Moonlight Forge
p With a proud stance, Vidar called out, then slumped once more, leaning his body against Lotte.
p “My belly is hungry! I want meat!”
p Osmon and his guard Piske brought wood and charcoal, lighting a small fire.
p We do not know how long we will stay here, so we must save it.
p While the dwarfs were roasting the meat, Ion chewed on dried fruit and hard biscuits to ease his hunger.
p Lotte was already well-fed at the fortress of Vidar, so that was a little easier.
p While eating the dried fruit, Ion examined the water in the brick tank.
p It was clear, just like I saw earlier.
p He took a wooden bowl from what he was carrying, filled it with water, and dipped his right hand into it.
p The black stone in the slot showed no change.
p He was relieved and drank the water, then told the others it was safe to drink too.
p The group ate their meal and then scattered to rest.
p We could not see the stars to tell the time, but it seemed like at least a day had passed, so Ion was tired too.
p
p * * *
p He seemed to have dozed off while leaning against the wall for a short while, but his eyes opened on their own.
p He had not slept much at all, yet he felt something strange and woke up.
p He stood and looked around the surroundings.
p The circular space had a high ceiling and the floor was also circular.
p It narrowed toward the center of the ceiling like a funnel.
p From the narrowest hole in the very center, a faint light was coming down.
p Ion narrowed his eyes and stared at the light.
p The faint light did not look like sunlight but moonlight.
p He was curious how moonlight could reach this deep underground, but before he could even think that, he saw a stranger scene.
p The moonlight was coming down to the forge, and when the black stone of the forge touched the moonlight, blue fire ignited.
p Whoosh!
p Ion shot up from his seat.
p “The fire on the forge has lit!”
p The dwarfs jumped up at Ion’s shout, and before they could ask what was happening, they saw the moonlight coming down from the ceiling and the stones of the forge that were burning with fire.
p Nidhog and Osmon were surprised by the fire on the forge.
p “This… this is the moonlight forge! So it was here?”
p “We only thought it was a legend! It wasn’t a legend!”
p “I thought it was one of the stories from the era of the ancient heroes.”
p Both men seemed to know about that forge.
p The moonlight grew a little more, and the flames grew larger.
p Ion asked Nidhog.
p “The moonlight forge seems to be here, but what is the moonlight forge?”
p “We only heard it as a legend too. Like what you see now, if you ignite the flames with moonlight, you can melt and forge iron in that fire. If you forge weapons or armor with this forge, it changes the shape and allows even ordinary iron to hold magic. That is the core ability of this forge.”
p Forging magic into weapons means having combat power on a completely different level from ordinary weapons.
p It means creating something like Ion’s weapon ‘Pain’.
p You need special metals to make those, so if you can make them just by coming here with ordinary iron, you can make excellent weapons with common materials.
p Actually, it was an unbelievable story, so it was literally a legend, but I confirmed that it actually exists here.
p “You are not forging magic into them, but making it possible to forge magic, correct?”
p “Yes. Like the giants who made your sword ‘Pain’, heroes who were both mages and blacksmiths created countless weapons here. We only knew it as real technology because it was only passed down in stories and did not exist, but that was not the case.”
p “It is a great forge.”
p “It is great. But now there is not much time to talk about that story.”
p “Huh?”
p Nidhog pointed at the growing moonlight.
p “It is moonlight. We can only use that forge when there is moonlight!”
p If the forge could only be used for a few hours when the moon rises during the day, it was really time-sensitive, as Nidhog said.
p Suddenly.
p “Prepare for battle!”
p Vidar, wearing leather gloves, shouted with sharp eyes to the people.
p “Oh, Father!”
p “Son!”
p “Yes, yes! Father!”
p When his mind was clear, Vidar had called Nidhog and treated him as the king, but now he called him son.
p Vidar pointed at the mace on the central circular altar.
p “Son and I must shake off the darkness on that mace!”
p “Yes, understood!”
p After nodding at Nidhog, he looked back at Ion, Osmon, and Piske and continued.
p “When we lift that mace, the seal will open for a moment, and dark beings will come out through that gap! You must stop them!”
p Ion and the two dwarfs nodded and each pulled out their weapons, but Vidar threw the mace he had retrieved after defeating the ice golem to Ion.
p “Those who have not been cut by ‘Pain’ should use this ‘Ascension’!”
p “Understood!”
p Ion sheathed the mace at his waist and drew his sword first.
p Then he instructed Lotte.
p “You protect those two kings!”
