Rise of the Living Forge: Chapters 598 - 599

“What?” Wallace’s grizzled face creased into a frown. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Arwin. Speaking directly with a magical item like this… it’s got bad vibes.”

“Bad vibes is one way to put it,” Koyu said without even bothering to disguise his distaste. “The dagger’s purpose is tearing the magic away from unsuspecting individuals. It is evil and rotten to the core. Such an item will not be likely to be friendly. Are you quite certain this is safe?”

“Safe? Not particularly.” Arwin scratched the back of his neck. “Pretty much every material I’ve gotten into a vision has tried to kill me in some manner or another. But, to be fair, that was also when I had a much weaker control over my powers. I didn’t really initiate the visions myself. They just happened. That’s different.”

“How?” Wallace asked.

“If I establish a connection and just try to communicate with the dagger at a deep level, I might be able to reach some level of understanding with it,” Arwin said. He wasn’t actually sure if what he was suggesting was even possible. After the recent changes to his abilities, he wasn’t even sure if he could enter a vision with an item at all. But there was only one way to find the answer to that for sure. “Or maybe I’ll be able to just speak with it normally.”

“Why’d you jump to doing a vision if you can just do that?” Wallace asked.

“Because I’m expecting something to immediately go wrong,” Arwin replied with an amused huff. “This is an evil weapon. I figure something like this is going to immediately try to do as much damage as possible or the like. Thus, the moment I try to just have a normal conversation, I’ll probably end up getting dragged into something worse. Probably best to be prepared for that.”

Wallace and Koyu exchanged a glance.

“Are you certain the dagger’s magic will not extend to this vision?” Koyu asked warily. “We cannot afford you losing your abilities. You are the only one I have ever known to possess the ability to issue a Quest. Without that, there will be no way to regain your class. And even if you could… losing the current one would be disastrous.”

“I am more than aware,” Arwin said. His features were grim. “But what else are you suggesting? We can’t just sit around and do nothing. We need to find out how the dagger works. Say we all wear super heavy armor to make sure it can’t cut us while we work. What then? We still won’t know what enchantments it’s got. I suppose we could try to make a very powerful identifier item? Something that could forcibly reveal the dagger’s magic?”

“That’s possible,” Koyu said. “But such an item would have a chance of damaging the dagger. I would imagine the Guild would have put a failsafe into something this important. If its status gets revealed, it may destroy itself to prevent anyone from using it as proof of their deeds.”

All three of them fell silent for several long seconds.

“What are our other options?” Wallace asked. “We really need to make sure we eliminate those before we go to such drastic measures. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be the one that explains to Lillia that you’ve gone and gotten yourself killed in a magic mind-conversation with an evil dagger.”

“I… could eat it?” Arwin offered.

Wallace and Koyu stared at him.

“What is it with you and putting dangerous things in your mouth?” Wallace asked. “First lava, now this?”

“I’ve put a whole lot more than that in my mouth.”

Wallace and Koyu stared at him. Again. They were really doing a little bit too much of that for Arwin’s tastes. He stared back, arching an eyebrow in challenge.

“What?” Koyu asked.

“You heard me,” Arwin said.

“Damn right we did. That’s the problem,” Wallace said, pointing at Arwin. “And I notice you haven’t answered the question. The answer to everything is not eating it. How would that even help?”

“I would take on the attributes of the dagger,” Arwin replied. “It would tell me exactly what magic it has.”

Wallace passed. Then he blinked. “Oh. Well. That would actually work, wouldn’t it? What a convenient ability. Did you ever mention the fact that you could do that? I had no idea you could steal magical aspects of pieces you ate.”

“I don’t rely on it too heavily as of late because of the drawbacks,” Arwin replied. “Eating anything means I’m applying its affects to myself whether I want them or not.  If the dagger is really as bad as we fear and the effects are something that take place immediately, there’s a chance that it’s more dangerous than a vision. It just depends what kind of enchantments we think the dagger has.”

