Reincarnated as an SSS-Ranked Blacksmith Who Refuses to Forge Weapons-Chapter 207. Divine Tribunal

They all left the workshop together, with Greg in the middle and a woman on each side. The morning was so beautiful that it almost seemed fake.

The air was too still, the sky was too clear, and the sun was too bright. Greg saw it but didn’t think much of it.

He was probably just being paranoid and seeing threats where there weren’t any.

Ferndale had changed a lot since he first got there. The small farming village with about thirty buildings that had been having a difficult time was now a busy small town.

The wealth was clear to see, like those new stores, bigger houses, and paved roads that weren’t there a year ago.

The Guardian Reborn stood guard in the village square, its huge shape making people feel safe. Kids played around its feet, not scared at all of the twenty-five-foot-tall structure that had once been the last line of defense against extinction.

Marina saw a little girl climb onto the Guardian’s foot and said, "They’ve taken it like a mascot."

"That thing killed a Berserk Titan, and now it’s a piece of playground equipment."

Greg said softly, "That’s exactly what I wanted."

"Using power to protect yourself becomes a normal part of life, and also legendary items were used for peace instead of war."

They went on through the market, where vendors were getting ready for the weekly trading day. Greg saw that Thomas the farmer was wearing the Vest of Perpetual Motion, but he had somehow learned how to control it.

The vest no longer made him dance uncontrollably. Instead, it gave him more energy and helped him stand up straight.

"Greg! Champion of Peace!" Thomas yelled. "Come help us set up!"

"We have fresh fruits and vegetables and could use your strong arms!"

"Alright. On our way."

Greg helped set up the stalls and was able to lift heavy crates with ease, even though he had a prosthetic arm. The golden limb made people look, but they weren’t scared.

These were people who had seen and knew him beat the Calamity and trusted him completely.

A woman named Martha, who was one of the fruit sellers, came up with a basket. "Greg, honey, could you please?"

"My basket keeps spilling fruit all over the place, and it’s getting harder every day for me to bend down and pick up apples."

"Of course," Greg said as he took the basket.

It was worn out, and the weaving was coming apart in a few places. "I can help you with this, and it won’t take long."

Someone had helpfully set up a portable workstation for him in the square. He sat down, took out his basic tools, and got to work.

His hands moved easily, as if he had done it a lot before, rewrapping the basket’s weaving to strengthen it. The prosthetic arm did exactly what he wanted it to do, and the golden circuits pulsed in time with his heartbeat.

It was simple work and calming. Exactly what he needed.

He didn’t see the System notification until Marina gasped next to him.

Greg looked up and stopped.

The notification window was there, as it always is, floating in front of him, but it was wrong. The text was messed up, like it kept switching between a normal script and something else.

The letters were also challenging to read because of the golden light that came through them.

[ITEM CREATED: B̴A̴S̴K̴E̴T̴ ̴O̴F̴ ̴E̴T̴E̴R̴N̴A̴L̴ ̴F̴R̴E̴S̴H̴N̴E̴S̴S̴]

[RANK: S̴S̴S̴ ̴-̴ ̴E̴R̴R̴O̴R̴ ̴-̴ ̴D̴I̴V̴I̴N̴E̴ ̴O̴V̴E̴R̴R̴I̴D̴E̴]

[PROPERTIES: K̴e̴e̴p̴s̴ ̴f̴o̴o̴d̴ ̴f̴r̴e̴s̴h̴ ̴i̴n̴d̴e̴f̴i̴n̴i̴t̴e̴l̴y̴ ̴-̴ ̴W̴A̴R̴N̴I̴N̴G̴ ̴-̴ ̴S̴Y̴S̴T̴E̴M̴ ̴C̴O̴M̴P̴R̴O̴M̴I̴S̴E̴D̴]

The window flickered, revealing something unusual behind the corruption for a brief moment. It was a holy writing with the language of the gods, and the power of the First Hammer seared words into Greg’s mind that he should not have been able to comprehend.

WATCHING.

JUDGING.

SOON.

The notification went away, and Greg was left staring at nothing.

"Greg?" Marina’s hand was on his arm, and her voice was tight with worry. "What just happened?"

"W-What was that...? Was that your system?"

Lylia had gotten closer, and her face looked worried. "Divine interference...?"

Greg stood up quickly and said, "W-We need to get back to the workshop!"

He dropped the basket and forgot about it. "NOW!"

"SOMETHING’S CLEARLY WRONG ABOUT ALL OF THIS!" Greg panicked.

And they ran as fast as they could without asking any further questions.

...

The rest of the Brotherhood was already gathering in the workshop by the time they burst in. An unspoken sense of unease in the air drew them in.

Seraphine had her research books open and was frantically looking up something. Bork had his hammer in one hand and his headphones pushed back.

Felix and Donetta stood next to each other, and they weren’t joking around like they usually do. Elwen had even stopped drawing, and her face was pale.

Greg said right away, "The system’s broken," and then he pulled up his interface to show them.

"You guys can see it, right?"

He saw more and more error messages, each one worse than the last. The golden script is coming through reality itself.

