The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  Ernest’s face twitched when he saw the metal balls, “I-is that metal really going to be forged into Xero’s bones?” Ernest asked worried about his friend.

  “It is, that is very high quality Devil metal. It’s very resistant against demon magic, it can be called a semi-holy metal and is the one and only metal a Sword Devil would accept to be forged with. Their natural body, that is the sword body, is formed by raw horrible quality Devil metal and only after being completely reforged during the level 30 breakthrough will their bodies get rid of the many impurities in it that was weakening it including the weakness against Demon corruption particles. Plated Devils are similar.” Night said. “If only those little cannon balls didn’t weigh a few ton I would have taken one for myself.” Night said reluctant “My Nephilim Trident is also made of very low quality devil metal, if only you had the money to buy at least 100 kilos of raw mithril then I could reforge it.” Night complained.

  “Don’t even dream of it, only if the Light church would help us in that regard could we ever hope to get that much raw mithril. What I’m more surprised about is how she got so much of it.” Ernest said.

  “Is it that surprising?” Night asked completely confused, “I mean, they’re the best miners, not to mention she has Ashley’s sword minions to help her mine inside a heavily dense mana environment like this. Mithril is a highly abundant resource in this place and all she needs is for the earth controlling minion to walk around and separate the mithril into rocks and bring it back.” He said.

  Ernest realized this point and nodded understanding.

  After a few hours of preparing a number of materials Xero and Zip returned along with a number of sword minions and some level 10 or so demons. Carried by each minion were a number of level 30 and above monsters that could be found in the surrounding outer city still as well a few even further out.

  “Cinder, we are back.” Zip said.

  “Boss, welcome back. You boys got a lot of materials and food.” She said.

  “Master over hunt so much, no it's better to say that he had a contest with brother-in-law, and overfilled their magic bag.” Ashley said complaining.

  Xero and Zip chuckled before opening their bag and releasing the many snake creatures as well as a few none snake beasts but almost all are reptilian.

  Cinder nodded, “Throw everything into the lava pit, all the metals in the blood, muscle and scales will be extracted in a few hours.” Cinder said.

  Ashley waved her hand and the minions began to drop everything inside the lava pit causing the pure lava to slowly darken as the material began to drop in and absorb the heat. The pillars began to light up, already set up to refine materials, impurities almost instantly began to bubble up as toxic gas.

  The rest slowly got extracted in the lava and was slowly refined and improved slowly into magical metals. Cinder put the four Devil metal balls on the altar leaving them there to slowly absorb the slowly gathering minerals that were slowly starting to snake up onto the altar.

  They then let Ashley make food and enjoy the food while waiting, Cinder would look towards the altar through from their table outside.

  “So, compared to my breakthrough, isn’t the preparations for your breakthrough many times more complicated?” Ernest asked.

  “This is the minimal we could prepare actually?” Cinder said eating a huge chunk of meat. She fed the little devil boy that would be forging them as well as soon to upgrade to full Plated Devil Minion.

  “We are ‘material’ creatures, he need a high demand of metal and material to reforge our bodies every 10 levels.” Ashley said while she and Xero were eating off a huge corpse of a Giant Boa Xero had killed.

  Their bodies released steam as they ate but all that was slowly converted into energy and heat.

  As the time for the breakthrough drew near, Nil, Univa and Meldie soon came to see their breakthrough. Had seen Ernest’s but it was a very worrisome process because it forged the soul as well.

  “Alright, the refining process is done, strip down boys because things are going to get hot!” Cinder laughed.

  Of course, semi solid metal wasn’t hot enough to injure them after they activate their auras and circulated their mana to protect against the heat. Only when the forging process started would it hurt as their bodies would be crushed into the molten metal before it was literally hammered into their bodies.

  As the two undressed, Meldie shrieked in shame covering her eyes but in a rather cute manner she slightly opened a crack in her small fingers while Univa blushed greatly but only diverted her eyes a moment before looking again only to blush harder when she saw how lean Xero’s muscles were.

  There was no need to mention that neither girl dared look a Zip’s sculpted tan adult figure since it was simply too much stimulation for two young girls so in the end they turned to Cinder where it was a bit more comfortable but made them question if they would grow that ‘big.’

  The four soon walked to the Altar just as the Hilda arrived, curious about this breakthrough. She said that Void was exhausted from drinking but chuckled a little after but said no more.

  With the four finally on the Altar the Plated Devil Minion took his place, the forge was already previously set up by Cinder so all it would take was for the forging to start and it did as he let out a roar.

  His body grew to four meters tall while his hammer expanded until the head was 6 meters wide so that it would hit the entire altar.

  The altars mana gathered around hammer infusing it and his body with immense mana while arms grew out of the pillars and sent out beams of light to chain down their souls just as the hammer crashed down.

  Puff… BANG!

  After a small muffled hit the effect of the first hit had, unexpectedly, caused Ashley’s devil flame to burst like a spark on a gun, destroying all the defensive power of the four and increasing the power of the hammer, lightning up all six pillars and giving unparalleled power to the forging Lesser Plated Devil Minion to destroy all their bodies breaking it down to the last connected cell and ripping the four souls out. With all this, an unimaginable amount of mana suddenly skyrocketed making every person with a minimum of level 60, feel the immense magical disturbance.

