as long as you don't step into that space. Use the Serks to scout for loopholes and shoot the insects from a distance."

A sudden message came through all communication orbs, calming the disturbed soldiers. They had already embraced the thought of immortality. This meant that even a low chance of death became that much worse to them than anything else.

Yet, hearing the clear voice of their leader, they quickly regained their composure. Observing the situation with a clear head, they saw that there were places where the berserkers slowed down, but also ones where they didn't. In those places, they were quickly grabbed by the monsters and seemingly thrown into the dead zones.

The roughly two hundred armed soldiers readied their rifles and started firing a storm of bullets at the insect monsters that were stopping the advance of the berserkers. Expecting their round to just rip through those monsters, their faces fell when most of the shots from their epic rifles simply bounced off. By virtue of quantity, some of the bullets revealed the monsters' weakness.

"Aim for the joints!" it came through the communication orbs.

…

"Disgusting Bastards." "Sickos" "Meanies!" the lords of Minas Mar around cursed them under their breaths when they recognized what was charging at them.

"Well done with the formations," Seth grimly praised Alison and the team of mages that had set up a ring of soul-whisking formation around Mount Agra. They had repurposed the plan they originally intended to set up if the divine barrier had not fallen by the time they arrived.

"I somehow don't really feel happy about it," Alison returned solemnly.

None of them were in a good mood, seeing the army that was charging at Agra. These people were not soldiers. They all recognized the victims of the Divine strength drug. They were probably no different from the refugees that were fed the drug against their will, now controlled and turned into brainless monsters.

In addition, they even started damaging his mining units. Every one of his cute Minerbots he saw take damage from the bullet hell, hurt his heart. These units were not meant for battle, but they were the most numerous golems Seth currently had.

As pure golems, they could also operate within the soul-whisking formations unlike the golem knight and others. The blacksmith still had some other golems, like the beetle golems, but since the opponent was sending their cannon fodder, he didn't want to reveal their cards.

Still, he felt it was a little unfair that his Miningbots had to endure a one-sided shelling. Seeing their opponents, Seth didn't feel like playing the long game of attrition with them.

"Let's send some of our own long-range units."

"Already?" Monique questioned.

"What do you mean "Already"? It's not like any of you want to keep watching this atrocity, and my babies are being damaged. How can I watch as they are sabotaging my grand mining operation with something so out-of-place as magic assault rifles?! And those armors, where do they think they are? A spaceship?" he threw a little tantrum to make himself feel better before the signal was given.

Shortly after, another, smaller, group of golems surfaced from the snow. They were also made from the bodies the others had brought back from their heist on the Hive. The group was smaller because Seth had not expected that he would need combat golems. The golem forge had been mostly occupied with making miners and guards, not warriors and damage dealers.

"Let's see how they will react. This time we are the ones raising the difficulty."

…

"Ack! What is this!" the man cried out and let go of his weapon.

The gazes following his scream, saw a massive bristle stick out from his shoulder. The big projectile, the size of a railway nail had cleanly penetrated through his armor. In a panic, the man tried to pull it out but had to realize that the bristle was covered in natural hooks, that firmly embedded it in his flesh!

"Get behind cover!" the commander ordered.

But the warning already came too late as the row of riflemen was peppered with artillery. Their armor gave little protection against the rain of death. Firing at them from behind the line of giant ant monsters were dozens of massive spiders firing their bristles.

The Serks were also covered in the bristles, making it even harder for them to resist the ants that shoved them into the death zones.

"I believe it is my time to shine." A man in a dark robe stepped up beside the commander.

"Looks like it. Go for it. We will start Phase 2."

"Kukuku, finally! My time has come! I will show the world my glory! Corpse Explosion!"

The whole valley was filled with explosions as all the corpses exploded like bombs. The insect monsters and the surviving Serks were flung around as the valley was overturned in a hell of sickly green flames.

The Serks would be able to recover, but was it the same for the monsters? No, they didn't. From the looks of it, many were severely damaged and unable to keep fighting. Even the commander couldn't help his heart beating faster.

They never expected the Serks to be of significant effect, but they had also not expected Minas Mar to bring up such forces and tactics. But now they had broken through, even though it took the help of that irritating necromancer.

"What's the progress with the wizards?" he asked his assistant.

"They are almost ready, Sir." the answer came promptly.

"What about the whisps, did they already infiltrate the city?"

"... We lost contact with them soon after they entered the city," the assistant answered after a short silence.

"Tsk," the commander clicked his tongue.

Of course, it was the forces of Minas Mar who originally countered the outsiders wearing their invisibility cloaks. It wasn't outside of their plans that the Whisps, their invisible assassins, would be discovered. But for them to simply vanish, despite receiving the low-tier immortality serum, was unexpected.

"Tell the wizards to strengthen the ritual and immediately fire once they are- Corporal?"

He had been talking to empty air until he realized that the assistant who had been standing right beside him this whole time had vanished. He looked around, but couldn't find any traces of him leaving.

The commander looked back down to the battlefield and suddenly became super aware of his surrounding. The wind howled through the mountains, clouds of snow bellowing over the ridges in the distance. He could hear everything around him, but it all stepped into the background.

As he stared at the battlefield and his eyes lost focus, he heard something. It was like a choir of nature, a mixture of howling wind, crunching snow, and swaying trees gaining meaning. It was a song, picking up somewhere in the middle.

"Into your dreams, into your sleep- Until you break, Until you yield! I send the swarm! I send the horde!

...Thus saith the Lord."

Turmoil came into the camp behind him, but the screams of his men simply seemed to weave into the song. In a stupor, the commander watched as soldiers and mages were ripped away by giant dragonflies. "Was this what happened to the corporal?" he felt his thoughts flow slow, like honey.

"I send the locusts on a wind, such as the world has never seen . On every peak, on every mind,

Like there's no one ever been."

He wanted to do something, he wanted to help, but as the camp emptied and their mages' casting was interrupted, the commander could only watch his subordinates get dismembered, while their torsos were taken away to Agra. Doing so, his eyes fell back on the battlefield.

"I send the thunder from the sky! I send the fire raining down! I send a hail of burning ice! On battlefields, on every one!- I send my scourge, I send my sword! ...Thus saith the Lord."

As the choir announced, a massive thunderstorm had formed above the valley and was smiting the serks that had recovered from the explosion. Fires, lasers, and ice were also added to the arcane precipitation. But there was more, a purple ray shot out between the serks, making impossible direction changes. Wherever it passed, the serks suddenly stopped moving altogether.

"- I send my scourge, I send my sword! ...Thus saith the Lord."

It repeated and the ground under his feet started rocking. He looked back to the camp, only the allied troops of the Tuatha De were still left, as they were the only ones able to evade the giant dragonflies.

It didn't help them much when a humongous maw surfaced from the ground and swallowed them, before diving back into the rock. At this moment, he suddenly stood all alone on the ridge above the valley, the camp behind him destroyed and desolate.

"- I send my scourge, I send my sword!"

"Thus saith the Lord," a dull gray knight finished behind him.

When he turned around in shock, the last thing he saw was the knight and his purple light.

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