Divine Flame Crystal

Chapter 656: Void Hammer Ballock

She wandered around, not daring to show up during the day, and only appeared in the wilderness and dilapidated villages at night.

She was feared and desired—

Some people knelt down and begged her to save the child;

Some people also accused her of bringing disaster.

She never explained.

She just did what she thought was right.

Gradually, more and more legends about her appeared:

“The fallen saint will bring black and gold light at night;

Her smile can comfort the soul, but it can also bring death."

During the long years of wandering, Isabel's heart grew colder and colder.

She no longer longed for the temple's approval or the praise of believers.

She only wanted the gods to see with their own eyes—the so-called light had been denied by her.

However, in her loneliest moments, she would think of her past self.

The girl in white blessed countless people in front of the temple gate.

She would ask herself in her dreams:

"Have I really fallen?"

Every time she woke up, she would sneer.

"No, they are corrupt."

Until he met Kronos.

He looked at her and, instead of calling her a pervert, he said:

“You are not abandoned by the light, you just find your own light.”

These words brought back a long-lost warmth to her heart.

She joins an SSS-ranked mercenary group.

There, for the first time, she didn't have to hide herself or pretend to be what the Temple wanted her to be.

She can use the Light of the Fallen Saint to fight, heal, and curse freely.

Those were the most real years of her life.

On the night when the Requiem Bell Valley rang, she appeared again.

After years of lurking and watching from the sidelines, her heart has become as hard as stone.

She no longer called herself a saint, but only her own name:

"Isabelle."

Standing in front of Xingluo, her eyes were calm and her voice was cold:

“I was once a saint, and I was also an outcast.

Now, I only fight for myself.

If you are going to be an enemy of the gods, my light will be with you."

The light of the Fallen Saint lit up in her palm.

The interwoven light of black and gold illuminates the night, which is both holy and dangerous.

From then on, people remembered:

She is not a symbol of degradation, but a symbol of resistance.

Deep in the northwestern mountains of the continent, there is a legendary city-state - the Iron Dome Fortress.

It was once the core of the dwarven dynasty, an impenetrable fortress.

People say that dwarves are destined to live their lives surrounded by iron and fire. They are born to be craftsmen, miners, and warriors.

Baroque was born here.

He displayed an extraordinary talent for forging from a young age. At ten, he could forge a dwarven warhammer independently, at fifteen he could carve runes into steel, and by twenty, he could forge elemental weapons in a furnace.

According to the expectations of his clan members, he will become the future great craftsman of the dynasty and may even inherit the title of "Guardian of the Iron Furnace".

But Baroque has a flaw that cannot be concealed:

He was not satisfied with iron and fire.

His eyes were always looking into the void.

When Barlock was nineteen years old, he forged an experimental weapon alone deep in the mine.

It was a peculiarly shaped hammer, the handle inlaid with irregular obsidian fragments, and the hammer head engraved with obscure runes.

Late at night, he secretly picked up the hammer and hit the wall of the mine.

"Boom."

There was no metallic sound, but rather the muffled thunder of air collapse.

The rock wall before him didn't break, but a tiny crack appeared throughout the space. Through that crack, he saw another unknown world: endless darkness, occasionally flashing with cold light.

At that moment, his blood boiled.

"Can I...knock open space?"

But when he swung it a second time, the mine collapsed and he was rescued by his tribesmen.

The dwarf elders were horrified to see the hammer in his hand and declared angrily:

"This is heresy! You are not hammering iron, but the bones of the world!"

Barlok was expelled from the Iron Dome and was never allowed to return.

After being exiled, Ballock wandered the continent with his hammer.

He tried to use the hammer to repair bridges, forge weapons, and even use it to open roads.

However, this hammer is not tamed.

Every knock will cause uncontrollable space vibrations.

Sometimes it was the rift that swallowed the enemy; other times it was the friendly forces that were thrown into the void, never to be seen again.

People began to fear him and called him the "Void Craftsman".

Wherever he goes, strange disasters will occur.

Over time, he was forced to live alone, and endless loneliness accumulated in his heart.

