Terrifying, hollow screams echoed across the cityscape of Sigma. The dark skies filled with sinister skeletal entities looked down on a scene of perplexity.
Unable to do anything against an invisible foe, deep gauges kept appearing across the body of one of their own.
The 13th Ethnarch kept phasing in and out of existence between attacks. Curses that withered stone and steel rained on the buildings, pressure bore down that made them crumble.
But in return, it either got no reaction or suffered damage itself because. An earthly haze was trying to wither its body, the curse of the White Bull, but this was something it could ignore. Worse was that whatever part was exposed would be slashed, losing chunks and pieces of its spectral body.
Sometimes it was a sudden pain without any prior notice at other times it was an energy blade made of that unrelenting pale fire. All it could do when set aflame was to abandon that part, carving out affected and healthy parts close to them.
However, the Ethnarch was not the only one feeling pressed. It was not easy for Seth to evade the carpet bombing and even if his armor could stop and reflect most of it, being hit by this kind of sorcery was painful and not something the blacksmith enjoyed.
If it wasn't for Golden Fleece, he might not have lasted as long as he did.
Stepping on one of the glass-insect golems he had prepared he heard a notification he had not expected. < Lame One's Walk> had leveled up after a long time.
This was the other matter that gave the bard a hard time, he had no skill to fly in the sky. That was why he used the Golem Factory to produce huge numbers of consumable stepping stones.
Using the ample resource of glass from the buildings of Sigma he created these almost invisible flying golems. They were not very sturdy, or useful for anything except being able to hover in place. He had to deploy them, step on them and use feather fall to imitate a kind of flight.
With every step and powerful jump, they would crumble below his feet. He had made several hundred, but in the end, they were finite. On one hand, Seth had no idea how much the Ethnarch could take, on the other he had to buy time.
To make matters worse, he didn't know how long he himself could withstand it. Even though his armor could reflect most of the damage and he was healed with the skills of the golden fleece, with every hit he took he could hear the armor creek and crack dangerously.
Still, the benefits he reaped with the Ravenous Sog were an enticing reason to keep hitting it. With every gouge in the beast's body, the blacksmith could feel a cool stream of power nurturing his soul and his Mana permanently rose by a few points.
In addition to that, there were stat increases. With every other hit, he would gain intelligence or willpower.
"Urgh!" the 13th Ethnarch groaned and completely vanished.
Seth managed to land on one of the withered and crumbling buildings below. The city was almost completely flattened in the vicinity of their battle. Only the last spire was still standing in the middle of the ruins.
The Ethnarch was probably hiding to recover, this meant Seth was close to killing it. Now he somehow had to make it come out again. What was better for this than a taunt?
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"Oh, 13th ~ Did my sword hurt you? Are you afraid? How pitiful for one of the Etnarchs of the Beyond to hide from a puny human." a demonic voice echoed through the ruined city and into the skies above.
Even when he spoke, the projection of his voice and the Helm of Hades made it impossible to make out where it came from. He did not channel anything this time, the
He waited for a moment, but nothing happened. It might not have been enough provocation. He shrugged his shoulders and walked beside the tower, where he suddenly appeared with his Helm in his hands.
"Do you need a little handicap? Here I am. If you don't come out I will simply destroy that tower and be done with it." he said, patting the wall of the tower.
Immediately afterward, huge cracks started appearing on the structure's surface as it sank into the earth. It still stood, but there was no telling for how long. Of course, the blacksmith had not told them what he was about to do, but what he already did.
He had already brought out Python beforehand and sent it over to dig out the tower's foundations. Now he only walked over to collect her back to his inventory before "showing himself".
"Whoops, did I do that?" he played innocent.
"Yooouuu!" an angry roar filled the city.
By the time he appeared, the 13th Ethnarch was already before him, charging through the air with incredible speed. The big crocodilian skull opened its maw wide to crush him in one fell swoop. The pesky human crumbled to dust between its mighty jaws before the being crashed into the Tower of trials, completely shattering it.
The blacksmith liked to imagine that its last thoughts were "Are humans supposed to grumble to dust?" as it bit down on the earth dummy laced with illusion magic.
Because in the next moment when it came to a halt, the Ravenous Sog pierced the beast's skull in a cascade of flames and Seth empties his mana and mental strength to shove as much spirit fire down its through, into the skeletal body.
Like water traveling down a glass pipe, the fire traveling along its body and filling the creature could be seen from the outside. Had it been normal flames, the Ethnarch would have had no worries, because these bodies were just materialization of their power.
But the moment the sword had struck, it knew that it was over, as the fire ate away body and soul all the same.
The flame had traveled all along the beast's body and in a matter of moments, the body began to dissolve and vanish. But it did not end there as the ground started quaking. These were the signs of Idyllin's space formation taking effect
After the body was gone, the Blacksmith took off the helm and appeared again.
"I guess, I won?" he called out.
Voices answered. "Puny human!" "Don't think you have won just yet."
Above the dome in the distance masses of bones appeared among broiling black clouds. Beams of sickly gray light poured on the dome and destroyed it. From a portal in the sky a black sludge made up of unimaginable numbers of monsters flooded into the city below.
"Did you really believe we would allow you to leave?" someone said, the voice oozing with cruelty and joy as it crushed and tortured an ant.
Their actions made it obvious that the Ethnarchs did not intend to keep their word. Beasts flooded the city to kill the citizens. Curses and blasts similar to the attacks of the 13th flattened The Wards. They did their very best to instantly destroy anything Seth and the people of Sigma had tried so hard to protect, only to find him calm and the city...empty.
"You tricked us!" a choir of outrage shook what was left of Sigma. It was the last thing Seth heard before he was swallowed in a flash of bright light.
It was true, Seth had not intended to trust in their word, or even his plan completely. After destroying the twelfth tower the blacksmith took his sweet time while Idyllin opened a portal to evacuate the people of Sigma to a Starta Village near Delta.
Whether they would stop him before the twelfth or not, was the only big risk. Even if the Ethnarchs had not waited until the last moment, they could have already started evacuating people.
The next strep was challenging them. Challenging them to a duel with the 13th, to be specific. This was necessary in order to buy more time and to free the Vampires from their oath. He had even played a trick on them, in case he lost, he still wouldn't have given them his soul.
The last step was the simplest. He just had to make sure the last spire fell.
Idyllin prepared the formations to bring back the parts of sigma that were brought to the Beyond so that they would activate the moment the last space lock, aka the Tower of trial, was destroyed. At this point, only Seth and the Vampires were still in the Beyond and would be transported back with the rest of the city.