Rise of the Living Forge - Chapters 587-588

Even as magic poured into Arwin’s soul, his eyes remained focused on the glowing words twisting to form beneath the name of Lillia’s new armor set.

Midnight Dream

[Soulforged]: Forged at the hands of a Forbidden Soulmancer, the Hearthmother, and an awakened building, Midnight’s Dream was created to be the final set of armor that the Hearthmother ever needed.

[Hearth Passage]: Midnight Dream is connected to the shadows of the Hearth. This armor allows its wearer to use any patch of natural darkness to return to their Hearth at the cost of magical energy. The amount of magical energy needed scales with the distance that must be traveled.

[Visions in the Night]: At the cost of magical energy, Midnight Dream extends its influence into the shadows of all those who fall under its domain, drawing them under its wielder’s control.

[Moonlit Reflection]: Midnight Dream exists simultaneously upon its wearer and their shadows.

[Shadow Drinker]: Drain the light out of all sources near Midnight Dream, pulling magical energy from within them to bolster this item and its wielder. Midnight Dream will repair any damage done to it so long as even a scrap of it remains.

[A Dream of Darkness]: The wielder of this item can temporarily transform parts of their body into shadow at the cost of magical energy. While they are in a shadow form, they are completely immune to all manner of physical attacks. However, [Shadow Drinker] cannot be used in this state. Bright light and magical attacks will severely damage the wielder while they are in this state.

[Born of Night]: Midnight’s Dream can be shifted to reside entirely upon its wielders shadow whenever its wielder does not desire to wear it. The armor can re-form itself upon them after a short delay so long as there is a patch of darkness near them.

[Soul Armor]: Midnight Dream’s status is unreadable to all but the ones who made it and its owner. It is resistant to all forms of magic and physical impact.

The Infernal Armory fell completely silent as everyone stared at the finished set of armor laying before them. Not one of them dared even speak as they read over the long list of abilities granted to Lillia’s new equipment. Just reading through it was a challenge in itself. The sheer amount of magical energy that creating the item had created made for a very effective distraction.

But even that wasn’t enough to stop Arwin from taking it in. He swallowed. Midnight’s Dream was borderline terrifying. The abilities it granted were ridiculous for a mere piece of armor. Letting Lillia teleport back to the Devil’s Den at will, not to mention turning herself to shadow and becoming completely immune to physical attacks… that was ridiculous.

Arwin was pretty sure that the ability included magically enhanced physical weapons. And if it did, it meant she was basically entirely immune to any warrior class so long as she had magical energy. It wasn’t like she even had to re-materialize to fight back. She was a mage, after all. Lillia could just end a fight by attacking with her shadows or reposition to a better location if things were going poorly.

But the armor’s abilities didn’t stop there. There was no doubt that this was the most ambiguous of all the Soul Items he’d made. A number of the abilities seemed to heavily revolve around the shadows that fell under Lillia’s domain. Arwin didn’t have the faintest idea as to what that meant.

He finally managed to pull his eyes away from the finished armor to glance at Lillia. Judging by the look on her face, she wasn’t quite as confused as he felt. Her eyes were wide with a strong mixture of disbelief and desire.

“Godspit,” Lillia whispered, finally breaking the spell of silence that hung over them all. “This…”

“Not half bad,” the Armory said, rubbing its obsidian hands together to create a rather loud, grating screech. All three of them winced. The Armory let its hands drop. It paused for a moment, then continued. “A set worthy of being proud of. This is the difference that I create. This is what I am truly capable of.”

“And we helped too, a bit. Motivational support, really,” Arwin said dryly as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Lillia let out an amused snort, though her eyes never once left the armor. “Did we? I thought we were just standing around and looking pretty. I don’t remember helping much at all.”

“You are being sarcastic,” the Armory said. “Stop that. I do not like it. You were also helpful in the creation of the armor.”

“Thank you. I’m relieved to know that you feel that way,” Arwin said with a straight face. “I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t think we—”

“But if there were three of me, I imagine I could have done even better, should such a thing even be possible,” the Armory said. It shook its head sadly. “Unfortunately, such a vision will remain a dream. There can never be more than one of me.”

