Chapter 328: A Sudden Visit, An SS-rank Hero at the Border

The residual energy emanating from the table was so dense that the air in the throne room became slightly heavy to breathe. The miasma of the former Demon King Rigal seemed to demand its freedom through the newly forged bone and metal.

However, no one in the room took a single step back. The pressure was overwhelming, but Ryan's elite group stood firm, observing the finished equipment with evident expectation.

Ryan rose from his stone throne and descended the steps with slow, calm steps. His cold gaze immediately fell on the center of the table, where the largest piece rested.

Before Ryan, a massive piece rested that seemed to defy martial logic. It was a waning moon almost two meters long, forged with Rigal's outer spine and upper ribs, reinforced with a black mithril alloy and demonic blood seals.

"For the leader, the demon king," Runa announced with a smile, showing her pride in the colossal creation.

"The Fang of the Heavens: Waning Claw," Runa added, giving a brief nod to Ryan.

The weapon was not a simple lump of carved bone. Its main arc was designed as a gigantic war boomerang.

When thrown, the wind channels on its edge absorbed the kinetic momentum, generating a tearing whirlwind capable of decapitating entire battalions and returning to its master's hand through a magnetic attraction sealed with his own mana.

But its true genius lay in its dwarven assembly. Ryan reached out, grasping the central handle wrapped in demon leather.

With a twist of his wrists and a click of runic gears, the colossal boomerang split in half.

In the blink of an eye, Ryan wielded twin curved double-edged swords, heavy as tombstones and ravenous as the wolf's jaws.

'The balance is perfect. And it looks much better than I expected,' Ryan thought, evaluating the weight of both swords in his hands with absolute satisfaction.

Alisa approached to strap an imposing long coat over Ryan's shoulders, tailored from the Silver Mane and the dorsal skin of the Beast King. The fabric naturally repelled low-ranking elemental spells and infused the wearer with the Mantle of the Beast King.

This was a passive presence that increased physical strength in proportion to the number of enemies faced.

Ryan adjusted the lapels of the heavy coat over his neck and rejoined the two swords with a sharp runic click.

His companions were impressed, with an intense gleam in their eyes waiting impatiently for their turn; this equipment far surpassed epic weaponry.

Then, Runa, satisfied by her king's expression, continued distributing the weapons.

"Helen, the SS-rank heroine and personal escort of Demon King Ryan," Runa announced with solemnity.

Helen was handed a sword, forged from Rigal's left fang; the blade featured a pearlescent ivory polish, with crimson veins that beat with its wielder's pulse. Its name was Scarlet Vow.

This longsword possessed the affinity to channel the heroine's steadfastness. Its intrinsic ability, Mastered Fury Slash, stored the impact of blocked attacks to release them in an explosive thrust of tearing wind.

Helen gripped the hilt firmly and unsheathed a couple of centimeters of the blade. The crimson flash illuminated her excited face.

Her new uniform combined light armor over the chest with molded plates from the wolf's skull and a dark leather doublet. This attire increased her reaction speed and strength by thirty percent.

"Ryan," Helen said with excitement and a smile drawn on her face. "With this new sword, I won't let anyone lay a finger on you. I'll even split that lizard in two if she dares to do indecent things," Helen stated with great confidence.

"How childish, don't drag me into your fantasies, you foolish woman," Lise grumbled.

"What did you say, foolish lizard."

"Enough, I must continue," Runa intervened.

Ryan nodded slightly in approval, and Runa looked at the next girl in line.

For Mirian, the SS-rank archer and second personal escort of the demon king, the artisans had listened to the old legends.

The body of her new longbow was sculpted from the bones of the beast's hind legs, precision-curved in the fire.

However, the truly terrifying part was the bowstring: meticulously braided from Rigal's calcareous tendons, submerged in lunar alchemical fluids. It did not require conventional arrows; the tendon's tension converted Mirian's mana into projectiles.

Mirian took the huge bow with both hands and elegantly drew the string back to her cheek.

A bolt of translucent energy immediately formed in the center of the grip.

Her ability, Piercing Howl Shot, emitted an ultrasonic whistle upon release that disoriented the target's senses seconds before the projectile pierced their heart from kilometer-long distances.

Her outfit, a fitted marksman's tunic dyed in ash gray with the fur from the beast's neck, granted her thermal camouflage and completely nullified the noise of her footsteps.

"Wow, this really is a marvel, you've definitely impressed me," Mirian commented, releasing the bow's tension with a sigh of admiration.

Irina was granted a crossbow; in fact, it was a personal request from Ryan.

On her table rested a heavy repeating crossbow: the Stalking Jaw.

