“Make each segment like a tooth,” the Primordial Self stated plainly, forming a floating mockup of its suggestion out of sand. It then made a copy of the mockup, forming a skull with the two butchers as its lower jaws; a visualized mental tangent based solely on the altered design’s vague resemblance of a fanged lower jaw.

“The cutting edge will be a bigger saw while remaining able to cut, and chopping strikes will gain additional anti-armor capability… Individual segments will then be able to bite in even when separated, and with the right internal structure I can use Metallum to add temporary mass between segments to extend the cleaver in its solid form…” the Thinking Self expanded on the idea.

Meanwhile, her body acted on the impulse and altered the model at breakneck speed, adding tooth-like serrations to the cutting edge and proceeding to split the whole cleaver-blade into seven segments including the one to which the handle would attach.

Ingvald watched his would-be customer’s eyes glaze over, and his own widened in turn. A beast-like glow alighted behind them in a manner akin to a berserker losing control of their inner animal. Instead of lashing out in violence, however, she began feverishly changing the design into something well and truly alien.

The blacksmith left the room to get a drink, and what he saw upon his return made him let out a half-nervous, half-exhilarated chuckle. He had been right to hear that Hulson out.

Not only was the redesigned blade shaped to maintain the ability to bite into and cut through targets when split up, its segments were even designed to mechanically interlock. The method of its connection was made clear through the notes which Zelsys made, sketching out two electric arcs between each segment. Notes accompanied the three-dimensional diagram.

“Arcline” - Fulgur Construct Connection

“Arcline” semi-solid fulguric condensate construct is not limited by physical cable connections and does not suffer from issues inherent to physical cables.

Dungeontech thought-interface handle nullifies need for an external control mechanism.

Double connection mitigates single-point-of-failure and maintains correct segment alignment. Lack of cable length limits allows temporary Metallum construct growth between segments to allow blade extension as necessary.

Each segment is slaved to the next and previous segment. Separation mechanism only operational with sufficient Fulgur to maintain Arcline.

She even drew out the specific glyph patterns that would be required for the coupling system. There was just one problem he saw, but she pointed it out when her eyes returned to normal and she returned from her trance.

“I don't know how exactly to make it act as one solid hunk of metal when in its solid form. I only know that it’s possible - I’ve read about strange full-metal blades that can split into two and recombine as if they had never been separated.”

“Siamblades! You want me to make-” he began with a tone of disbelief, only to stop mid-sentence.

“...Now hold on, that will work. There’s just one problem - to make a siamblade, you need truly homogeneous material with absolutely zero impurities. Starmetal could suffice if you spent the time to find a one-in-a-hundred piece, and you may have to do that, but there’s a much more direct route - pulling the core of a Fallen Star, meaning you’ll have to find a fresh one that nobody has touched yet… And that can be my payment. You let me keep the rest of the Fallen Star, and I’ll do your forging. The material from one of those things will last me a century.”

“You’re assuming I can do something deemed near-impossible.”

“No, I’m assuming you can do something damn difficult. Only morons who haven’t lived long enough consider something like killing a Divine General or finding a fresh Fallen Star to be “near-impossible”. Lest you forget-”

He raised his hand. It blazed with that blue light again. The glow became flames when he drew in a breath, and in the span of three more full-chested breaths the flame had formed into the front half of a many-toothed, vaguely draconic creature curled around Ingvald’s right arm, clutching his fingers with its two front legs.

“I’m like you. Too dumb and egotistical to know when to stop, but bull-headed enough to pull through. I’m a Forge-soul Cultivator - you’ve seen that blue ember the G-Kaisers use for their forge, yes? See, I forged an accord with a fragment of the Forgemother just like theirs, though my relationship is… A touch more personal. I won’t bore you with the why of it - one thing led to another and I ended up turning my own body into the fragment's vessel, hence the hand. That is why they call me Forgehand, and why young Jorfr thought that I would know how to help you. He was right, of course.”

She nodded, raising her left hand to give Ingvald a good look at the Impelling Arm: “I also saw the fireworks when they finished this for me.”

“The Impelling Arm, yes, Sarz told me all about it. I hear you spent a whole deck of Jade Dragons on it.”

“Eighteen cards as material, ten as payment for the service.”

“Eighteen… I can only imagine the manifestation that sort of power would produce. So at most you can have half a deck left.”

“No, I have three full decks and two cards spare.”

Ingvald choked on his drink, doubling over as he coughed.

“Where’d you-”

“Long story. A locust queen hijacked a Dungeon Core and had it make valuables in an attempt to make it sink itself… You can figure out the rest”

“Mrrrhm…” he grumbled, refocusing on the floating projection of the Butcher’s would-be future form, leaning on the edge of the LAAD table. He stared at it for a little while and had Zel manipulate it in various ways before turning to her: “As I said, I can make it work if you bring me the correct material. In the meanwhile, I will work up a version using the kind of cold-iron I’d use for a more typical blade - still high-grade stuff, mind you. You will have to perform the final step, however… And you will require appropriate protection for the feat. While the Impelling Arm would provide some protection, it wasn’t designed for this purpose. Its runes are specialized towards dispersing kinetic energy, not towards protecting the wearer from the energies involved in artifact forging. You visited the G-Kaisers’ mobile forge, have you not? They have a ceiling-mounted mechanized armature which they use as a third arm in the forging process.”

“Then what course of action do you suggest?”