Chapter 72 - 71: The Forge Reignited.
The remnants of the Hephaestus Familia home stood in solemn dignity, even among the ruins. Blackened walls, scorched beams, and cracked anvils bore the marks of both battle and time. Yet, deep within its heart, the central forge, the flames had been rekindled.
Sparks flew. Heat swirled. The rhythmic clang of hammer on metal echoed through the hollowed structure like the heartbeat of a god reborn.
Hephaestus stood just at the edge of the forge's golden glow, her singular crimson eye fixed on the young man laboring in complete silence.
Lioro.
He was supposed to be a warrior. But this...
This was something entirely different.
The way he worked the scale of the One-Eyed Black Dragon, how the furnace roared not from bellows but from the raw will of magic, it was more than craftsmanship.
This was forging elevated to the divine.
And yet it bore no chains. No divine aura. No ego. It was... free.
She took an unconscious step forward, breath catching when Lioro lifted the half-finished ring from the forge with blackened tongs. The air around it shimmered faintly, as if reality itself hesitated to interfere.
Not just a ring.