Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Following their finding during the Meeting of Masters, Seth had a femur for the Sky Dragon soaking in an alchemical solution to drain its color in preparation for forging the visor. In the meantime, Seth focused on the helmet.

This time, Seth and Cerberus split the scale before forging it down into a plate. This was because only half a scale was needed for a helmet. This way, they would have a second half affected by the forging ballad of the helmet.

"Don't bother keeping up with me. Burning the candle at both ends won't help, it's true. You know the writing's on the wall. Why do you ride to take a fall?" The text almost sounded like it was well-meant, if <Voice of Seth> didn't make it clear that it was condescending.

As the blacksmith and the golem started swinging their hammers, a rather soothing melody started rising in the workshop, played by Oz, the demon lyre. Seth had not actually come across this himself; it was Oz who suggested it to him. This was a song he had created when the demon was still alive.

"Slow down, you're moving way too fast~ Slow down, you know you'll never last. Slow down, your haste is making waste. Slow down, and join the human waste, yeah~" the upbeat tone almost hid the ill meaning.

According to the lyre, the song called upon the primordial power of sloth and granted a toggle skill to the item it was used on. This meant the user could turn it off and on depending on the situation.

When using it, it created a field surrounding the wearer that would slow the enemies surrounding them.

It was not something elaborate like a time-slowing field one would see in science fiction. No, it was a sloth field, as expected of a ballad drawing power from a deadly sin. Attackers were not forced to become slower by their surroundings, but were affected by the sin of sloth invading their minds when in the vicinity of the user.

Unless they had formidable willpower and mental resistance, their own bodies would start resisting fast and complicated moves. Not just their body would become slower, but even their thinking would become lazy. In that way, it was similar to Seth's ballad in the fight with Natina, urging, almost forcing the enemy to make choices and moves that benefited him.

The only drawback of this ballad was that the skill was supposed to be very costly when activated. However, Seth already had a solution for that. He intended to use one of the massive souls he refined from the dragonnewt souls to carry the enormous cost and allow Faenys to use the skill for extended periods of time.

"I tried to tell you time and time again. You know you'll have to pay the consequence. Now you're obsessed with such a pace, but still so slow and without grace."

With the help of the golem, the bascinet quickly gained its basic shape. Despite making the helmet from a single sheet, Seth could soon turn to working out the finer shape and details before planishing the whole piece.

When there was not much more to do than shine and polish the base helmet, they set it aside, and the blacksmith pulled the bone from the vat of chemicals, still singing. The dragon femur had turned perfectly clear, and the blacksmith could see the inside, where some dried blood and bone marrow remained.

Seth was quite surprised to find the dragon bones to be as porous, or even more porous, than the normal bones he had worked with in the past. A lot of compacting and reinforcement would be necessary to make a proper visor out of it.

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But before he started working the bone with Charon's Obol, he used the Ravenous Sog to split the bone in half. Then he picked up a scraping knife and got rid of anything on the inside that had not become translucent. This way, he wouldn't have to deal with it during the forging process.

"Slow down, you're moving way too fast~ Slow down, you know you'll never last. Slow down, your haste is making waste. Slow down, and join the human waste, yeah~" he repeated.

Once cleaned, still singing, Seth began working the two bone halves. Using <Reinforce> and <Energy Manipulation>, he turned the material malleable while compacting it porous materials into a solid and smooth sheet.

Although the bones lacked the legendary effect of the Heart Scales, they had the same durability and defense values. They came with an innate impact resistance, probably to mitigate the force when a massive dragon landed, so there was at least some more merit to them than just being a clear material.

Each half became a thin, clear sheet of bone as he worked out the last impurities. When the two bones had become satiated with his magic power, he was able to fuse them into one sheet and finally start shaping the visor.

The design was deliberately simple. It started with a smooth transition from the helmet to the visor.

The eye area was featureless, without indications of eyes. The visor also lacked any holes for sight or breathing, resembling a biker helmet in that regard.

At first, Seth had intended to include flutes, which would have made the helmet look like an eyeless, stylized skull. However, the smooth visor, which only had the proportions of a human face, but no features at all, had a somehow disquieting effect Seth liked.

Especially once it had a mirror finish came in, it would have an inhuman, almost uncanny effect. Most importantly, despite reflecting a distorted image of the surroundings, the mannequin-like visor would be a completely blank canvas for Faenys' powers of fear to draw on.

Overall, it ended up with less of a traditional knight helmet design and more of a cyber warrior vibe. Especially once Seth continued with the final step. Happy with its current shape, he misted it with an alchemical solution made of <Mithril> on the outside of the visor, giving it a bright mirror finish.

Doing so carefully, he managed to turn the visor into a one-way mirror, bright silver on the outside and clear from the inside. The visor had slightly darkened because of the demonic ballad and the coating, but the view was clear. The slight darkness could be further offset by night vision skills or effects.

"Slow down... Slow down..." the song finally waned as Seth attached the visor to the helmet and made some last adjustments to finish his take on the bascinet. Fitting with the colors of the cuisses, the final helmet was royal blue with a silver visor.

Lastly, Seth added a modest aventail made of <Adamantium> to the rim of the helmet, shifting it slightly back to the time period he preferred. Although <Adamantium> was a legendary material, its feature was its incredible durability, so it wouldn't get in the way of other magic effects.

With that, it was time to get Faenys involved again, to see whether it fit her taste. One thing was clear: although the colors matched, the helmet was much less adorned with decorations than the cuisses. He didn't really need her to see if it fit, because the helmet was already made with a suspension liner in mind. There was more than enough space inside for a head.

Seth had started forging after breakfast, and it was late morning when he contacted the Chosen of Phobos. He had expected her to be training in the morning, but she actually answered his call from Nädel's workshop. She had actually gone to visit the tailor to watch her boots being made.

"I'm coming over right away," her voice sounded from the communication orb. The tailor workshop wasn't far away, but Faenys actually appeared with the teleport function of the tower, after Seth gave permission for her to enter his workshop that way.

"Here, have a look," the blacksmith said and handed her the helmet to get her opinion.

"Wow, it's really clear from the inside," she exclaimed, plopping it directly on her head. She proceeded to play around with the visor for a little while before turning the helmet in her hand to get a better look at the outside.

"I like it a lot, it feels smooth and modern, but I feel like it is missing something..." she mumbled.

It was missing something?