Stronger Together chapter 239

So here I was, undertaking a trial to be the Champion of a god. Since  Hades pretty much doubled as the greek pantheons banker we didn't need  to go to Olympus or anything, which was good because of the time crunch.  Kara was able to go pick the other girls up from a nearby entrance to  the Underworld and after she left, I was asked which of the gods I would  like to represent. The girls would take their trials on their own, and I  avoided Hades because I knew Barb would want in on that sweet sweet  helm of darkness action.

I  considered a few different gods, but in the end I decided on  Hapheastus. Sure he probably wasn't the baddest bully on the playground,  but I was already a badass, and he'd always seemed like a cool guy in  the stories. I had a better chance of passing his trial than most of the  ones that wouldn't just be straight combat. Or I hoped so anyway.  Though some to think of it fighting ancient greek robots would be cool  as shit, so maybe combat wouldn't be an issue. Luckily the underworld  was easy for the gods to reach so Hades could arrange the test and just  let Haphaestus drop in and veto me if he felt like it.

Which  was how I found myself on a large black sand beach in a massive black  stone cavern. A gently flowing river of glowing green flowed through the  center of the cavern, splitting the whole place in two at Hades led me  away from his office to where my trial would be. Kara had been escorted  back up by the skeleton already and Aiden went with her so I was alone  down here. I turned to the dark god and raised an eyebrow, gesturing to  the river. "You stole this from the Disney movie didn't you?"

Hades  just grinned. Despite his little test, Hades was even more relaxed than  Odin was in conversation, and I had to admit I liked his sense of  humor. "Maybe they stole it from me, did you consider that? I don't need  to take that kind of sass from a bouncing baby brat." I almost choked  as he referenced the cartoon version of his life story and he just  snickered. "Kidding, yes I remodeled this after I saw the movie.  Realistically being a screaming soul in a river is pretty awful, so I  used this place for my more malevolent souls."

I  looked into the glowing water and sure enough I saw a stretched out  wailing face smashed in between a million others, the water literally  made of some sort of liquid soulstuff. I was deathly curious what it  was, but I resisted the urge to try sticking my metal hand in it. I  turned to the death god. "Id this like...soulwater? Like some kind of  soulfire alternative?" If I could do other shit with my soul than burn  it that would be a pretty big benefit for me, and I wasn't going to miss  the chance to learn more about how my powers worked even if I couldn't.

He  just chuckled. "No. They're basically collectively shoved into a river  of ectoplasm.It's crowded in there though, so not very comfortable.  Imagine a million ghosts possessing one body and unable to move it. An  exquisite punishment don't you think?" He bared his teeth in something  that couldn't really be called a smile and I winced a bit. The scary as  fuck monster feeling came back there for a second, but then it was gone  and he was just Hades, totally chill divine dude. That was just so damn  creepy.

Finally  we came to an outcropping and he waved a hand, the river receded  revealing a small bridge that we crossed and when we got to the other  side we walked another twenty minutes until we reached a huge opening in  the cavern. He gestured to the entryway. "Here we are. This is the site  of your trial. If you do well enough Haphaestus will be darn to watch,  if not then you've wasted your chance. Are you sure you want to do this?  Haphaestus is a demanding patron, and strength of arms won't help you  with his trials." He seemed more curious than concerned, but when I  nodded he just shrugged. "Well good luck then. You're going to need it."

He  was gone before I could blink, just there one second and vanished the  next and I rolled my eyes at the old gods and their drama. Then I turned  and walked into the cavern to find myself in...another cavern. Granted  this one had veins of magma instead of a soul river but still. Not  exactly a dramatic shift in environment. In the center of the space was a  forge, next to which sat several racks of tools and an anvil. I  strolled over to pick them up and I was surprised at how light and  strong they were. Next to the forge was a metal sign of shimmering  bronze on which was hammered the words. "Make something."

I  blinked. Ok, well that was open ended. I walked over the the tool bench  and sifted through the available tools, then bent down and looked  through the supply of metals. Black, silver, bronze, every shade of  ingot I could think of was there, some of which I recognized from  lessons and some I didn't. I was pretty sure the shiny one was olympian  bronze, but my master hadn't had enough to work on that one with me so I  knew jack shit about making things with it. I sorted the ingots  one at  a time, looking for something I felt confident using, but eventually I  just tossed them back.

