2675 From Ruin to War (Part 1)

As for your other question, Creation Magic requires darkness and light.' The Overlord said.

I'm exploiting your bond with War to alter its spell matrix without triggering Orion's defensive system and the natural affinities of you two to amplify the elemental flow.

Your eyes don't give you affinity toward light, Lith, just like Solus' hair doesn't give her affinity for darkness. They only unlock Domination that you wouldn't otherwise possess.

"I get you can access Lith's memories and manipulate his mana due to his Phoenix blood, but how can you do the same with me?'Solus asked. 'Is it because of our bond?'

"You are partially correct.' Salaark nodded. 'It's because of your bond that you carry Phoenix blood as well, Solus. It's the reason my Blood Imprint ability works on you too and I can use you as a medium for my spells.'

'What? How?' Lith and Solus asked in unison.

'It's actually obvious.' Salaark chuckled. 'Mogar gave Lith my blood and he gave it to you, Solus. For years you've fed upon his life force, using it to restore your own. It's like building a second house from the spare materials of the first.

"The final shape is different but the properties of the buildings are the same. Not to mention how, every time you two fuse, your life essences flow freely into one another, making the changes more significant.

One more question.' Lith asked. 'If you could do this at any time, why work so hard to recruit Orion when you could just steal his secrets?

'Do I look like a petty thief to you?' Her sudden frown and angry glare made him rush to give her an apologetic bow. 'I have no qualms about stealing from my enemies but I've never stolen from my colleagues.

'It's a matter of honor and respect. It's the reason I didn't force you to share your Trains and Tablets with me but I "borrowed" the blueprints from the Royals. Taking from you would have been bullying. Taking from them is espionage.'

"That's some strawman logic. Solus was flabbergasted.

'No, just logic. They steal from me, I steal from them. It's part of the politics game.'Salaark pressed her fingers on their backs and tendrils of black mana destroyed the corrupted ends of War's mana circulatory system while white tendrils rebuilt it.

In a few moments, everything was as it was supposed to be.

"There. This is War as you know it. The question is: is it enough? Do you really want me to just imbue it in Davross without changing anything?

'No to both.'Lith took the blueprints of a new version of War out of the pocket dimension.

He was altering the schematics of the updated enchantments on the fly, improving on them the moment the Eyes of Menadion gave him and Solus a more precise understanding of the blade's spell matrix.

'We've always dreamed to see what would become of War if he had a power core instead of just pseudo cores. We've researched a few more spells we could use in battle but we never got the opportunity to make a proper blueprint. Until now.'

'Also, we didn't know how to ask you about it without sounding like ungrateful jerks.'Solus blushed a little. 'But since you are the one offering to do it...'

'You don't feel guilty anymore.' Salaark completed the phrase for Solus, chuckling.

'Don't get too cocky, though. I'll do it, but I won't put anything of mine in this work. Material, brains, it's all on you two. '

It's fair. Lith nodded. 'It's the same thing you did for the Fury, right?'

Right. Those are the terms of my offer.'

Then can I expect you to fix any unintended flaw during the upgrade like you did for Menadion's spells?' He asked.

"So much for not getting cocky!' Salaark's eyes went wide in indignation. 'How dare you trap me with my own words? You are lucky that I like you, because otherwise I'd treat you like the con man you are.'

'So it's a yes?' Lith tried a seven-pronged puppy-eyes attack.

'Yes.'Salaark pouted.

'Sweet. Here's the schematics we've prepared. Lith handed the parchment to her, giving her the time to study it.

"There's a few mistakes here and there.'She pointed them out with a snarl while altering the parchment. This is how it's supposed to look.'

"Thanks, Grandma. You are the best!' Solus threw her own best puppy impression, trying to soften the angry Guardian.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get done with this. I've got work to do.'Salaark grunted as she made them get close enough to reach the blade with their hammers.

She cleared the fragments of Adamant and Dragon bones from the magic circle, storing the material of the old War and Double Edge in a corner of the room.

Then, Salaark used the darkness element to cut open War's spell matrix and the light element to expand and rearrange it. New strings of runes flowed in the middle of the energy mass, harmonizing with the pseudo cores.

First, they formed more pseudo cores that would have worked on their own. Then, they merged with the other cores, letting the runes from the various enchantments mix and removing the parts that were pointlessly repeated.

This way, War went from having multiple enchantments that worked on their own to being in control of a great number of magical runes that would produce a different effect based on the order in which they were activated.

The main difference between the old and the new War was that the former could mix its abilities together to achieve different effects whereas the latter would have a limited grimoire of its own.

War's abilities wouldn't be limited by the type of enchantments anymore, only by the number and type of runes at its disposal.

Salaark even added Lith's best cloaking runes but they didn't affect the Forgemastering process. As its inventor, Lith knew how to turn off their distortion field while Salaark had no need to because she perceived everything through him.

'Okay, now let's move on to the final part. Try not to forget anything of what I've shown you or the feelings you have experienced while using Phoenix's Forge. Let it be your guide while you research your own Creation Magic. Salaark weaved runes on their backs, forcing them to action.

Lith grabbed the Davross with his bare hands, splitting it into a blade and hilt with a cross guard.

"Thank the gods unlike in fantasy bullshit, blades don't weigh much. A bastard sword goes from 0.91 kilos (2 pounds) to 1.6 kilos (3.5 pounds), otherwise I'll end up with no Davross left for the Crucible.'He thought.

He shaped it as close to War's old form as he could, working on the two pieces separately before connecting them.

At the same time, Solus collected the white mana crystals, cutting them to perfection until she had eighteen of them, all about 3 centimeters (1.2") tall and 1 centimeter (0.4") wide.

Four of them would go in pairs on either side of the hilt, forming what looked like the blade's eyes and they stayed white. Their purpose was to fuel the blade and its spells.