Arwin coughed into his fist to hide a laugh. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get over the Armory’s incredible arrogance. But, unfortunately for the Armory, he was a bit too connected to the building for him to actually believe many of the words it spoke.

The building’s true thoughts had been made more than clear to both him and Lillia from when they had been join in the song of creation. Not a single one of them could have created anything like this on their own — and the Armory didn’t truly feel like it was any better than they were.

Not by much, at least.

Arwin and Lillia exchanged a wry glance. Then Lillia gingerly approached the dark Soul Item. She crouched beside it, letting a hand rest against its black surface. A ripple of shadow coiled up from the armor and slithered along her arm. Then, as Arwin watched raptly, the entire set transformed into a stream of darkness and vanished into her shadow.

Lillia rose back to her feet. Shadows twisted into being around her body. Sharp edges materialized from pools of inky black. Within seconds, Midnight Dream formed around her. The armor looked even more imposing on her body than it had on the ground.

It covered her body completely in a perfect fit, leaving no part of her flesh exposed. The only part of her that he could make out was the faint purple glow of her eyes hidden behind the vertical lines protecting her face. Everything else was covered in armor and wrapped in darkness.

Lillia shifted her stance, then bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. Shadows clung to her body like scraps of tattered cloth. The armor didn’t make so much as the faintest sound as she moved. It was perfectly silent.

“This is incredible,” Lillia said. Her voice emerged from the armor warped. Colder. Even though Arwin knew damn well who was behind the faceplate, a faint prickle of ice still rolled across the back of his neck. Lillia didn’t seem to notice. “I can move so easily. And it’s so light. I can barely even tell I’m wearing armor!”

“As expected,” the Armory said. “Did you expect anything less than perfect from me?”

The armor rippled, then blew apart into fragments of smokey darkness to leave Lillia standing in her plain clothes once again. She looked down as the scraps of her armor flowed down into her shadow, then raised her gaze again.

“I… I’m not sure what to say,” Lillia said. She swallowed. “This is incredible.”

“You have already said that,” the Armory said. “But you may feel free to say it again. A few more times, if you wish. No more than that. I am not an egomaniac.”

Lillia let out a snort of laughter.

“What?” The Armory asked. “I don’t appreciate that response.”

“Nothing,” Lillia said, coughing into her fist. Then she let her hand lower as her features grew serious. “I…seriously. Thank you. Both of you. This might be the nicest piece of equipment that I’ve ever had. That somehow includes all the Legendary items that I had back in the Horde. That description might actually be right. I can’t think of a single piece of armor that could ever replace this.”

The Armory scoffed. “Of course. That would be because—”

It didn’t get to finish the rest of its sentence. Lillia pulled its body, which was still really just a chunk of shaped obsidian, into a hug. The Armory let out a choked cough. It stood awkwardly for several seconds until Lillia released it.

“What was that?” Lillia asked.

“Nothing,” the Armory replied. “Nothing at all. I’m spent. My energy is low. I will retire.”

Its obsidian body sank back into the ground, meddling with the floor of the Armory and vanishing. A smile pulled across Arwin’s features. He was more than aware of how much magical power he had right now. It was nowhere near the point where there would be a need to rest and recover.

Looks like even the Armory can get embarrassed, huh? Good to—

Lillia pulled Arwin into a tight hug. The breath caught in his chest and his thoughts momentarily sputtered out as her lips brushed against his neck.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Arwin’s mind ground to a halt for a second. Then Lillia let him go and took a step back.

Arwin coughed. “I — yeah. Of course. You made it too, you know.”

“Working together on something doesn’t absolve anyone of appreciation,” Lillia replied with a wry smile. “And I don’t exactly need to thank myself. I know I did a good job. I’m looking forward to seeing just what this armor is capable of... and cashing in all the magical energy I earned for making this. This is a boost in more than one way.”

“Yeah,” Arwin said, swallowing as his thoughts finally pulled themselves back on track. A grin crossed his own lips. “Me too. With the amount of magic I just earned… well, I don’t think I’m going to be an Adept for much longer.”

Chapter 588

Olive doubled over, bracing her palms against her knees as she gasped for air. Sweat soaked her tunic and her muscles ached so badly that she wasn’t even sure how she was still standing. She was exhausted. Every part of her mind begged for rest. Begged her to pitch back and fall asleep on the cold stone floor.

