"B-B-B-Big Sis Phatia! W-What are you doing here?" With her head frozen in place, Kurohana stammered at the utter disbelief she felt when she saw the goddess she didn't want to see the most right now.
As one of the Eight Zenith Immortals of the Celestial Plane that could wield an Immortal Verdict, Phatia was known as one of the greatest Immortal Verdict Wielders that have shown great mastery over their Immortal Verdict throughout these trillions of years, only losing out to Gaea, the current Wielder of the Immortal Verdict of Life, gaining complete mastery over it.
Normally, one would think that being an Immortal Verdict Wielder, one would be incredibly busy due to the amount of laws under said Immortal Verdict, but in fact, that was completely false. It was because they have control over an Immortal Verdict that they could create better Artifixes that have greater intelligence that completely stump over the Artifixes created by the Greater Gods, with Kurohana being one, that they could just give their Artifixes the work they need to do and they could wholeheartedly focus on whatever they want.
Phatia, who continued to stand where she stood while radiating that ever mysterious aura, finally opened her mouth a minute after Kurohana's question.
"You have wasted my time. You know what you did."
"I admit to manipulating a small part of your Immortal Verdict, but isn't this a bit too harsh?" Kurohana, knowing fully well that she could not escape what would happen next, decided to ask her way out towards a more lenient punishment.
"It's quite a miracle that the part you manipulated was able to merge back with the Immortal Verdict I wielded. If it were not for your higher success rate when manipulating my Immortal Verdict due to our same alignment, the part you have manipulated would definitely have become a Verdict Being that would definitely bring a big problem to many Greater and Lesser Gods," Phatia replied in an indifferent and impartial tone, having the belief that her words are law.
And law it was, with Kurohana's law being under the Immortal Verdict of Fate. As long as it was a being that controlled a law under an Immortal Verdict, the Wielder of the Immortal Verdict would act as the boss of said being, their words being backed up by the two divine Transcendent Canons and the one true Primordial Decree.
Kurohana could not help but look down at the white floor and bite her lips as she knew that the possibilities of what Phatia said were not slim. Not only that, she was also a victim of the chaos that a Verdict Being had brought in her youth.
To her, a Verdict Being was a level of power beyond her, even if it was just a small part of an Immortal Verdict that had gained sentience. When faced in front of one, she knew that she could only break down and shed tears due to the fear she had accumulated.
Accepting her fate (which is definitely not a pun), Kurohana stood up from the chair she made and disassembled it, only leaving the orb holding the image of Aurus currently fighting another boss of another place. She let out a sigh and looked at the orb for a while before saying, "Big Sis Phatia, what is my punishment?"
Phatia looked at the orb that Kurohana looked at for a short bit before looking back at Kurohana. Since Kurohana did not try to resist from her punishment, Phatia decided to lessen it a bit, replying with, "You must head to the Hall of Greater Divinity and accept 3 Primordial level missions that could net out 20 God Sparks at the very least."
Hearing the words that came out of Phatia's mouth, Kurohana could not help but say in disbelief, "At the very least, I'd have to complete three 7 star Primordial level missions!"
Within the Celestial Plane, there were three Halls that presided over the gods, the Hall of Lesser Divinity that governed over the Lesser Gods, the Hall of Greater Divinity that governed over the Greater Gods, and the Hall of the Zenith Monarchs where the Eight Zenith Immortals and the Two Supreme Overseers were governed.
These halls acted as a way of atoning for the sins that a God has committed, or as a way of obtaining resources that a God really needed due to the currency that could be used to exchange for resources, God Sparks.
The only way to obtain God Sparks were through the missions, with Archaic level being the lowest, and Transcendent Deity level being the highest. These levels were even further divided into 9 sublevels, from 1 star to 9 stars.
Although a Primordial level mission seemed extremely easy, with Kurohana needing to finish three 7 star missions of this level, she would definitely take a bit of time finishing it.
With Phatia not saying anything else after the verdict of her punishment, Kurohana could only sigh and say, "Let's go then."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
And just like that, in an instant, the two divine beings disappeared from the confines of the white cube, heading towards a certain direction in the vast expanse of space, towards the Hall of Greater Divinity.
…
XXXX Continent, Seraph Kingdom.
Ttang! Ttang! Ttang!
As the flames from the furnace reach a horrifying height, the steel that was persistently being hammered by a great blacksmith was gradually taking the shape of a blade as a mage not far away from the blacksmith was casting magic on a piece of aura that exuded an incredibly pure aura of Wind.
Indeed, these two people were Kelsey and Dane, who after one night, were still not even halfway in making progress on the completion of Magnus Tempestria, which could be said as their masterwork.