“Something to steal magic. But that wouldn’t be a bad thing if you were the one that has it. Probably sharpness. Durability. None of those should be an issue,” Wallace mused.

“Magic containment as well,” Koyu said. His brow furrowed as he started to pace back and forth across the room, passing through chunks of metal on the ground as if nothing at all were there. Then he stopped and turned to look back at Arwin. “The containment. It could interfere with your magical consumption. If it stops your body from absorbing magic…”

The Maw might go nuts. Not that it hasn’t been having issues of its own already. The last thing I need to do is somehow cut it off from the other magic I’ve consumed recently. I could just drop dead on the spot.

Arwin winced. “Right. Yeah. That would be bad.”

“Godspit,” Wallace said in frustration. “This is stupid. Just do the vision thing. It’ll be easier than all this fretting. And it’ll probably end up working better as well.”

“That is not the safest course of action. We have not completely evaluated every possibility,” Koyu pointed out. “What happened to—”

“Oh, who cares. It’s Arwin,” Wallace said. “This dense bastard has driven his head through the wall of every problem he’s come across. You really think a chat with a pointy piece of metal is going to do him in?”

Koyu looked to Arwin. “Will it?”

“No,” Arwin said. “Visions are heavily contests of will. And my will will not bend to a dagger. Even an evil one.”

“You’re certain?” Koyu asked. “Because Wallace was right about one thing. I will not be the one to explain to Lillia what happened if you end up getting yourself splattered across a wall.”

“Now when did I ever say that was even a possibility?” Arwin hid a laugh. It was nice to see how much the other two cared. But, at the end of the day, he was certain this was the right option. It was more than just the easiest way forward. To Arwin, it was the only one that felt right.

His magic wasn’t about forcibly making anything bend to his will. That had never been his goal. If they were going to find a way to help the Beast, then Arwin didn’t see why changing what they stood for would be the right path. It didn’t matter if this was a Guild Dagger.

At the end of the day, it was still an item. And he’d spoken with every other item he’d worked with. This one had no right to be any different.

“I’m going to do it,” Arwin said.

Neither Koyu nor Wallace said anything to stop him. The two of them just nodded.

“We’ll keep an eye on things,” Wallace said. “Don’t you worry. Just focus up.”

“And I will retrieve Anna if the need arises,” Koyu added.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Arwin said with a dry smile. He took a step toward the dagger. Then he summoned the Gehenna Dreadhusk around his body, encasing himself in the powerful magical armor. Only once he was shielded did Arwin gingerly lift the dagger.

He focused his thoughts, stilling everything that didn’t matter and banishing it to the corners of his mind. Then he extended his mind toward the weapon. Arwin took care not to push. He didn’t want to force it into a conversation it didn’t want.

There was always a chance the item would speak to him without the use of a vision at all. That would give him an idea of where things stood and how prepared he would have to be. Maybe it would be amicable. Just because an item had been used for something terrible didn’t necessarily mean it was evil.

But the very instant his mind brushed across the dagger, Arwin felt a sharp tug on his mind. It was like iron claws had dug into his thoughts and started tearing desperately at them, clawing him deeper into it.

He resisted for a moment. And, in that moment, Arwin immediately realized that he could pull back. The dagger couldn’t stop him. It wasn’t powerful enough to force him into a vision. That very realization was all the motivation he needed.

If the dagger wasn’t stronger than him out here, then it wasn’t stronger than him anywhere.

Arwin let go.

Darkness exploded around him as the dagger yanked his mind away.

And then the room was gone. Wallace and Koyu and the Infernal Armory were gone. Even his armor had vanished. Arwin stood alone in a void of endless darkness that seemed to stretch out in every single direction around him. There was no end to it in sight.

An odd sense of familiarity prickled across his thoughts. It almost felt like he’d been here before. The hair on the back of Arwin’s neck stood on end. He glanced around in search of the dagger’s manifestation.

Then he froze.

“What?” Arwin whispered.

Lying directly behind him on the ground, the only break in the endless sea of darkness, was a corpse clad in plain gray robes. Its features were completely plain and unrecognizable. Arwin couldn’t have identified a single part of it as unique.