Even the magical strength from her cursed arm had long since waned. She hadn’t gotten so much as a single request to kill anybody from it for hours. For the first time since it had attached to her body, it hadn’t been bargained with or appeased — nor had it even been overpowered by her own will.

It was just completely and utterly spent.

Olive ground her teeth together. The world swam around her and she nearly lost her footing. Her head was so muddled that her balance was completely shot. But, through sheer force of will alone, she forced her battered form to remain standing upright.

“I’m… not done,” she hissed.

“Then look at me,” came the response. “Because right now, it looks like your opponent is the floor.”

Olive forced her gaze upward.

Standing before her was Two.

Even though he was in much better shape than Olive, he hadn’t escaped unscathed. His face was scratched and he bled from a number of different wounds covering his body. Two had shed his armor some time ago to fight Olive in plain clothes, a decision that had granted him at least one nasty cut that would probably scar if no healer got around to taking care of it.

They stood in a sea of broken and splintered wood weapons. Handles and snapped blades piled in mounds around them. Many of them had blood splattered across their surfaces.

“I’m not done,” Olive repeated.

Two smiled. “I can tell. But your arm seems to be.”

Olive glanced down. Her arm hung at her side like a lump of, well, wood. She tried to lift it. The arm didn’t so much as budge. It was stubbornly useless. Annoyance flashed through her and she pulled harder, but the arm refused to budge.

“What did you do?”

“Me? Nothing.” Two approached Olive, raising his hands palms outward to show that he had no plans of attacking her. “That was all you. Well done. Do you know what I’ve been preparing you for, Olive?”

“Sunsetting.” She couldn’t muster up the energy to offer up any answer more detailed than that.

“Obviously,” Two said. “But I was speaking more specifically. This particular training. It wasn’t just for Sunsetting. It was for you. Your arm, to be really particular.”

“My arm?”

“It wasn’t yours,” Two replied. He flicked the wood. It made a dense thunk. “This thing was tolerating you. But it wasn’t yours. Not truly. You had to fight with it every single time you wanted it to do anything that ran parallel to its desires. I saw you fighting it the entire time we were training. What did it want to do?”

Olive hesitate for a moment. She wasn’t so sure if answering that question was the smartest move. But Setting Sun didn’t seem like they were here to antagonize them. Two might have just beaten the ever-loving shit out of her, but she’d returned the favor to a pretty satisfying degree.

“To kill you, mostly,” Olive said.

Two snorted. “I’m honored. And now? It seems its desires have fallen silent, have they not? But the really question is… how long has it been silent? Because I don’t know about you, but I noticed your motions getting a lot smoother the longer the fight went. Almost as if your body started responding the way it should be.”

Olive paused. She dug through her thoughts, trying to piece together her memories of the fight. It was a blur. They’d been at it for so long that she really couldn’t recall anything specific. But even still, Two’s words sounded right. It had been some time since her arm’s last complaint. It certainly hadn’t been a dead weight at her side all this time.

“What changed?” Olive asked, her brow furrowing. “I didn’t do anything different.”

“Your will overpowered it,” Two replied. He clapped Olive on the shoulder. “You showed your arm — and me — that you have more will than it does.”

“So it’s going to listen to everything I want now?”

Two let out a bark of laughter. Then he shook his head. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to give you that idea. I’m afraid your arm isn’t going to be having any major changes of heart. If it’s been this stubborn this long, I highly doubt getting shown who the boss is will change anything immediately. Maybe the future will do something more, but the purpose of this wasn’t to cow it. It was to prove that you’re more powerful.”

“Why?”

“Because when you Sunset, that arm of yours may not be so happy letting you claw all the power for yourself.” Two’s features turned serious. “And it is absolutely vital that you overpower it, Olive. Your willpower must be greater. You need to understand this. We have never had someone with such a cursed item attached to them attempt a Sunsetting. Not even One knows what will happen. So we had to be certain you were stronger than your arm before we even let you try.”

Olive swallowed. The idea of her arm somehow attacking her thoughts while she was distracted to wrench control of her body or influence her Sunsetting was… deeply concerning.

