Reincarnated as an SSS-Ranked Blacksmith Who Refuses to Forge Weapons-Chapter 219. Sphere of Harmonious Defiance

As he worked the anvil, Greg’s prosthetic arm moved with complete confidence. Not only did the hammer-shaped metal or channel magic, but every strike changed something fundamental in reality itself.

The First Forge reacted to him in ways it hadn’t reacted to anyone in thousands of years. It wasn’t because Greg was powerful; it was because he was real.

Every loss he’d dealt with, every person he’d saved, every piece of furniture he’d made with conviction, every weapon he’d refused to make, and every time he’d chosen to stand up when logic said to run away.

All of his experiences combined to create what he was forging.

The shape that was coming out of the anvil was a small, perfectly round sphere that could fit in two hands. It wasn’t a weapon, a shield, or even a tool in the usual sense.

The materials used to build it were completely different from what is normally used.

The Key of Infinite Possibility was the base, and it was melted down and reshaped. Three drops of Greg’s blood, which he gave willingly, were mixed with pieces of Bork’s headphones that were found at the site of the explosion.

When Moira’s divine threads fled in fear, one thread from her fate-weaving escaped. Light from the First Forge itself, the energy of creation in its most basic form.

Greg’s prosthetic arm gave up sixty percent of its remaining power, leaving it with only twenty percent of its original capacity.

The System spoke again, but this time it wasn’t the old divine framework with its snarky comments.

This was the voice of the First Forge itself, old and unchanging.

[ITEM FORGED: SPHERE OF HARMONIOUS DEFIANCE]

[RANK: TRANSCENDENT]

[CLASSIFICATION: BEYOND DIVINE AUTHORITY]

[PROPERTY 1: CHOICE MADE MANIFEST]

[All beings within its influence gain absolute freedom from imposed systems, divine or otherwise.]

[PROPERTY 2: CANNOT BE UNMADE]

[What is forged from genuine conviction and sacrifice cannot be destroyed by force or divinity.]

[PROPERTY 3: REFLECTION OF INTENT]

[Responds to the wielder’s deepest truth.

For Greg Greyson: "I forge bonds, not chains."]

[WARNING: SINGLE USE]

pUpon activation, the Sphere will reshape reality within its radius according to the wielder’s conviction.

Radius: Unlimited.

Duration: Permanent.

Cost: Everything.]

Greg took the sphere off the anvil. It was warm in his hands, buzzing with potential, and alive in a way that went beyond just being enchanted.

Dorin read the message and froze, his face going from awe to horror. "What the fuck...? D-Do you know what you just did?"

Greg said simply, "A choice."

"No," Dorin said in a rough voice. "You ended the gods’ rule over this world!"

"Turning on that sphere will let the gods lose control of every reincarnator, system, and game on this continent!"

"They’ll have to go back to their own realm for good."

"Well, that’s good enough," Greg said.

"But it costs everything," Dorin said, gesturing to the notification still hovering in the air. "You saw that, right?!"

"Everything...! Activating it consumes your life, your system, your prosthetic arm, and your ability to forge. And it didn’t exaggerate it by one bit!"

Greg looked at the sphere, then at the Brotherhood, which was fighting hard to keep the gods at bay. Then he looked at the more than eighty reincarnators who had chosen to stand with him even though they didn’t have to.

"I don’t care about the cost... as long as everlasting peace can come, then..."

"Everything I am, everything I’ve made, and everything I’ve lost." Greg’s fingers closed around the sphere. "If it means to end all of this?"

"If it means no one else gets used as pieces in their game? That’s a cost I’ll pay."

Valthor’s face changed when he realized what Greg was holding. The God of War’s face, which had been arrogant and sure of itself since it first appeared, now showed something very basic. Real, real fear.

"That sphere!" Valthor’s voice broke with fear. "Get rid of it now!"

This time, he didn’t charge. He charged at Greg, moving faster than any human eye could see, with a divine sword raised for a killing blow that would end everything.

But the Brotherhood was quicker.

They had fought together long enough to know how each other moved. There was no need for orders.

They just moved as one.