I  only had one metal at my disposal that would work well enough. I could  only make one thing with that metal that would be up to standard. So it  looked like I was going to have to make a godsteel dagger if I wanted  any chance of passing. Easy enough. I started focusing power into my arm  as per usual. It was the first time since I'd reached fifty percent  refinement that I'd tried using my soul like this and it felt...easy.  Like qualitatively easier now. My flesh conducted soul energy nearly as  well as the godsteel now. I was going to have to condense it some more  soon if I wanted it to keep up with my fleshly body. Until then I filled  my arm as much as I could in a reasonable amount of time focusing power  into the limb.

I  had much more soul energy lately than I had at any other point, and  with the ease of transfer I was able to pack enough power into my arm to  create a chunk of metal as dense as my arm itself. My last godsteel  dagger had been a pretty low density version of the alloy, and I wanted  to see what the stronger variant would be like. Only my Archangel Armor  was made of a comparable metal, but my master had done most of the  forging. With my new perception and power not to mention my experiences  in hell I was betting I could make something really amazing now. I even  had an idea of how to do that.

I  thought about my plan and decided not to make a dagger. I was going to  create a hammer. The quality might turn out a bit worse but it shouldn't  be by much and it would suit my plans for the item much better. Before I  condensed the energy in my arm into its metallic form I focused on the  limb. First I channeled a force aspect through the metal, then I layered  on a force Aura, then I triple stacked with my usual strongest combo  and layered in a massive force spell. I winced a bit as my arm creaked.  I'd never used my triple stack combo when my arm already had a ton of  power in it like this, it felt strained, but it wasn't unmanageable yet.

I'd  poured in enough energy for a dagger but I wanted the hammer to have  some heft so I shifted into the first form of klurkor and started  pouring in more. The strain increased a bit, a slight twinge, then an  ache, then a stabbing pain, but I pushed harder. I poured more and more  in but it diluted the magic so I had to recast my combo spells, until  finally I was in so much pain I couldn't fucking see, then I unleashed  the thing from my limb and a fucking dryer sized chunk of gosteel  spawned into existence right in front of me. With the power gone from my  arm the pain faded, though a dull ache took its place, and the glow of  power still filled the metal, though it was fading faster than it should  have.

Feeling  hurried by the enhanced stabilizing speed I focused on the thing and  started making my alterations. First up was the head obviously, a  massive maul sledge the size of a bread box, tempered by my will to the  same level as one of my daggers but condensed even further than my arm  was because I had some extra. Then I did the haft, a four foot shaft of  intricately filagreed metal with some fancy designs on it I thought  looked nice. I pushed all the power from the haft up into the head as  soon as I finished it so the force enchantments would all be focused on  the striking surface.

Finally  I finished, slumping to the ground just as the hammer smashed down into  the hard volcanic earth beneath my feet. I looked at the gleaming black  war maul and stood, picking the thing up. Then I walked over to the  anvil and hefted it up with a normal amount of my strength and brought  it down on the chunk of metal. There was a fucking boom and the anvil  punched into the ground beneath it shooting down into the earth and  creating a massive hole. I grinned at the hammer. It had worked. I'd  used my aspect as a binding agent to merge the magic into the energy of  the godsteel before I condensed it and created a weapon that was made of  naturally enchanted metal.

A  clapping sound came from behind me and I spun, hammer raised. I lowered  it when I saw the man in front of me. I didn't know him, not exactly,  but I'd heard descriptions. Haphaestus was a level of ugly you don't  mistake for anything else. The old smith laughed. "That was...an  interesting way to go about it. I'm not entirely sure I would call that  blacksmithing, but I'd certainly call it making, and that WAS your task.  I suppose I only have myself to blame." He held out a massive hand "May  I?"

I nodded  and passed the huge, scarred, misshapen man my new creation. He twirled  the wrist thick length of godsteel in his fingers like a baton, the  head singing through the air as it whirled in complex patterns. He gave a  grudging nod. "Bit weak, but ingenious in it's own way. The quality is  superb. To be able to create a naturally enchanted metal is no small  thing. Yes, this will do. You may serve as my champion." He swung the  hammer up onto his shoulder. "Well, good luck and all that. If you  survive come and seek me out. I could teach you a few things that old  elf doesn't know."

Then,  just like his uncle, he vanished. I looked around, a bit peeved this  had been so quick, but then, this was supposed to be the fast way. I  shrugged and headed back down the cavern hall, heading for the soul  river cave. Hopefully Hades would have someone there to meet me. The  only good thing about this situation was that the girls probably had  equally fast if not probably more dangerous tests. I knew they could  handle themselves though so all that was left was to collect my weapon  from Hades and get going. If he didn't give me something better than the  hammer I had just made I was going to be so pissed.