Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“Fafi, nooo!” echoed in the sky and moments later the undead manning the walls vanished around Garroun. Only the adventurers and golems sparsely spread were left to defend. Well, and the huge tree that was doing all the work.

The commander and his men had been quite useless for the past few minutes since the tree appeared and began to defend the city faster than the hordes of zombies could replenish. However, he was concerned about Evee, the necromancer who originally summoned their undead friendlies.

Combined with the shriek in the sky, had something happened to her? He could only hope she didn't sacrifice herself to take down Fafi. Just as he had the time for some idle thoughts, there was an alarm from inside the city.

...

“Damn it, I told you we should go faster!” the archer said, trying to lift the last gate stone together with the tank. Security in Delta was tight. The moment their stealth spell stopped working, they were spotted by golem eye sentries that activated the alarm.

“Isn't that why we started with the gate instead of-” the tank tried to comment, but he was interrupted by their leader.

“Zip it and hurry up!” the party leader barked as he drew up the last signs of the magic circle on the ground. They had been a little late when they finally found a medium-sized plaza at some distance from the tree that fit to set up their set of gate stones.

To make up time, they immediately started with the stone gate, instead of the hell gate. it was the right decision, otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to finish the gate before the stealth magic ran out. If it wasn't for the quick alarm, they could have still finished the secondary gate.

Now the circular square was covered with white chalk markings, while the archer and the tank set the last gate stone to finish the henge at the center of his scribbling. It was a singular stone gate, made up of two vertical and one horizontal gate stone.

Gate Stones were extremely precious, as they were a catalyst that could create a gateway between worlds, even with such a simple setup. The meticulous formation surrounding it was just to properly set the coordinates unless it would create a gate to a random place in a random world.

The fact that the individual gate stones could be transported in the inventory made them even more valuable. Quick deployment, and easy transportation, if it wasn't for the few drawbacks like the scarcity of materials and lack of flexibility, they could have replaced the usual teleport formation.

Of course, this was not the original plan. Just like Natina's Plan to take down the progenitor tree, this operation was originally not meant to be executed in Delta. This was a plan to steal credits once they found Minas Mar's lair, or laid siege to Little Sigma.

This had changed over the past two weeks, when it became clear, that Minas Mar was going to defend the central district. It was during the journey that they had gotten instructions from lord Byron to change the plan and look for a chance to set up the gate stones in an opportune moment. Hijacking Natina's original plan was the best chance to sabotage her and achieve the mission.

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Once Lord Byron's troops invaded, the situation here didn't matter. They would not only deal with the tree but also with Natina. Meanwhile, they would seek refuge in Lord Byron's Domain once the passage was established.

The moment the last gate stone was placed, a pane of light filled the stone gate, just after the alarm rang. Once the gate was fully established in a few minutes, they could pass through to safety.

“Alright, let's finish up while the gate is forming and get out of here!” the party leader said, moments before a massive paw slammed into his side. Carried by the force, he penetrated the wall of the nearby building and was embedded into the dense mesh of rebar.

The giant white tiger's pupils constricted when he saw the gate at the center of the square, recognizing what it was. He watched as the pane of light in the gate started growing, expanding past gate stones.

...

Duhu was the closest one by and had turned into his tiger form for speed, so he was the first to arrive. With a curse, the Tijaahk ignored the attacks from the remaining party and fled into a nearby building to turn back to his humanoid form. He had to report back, there were more alarms than just this one.

“Leana, this is Duhu. They are setting up stone gates in the city!” he contacted the princess at the command center. These artifacts were a serious strategical resource, as they allowed quick deployment of inter-dimensional gates, even on enemy territory. 𝘳АΝꝊ฿ΕŜ

The biggest problem was that, once they were deployed, they couldn't be stopped from outside, The connection would be established and could only be broken again afterward. The others had to hurry, if they came too late like him, they would face a dimensional invasion from several places.

“Leana? Are you there? Did you hear me?” he asked again.

He stared at the communication orb in his hands after he shouted into it. There was only silence, nobody answered him. Was the orb broken or something? if they jammed the communication then-

“We got it, Duhu,” Leana finally answered after several moments of nervous silence. “Sorry for the silence, but I had to contact Karina to have the Tree act inside the city,” the princess explained her silence.

The moment she heard about the gates, she acted to react as quickly as possible. As she spoke, roots shot from the ground exploding the pavement in all directions. In the plaza, the party of people above lv.140 put up a valiant fight against the botanical foe.

“I can see that...” Duhu mumbled after watching the one-sided battle for several moments. As strong and valiant as their attempt was, they could not resist the attack of the roots for long. Ultimately, they were caught by the roots and pulled to the depths below Delta.

“Give me a moment to check the situation,” the princess said, before disconnection the call. Meanwhile, Duhu could only watch the pane of light keep growing. It was half the size of the surrounding skyscrapers when it finally showed signs of slowing.

It formed an illusory copy of the gate, several dozen times bigger than the original, framing the pane. It wouldn't take long for it to stabilize. Duhu didn't look forward to what would come through this portal. He was staring at the towering sign of invasion when the orb vibrated.

“Leana?”

“Bad news. Even with the tree coming in, we only managed to stop two of the places from establishing the stone gate. There are currently six active gates. How is the status on your end?” Leana asked concerned, as Duhu's was probably the first to be completed.

“It's about to open. Are you going to send reinforcements?” the Tigerman asked concerned.

“No, leave it to the tree, you should get out of there. We will reassemble and deploy depending on the situation.”

Duhu swallowed hard when she said that they would leave it to the tree. The reason the tree was originally only attacking outside, was because it couldn't really differentiate friend or foe unless Karina controlled it. So he hurried his steps. He had no interest in experiencing the legend's friendly fire.

Turning into a tiger, Duhu sprinted through the empty streets, just in time to evade the flood of rising roots and falling vines that surrounded the gate.

...

Leana let out a tired sigh. It was one thing after another, however, this new move didn't seem to fit with the strategy they had seen so far. Natina Durnham was a Necromancer commanding several legends.

If their goal was to set up gates inside Delta and call reinforcements directly from the empire, they could have done so from the start, considering they had a stealth technology that could get past their security. Why draw out the battle and call them, only when the Guardian Tree made its appearance?

The princess could understand that Natina was feeling them out so far, but now she was just hovering above Delta with three of her legends, not doing anything. Was she really waiting for the reinforcements?

If this was her plan to deal with the tree, then they couldn't underestimate what might come from those gates. She doubted it, but maybe things could become dicey if they didn't get serious.

“Seth? Seth are you there?” she tried to contact the blacksmith to update him on the situation, but there was no answer.

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