Marina struck the initial line of defense, utilizing her strongest Eternal Flame. She raised her frying pan defiantly and made a wall of fire between Valthor and Greg.

"You want him? You go through me first!"

The divine sword struck her with such force that it should have shattered both the weapon and the person wielding it. However, Marina’s unwavering conviction enabled her to accomplish seemingly impossible feats, and she was certain that Greg required protection.

She took blow after blow, and her armor cracked under the pressure. Blood ran from a dozen wounds, and she never stepped back.

Lylia made the second line, and her Ladle of Magical Dispersion worked extra hard to deal with Kael’thas’s attacks from a different direction.

"I quit the Royal Knights because I was sick of being used!" Her voice was loud and clear. "I won’t let Greg be used either!"

She made safe places for the Brotherhood to regroup between attacks, which was the perfect way to defend. She protected every ally within her range as much as her powers would let her.

Seraphine gave air support, and her Absolute Zero Field was at its widest point. She was freezing the air in the arena to slow down divine movement, but she had already gone past the Third Circle’s limits three times today.

The ice was cracking faster than she could fix it because of divine pressure. She was having a lot of trouble, and every move she made showed it.

Elwen helped with enchantment by using emergency weapons from her family’s history. Each one was a reminder of rules she hated.

But Greg was more important to her than her comfort with violence. She erected barriers, intensified the attacks of others, and maintained her composure and competence in a crisis, her expression unwavering.

Felix’s Infinite Luck System went completely crazy when it got close to the Sphere’s powerful energy. He called for more and more impossible things.

One of Kael’thas’s divine constructs was hit by a grand piano. Housecats were everywhere, getting in the way of fighters.

In the middle of the battlefield, someone’s whole kitchen appeared.

"This is the best anime final battle ever!" Felix screamed, dodging falling debris while Donetta held him down when his system was about to crash.

Dorin and Valthor fought each other directly, with Divine Forgemaster against Divine Warrior. The old dwarf’s hammer blows changed parts of the arena, but Valthor was war itself.

Everyone could see that Dorin was just buying time, not winning.

When Valthor broke through Marina’s firewall with a powerful blow, the battle reached a turning point. She fell hard, and her ribs cracked loudly.

She couldn’t get up. Lylia caught her right away and pulled her back to relative safety while keeping her defensive aura.

Kael’thas’s forge-fire creations were slowly breaking through Seraphine’s ice walls. Elwen had run out of emergency weapons.

The Brotherhood was losing ground with each passing second.

Seraphine had reached her limit. She was working at one hundred and fifty percent of her capacity, which Third Circle mages weren’t supposed to be able to do for more than a few seconds.

Her mana was literally burning her from the inside out, and ice was forming on her skin as her body fought against the power flowing through it.

But she could see Valthor getting closer to Greg. He could see the Sphere glowing in his hands and how it was changing the future.

"I won’t let you die without telling you," Seraphine said, and her voice was loud even though there was a lot going on.

She released all of the mana she had left.

In a moment of desperation and love, she began to devise a technique called Absolute Zero Singularity on the fly, determined that Greg would not die before she could convey her feelings.

The temperature plummeted to impossible levels. The air solidified, and reality itself sharpened into focus.

Valthor stopped in the middle of a strike and stayed frozen for three point seven seconds. Greg had time to look at her.

Seraphine had enough time to talk even though ice was spreading across her lips.

"I stayed in Ferndale to look into your things and do some research, but the truth is...." Her words were clear, and each one cost her something. "That was the excuse I gave myself."

"The truth is... that I stayed because every time you hummed while you were forging, I felt like I had found something more valuable than all the royal recognition in the world!"

The ice was now up to her throat, and her own spell was taking over. "You made sense of the world...!"

"You made sense of magic...!"

"You made sense of me in ways that no theory or formula ever could...!"

"And that’s why, Greg... I...!!!"

"I love you...! Greg... Greyson!!!" The ice was up to her chin. "I loved you the moment you gave me a cup of tea and called it an experiment in temperature retention."

"I just wanted you to know before I couldn’t say it anymore...!!!"