Chapter 1695: Weird Forging Process
*Bing-Bong!*
We interrupt this Chapter to inform the reader that the original scene depicting Zhen Liu testing his new abilities on the way back to the [Library of Nowhere] has been removed by REDACTED because it was deemed "too boring" and a little repetitive.
That and they wanted to keep a little secret plot point a surprise for when Zhen Liu had fully returned to the library proper.
Partially because it could be considered...a little gross.
Regardless, we will be skipping ahead to the point where Zhen Liu had returned to the library and met up with Lythero and Axer once more in order to make the latter’s sword.
Thank you for your time, we will be returning to the original Chapter shortly.
...
Alright, be deadass honest with me.
|Yeah?|
Were you aware that you were referencing R@ve M@ster when you had the sword idea?
|Honestly...maybe? I was actually thinking M@rchen Awakens R0mance.|
...
|What?|
Did you need me to get you walker, pop-pop?!
|SHUT UP!|
MAKE ME!
*BING-BONG!*
________________________________________
"Hey, I’m back. You ready to get your new sword?"
"Zhen Liu! Just in time!"
As Zhen Liu entered the workshop, he found that as anticipate, Lythero and Axer had prepared the forge to be lit and the supplemental materials to be added to the final creation.
On another table, Zhen Liu could see the broken remains of the seven swords that once belonged to Lythero’s masters, resting alongside the star material of this task: the ingot of Netherworld Sun Steel.
Staring at the ingot, Zhen Liu couldn’t help but be reminded of a strangely quietly landscape where dead spirits lingered for a moment of peace and quiet.
Zhen Liu could’ve stared at this strange piece of metal forever. However, his reverie was soon broken by the sound of not one but two feminine voices calling out to him.
One sounding a touch sweeter than the other, but both equally rough.
"Hey, Kaijin Lord, are you okay?"
"Mister Liu? We need you here in the present, please."
Lyona and Taurna, the two former Bloodliner slaves who had become Axer’s students, were the ones to break Zhen Liu from his deep thoughts.
The former looked a touch more concerned than the latter about Zhen Liu’s well-being, but they were both still concerned about their savior acting like a melancholy fool.
Zhen Liu shook the reverie from his head and brought his attention back to the present...and the fact that the girls were a slightly unexpected addition to the moment.
"Hey Lyona. Taurna. I didn’t think you two would be sticking around for this."
"Well, we were original going to use the doors to explore Emberona on our free time," Taurna answered. "But Lyona insisted we stick around to—"
"To see how you would go about crafting an aether treasure," Lyona quickly interjected. "We heard that your methodology is very haphazard in comparison to traditional crafting techniques. So we figured that watching you work can give us an idea on how to develop our own methods."
"Huh..."
Zhen Liu was well aware that his methods could best be described as "fucking absurdist fantasy at best", so he was a little skeptical at the statement. That and he noticed that Lyona was blushing when she gave this explanation, but he decided to not address that for the time being.
"Well then, I hope that y’all manage to get something out of this."
"We will!"
"You bet."
After exchanging these words with the girls, Zhen Liu walked over to Lythero and Axer, who were waiting by the furnace. They had noticed that the man had gotten lost in thought when staring at the Netherworld Sun Steel, but didn’t say anything because they had very similar reactions to the metal as well.
"Got lost in the metaphorical sauce?" Axer asked before realizing what he had just said. "Okay, when do the vocabulary effects of [Chaos] go away? It’s driving me nuts."
"Never," Zhen Liu and Lythero answered simultaneously.
"Not unless you decide to move out of the Library’s forge," Zhen Liu followed up.
"Never."
"In that case, Lythero, you ready?"
"More or less," Lythero nodded.
"Good."
With consent given, Zhen Liu proceeded to light the forge with the power of his newly acquired [Primordial Sun Flame].
Lythero and Axer both couldn’t help but to notice that this new flame of Zhen Liu’s felt somewhat different than the [Sacred Flame] that was promised by the First Hearth Tender.