―Bark!
p He barked twice at Lotte and went to the side of Vidar and Nidhog.
p Vidar gave a slight smile at Lotte, then with a serious expression climbed onto the circular altar.
p Vidar grabbed the handle of the mace that was the same size as his own body on the altar.
p The black soot on the mace was not actual soot but seemed to avoid Vidar’s hand like smoke.
p Vidar suddenly lifted the mace.
p ―Kya-aah!
p A screech that tore the ears rang out, and black smoke filled the space.
p Vidar placed the mace over the fire of the forge.
p ―Kya-aah!
p The blue fire made from moonlight wrapped the soot on the mace, and a screech was heard from the smoke.
p Vidar and Nidhog each held the mace and tongs they had brought and waited, while Ion, Osmon, and Piske stood around the circular altar.
p A black hole appeared in the place where the mace was placed.
p It seemed nothing was happening for a moment.
p ―Ssssss!
p Black smoke slowly pushed out and wrapped the space, but it could not approach near the moonlight or the forge’s fire.
p It was so dark that Ion and the dwarfs could barely see right in front of them because of the swirling black smoke around them.
p In the black smoke, Osmon’s voice was heard shouting.
p “If the smoke wraps around the body, it takes away the body’s strength! We cannot let it invade the body!”
p The sound of Osmon and Piske swinging their axes was heard.
p Ion could see the positions of the people and Lotte through the map even though he was covered by the black smoke, but the others could not.
p If they swung their weapons wrong in this situation, they could attack their own comrades.
p “Light the fire! Do not swing the weapons recklessly!”
p Ion shouted urgently and pulled out the oil and tallow from his pocket to light the fire.
p ―Kiiik!
p The black smoke retreated at the sight of the firelight.
p The outside of the black smoke was still not visible.
p “Do not swing the weapons big, just block the smoke!”
p After warning the two, Ion swung his sword in another direction.
p Swish! The black smoke just passed by, and the smoke was not affected by the sword at all.
p He sheathed the sword and took out the mace.
p The black smoke moved away from the mace without him swinging it.
p It avoided the mace that was resistant to undead and magic.
p Ion swung the mace big.
p Whoosh!
p Unlike the sword that had just passed through empty air without any resistance, there was a slight resistance, but he felt it hook on the mace, and the smoke was pushed by the mace.
p ―Kyieek!
p The space opened as much as the mace pushed.
p ‘It worked!’
p Ion swung the mace and went toward Osmon and Piske.
p “I will open the way and go that way!”
p While swinging the mace to make a path and advancing, fortunately the opened path did not close again.
p Osmon, who had no gain from swinging his axe, was just chasing the black smoke with the firelight of oil and tallow.
p And following Ion’s silent order to wait, he swung the axe only in front of his body while focusing on the sounds around him.
p Whoosh!
p With the sound of the mace swinging, the darkness in front of Osmon was lifted.
p After confirming that it was Ion, Osmon silently stood behind him, and a little later Piske joined them too.
p Osmon and Piske who stood behind Ion did not just follow but wrapped cloth around their axes, lit the fire, and swung them.
p It was not comparable to the mace Ion was holding, but the two also widened the path while chasing the smoke.
p While Ion and the dwarfs were making a path through the black smoke, Vidar and Nidhog moved the heated mace from the forge to the anvil and hammered each other.
p Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
p Even while hammering in the fire, the red-hot drops covering the entire mace did not fall.
p Vidar was sweating profusely while hammering and shouted.
p “The darkness of the mace will not come off this much! Hammer it with more heat and strength!”
p “Understood! Father!”
p The two repeated hammering on the rusty mace, then when the mace cooled, they put it back on the forge to heat it again, placed the heated mace on the anvil, and hammered it repeatedly.
p They hammered the mace until the moonlight disappeared, but not even the size of a fingernail fell off.
p When the moonlight no longer shone, the forge cooled rapidly, and Vidar lifted the mace and placed it on the circular altar.
p ―Kya-aah!
p With a screech, the black smoke suddenly dispersed and disappeared.
p * * *
p ―Bark! Bark! Bark!
p Lotte barked while running across the snowy field, and in front of her, frost hares were fleeing in panic.
p As the hares tried to change direction to run into the trees, a string on the ground suddenly stretched taut with a pop!
p “Kiiik!”
p “Kik!”
p The hares that tripped on the pulled string rolled around in the snow, and Ion and Piske stabbed them with swords and daggers to bring them down.
p Soon Osmon, who had been pulling the string, joined them and cut off the hares’ necks and peeled off the leather.
p When we first saw the underground moonlight forge work, it seemed it would take a long time, so we came out.
p For three days we hunted the frost hares and made jerky in a hurry, and cut trees to make firewood for the fire.
p Then, in front of the hole, we stacked the ruins’ stones so that the frost goats could wait there, built a wall, set up a tent, and made a temporary livestock pen.
p “With this, we won’t last half a month, will we?”
p Ion asked Osmon while looking at the bundled heap of hare meat and firewood.
p “It should be about that much. If we save it, even more…”
p “Can we save it?”
p “Ah, Your Majesty is here. It should be exactly half a month.”
p “Then let us go down carrying it.”
p Ion, Osmon, and Piske carried the jerky hare meat and firewood on their backs and held them in their arms.
p The dwarfs were good at carrying too, but Ion was overflowing with strength, so he carried them to the limit of passing through the entrance to the underground and went down.
p * * *
p For the next week, it was the repetition of the first day.
