Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

Chapter 1697: The Naraka Blade (1)

An excerpt from a Buddhist cosmology scroll:

It is said that before a wicked soul can reincarnate, they must first be cleansed of their karma.

In order to be cleansed, the soul An excerpt from a Buddhist cosmology scroll...in relation to mimicking the power of the Narakas:

It is said that before a wicked soul can reincarnate, they must first be cleansed of their karma.

This process involves the soul being sent to one of the Eight Cold Narakas or Eight Hot Narakas, depending on the severity of their crimes, with each lower level being a more and more severe punishment dedicated to a more severe sin.

This punishment isn’t eternal, but it takes a long time to serve out a sentence.

Evidently, this reason is why it’s tricky for aether warriors to perform aether arts meant to mimic the Narakas.

It’s hard for one to imagine that sort of pain lasting for eons and ages and not have it cause death or permanent injury.

At least...not without experiencing the feeling firsthand.

...I wonder what this opening scrawl means...

"Alright! Looks like we’re in the homestretch," Zhen Liu declared as he stopped his singing and hammer swinging. The work, however, wasn’t done yet.

At this point in time, the main blade was more or less folded and hammered into shape, glowing in a myriad of colors as a representation of the strange mix of metals that went into making it, and ready to be quenched at any time. The sword would be a Gold-tiered aether treasure that carried with it the weight of a hundred or so dead souls if quenched at this stage. However, it wouldn’t have the ability that Zhen Liu was aiming for; it would just be a really good sword that could do a little bit of everything badly.

If Zhen Liu wanted to make it so that Lythero had a sword capable of transforming between eight different forms with wildly different power sets, then he was going to have engraved into it a series of runes while the metal was still hot enough to melt his face off.

To be more precise, each of Lythero’s swords had to be assigned a unique rune, and that rune had to be carved into the molten blade in a precise manner or else it would just fall apart.

The best-case scenario was that every last one of these runes would get properly carved, and Zhen Liu would be able to give Lythero the sword that would be vital for his revenge without much fuss or pain.

A bad-case scenario would have the runes improperly carved and force the trio to start over, as the runes had to be made in sequence, or else the transformation ability wouldn’t work right.

The absolute worst-case scenario is that Zhen Liu ends up carving the wrong rune by mistake, and the whole sword explodes in their face with the same force as a nuclear bomb.

Thankfully, he wasn’t doing this bullshit by himself.

"Are you ready?" Zhen Liu asked Axer as he transformed the bone hammer in his hands into a bone chisel.

"No," Axer sarcastically replied while pulling forth his own ornate-looking chisel that matched with his hammer. "I will follow your lead, though."

"Solid, let’s begin."

The plan was that Zhen Liu, due to having a literal library in his head, would take the lead and carve out the initial rune that would serve as the foundation for the sword’s transformation. Then, having reviewed the material and memorizing the runes down to the last stroke, Axer would come in and smooth out the edges.

That stated, booths sides were still incredibly nervous since something like this hadn’t been done in the history of Valresta’s aether treasure-making history.

Making an aether treasure was hard enough, so trying to make one that could technically transform into another was on an entire level. Hell, making one that was technically eight different ones at once could be something in the domain of the gods.

But Zhen Liu wasn’t going to fail without trying at least once.

After taking a deep breath, Zhen Liu placed his chisel against the flat side of the blade and prepared to bring down his hammer again. Only this time, in a much more controlled manner.

BANG!

"Gah! Good thing I’m wearing eye protection," Zhen Liu exclaimed as he leaped back from the sparks he had just made.

Unfortunately, all the carefulness in the world wasn’t going to stop the heated blade from sparking like a firework with every strike.

Despite being relatively tame up until this point, the Netherworld Sun Steel was still incredibly volatile and would definitely react poorly to being forced to share a metaphorical space with seven other blades. At least, that would be the case if Zhen Liu didn’t do the runes correctly.

Thankfully, Zhen Liu had gotten used to the sparks after the third time it happened in his face and learned how to shield his face with [Chaos] at just the right moment.

It took Zhen Liu a little time, but he eventually carved a rune that he remembered translated to "Origin."

This rune would anchor the blade’s current state as the "original" and would make it possible to carve in the other runes without causing any structural damage to the blade...in theory.

Logos and Pathos had assured Zhen Liu that this would be the case, but he recalled that Pathos at the time was kind of giggling something about whether or not they should be changing Lythero’s name to H@ru Gl-ry and wasn’t entirely sure they were being serious.

Either way, the fact that the sword hadn’t exploded yet after this first rune was a good sign.

"Alright, I finished polishing out the flaws and adding the details," Axer declared after a couple of moments. "What rune are we carving in first?"

"Lythero, do you have a preference?"

"Does it matter? You’re going to carve in all seven anyways, right?" Lythero asked.

"Yes, but it would be better to get these in the order you want in case we need to bail. I could start with something like the [Vorpal Scimitar], but you never seem to use it."

"Fair point...start with Master Coyote’s kukri. The illusions of my [Astra] are kind of weak in comparison to the real thing."

"Right."

Following Lythero’s suggestion, Zhen Liu began to carve out a rune that loosely translated to "Illusion."

This was when the trouble really began.

As he carved into the blade, the blade itself began to release waves of aether that tried their damnedest to slam into Zhen Liu and send him flying into the wall.

At the same time, the blade flickered between looking like the long, straight edge sword of Lythero’s dreams and the strange-looking Kukri that Master Coyote used.

It wasn’t until Zhen Liu finished carving out the rune that the magic of the act finally took clear effect.

The sword on the anvil briefly stayed in the form of the [Trickster’s Pack Kukri] before turning back into the yet to be named [Origin] form.

"Holy shit, it actually worked," Axer said in shock at the sight. "This...this is going to change how people fight with aether treasures by a wide margin."

"Yeah...before you get too excited by that revelation, we got six more of these to carve and it’s going to get a lot harder from here," Zhen Liu quickly said in order to calm Axer’s passion.

"Right..."

And Zhen Liu wasn’t lying in the slightest about this being progressively harder with each additional rune added.

As the guy in charge of laying down the foundation for the runes, Zhen Liu could feel the metal becoming more and more resistant with each addition and that it needed to be reheated to an even greater degree than before. He could also feel that the energies within the blade were becoming more and more unstable with every incomplete addition, only for it to completely settle once the addition had been added.

The entire process didn’t take that long, only an hour or so by Zhen Liu’s estimation. However, to his senses at least, it felt as if he had been doing work for an entire day and a half.

By the time he had finished carving the final rune, [Sun] for the [Solar Wing Slasher], Zhen Liu felt like he was going to vomit both today’s and tomorrow’s dinner.

However, the sheer power coming off of the incomplete weapon at this time was well worth the effort.

All they had to be done now was to quench the blade.

Which was going to be...slightly gross.

’Frosttusk?’

[I...am here...]

The mammoth kaijin of ice entered the forge while carrying a large stone pot that was so cold that mist rolled off of it in big billowing sheets.

The contents of this pot though wasn’t super chilled water or some form of mystical ice: it was the blood of a hundred dead warriors.

As soon as the pot was placed down, Zhen Liu turned towards Lythero.

"You know...what to do..."

"Right...I hate this part..."