One night, he was surrounded by hundreds of cavalrymen in the wilderness.

His enemies deemed him a heretic and prepared to burn him on the altar.

Barlock swung the Hammer of the Void, creating a crack in space that swallowed up half of the cavalry.

But he was also exhausted and almost collapsed.

At this moment, an old man in a gray robe appeared in front of him.

Kronos glanced at him and said calmly:

“Your hammer strikes not iron, but the world.

If you will follow me, you will learn how to make space work for you."

Barlock threw his head back and laughed, a long-lost light in his eyes.

"Alright! I'm willing to use this hammer to smash the god's head!"

He joined a mercenary group.

Under Kronos's guidance, Barlok began to truly master the secrets of the Void Hammer.

The hammer can shatter space, but it can also reshape space.

He learned three kinds of "tap":

Shatter - Shatters the space where the enemy is located, causing them to be swallowed by the torn void.

Anchor Strike - Strike a hammer somewhere to create a spatial anchor point, allowing the army to move.

Suppressive Strike - A single blow of the hammer can stabilize the space of an area, making it difficult for even the power of a god to tear it apart.

From then on, the Void Hammer became one of the most important pillars of the mercenary group.

They were able to move freely in and out of the enemy's formation, all thanks to Barlok's hammering.

In the ancient war between gods, Barlock once shattered the defenses of the gods' army with a single hammer.

The holy light barrier in the sky was cracked by his blow.

In that battle, he stood alone in front of the crack and blocked the arrival of hundreds of gods' messengers.

However, Kronos was eventually surrounded and the mercenary group collapsed.

Barlock roared in despair, and used his last strength to strike the void, burying himself and his enemy in the abyss of space.

The world thought he was dead.

As the sound of the requiem bell echoed across the earth, a muffled sound came from deep within the void.

"Boom-"

It sounded like someone was knocking on the coffin while sleeping.

Barlok walked out of the crack again.

His beard had long since turned snow-white, but his eyes were still fiery.

The Hammer of the Void flashed with a cold light in his hand, which was the power honed by countless years.

He stood in front of Xingluo and slammed his hammer on the ground.

The earth trembled and ripples appeared in space.

“I’m a rebel and a craftsman.

I have struck the void, and now I will strike the throne of God."

The soldiers in the camp were stunned. No one had ever seen such power.

Pandora murmured softly, "He... can use his hammer to shake the world itself."

Xingluo looked at him and nodded:

"The Void needs a craftsman, and I need someone who can break the divine realm."

Barlock grinned and said in a low voice:

“Then, from this day forward, my hammer will fall for you.

But after the war of gods, if you also want to sit on the throne of gods——

My hammer will fall for you, too."

Xingluo's eyes flashed, but he just responded calmly:

"Then let's see who is still standing after the war of gods."

The Void Hammer returns.

That night, a dull rumble was heard in the sky above the camp.

"Boom-"

It was like the echo of a blow to the void, reverberating across the entire continent.

Everyone knows that a new forbidden force has once again stepped onto the battlefield.

The sound of the requiem bell has not yet faded, and the echo in the void resonates with it.

There is a hammer in Xingluo's camp that can shatter the heaven and earth.

Barlock did not like the title of "traitor".

In the annals of the Dwarf Dynasty, his name was completely erased, leaving only a cold crime: "desecrating the Bones of the World with the Hammer of Heresy."

However, he knew in his heart that he had never betrayed the dwarves. What he betrayed was the unchanging order that used iron and blood as shackles.

Dwarves must obey the king throughout their lives and must die in furnaces and mines.

But he was not satisfied.

Whenever the fire burned, he could always hear a strange echo - not the clinking of iron, but a deeper, more ancient pulsation.

The voice seemed to tell him: Iron is not the limit, the world itself is the anvil.

After being expelled from the Iron Dome, he traveled alone through countless countries, carrying his hammer.

At first, people were afraid of him.

In the village where he settled, he would always hear dull knocking sounds in the middle of the night, and people would disappear the next day.

Over time, the name of the "Void Craftsman" spread throughout the wasteland, and wherever he went, people moved away.