Chương 15: Chapter Fifteen: The Usua-gnoll Suspects

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Hyena Werks, A proud Orario Company. DanmachiXDnD Nonhuman semi SI X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Chapter Fifteen: The Usua-gnoll Suspects X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X As much as I wanted to dive right into Dorumuru's project, I still had some work to do on my workshop itself, as I was missing some key tools I'd need to really make something special. It was the classic Tinker's fallacy–I had to make the tools to make the tools… to make the cool shit I actually wanted to make.

So, rolling up my non-existent sleeves and gritting my teeth, I dove back into the chaos of the workshop floor with dogged determination to wrangle that mess into a semi-functional foundry. And through sparks, flying shards of metal, and yes, even a few errant explosions–the first real workstation had risen from the bedlam like a mighty lighthouse through a mechanical hurricane.

Unlike the rest of the machines in here, the ones that were just crude recreations of things from my human side, this was the first device I could proudly proclaim to be truly mine. Towering over the rest of the workshop and rising all the way to the ceiling was a monolith of fire-blackened Nosteel plates, riveted together by a lattice of thick steel beams like the exposed guts of a skyscraper. The front of the machine was indented in, forming a C-channel all the way up to the top.

Within which lay eight thin tracks of steel-alloyed mithril that ran the entire length of the workstation; Each one pulsating in-time with one another with an electric blue glow as pure mana flowed freely through them. Set along the path of the rails was a series of fist-sized cubes of ominously humming snowy white stone. Now those were a bitch to get my claws on. Seiros, the locals called it. It was a type of admixture stone that formed in only one place in all of the known world–The elven kingdom of Ryumulua.

A marvelous material that had the capacity to actually increase the potency of magic flowing through it; Sorta like a pseudo superconductor. The elves, being the 'holier than thou' assholes that they are, refused to sell the stuff outside of their little forest nation. Choosing instead to horde it all for themselves to sit on and do nothing with.

The refusal to do business at all was what partly gave Ares and his little theocratic empire the Casus belli he needed to attack the knife-ears with almost no pushback from his neighbors. And defending those precious stones was the entire reason why the elves fought so viciously against Rakian encroachment into the mountains near their homes.

Eventually leading to the mass deployment of the Crozzo family's magic swords against the entrenched tree huggers, which in turn infuriated the local spirit population to the point that they sealed the entire clan's ability to weave magic into their weapons.

That whole lore dump was told to me by the halfling smugglers I bought them off of, even after I told them to shut up and give me my special rocks, but to tell a long story short; Seiros was, in a weird, roundabout way, responsible for Welf's family woes, and his reason for being in Orario in the first place. Naturally, the second I heard there were room temperature magical superconductors just sitting out there in the world, I knew I had to get them.

And after having examined them for a few days and testing out their properties, I've found that it has blown away my wildest expectations. Calling them magical superconductors was a bit of a misnomer, because it didn't just conduct magic well, it could also store magic like a capacitor. Meaning it multiplied the magic stored within itself before passing it on with near zero resistance. Which means, if you put a bunch of em' in series along a supernaturally strong conductive rail. Of say, mythril, for instance…

Then you've got yourself a magical railgun. Slap two five hundred pound steel blocks with adamantine heads on each end? Now you've got yourself a magically powered mass-driver powered drop hammer. With an ear to ear grin splitting my muzzle, I yanked out all three safety pins and twisted the ignition key-driving the ominous hum to new, ear piercing heights, the whole machine buzzed with malicious intent and barely restrained power; Like a cattleprod hooked up directly to a fusion reactor.

