Azrie

Hopefully this chapter is enjoyable, I did not have time for revisions at all. I was in a rush and got busy, it's 2:30 am, someone spare me... On a more serious note, hopefully you guys enjoy the upcoming chapters.

A few minutes went by, it took a while but Aizen had finally unglued herself from me. She was finally calm, although she looked at me with warm eyes and a slight hint of worry, I would’ve normally been annoyed If I had been looked at in such a pitiful way, but I completely understood where she was coming from. 

Some more time passed, Aizen sighed and finally went back to her usual self. “So, what now?” 

I tilted my head. “Isn’t it obvious?” 

“You mean⁠—” 

“It’s smithing time,” I said with a smile. 

“Oh no…” She said with slight regret. 

“Well, now that you are here. I think it’s a good time to do the smithing since you were concerned about me.” She nodded with a gulp. 

Aizen stayed quiet for a few seconds as I inspected the cursed mithril that I had created. I mean, it looked like it was about to shatter. It had lost the dark tint it had, it was back to the usual white stone-like surface. Truly weird indeed. I only watched it since I was skeptical to touch it, at least my mana was full so I shouldn’t need to worry too much about it. 

“So, how will you go about it?” She asked as she examined the brick herself. 

“I don’t know honestly, I was planning on giving it mana and just molding it to the correct shape, but now I don’t know. I am sure there are limits to how much it could be molded, but I don’t think I will be able to find those out.” I briefly explained her my thoughts, she tilted her head. 

“You can control your mana?” 

I scratched my head in doubt. “Sort of?” I paused. “I mean, I could move it while it had my mana in it, so I guess?” 

She nodded. “I see… Well, based on what I saw on the material, it drains a ridiculous amount of mana when it first turns dark, then it keeps on steadily drawing… If you let it go for too long it gets completely drained.” She looked at me in the eyes. “You must keep it in its dark state and keep it in constant contact with you, it will continuously drain your mana but it will be at a more normal rate.” I nodded. “Basically, it drains mana to retain its form but once it loses its form it uses way too much to go back, which makes it dangerous.” That made sense. 

“So basically, it’s safe to work with as long as I keep it in the same state?” 

She smiled. “Yup, so don’t make me worried.” She thought for a second. “Well, now that you know that. I will go to those chairs.” She pointed at the chairs at the back of the forge, I nodded. 

I saw her smile at me once more and clumsily walk on a chair and collapse on it. My eyes at that moment widened, prompting me to rush to her side in a panic, Fenri did the same. Her breathing was quick and she was sweating, upon realizing I was next to her she slowly opened her eyes. 

“I thought you were going to get into forging,” she said with a bitter smile. 

“But…” Was she even okay? 

“Don’t worry about it, I just need a break, today has been a long day.” 

Fenri clumb up on her and laid on her legs, she smiled at him. “Kuro, just do your thing. I assure you I will be fine.” 

“... Fine…” I dejectedly agreed, I didn’t even know what she had or how to treat her. But if the explosion from earlier was her doing, considering she also touched the mithril brick then it could only mean she is low on mana, which was ultimately my fault. 

I turned around, my lips quivered and I started shaking. I felt oddly guilty, I just felt like everything could’ve been prevented. ‘If I had just been more careful I wouldn’t have worried her so much, if I was more careful she wouldn’t be in such a state… If only⁠— No, it’s not the time for that.’ I tightly gripped my fist, I couldn’t disappoint her anymore. At least I should try my hardest for this one. 

With a newfound resolution, I looked back at the ugly mithril block that was on the ground. I calmly breathed in and out repeatedly, I was preparing myself for the jelly-like feeling it gave me when first grabbing it. It was very uncomfortable but it was something I had to go through. After exhaling I firmly looked at the slab and touched it without hesitation using the palm of my hand. 

It quickly became dark and my arm started feeling tingly and soon enough I couldn’t feel my arm anymore, even though I didn’t want to keep touching the slab. I did as Aizen instructed and didn’t remove my hand from it. After I recovered the sensation of my hand it wasn’t bad, I could feel a slightly itchy sensation on the palm of my hand but it was nowhere near as dramatic as touching it for the first time. I guess this was what Aizen meant by constant drain, but it was bearable. 

I closed my eyes and kept my position for a few seconds to get used to the constant sense of itchiness I felt on the palm of my hand, once that was done. I opened my eyes and grabbed the block with my other hand, carrying it to the anvil with both hands. I placed it on the face and looked at it. I closed my eyes to concentrate and to try to move it how I wanted it to move, it was weird and it felt like willpower or brain-power. 

I thought about gently squishing it, and sure enough. It started to slowly compress and expand its surface area, it took quite a bit, but it eventually became akin to a metal sheet, well it was a metal sheet. I just couldn’t think of it as actual metal, too malleable and too weird, dangerous as well. Mercury is also dangerous, but that was a whole different substance. 