The loading mechanism was a masterpiece of dwarven engineering, driven by minuscule gears and a tension bow forged with Rigal's floating ribs.

The bolts fired by this weapon carried the Tracker's Trace property. Each impact marked the prey's spiritual scent, allowing subsequent shots to correct their trajectory mid-air to always strike vital points.

Her explorer's attire was treated with oils from the wolf king's hunting gland, masking any elven scent and making her undetectable to the smell of tracking monsters and demons.

Irina held the heavy crossbow and pulled the side lever, listening to the smooth and precise metallic gearing.

"It's very easy to use, I like it a lot," Irina expressed with calmness in her voice. She looked at Ryan with a smile.

Now it was Alicia's turn, but the blacksmiths knew that equipping her with artificial weapons would hinder her instincts, so they created something symbiotic: the Spectral Claw Gauntlets.

They were bracers of tanned leather and bone-plate knuckles that fitted directly over her forearms.

Upon tensing her muscles, the bracers did not replace her natural claws, but rather covered them with an ethereal extension of Rigal's front claws, extending her reach by half a meter of pure lacerating edge.

Alicia adjusted the leather straps on her arms and clenched her fists tightly.

Her attire consisted of a combat vest reinforced with elastic tendons that didn't limit her flexibility, adorned with minor fangs as a feral tribute to her bloodline.

"Is it really okay for me, being an assistant, to use such a valuable weapon?" Alicia murmured with a disbelieving smile.

For Beatrice, the demon assassin, the sewing workshop and the demonic forge conceived the most twisted nightmare.

Inside an obsidian case lay twelve spools of jet-black micro-filament.

They were the Threads of Funereal Destiny, crafted by stretching and refining the Demon King's medullary nerves and microscopic tendons, bathed in elven alchemical poison, which would intensify upon receiving the manifestation of darkness.

They were thinner than a human hair, but tougher than diamond. Connected to bone thimbles on Beatrice's hands, these threads cut through flesh and armor like butter just by being pulled taut.

Their special property, Penumbra Web, allowed her to set invisible traps on the battlefield that not only shredded anyone who crossed them but also slowly drained the victims' mana to replenish Beatrice's own power.

Her assassin's dress, tailored from the abyssal silk of the beast's stomach, absorbed the light around her, allowing her to melt into the shadows with absolute fluidity.

Beatrice placed the thimbles on her fingers and extended her hands. The black threads floated in the air almost imperceptibly.

"A truly exquisite piece of work," Beatrice murmured with a pleased look.

For the two mages of the group, Rigal's corpse offered two opposite but devastating magical poles.

Karol was handed the Staff of the Chaos Howl, crowned by the very crystallized mana core that rested in Rigal's heart, set in ancient elven wood reinforced with dwarven fire runes.

The staff acted as a relentless catalyst: it doubled the blast radius of her destruction spells and activated Crimson Maelstrom, reducing mana consumption for advanced magics in exchange for an aura of pressure that suffocated enemies by absorbing their mana in an area.

Her tunic, dyed dark crimson and lined with magical beast wool, dissipated the residual heat and feedback of her own massive spells.

Karol raised the staff with pride and squeezed the runic wood. The heart crystal glowed with an intense red.

"Ha ha ha." Karol let out a laugh. "With this new weapon, I'll be able to fight forever without my mana running out," Karol exclaimed with a confident laugh.

Chloe, on the other hand, received the Beast Skin Grimoire: The Eye of the Storm, bound with the tanned parchment of Rigal's frontal leather and a short support rod carved from demon horn.

Chloe was attuned to spatial distortion and control magic. The grimoire granted her the Alpha's Territory attribute, an area-of-effect ability that created a zone where gravity and magical flow were manipulated to her will, slowing down opponents while increasing the damage of her spells.

Her pale blue vestment, treated with mana scales and wind silk, granted her buoyancy and drastically reduced the consumption of her continuous enchantments.

Chloe took the heavy tome in her hands and pressed it gently against her chest.

"I will do what I promised, Your Majesty. I will become much stronger," Chloe promised with a firm tone, looking at Ryan.

Ryan took a step forward; behind his back, his seven companions took possession of their weapons and suits, feeling how the Demon King's mana accepted submission and intertwined with their own.

The blacksmiths, the dwarves, the elf, and the weaver took a step back, bowing their heads with deep respect.

"Just as the demons have sentinels, and the church has holy knights, I will now give you a title of your own," Ryan said. And before the excitement and expectation of his companions...

The long-distance communication relic resonated with a sudden message.

"Your Majesty, just as you had imagined, the S-rank hero William is here, with two S-rank heroines, and another A-rank heroine," informed one of the demons from the border.