Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 178 - *Spoilers: Title at End*

Vahn had to spend nearly half an hour after releasing Fafnir explaining all of the details about its capabilities to Eva. She seemed to suddenly become very interested in his naming magic as well as any other skills he had yet to reveal to her. When she found out that Fafnir had 'magic immunity', she even tried testing a small scale magic that wouldn't damage it to see if it was as Vahn had claimed.

The ice that would have built up normally when she used her domain seemed to turn into steam in an area surrounding Fafnir. It was almost like there was an invisible sphere surrounding its body that encompassed the maximum spread of its wings. This meant that, for an area of 10m around its body, it completely broke down the structure of foreign magical elements. Eva realized that, unless she used her ultimate magic or physical prowess, there would be no easy way to deal with Fafnir. It wasn't an exaggeration to say the black dragon was the nemesis of all mages.

When she learned that it was capable of using magic but hadn't learned any, Eva became even more curious of the 'evil' looking dragon. She actually found its appearance quite cute and convinced Vahn to allow it to stay with her for the time being. Though he was a bit surprised by the request, after a bit of consideration, Vahn decided to allow Fafnir to stay in the orb. He gave it a mental command and told it to follow Eva's orders and be nice to her. He also told it that, if it could, try to learn magic from her in the future.

Fafnir stood before the two of them for a few seconds before it leaned down and tried nuzzling its snout toward Eva. She immediately became enthusiastic as she pet the hard and somewhat jagged scales of the malevolent-looking dragon. Vahn was also happy since now Eva wouldn't be alone in the space when he was in the real world. Though he was somewhat worried about Fafnir dissipating from a lack of energy, Vahn would be able to replenish it when he next visited. As long as it didn't use its mana in excess, it shouldn't be too difficult for it to last for the four years it took him to return.

As Eva flew around in the sky on the back of Fafnir at around 3700km/h, Vahn returned to his workshop and began forging what would be his weapon for the time being. Though he didn't rely on equipment nearly as much as in the past, Vahn didn't want to take chances and end up in a situation where he needed a weapon and didn't have one on hand. Because he assumed that the make and design of the weapon would matter when he named it later, Vahn had studied a bit about suitable legends that he could use.

Since he had grown somewhat fond of the mythos related to the northwestern gods, especially after naming Fafnir and [Gram], Vahn decided to keep to the theme and was now forging a weapon that would be capable of withstanding his vermillion-bird transformation. The sword he was forging was based on a legendary weapon that was wreathed in flames that could even burn through the foundation of the world. It was called Lævateinn, and Vahn was excited at the prospect of having a flaming sword to swing around and cut through his enemies.

Vahn spent nearly twelve hours just shaping the core of the sword and had used pure Orichalc.u.m as the base. He then painstakingly carved hundreds of small runes into the core with the intent of gathering fire-elements from the air and reinforcing the structural integrity of the future blade. Though he believed that naming it with the [Keeper of the Akashic Tome] would fill in some of the gaps, Vahn wasn't going to cut corners since each use of the Innate ability had a certain significance to it.

After forming the core, Vahn took the pure white Adamantine that had been soaking in the blood essence of a red drake that could only be found rarely in the Iron Hills. This caused the pue white metal to take on a crimson red hue as absorbed the energy within the blood. By the end of the process, the blood had turned almost clear as water and Vahn used to the final product to shape around the core a form a large claymore-like structure. Since Vahn would only need the weapon if he was fighting something large or above his strength, he wanted the sword to be large and powerful enough to cut down anything.

After the Adamantine had been shaped around the core, nearly thirty hours had passed, but Vahn was supplementing his energy with mana potions and senzu beans. Eva had shown up several times, but she left him to his own devices without bothering him. Instead, she just sat at her desk and watched his actions with a bit of intrigue in her eyes. Seeing how hard Vahn worked always made her feel pleasant and she had grown accustomed to admiring his figure as he worked the metal.

By the time Vahn had finished carving more runes and creating the handle and guard of the sword, nearly sixty-five hours had passed. Even with the use of items to supplement his energy, he was incredibly tired as he looked at the result of his efforts with a fervent expression on his face. The final result of his sixty-five hours of strenuous exertion had been the created of a crimson-red claymore that was 220cm long, with the handle making up about 50cm of the overall length to allow for an easy double-handed grip. The guard itself was nearly 30cm wide and the entire figure of the blade had a bit of a malevolent feeling to it with the runes carved into its surface in an intricate pattern.

Vahn spent the next few hours in focused meditation as Eva contemplated whether or not she should drag him away to rest. However, seeing the serious demeanor of Vahn, she couldn't bear to disturb him so she just sat quietly and observed at the side. Fafnir had been left in her garden after she rode it around for a bit earlier, and it seemed perfectly content to lay there without being disturbed.

