Chapter 155: Crafting Magical Items
This was the stuff of legend — divine artifacts, the strategic weapons of the magical world, so to speak. Unfortunately, no mage possessed one, nor had anyone ever had a sample to study.
Mages had crafted plenty of so-called divine artifacts of their own, of course — not that they didn't work, but their power fell far short of the true article. Evan had stumbled onto the goddess of life's knowledge quite by accident. In the middle of his seclusion, that single unintended glimpse had given him the method for crafting a genuine divine artifact. From that green sphere of light, he'd taken away only two pieces of knowledge — the projection technique he'd passed on to Xiaoshuang, which required a place with genuine believers, and the other, the method for forging divine artifacts.
Choosing materials for a divine artifact depended heavily on the object's inherent nature — through a divine consciousness bound tightly to that nature during refinement, an artifact took shape. An entirely inside-out process. What exactly this "divine consciousness" amounted to, Evan didn't fully know — some particular form of will, presumably.
What Evan didn't realize was that he'd already developed something close to it himself — his own spiritual sense, though he had no name for it. This method bore no resemblance at all to how a proper mage inscribed a sigil array, which was exactly why no mage, however hard they racked their brains, could ever hope to craft a true divine artifact.
Evan, naturally, had no intention of revealing any of this. What he discussed with Emma was something he'd worked out himself, blending the two approaches. His idea: melt the magical materials down first, and while still molten, before they set, construct the sigil array through pure intention rather than physical inscription — positioning it at the molecular level through will alone, leaving no visible trace on the material whatsoever. It ought to work, in theory.
He'd sought Emma out because he needed a second person to manage it — maintaining the object's shape while simultaneously visualizing the array was simply too much for one person to handle alone, and Emma happened to be a genuine expert in crafting magical items.
Emma agreed the approach sounded workable, and they set to work smelting mithril and bronze together. Her laboratory held a small furnace; with a fire-aligned magic core added, she triggered it by will, poured in the bronze, and once it had melted to liquid, held its shape through mental force while Evan added the mithril. Together they shaped it into a crescent-moon blade.
The unusual crescent shape was Evan's own design, drawn loosely from memory of Andrea's boomerang.
As the metal melted, Evan poured his mental power into it, visualizing the sigil arrays — three in total: a basic Mana Gathering array, a wind-aligned Whirlwind array, and a lightning-aligned Lightning array. The laboratory dimmed for a moment, then the three arrays lit up in sequence, a whirlwind and crackling lightning taking shape within the metal.
Emma's mental strength very nearly gave out, but she managed to hold steady. Once the blade had cooled, Evan noticed something strange — a faint connection seemed to form with him. He gave a mental nudge, no magic invoked at all, and with a soft hum, the crescent blade lifted into the air on its own.
A single flicker of thought sent it darting through the lab, trailing lightning and wind. Emma stared, dumbstruck — she'd never seen a magical item move with anything like this fluidity.
"Strange. There's genuinely some kind of connection forming," Evan said, recalling the blade to his hand and passing it over.
Emma took it, and the blade wobbled unsteadily into the air. She gradually found her footing, directing it with her mind, triggering its wind and lightning in turn, the lab filling with rolling thunder and crackling sparks.
"It really is remarkable," Emma said, describing the feeling. "Just harder to control than I expected."
Evan frowned. He'd handled the blade almost as naturally as moving his own arm, no effort at all — while she clearly struggled with it. Could it be? A thought clicked into place. "Let's forge another one. This time, you visualize the array, and I'll hold the shape. What form would you like?"
"A crescent again, I suppose," Emma said, not wanting to think too hard about it.
This time they switched roles. Emma visualized three arrays herself — two matching Evan's earlier work, but replacing the Lightning array with a Flame array instead, drawing on her own fire affinity. Evan, meanwhile, held back from his own specialty — necromancy — for this test, though he didn't consciously realize it himself; some quiet, unspoken instinct in him kept steering away from revealing his true nature as a lich, even here.
Once finished, Emma tested it, and her expression shifted. This time, it moved exactly like an extension of her own arm. "What's happening here?"
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No ordinary magical item behaved this way. Evan took it from her, reaching in with his own awareness, and confirmed it just as he'd suspected — using it proved considerably harder for him than crafting his own had been. Something like a will resisted him from within. Understanding settled over him.
"This thing has developed its own presence, it seems. Whoever crafts it naturally commands it best. I wonder if true divine artifacts work the same way — if only I could get my hands on one to test the idea properly," Evan said with a sigh. Though he'd worked out a method of his own, it clearly didn't match the true craft of divine artifact-making.
"You've invented an entirely new way of crafting magical items. Shouldn't this get a name?" Emma said.
Evan studied the crescent blade in his hand, something clicking into place. "Let's call it an implement — to distinguish it from a true divine artifact."
"Should you write it up as a paper?" Emma asked.