“So that won’t happen now?”

“I believe that you won’t let it,” Two replied simply. “If you can overpower it here, then you can overpower it tomorrow.”

Olive started to nod. Then she froze.

“Tomorrow?”

“That’s right.” Two smiled. “You’ve more than proven your ability. Once you’ve rested and returned to full strength, there will be nothing further to prepare you for. The only step remaining is the last. Tomorrow, you Sunset your class.”

***

The sun had set when Arwin and Lillia left the Infernal Armory. Koyu and the rest of the Menagerie had already cleared out anyone who was straggling on the street, leaving the air silent as they stepped out night. The lingering satisfaction that only came with the creation of something truly enjoyable still clung to the back of Arwin’s thoughts.

Not a word needed to be said. Both of them set a path for the Devil’s Den. Though Lillia’s armor hadn’t ended up draining them of all their magical energy because of all the improvements to their process and the ease of synchronizing, Arwin was starving — and he suspected Lillia felt the same.

There was a faint ache deep in the pit of Arwin’s stomach that begged for more food. Magical food. That particular part was a bit unsettling. He’d been eating Lillia’s cooking daily for quite some time now. That had almost entirely removed the most dangerous parts of the Hungering Maw.

He couldn’t actually remember the last time in recent memory where the ache had returned. Today alone, he’d had multiple things she’d made, each which had been packed full of magical power. He’d felt that very power entering his body as he worked.

But that did nothing to remove the faint ache, which grew faintly stronger as he focused on it almost as if it reveled in the attention. That was slightly concerning. It looked like he wasn’t the only one getting stronger.

Could the Hungering Maw be getting more powerful the more magical power I have stored within me? I just got a lot from the creation of Lillia’s armor. I haven’t used it yet, but I suppose it’s still a part of me, somewhere deep down. How much stronger can I get before the Maw ends up consuming me?

No. That’s not the way I can think about this. I’ve tamed the Maw every time before, and this is just a tiny ache. I’ve still got a lot of time before I need to eat magic. It’s not even like I need to make anything. Lillia will have more than enough. I just need to keep getting stronger and working on ways to control this.

“Is everything okay?” Lillia asked, catching a glimpse of his face.

Arwin nodded. “Yeah. Just a bit distracted with my thoughts. I’m looking forward to eating something. You have any leftovers from dinner or the like?”

“Leftovers?” Lillia scrunched her nose. “Who do you think I am? I sell out. Every night. It’s been a while since I haven’t.”

“I don’t know,” Arwin said with a playful grin. “I vividly remember a certain someone struggling to even get a single customer not all that long ago.”

Lillia rolled her eyes, not even missing a step. “I don’t think I remember a line of people at your door either.”

Both of them laughed. But, before they could make it up to the door of the Devil’s Den, a faint ringing sound caught Arwin’s attention from one of the ruined buildings off to their left. He stopped walking. Lillia did the same.

“Did you hear that?” Arwin asked, his brow furrowing as he pushed his other thoughts to the back of his mind to be dealt with later.

“Yeah,” Lillia said. “It sounded like striking metal.”

Arwin approached the building. The sound came again, seemingly in a rhythm. It wasn’t very loud, more of a faint clinking that he would have missed had the street not been so quiet and they not been passing so close to the house it came from.

The complete lack of a door to the ruins made it quite simple for Arwin to glance inside.

Then his eyebrows rose.

Lillia’s head popped up beside his.

Sitting across from them was Ida. She’d sat herself upon a pile of bricks and before a small anvil. Candlelight from a flickering lantern illuminated her features as she tinked away at a silver chain bracelet, hammering the links into a closed loop with a tiny hammer. Faint motes of magical energy twisted around her fingertips, imbuing themselves into the jewelry.

It wasn’t anywhere near a huge amount of magical power… but it was magic nonetheless. She was, after all, a Dwarven Master Smith.

Neither Arwin nor Lillia said a word. They didn’t need to. The two simply watched silently for a moment longer, then stepped back and quietly headed for the Devil’s Den. They were both thinking the same thing.

It seemed the next of the crafter classes to join the Menagerie had been a lot closer than either of them had expected.