After his mental energy had recovered, Vahn took the prototype Lævateinn into his hands and began focusing his mind on the image of the sword he wanted to create. Eva had noticed his actions and marveled at the energy that had begun to converge around Vahn. Even though he shouldn't be able to draw mana from the atmosphere of the orb's space, she could sense an incredible amount of energy seemingly appearing from the void without explanation.

Vahn held up the sword with both hands and arranged it to point straight toward the sky as he looked into the crimson blade with his eyes and spoke in a low voice that seemed to echo through the surroundings, "You shall be called [Lævateinn] from this point on. Become a sword that will burn my enemies to ashes." The moment his words sounded through space, Vahn felt his energy begin to rapidly drain from his body as the sword in his hands began to glow with a powerful ruby-red light.

Eva had been paying attention throughout the entire process and, seeing the ruby-red light, her eyes widened as she spread her magic throughout the entire workshop and teleported the entire structure and its contents away several hundred meters. Vahn was left behind as he stared in a daze at the ruby light emerging from the sword as the stark white ground around him began to char black from the heat coming from the sword in his hands. Eventually, the ruby light expanded into a sphere nearly 10m around his area and burned everything within to ashes. Strangely, no matter how hot the temperature was, it didn't seem to affect Vahn or his clothes as they just gently swayed about as if blown by the wind.

After a few minutes, Vahn had nearly been completely drained of his energy and the ruby light receded back into the sword in his hand. Now, instead of crimson claymore he had forged previously, it now had a charcoal black color as all the runes shone with a ruby-red and vibrant orange light like the fire of a forge. The entire figure of the blade looked profoundly evil but also had a strangely noble appearance if you looked at it for a while. It was like a sword that stood above anything that could be made by mortal hands, and Vahn even felt like it possessed 'pride' within its blade.

In a somewhat dazed state, Vahn swung the sword with a bit of force to test its capabilities. The moment he drew the sword into an arc, the runes glowed and the entire blade traced a long trail of fire behind the main body. When Vahn suddenly stopped the blade mid-swing, the fire trail continued outward in the direction he had swung and burned a large swathe of the stark white floor. The result was eerily reminiscent of a dragon's breath as it continued to burn into the ground like it possessed a powerful acidic quality.

Vahn couldn't prevent a large smile from appearing on his face as he held the majestic looking burned blade in his hands and read its description in the system menu. He had obtained a total of more than 17k OP when he had named it, so Vahn had high expectations of its status.

[Lævateinn]

Rank: S (Magic)

Slots: 0

P.Atk: 1708+170

M.Atk: 1153

Ability: Lævateinn(S), Flame Wreath(A), Explosive Thrust(A), Piercing(S), Sharpness(B)

A sword possessing the legacy of the legendary Lævateinn. The flames emitted by this sword cannot be extinguished by normal means and will continue to burn until the entire world turns to ashes as long as the user does not extinguish them.

After reading the description, Vahn's smile grew even larger and he felt a great excitement build within his body. The original sword he forged would have only been Rank-A, but naming it had actually pushed it to Rank-S. Though it didn't give him the [Master Smith] ability, Vahn felt much closer to obtaining it now that he had experienced forging such a powerful item.

Pointing the sword tip toward the flames that continued to burn into the white ground, Vahn willed the fires to extinguish and noticed them slowly burn out and stop dissolving the floor. He was incredibly satisfied by the result, as he now had an incredibly powerful weapon that could be used to deal with troublesome enemies. Even if he couldn't defeat them immediately, as long as he could get a few good attacks in and cover them with the flames, they would continue to burn and cause more damage even if Vahn ran away.

Vahn put the sword into his inventory and turned toward Eva who had appeared next to him long ago. She looked at him with a smile and a slightly flushed face as she said, "That sword is incredible. Your 'naming magic' is far more powerful than I imagined." Vahn nodded his head and responded, "It is the greatest masterpiece I ever forged, but it will not be the extent of the items I'll create in the future. I still have a long way to go..."

Eva smiled before disappearing using Shindo and reappearing next to Vahn with her hands on his chest. With a slightly fervent expression in her eyes, she whispered in a low tone, "It's good that you're working so hard...let me give you a reward." Before Vahn could reply, the two disappeared from the spot after Eva used her teleportation. Fafnir, who had been sleeping in the garden, lifted its head and looked toward the house where it could feel large energy fluctuations. It could vaguely sense that its master was in danger, but it also knew there was nothing it could do to help him against the 'enemy' he currently faced.

After it received its name, Fafnir had been developing its intelligence and was capable of reasoning through problems instead of acting solely based on instinct as it had done in the past. Now, unless its Master specifically requested its assistance, Fafnir decided to avoid trouble as it laid its head back down on the garden floor and enjoyed the smell of the various flowers surrounding it. After a few minutes, it once again fell asleep as it completely ignored the plight of its Master.

Title: [Lævateinn]

(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'See no evil, hear no evil','Burn baby, burn~!','Akashic Tome OP')

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