The wooden staff was a crude tool, a blunt instrument that splintered under the immense pressure of Void Severance.
Shigure knew it, and Lucifer felt it.
Every time he channeled his spatial energy through the wood, the molecular bonds of the staff screamed until the fibers literally turned to ash.
"The wood... is dying,"
Shigure said, her voice a soft rasp against the morning mist.
"It cannot hold... your emptiness. You need a new weapon..."
She didn't ask the masters' permission.
She simply packed a small bundle, whistled for Tochūmaru, and gestured for Lucifer and Raven to follow.
They left Ryōzanpaku behind, traveling deep into the Japanese Alps, where the air grew thin and the silence became a physical weight.
After two days of trekking through terrain that would have killed a normal human, they reached a hidden gorge.
Tucked behind a frozen waterfall was a forge that looked older than the mountain itself.
This was the ancestral forge of the Kōsaka line.
"You must... find the heart,"
Shigure instructed, pointing to a pile of raw, ancient iron sand and dark, obsidian-like shards she had gathered from the mountain's deepest veins.
For three days and three nights, the gorge echoed with the rhythmic clack-hiss of the forge.
Lucifer didn't just watch; Shigure made him work the bellows and hammer the glowing metal, forcing him to synchronize his Fundamental Insight with the strike of the mallet.
"Channel it,"
Shigure commanded, her eyes reflecting the orange glow of the coals.
"Not into the air. Into the... spine of the blade. Make the Void... the edge."
Lucifer closed his eyes. He stopped thinking about his past or the chaos of the city.
He focused entirely on the glowing white-hot metal.
As he brought the hammer down, he pulsed Void Severance into the strike, "folding" the space into the steel itself.
The spatial energy didn't shatter the metal this time.
Because the metal was being heated to its breaking point and hammered by her forging mastery. It began to absorb the property of the Void.
Beside him, Raven stood as a silent sentinel. Her Devotion manifested as a stabilizing aura, her dark magic dampening the explosive spatial feedback.
She looked at Shigure, seeing the woman's intense, quiet focus.
"She is pouring her soul into this,"
Raven whispered.
"She sees him as the ultimate masterpiece."
On the final night, Shigure plunged the blade into a trough of specialized oil.
The scream of the metal was a sound that resonated not in the ears, but in the soul.
When the steam cleared, Lucifer held the result.
It was a Chokutō—a straight-edged blade.
The steel was a deep, matte charcoal that seemed to drink the light.
The edge was so thin it was mathematically invisible.
[Unique Item Crafted: The Void-Seeker (Tier 5 Growth Weapon)]
[Effect: +100% Efficiency for Void-based skills. Allows for 'True Cutting'—ignoring physical durability below Tier 6.]
As Lucifer wiped the blade, Shigure stepped close.
She was exhausted, her face smudged with soot, but her eyes were wider than he had ever seen them.
Tochūmaru scurried to Lucifer's shoulder, squeaking in approval.
"It is... finished,"
Shigure whispered. She reached out, her fingers trembling slightly as she touched the hilt—just an inch away from Lucifer's hand.
"It is cold... like the void. But the hilt... is warm. Because you... made it."
She looked at him, and for a fleeting second, the "Master" mask slipped.
She looked like a girl desperately trying to understand the strange heat in her chest.
Raven stepped forward, her jealousy completely replaced by deep empathy for a kindred spirit.
She took Shigure's hand and placed it directly over Lucifer's on the hilt.
"Do you feel that, Shigure?"
Raven asked softly.
"That isn't the forge. That is the resonance. You aren't just a weapon master anymore. You are a part of his foundation."
Shigure didn't pull away. She leaned her forehead against Lucifer's shoulder, a silent, monumental gesture of trust.
"I... feel it. It is... not logical. But it is... not bad."
Suddenly, Lucifer's Fundamental Insight spiked. The peace of the mountain was gone.
"Someone followed us,"
Lucifer said, his voice dropping.
"Not thugs. Martial artists. High Tier."
"I sense them,"
Raven added, her eyes glowing violet.
"Five signatures. They are moving with absolute silence. They aren't Ragnarok. Their energy is much darker, more refined."
Shigure straightened up, her eyes turning back into shards of ice.
"They are... YAMI. The shadow of the martial arts world. They have heard... of you. They come... to steal the craft... or kill the smith."
A group of figures in dark, traditional combat gear emerged from the mist at the gorge's entrance.
These were the elite assassins of Yami, sent to investigate the massive spatial energy spike caused by the forge.
Craze: Read up to chapter 100 at [email protected]/phelio