Legend of the Empyrean Blacksmith

BREAKING THE CHAINS (I)

A faint sound of footsteps echoed throughout the otherwise silent forest, seemingly barren of life . In-between the dead and the dying trees, some grayed and some already blackened, Lino walked casually, his pace brisk, expression placid . He had donned his Heavenly Armor which shimmered in a beautiful combination of golden and azure, two swords stored in simple-looking scabbards hanging by his sides .

Indeed, he didn’t wish to leave anything to chance; he didn’t know what awaited him on the other side of the Gorge as Devils and Demons had fermented in these parts for decades now . Devil Qi was terribly thick and ever-present, making it difficult to breathe without purifying it first . All around, he couldn’t see or sense anything . Even gazing into the horizon was futile as it was masked in gray smoke and black soot and ashen clouds .

One of his hands hung still on the handle of the sword while he used the other to occasionally take a sip of wine . To a naked eye, he was invisible; to the perception of Higher Senses, he was not there – but, all the same, he was certain the Devils knew exactly where he was, as the connection between Ataxia and Ashtar remained steadfast .

The journey was long-winded, empty, silent . The rivers had dried, the forests had died, the mountains had turned limp and empty, the great lakes which once upon a time hosted a variety of lifeforms had been vaporized – all life seemed to have ceased, and he was walking among the land of the dead . In effect, it could be considered that; lands infested with Devil Qi were uninhabitable by everyone except the Devils and the Demons . All other life, be it humans, beasts, animals or plants could not survive .

Most of the scenery was unfamiliar, despite having crossed these parts once before . It had changed too much, aside from the fact that Lino, back then, had mostly sped through these parts in the bid of running away .

He would occasionally glance around, though his sight mostly remained upfront . At all times he kept his Divine Sense with a tinge of Primal Chaos spread about, covering every nook and cranny, expecting an ambush .

Ambush did not come, though something else did that caused him to halt; he came upon ruins of a city he couldn’t recognize . Beyond the rubble and the debris, all was leveled with earth, a central path cutting straight through everything like the main street . On both ends, strung on the gallows, were hundreds of people; by now, most had turned into dried corpses or skeletons, though a few appeared to have died only just recently, perhaps as far back as a few months ago .

Lino quickly counted up to almost two thousand souls, a faint sigh escaping his lips . It appears that people ’lived’ here until just recently, most-likely until the start of the War . He shook his head, resuming his walk, taking the street rather than going around . He’d already seen too many dead in too many ways and forms to be bent and broken by a sight like this .

He didn’t know whether this scene was intentional or pure accident as Lino simply happened to have taken a path through this city, but he hardly cared to begin with . He returned here to do what he failed to do the first time around – expel all Devils and Demons back to Hell . The first time around, he was so weak he had to flee – no more, however .

A few minutes later, he exited the ruins of the city, emerging on the other end and resuming down a road that suddenly took to a sharp, upward curve as it bounded an empty mountain in front of him .

He climbed over it slowly, coming to a halt at its topmost point; there, he overlooked a vast valley, as dead as all land behind him, yet brimming with life – from its beginnings to its ends, Devils and Demons occupied every inch of the space . Shrouded in thick shadows, their crimson eyes looked like flares of light bounding from the infinite darkness . There were hundreds of thousands, Lino realized, standing there in silence, all staring at him emptily .

Lino wasn’t surprised, merely staring back, his eyes void of emotion . A hazy wind blew lightly, fluttering his cloak and hair, carrying with it dry, ashen dust .

An apparition suddenly appeared in front of Lino, hovering in the mid-sky; a clump of smoke was featureless, bound in edgeless shadows, seemingly dancing independently of the reality . Lino couldn’t see past it, yet could recognize it, almost intuitively – it was the Origin Father of all Devils, or at the very least his projection . A pair of crimson spheres appeared within the dancing shadows, staring directly into his eyes .

"—you’ve come a long way," a hoarse, cracking voice spoke out in a whisper . "A friend or a foe?"