  Archmagus Valmor shot his eyes open and looked at the roar like impact. “That impact felt different to the ones Xero used to undergo common forging, its like at least the attack of a level 50 demon was shot off in the center of the city.” Valmor said.

  “That means the kid started his breakthrough. Want to go watch? I once saw a Sword and Plate Devil breakthrough, it’s quite a sight.” Lucifer said appearing.

  “The child really lifts up tremendous winds.” Valmor stood up and space in front of him bent as he stepped through appearing in the air near the forge only to see Xero’s body turned into a pile of meat while his soul was chained down by the six pillars.

  At once Valmor paled and intended to do something drastic to revive him before being punched in the face by Lucifer, “Stop doing stupid stuff you old devil. The breakthrough is incomparably brutal, he needs to forge his soul and remake his body like metal.” He said.

  Valmor watched in stunned awe as Xero’s body slowly remade itself in the molten glowing lava that was burning it.

  The hammer fell again while the metal slowly fell off and climbed up once more. Slowly the metal began to be hammered into the four bodies while the souls were hit, crushed and reformed with mana filling it. The broken souls instantly pieced together becoming more powerful while forming a nebulous cloud around it making more and more protection while the soul grew stronger as the hammer still reached it even with that protection.

  “This seems more like a torture then a breakthrough.” Valmor said.

  As a man who has lived many years, there are few events he has not witnessed but the forging of a Sword and Plate Devil is one of them and in his opinion, it is by far one of the most brutal body tempering methods he ever witnessed.

  On the ground, everyone had their hearts
in their mouth seeing the breakthrough, even though a few of them saw it once, it was something that made them very stressed about it because it was required this sort of breakthrough.

  What was unexpected when more and more powerful people flew over to the smithy and were shocked to see the ‘dead’ corpses and souls being pounded while liquid metal was being ‘eaten’ by the corpse forming a kind of ‘pit’ as the liquid metal was sucked into the body.

  They watch in horror as the Plated Demon, burning in Sword Devil Flame, pounded them. At the 45th hit a change happened as the souls reentered the body and he ‘forged’ the link between soul and body once more.

  At the final impact, a pillar of Blue White Flame lifted from the altar.

  Soon that pillar bent and dropped upon the four bodies, lifting them while the rest of the liquid metal entered through the wounds closing behind it while healing and dissolving the metal into the muscles and bones leaving no true metal in the body and it was completely flesh and bone.

  The two devils were sucked into their now completely reformed demon core, Ashley’s 3cm ruby crystal core slowly expanded to 6 cm while Cinder’s 1 cm ruby crystal core expanded to 3 cm and they shined.

  Cinder appeared with two meter in height, sculpted muscles under her tan skin held immense power. She looked no different but was taller and looked like an adult now.

  As for Ashley, her body was much smaller but unlike her 12 year old budding curves had suddenly turned dangerous in many sense of the word. With full, well shaped breasts, an hourglass figure with a wide hips and a perfectly round sculpted butt, cute small white horns with a tiny blue white flame on top, pale blue skin and a full teen adult figure looking at least 18 years old like a mature young woman. Her long silky hair was hanging on her back while a smile on her face showed her confidence.

  On the outside, the Plated Devil minion also underwent a huge change as it changed back to normal and soon turned into a young man of 13 year old.

  When the four on the altar came to, they looked up only to find countless powerhouses looking at them. The two boys blushed instantly and quickly jumped to their clothing and put on their pants before turning to them, “Greeting sirs.” Zip said.

  Nil finally realized many powerful people had arrived and were overlooking the event.

  “Quite an interesting display.” Valmor said.

  They remained quiet but Valmor suddenly turned to Morgan who had come as well, “Congratulations Morgan, your empire has two more fantastic knights.” He said.

  “Huh? W-was that event just a breakthrough!?” Morgan said in shock, “What kind of bloody people destroy their bodies for a breakthrough?” He said.

  “There are many things in this world and many other ones that are very brutal, these are devils we are talking about, destroying the body and forging the soul is their method.” Valmor said chuckling making all the people pale.

  To do something to the soul is suicide, how fragile is the soul and yet they just saw their souls be ripped from the body, pounded and forged back into the bodies.

  The powerhouses all looked at the two young men with admiration because these people would not dare such a risky thing like that without prior preparation.

  Puff! Puff!

  Just as they were talking the sound of bodies collapsing was heard and they looked finding the three devils and the two boys unconscious, the two familiars then retreated to the familiar seal but the family of the boys ran forward and excused themselves before taking them to rest.

  The Null family rush back home and put the two in bed to let them rest. Nil returned to the dining hall were Void, Hilda, Univa and Meldie were here. “They’re asleep now, it must have been a huge burden.” Nil said.

  “I wonder how long they will stay asleep?” Meldie said worried.

