Now that Durandal’s tribulation is over, Lucia won’t have a problem with me anymore, right? With Durandal becoming an immortal, his body should be fine and dandy. Just in case, however, I’ll hide my real body and leave a corpse puppet where Lucia can find it. On the bright side, Lucia didn’t drag away the hammer when she took my body, and I finished creating it with the help of my corpse puppets. They’re really handy.

I’m a bit surprised Lucia hasn’t gone looking for me right away. If she doesn’t show up in the next ten minutes, I think it’s safe to assume Durandal was cured, and the two are now busy procreating. Oh, that reminds me, I haven’t found the required materials to create a virility pill from the mass of treasures Lucia brought me. Who knew that the cores of world tress would be so rare? The Immortal Continent had three of them, two of which were already dead, but the people from the immortal realm don’t even have one? Virility pills can practically bring someone back to life. One would think those chosens would carry some around with them as safety nets. Well, it’s really not my problem. Either Mirta’s going to be really sad, or Lucia’s going to the immortal realm, and I already know which one is more likely.

Perhaps I’ll send a corpse puppet to the blacksmith’s forge. It’s not like me to wait around for an outcome when I can investigate it myself. The only inconvenient thing is these corpse puppets can’t teleport. Well, I suppose that’s what boats are for. From up above, I can view a large portion of the sect, and surprisingly, the region around the blacksmiths’ forges are undamaged. Even the interior of their place isn’t in ruins. I thought Lucia would dig holes or throw buildings at the lightning to slow it down, but it seems like that wasn’t the case. Knowing Lucia, the lightning from an immortal’s tribulation probably just tickles her now.

It seems like I was wrong. There was one forge that seemed to have suffered from the tribulation: the one Lucia repaired Durandal at. The interior is a mess, and I can clearly see that from my spot on the boat because the ceiling was gone. It didn’t look like a tribulation lightning bolt struck it; rather, it looked like it was torn off by a large bear. I’ll fly down for a closer look. There’s no way Lucia and Durandal were wiped out by that tribulation; there were only nine lightning bolts, surprisingly. Who knew Durandal wasn’t classified as an evil monster like Lucia? I suppose in the illogical rules of karma, bullying someone who has a ton of bad karma can be classified as a good deed. Who really knows? I don’t.

The interior of the forge wasn’t damaged by lightning at all. There weren’t any scorch marks, no flowery patterns that lightning tends to leave behind. However, I’ve seen destruction like this many times before. Lucia destroyed my lab an excessive amount of times, and the telltale signs of her tail wrecking things can be found all over this forge. Did Durandal shatter during his tribulation, ending it early? That’s one plausible theory. Then, Lucia probably blamed the poor smith for his faulty craftsmanship and did what she does best. I’ll ask a neighboring blacksmith, see if my conjecture is correct.

“You’re absolutely sure?”

Oh, that’s Lucia’s voice. It seems like she’s in the basement. I’ll store my boat and check it out. The other benefit of controlling a corpse puppet is the expendability of its body. I can send it into danger and not care at all. However, it feels like something is missing. Where’s the immortal door that’s always following Lucia? If Lucia’s in the basement, how come the light isn’t above this place? Is there a rule in place where two immortal doors can’t exist in the same place at once? Maybe Durandal succeeded in becoming an immortal, but his door had a conflict with Lucia’s. I should’ve stuck around and observed, but I was too interested in preserving my life. Can I really be blamed for that though?

“Yes, yes, that’s how all weapon spirits work. Hasn’t your weapon spirit ever died before? How long does he usually take to come back? A week? Two? It’s the same in this case.”

Lucia’s holding the blacksmith by his ankles. She’s standing over a fissure in the ground, and from that fissure, molten rock is bubbling up and down. It seems like she took her promise of not Soul Scouring the blacksmith seriously and resorted to old-fashioned ways of gathering information.

“Gah! Who are you!?” Lucia shouted and swung the blacksmith at me. Luckily, I was only occupying a corpse puppet because it didn’t matter when my torso was separated from my legs after being hit.

“It’s Ilya. I came to check up on you.”

Lucia’s eyes widened, and she placed her hands in her hips, not caring about the fact she was still holding the blacksmith’s ankle. His body was like a ragdoll, lying on the ground with one leg sticking up, held by Lucia. “Now you check up on me, huh? You could’ve done that if you hadn’t cut off your arm and ran away, you know?”

“I forgot to turn off the oven and had to leave.” That’s a reasonable excuse, right? Lucia will find it more acceptable than me running away because I was afraid of death. “Anyway, what’s happening? Durandal needs some time to recover?”

“Mm, that’s what the blacksmith is saying,” Lucia said and nodded. She glanced at the man on the ground. “I don’t know how trustworthy he is though.”

“I’ve kept my word,” the blacksmith said. “I did everything you asked. Why would I lie about something like this? I guarantee it. If your weapon spirit doesn’t recover his mental facilities within a month, I swear I’ll never forge another weapon again!”

Lucia snorted. “Why would I care if you forge another weapon or not? If Durandal isn’t healed after a month, I’ll, I’ll…, just wait and see what I’ll do to you! Hmph, hmph!”