Tugging my ear protection down tight and snapping my goggles on, I depressed the brake release with my foot while wrapping the trigger with a slightly trembling paw. Whether the shakes were from anticipation–or a bit of fear at what I had wrought, not even I could say. The only thing I knew… is that as soon as I squeezed the trigger, the resulting blinding flash of azure lightning and explosion of blazing sparks, followed by a bone rattling blast of pressure nearly sent me on my ass…

And when I finally blinked the stars out of my eyes–Seeing my test ingot of steel flattened into a razor-thin disk made me instantly fall deeply, hopelessly in love with the monster I made. I think I'll name her Betty. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Hephaestus only realized that the rhythmic quakes beneath her feet were not simply a figment of her imagination as she crossed the boundary into the Black District.

The few remaining intact windows along the street rattled in their frames, and dust rained down from cracked mortar and broken stones in a blanketing fog across the street. Sharing a baffled look with Tsubaki, who was still clutching her former friend's wrist, and current cause of her persistent migraine, in a vice-like grip. With a mutual shrug, both of them ignored Hestia's whining pleas with practiced ease as they continued on deeper into the district.

"So, do you think it's an earthquake? Or… maybe something fun is happening in the Dungeon?" Her captain asked, hiding her unease beneath her usual boisterous air. Hephaestus immediately shook her head in denial.

"I know my earthquakes, and this isn't one of them. And if something was going on with the Dungeon, then the guild would have warned us. No, I think I have an idea on who's to blame for whatever this is." Both of them shared another glance over Hestia's head before sighing in mutual exasperation. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Turning onto a painfully familiar street, the goddess of the forge looked up at her former home with agonized longing burning in her heart.

So many memories, so many laughs, smiles, tears- Just so many emotions were etched into these walls. The home she built up from nothing, from very dirt beneath her feet, stone by stone; With nothing but her small familia by her side. The vast majority of her time since descending had been spent here, slowly building her way up into the de facto crafting familia… And it was all taken in an instant by gods who just wanted to have fun playing the villain. All for a fucking laugh. … For the home they took.

For the lives they shattered. And for the family they took from her. Those monsters' retribution when she goes back to Tenkai will be the stuff of Legends. But that won't be for a while yet, hopefully. She still has too much to do down here before she's satisfied. Her family's vengeance will have to wait a little while longer. Tearing her gaze away from her dilapidated home, Hephaestus's eyes fell upon the one outlier amongst the ruins. One of her old warehouses had been brought back to immaculate condition.

Its whitewashed stone walls shone with fresh paint, and its brand new roof hadn't yet even felt the touch of rain nor snow. Wide plate glass windows lined the walls, revealing rows upon rows of currently empty store shelves, and the crystal-bourne light shining through told the world that someone was currently home. … and the whole thing was currently jumping off the Dungeon-damned ground with every ungodly, earth rattling bang ringing out with unerring persistence.

Following the pothole marked street that was once filled with endless caravans bearing the materials needed to fuel her industrial empire, they came across a wide open gate cut into the side of Max's shop–which curiously seemed to be missing any sort of door. A brief inspection revealed it to not be bolted to the sides, like every other doorway she knew of, but instead it hung from the ceiling as an ingenious belt of connected steel panels that rolled up into itself to save space.

Which could be pulled down to cover the entry way when it came time to close up shop. Yet another idea that she would be shamelessly stealing from the gnoll. The second Hephaestus poked her head through the open door, the unmistakable scents of a foundry in use hit her harder than a level three swinging a warhammer out of his shoes–The tangy aroma of boiling oil that lingered on the tongue, the stench of burnt metal, the sickly sweet odor of smog–The wondrous smells of industry!

When her eyes finally adjusted to the low lighting, her eyes dilated as she finally registered the sheer amount of insane machinery dreamt up by the gnoll scattered across the room. While some of their uses were obvious, such as the mechanized grinding wheel or the massive lathe; She could only begin to guess the use and purpose for the vast majority of the tools in here. All of them were crafted from an intricate blend of bronze, steel, and when necessary–adamanite.

Through the cracks and lines of them she could see the poisonous blue of raw mana leaking out, while others just vibrated in place. Humming with raw magic, quivering in place as if impatient to be used. And there in the back, against the far wall, rose a beast that dwarfed them all. Soaring far up into the gloom was a sinister spire of black metal and glowing mithril. The whole thing blazed in her magical senses brighter than the sun; To the point it was almost painful to look at.