  “Don’t worry, they succeeded, they just need rest because their method was extremely heavy handed.” Nil said and suddenly felt a cold feeling run down his spine.

  Void saw his father's strangeness at this moment as his face turned serious. “What happened father?” he asked.

  Nil shook his head, “I don’t know but I only got this feeling once in my life. It was when I angered your mother the one and only time in my life. I think something is happening back at Lurian.” He said.

  Hilda laughed, “Now isn’t that sweet, being able to feel your dear from so far away.” Hilda joked.

  Nil looked at her serious, “Hilda, girls…” he said looking at all three, “One thing should be known, never infuriate Opal, it is a very scary sight that is even scarier than a demon attacking you with all its killing intent pressing down on you.” he said.

  The three girls looked strangely at him.

  “I’ll go see the king and see if I can’t go back home, I have a bad feeling about this. Void stay here and take care of your brothers…” he pointed at him, “Don’t do anything without thinking.” He said.

  “Don’t worry, I will think for him so don’t worry.” Hilda said.

  Nil nodded and made his way to the king and report what he wanted to do. Morgan was curious about this but since it was quite the small problem he simply offered a tamed mount to return to the empire.

  Nil thanked him and wasted no time even when a few people greeted him as he left through the gate and left the dungeon to return to the Lurian empire.

  Chapter 21

  After the unexpected event of Xero and Zip’s breakthrough, a number of servants from other higher ranked people began to try and ask about the information about it. They wanted to know about all the specifics. That said, both Zip and Xero were unconscious, and with the day being a few days before the weekly battle, the Donima firm canceled the week's battle to make sure and check Xero for any serious injuries and to see how long he was out.

  At the same time, Lord Valmor came out and called all these powers that were pressuring the Null family’s knights and family. Lucifer came out, being someone who knew the details about the Plated Devil’s forging ability, and explained it vague enough to understand but told most if not all the features.

  Spirit, Object and Material type creatures could be forged with 30 to 50 hits while any creature could be tempered with 10 hits but a person that has reached a bottleneck, if willing, can take 100 hits similar to what they witnessed, have their bodies and souls forged and force the breakthrough open.

  Countless people began to drool for this power, how could they not realize this would allow the forces of anyone who controlled it to constantly have stronger and stronger followers who did not have to worry about bottlenecks as long as they reached the bottleneck level.

  That said, three intense powers suddenly exploded in the crowd. King Morgan, Marquess Crost and Francis Donima all stood up and made their point clear, Francis spoke for all three.

  “This is your only warning, anyone that tries to acquire this power by force, will pay a steep price!” He said in a grave tone.

  There were plenty of powerful people but when a king thinking about his kingdom's military forces as well as inaugurated knight with high potential, the head of the most powerful merchant firm and the man known as the Red Dragon king stood behind the Null family as a large tree blocking the winds, how could these howling wolves dare get even close.

  When this was put down many people were stuck as to what to do but could only pull their heads back away from the deathtrap that was attempting to wage war with a dwarven nation and a Marquess family of the Radiance empire.

  That said, it was a very beneficial thing to exist, the forging breakthrough. The soul is always weak but this method directly tempered the soul, the stronger the soul the stronger the body so to constantly improve it through brutal methods was actually an eye opener and after discussion it was decided that, as long as a ‘tax’ is paid to the nation as well as a price directly to Zip for the forging, anyone can travel to where Zip is and get it.

  Of course, the three treatments all had different prices and all this was slowly discussed on a basic
level as they awaited for Zip to wake up.

  As for Xero…

  ***

  Taking slow breaths, two and a half days have passed since he fell unconscious, originally he did not move but during the last night, his coma transformed into deep sleep. He began to move around and found a comfortable position but this was a position where he was hugging a very soft, warm and nice smelling pillow.

  Xero hugged the soft ‘pillow’ and found that it was much longer than he thought letting him wrap his leg around it to let him feel the soft warmth.

  As he found a comfortable hugging position with one of his legs wrapped around the bottom part of the ‘pillow’ while hugging it and with his face in the softest upper part he fell once more into a deep sleep.

  Only after a long time, the sunlight began to come in from the blinds. While he was drooling and grinning while mumbling in his sleep the door to his room opened slowly. Very slowly a young girl’s face with long flowing blonde hair appeared.

  Univa slowly peeked in to see if he was okay but once she looked at the bed her jaw dropped and her face turned red, then scarlet before almost reaching purple and she suddenly kicked the door in. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO XERO!?”

  The suddenly bang of the door as well as the roar like bellow from the young shy girl caused the comfortably sleeping Xero to be startled awake. That said, he had been in deep sleep so he didn’t know what was going on and tightened his hold on what he was hugging for his own safety before he finally looked around.

  The first thing he saw were two ‘soft’ mounds of flesh with light, sky blue skin and two dark blue peaks. Xero found that his face had been in between these soft sweet smelling mounds. When he looked up he found a charming face.

  “Good morning hubby, did you sleep well?” The charming face asked before lifting her hand to his face and holding it she pulled him, still half asleep, and kissed his lips while a small tongue rolled around invading his lips.