Chapter 624: Does It Resonate with your Soul?

The orange glow from his skin brightened for a long moment, then settled into a steadier, deeper burn.

A faint scent of heated metal and clean, living wood rose, lingered, and then faded into the background — the kind of smell that made you think of old workshops and careful hands.

"...Beautiful..." was the word that came out of Katana’s mouth before she realized she had spoken it.

Her dark eyes were wide in quiet amusement and something close to wonder. She had leaned forward slightly without realizing it, her shoulders shifting off the headboard, her weight pressing into her knees.

The cat plush lay forgotten in her lap, her fingers loose around its soft body. The shifting, living motion of the materials held her completely.

She could not, and did not, look away.

Specks joined and fused with quiet precision.

Thin golden lines traced across the forming objects like veins of light, appearing for a heartbeat and then sinking into the surface as if they had always belonged there.

Heat rose and fell in short, controlled waves that Katana could feel even from where she sat on the edge of the bed.

The warmth brushed against her cheeks and her bare forearms, a dry, pleasant heat that made the pink room feel smaller and more enclosed.

The temperature in the room climbed another degree but then stabilized. Benjamin’s eyes remained dead and distant the entire time.

When it was finally done, the blade gleamed under the soft magical lamp that hung in Katana’s room.

It was curved and single-edged, the classic shape she preferred, sensibly lengthened and refined into something that looked both elegant and deadly.

Thin golden lines ran around its form as if it had been pieced together after being shattered and then healed stronger than before.

The blade itself carried a wavy temper line that caught the light in soft, shifting patterns, never quite the same from one angle to the next.

The metal was a bit dark, closer to deep charcoal than bright polished steel, which only made the gold stand out more despite how thin and delicate the inlaid lines were.

The handle turned out white and silver, the earlier shifting texture now settled into something that looked both perfectly smooth and capable of an unbreakable grip.

The silk wrapping had disappeared into the structure, leaving only the diamond pattern behind, faintly visible like a memory pressed into the surface.

Katana was almost drooling as she watched the blade hover in the air between Benjamin’s hands.

It felt more like a person than an object.

Looking at it too long made her eyes feel strange, like staring at something that was looking back.

Speaking of eyes; Benjamin’s went back to normal.

The distant emptiness left them all at once, and ordinary blue focus returned like someone stepping back into their own body.

He blinked twice, his lashes heavy. Then he let out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to come from deeper than his lungs.

His shoulders sagged a visible fraction. The orange light around his palms faded completely, leaving only the soft pink glow of the room’s lamp.

[Wai—why am I so tired?!]

A dull, anemic heaviness had settled into his limbs, his wrists, and the base of his skull: the familiar, unpleasant price of pushing too much power through his body in too short a time.

{Answer: Master used a great amount of his magic to form the spectacular work of art. It is inevitable.}

[Well, thank God for art! But you could warn me before that happens! I told you I don’t like the feeling of being drained.]

{Nothing a good night’s sleep cannot fix, Master. If anything, I suggest Master continue to lose large pools of magic and become intimate with the feeling. This would take an enemy unaware when Master is still standing after a massive drain.}

[Tsk. I know you’re just having fun, Sys!]

"Is it done, Benjamin?" Katana’s voice cut cleanly through the internal argument.

She was still seated on the edge of the pink bed, the cat plush forgotten in her lap, its soft body squashed against her thighs.

Her dark eyes were fixed on the blade that hovered between his open hands.

The magical lamp in the corner threw a soft, steady light across the wavy temper line and the thin gold veins, making them shimmer faintly with every small shift of the air.

"Ah, sorry about that. It is done." He reached up and took the sword.

The handle settled into his palm with an almost living weight. White and silver, smooth and cool.

Neither cold nor warm — as if it had already decided how it wanted to be held and was simply waiting for him to comply.

He turned it and offered the hilt to her.

His vision had begun to soften at the edges, the pink walls blurring into a gentle wash of color.

Katana’s face and the wall behind her were starting to merge together, her features losing their sharpness.

The gold lines on the blade were the last sharp thing he could clearly see.

"Check it out. Does it resonate with your soul?"

"It resonated with my soul before it was even fully born." Katana said it quietly, without hesitation. "But this went far beyond my expectations. It feels alive."

She slid her fingers along the flat of the blade, slow and careful, the way someone might greet an animal that had already chosen them.

Her fingertips traced the temper line, followed the curve, paused at the gold veins as if she could feel something pulsing beneath the surface.

Benjamin had begun to rub his eyes with the heel of one hand.

The motion was slow and clumsy, his coordination dulled by the drain.

Internally, he cursed Sys and wondered, with a tired kind of unease, what monstrous weapon the katana would become with so much magic packed into it.

The blade did not feel like a finished object. It felt like something that had only just opened its eyes. Something that was still waking up.