Reincarnated as an SSS-Ranked Blacksmith Who Refuses to Forge Weapons-Chapter 196. The Hero’s Farewell

The sound came from somewhere in the debris. It was faint and weak, but it was clear. A chirp. They could barely hear it over the noise of settling debris and the distant cries of survivors, but it was there.

Marina’s head jerked up first. "Did you guys hear that?"

Greg was already on the move, forcing himself to get up even though his body was worn out. His prosthetic arm flickered weakly, not quite dead but close.

It was responding to the desperate surge of hope that was flooding through him. He shouted, "Hammy," then louder, "HAMMY!"

Another chirp, this time louder, came from a pile of twisted metal about fifty yards away. The Brotherhood moved together, spreading out across the wreckage field with new urgency.

Bork walked as fast as he could with his hurt leg. Lylia used her Royal Knight training to jump over things.

Elwen’s plant magic reached out to try to get a better sense of where the slime was. Tunner, who was still carrying the unconscious Seraphine, moved toward the sound at a surprising speed for someone his size.

"There!" Felix pointed to a space between two giant sheets of damaged metal that had partially fallen over each other. "I see something moving!"

Greg got there first. He dropped to his knees and used his other hand to pull away smaller pieces of debris.

His prosthetic arm tried to help, but it could only make weak gestures, and its golden light kept going out. Marina joined him, and her gloved hands made quick work of the bigger pieces. Together, they found the space below.

Hammy lay in a small hole, still holding the famous hammer in its pseudopods. The slime’s body was see-through and had cracks all over it, like glass that had been hit but not quite broken.

The purple corruption from the core’s implosion had stained some parts of its jelly-like body, and it was slowly spreading through its body like poison in water. If slimes could breathe, each shallow breath would make the cracks spread a little more.

"No," Greg whispered as he carefully picked Hammy up. The slime was so light and fragile that it seemed like it would break with the slightest touch. "No, no, no."

"You’re fine! You’ll be fine! We’ll look for a healer!"

"Seraphine can do something. There has to be a way to fix this."

Hammy made a soft chirping sound that was different from the joyful bouncing sound it usually makes. The slime reached out with a small pseudopod and touched Greg’s cheek, leaving a cool, wet mark that could have been tears or slime. Greg couldn’t figure it out anymore.

The others stood in a circle around the dying animal, their faces showing a range of emotions from sadness to disbelief. This little slime, who had happily bounced on their shoulders, eaten Seraphine’s notebooks and made them adorable, and protected an old hammer for decades or even centuries, was slowly disappearing right in front of their eyes.

"Can we... save it...?" Marina asked quietly, but the question wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular because they all knew the answer.

Veldway said in a hollow voice, "The corruption is too deep."

He knelt down to get a better look at Hammy, and his master craftsman’s eye saw things that the others couldn’t. "It’s all over the cellular structure."

"We could have the best healers in the kingdom, but they couldn’t fix this. The implosion and the core’s energy were too much for something tiny to handle."

Greg insisted, "There has to be something," but his voice broke as he said it.

"Thanks to Hammy. He saved us all, so we can’t just let it die."

Rosalina put her hand on Greg’s shoulder, and when she spoke, her voice was soft, which made things worse because it meant she had already accepted what was going to happen. "Sometimes saving someone doesn’t mean keeping them alive."

"Sometimes it means being there for them at the end, to make sure they aren’t alone."

Greg’s vision got blurry because he was holding back tears. He pulled Hammy closer to his chest and felt the slime’s body shaking against him.

He said, "You were so brave," and his voice broke. "You’re the bravest of us all."

"You didn’t have to go get the hammer, and you didn’t have to help me, but you did it anyway because that’s just how you are. That’s who you are all the time."

Hammy chirped again, this time more softly, and the pseudopod that had been touching Greg’s cheek moved to pat his hand. A sign of comfort, even now. Even death. The slime wanted to make Greg feel better.

Greg kept saying, "You’re a hero," and tears were streaming down his face.

"You’re a true hero not for fighting, killing, or destroying, but for choosing to protect someone when it mattered most."

"You chose love over staying alive. That’s what heroes do. That’s what you did."

The Brotherhood stood by in silence, each one dealing with their own grief. Felix was crying and didn’t try to hide it.

Lylia had turned away, and her shoulders were shaking. Elwen and Marina held hands and watched with red eyes.

Tunner, the stoic warrior, had even taken off his helmet and bowed his head. Bork’s beard was wet with tears that he kept wiping away. Mira’s spirit form was solid enough for her to kneel next to Greg, with one clear hand resting on the ground next to Hammy.

Greg said in a voice that was barely above a whisper, "I don’t know if you understand me..."

"I don’t know if slimes can understand words like we do, but I hope you know how much you meant to us..."

"How much you mean to me. You weren’t just a friend or a pet."

"You were part of the family. Always."

The last bit of the First Hammer’s power flowed through Hammy’s body in a final golden light. The cracks stopped spreading, and the corruption went away for a short time, as if the old magic was giving the slime one last chance to be at peace. One last chance to say goodbye.

The slime looked at Greg with what he could only call happiness, chirped one last time in a soft, sweet voice, and then its body started to melt away. It did not melt away violently or painfully.

It was like morning mist that slowly fades away in the sun. The pieces changed into golden light that floated up and joined the souls that had been freed and were still rising from the ruined Calamity.

In a few moments, all that was left in Greg’s hands was the legendary hammer and the memory of how much love such a small creature had held.

Greg whispered to the empty air, "Goodbye, friend."

"Thanks for everything."