Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

He had been looking forward to making this item for quite some time now and all he had been lacking was a material that could act as the medium for the enchantments and the soul. With the Demon Jelly’s core, he even got one that was originally specialized in storage. Seth used a small piece of for the ring and planned to set the core into the ring like he would do it with a gem.

The sorceress watched as the blacksmith began his work on the ring. Even her hair stood up slightly when the eerie slow tune of the forging ballad filled the room. Dark fissures appeared in the air surrounding them, small rifts in space.

The ballad praised Volkrim, a mighty demon that has specialized in matters of space and trade. The ballad cost Seth 3000 small souls he had bought from Tano’Mol. In Exchange for this exorbitant price, Volkrim could link a space pocket to an appropriate item.

However, this was not enough to make a piece of space equipment, as it only build a connection between the two. Without the appropriate skills, one would be unable to actually use the pocket for storage. This was where Al’Zalsar and the Soul of the 24th Ethnarch came into play.

The blacksmith needed Al to make up for the shortcomings of the soul. Obviously, he couldn’t keep the ego of the creature intact. Unfortunately, the soul of the creature was a lot different from what he was used to with the little experience he had. When Seth wiped the Ethnarch’s ego from the soul, it retained the skills, but no agency to use them.

It would take time to reform an ego that could act autonomously, that was why the control would be taken over by Al’Zalsars enchantments, which would enable the user access and control over the space pocket.

This was the original plan, but it gained a slight addition with Seth reaching the master level. One of the Olympian enchantments unlocked with lv.1 was called the Basic Automaton Core Circuit. Of course, this was far from basic as it was a circuit developed by the god of blacksmiths and craftsmen himself.

When Seth thought about what enchantment to add, this sprang into his eyes. If he engraved the Core Circuit of an automation onto a soul, would it substitute an ego, or would it be a seed for an absolutely obedient ego?

He shared his ideas with the sorceress after finishing the physical vessel of the ring. Although she didn’t appreciate the change in the plan, she was intrigued by the circuit itself. She agreed to work with him and see how far the automaton circuit could go. If it didn’t work, they could still go through with the original plan, if it did work, she was going to change her enchantments.

With bated breath she watched the blacksmith start his work on the soul of the 24thEthnarch. Al had not seen it personally, but the aura of the soul was dark and murky, it was clear that this creature had been full of malice when alive.

Seth first used to bring the soul into the shape of a ring, before he started to adapt and engrave the core circuit onto the soul ring. Some glances at the sorceress at his side calmed him, as her face was full of confusion, just like his was when he did it the first time.

Just like he could only follow the system’s assistance and copy the engraving onto the soul, even Al’Zalsar was seemingly unable to make sense of the divine enchantment. Seth was glad that he was not the only that lacked the capability to understand them. When even Al was unable to do it, there was nothing to be ashamed of with his own lack of understanding.

Covering the whole ring soul in the circuits engraving was hard and took quite a while, but finally, Seth connected the last lines and the whole circuit suddenly lit up. It was the sign that he had managed to copy it successfully.

“Hehe, the last time I saw you sweating like that was at night,” the sorceress joked, seeing he was done.

Seth flinched, remembering the night with the sexy sorceress. He hurriedly focused on the ring soul. All that was left was infusing the soul and baptizing it in the Waters of Styx.

However, before he baptized it, he tried using to get in contact with the soul. He wanted to make sure it worked.

~Awaiting Input. Please Grant a Name.~

He didn’t expect this. Was this a set-up process? He felt reminded of the times when he had to set up the operating system of new computers. But more importantly, what was he supposed to name it? It needed to be a concise name in case he had to use it to communicate with the ring. But also fitting to the ring’s purpose…

~Legion~ For it would be many in the future. It was the best he could come up with in the short term.

~Name Accepted. Awaiting Orders.~

Seth thought for a moment. Since it was acting like a computer program, maybe he should try using it like one?

~Legion, list all your functions.~

~Affirmative. Possible functions are: Mana Assistance, Magic Power Assistance, Illusion Magic Assistance, Necromancy Assistance, and Spatial Manipulation.~

~Can you open a gate to the space pocket connected to you?~

~Affirmative~

String winds suddenly roared through the workshop and papers flew through the air. A black, oval gate opened in the middle of the room and kept madly sucking in the surrounding air. Al waved her hand and a barrier sealed off the black gate, stopping the airflow.

“It seems like your idea succeeded. Judging by the wind, it should be a big and absolutely empty pocket of space Can the ring manipulate the size of the gate?”

After some back and forth, Seth and the former lich explored the abilities of the automaton ego and the ring’s spatial powers. It could slightly manipulate the size and position of where the gate would be opened. The time to open it was almost instant. As Al herself was also not really human, she even opted to take a look at the emptiness inside.

“It’s about the size of my apartment building. Its base is slightly curved with an area of roughly 150 by 100 paces. There is a stable gravity and it seems a lot higher than it is wide. I suggest we built a structure inside if you want to store living units.”

They talked a while longer about the additional enchantments Al would add to the ring, before she got to work, too. It was Seth’s turn to watch the sorceress draw a magic circle on the ground and place various materials in different places of the circle.

It was honestly Seth’s first time he saw an enchanter at work. She worked a lot more with catalysts than he expected, in exchange, these kinds of enchantments had a much greater range of effects than the formations the blacksmith used.

She placed the ring in the middle and started chanting while walking along a specific path through the magic circle. Like during the ritual to get rid of the divine energy, the drawn lines lit up and so did the catalysts. Her chanting kept becoming louder and louder and the light kept getting brighter and the catalysts slowly melted into the formation.

And then- It abruptly stopped. For a moment everything was extremely bright and loud and then it was back to normal. The drawn lines and catalysts had burned away, leaving only the ring on the ground. Al picked it up and passed it to him.

“Here, finish it.”

With a nod, the blacksmith dropped the ring into the waters of Styx.