Chapter 8: Meeting

Barbados was outside of what seemed to be a hobbit hole with a heavy oak door encrusted with precious metal. There were no windows, but there was a chimney in the centre of the hill that had the crudest and darkest smoke coming out. Barbados knocked on the door, and he heard a yell from inside.

"Oi, wait a min."

"First impressions were great" he thought as he waited for the mystery person to open the door. He could hear the rapid approach of footsteps and he moved out of the way as the thick wooden doors easily swung open.

"Well, would you look at this strange fella that has come to visit me."

"Me? Strange?" Barbados asked, taken back by the comment. "You're the one I'd consider strange. You live secluded in a forest 1 hour away from the city in a forest guarded by Druids. There are Carnivorous Willow trees that are being trained by Ents. And, the strangest by far, there is a shrine in the middle of this forest dedicated to the forgotten Devil God. My appearance is nothing strange compared to where you choose to live." The human looked at him and laughed.

"You got me there. Come in. Adam told me about you."

There were nuggets of metal spread everywhere and the trapped heat smacked Barbados.

"How can you resist this heat? Even with mana, I doubt you would be able to withstand this much."

"Ah you can't see my actual appearance. Touch my palm." Barbados did so, and bright lights hit his eyes. He saw a world different to the one he was used to. It resembled the way Truif used to describe him how he saw the world; only colours dancing with no defining structure. He started repeating the words he whispered to him from the time before he was sealed.

"A world before this world. A world of freewill. The spirit world." He looked down at the human. "You can't be a spirit. Spirits have no bodies, the most they have ever been are concepts."

"Have you ever heard of the Spirit Bead?"

"No."

"It is the cumulative energy that is forced into this world when all those colours overlap at once."

The moment he said that, Barbados's face froze and he was speechless.

"Did you ingest that bead?"

"Close, I crushed it and turned it into a liquid. And you can guess what I did afterwards." he said as he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a ring of silver surrounding a single prick point. "Ah let me rephrase myself. This body crushed the bead and injected it straight into their bloodstream. Their consciousness left their body, and I was born." With a flick from their fingers, the pale white skin turned to a submerging deep blue and the closed eyes opened too showing pure-white pearls. Their hair gained the consistency of a candle-flame that burned a purple, pink and blue colour that resembled the clear night sky. There we aquamarine sigils that ran down their arms.

"Now, why have you come to my humble abode Sinborn?" Barbados was still taken back by the flashy transformation. He shook his head and reached his hand out.

"It's a pleasure to meet a being worthy of Angelic respect. I am here to see if I would be allowed to use your forge."

"As long as you keep this area and me a secret then I don't see a problem. Follow me."

They descended down a set of stairs that circled into an endless abyss.

"Did you make all this yourself?" asked Barbados.

"Yes. This whole area is my masterpiece. I named it the Mobile Fortress. Those ents were grown by me. The Willow trees were planted by me. This is the mark that I'm leaving on the world." They stopped as they encountered a colourless door. The Spirit placed their hand on the door and the glowing glyphs moved from the door onto their hand. They danced majestically until a loud click could be heard and the door slowly opened up. Never in his life had Barbados witnessed a forge of this proportion.

"I feel shameful to even call myself a blacksmith." he said out loud without thinking. There were 3 large vats of molten metal at the far back of the room. Hundreds of containers of materials lined the walls and in the middle was another pad that the Spirit placed their hand on.

"You said that was impressive? Check this out." they said as a strange light blue started to appear on the roof, drowning out the raging colours of the molten metals. The floor split open in half, and from the large hole, a gigantic rock-like creature rose up towering over the two. "This is the Forge Guardian. It is the sole reason this whole operation works."

"I can't believe it. I thought they all went extinct before I was born." said Barbados to the Spirit.

"They did. The only reason this one functions is because of me interfering with it." the Spirit said while they swirled their hand and one of the many glyphs from the Spirit materialised. "Give me your hand." they said and he did so accordingly. The glyph was placed on his hand and it dug into his body, into his very being. Barbados could feel it vibrate and breathe just like a living organism. "You are recognised as a worthy user of this forge. As you remember, all I asked is for secrecy and anonymity."

"I can promise that. May I know your name?"

"What did Adam say this boy's name was?"

"Grent. Grent Drimn."

"Just refer to me as Grent from now on. You're free to use the materials here and if something is lacking you can easily just go to the mines down that way and collect some." Grent made their way back up the stairs. Barbados was confused, no matter how many resources an area had, they were finite. He walked toward the mine and saw the ground shake with movement. There were creatures in the dirt. A self-sustaining underground ecosystem with this fortress just syphoning the bare-minimum to not impact the equilibrium. He walked back to the Forge Guardian. It wasn't their real species name. That was the Crossing Giants, known for enormous size and rock-like appearance with molten lava as their blood. They were used by the predecessor races, but war broke out and they were forced to go to fight. It was unknown if they possessed any intelligence or the ability to comprehend speech.

"Thank you for the opportunity." he said, hoping to see a glint of life in the hollow colossal shell.

****

It's been a few days now since Barbados has gotten the ability to create to fulfil his starved self. The amount of material that was present could bring a fortune enough to overturn the economic scales. He gave his students the weapons and he kept returning back to the forge to examine the last specimen of a respected race. He was in the middle of forging the last weapon for his 1st year class. As he chipped away at the heated block of iron, he carefully customised it to suit the physique of the child, making it more lighter and shorter but pulling the molten dough to increase the surface area, while pouring more liquid iron onto the weapon. Grent appeared from the door and asked Barbados if he wanted any tea, which he agreed and left the weapon to cool.