Fsh! Fsh! Fsh!
As bolts of energy that radiated multiple colors hit the Gale Dragon Wood that Dane affixed on the table quite securely, the resistance that the incomplete soul was giving out gradually gave way, finally submitting to Dane after being hit for over a thousand times. This process took Dane around 14 hours, with most of it being used in replenishing his mana.
"Haha! Finally! I can now use the soul in this piece of wood to add the [Ignition] quality to Magnus Tempestria!" Late in the night, with the glee he felt over finally letting the soul be controlled, Dane laughed quite loudly within the confines of Kelsey's smithy. Fortunately, it was quite soundproof from the outside.
"Aaaah! Dane! Why do you have to be so noisy at this time! I was almost finished with engraving the grooves on the blade!" Kelsey, who was extremely focused on delicately engraving the grooves where elemental energy would be infused into, could not help but stop halfway and berate Dane for breaking her concentration.
Whoosh!
With a rift opening up over the table, a sharp knife fell from the rift, landing quite accurately on Dane's hands as he started to carve the Gale Dragon Wood into the shape of a hilt where it would fit perfectly within the grip of the Ninth Prince's hand.
"I'm sorry for shouting but I can finally make this masterwork reach another level, for now we have a source of energy that we can use to ignite the weapon!" Dane said to Kelsey as an apology as he started to cut off bits and pieces off the Gale Dragon Wood.
Clink!
With her hands frozen in place, Kelsey gradually turned her head to look at Dane with eyes filled with disbelief as she stammered, "D-D-Did I just hear that c-correctly? M-Me? C-Crafting an Ignition weapon?"
For Kelsey, it was definitely enough for her masterwork to be an Ignition weapon as only the extremely rich or the extremely strong could hold such a weapon. With a weapon like that only being eclipsed by an Evolving weapon, she could die without regrets after successfully creating an Ignition weapon.
"Yeah, I hope you can hurry up with the groove engraving since I need to give this blade to the Ninth Prince hopefully in the morning." Taking into consideration the time they spent, Dane decided to limit their timeframe to later morning, which was not too little for a master blacksmith like Kelsey.
Fwoosh!
With her aura intensifying to a greater degree thanks to the knowledge of being able to craft an Ignition weapon, Kelsey continued engraving the grooves on the blade she tempered under the furnace at a faster rate, without reducing the quality of the engraving whatsoever. With her motivation at an all-time high, she replied with fervor, "Don't worry, I'd probably be waiting for the hilt you're making at the rate I'm going at!"
Laughing at the answer Kelsey said, Dane replied as his motivation was also kindled, "Let's compete on who can finish first then!"
…
As seconds turn to minutes, and minutes turn to hours, the night where the moon hung extremely high on the sky was replaced with the sight of the vast blue sky where the sun showed a small part of its luminosity to the world. In other words, it was early morning.
At this moment in time, the flames in the furnace had died out, and the table where the Gale Dragon Wood was worked on was filled with the shavings from said wood. As for the two, they were in front of the anvil not far away from the furnace, finally connecting the hilt and the blade together to form Magnus Tempestria.
Ttok! Ttok! Ttok!
Kelsey was hammering the hilt on the blade quite delicately, afraid of scuffing the exquisite carvings on the hilt Dane carved. As for Dane, he was chanting an incantation that summoned the Wind energy particles around their surroundings and willed it to cluster into a ball that hovered over head.
Clang!
With the final hit on the hilt finally affixing the hilt on the blade quite securely, Kelsey then hammered on a cap made from Spirit Star Steel, the same material used in the blade as Dane pointed his fingers towards the grooves on the blade.
"Let the Wind bless this weapon with great sharpness and swiftness! Holos Maximus!"
Whoosh!
While Kelsey was still holding the blade upright, the cluster of Wind energy particles headed towards the grooves on the blade, hastily expanding outwards to cover every nook and cranny on the blade grooves, even going so far as to cover the hilt with Wind energy particles as well, allowing the weapon to radiate an aura of intense Wind.
Lightly placing the completed sword on the anvil, Kelsey could not help but look at the sword with extreme glee as she said, "Finally, a weapon that can be said to be my masterwork, Magnus Tempestria."
Dane then placed a hand on Kelsey's shoulder as he said, "It's been hard on y—"
Before Dane could finish what he was about to say, a faint silver light from the ceiling of the smithy seemed to concentrate into a beam as it shot towards Magnus Tempestria, intensifying the aura that the blade radiated in an instant.
"With the humans creating an exquisite blade exuding great affinity for Wind, this blade has been blessed by the Lesser God of Wind." A faint voice could only be heard near the two's ears as the silver light gradually enveloped Magnus Tempestria.