Raw mana was so heavy in the air that it tingled against her skin as barely restrained magic roared through its metallic veins. It took nearly ten whole seconds to realize that the being she had come to see was standing within its deep shadow. Hunched over its base like a supplicant praying before an altar. Max straightened up, revealing that he had been adjusting a small chunk of Orichalcum that glittered with the unmistakable incandescence of a Durandal enchantment upon a plate of slightly dented adamanite.

Seemingly content with its placement, the gnoll nodded to himself before reaching out to grab a lever next to his head. Nothing, absolutely nothing could have prepared her for what came next. The amount of magic running through the machine spiked until it made her physically ill to behold. The sheer amount of potential energy contained within that device would level a block if it were to discharge uncontrollably.

But instead of instantly detonating and killing them all, as it very well should have, the machine focused all that power into one place–the adamanite hammer hanging from the top of the rails. The head shot down faster than her eyes could follow, only leaving a bright blue afterimage seared into her retinas as arcs of pure magic flew off the rails–grounding themselves across all the metal in reach as flailing tendrils of electricity.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Hephaestus finally learned what had been causing the tremors ravaging the district… when the force of the hammer meeting the anvil nearly blasted her back out the door. Only the quick thinking of her captain saved her from an embarrassing tumble across the street as her hand snapped out to catch her back; While the other hand tucked the petite Hestia close to her chest to keep her from flying off. Max…

Max was utterly unmoved by the explosion. Even as his fur was plastered flat against his skin, and a huge wave of sparks washed over him, peppering his flesh, he stood perfectly still–staring at the now deformed hunk of what should have been all but invulnerable metal like it held all the secrets of the universe. Suddenly, the gnoll stiffened up, seeming to have finally sensed the eyes boring into his back. Slowly, ever so slowly, did Max turn his head to look back at them.

And when he did, Hephaestus only then realized what exactly she had just walked into as she beheld the expression plastered across Max's face. She wasn't in a smithy. Nor was she in a workshop. She was in a temple, devoted to the Machine. And there was Maedmux Maddic, proselytizer of engineering and pastor of this holy site, standing before his idols with a manic, fang-filled smile splitting his face in half. The maddened gleam in his eyes told her everything she needed to know about what kind of believer he was.

An unwavering zealot, dogmatically austere in his faith. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Tsubaki expected many things when they were led up into Max's apartment. More machines, more insane feats of engineering, more things that upended her beliefs about blacksmithing, or just the world in general… So the last thing she expected was a cozy little loft, utterly mundane in appearance and function. The four of them were seated around a small dining table.

The three guests in shocked silence, while Max was completely at home, loudly slurping from his glass of mead. The captain of Hephaestus's familia looked down at the glass of water she held in a white knuckled grip. How much force would it take to bend Orichalcum in such a way? The Durandal enchantment was always the last thing to be applied to a high end weapon. That was a universal rule of blacksmithing. One that has been followed without fail for over a thousand years.

Because it was nigh impossible to work on a weapon after being enchanted, the metal just becomes too hard to work with, full stop. Sure, breaking a Durandal weapon is more than possible, the Loki and Freya familias can attest to that. A hard weapon is a brittle one, after all. Even if it is supernaturally hard, a supernaturally strong hit will still shatter it like glass. But to bend enchanted Orichalcum? She couldn't even imagine what level you'd have to be to achieve such a feat.

Her sole eye flicked up to look at the gnoll happily lapping away at the dregs of his drink like a dog licking the inside of a cup. The fur across his face was blackened by soot, and the horrible stench of burnt fur was nearly overwhelming, yet Max seemed unperturbed by his injuries. As she slowly cataloged the various scorch marks littering his body, Max's own eyes drifted over to meet hers, pausing with his tongue pressed against the bottom of the glass as they stared each other down in silence.