"I won't bother. Why don't you write it instead," Evan said. He knew the real method for crafting divine artifacts and had no intention of revealing it — and even if he did, there'd be no way to explain it properly. Better to say nothing at all.
"All right. I'll put your name on it too. Would you like to craft a few more?" Emma said.
"One more, yes — smaller this time," Evan said. They each forged another piece. Evan made a small sword, using only the Gale array and the Mana Gathering array — kept deliberately simple. This one was for Xiaoshuang.
Evan returned to his quarters and handed the small sword to Xiaoshuang, who examined it with curiosity. He explained the situation and taught her how to control it, telling her to keep running her own awareness through it repeatedly. He wanted to test a theory — the blade still carried a trace of his own presence, but with enough use, someone else's presence would gradually overwrite it.
Just as he'd predicted, the blade grew steadily easier for her to handle, until eventually it moved as naturally as her own arm. The swordwork itself was simple — three forms: thrust, cleave, and parry. Evan couldn't help but find it privately amusing — he'd just forged a flying sword, of all things, a genuine first for this magical world.
Xiaoshuang flew through the air, the small blade flashing blue-green, trailing what looked like real sword-force. Evan felt satisfied, watching her — she finally had some means of defending herself.
The new term drew closer, and Emma told Evan their paper had passed review, set to appear in the next issue of Magic.
Three days before term began, Jessica and Shirley came to find Evan. They wanted to go shopping in Dunkirche. Most of the school's staff had gone home over the break, and those who remained were either stationed in the half-plane or out at the floating city construction site, leaving few people around the school itself. Emma had thrown herself entirely into her magical item work, so the two women turned to Evan instead.
Evan looked to be in his thirties. Nicholas had been well into his forties before the transformation, and once you became a lich, age stopped meaning much of anything at all — but Evan, given his particular circumstances, looked considerably younger, a product of his own mindset as much as anything, since he was, at heart, not yet twenty, and that youthful disposition had carried over into his appearance as well.
Their trip to Dunkirche, the capital of Norse, wasn't for magical supplies at all, but for clothing. They'd simply grabbed the nearest person available, and that turned out to be Evan.
Dunkirche was a bustling city, its clothing trade dominated by custom tailoring, with only a handful of ready-made shops. Evan wore a tailcoat and black top hat, carrying his ever-present walking stick — his usual cane, of course, with a magic sword concealed inside. He stepped down from the carriage first, then opened the door with proper courtesy, helping the two women out.
In a hotel room across town, three figures sat plotting quietly. A knock sounded at the door. Augustin the Dark Punisher recognized it at once — the signal agreed upon with the local chapel — and rose to open it.
"Honored Lord Augustin, Lord Abraham, Lord Fiso — the target you seek has appeared," said an unremarkable-looking man with a smile, entirely unfazed by the presence radiating off the three of them.
"Well, Elkanka. You say they've appeared. Aren't they at Hollingburton? Why would they turn up in Dunkirche?" asked Fiso the Schemer.
"No idea. Shopping, probably," Elkanka said, spreading his hands.
"Plans never survive contact," Fiso said with a smile. "We were going to slip into Hollingburton disguised among the returning students. Now they've come out on their own — must be the Creator's will. They're as good as dead. Where are they now?"
"Since they've come out, that spares us the trouble of infiltrating Hollingburton at all," said Abraham the Shadow Punisher. "Lead the way. Not in the middle of a crowded street, though — we wait until they're clear of Dunkirche before we move." The other two nodded.
Evan hadn't bought any clothing for himself. Xiaoshuang had wanted to, but no garment came small enough for her. Shirley and Jessica discussed fabric quality with the tailor, having a few outfits made to measure. Xiaoshuang flitted about above them — the "clothing" she normally wore wasn't really fabric at all, formed naturally from some kind of magical substance, and Evan found the whole situation amusing enough to order a proper little outfit made for her.
The tailor, for his part, took the request in stride — plenty of mages commissioned special clothing for their pets, and though he'd never seen a fairy before, he assumed this tiny, winged figure was simply some magnificent mage's cherished companion.
They left a deposit, arranged to collect the finished garments in ten days, and stepped out of the shop. Both women were in high spirits. Evan walked alongside them, sensing suddenly a hostile gaze fixed on the group. His brow furrowed. Xiaoshuang whispered quietly at his ear. "Lich, someone's following us. I feel a faint edge of killing intent."
"Don't speak. There are too many people around — that should keep anyone from striking outright," Evan said. He couldn't be certain the enemy would spare bystanders any consideration, and though he showed nothing on the surface, he'd gone fully alert underneath, with no idea yet who exactly the enemy might be.
He already had no shortage of enemies — the lich Boniface, the Gonuo Society, and the Church itself stood as his three greatest threats, and there were others besides that even Evan himself had no knowledge of. He hadn't once considered that Jessica herself might become a target.