Reincarnated as an SSS-Ranked Blacksmith Who Refuses to Forge Weapons-Chapter 228. And You’re Home

"First, you need to understand that everyone here chose to be here."

"Not one person on this island is here because I made them, or because a system told them they had to be, or because some god put them here like pieces." He looked back at the shore. "Morteus, you are the God of Death."

"But everyone here has already died once, and they came back."

"They have had time to come to terms with the fact that nothing is permanent..."

"You are not a threat to people who have already been on the other side and chosen to build something anyway."

Lyssa had turned into a young woman with hollow eyes, and she was smiling in a way that made it look like she thought this was both fun and scary.

"And what about me?" she asked. "I wanted to take everything you love and see what breaks first."

Greg said, "I've already lost Bork."

He had practiced carrying it for three years, so the name came out steady.

"There's more that I've lost, like Mira, Hilda, Hammy, Kael, Denna, Ryn, and Christoft..."

"I carry all of them every day... there's nothing you could threaten that would be worse than what I've already been through, and the difference is that I didn't go through it alone."

Noxus tilted his head, as if he were trying to figure out the odds.

"A concentrated population." He said, "From a practical point of view, it would be easy."

"We have five full-time healers." Greg said, "Ten people who know a lot about herbs and medicine. Seraphine got to Fourth Circle eighteen months ago and has been working on magical disease prevention since her second week on the island."

"She took the threat of plague as a personal research project." He stopped. "She does a good job."

The Twins of Entropy spoke in a way that made each word land just a little bit behind the other. "Everything comes to an end... that's not a threat; it's just how things are."

Greg said, "Then watch."

"Allow it to conclude naturally, if it is meant to, but do not come here and attempt to hasten the process." He spread his hands. "You could destroy Home."

"Kill everyone here and scatter what's left."

"I won't lie and say you can't do anything to us, but the 90-some reincarnators who haven't found us would hear."

"They'd know that four gods attacked a community that was just trying to live peacefully, and there's nothing more unifying than a common enemy."

A pipe lit up from somewhere behind him and to his left.

Dorin walked out of the morning shadow with the slow, steady pace of someone who had really stopped being impressed by most things.

The old dwarf stopped next to Greg and looked across at the four of them with the calm look of someone who is looking at intriguing but ultimately manageable weather.

"He's right, ya know?" he said. "I've been watching you plan this visit for three years."

"You're thinking like a god... it felt big, overwhelming, and final, but you don't understand what he built here."

He put the pipe in the direction of Home.

"That's not a settlement, and it's not even a rebellion, really."

"It's just a family. And families are very hard to kill, because even if you get rid of the people, the idea of them survives."

"Ideas are genuinely harder to kill than gods, and I know that, because I'm old enough to have watched several gods try."

Greg thought that the four pantheon representatives were at least listening because they were quiet.

Then the air changed again, but this time it was due to something older and angrier than divine authority.

The First Forgemaster appeared next to Greg and Dorin with the look of someone who had been trying to enjoy their morning but had been interrupted. The old eyes moved over the four gods with the tiredness of a teacher watching students make the same mistake over and over.

"I told the first three this would happen," said the First Forgemaster. "They didn't listen, and that didn't go well for them."

"Now you four show up thinking you'll do what Valthor, Kael'thas, and Moira couldn't?" A pause. "Morteus, I was forging before your cycle of death existed."

"Lyssa, I've seen beings that are much more broken than Greg keep building anyway."

"Noxus, disease doesn't work well on people who have already chosen what they're willing to risk."

"And you two." The ancient eyes settled on the Twins. "Entropy... You're right that everything comes to an end, even gods who won't change."

The First Forgemaster stepped up.

"Here's what's going to happen..."

"You're going to leave, not because I'm threatening you, but because I'm offering you a real choice."

"You can try to destroy Home, and I'll intervene, and we'll fight, and maybe you'll win and maybe I'll win, and all of us will lose because we're still playing the same game we've been playing for longer than most civilizations have existed." The ancient figure looked at each of them in turn. "Or you can leave and call it a day, I guess."

"You can watch from a distance that makes you feel safe. If this experiment fails in the ways you think it will, if they destroy themselves or break apart, you can come back and tell me I was wrong. I'll listen."

Then a pause came.

"But what if they succeed? What if they make something that lasts without the gods watching over it?"

"Then you learn from it and change. The world is changing, and the gods who survive will be the ones who learn how to change with it."

The four pantheon representatives looked at each other like people who have known each other for a long time: they could have a whole conversation in one look.

Morteus spoke for everyone.

"Three years," he said. "We'll watch."

"If what you've built here holds up and your bonds don't break under pressure, then we'll have something to talk about."

"If it falls apart on its own, we'll come back, and there won't be any more conversations like this."

Greg nodded his head. "That's fair."

Lyssa had changed forms again and was now a mix of all of them, watching Greg with eyes that showed real interest beneath the chaos. "I can't tell if you're the smartest person I've met in three hundred years or the most insane person I've ever met."

Greg said, "Probably some of both."

"I'll be watching." She laughed, and it was a real sound that surprised everyone, even her. "Try to keep it interesting."

The Twins spoke last, and their words piled on top of each other. "We'll see how long it lasts."

And then all four of them were gone, as if they had never been there. The shore was empty, and the ocean was still catching up on the motion it had stopped for.

No one on the beach said anything for a moment.

Then Marina said from behind him, "That's it? They just left?"

Greg said, "For now."

"Three years," Lylia said, thinking about it.

Seraphine was already writing things down. "Three years is doable."

"We've done more in the last three years than most communities do in decades."

Elwen asked, "What do we do now?"