Chapter 85 - Abyss Destroyer

Vivi bathed in the feeling of relief for a few minutes longer, lying on the ground. The vein-shaping was done. She’d completed the most complicated set of veins of her career yet. Looking at her project, Vivi couldn’t believe she’d come up with such an insane design. Getting the strength runes to extend all the way to the edges turned out to be far more difficult than she imagined.

Lucius was flying around the room with full energy. “We did it! Without one mistake!”

“There are mistakes,” Vivi said. The veins were far from perfect. Most veins were shaped perfectly, but a couple had notable, though acceptable, errors. Then she had that one catastrophic error. In theory, she had fixed that error by repeating it on the other side, but Vivi wasn’t certain how the mistake would appear in the finished sword.

“It’s too early to celebrate,” Vivi said. “Sometimes, runeswords just snap in half even if everything seemingly goes well. The process is unpredictable.” She sat up. “But I’m positive. I feel like this went well.”

She untied the veins from the vise and cut off the dim ether root. She grabbed her rune carving knife and placed the veins on her anvil.

“The only way to know if the sword works is to finish it and test it out,” Vivi said.

***

Vivi carved the runes carefully. She was still shaken from the fact that she’d even gotten this far. The hard parts were over. Now began the terrifying parts: to test whether the sword would snap in half or not.

Carving runes didn’t get more difficult with three-runed swords. Vivi just had more runes to carve. The process took longer, and it was just as labor intensive as usual, but the difficulty didn’t come close to vein-shaping. A wrongly carved rune could still ruin Vivi’s work, but she could take her time, carving runes at the pace she wanted. And after so many years of carving runes, Vivi rarely made mistakes.

The same went for blacksmithing. Blacksmithing was intense for the body, requiring all of Vivi’s muscles. But it was just that. Exhausting. The most tiresome job was saved for last, after an already difficult runesmithing spree.

Still, Vivi performed both jobs swiftly, Lucius watching nervously. They had melted and reformed the adamantite ingot around the veins, the hilt of the veins poking out from the cooled down metal. Vivi placed her work in the forge, then began hammering with a steady rhythm.

“Won’t the veins get squished inside when you smith the metal into a sword?” Lucius asked. He looked a lot more curious lately. He never used to pay attention to the blacksmithing process. Vivi had to admit, it was a good question.

“Improper blacksmithing will deform the veins,” Vivi said. “The veins, when filled with ether, have a higher melting point than the metal. Only the metal becomes soft in the forge. The veins inside stay solid. This lets me freely forge the metal around the veins. Still, forging a sword with the veins inside is more precise. I can’t use folding techniques, and it’s almost impossible to change the shape if I mess up my swings. I need to get the shape correct right away. Additionally, I need to hit the sword evenly on both sides. Proper hammering will squish and even stretch the veins into the correct shape. That's why you see me flipping the sword often.”

Lucius listened curiously. “Well, I don’t need to understand this part anyway. I just need to trust you to do a good job.”

“You need to keep the forge at the right temperature,” Vivi said.

“A simple job,” Lucius said. He lay down above the forge in a loaf. The heat didn’t seem to bother him. “Smith it well, Vivi.”

Vivi smiled. She continued hitting, putting her all into her swings. The hammer resounded in the small smithy.

Five hours of work later, when the sword was almost finished, the door to her smithy opened. Aang and Eem entered. The leader watched her work for a minute without speaking. Lucius was smirking up on his spot on the forge.

“We’re ready to launch the attack,” Aang eventually said.

“Give me ten minutes,” Vivi said. The blade looked like a shortsword now. She just had to make sure its surface was even and solid without weak spots.

Aang didn’t say anything. He merely watched, fascinated by her work. In ancient times, runesmithing was considered a sacred art. Or so Grandpa had said. To interrupt a runesmith during their work was considered insolent, if not sinful. Maybe remnants of that idea were still present in the demons' culture today.

She hit the sword for the last time before quenching it in water. The adamantite regained its beautiful glow. The network of veins was visible inside, glowing through the metal. Vivi took a deep breath, starting to get nervous again.

There wasn’t time to sharpen or give the sword a proper finish. That was fine. The sword would do well regardless. Vivi coated the runes in iron lacquer, then wrapped the thin rolls of white obsidian around the hilt.

“It’s done?” Aang asked.

Vivi didn’t respond. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the final test. Lucius… she thought. Give me ether.

Upon the request, ether flowed into Vivi’s core. Vivi moved the wisps to her hand, to her fingers, and into the runes. She pushed ether into the blade.

The veins inside shone bright. Vivi felt power surging into her sword, filling the veins. Her heart raced in fear of what kind of reaction her veins would offer. If mistakes had happened, now would be the time for the sword to snap.

Nothing broke into pieces. The sword came alive. Vivi felt its powers, as if a wand of holy light had appeared on her hands. She opened her eyes and saw her work come to life.

“It works!” Vivi said. She grinned at Lucius. “We did it!”

Lucius shared the grin. “Of course we did.”

Eem walked closer, admiring the sword from below. Vivi smiled and patted the fiend in the head. “We did it, Eem. The sword is done.”

“Its name is Abyss Destroyer,” Lucius said proudly.

Vivi paused. Right. She had promised to name the sword that… She sighed.

“It’s a three-runed sword, correct?” Aang asked.

“Yes,” Vivi said. “I didn’t have time for a greatsword, but this will come in useful. I’ll wield it myself as a surprise backup. It’ll work exceptionally well as a throwing sword.”

Aang studied her expression. She must have looked determined enough, as he nodded without further questions. “I'd love to test it out, but there's no time to praise you. We’ll need to move swiftly. Zand’s staff finally realized that three of the squadron bosses have been killed. A large-scale investigation has been launched. The whole place is filled with guards.”

“Now is our time, then,” Lucius said. He flew down from the forge. “We have runeswords. We have skills. And we have a plan.”

“Yes, the others are waiting below,” Aang said. “Gather anything valuable into your spirit storage. This is the last time we’re seeing this base.”

Vivi paused to think. She was starting to like her little smithy. This would be the last time she saw it… “Lucius, how much space do you have left?”

“Enough for around ten more swords, at least,” Lucius said.

“Take all of our ether roots and a few ingots,” Vivi said. “And our crochet hooks and carving knives. Wherever we go after this, we might not have ether roots so readily available.”

Lucius agreed, grabbing all of the tools into storage, as well as Abyss Destroyer. “I’m almost full after this,” he said. “We have a lot of items stored. Anything more than this, and my mobility will be hindered.”

“I think that’s all we need,” Vivi said. She glanced at her smithy one last time. “You wanted to burn it down, right?”

“On second thought, Ven and I agreed to leave home base as is,” Aang said. “If the Stewards find this place, it doesn’t matter whether it’s burnt or intact. They’ll know someone was here regardless. I’ve destroyed anything that could be used as evidence against us.”

“So you’ll just hope nobody finds the base?” Vivi asked.

“That would be ideal,” Aang said. “But investigators will find this place eventually. We will hope that discovery won’t lead them to connecting the dots.”

We’ll be living as criminals after this regardless, Vivi thought. Zand escapees.

“Fine by me,” Lucius said. “My old wielder and I got plenty of success in the lower levels with just a good disguise. The demons didn’t suspect him for a thing. Until we got a little too arrogant…”

Vivi had the urge to pout at him. She really didn’t like it when Lucius mentioned his old wielder, yet refused to say anything further when asked for details.

She ignored him and sighed. “Let’s not make the others wait. We’re ready. Let’s clear the dungeon.”