Chapter 261: Master of the Eternal Forge (Patreon)

Daevic

“Taravan, explain to me why my niece isn’t in the finals.”

As the Lady of Hellwater suddenly tore through space to enter into his father’s throne room, interrupting the annual meeting between Daevic’s father and the governors of his Territory, everyone fell to their knees, Daevic and his father included, and Daevic’s father quickly answered. “She was injured by a B rank attack before her first round in the local section of the tournament and was then unable to compete in the next two rounds as a result.”

Rage appeared on the Lady of Hellwater’s face and Daevic suddenly felt like he was trapped under poisonous water with none of his strength, unable to breathe and starting to feel sick. “What B rank dares?”

“One of my subordinates.”

The feeling of suffocation grew stronger.

“But it wasn’t his fault.” Daevic’s father’s face and voice also appeared strained, Daevic and the group of B and C rank subordinates in the room not the only ones affected by the Lady of Hellwater’s ever so slight lack of control. “He was baited by a competitor and missed his attack, hitting Amalia and another C rank instead.”

“What type of punishment did you give out?” The suppression from the goddess faded ever so slightly.

“I didn’t have the chance. The competitor, Vanar Tedros, killed him with a powerful poisonous talisman.”

The feeling of being underwater vanished, replaced by a sensation of cold so strong the weakest C ranks started to turn blue. “Vanar Tedros, seeded third.” The Lady of Hellwater’s cold eyes turned to Daevic. “He’s already beaten you twice.” Her eyes then flickered, likely looking at the recordings of the two fights on the soul net. “And he did so due to incredibly high Laws, expert battle sense, and, most important, multiple custom made Empyrean grade artifacts specifically designed to counter you.”

Daevic suddenly found himself grabbed by some kind of telekinesis. Then both he and his father flew toward the Lady of Hellwater and were brought through a new portal to a quiet garden somewhere on an A rank planet, where the Lady of Hellwater’s younger brother, the Master of the Eternal Forge, was calmly looking out over a lake.

Then, just as the Master of the Eternal Forge—the most talented of the Primordial Sovereign’s children and third strongest member of the Primordial Human’s faction—turned to look at them, his gray eyes and ordinary features showing mild interest, another portal opened next to them—this one made of black and white fire—and the Lady of Hellwater’s twin brother, the Lord of Twilight Flame, joined their gathering as well.

“For what reason have you interrupted my meditation, sister?” The Master of the Eternal Forge smiled slightly, the expression something Daevic found difficult to read.

“A contestant in the current C rank Universal Tournament, Vanar Tedros, has been using multiple Empyrean grade artifacts which I expect have been made by Aalam Alvaro. And there has also been a large increase in the number of Empyrean grade artifacts used throughout the tournament, people under the Lady of Laws having found large caches of weapons seemingly left over from the Havadim Imperium.

“We were hoping to get your advice on these two matters.”

The Master of the Eternal Forge turned to look at the Lord of Twilight Flame and then back to the Lady of Hellwater, completely ignoring Daevic and his father. Then he closed his eyes. “The artifacts used by Vanar Tedros have no history, definitely made within the last thousand years at most, and their construction would involve multiple Laws and multiple disciplines, far more than just forging. Looking back in time to when they were used, each gives off a unified aura, showing they were made by only one crafter, but it is impossible to know if the same individual is responsible for all the artifacts. What I can confirm, however, is the energy used to create them was at the B rank level, not C rank.

“Given the particularities of our most talented nephew, however, they were most likely made by him, but, without being able to hold one of the artifacts in my hand, it is possible they were made by one or more B ranks instead, also as skilled in alchemy and runecraft as in forging. Little Taravan has quite a few enemies.”

The Master of the Eternal Forge then reached out his right hand toward his brother and the Lord of Twilight Flame summoned out a black battle axe, a D rank Mythic grade weapon made of black iron.

“Of the weapons supposedly from the Havadim Imperium, the techniques and materials used in construction are those I would expect, quite different from the artifacts used by Vanar Tedros. And the energy used to create them ranges from D to B rank, each artifact made using different mixes of elements, pointing to there being more than one crafter. But the temporal aging, while nearly flawless, has been faked, and, while they were definitely made in another universe, the universe they were made in was much younger and had more balanced elements than the universe of the Havadim Imperium.

“As for the blood oath, while it’s incredibly binding, the oath has no target, truly swearing loyalty to someone dead.”

The Master of the Eternal Forge looked thoughtful for a second and his siblings waited for him to continue.

“Given the estimated powers of our nephew, however, it might be possible to use the soul signature of a D or C rank soul in the blood oath’s creation, strip that soul of all its power, and then put it behind a powerful isolation formation to create the same effect. So it’s probably best to kill anyone known to have given such an oath.”

Daevic felt a poisonous chill enter into his body again and watched as both the Master of the Eternal Forge and the Lord of Twilight Flame turned to look at their sister.

