Chapter 169: Old Memory
There was a tall tower rising into the broken sky in a strange reflection, long abandoned by the daemon of imagination. Its walls were covered by a net of deep cracks, but the crumbling tower still stood straight and proud, much higher than any other structure in the vast ruin. Outlined against the pale radiance of the shattered moon, its dark shape was like a battered sword thrust into the ground by the hand of a celestial giant.
The tower was dark, but at the very top of it, a fiery glow escaped from the arching windows. It was as if a sea of vermilion flame was burning inside, and the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil could be heard.
That was the royal forge of Anvil of Valor, one of the first demigods of the war realm and the descendant of War Goddess herself.
The king had been spending more time in his forge as the war between Valor and Song drew near, and his subjects would need weapons to battle the soldiers of song, who vastly outnumbered them.
In truth, arming his soldiers was merely a side objective of his.
His real goal, which was the anchor of his being, was to forge the perfect blade.
Flawless and strong, unlike any that came before it. One that even the gods would look up to in their graves and tremble at the sight of it.
That blade was not fated to be born in this forge as it had already been born elsewhere but that was a story for another time... And the perfect blade would take years to finish, anyway.
Anvil had been thinking of another thing in the meantime...
'The Omnitrix... To think such a hideous thing has made its way into this realm...'
He had seen it firsthand when Jest encountered that boy, and there was no doubt about it. That was the first divine relic made by mortal hands, wielded by a mere master.
Anvil had seen the Omnitrix only once before, in the depths of the underworld within his fourth nightmare.
Back then, the Omnitrix was wielded by one of Nether's children and its wielder had a foolish dream of overthrowing Nether and taking control of the underworld.
That stone saint was long gone by now, but it seemed the watch had somehow made its way outside of the underworld... That, or the boy had somehow managed to bring a replica of the Omnitrix into the waking world from one of his nightmares.
Anvil had been once interested in creating an Omnitrix of his own, just to see how his skills compared to that of the First Thinker.
However, he quickly realized that was impossible as he did not have the DNA of countless noble creatures and so Anvil had not tried creating it anything like it for a long time, deeming it as another forgotten relic of the ancient past.
But now, his interest had been reborn and so he had begun working on something else.
He knew that boy would rise in the ranks and perhaps, one day, he would become a supreme much like himself. When that time comes, Anvil had to make sure he would not intervene with his perfect blade and to do that, he needed to make another blade.
From the depths of his supreme soul sea, Anvil pulled a dark stone he had once taken from the depths of the underworld and placed it atop the metal he had been hammering.
Mixing metal with the stone of the underworld was not something that was normally possible, but with the help of his aspect and his terrifying will, the metal bent and merged forcefully with the dark stone, obeying his command.
At the same time, countless runic arrays manifested themselves in the span of a few seconds. Courtesy of Anvil's sorcery and awakened ability.
No metal could endure the weight of the enchantment he was creating, and so the stone of the underworld was needed.
The blade emitted a myriad of lights, and so Anvil continued hammering it. Each hit made the blade stronger and fused the metal, the stone of the underworld and the runic arrays together.
There was a reason why Anvil didn't fuse the metal and the stone first, and then enchanted the blade, but instead fused the two materials and the runes at the same time.
The process of creating this sword had to be unique and natural so that Anvil's supreme will could guide the power and strength of the blade.
After a while, a shell of literal darkness—remnant that escaped from the stone of the underworld—formed around the blade, trapping the metal and the stone inside and allowing their fusion to happen more smoothly.
This was a trait unique to the stone, one that anvil had uncovered when he crafted other things using the stone of the underworld.
Anvil stopped swinging his hammer and turned his attention to the runic arrays he had placed.
The enchantments making up the arrays were complicated runic phrases that gave it unique abilities.
[Array of Transformation]:
[Transform Nature of blood.]
[Transform Nature of bones.]
[Transform nature of flesh.]
[Transform nature of soul.]
[Transform nature of mind.]
[Transform nature of spirit.]
[Transform nature of shadow.]
[Array of formation]:
[Formless weapon.]
[Will conduit.]
[Liquid state.]
[Solid state.]
[Sharp metal.]
[Durable metal.]
[Light as a feather.]
[Array of affinities]:
[Affinity of metal.]
[Affinity of darkness.]
[Affinity of ???]
[Affinity of ???]
[Affinity of ???]
[Affinity of ???]
[Affinity of ???]
