Forged Legacy

Chapter 143 - Silver Bullet

Harvey awoke to the song of mourning doves outside his window. The integration had taken a lot from him, but it also brought back a few things he’d lost living in an increasingly digital world. Rolling to his side, he turned the plastic alarm clock resting on the wooden nightstand.

[Rise and shine!]

Walking into the hallway, he saw Max lying down on the carpet, pushing a toy monster truck back and forth. He’d always been an early riser, and it hadn’t been until recently that he stopped waking up his parents at the crack of dawn.

“Hey buddy!” Harvey whispered, smiling when he ran over to wrap him in a hug. “How did you sleep?”

“Good,” he replied. “Daddy still tired.”

“Did you try to wake him up?”

Max nodded. “Mommy said he can’t play.”

“I’m sorry, bud. Here, I’ll play with you for a minute, but we have to be quiet so we don’t wake Ellie."

They moved to the living room downstairs, building a pillow fort out of the couch cushions. Max did his best to keep it down, but that didn’t stop his incessant giggles from waking everyone else.

“Morning,” Eleanor yawned, stretching her arms above her head before stumbling down the stairs. Their mother followed soon after, closing the master bedroom door behind her.

“How’s dad?” Harvey asked.

“Doing a lot better. He says he’s ready to go whenever Cash arrives, but I told him I’d only agree if he keeps resting until then,” Cassandra answered.

“Good. I’m happy to hear that,” Harvey exhaled, relieved to hear there hadn’t been any long-term damage.

“How are you?” Eleanor asked. “I was surprised to hear you working so late.”

“I’m fine,” Harvey responded. “Overdid it a bit, that’s all. Speaking of work, I better get back out there. I need to make sure I’m finished before Cash gets here.”

Eleanor took his place inside the pillow fort with Max, and Harvey returned to the garage. All his components were ready to go, he just needed to put it all together. First, he inscribed two variants of bullet tips for each holy ink. One powered manually, and one powered by a kinetic absorption array inscribed at the bottom. Then, he affixed the primers he salvaged from the brass casings to his new steel ones, double-checking to make sure the seal was tight before packing them full of hellpowder. Finally, he carefully inserted his inscribed bullet tips and crimped the steel down tight.

A new creation has been made | .50 Cal Judgement Round | Major Essence Gained

A new creation has been made |.50 Cal Heaven’s Wrath Round | Major Essence Gained

Your profession, Runeforged Artificer, has reached Level 44. +8 Endurance, +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +12 Willpower, +8 Free Points

“Success,” Harvey smiled, inspecting his handiwork as the radiance settled back into his skin. He hadn’t expected another profession level so soon, but all the first-craft bonuses he’d gotten over the last day had really stacked up.

Depositing the original bullet inside his ring, Harvey pulled out Rupture and connected to it with Soul Forge. A key component of his plan to use guns as the vector for his adaptive fighting style was the ability to conjure his bullets directly into the gun. An idea that was still untested since Echo Forge could only replicate items that he made. If it didn’t work, he’d have to reconsider his dream of dual-wielding a hammer in his right hand and a gun in his left.

His heart rate rose as essence rushed towards Echo Forge. He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until the Skill answered, conjuring a perfect replica of his Heaven’s Wrath bullet directly inside the chamber currently aligned with the barrel.

“Ha! It worked!” Harvey cheered, snapping the cylinder aside and pouring the bullet into his hand so he could compare it to the real thing. He already knew they’d be identical, but the final thread of tension in his heart still snapped when he saw they matched down to the scuff where his crimping scratched the silver.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Testing it further, he conjured one of each of his four bullets, having no issue filling all but one of the revolver’s empty chambers. The essence cost wasn’t negligible, but he could create hundreds before tapping out his reserves.

You have no idea how badly I want to go test these out right now

[I know exactly how bad you want to. I’m inside your head,] Julius laughed.

Part of him wished the alarm bells would go off right then and there, but it wasn’t until the early afternoon that he got the chance. Cash arrived around noon, taking them to the foundries where Heaven’s armies were built so they could get to know the new creatures that had been added to the mix while they were escorted to the front lines.

“These are called Ophanim,” Cash explained.

“You sure they’re not called ugly?” Tyler blanched.

“Tyler!” Steve reprimanded, lightly smacking the back of his head.