p We lit many torches to block the black smoke, and Ion kept reducing the black smoke with the mace.
p Meanwhile, Vidar and Nidhog kept forging the mace, which was the seal key, on the moonlight forge, and hammered off the red-hot drops.
p For a whole week of hammering, they barely peeled off the red-hot drops the size of a fingernail.
p On the mace handle where the drops of the size of a fingernail had come off, the original white color was visible.
p Vidar, who repeated falling asleep as if unconscious the moment they finished hammering for days, his body, which was already skinny, became even drier.
p The deeper his eyes became as his body dried.
p Before he fell asleep again from exhaustion, he looked at the people and warned them.
p “The red-hot drops overlaid here are the product of darkness accumulated over a long time! Now that it has started to peel off, it will continue to peel off! When it is completely peeled off, the dark beings that were suppressed by the seal for a long time will not be able to come out for a long time! Knowing that, they will resist more strongly than before!”
p Vidar continued speaking with a tired expression.
p “Tomorrow it will be even harder, so rest well today, everyone!”
p After finishing speaking, Vidar put down the mace and sat down, and Nidhog immediately supported him.
p “Father!”
p Vidar, half-closing his eyes, muttered.
p “My belly is hungry! But I also want to sleep! I am hungry and sleepy…! My belly is hungry…”
p Vidar then fell asleep.
p Osmon and Piske rushed over, lit a fire beside him, spread a fur cloak, and laid Vidar down.
p Vidar was even drier, so his body was more prominent, and Nidhog had become very thin too, and now he was sweating profusely.
p Ion told such Nidhog.
p “Please rest a little too, Your Highness.”
p “Yeah. I need to rest too.”
p Nidhog sat down after placing the mace beside him.
p “As Father said, it will be even harder from tomorrow.”
p “Yes. I am ready.”
p “We have been more tired until now, but from now on you will be more tired.”
p Ion nodded and tapped the mace he had sheathed at his waist.
p “These dark beings are not easy to deal with. That is why I have received a lot of help from this mace.”
p “I am glad you used it properly. It is a bit long for us to use.”
p “Yes. It is long for a mace, and the shape is not like a mace but more like a club, so why is it called a mace?”
p “It is written with ancient letters as ‘mace’ on the lower part of the handle. We follow the maker’s intention. There is no other reason.”
p On the lower part of the mace’s handle, there was a round pommel to prevent slipping, and when I turned it, I saw letters that I did not understand.
p “I see. The maker’s intention is important.”
p “The fact that your sword is named ‘Pain’ and this mace is named ‘Ascension’ is because the maker set it that way.”
p While listening to Nidhog’s words, Ion pointed at the letters written on the lower part of the mace’s handle.
p “Is ‘Ascension’ what is written here?”
p “Yes. Exactly, it says ‘Ascension. Sending the unholy ones to the sky.’”
p “I see.”
p “You should rest too.”
p Nidhog, who was sitting next to Ion, looked more tired.
p Ion greeted them and stood up from his seat.
p “Yes, understood. Please rest, Your Highness.”
p Lotte, who had been guarding Vidar and Nidhog, also looked tired.
p Ion tore and ate the jerky hare meat for the tired Lotte, chewed himself, then leaned against the wall and fell asleep.
p * * *
p The next day, after resting fully and eating a meal, the group waited for the moonlight to shine.
p Although he was a little drier, Vidar, who had more time to recover his mind properly, was shining with his eyes.
p A little while later, a thin light came down from the ceiling and landed on the black stone of the forge.
p Whoosh!
p Blue fire rose from the black stone.
p It was the same thing I had seen for days, but it was always amazing.
p Immediately, Vidar, wearing leather gloves, grabbed the mace of the circular altar.
p “Prepare!”
p Ion, Osmon, and Piske lit the oil and tallow and lit the charcoal fires placed around them, then pulled out their weapons.
p After confirming that the weapons were pulled out, Vidar lifted the mace.
p ―Kya-aah!
p A screech rang out, and black smoke flowed out from the hole.
p The black smoke filled the space.
p Ion had oil and tallow hanging from his forehead and had lit a charcoal fire on the ground, but he was only avoiding around it, and the smoke was everywhere.
p Ion swung the mace to move in one direction, and Osmon and Piske also swung their torches and advanced in one direction.
p After working together for days, they arranged their movements so as not to attack each other by mistake.
p While Ion made the way with the mace swinging, a lot of darkness was lifted around the circular altar.
p Suddenly.
p A strange screech was heard from the hole of the circular altar.
p ―Kwa-aah!
p When the screech was heard, the black smoke that had been full around them gathered rotating in the hole of the altar.
p From the smoke, a huge hand of about twice the size of a person protruded out.
p The protruding hand had six fingers, and it looked like two thumbs at both ends.
p At the tips of the fingers were long curved nails like hooks, and on the palm, six eyes were embedded.
p The six eyes moved individually, capturing the entire moonlight forge in their eyes.
p ―A gap… has been created… in the seal…!