Each rune was infused with Anvil's will, further enhancing the power of the enchantments. More than that, the blood of war running through his body gave his arms a mystical power to them.
It was subtle and almost unnoticeable but it made every swing of his hammer and every rune he inscribed slightly more effective.
Runes were etched into the shell of darkness giving the metal inside even more mystical properties.
And then, Anvil grabbed his hammer and swung it with all of his supreme might, hitting the shell of darkness and shattering it completely, revealing what was inside.
It was a perfect sphere made out of dark metal... In one moment it looked like stone and in the other it was like metal.
The sphere had a mystical aura to it, as if it could shift and Transform into anything and anyone.
Anvil looked at it calmly, then he inscribed one final enchantment upon it, perhaps the most important one.
It was the enchantment needed to make it a true memory.
The process of turning an enchanted item into a memory was quite complicated to lesser enchanters, however for him, it was merely an inconvenience.
He simply needed to create a final runic array that would give the enchanted items the characteristics of a memory and the nightmare spell would do the rest.
His hands inscribed the runes, masterfully making the final addition to the item.
[Memory array]:
[Connection to the soul.]
[Summon from the soul sea.]
[Dismiss to the soul sea.]
[Repair within soul sea.]
There was an additional enchantment that Anvil could inscribe into it, however, he wanted to let the spell do it this time, perhaps out of curiosity or perhaps because he had nothing better to do.
The final array was completed and as it was, a change swept through the entire chamber, one that was unseen to all mortal men, but not to supremes.
It was the nightmare spell, coming to transform the artifact into a memory.
Thousands of weaves wrapped around the sphere, changing and transforming it. The runes shined brightly, becoming something different and infinitely more potent.
It only took a moment and the sphere had already became a memory.
Anvil touched it with his bruised hands, and heard the voice of the nightmare spell:
[You have received a memory: Dark Metal]
Anvil was not a man who wasted time, and so he immediately pulled his runes to check on his work.
Name: Anvil of Valor.
True name: Ironheart.
Rank: Supreme
Soul core: supreme.
Aspect: [Monarch of Metal.]
Aspect abilities: [Metal control], [runes of metal], [Augmenter of metal], [Soul weapon], [eyes of metal].
Domain: [Metal]
Metal domain subjects: [Whispering Blade], [summer saint], [Not so funny anymore], [skytide], [Morgan], [changing star], [song of the fallen].....
Flaw: [Lone monarch]
Memories:...
Anvil possessed thousands of memories, some he had made over the years and some he had received from killing nightmare creatures... Some had even been creatures once, killed by Anvil and transformed into various weapons by his Transcendent ability.
So he had to swipe far down to reach the sphere.
Memory: [Dark Metal]
Memory rank: Supreme.
Memory tier: VII
Memory description: [In the depths of a harrowing nightmare, Ironheart sought the wielder of the Omnitrix, the Prince of Darkness, and spoke in a steady voice, unafraid of the fact that the creature he was conversing with was more powerful than him.
"What is that thing, on your wrist?"
The prince of darkness titled his head slightly and leaned on his throne with a smile.
"Oh? How bold of you, human. To dare ask the prince of darkness such a blatant question..."
Ironheart's companions feared that the prince would wipe them out for their companion's audacity—all except the Dreamspawn, that is, who was eager to witness the prince's reaction.
After all, the prince of darkness was not human, and his actions and thoughts were not bound by logic.
Yet even then, Ironheart remained unfazed, and in doing so, earned the respect of the prince.
"Very well then, I shall satisfy your curiosity." The prince raised his arm, showing the sleek black watch, which bore a dark purple hourglass symbol. "This is the first divine relic made by mortal hands. It was once wielded by a nefarious mortal who dared to use it to slay the avatar of war, and later abandoned it. To the empire, this thing was their doom, and so the spirits leading the empire broke the world and cast it down to the underworld, where I found it."
Ironheart remained silent, listening carefully and gathering as much knowledge as he could. Such was the nature of all humans belonging to the realm of war.
"It's called the Omnitrix, and it gave me the necessary power to ascend and claim the throne of the underworld. It will also be the thing I use to defend this city from the Creatures of the abyss." The prince smiled and looked at the group of Transcendants. "Now, it's my turn to ask questions. Why do you mortals smell of war? Have you come here to destroy it? If that's the case, than I must say, the empire must have lost all of its glory if this is the best they could send."
