1183. Lament
Seth had started with the Mount of War because the blazing steed was the one he was able to do the quickest, as they were never too sure how much time was left. Ever since Natina started actively using her Dragon, the only things able to buy time were Al'Zalsar spell formations. They had been able to stall for two weeks, allowing Seth to finish two of the three needed mounts.
"Wolfram, you came." the blacksmith greeted the dull gray knight who had come to the workshop. It had been a while since he saw Wolfram. The Golem Knight had been stationed in Minas Palan to manage a new badge of Golem Knights in the Adventurer Guild's Holy Land.
The place had gotten quite busy with managing the territory of Kozdam Seth had liberated in his soul farming. There were tens of new dungeons they had to take care of while being vigilant of the orc kingdom. A good place for fresh golem knights to farm levels and grow.
"Yes, my Lord," the golem answered emotionless. Seth cringed. It didn't matter with how little emotion he delivered the line, Seth knew that the golem was teasing him. After the song during the battle of Mount Agra. However, he didn't mention it.
"You heard what this is about, right?" Seth asked as he led the golem to a different room of the workshop. The reason was the nature of the mount he created. It had a negative impact on the work in the main workshop, which was why it was placed somewhere else.
"Yes, the lord is doing a quest that will allow us to become legends," Wolfram summed up the situation as he understood it.
"Right, and that's why you are getting a mount, although you can fly just fine on your own," Seth said with a nod and they entered a specifically separated room. The moment Seth opened the door, a freezing cold breeze blew against them. The inside of the room was like a freezer.
"I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer."
Wolfram was chosen as the representative of Conquest. Comparing Wolfram and the text he found of the four horsemen of the apocalypse backed up his assumption, that these texts could be interpreted very loosely.
After all, Wolfram neither had a crown, nor a bow. Instead, he was created with a mask and he used a staff for long-distance magic. If those were enough to substitute a bow and a crown, then his interpretation was a safe bet.
Entering the room, they found the Mount of Conquest waiting in the center. Its metallic body was covered in glistening. white hoarfrost and swathes of cold fog descended from its body. This was definitely a white horse. With a coat of pure ice, its whiteness was undeniable.
"It's...beautiful..." the golem knight behind him stopped in his tracks and spoke...touched? Seth doubted he heard wrong. That sounded like genuine emotion.
"Its name is Lament. Its body is completely made of dwarven Ithildin to maximize the power of its enchantment and soul," Seth explained matter-of-factly.
As for the enchantment mentioned, Seth left out the forging ballad, when it came to the golem steeds, as it was simply too tiresome to sing for each individual part used. He was also worried they might get in the way of the intricate enchantments needed for the golem to move.
As such, Lament carried only two great enchantments, apart from the automaton ego on its core, Hephaestus' Minor Frost Enchantment was engraved across its body and the Blessing of Cocytos on its soul. The latter was also the reason for the choice of name, as the steed had the blessing of the River of Lamentation.
The choice of enchantments was not purely based on the attempt to make a white golem horse, but also part of Seth's attempt to try and focus on specific effects when enchanting his items. In this case, the enchantments followed the soul he had decided on.
For Lament, he used of of the last remaining high-grade souls he had received from Tano'Mol. The Soul of the Glacial Treant (Big, Epic), a treant born not from plants. but growing ice. the soul alone gave Lament incredible control over ice and frost, together with the Trait "Frostborn", which came with an immunity to ice damage, and +50% to the power of ice elemental attacks.
There was also a reason why Seth chose to use the Soul of the Glacial Treant for Wolfram's mount. He was supposed to be the horseman of conquest and one thing the blacksmith inferred was that the reason was Wolfram's main ability to use various kinds of crowd control, from skill inhibition to turning people into metal.
Conquest was about control and one of the elements best aligned with crowd control was frost. The rider could turn people into metal, the steed could turn them into ice. The rider could inhibit their skills, the steed you hold them in place or slow them down. Seth found this quite fitting.
The only problem was the constantly emitted cold. It got in the way of the furnace operation across the workshops on this floor, so they had to put Lament in an isolated chamber. Unbothered by the cold, Wolfram stepped toward the mechanical horse, stroking its nose.
"Is it really mine?" he asked again to make sure.
"Yes. How about you mount it and give it a test ride?" Seth motivated the golem to get on the horse., keeping an eye on the quest window. Although he was convinced of his interpretation, he still let out a small sigh of relief when the quest got updated.
Wolfram(Conquest)
- Bow of Conquest 1/1
- Mount of Conquest 1/1
....
---Central Mountain Range---
Night had fallen. In the far distance, they saw the bizarre skyline of the center of the central mountain range as dark shadows before a dark blue starry sky.
Towering high into the clouds illuminated by the moon, they saw the central volcano on the horizon. At the flank of the massive mountain, they were already able to make out the lights of Delta, sprawling over the shoulder of the incredible massif.
Surrounding this scenery was a field of broken and crippled mountain tops, with the missing peaks almost gently floating above in the sky. Like clouds, they were slowly drifting in a pattern that surrounded the bright city below.
The Iego Defense System, as the locals called it. They had no reports of ever seeing it actually in action, but the superficial analysis they got from their collaborators in Chrona suggested that even Natina's Ancient Skeleton Dragon would have a hard time getting past it, much less her swarm of doom.
As if their journey up to now was not proven enough, seeing the bright city, filled with lights and covered in the arcane light of barriers, made it clear that their original plan failed. The demons had not razed the city and it had not become a burning field of ruins. It didn't even seem very damaged from the distance.
After having a good look, she returned to the command tent, where her adjutant, the legend sent by the imperial family, as well as her undead commanders were waiting for her.
"Have the scouts returned yet?" Natina asked the legendary swordsman beside her, who was gnawing on a straw of grass.
Since the situation had obviously changed, they had the advance party of scouts, who had been slightly decimated at the start of the journey, out to get an outline of how things were in Delta. Chrona was supposed to technically leave the city defenseless with only a minimal force to protect against outside monsters.
"Yes, the banners of Minas Mar are flying on the walls of Delta and they had more than enough time to prepare their defenses. Barriers, spatial locks, everything is back online. They even strengthened the city barrier and installed various devices on the city wall."
It seemed that nothing was as they hoped or expected to be. Minas Mar had occupied the city for quite a while. it seemed that they had been constantly modifying it for a siege. A great battle was in the near future, but she was looking forward to finally unleashing her new power and crushing the blacksmith and his little organization.
"Prepare the formation. No more dillydallying, we have been played long enough."