Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Birthing pools? Does that mean this is the place that spawns the beast for the hell gates?" Seth asked intrigued by the words of the demon. The demon didn't seem worried at all, that two people had suddenly showed up at such a seemingly important place.

Al'Zalsar and the blacksmith approached the demon that had talked to them, getting closer to the birthing pools. Although they approached the mountains, the beasts that incessantly spawned from the pools did not seem to care for their presence.

"Hoho, exactly! Although it is operating on an older rune circle, I recently had the chance to tweak it, since we had to move the whole facility. Now, it spawns twice as fast while the monster only has insignificantly lower power," the demon bragged proudly about some of the pockmarked mountain's features.
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~I guess he doesn't get visitors often.~ Seth commented on the demon's behavior to Al'Zalsar, using telepathy. The blacksmith would have thought that stuff like this was a secret, but the demon was quite eager to share information with them.

"You mentioned that you had to move the facility recently?" Al'Zalsar picked up on something he mentioned.

"Yes, a failed hell gate. Terrible disaster. We lost the whole colony in one go. We even had to move the whole facility away so it wouldn't be impacted by the weird tree that came through the portal," the demon complained, shaking his head in disappointment.

Seth and the sorceress shared a look. It seemed that the cloak had really brought them to the right place. The bard picked up when the demon finished his sentence. Somehow the demon naturally began guiding them around the place as they talked.

"A tree? You had to run from a tree to the point you even relocated your birthing pools?" the bard asked with disbelief in his voice. Although Seth had no idea how important the birthing pools were, he said it in a way to provoke the demon to spill more.

"By the kings! You didn't see that thing. It was terrifying! The vines that broke through the gate simply absorbed the beast population wherever they touched them. Truly horrifying. Then the vines turned into a tree that surrounded the gate, forcing us to relocate the pools and the hell gate location," he said, gesturing in a general direction, where the two could see preparations for a magic formation.

"Really? That terrible? Why didn't you just close the hell gate?" Seth stated like it was the most obvious answer. The hell gate failed, close it, right? He made sure to say it especially innocently to see how the demon would react.

" Oh, yeah! Why didn't we think of that! "Just close the gate," he says. We would have if it was that easy. We would have already closed it if we got close enough to close it," he said as he drew several runes onto a wall.

With a loud grinding, a massive stone gate that had been hidden in the mountain wall opened itself. The view of a long, brightly lit corridor was revealed beyond the gate.

"So you would close it if you got the chance?" the Tower Master asked as the demon led them inside. There were some considerations concerning the abyss gates. On one hand, they could prove to be a great business opportunity if they could create business relations with the demons of this world.

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On the other hand, these were guys that indiscriminately invaded any world that got the chance to enter and Seth wasn't sure whether he wanted to do business with such people. Not to mention that they didn't seem very trustworthy.

There was also the question of what they actually could trade. What Urth needed the most right now was food. This kind of world, that was terraformed into a hellscape, didn't really look like they could provide that. The blacksmith also wasn't overly interested in off-world mining at the moment. So in his opinion, it was good to just close these gates.

"of course, we would. Ah, we are here. " he said and walked into a wide underground room. It was a wide, empty place. the floor was tiled with big stone slaps, which had various patterns of grooves carved into them.

"And this place is?" Seth asked when the demon didn't elaborate further.

"Kukuku, of course, this is the place where you will die! I didn't expect you to follow me all the way here. What fools would follow a demon into his den?" he asked, before having a fit of laughter. "You will be sacrificed in this place, to power the birthing pools. Your body and soul will become nutrients to create even more demon breasts!"

Seth shared a glance with Al. it seemed like they played along a little too innocently.

They couldn't have their host underestimate them like that.

...

The vast room was covered in signs of battle. The walls were covered in cuts and broken by blade winds and massive bodies smashing into them. The massive floor tiles were cracked and the many magic symbols carved into them, were burned out. The grooves of broken magic were filled with demon blood.

Littered on the floor were the corpses of massive demon beasts, but at their center was the talkative demon in loose robes. He had grown by a lot, tripling his size to a whopping 6 meters. In exchange, the stereotypical demon was not kneeling on the ground, bleeding profusely from a wound on his stomach.

His stereotypical horns were ripped out, and his stereotypical bat wings were broken. The stereotypical forged tail lay a few meters away, severed and burned crisp. Covered in bruises and wounds, he was unable to do anything more than kneel there and stare at the two intruders with his striking yellow eyes.

"Wh- what are you? Who- What do you want?" he spat out with ragged breath. They had not immediately killed him. they had played with him. The two had the power to easily end him, yet they opted to fight him, maim him, and kill his demon beasts... They had to want something!

It was very clear what he was thinking at this point, as he fought to just catch his ragged breath. He tried to save his life. if there was no reinforcement here, after causing this kind of ruckus, it was safe to assume that he was alone. Although Al's magic detected other live forms in the structure, it seemed like they were not demons that would come to his rescue, but just a bunch more demon beasts.

"Well, if you ask like that. Can you close the hell gate? It's a really annoying thing and I don't want it in my front yard, " the tower master said leisurely, leaving the demon speechless.

"Y-You came from that hell gate?! The one with the demon tree? How?!" he asked in disbelief. It seemed unfathomable that someone could get close to that thing, much less pass the hell gate it had swallowed.

"I asked you a question. Can you close it?" the bard asked. A dangerous threat was swinging along with his words. <Voice of Seth> made sure the demon knew who was in charge of the situation. The broken demon gulped hard, swallowing his words.

"Yes, I can close it, if I get close enough," he said after a moment. he began shrinking back to a humanoid size, after accepting his defeat.

"Good, then let's go and finish this right away." the bard aid with a smile, with a snap of his fingers a small flame appeared in the air, and a contract poofed into existence. It was a soul contract he created with his skill. After all, who was supposed to trust a demon that tried to deceive them on their first meeting? The demon's eyes went wide.

"A soul contract?!" he asked shocked. Seth knew it wasn't common for a human to be able to create soul contracts, but wasn't he overreacting a little?

"Just one of my many skills. Sign it." It was a simple skill without any hidden traps. It just stipulated that the demon would close the gate and not mention a word of them after they left. In exchange, Seth and Al'Zalsar would spare his life.

The demon read the paper carefully, fully aware of the tricks and implications it had, before signing it with his own blood. After the contract was signed, they left the underground of the birthing pools and came outside.

"Do you have a mount?" Al'Zalsar asked the demon, who nodded taken by surprise.

"Then get it." the lazy sorceress commanded, unwilling to run or fly the way back on their own. Sharing her sentiment, Seth just looked at the demon with expectation. What the demon brought out from another hidden stable along the rock wall of the birthing pools, was a demonic flying beast.

Its build was similar to a Wyvern, but it was covered in smooth gray skin and black fur, like a bat. Its head resembled a ram with curled horns. This was a weird monster, that neither the sorceress nor the blacksmith had ever seen or heard about. The flight back took a while but was overall quicker than their initial journey.

" It really won't kill me?" the demon asked again when the tree got into view.

"Not as long as you what you are supposed to... But you should probably run the moment your job is done," Seth said with malicious glee as the tree on this side wouldn't just vanish just because it got cut off from the main Tree.