"No. We did not come here to destroy your beloved relic, prince of darkness." The Dreamspawn suddenly spoke, startling everyone in the room.
Even the prince seemed to be wary of him.
"My friend here is simply a curious craftsman, and we are merely explorers who happened to stumble into the underworld." He spread his arms in a gesture of peace—or perhaps arrogance. "My name is Asterion, and we are here to help your majesty battle the abyss and bring down those who conspire against you."
"Is that so, abomination?" The prince's smile became even wider. "Ah, damn it all. Why do I care if you smell of war or profanity? Anything that can help me right now is welcomed."
And so, in the depths of the underworld, the prince of darkness made a deal with four unknown Transcendants, sealing his fate.]
"Hmm."
Anvil looked at the description and was slightly amused at the fact that the spell had recorded a moment from his past, one that he had thought about a few times.
Back then, he was a mere Saint who had foolishly challenged the fourth nightmare only one year after his Transcendence alongside his cohort.
The fourth nightmare and the underworld... It was truly a perilous journey, but in the end, Anvil and the rest of his companions had managed to conquer the nightmare and attain the throne of supremacy.
Oddly, Anvil did not feel any nostalgia about that time, and why would he? He had spent years following Broken Sword in his foolish pursuit of power and ascension.
In truth, Anvil had never wanted to become a sovereign, but what he wanted, what he loved, and what he did all became meaningless a long time ago—when he conquered the first nightmare and received his flaw...
Or perhaps, it became so when his wife had died... But alas, it did not matter.
The sphere manifested itself in a torrent of essence, landing gently in his hand.
Memory enchantments: [Formless], [Affinity], [Transform], [Mighty steel], [feather of lies], [conduit of the king], [endless metal]
[Formless] enchantment description: [This dark metal of the underworld has no shape or form and thus, it could become anything.]
[Affinity] enchantment description: [This metal can hold many affinities.]
First affinity: Darkness.
Second affinity: Metal.
Third affinity:???
Fourth affinity: ???
Fifth affinity: ???
Sixth affinity: ???
Seventh affinity: ???
[Transform] enchantment description: [This metal can change the nature of any creature it strikes.]
[Mighty steel] enchantment description: [You can increase the durability of this metal with soul essence.]
[Feather of lies] enchantment description: [This metal can be as heavy as its user wants it to be.]
[Conduit of the king] enchantment description: [This metal can channel the will of its master better than most weapons.]
[Endless metal] enchantment description: [This metal can increase its mass with soul essence.]
Anvil willed the sphere to shift into a blade, and the metal obeyed his command seemingly, becoming a perfect straight blade.
Moments later, it became curved blade with a sharp edge, and then it shifted into an odachi before shifting into all forms of blades invented through the long history of humanity.
Anvil spent hours experimenting with the new weapon, just as he did with his past blades. After all, this was one of his finest works.
Its ability to transform the nature of other creatures was directly inspired by the Omnitrix, but instead of simply transforming creatures and letting them experience what it felt like to be born as something else, Anvil had made it so that this ability—And this weapon—would be harmful to anyone is injured by it.
For example, if he was fighting a great nightmare creature with authority over water, he could then change its nature and authority into that of fire, making it completely unfamiliar to its new powers.
Of course, he could not simply change the nature into anything, but instead he only had seven options.
The same options that the [affinities] enchantment contained. Anvil had deliberately connected the two enchantments so that any affinity that he imprinted on the sphere could be stored within it and used in other ways through the [Transform] enchantment.
He merely needed to get five other source elements, like fire, water or perhaps more obscure things like gravity and time.
This would grant the sphere an affinity to that thing and at the same time it would allow Anvil's will, which is channeled by the [conduit of the king], to take on a slightly different form.
The affinity of metal enhanced his already existing authority over metal, and the affinity of darkness gave his oppressive will a more suppressing aura, allowing him to weaken the will of other beings.
The other enchantments were needed to make the sphere stronger. That way, it would be able to handle Anvil's will and its own enchantments.
Anvil dismissed the sphere after testing it and walked towards the window.
Fake Bastion was a horrifying place, however it held a beauty unlike no other. It was one of the most beautiful things in the world, but Anvil did not care much about beauty, at least not after his wife had died...
Everything was grey to him, and nothing mattered more than his perfect blade. That was all that mattered, and all that would ever matter to him when he wins the war against song.
That was his will, his virtue and his dream.
Anyone who dared to stand against it would be cut down mercilessly, even if they were his own kin.