Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Wow, that's a little more than I expected," Luf mumbled. The death bride was not talking about the partially collapsed building complex sticking out from a massive crater, but the fact that it was already haunted, despite not even being a proper ruin yet.

"Wow, that's a little more than I expected," Luf mumbled. The death bride was not talking about the partially collapsed building complex sticking out from a massive crater, but the fact that it was already haunted, despite not even being a proper ruin yet.

Standing at the edge of the wide crater, they watched a chaotic battle spread all over the exposed ruins and slopes. There were demon elves, winged lizards, and an army of shapeless ghosts emerging from the depths of the base.

The translucent, fluttering beings were moving in swarms across the ruins, attacking indiscriminately. They were passing through the living and seemingly chipping away at their lives until they fell down as a cold corpse. It was quite eerie.

"Where did those specters come from?" Rayki echoed her own thoughts, but she quickly came to an answer. They had always been here. This was the reason they were not allowed to move freely in the base; maybe it was the whole reason the base even existed. A version of a birthing pool that spat out ghosts instead of monsters.

Since they were seemingly a weapon of the nightelves, many of them seemed fine, even when some passed through them. On the other side, the winged lizards were not immune but had magic cast on them to block them. However, Luf didn't have the time to ponder over the nature of the elves' hidden weapon.

Sharing a glance, the two faer jumped down the slope. They didn't see any of their people in the battle, so they had to be still inside. Using the chaos, they managed to sneak in with relatively little difficulty. Although they had to off one or two attackers, the specters actually ignored them.

The situation didn't become any calmer inside the base, which was periodically shaken by explosions outside. Actually, they now faced an even bigger problem than the ongoing battle. The base was still a terribly complicated maze, and they had no idea how to find their way, much less search for someone.

"How are we supposed to find the others now?" Rayki asked the important question. However, Rayki already had an answer to that. Without saying a word, she sped off, forcing the scald to follow her in slight confusion.

When she turned around the third corner, she found what she had been looking for. Charging past a nightelf who was locked in desperate combat with an especially big specimen of the airborne reptiles, she struck the beast directly in the chest, releasing the power of death. The best quickly started melting away, leaving behind a safe but confused elf.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked the elf, as flesh slowly started crawling back up to cover her crystalline black finger bones. It still hurt every time she used her powers like this, but it was the quickest way to get what she needed.

The elf looked at her for a moment before she finally nodded. "A-Are you the ambassador from Minas Mar?" she asked to confirm whether she recognized Luf correctly. "S-Shouldn't you already be on the way back?"

Luf felt lucky. They had actually managed to catch someone who not only knew enough to recognize her but even had some knowledge of the general situation concerning their party.

"This will quicken things. We returned because the rest of our comrades did not manage to follow us. It seems like the escape passage collapsed behind us soon after we went through. Do you know where they are, or where they could have gone when they found the passage closed off?" she asked concisely. This was her answer to finding their people: getting a proper guide to lead them through the labyrinth.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I-I don't know where they are right now, but we could go to the passage and see if they are still close by? I don't think their guard would lead them far away passage in this situation..." the quick-witted elf quickly replied. Luf offered her a ticket to get out of this alive; she would have been stupid not to jump at the chance.

Like this, they acquired a guide that led them around the base, back to where the escape originally started. Facing several cave-ins and changes in the path, Luf and Rayki were glad they had gotten a guide.

The fight outside would have probably ended already by the time they found their way into this place. But with the nightelf leading them, it felt like they were making way quickly. They would have been faster if it weren't for the fight and specters they ran into. Although the incorporeal being ignored the faer, their guide had to be more careful.

"By the way, what is up with these ghosts?" Luf asked on the way, after they had waited for a swarm to pass by the corridor they wanted to pass through. The elf smiled awkwardly and hesitated before speaking.

"Errm, well, from what I know, the Necromancers were cultivating them at the central facility. Please, don't ask me about the how..." she said. It didn't seem like she didn't know, but more that she didn't want to talk about.

"We saw some nightelves outside that were not bothered by them, but you seem to be vulnerable?" Rayki asked, running beside the two. She nodded shortly.

"They are the people who usually work with them. They have special magic to protect them. The rest of us relied on the Anima Marmor to keep them out of base. Well, since everything broke down, they are now roaming everywhere," she explained. Since everything was already collapsing, it seemed like she had no qualms about divulging secrets.

They went silent when they suddenly heard a boom of a spell. The rising noise of clashing weapons suggested there was a bigger battle close by. Luf signalled them to follow her as she got closer to the place.

"What is this place?" Luf exclaimed, shocked, seeing a wide field filled with decaying corpses, bound by chains. There was a hole in the ceiling that led to levels above. From there, liards kept storming into the room, cornering the group of nightelves inside.

"It's a specter farm..." their guide said with a morose expression. Rayki and Luf looked at her, shocked, but this wasn't the time to think about the demon business in this place. This was the first group of elves they came across since they met their guide.

'

"Let's help the elves. Maybe they know where Bodeka and her people are," Luf proposed.

Agreeing with her, the three charged into the room. Guide No.1 wasn't of much help. The two faer did most of the work, getting rid of the group of lizards. After a quick concerto by the scald, the score was settled.

"Lady Luf, what are you doing here? Were you not supposed to have left already?" one of the elves wearing a dark robe stepped forward, when the situation finally calmed down and reptiles stopped falling from the ceiling.

She had seen his robes before; they were the clothes of the necromancers of the elves. So he was one of the more essential people in this place with a certain amount of power. Another one with some knowledge, lucky.

"We came back when the rest of our group didn't follow us. I'm looking for Lady Bodeka and her subordinates. The passage we left thought collapsed some time after we left," Luft explained again.

"I understand. In that case, they are probably in the shelters, where all non-combat and essential personnel are supposed to go," the elf said with certainty. His voice didn't waver, so Luf was willing to believe him. "We could go together if you like. I was also on my way there," he suggested.

She was about to agree when they suddenly heard a high-pitched bleep. The eyes of the caster ripped opened wide as he cast a dark blue shield that covered the whole group. Suddenly, the whole base shook.

This was not the small tremors and shakes that went through it all the time, not even like the big ones that collapsed the wall panels. This really shook the WHOLE facility. Through the hole in the ceiling, Luf saw the floor above collapsing as they were swallowed by a bright light.

When it reached them, it was stopped by the shield for a moment, but they were quickly swallowed by the light and the heat. Luf was blinded when she suddenly lost the floor under her feet and started free-falling.

She felt the burning pain as her flesh was boiled off her <Enriched Necron> bones. Even worse, she could feel the burn in her bones themselves. Despite being used to pain already, she screamed in terror and fear. A scream that went silent, as she was just a black skeleton falling.

Finally, the light dimmed, and she hit the ground. There was no telling how long it took for her to recover, but when the pain subsided there was only one thought on her mind, and when her tongue grew back, her first words were:

"Rayki? Rayki, where are you? Please answer! Please, please be okay..."