When Regis was done with the preparation, he packed up the quartz stones and locked up his workshop before heading out toward the local church at Landwaker Square. On his way to the temple, he couldn’t help but feel distraught as we watched the people of Thornfell walk about, doing their things. These people went through a lot in these past months.

Now that their ordeals were supposedly over, Regis might have unleashed yet another war on them. No. It wasn’t him, but the Argents. Those damn demon worshippers just couldn’t stay put. His thoughts got interrupted as he realized that he had arrived in front of the temple, its open doors welcoming him while soothing his troubled mind. A welcome feeling at the moment.

“Regis,” he heard a familiar voice as Father Steon noticed him, the elderly priest’s voice making most of the busy clerics look his way. “Welcome, son. What brings you here today?”

“I...” He tried to find the words but failed miserably.

“What happened?” the old priest’s smiling face darkened as he felt the weight behind the failed response. “Come, let us talk privately.”

Steon led him to one of the backrooms of the temple, inviting him to sit down.

“Now why don’t you tell me what worries you so much?”

“I... I need you to promise that whatever I say won’t leave this room. Not until the time is right.”

“You have my word.” The priest agreed.

“Natalie Argent and her brother came to visit us.”

“The Argents.” Father Steon said the name with a surprising amount of disgust.

“Yes, but they didn’t come here to cause trouble, or at least, not directly.”

Regis then proceeded to retell the events that happened up until that point, causing the old priest to frown as he listened to the story.

“So you believe that a new Archdemon war is imminent? After all that happened, must we face such a threat as well?”

“Believe me, I really hope that my fear is groundless, but...”

“Son, I have seen you worry many times. None of them were without a good reason. If you believe that the court and the Argents are truly working toward such dark goals, then it is best if we prepare accordingly.”

“Which is why I’m here,” Regis hummed as he put the divine crystal on the desk. “We need a proper weapon against the demons and I have an idea but I need a lot more of this for it to work.”

“Ah,” Steon looked at the crystal slightly surprised. “Is that the stone used to create young Lithia’s bracelet?”

“It is, or rather a piece of it. It can impart the ‘divine’ attribute to any light element based spell. I’m sure you understand how powerful that could be against our enemy.”

“I understand your intention, but you must also understand my concern as well. I have seen your creations in action more than once. They can be... dangerous.”

“Are you familiar with the ‘ray of light’ spell, Father?”

“I am.” He nodded.

“Then you know that it is completely harmless against ordinary people besides...”

“Blinding them for a short time,” the priest recalled the spell’s effects. “It had been used in the past by mages to blind their enemies, but it is most well-known for being used against the undead.”

“And demons,” Regis added. “And if we mix in the ‘divine’ attribute to the spell...”

“It becomes many times more powerful when used against them. Would that really be able to even the odds?”

“I don’t know,” the dark elf sighed. “But this is my best idea so far. I don’t have anything else that could work against an archdemon. The people working behind the scenes made sure that we wouldn’t have the means to stand against the enemy the next time it appeared. Even this wouldn’t be able to outright kill it, but it should weaken it greatly.”

“That should be more than enough, son. The kingdom might not have any fourth-tier Shardwakers, but it has many third-tier ones, both warriors, mages and priests. If it takes a hundred sacrifices to kill that foul creature, then that’s how many of us will fight it to the death. You can be sure of that.”

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that. Bishop Emil and Master Felix seem to have been quite prepared for such a possible enemy. If they manage to somehow clear up the nobility before the court could fuck everything up royally, then we might not even need this thing.”

“Nevertheless, I’ll call together the others to help create these ‘divine’ crystals of yours.” Father Steon said as he stood up, leaving the room for a short time.

While he did so, Regis placed his palm on the wooden table in front of him, forming a ward that depicted the elemental charging circle and lined up the clear quartz crystals. Soon enough the door opened and the old man returned with the other priests and priestesses. They stood around the table, casting their power on the transmutation circle while Regis cast ‘ray of light’ on it.

The combination of the two different magic melted together to charge the empty quartz crystals one by one. A bit over an hour later the dark elf left the chapel with a satchel full of ‘divine’ sun-stones, ready to begin his work in earnest. Back in the manor he locked himself inside his workshop, his thoughts settling as he tried to define the outlines of his anti-demon weapon. ‘We need something that can be used against both the boss and its minions as well.’ He thought and began to draw up the blueprint of what seemed to be the arcane version of a Gatling gun.

The idea was pretty simple really. He would create six oversized wands with a ‘divine sunstone’ tip, mount them in a circular fashion like a Gatling gun’s barrels and then connect them through a runic diagram that would make them fire one after the other. With the three-second cooldown of each wand, the six of them together could create a rapid-fire weapon perfect against demons. Of course, he would need a proper power supply for such a weapon as well, which meant he would need to create a car battery sized hollow arcana stone.

The idea was solid but it required a lot of work. He began by creating and transmuting the materials, the hollow arcana stone itself taking up nearly four hours alone. By the time the sun went down, Regis had both the bronze, crystals, and steel ready. A gentle knock on the door medium snapped him out of his work rhythm for a moment, a familiar voice calling out to him.

“Sir,” Euric’s voice resounded from the other side of the door. “Dinner is ready.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Regis replied as he realized just how late it was.