And in that very instant, he knew exactly who the corpse belonged to.

It was the Mesh.

Chapter 599

“What?” Arwin whispered.

His words faded into the darkness, denied even an echo. He couldn’t even bring himself to move. All he could do was stare in disbelief and confusion. Lying before him was the corpse of the Mesh. There was no doubt about it, either. This wasn’t just some random body.

The complete lack of distinctive features, the fact that — even now — his eyes couldn’t manage to focus on any part of it for more than an instant… this was the Mesh. And it was most certainly not alive. The body laid on the ground, still and unmoving. There was no breath in its lungs or life in its eyes.

But the Mesh couldn’t have been dead. That didn’t make any sense at all. All the world’s magic was the Mesh. If it was dead, then Arwin wouldn’t have been able to come here in the first place. There wouldn’t bet have been any magic with which to do… well, anything.

But Sunsetting changed that. My magic isn’t just leeching off the Mesh anymore. Technically, it’s completely mine. So maybe I would still be able to use magic, even if the Mesh was gone. But anyone whose class hadn’t been Sunsetted would not be. And Wallace was just working a few moments ago.

There’s no way the Mesh died in the span of the last few minutes, right?

Arwin’s questions weren’t blessed with an answer. It was all he could do to just sit there and stare. Several long seconds passed. Cold sweat beaded against his back. He activated [Arsenal] with a thought. To his mild surprise and immense relief, Caldera materialized in his hand immediately.

The Wyrm’s Revenge appeared an instant later, the massive shield’s weight comforting in the face of the absolute silence. It was so quiet that he could feel the thump of his heart. Blood pumped in his ears and needles prickled against his fingertips.

And still there was nothing. No monster loomed in the darkness to try and take advantage of his confusion. Arwin was alone with the body of what had once been the Mesh.

It was still at least a minute longer before he even dared move from his spot. But Arwin couldn’t just stand around and stare forever. Whatever had happened here, he wasn’t going to find the answer by just sitting and staring. He was going to have to try and do something.

Arwin swallowed, trying to reign in his thoughts.

What can I even do, though? Is this just some fancy illusion, made to spite me by the Guild’s Dagger? That wouldn’t actually surprise me.

That, at least, gave him something to focus on. He blew out a short breath. Then he narrowed his eyes, setting his jaw as he carefully approached the body lying in the darkness. Arwin paused for a moment longer. It certainly looked quite real — and quite dead.

He nudged it with his foot.

Arwin instantly regretted his decision. Poking the Mesh with his toe just felt a bit rude. It might not have exactly been a paragon of good, but it hadn’t exactly been evil. Disrespecting its corpse wasn’t the nicest thing one could do. But then again, if it was dead, then that was that.

It wasn’t like the dead gave much of a shit about what happened to them. They were busy being dead.

Blowing out a small breath, Arwin edged a bit closer to the body. He glanced around once more. There still wasn’t anything rising up in the shadows. If this was some kind of bait, it was very, very convincing.

Arwin nudged the Mesh’s corpse with Caldera. Then he flipped it over. The body rolled. Like a log. It was… convincing, for a lack of a better word. Its hand thunked against the ground, if he could even consider the vague spot where they existed in the infinite void of black as ground.

The body was stiff. This was not the look of a recently made corpse. It seemed that the Mesh had been dead for quite some time. Interestingly enough, it didn’t smell. His nose couldn’t pick up on anything at all. And given how sensitive it should have been to anything magic at all, that was strange. Very, very strange.

What is going on here?

Arwin banished Caldera with a thought. Then he gently set a hand on the side of the Mesh’s face. It was cold. Freezing cold. Not even a hint of heat still lingered within the body. Its eyes were sunken and, though the corpse hadn’t yet started to decay, there wasn’t much else it could have possibly done to look more dead.

This has been gone for a long time. How long? Weeks, maybe? More? Can bodies even decompose in whatever this darkness is? But if the Mesh died that long ago… no, that doesn’t make sense. It wasn’t all that long ago that Lillia Sunset her class, and she spoke to it directly.