Normally, Lythero and Axer wouldn’t question any weirdness on Zhen Liu’s end because the man was the epitome of weird, but they had to this time.
They were about to make an insane aether treasure and they needed everything to go perfectly.
"Zhen Liu, what the fuck is that?" Axer asked as he gestured to the now burning forge furnace. "Because that’s not the [Sacred Flame]."
"No, it is," Zhen Liu replied. "It just...sort of reacted funny when it combined with my formula."
"In what way?
"Something about unlocking its past abilities or something," Zhen Liu vaguely answered before providing a more definitive course of action. "But if you guys want the [Sacred Flame]..."
Zhen Liu concentrated on the furnace before him and used a bit of his innate power to change the flame burning inside it.
Before the eyes of the swordsman and the blacksmith, the color and aura of the flames changed into a perfect copy of the [Sacred Flame].
The moment they sensed this sudden shift, the two natives of Dozing Salamander let out whistles of surprise.
"So...you can now transform your innate flames on the fly?" Lythero asked.
"Sort of, but Blazejudicator can do it better than me," Zhen Liu answered with a wave of his hand.
"Speaking of, I’m surprised none of your kaijin are helping out with this," Axer observed. "Crafting not their thing?"
"No, I just have them on another task right now, they should be here in a few moments."
"Right on."
"Anyways, let’s get to smelting."
To prevent as few contaminats as possible from entering the process, Zhen Liu used his [Chaos] to move the Netherworld Sun Steel into a specially made crucible. Before he could move on to adding the other materials to the crucible, however, Lythero stopped him.
"Hey, do you guys mind if I do this part? It’s...kind of personal."
"Ah...go ahead."
"Thanks."
Lythero wasn’t dumb enough to simply grab the fragmented blades by hand. Instead, he coated his hands in aether and began to move the blades one by one.
The delicacy in which he was moving these swords into the crucible reminded Zhen Liu of someone laying a body to rest in a funeral pyre or a casket.
Which was a little funny given the plan that Zhen Liu had in mind for the actual sword making process.
Once Lythero had placed the last of the sword fragment into the crucible, Axer took over.
"Alright, this next part is going to suck," Axer said as he focused his power towards the furnace.
"Whoa! This flame is really powerful."
Manipulating the flame from the furnace, Axer proceeded to circulate it around the crucible and melted the contents into multicolored molten metal.
If he had used a normal flame, the contents inside of the crucible wouldn’t even get warm...that or it would violently explode in a burst of powerful aether that would kill everyone in the room.
The fact that it got to this point was already a good sign.
Now came the hard part: strengthening and refining the molten metal together.
All seven of the sword fragments had different material compositions and the introduction of the Netherworld Sun Steel made that balance even whackier.
However, Zhen Liu had learned a trick on how to make this possible.
He just really hoped the other two would be understanding.
[Caretaker!] Corpse Doll declared as she and her sister entered the forge with a cart behind them. [We brought the corpses for the fire!]
"Excellent!"
"I’m sorry, what?"
"What the fuck?!"
Before Lythero and Axer could fully formulate their thoughts, Corpse Doll and Porcelain wheeled in a cart full of armored corpses into the workshop with all the ease and practice of a vegetable farmer about to sell their produce.
Off to the side, Lyona and Taurna went wide eyed over the act.
"You know, I thought I had gotten used to seeing bodies in a cart while we were slaves," Taurna told her friend. "But this is still weird to see."
"I think it’s because the pile of corpses is being pulled in by a corpse and her sister."
"Fair."
As for the people working the forge itself, two out of three looked understandably concerned.
"Zhen Liu...what the fuck?"
"In order to unlock the full power of the Netherworld Sun Steel, it has to be infused with the essence of a spirit released from its mortal bones," Zhen Liu explained matter of factly. "I figured since the [Flame of Ambition] wasn’t using these bodies anymore, that we would."
"..."
"..."
"What?"
"Nothing, just...wow," Lythero sighed.
"Yeah...this next part of the ritual is going to get weirder by the way."
"How?!"