“I just checked and all but five of our greatest talents at the various warfronts have sworn such an oath—” The Lady of Hellwater’s face showed an extreme amount of anger. “—presumably from being deliberately targeted. And, other than the 73 still in the C rank Universal Tournament, all the others have disappeared within the last month, their soldier contracts broken with either their deaths or a powerful contract breaking skill while they were supposed to be returning from participating in the tournament.”

“How did they manage to all disappear?” An extreme heat filled the area as the Lord of Twilight Flame began to rage as well, though it seemed he was also looking into reports at the same time as he then answered his own question. “When teleporting after leaving the host planets of the regional tournaments where they lost, they never appeared at their destinations.”

“It was most likely done via military override.” The Master of the Eternal Forge, unlike his older siblings, appeared calm, not changing the environment around himself at all. “With the blood oath, a cultivator has to leave their original force for 20,736 years. Then they qualify under System rules as temporary slaves of their master. If, as I now fully suspect, the oath is to a somehow weakened member of Aalam Alvaro’s force, this would then make them sub-members of that force so long as the force was at least 3rd tier A rank, which it almost certainly is if they managed to fully conquer a small universe like father suspects, and this would allow their leader to forcibly alter their teleportation destinations.”

“But how were they able to identify them all?” The cold around Daevic lessened as the Lady of Hellwater appeared to calm down.

“Who’s to say they did.” The Master of the Eternal Forge looked from his sister to his brother and then back. “Our talents who gave the oath aren’t the only ones who’ve disappeared.”

“They’re stealing people so openly?” The Lord of Twilight Flame seemed to calm down as well, the heat from his aura lessening.

“They’re testing their escape path.” The Master of the Eternal Forge smiled slightly, appearing impressed. “Quite a few of our talents had artifacts on them made by my priests, so, if they teleported to Earth, I would have been able to find the planet. But it seems they were aware of this, or at least of the possibility, so they instead teleported everyone directly into the other universe through a temporary D rank portal in the Vorinox Galaxy Cluster which they artificially strengthened to C rank, one which has since closed.”

“So risky.” The cold finally disappeared as the Lady of Hellwater fully regained control over her aura. “Sure, that’s almost 1,728 C ranks with powerful races and bloodlines. Just their use as alchemy ingredients would be extremely high to a force which maxes out at C rank. But now we know which other universe Aalam Alvaro rules, something we wouldn’t have otherwise, so I don’t see the point.”

“What if our nephew knew that information would be revealed soon anyway.” The Master of the Eternal Forge was still smiling. “Vanar Tedros isn’t the only one who’s shown high grade artifacts without a history. And there are still several thousand cultivators in the tournament who’ve sworn an oath. Altogether, it wouldn’t be at all impossible for our nephew’s force to win half the tournament’s rewards, and, with that condition, thereby raise the grades of every reward for the contestants from their force, possibly enabling something our nephew requires.

“And it’s not like we can do much to stop them.” For the first time since they’d arrived, the Master of the Eternal Forge looked at Daevic and his father. “From Little Taravan’s subordinate’s example, aiming for the direct members of our nephew’s force is asking to die for B ranks, while the punishments for letting A ranks attack anyone but our nephew himself would be far too costly, potentially allowing the Divine Child and the Lady of Laws to take complete advantage of us.

“All we can safely do then is empower our own contestants.” With a wave of his hand, the Master of the Eternal Forge summoned out a purple-golden set of lightning-covered armor and a sword made of the same material, the two Empyrean grade artifacts seemingly specially designed for someone following Daevic’s path, giving him an extreme feeling of comfort when they landed in his arms. “Our weaker nephew here is our best chance, able to ruin any such plans should he last to at least the final 8.”

“Hmm.” The Lord of Twilight Flame also passed an artifact over to Daevic, but this time it was a small statue of the Primordial Sovereign, an extremely high grade dao guide containing all the Laws of the lightning, fire, water, wind, life, and death elements.

Then the Lady of Hellwater joined in as well, passing him a Heavenly Enlightenment Pill, one of only two known types of pills in the universe for allowing cultivators below B rank to automatically enter into a state of sudden enlightenment.

“Speaking of punishments, however,” the Lady of Hellwater continued, looking over at Daevic’s father, “how come no quest was issued for your force’s destruction after your subordinate tried to kill Vanar Tedros? More accurately, what did you give the man to make Aalam Alvaro and Li Mila decide to let you go?”

Daevic, for the first time in his life, saw his father look at someone else like Daevic looked at his father when the man was in the mood to hurt someone, his father falling to his knees and shaking. “I gave him a book, Ma’am.”

“Yes.” The Lady of Hellwater didn’t look amused and Daevic watched as his father’s extremities began to show signs of freezing and poisoning at the same time. “‘Ms. Horval’s Guide to Fungi and The Dissolving of Corpses’. We know. But what was inside the book? Send us a list.”

Daevic watched as his father made a gesture, almost certainly sending the list as instructed, and then he closed his eyes as, instead of the Lady of Hellwater, the Lord of Twilight Flame grew angry again and actually cooked his father, charbroiling most of his body and then tossing him into the lake, where about half his flesh was eaten off by carnivorous fish.