After a moment, Tsubaki wrenched her eye away to look back down at her glass. Yet, the second they took their eyes off him for only a few days, Max achieved the impossible again without even a falna to his name. In fact, what she had witnessed down in his workshop could probably be operated by anyone. Any dirt smeared farmer or well dressed clerk could wander in and begin forging Dungeon materials in a way that only level two and above blacksmiths could before.

It was a device that threatened to make everything she had worked for–every agonizing second of grinding her way to level five worthless; perhaps even threatening to make the very idea of adventuring blacksmiths obsolete in the first place. A sharp crack and the sharp shock of water running through her hands dragged her back to the present, where she found the glass in her hand spiderwebbed with cracks, along with a puddle of water pooling around her fingers.

Glancing up, she found the rest of the table now staring at her. Max with a raised eyebrow, and Hestia with a slightly concerned–if still generally befuddled expression, obviously confused by the whole situation. In Hephaestus's eyes, she found only commiseration. Similar thoughts must be racing through her mind as well. With an amused snort, Max stood up to grab a rag from the kitchen counter. Casually talking over his shoulder as he strolled off.

"Not that I'm not happy for your company, folks, but is there any particular reason why you decided to trek all the way out my way?" Finally shaken from her fugue, her goddess looked up with a start.

"Oh!, yes–I was just dropping Hestia off at her new home, so we figured we would stop in and introduce you to your new neighbor." Halfway back to the table, Max froze mid-step, as if he had been electrocuted; While Hestia's head whipped around, sending her twin tails swinging wildly to stare at her best friend in horror.

"My who-what now? /My new what!" Both of them snapped to look at one another, before Max physically shook himself out of his shock.

"What do you mean my 'new neighbor'? There's nothing around here that's even halfway habitable!"

"Quite on the contrary, mister Maddic-" Hephaestus drawled, a bit of her normal confident self finally shining through the pensive haze Max's workshop inspired in her. Lifting a gloved hand to her chin, she pointed out the window with one lazily raised finger. Both Hestia and Max unearingly followed the tip of her finger until they laid eyes upon… Just another ruin amongst the hundreds of others that littered the Black Zone. One Max must have passed a hundred times by now and had never noticed it.

Across the street, crammed in between two massive stone-bricked buildings–one of which had even partially collapsed sideways and was resting precariously on its neighbor–was a small, extremely dilapidated church. The once well-manicured lawn had been reclaimed by that small patch of nature. Moss and ivory freely covered much of the exterior, digging deep into the stone and mortar. While every last window lining its walls had long since been shattered by time or Monster Stone bombs.

Red ceramic tiles clung stubbornly to the roof In the few places that it hadn't completely caved in… In short, Tsubaki didn't think it was fit to house dogs in, let alone a freshly descended goddess, but… she did bring this upon herself. Speaking of which- Hestia, the second she realized exactly what her friend had been pointing to, immediately burst into hysterics and threw herself down to grovel at the feet of Hephaestus. Gross, fat tears shamelessly rolled down her face as she stared up at the glaring goddess.

"P-please Hephie-chan! I'll change! J-just give me one more chance! I promise by the end of the week I'll star-" With an expression harder than the adamantine she tamed on a daily basis, the goddess of volcanos and the forge mercilessly cut off Hestia with a chop of her hand.

"I gave you a chance, Hestia. Three months worth of chances. And you frittered them away. I am sick to death of watching you lounge around on my couch, willing the days away on my Valis. No more, Hestia, No more. It's time the hammer meets the anvil. Because I know you, and I know that unless I kick you from the nest, you will never get up and build a familia for yourself. So I'm sorry, but I have to cut you off. That! -" She growled, tossing her chin towards the church.

