Rakna closed the window with fine control of his Valkals and smiled in satisfaction. He dismissed them and put Higure down on the desk. She stretched her legs and grinned at him, “You know how to treat a lady, I’ll give that to you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the therian said with a snort as he headed to the door of his office. “I only see a horny cat here.”

“Hah, so you were aware,” she said and leaped on his shoulder right when he opened the door. “Is it your attempt at teasing me? If so, congratulations. It was a good first try at foreplay.”

Rakna sighed exasperatedly whilst walking down the stairs leading to the living room. “You really are hopeless,” he uttered and mentally noted that everyone was out, except for Evelyn who was still in her lab along with Natsu with whom she had signed a pet contract. Since both of them had quite a good synergy, it was an obvious choice.

“Let’s see, where should I place it…” He mumbled and looked around the room. In the end, he just picked an empty spot next to the couch and pressed a singular card against the wall with a figure of a medieval queen on it. “Queen of Clubs,” he spoke and the item merged with the wall. It shone and expanded into a rectangular shape.

After a short moment, the light receded and what was left was an elevator that opened with the sound of a chime right after. But that wasn’t all, both Rakna and Higure could feel that some energy fluctuations had continued downward; at quite a large scale.

“What… did you just build?” The lioness asked with a blink.

The therian snorted and entered the elevator. Before pressing one of the two buttons; which only gave the option of up or down, he opened up a visible circuit panel on the wall. There, he saw the wires transmitting the Eion to power the elevator.

“Perfect, it connected with the power supply on its own. It seems that the figure club cards have a significantly better exactness,” he commented and pushed the down button. The doors promptly closed and the elevator started descending.

At the same time, he opened his status. “Right, there was Longinus left to check,” he muttered and the spell details popped up.

❮ ◈ ❯

Longinus (T.3): A lance once used by a Roman soldier named Longinus to stab the side of the crucified Jesus Christ to confirm his death. Blood and water came out of the wound, coating the blade in divinity.

That day, Longinus transformed into the Holy Lance. It was never meant to be wielded as a God-Slaying Lance but that was before its entry in Egregore. Due to the user being a Monarch of Firmament, it was the concept of Longinus contained within Egregore that was used as the core of this spell.

The place where every thought gathers; the name ‘Longinus’ lost itself in it. A Holy weapon that was blessed by the blood of God. And a weapon that spilled the blood of God. A Lance of Hallowed Blight.

This spell can only be cast by those capable of wielding opposite natures of powers, a minimum amount of divinity, as well as at least one anti-divinity achievement. Additionally, one must possess the ability to materialize the power into physical form.

Longinus appears as a giant lance pulsing with red light. A white ornamental crucifix connects the blade and the shaft along with a pair of steel wings. The shape of the head resembles more an amalgam of red thorns than a blade and gives the illusion of blood dripping from the tip.

When conjured, it creates a halo of crucifixes around the shaft that will spin and discharge a beam of Hallowed Blight called Tear of God. But it is only the carpet unrolling for the spear to then launch itself at the target, fast and stealthy, and pierce them with homing accuracy.

When it hits, if the target possesses divinity, it will attack it relentlessly until it is destroyed or crippled. Furthermore, Longinus will damage the target by spreading Hallowed Blight inside their body, causing internal damage.

It is very effective against those of either Demonic or Holy descent and the injuries inflicted can only heal naturally, without aid, unless Hallowed Blight is utilized to counteract this effect.

Lexis:

[Holy Is Your Name. Destiny Is Your Wielder. The Grail Is Your Trophy.]

[You Tasted the Blood of Christ.]

Tear of God’s Attack Value: User’s MA multiplied by 9.

Lance’s Attack Value: User’s MA multiplied by 2. This only refers to the lance’s physical thrusting power. It does not include the damage to holy, demonic, or divine powers.

Cost: 10 000 MP + 5 000 Demonic Mana + 5 000 Holy Mana. (Maximum Correction of 50% Reduction: 5 000/2500/2500)

❮ ◈ ❯

‘Tier 3. So, ‘First-Class’. Same as Hoarfrost Nova. The rest is roughly as I expected,’ he thought and stepped out of the elevator when the doors re-opened. Immediately, the hundreds of LED tiles in the ceiling lit up to illuminate the place.

Firstly, the room was massive. Its surface area nearly equaled the entirety of the cave above. Every inch of the ceiling was composed of those same rectangular lamps; reflected by the floor opposite of them that looked like thick opaque glass but possessed steel-like durability.

The walls were made of a much darker material and quite imposing due to the distance between the ceiling and the ground that amounted to approximately five meters. The elevator was located in a corner of the room and one of the walls was directly to Rakna’s right.

Incidentally, the corner of the room he was standing in had a different floor; it was like cemented stone. Alongside the walls, there were basic workbenches and tools, while at the center of this isolated section sat a large blast furnace connected to the ceiling that could be accessed from every side due to its circular style.

Higure whistled at the sight. “Wow, did that card build all of this? What is this place for? A forge and a training room?”