"I see it..." Seraphine said, her voice shaking a little. "Divine interference in the basic system architecture..."

"They’re not just watching anymore... they’re actively messing with the systems they made."

Bork’s face was serious. "The gods are still watching."

"They just stopped talking, and this is fucking worse than commentary because it felt like it’s a preparation!"

For once, Felix wasn’t talking about video games. He looked serious, like he was scared.

"Sensei, when game developers turn off chat right before a ban wave, it means they’re about to drop the hammer... no pun intended."

"This feels like that but way fucking worse."

Elwen said softly, "My family’s records," gripping her sketchbook like it was a lifeline.

"Elves have told stories about this... the divine silence before judgment..."

"When gods stop talking, it’s not because they’re being kind... it’s because they’re getting ready for something too awful to warn about."

Even though the forge was hot, the workshop seemed to get colder. Greg felt Marina’s hand touch his, and Lylia moved to the other side of him.

The Brotherhood formed an unconscious circle, coming together in the face of an unknown danger.

Greg’s prosthetic arm throbbed, and the golden circuits got brighter. He could feel the power he had taken from the First Hammer now.

He stole a divine artifact and changed it into his flesh and will. The gods made that hammer sixty years ago and gave it to Agatha’s father.

Greg broke it and took its power for himself.

It seems that the gods would not allow Greg to keep the power he took.

Greg said, "I killed Elias," and the words came out before he could stop them.

"I broke my oath not to create weapons and violence..."

"I showed how corrupt the Royal Knights were, which ruined whatever plans the gods had for keeping the war economy going..."

"I refused their destiny twice, and then I took their power and made it mine."

He held up the fake arm and watched the circuits pulse like a heart. "This is stolen divine power..."

"I took the First Hammer, the first Thoughtforged artifact, and broke it."

"I made it part of me. That’s not just defiance... that’s theft."

"Then we get ready for war," Marina said in a hard voice. She held the frying pan in her hand, and the SSS-rank power flowed through the metal.

Greg said, "No!"

"No more weapons! No more violence!"

Lylia gently touched his face. "Even against gods...?"

Greg insisted, "Especially against gods."

"I’ll find a different way... and I know that this time... there has to be a different way."

"What if there isn’t?" Seraphine asked in a low voice. "What if they’ve already made up their minds?"

"What if this is a punishment and not a deal?"

Greg opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat.

The birds had stopped singing.

The workshop got quiet. Not the peaceful quiet of being focused on work, but the strange quiet of a world holding its breath.

And also the kind of quiet that came before bad things happened.

Mira’s manifestation flickered, and her usually joyful face looked confused. "Master-forger-darling...?"

"The air feels off, and even the magic feels different."

And then...

Someone screamed outside while they were running outside, and Greg with the brotherhood could clearly hear it.

They ran outside the workshop just to see what happened.

There was a lot of noise in the village square. People in the village were pointing at the sky, kids were crying, and merchants were leaving their stalls.

The Guardian Reborn had come to life and was moving for the first time without any enemies nearby. Its huge body turned toward the sky, and its arms were raised in a defensive position.

Greg followed its gaze and felt his blood freeze.

The sky was breaking, but not in a figurative sense.

The real sky, seemingly boundless, shatters like hammered glass.

It was clearly not sunlight; rather, a different kind of light—golden and infused with a divine energy—was seeping through the cracks, raw and terrible, leaking into the real world.

"Get the civilians to safety!" Marina was already moving, and her voice cut through the chaos. "Get everyone inside and away from the square!"

The Brotherhood moved as one, thanks to years of fighting together that had made them able to work together right away. Lylia was showing families where to go in stores. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Bork was picking up kids and running them to safety. Felix and Donetta were making a barrier to protect themselves.

Seraphine was already getting ready to build ice walls. Elwen stood still, looking up at the sky with a look of pure terror on her face.

Greg ran to the Guardian, and his prosthetic arm was glowing with golden light. "What are you keeping us safe from?"

"What do you see!?"

The Guardian couldn’t speak, but Greg understood the answer because he felt it through the bond he shared with all his creations. The Guardian was protecting them from judgment, from punishment by God, and from the gods themselves.

The cracks in the sky got bigger, and Greg’s system interface stopped working completely.

Hundreds of error messages filled his screen, scrolling too quickly to read. The familiar interface that had helped him since he was reborn turned into a mess.

The golden divine script took over everything, burning words that shouldn’t exist in human language into his mind.

But the First Hammer’s power let him read them anyway.

Greg’s heart stopped when he saw the message.

[DIVINE TRIBUNAL: INITIATED]

[CHARGES:

THEFT OF DIVINE ARTIFACT (FIRST HAMMER)

CORRUPTION OF SACRED SYSTEM (REFUSAL OF PURPOSE)

DEFIANCE OF DIVINE WILL (THREE COUNTS)

DISRUPTION OF ORDAINED CONFLICT (WAR ECONOMY EXPOSURE)]

[JUDGMENT: PENDING]

[EXECUTION: AUTHORIZED]

[PREPARING AVATAR MANIFESTATION...]

[ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 30 SECONDS]