“How do you feel, Tista?” Lith asked.
“Much better, thank you.” She shapeshifted from her human form into the Red Demon a few times to show him that she had completely recovered.
“Then we’d better get back to the Forgemastering lab. As far as I’m concerned, my vacation is over.” Lith said.
“I’ve already contacted Faluel and asked her to send Grandma a list of all the knowledge I collected in Urgamakka so that she can teach us in the case we fail to understand the key points of any technique.”
“Are you really willing to share them with me?” Friya asked.
“Why not?” He shrugged. “Phloria and I got them together. I’m planning to share them with both Tista and Phloria as my apprentices while you would learn them anyway from Faluel.
“Don’t forget that, aside from Protector, you are the only true disciple she has. Even if you weren’t, Phloria would surely share them with you. There’s no harm in letting you study in advance.”
Elina, Raaz, and Salaark didn’t like Lith getting back to work so soon. Yet while his parents couldn’t stand the thought of their house having been violated, the Overlord realized that time was of the essence.
‘Denying him the opportunity to benefit from my Creation Magic while such a dangerous opponent has already knocked at his door would be beyond idiotic.’ She thought. ‘I won’t give him more gifts, but I’ll support Lith however I can.’
Lith needed but a flick of his fingers to activate the Mirror Hall and Warp everyone inside the Forgemastering lab. Thanks to the geyser and to Salaark’s arrays, the area of effect of all the tower’s abilities extended to the whole Heavenly Plume tribe.
“What’s the first point on our agenda?” Tista asked.
“Purifying the Davross while also making sure to not lose any of the Darwen it contains.” Lith took a few papers out of Soluspedia and had Solus make copies of them for everyone before putting them back.
“Together with that I got from Vastor’s Rock Worm, I should obtain enough Darwen to start crafting a few pieces at the same time and put their abilities to the test. As for the Davross, I need to make sure if it’s as underwhelming as it appears.”
During the past few weeks, Lith, Solus, and Tista had crafted several enchanted items out of the fabled metal. They had practiced making magic holding rings, swords, shields until reaching perfection, yet the final result was always disappointing.
Impurified Davross was indeed sturdier than Adamant. It even had a better mana flow and a greater amplification rate of the enchantments, but such properties weren’t worth the trouble of finding enough Davross when Adamant was much more common.
“Wait, I remember that Faluel said how we need magma to melt the Darwen since it’s resistant even to Origin Flames. We don’t have a volcano at hand and Xenagrosh warned us about the dangers of Origin Flames destroying it.” Solus said.
“That’s why my plan is to use Origin Flames to melt solely the Davross while avoiding the Darwen.” Lith said. “We’ll collect the solid mass, separate it from the liquid, and destroy everything else.
“Remember what Xenagrosh said. While working with Davross, we must consider even traces of Adamant as impurities.”
Lith took the four ingots of Davross he had out of his pocket dimension along with the Yggdrasill branch. It had yet to be carved, let alone enchanted, but it still retained the ability to enhance the focus and comprehension abilities of its wielder.
‘Without Dragon Eyes, the combination of Yggdrasill wood and Eyes of Menadion is the next best thing I have. Luckily, there is no need to imprint the branch to activate its passive properties.’ Lith thought while Tista and Solus also assumed their working formation.
Having a stronger core and more powerful Origin Flames, Lith would always start first. He wore one of the Monocles of Menadion and wielded the Yggdrasill branch in his right hand while Tista wore the second Monocle.
That way, Solus could use their collective intellect and the tower’s power core to study the purification process while also creating a perfect mind link between Tista and Lith.
The three of them could freely share any discovery they made without the need to speak or waste time, allowing them to improve the quality of their work the moment any of them made a breakthrough.
‘Wielding the staff still gives me a weird feeling.’ Lith thought as a sudden spark turned the flames in his mouth from violet to black.
It had already happened back in Urgamakka, but he had yet to find a way to replicate the phenomenon and to understand its significance. Every time he tried to breathe them out, the black flames would return to normal, no matter how hard he tried.
‘Aalejah said that my Tiamat’s abilities should be a combination of those belonging from my single parts. Also, she said that black Origin Flames are unheard of, yet I always produced them even as a wyrmling.
‘Back then, they replaced all the bodily fluids in my body and-‘
‘Cool story, bro.’ Tista cut him short. ‘Now, do you mind getting to work? I don’t want to hear about your bodily fluids. Too much information.’
The red veins on Lith’s feathers burned bright in embarrassment as he suddenly remembered about the perfect mind link. He needed to take a few deep breaths to calm down before starting the purification process.
He placed a hand on the ingot, using Abyssal Gaze to study and memorize the position of the different impurities.
‘If not for the importance of the Darwen, I could easily purify the Davross simply by breathing uncontrolled Origin Flames. At my level, the metal is the only thing they can’t destroy. Yet since I want my cake and eat it too, this will be a bit tricky.’
Solus took the information from the breathing technique and used it to generate a real-time 3D hologram of the ingot’s composition. Thanks to the visual aid, Lith could more easily remember the position of all the impurities and lessen the burden on his life force.
Then, Lith placed the ingots in the furnace, bringing them to a temperature of several hundreds of degrees that turned the metal into a white hot mass that yet refused to even melt.
He used the technique that Xenagrosh had taught him, emitting the Origin Flames slowly so that the link with his body would never be interrupted. Lith could move the mystical flames as a part of his body, making them seep through the solid metal.
There were many impurities inside each ingot, but the silver lining was that, aside from the Darwen, Lith had no need to keep the Flames from destroying the traces of silver, Orichalcum, and Adamant.
They amounted to so little that collecting them wasn’t worth the effort. After a few seconds, the metal started to melt, passing through a heat-resistant sieve that collected the black mass of Darwen that the molten Davross left behind.
Lith reduced the intensity of the Flames to not lose precious material, focusing more on precision than on raw power. The violet fire gently caressed the Darwen, getting it rid of every trace of Davross still attached to it.