“Pretty much,” Rakna nodded and inspected the forging tools a bit before turning to the cold and empty furnace. It was about a meter large and would easily heat up any size of weapon he decided to make. “Now, I need a decent anvil and hammer. I guess I can make do with Forger of The Stars since they would stay forever now, but it would be better to have something rated above a mere ninth tier spell.”

“{Hah, anything else for someone like you would be an affront to the blacksmithing profession. In fact, scratch that, I would go as far as to say you have the necessary talent to potentially become a God of Crafting,}” Fray remarked.

“Now, you’re exaggerating a bit, don’t you think?” Rakna blankly said and approached one of the brand-new workbenches next to him.

“{Ah, yes. My apologies, I forget that you are but a mere ‘Forger of The Stars’ possessing a body of the ‘Alchemic Magnum Opus’, with a mind connected to Egregore, a brain augmented by something as mystical as a magical ‘Nano Mechanical Eye’, and a soul with inhuman learning ‘instincts’,}” the storyteller made sure to add the precise amount of sarcasm required for each word.

“…you got your point across,” Rakna deadpanned. “You can stop now.”

“{Hm, if you understand, I shall do so,}” Fray sounded pleased with himself.

The therian sighed at that and pulled out a certain item from his storage. In a flash, a weapon was placed on the workbench. It was a large black scythe with waving patterns along the blade’s edge that were highlighted by a red hue.

Oddly, the body of the weapon seemed to be made of something similar to coal. But on touch, it was cold and smooth like any other metal. The scythe also had markings all over it, but their color was simply a darker shade of black, so it didn’t stand out.

However, to someone like Rakna, every single marking had been spotted and analyzed within a glance. The markings were in fact scattered runic letters that once put together formed a full magic formation. Other than that, the design of the weapon was rather sleek and simplistic, but not any less threatening to an onlooker.

“Oh? The scythe of that vampire?” Higure commented as she landed on the side of the table.

“Yeah, it’s about time I check it out. I had almost forgotten,” he muttered and opened the details of the item.

❮ ◈ ❯

Designation: Blade/Scythe

Name: Blood Tear Crescent

Rarity: Red

Attack Power: +1000~

Durability: 87%

Description:

A weapon more than a hundred years old that has been bathed in a pool of vampire blood during its conception. The blacksmith is unknown and the Lifeblood Curse that encroaches it stemmed from the blood and matured to this stage.

Perk:

- Lifeblood Curse: A curse that takes up the entirety of the weapon’s possible enchantment slots. It appears as a spread-out array of runes on the item. Its primary effects are to collect blood from the victims, strengthen itself, and repair itself. But that is not limited to it.

A weapon with the lifeblood curse can increase the sharpness of its blade and shoot out flying slashes by tapping into its internal storage of blood energy. The cost varies depending on the quality and quantity.

Current Blood Storage: 2360 Blood Units. Higher quality blood will be converted into a larger sum. The maximum storage capacity at this level of the curse is 15 000 BU.

The weapon can be repaired by spending 500 BU per durability percentage, or it can even be used to heal a target compatible with blood energy by converting it into life energy.

Furthermore, the blood can be directly used to boost the wielder’s stats at the cost of an increase in bloodlust.

Finally, the curse possesses one last use. If even a drop of blood comes into contact with the weapon’s body, it will be forever capable of tracking the source for as long as they are alive and are located within the same dimension.

Additionally, those whose blood has been registered will receive 10% more damage from the weapon, and the more blood energy is taken away from them, the more their defense toward the weapon will decrease, to a maximum of 25%. This can vary in effectiveness depending on the race and traits of the target.

Note: Evolvable.

Additional Note: If the Lifeblood Curse loses all of its blood energy, it might rebel against the wielder.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna briefly raised his eyebrow at the description. The curse itself and its abilities didn’t bother or surprise him a lot. He had also already noticed that, whilst fighting Fang, his defense had been reduced the more his blood was spilled. Though it had been offset by Ireful Descent.

However, when his eyes scanned the description, he couldn’t help but smile wryly. It was rather amusing; he and this weapon were of the same ilk.

He snorted in amusement and lifted the weapon that was as tall as him. “You too fell into the pool when you were a kid?” He joked and whirled the weapon around himself as if he had been handling it for years.

He ended his small spectacle by stopping the blade right as the tip was about to hit the floor. The momentum made the weapon’s material vibrate at a high pitch whilst producing ripples in the air.

“Maybe that’s why I had the faint urge to pick it up when I saw it lying on the ground,” he muttered to himself and rotated his wrist, making the blade face him. He saw his reflection on it along with the red ethereal aura flowing across its length. “First time I see a weapon other than Sonata that’s evolvable too…”

“Hah, maybe you’re destined to become the Grim Reaper. Oh my, how scary,” Higure teased with a grin.

“I have no close or distant plans to ferry deceased souls as my career path,” Rakna deadpanned and she cackled. Meanwhile, Sonata moved on its own and crawled to its owner’s arm, wrapping around Tear Crescent like a snake.

❮ ◈ ❯

Blood Tear Crescent is compatible for an Assimilation.

Do you wish to evolve Rhapsodic Sonata?

Yes/No

❮ ◈ ❯

“Well, let’s see what you become. Eat it, Sonata,” he accepted the prompt and the azure scarf shone until the light swallowed the scythe.