I don’t even know if Sunsetting would work if the Mesh itself is gone.

There was a headache starting to form at the back of his head. Arwin pinched the bridge of his nose, only realizing a second too late that he was using the hands that had just been touching the dead body. He muttered a curse and hurriedly pulled his hand back.

He stared at it for a second.

Then he poked the Mesh again.

“Hey,” Arwin said. His voice faded into the darkness, swallowed whole. That did nothing to stop him. “Hey. Wake up.”

The Mesh ignored him.

“If you don’t wake up, I’m going to have to do something that neither of us are going to like,” Arwin warned. He pointed his sullied finger at the Mesh. “And I do mean that in every possible sense of the word. If you’re faking for some kind of philosophical bullshit reason — or if you’re doing this because you said we wouldn’t speak again — now is the time to call the idea off.”

Still, there was no response.

Arwin waited a second longer. Then he slapped the Mesh across the face.

There was a loud, ringing crack. The Mesh’s head barely even moved. It was like striking a… well, a corpse. Arwin stared at his hand. Then he wiped it off on the Mesh’s clothes.

“Fuck,” Arwin said. “This is a load of shit, you know that?”

The Mesh continued to fail to respond. Maybe he should have expected that from the start. The Mesh hadn’t exactly been that useful back when it was alive. Nothing about dying meant someone had to suddenly change their ways. Being dead didn’t make someone better or more useful than they had been when they’d still had breath in their lungs.

Arwin took a step back and glanced around the darkness. He’d been pretty focused on the corpse. If something had been lurking in wait to attack him, then it should have tried by now. The fact that nothing at all had happened was starting to set him on edge.

He cast his senses out as far as he could, spreading his mind through the space that should have contained the goals and desires of the Guild’s Dagger.

And he found nothing.

There was only the empty black void and the husk of the Mesh lying at his feet. No power, no desire, not even general want. The dagger was completely and utterly empty. It may as well not have existed at all.

Arwin let his hands drop helplessly back to his sides. His jaw clenched in annoyance. This was some kind of puzzle. He was certain of it. But puzzles still had to follow rules. Arwin had just upgraded his ability to communicate better with the materials he worked with.

Getting dropped in with a corpse and nothing at all to speak with was practically spitting in his face. He’d have assumed it was a personal slight if he didn’t know any better.

“Is the dagger really this strong?” Arwin muttered. “Can it actually stonewall me this easily?”

The frown on his features deepened. He cast his mind farther and farther into the darkness — and still, he found nothing at all. He was alone. Arwin was becoming increasingly certain of that. This wasn’t some kind of trick or a very patient weapon just hoping that he would let his guard down.

There was just nothing here.

Is… my ability actually working exactly like it should be?

His magic couldn’t give him the ability to speak with something that was gone.

A chill prickled against the back of Arwin’s spine.

The daggers steal magic. But I can’t feel Mask’s magic here at all. I know we didn’t use it. So that means the magic is separate, somehow? And more importantly, could this complete and utter lack of magical presence be what causes these things to steal magic in the first place?

If this dagger was genuinely nothing but a bundle of negative energy meant to attract positive magical power, that could explain some things. But those questions would all lead right back to the body at Arwin’s feet.

It was definitely the Mesh.

But Arwin vehemently refused to accept the possibility that the Mesh itself was truly dead. If it were, the effects would have been felt all across the world. The Mesh was definitely alive.

And that meant that he couldn’t have been looking at it.

Not the whole Mesh, at least.

“What are you?” Arwin whispered, pulling the Mesh’s eyelids back to stare into the inky white orbs. There was no answer within them. But in some ways, that almost felt like an answer in itself.

Could this be a fragment? A piece of the Mesh that died, separated from the whole?

And with that thought, the chill in Arwin’s spine grew stronger.

If the Guild could kill portions of the Mesh and turn them into magic-stealing weapons… could that be what’s causing the overall magic in the world to drain away?