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He decided to finish up for the day, closing the workshop behind himself before heading over to the dining room. Dinner went by in a pleasant mood as the butler and maid asked their daughter about her day at the spellcasters’ guild, finding out that she had already succeeded in most of the tier-one challenges set up by Salvador.

“Glad to hear you’re doing so well,” Regis said. “Salvador is a good teacher, even if a bit harsh sometimes. By the way, is everything alright in the guild?”

“Yes”, young Dana nodded with a smile. “We have all the supplies we need and Master Osmond often drops by to teach us some complimentary arcane subjects in the afternoon.”

“Well, he is quite well versed if nothing else. Just don’t go around raising skeletons left and right with him, please.”

“Oh,” Dana’s expression turned a shade paler. “I don’t like those things.”

“Neither do I, but Osmond comes from a long line of necromancers, even if he decided to stick to bones, so he’ll definitely have a bone puppet or two around. I know he can be a bit odd sometimes but he is quite book-smart when it comes to magic.”

“I know,” the young woman replied with a smile. “He taught us a lot about elemental synergies and basic defensive magic these past few days.”

Dana then went on to tell them about all the things she learned in the past few days, Regis silently listening as his thoughts began to wander again. After some time he got brought back to reality when Euric called out to him.

“Is everything all right, sir? You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Sorry about that. I just have a lot on my mind recently.”

“You should get some rest milord,” the maid remarked. “Seven knows you have more than earned it.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best. Thank you for the dinner.”

Regis finished his meal and headed upstairs, a quick bath and his bed waiting for him. The night slipped by fast and he woke up early in the morning to continue his work. Creating the body of the wands took some time, but he managed to finish it before the sun showed up outside. When he was down in his workshop, Regis found himself torn between several light elemental spells to pick from. The empowered version of ‘ray of light’ was a good initial idea, but the more he thought about it the less ideal it became.

It would take a long time to charge up the rays and each one would stay active for five seconds. The spell would deal a fixed amount of damage each second, however, he doubted that his enemies would stay put long enough for the light rays to do maximum damage. He needed something that was more projectile-based. It came down to either the empowered version of the ‘light bolt’ or the lance of light.

While the first one would be slightly faster, the empowered ‘lance of light’ would be slightly more powerful than the per second damage of the ‘ray of light’ spell and it would cost a bit less as well. In the end, he decided to stick with the empowered ‘lance of light’ spell. He began to enchant the wands, spending the better part of the next two hours between enchanting and meditating before the sixth wand was finished. As he cast charlatan’s wisdom on it, the appearing description made him let out a relieved sigh.

{Wand of divine empowered lance of light}

{Item rarity: rare}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Damage: 75}

{Arcana charges: 0/120}

Seventy-five points of damage per wand was a lot. It might not have harmed ordinary people due to it being a light spell but against demons and the undead, it was a whole different matter altogether. Charlatan’s wisdom never explained it straight, but Regis knew that due to the element of light conflicting with the nature of both the demons and the undead, it doubled the damage that the spell description recorded. That meant they would receive a hundred and fifty points per lance of light.

Adding the ‘divine’ attribute to the equation, meant that the spell would ignore half of the enemy’s defences. With such a powerful weapon even if the archdemon was kitted out in fifth-tier armour, it would still take at least forty to fifty points of damage for each hit. Now he just had to make sure that they would land about a hundred shots and they had a good chance to actually win. To hold together the wands, he created a pair of circular metal plates with six holes in each at the same place.

The plates were connected by metal rods to hold them firm as he slotted wands in. Next came the source of power in the form of the hollow arcane stone which was reshaped into a giant crystal brick that got encased in a finger-thick bronze layer. Soon enough the necessary runes got infused onto the surface of the arcane battery before it got fused with the rest of the parts. Everything came together another hour of runic tinkering later. As he cast charlatan’s wisdom on it, a peculiar description appeared in front of his eyes.

{Rapid caster of divine empowered lance of light}

{Item rarity: unique}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Damage: 6*75}

{Arcana charges: 0/6000}

“Well, shit.”Regis couldn’t stop himself from chuckling as he read the description.

He tried to lift his creation but it was an unwieldy thing and heavy as hell too. The dark elf tried and failed to hold it like a minigun, making him frown as he put it back down on the table that mournfully creaked under the weight of the weapon. ‘I think even Amanda would have issues lugging this thing around. How are we going to use it in actual combat?’ He mused before activating his far-caller.

“Quentin, you there?”

“Yes. Do you need something?”

“Could you come over to the manor? I finished the weapon I had in mind but it brought up a few issues. I need your expertise.”

“On my way.” The paladin replied before the connection got severed.

Regis left the workshop and headed toward the kitchen where he found Dana.

“Dana, sorry to bother you but could you put on some tea for me?”

“Of course, sir. Not a problem at all. Do you need anything else?”

“Maybe a couple of sandwiches too. I was too busy with work to notice that I got quite hungry.”

“Nothing surprising there, milord.” The maid remarked with a smile as she switched from one task to another without any delay. He returned to the workshop spending his free time charging the arcane battery and a few minutes later a knock could be heard on the door.

“Are you in there Regis?” The paladin asked from the other side, earning a short answer.

“Come in.”

As the man entered the room, Regis could see his eyes immediately darting toward the strange weapon.

“You made a Gatling gun?”

“Something like that,” Regis sighed as he waved him closer with a proud smirk plastered all over his face. “It works on a similar basis but it’s significantly slower than it and casts ‘lance of light’ instead.”