"... cheeky," Lino smiled faintly . "I could go for a bout or two against you . How about it?"

"... you have already lost," the apparition said . "Yet still remain blind with confidence . Humans... truly never cease to amaze me . The evolved creatures of intellect... blasted with minds of idiocy . "

"I’m too tired and old for riddles," Lino sighed . "Keep your throne warm . I’m coming for it . "

"..." the apparition spoke no more, merely staring at Lino for a little while longer before vanishing .

As it did, the Devils and Demons below seemed to have awoken, spirits in their souls sparked into life . Killing intent soon permeated every inch of Lino’s surroundings, though it hardly impacted him; this was merely a collective sacrifice if anything . As to why, he couldn’t say . Perhaps there were too many Devils and he wanted to let go of a few? Perhaps he was merely insane? Or, perhaps, he truly believed these children would be enough to stop Lino . The latter couldn’t say .

Rather than delaying it any longer, Lino suddenly withdrew the Slayer from its scabbard, throwing himself off the top of the mountain, entering a freefall . The sharp-looking blade cried out lowly, vibrating in his hand as though thirsting for blood .

The army below roared in unity, each soul taking out their own weapons, crouching slightly and aiming them at Lino who was slowly falling toward them .

He was unperturbed, be it by numbers, by the setting, by the reality of it all . Just as he reached roughly fifty meters from the army, his eyes glimmered in strange light; the Slayer cried out once more, suddenly kindling itself into a holistic, white fire that lit up the world, blinding both the living and the dead .

Lino sped up, bolting through space and time, ripping a tunnel through its vestiges and arriving at the dead-center of the Hell’s Army . He crashed unnoticed, bringing with him a torrential storm of ripping spatial vortices numbering in hundreds that began swallowing the Devils and the Demons in thousands .

He himself spun, drawing a full circle with the Slayer as white fire collapsed into veil-thin blade lights, cutting through the surrounding souls like a scythe through the grass . There was hardly a need to expend more than necessary, or to be flashy; quick and direct was all that was needed .

Following a moment of stillness, a river of ghastly blood erupted as top halves of tens of thousands of Demons and Devils cleaved, raptured upward into a rotating spiral, geysers of blood exploding out into the surrounding world . It was more akin to a performance, so much so that were someone to be standing nearby and observing, they’d be certain it was just a play put on by a wicked mind, as it was difficult to etch it all as a reality .

Lino straightened himself, putting the Slayer back into the scabbard at the same moment cleaved bodies fell onto the ground, splashing about in their own blood . Glancing around once and sighing, he departed, leaving behind the ghastly sight for the dunes and spirits of time to find them .

On his way over to where his story began, similar scenes transpired often . So often, as the matter of fact, that Lino saw his Vitality stat spiking after stagnating for years now . After all, for someone at his level, increasing stats exponentially was extremely difficult . Yet, today, the tale had shifted . Was that the purpose of all this? To sharpen him like a blade? Perhaps, Lino mused . Devils, after all, were Children of Chaos . Their intentions were as clear as the bottom of a muddy lake at night .

After cutting down another army of tens of thousands, Lino stopped for a moment, taking in the sight . He was close, close to that small village, close to where his story began . A nostalgic feeling washed over him, so much so that he felt his heart stir for a moment . Despite having reached the heights he did, and despite living a beyond joyful life, a part of him, in the deep reaches of his heart, still yearned to return to the past . To when he was a bumbling country bumpkin, shamelessly bragging about his non-existent talents, hoping simply to find a piece of bread to carry him over into the next dawn .

Walking away, his shoulders suddenly felt heavier .

"Haii," he sighed audibly, shaking his head . "I’ve really turned pathetic . I guess it’s true what they say... man’s balls vanish when he gets a kid . Puii, no, no! They’re still lodged where the heavens put them! Shake it off, shake it off..." motivating himself by uttering stupidities for a little while, he went along the trail, just mere minutes away from the place his life had begun in .