I firmly kept my hold on the sheet. As I held it, I felt the cold and metallic surface warp to my desires. It was an interactive and weird process. The feeling was akin to something like a solid object slowly drifting across the palm of my hand, which made it feel slightly tingly.  

It took a few seconds, but after opening my eyes it was all worth it, it finally had the shape of a perfect rhombus, or diamond shape. It was perfect, such a beautiful shape. All four sides are the same length, and the opposite sides parallel. The diagonals cross each other’s midpoints perpendicularly and they even bisect the angles! Such a beautiful figure! Of course, someone would’ve said: “Oh really?” But, I couldn’t care about what they thought. 

I looked at the beautiful geometric figure in front fo me. ‘I could try to carve it into scale-shaped breakable points and then snap them off with pure force. Essentially making the metal thinner in some points to allow snapping.’ I thought. ‘Or maybe I could just try cutting it in the state that it is currently in, will I even be able to make the breakable-tablet thing? I don’t even know how to call it… Also, the metal  is already paper-thin…’ I pondered for a few minutes and couldn’t really arrive at an answer. I sighed in defeat and dropped my shoulders. 

“Well at least I have to try it…” I hopelessly muttered as I looked at Fenri. He sensed my gaze almost instantly and tilted his head, I gestured him with my free hand to come. He was hesitant to leave Aizen, but she just gave him a little push and he came my way. He arrived next to me with some confusion. 

“Alright, listen carefully. I want you to touch the demonic metal as I try something.” Fenri hesitantly nodded. With a powerful kick, he stood on his hind legs and laid his forelegs on the metal sheet. It kind of looked funny, but I couldn’t laugh. I stopped touching the metal, Fenri started shaking and looked at me with trouble. 

I could somehow tell what he wanted, I touched the metal again and Fenri went back to the ground. The metal instantly made my arm start tingling, looks like it could only take mana from one person only, the experiment failed before I could even start it. 

Looks like I will need to try to carve it with my mind or something. I firmly held the metal and imagined the breakable points thing. Except nothing was happening, I couldn’t help but tilt my head. I started imagining something akin to creating a path by brushing or carving with a tool rather than just instantly imagining the array. I began to see a line run across the surface, dancing and twisting into scales.

After the line gracefully danced across the whole canvas, or metal rather. I was left with the carvings I had imagined, it was just perfect. It was basically a huge scale, or rhombus, or diamond… Inside a lot of rhombuses; diamonds; scales or whatever I wanted to call them. What was left was filing and slightly bending them, oh… and piercing them. 

I kept holding the plate as I thought about the best way to break the metal tablet into pieces, it wasn’t as simple as snapping a stripe off and let it turn to stone on the ground… Stone… Stone… Wait a second… Wouldn’t that just be fine? Even easier to smash... I mean, the metal might bend, but if I stop touching it and let it become stone, I could smash the things cleanly and even round the edges. I could even pierce the holes. Bending them is eh… I will think about that one later. 

“I want to test something first though…” I muttered my thoughts out loud as I looked at the metal with sparkling eyes. I pulled my hammer out of my inventory, and still in contact with the sheet, I slid just a single section of the tablet to the edge of the anvil. With the side peeking out of the anvil surface I rose my hammer up high and slammed it with full strength. 

A booming ear-numbing sound resounded in the entire place. I felt a bone-splattering pain run through my entire hand before it became entirely numb. My arm pulsated with waves of pain as it throbbed, even though I got teary-eyed from all the pain, I did manage to see the results on the plate. Somehow or in some way, I still managed to keep hold of the plate, so it didn’t turn to stone. 

“What the…” It was the first thing that came out of my mouth as I looked at the plate, it had barely bent… Is this some new kind of unbendable material? There has to be a way. I rested my other hand in defeat, putting my body weight on the hanging edge of the sheet. At that moment, it effortlessly bent. I became confused once again. 

“How does this even work…” I said to myself as I tried bending it once again, without putting too much strength, and to my surprise, it bent back to the original shape with ease, or at least close to flat. I tried bending it once again, but this time with my maximum effort or strength, it didn’t give up. I felt like my hand was more likely to break than it bending. 

I couldn’t help but break into a smile, this might have actually been the best material I have ever seen. At least for protection, blunt hits won’t do anything, you could even make a full armor with no movement spots and it would be usable. This material; simply put, was… Better than anything I could think or imagine, it was the greatest of all time. It made me excited, it made me wonder of all the possible materials out there, and more importantly. What were the limits of this illogical material? 

After I calmed down, I noticed my vision was somewhat blurry. I checked my status once again, my mana was somewhat low. ‘So these are the effects of low mana… I wonder how Aizen felt all those times…’ I thought with curiosity, I had around twenty-percent of my mana left, I couldn’t imagine how having less than that felt. I did faint when I almost ran out without even realizing it… Hmm…