Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Boy, how could you do this to us?" a wizened voice asked.

"Why did you abandon us Leader?" a man wearing the scraps of a uniform mumbled.

Their wails tortured the vampire who was held up solely by the blacksmith's strong hands grabbing his collar.

"All I need from you is not get in my way and everyone will get a happy end." the bard whispered at Genevieve to the side.

She huffed but actually did not try to pick a fight with him. The skald on the other hand started reciting to the crowd in a poetic way. He spoke with an easy, calming rhythm that hid the power of swinging along with it.

"I may not know what you were told, but listen to me and put your grievances on hold."

The bard also started using . Although Seth had never really tried using it without having a finished piece, he knew that it was possible. It was one of the privileges of a skald, to even empower his ordinary speeches this way.

Of course, the power came down to his stats and the Demon that decided to lend a hand. If he was lucky it could be someone like Forneus or Ronwe who were known for speechcraft. The former even had the power to enchant allies and enemies alike with his speeches.

That was if he was lucky, however, Seth did not only bet on his luck this time, even when he had the Lucky Trinket ring. Using he specifically aimed for Ronwe, mostly because he was well known for his greater greed for souls.

These creatures were all not part of the system and far outclassed his level. So he was rather safe than sorry. At the price of 30 small souls, inspiration started to flood into his mind and Seth started painting the people a picture of a hero.

Vlad, their leader, who had suffered for years in foreign lands to find a power that could help them. Despite knowing and worrying about the great burden he had put on them, his people, he had forced himself to venture out and brave storm and hail to find help for them all.

Obviously, this was all hogwash. Absolute nonsense, but the people swallowed it. Not because it was credible, but because this was what they wanted to hear and believe. His words, his voice, and his over 300 points in personality sold them the fairy tale they wanted as truth.

Tears of emotion started streaming from the deep-set eyes and down their hollow cheeks. He could even see Genevieve's face, a person who knew the truth, soften in sorrow for the tragic hero's journey.

He told them how he found him, Seth, and his friends and that they already managed to easily dispatch the dastardly 24th Ethnarch on their journey.

"In the end, our enemy, your tormentors managed to lure us into a trap just before we could enter the beyond. They have entrapped our army in a formation and transported them to the beyond to grind them up.

So I beseech thee, brave Vampires, join us in our quest to ambush the perpetrators and take back the freedom of all of us."

Could they help? Did it make sense for the saviors to need the help of these weakened and starving people they came to save? No, no it didn't from an objective standpoint. However, facts and logic were long gone from the mob.

This riled-up crowd was trapped in the throws of demonic speechcraft. They were ready to don their ripped armor and raise their broken weapon, for one last charge at the side of their tragic hero.

"Damn, had I known what kind of effect I can buy for just 30 souls, I would have used this a lot more often.." Seth thought to himself silently, after he finally ended his speech.

Looking into the black staring face of Vlad, Seth started to worry whether the "tragic hero" himself started believing Seth's baloney.

"Hey, hey, Vlad, get your shit together. I need you to play along with this. Can we do something about their circumstances? Like, are you like Vampires in fiction that instantly recover when they get some blood in their bellies?" the blacksmith asked Vlad once the vampire's mind found back to the present.

"I-It's not instantly, but as long you feed them enough blood, they should recover quickly," he answered slowly.

"Will a bunch of almost fresh monster bodies do?" he asked.

He didn't have too much on him currently, but there were still a few dozen lizardman corpses and similar stuff in the storage of the Golem Forge. Although their levels were rather high, they had no materials that made them worth more than being turned into meat golems at some point.

Now they found a secondary purpose.

"Brave warriors, you have suffered a lot. Although our main force is trapped, we still have managed to secure some resources. Please strengthen and equip yourself before we march into battle." he called out at Vlad's nod.

It wasn't only several monster corpses that appeared but also several heaps of equipment. Similar to the corpses, these were the low-grade dungeon drops he had stored in the Golem Forge for a later refinement into funny golems.

Looking at their scrap weapons, ripped clothes, and useless armor, even these japtems were better than their current condition.

"What the heck are you two doing?" Genevieve had finally escaped the haze of fantasy Seth's speech had cast even on her and spoke up.

"What do you mean? Isn't it obvious that I am recruiting and providing for an army?" the blacksmith asked back.

"We are done for if the 13th Ethnarch finds out! Even if I and Vlad fight, we can't wind against it. You are leading them to their deaths!" she aggressively whispered.

"Well, isn't that what you wanted? Have your people die in one last rebellious fight. That was what you asked of Vlad, didn't you? So whether we managed to get to Sigma or you get wiped out on the way, It's a happy end for everyone," he mocked her.

"Of course, I would prefer whoever Vlad made that oath with and bring everyone out of here. Don't you think that will be a much nicer ending?" he continued.

"You? Killing the 13thEthnarch?" she exclaimed.

"I mean, I won't stop you two from helping... but sure I will give it a try. Is it a lot stronger than the 24th?" he asked on the side as he made Vlad direct people to get their corpses aka blood packs and equipment from the piles he had made on the city street.

"It's a lot stronger... how did you even manage to kill the 24th? Even if we fought an arduous battle and gained victory at the cost of many losses, they would always return..." She mumbled.

"Oh, yeah. This kind of enemy is really hard to beat if you can't take away their souls. That's how I killed it, I stole its soul,"

"You have to be kidding me,"

"No, no, for realsies. I swear," Seth said with a chuckle.

That was why Seth was not worried at all about these Ethnarchs. Even when they were stronger than the 24th, the spirit blacksmith had quite a few ways to mess with their souls. And for the worst-case scenario, he had the Helm of Hades, which was why he excluded himself from being wiped out if they met one.

This had finally robbed Genevieve of her words and Seth could concentrate on watching his new strike force equip themselves. Just like Vlad had said, the recovery was not an immediate swelling of muscles and smoothing of the skin, but it still happened quite quickly.

An hour later, before everyone had even gotten their new equipment, the community of vampires that was left in the settlement started looking like very healthy young people, indistinguishable from Genevieve or Vlad.

The only funny thing about them was the equipment. With everyone wearing things of different sets with different colors and styles, they looked like a tin can army that just emerged from a dumpster.

However, stats over looks was a pearl of old wisdom he kept repeating to the vampires over and over. Reality did not have the option to transmogrify equipment, yet.

Two hours after their arrival a ragtag army of 500 hundred battle-ready vampires had assembled. Although only 200 of them were actually warriors, the rest were technically non-combatants. Since they were too riled up to let themselves be left behind, and it was better to take them along anyway, they also wore those trashy items for self-defense.

The blacksmith stepped toward Genevieve who had kept silent while he and Vlad readied the people.

"Have you decided? Do you want to come along and fight alongside your people?" he asked her. Since she was the second strongest vampire aside from Vlad, it would have been reassuring to have her fight for him.

"Okay. Let me see what happy end you can bring us." she gave in.

As an act of trust, Seth gave her a glaive. Not her glaive though, he didn't trust her THAT much, but one he had made.