“What! They can’t hear me. It’s a blob of eyes, not ears!”

Floating high above their heads was a creature made purely of milky-white eyes, spinning on wheels in a pattern that reminded him of electrons orbiting an atom. They never blinked, and they never stopped moving.

“They’re not winning any beauty pageants, but they’ll help a lot if hell sends more tortured souls today.”

“How? By giving them the evil eye?” Harvey muttered, unable to look away.

“The legend says that their eyes were created by the Father himself, letting him see across the countless battlefields where his children fight in his name. Everywhere he looks becomes holy ground, infusing the ambient essence with holy resonance that will suppress the demons.”

“That sounds like a guaranteed home-field advantage,” Tyler said. “Why weren’t we using these things before?”

“Well, they’re expensive,” Cash said, pointing to the noticeably smaller number of lions, eagles, and giants walking beside them. “And, they’re pretty hard to protect. Their powers only work within line of sight, so they have to fly higher than the Nephilim’s shields to cover anything more than our own army.”

The alarms started just as they reached the staging grounds before the wall, and they left Steve and Tyler just inside the gate before going out to inspect their opponents. Like the day before, a horde of tortured souls looking like black fog washed out of the wreckage, but this time it only made up a quarter of their numbers.

“They’re testing us,” Harvey muttered. “Seeing whether we’d overcommit to countering the shades or leave ourselves vulnerable.”

“Every battle will start as a losing one until we kill another lieutenant,” Cash sighed.

“How are we supposed to do that when we’re barely holding on as it is?” Harvey asked.

Cash turned to look at him, a somber look on his face. “Honestly, I don’t know. For now, I’m choosing to have faith that someone has a plan.”

Harvey could already hear the incessant wails from across the expanse, and today it was joined by the familiar bark of hellhounds. Above them, he thought he saw more bats, but realized they were different once they flew closer. They were humanoid.

“Are those actual demons coming out to fight?” Harvey asked.

“No, they can only fly in short bursts like us. Those are brimfiends. Fireball-slinging imps the size of small children,” Cash explained.

“Fun,” Harvey sighed, adjusting his grip on the gun. “Should we get the others?”

“If you think you can protect them,” Cash replied.

“I won’t run out of mental energy as fast now that I know infusing the redoubt keeps them from phasing through the walls. I say we get them as much experience as we can.”

Cash nodded, “You set up the bunker while I go grab them.”

Metal walls sprang up around him, and he immediately felt safer than before. Having a roof over your head was nice when you knew fireballs would start raining from the sky. A knock on the door brought the others inside.

“You ready?” Harvey asked, looking at his father and brother beside him. Their wounds were fully healed thanks to Cash and Diana’s ministrations, but he could feel how nervous they were. Both barely remembered what happened the day before, only remembering a blood-curdling scream before the world went black.

“We’re ready,” Steve assured, putting a reassuring hand on Tyler’s back.

“So am I,” Harvey smiled, conjuring one of his bullets and pulling it out for all to see. “Wait til you see what I made last night.”

Hundreds of red specks filled the daylight as the first volley of fireballs careened towards them. The Nephilim raised their shields, intercepting as many as they could while the Ophanim sank back. Heaven’s dwindling detachment of war eagles soared after the first wave landed, moving to intercept the brimfiends that were already conjuring a second set of attacks. Compared to the eagles, their flight was stilted and slow, bobbing up and down like their wings couldn’t support their own weight.

They were followed by tortured souls, and Harvey smiled when the first broke through their ranks. Under the light of the Ophanim’s gaze, the wraiths were wounded by angelic gunfire that would’ve passed right through their incorporeal bodies the day before. Still, none of their bullets could hold a candle to Harvey’s.

BANG!

Silver streaked through the air, punching right through the head of a screaming soul. Its red body glowed gold as holy flames consumed its upper body, igniting the cloaks of two nearby wraiths in the process.

BANG!

Harvey shot again, this time adding the power of the first ring inscribed on Rupture’s barrel. The steel held up, rocketing the silver bullet out of the barrel even faster than before. Golden fire soon began spreading across the battlefield, using the sin inside their bodies as kindling.

Behind him, Harvey could feel the others relax, apprehension turning to awe. Their guns lowered, even Cash pausing to stare. Harvey said nothing, but couldn’t hide the triumphant grin.

Not so scary now, are you?