"Barbados, I had the strangest call from Adam. he said a group of tin cans had come to visit you at the Academy. And the strangest part was that their metal plated armour looked reinforced. What did you do to make the Knight Council angry?" the Spirit asked curiously. Barbados thought and tried to remember, but his messed up mind could barely keep itself stitched together, so he just shrugged.

"We'll find out. I have a question for you, Grent. I appreciate you for letting me use the forge, but was this blue sigil truly necessary?"

"Do you not know the significance of that? Oh you will have a wonderful time finding out. In your most trying time you will find the true meaning of it. Until then it will be a secret." he said as he took a sip of the mysterious tea. Barbados sat down and also took a sip.

"Oo, what an interesting flavour. We used to have tea back in my time but it was inferior compared to this."

"It's made from the leaves of a berry plant called a raspberry."

They finished the tea and Barbados rushed the weapon, to his dismay, as he needed to rush to the academy. Grent showed him the brilliance of advanced technology as he revealed a mode of transport that could take him from the secluded forest near a secluded village to the Avantam city where the academy was.

"You," he said slowly, "You," he repeated again but with more force, "You should have shown me this earlier!" he complained. "I have had to run all the way here every day. It wasn't hard but it was still bothersome." The two shook hands as he boarded the mechanical snake called a 'train' by the mortals. An attendant asked for his ticket, and smiled after scanning it, wishing him safe travels. As the machine sprung to life and accelerated, Barbados looked out of the window and saw the vast empty space that was used for farming and entertainment. He could see a makeshift stage being used for a play. There were small chapels that were all far apart. Since he had woken up, he still hadn't seen any mention of Zeus or Jupiter. "Has religion become a thing of the past?" he pondered. It wasn't impossible as humans had to face extinction in the harshest of environments. But something else was bothering him. He had gone through each corner of the academy and had come across signs of religion being used as close as 400 years ago, but mana had appeared fat before that and the obvious contradiction bothered him. He didn't know what to trust, the fabricated history he believed to have been created to erase the past, or his own maddened thoughts. He saw one of the chapels get destroyed by what seemed to be a construction group. But that interaction brought him a pleasing thought. He didn't get the attention he wanted and felt as if his greatness was being brushed off. He could easily bet that no other man had heard of his name outside the borders. What type of treatment would be fit for a creature of insane prowess.

"Should I start a cult?" he asked himself while being unable to hide his smile.

Barbados was walking back to the academy while ashamed at the previous moment that had occurred while he tried to leave the station. There was a moving door that spun in circles and he was terrified. The only thing he could do was look and move his head while the spinning continued. A member of staff had to come and assist him, which made the experience even worse for him. He shook his head to get rid of the persistent thought.

"Hi Sir Barbados!" The voice alarmed Barbados, as he spun quickly to see who yelled his name. It was that Vander Jorvik was friends with. He recalled his name being Nam.

"Good day Nam. Don't you have lessons today?"

"Nah. School shut down. Apparently some very important men have come searching for a teacher. Didn't you know about it?"

"Ha ha ha I did." Barbados sweated at the huge scandal he caused because of his cockyness. He got over fixated on the idea of starting a cult that he had completely forgotten about the council. "I should hurry to make sure that no problems are caused. Enjoy the rest of your day off." He waved at him as he continued walking toward the protruding building at the city's edge.

Most students were still in the academy courtyard and even on the campus past the glamorous gate. This was sure to be an interesting experience. He stood with his hand stroking his chin thinking of what persona to play in this fruitful scenario.

"He,Hello Sir." Barbados turned around and saw Chloutarg.

"Hello Chloutarg, what do you think is cooler: a weak man who pretends to be weak but is secretly overpowered, or an overpowered man who isn't afraid of confrontation?" The half-orc was baffled by the strange question, but chose the latter. "I like that." he responded while smiling and reminding his student to focus on trying to improve his mana efficiency. He stepped into the academy and asked any students around if they had seen Adam. He found himself at his office and knocked to enter. Sat at the table was Grog next to Adam and the other seats were men in shiny metal armour. Barbados reflexed as the blinding amplified light burned his eyes that even the sun couldn't injure.

"Thank you for making time for this meeting." said Adam while looking exhausted.

"You're welcome. Hello shiny men, how may I as-" but before he could finish his introduction, one of the knights interrupted him.

"I challenge you to a duel to put you into your place." The man grabbed his sword and pointed it towards him, the same type that the students were forced to practise.

"So much for freedom." he thought as he was reminded of the human tradition. Barbados walked up to the feeble mortal and took hold of the weapon, ripping it from the hands of the knight and crushed it into a ball with his bare hands. The knight was speechless.

"My weapon." was all that he could utter.

"You wanted a duel? Let's fight without the help of weapons, otherwise one slash of my superior armament would cut you in half." Barbados spoke in a confident tone, to the point of facing away from the knight. Seeing his careless attitude, the knight whose weapon broke, launched towards Barbados and struck him in the face. The Sinborn ragdolled and broke straight through the wall. Adam could be heard whimpering about the costs but everyone ignored him.

"How's that for a duel?" said the knight mimicking Barbados's tone. He walked towards the body and tried touching his wings, but a hand covered by a leather glove rose from the rubble to grab him by the wrist. With a swift clench, Barbados shattered the knight's wrist completely, sending metal shrapnel throughout his skin.