"-is the last handout you will ever receive from me. I have officially transferred ownership of that plot of land into your name. Do with it what you will, but I have already ordered my familia to bar you entry to the Crimson Chamber, so don't even bother to try and crawl your way back into my home… Not until you've made something of yourself, at least." With a final, exhausted sigh, her goddess looked away from the devastated girl clinging to the hem of her pants and up at her with tired eyes.

"Tsubaki, would you please escort Hestia to her new home?" X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X As Hephaestus's captain dragged the lifeless short-stack goddess from the room in a fashion not unlike a leopard dragging a gazelle off into the underbrush, the goddess in question finally let her mask slip a bit as she buried her head into her hands. Not quite knowing what to do with the goddess crying with quiet dignity at my kitchen table, I, In my infinite wisdom- decided that booze was the one and only correct answer.

Filling up two frothing mugs with Mia's finest, I unceremoniously thunked one down in front of her, startling her back to reality. With one final sniffle and an aristocratic dab of her eye, she nodded her thanks to me before throwing the whole thing back in one go. Wordlessly sliding my own untouched drink towards the woman who clearly needed it far more than me, I stood to grab some more. Something told me this was going to be a long night. As I poured out another mug, Hephaestus spoke up in a demure tone.

"Do you think I did the right thing?"

"Well-," I said slowly, choosing my words carefully.

"-Is that church safe to live in? It was a lot of work for me to make this building livable again…" She waved off my concerns with an errant hand as she took another pull of her drink.

"Of course. I had my children inspect some of my old property when I was looking for a place to stick her. The upper portion of the church is a write-off, but the cellar is more or less pristine. I wouldn't throw her to the dogs like that."

"Then it sounds like you did everything you can for her." I said as I took my own seat, forcing eye contact from the downcast goddess.

"You can't have her couch surfing for all eternity. Riding your coat-tails off into a life of slothful luxury. That's not fair to you, and it's not even fair to her. Sometimes, tough love is the only kind of love you can afford to spare on a friend stuck in a rut like that. Sometimes… A swift kick in the hole and a good ol' fashioned tongue lashing is exactly what someone needs to get up off their ass and better themselves."

As Hephaestus snorted into her drink, I was internally screaming because where in the hell did that come from? When did I become an armchair therapist? I know Max wouldn't have come up with that himself, and human me could barely order a coffee without getting stage fright, let alone deliver a pep talk without a single stutter! Was… was this the power of a half-decent charisma stat? Did I just crit success a roll?"' Tough love', huh? I like that. I think I might steal it from you."

She said from around the rim of her drink, a smirk pulling at her lips and wrinkling her sole visible eye.

"Amongst other things." Her ominous piece said, she took another pull of her drink while staring a hole into the table.

"I didn't come up with it." I muttered into my own drink as we lapsed into thoughtful silence. A silence that was broken by her a minute or so later as she nodded to herself.

"You're right. It wasn't fair for her to do that to me… and it was especially unfair of her to do that to all the gods currently stuck in Tenkai." At my questioning look she elaborated.

"There are only so many spots available for gods to descend and live amongst mortals. A limit we imposed on ourselves so we wouldn't all flood the lower world at once. Only when a god returns to Tenkai can another come down to take their place. Meaning that Hestia hogging a spot and doing absolutely nothing with it is… Unimaginably selfish, to say the least." Another sigh slipped from her lips as she idly swirled her cup around.

"Hopefully, this 'kick in the hole' as you so eloquently put it, will inspire her to actually live the dream so many up there desperately long for… Or she won't, and either the cold or exposure will force her back up so someone who's actually serious about experiencing life can have a chance." Another beat of silence passed before she continued to vent, her voice growing bitter with a hint of resentment.

"I gave her so many chances, Max, so damned many. No one expected her to land on her feet and have a full familia in only a few months, I just wanted her to try, to go out to the guild hall and try and recruit members, or to just walk around the city and see the sights, to do anything! But no, all she did was lay on my couch, drinking my wine and eating my food. Ordering my children around like they were servants…

I know I've been angrier at more deserving things, at worse injustices, but for the life of me I can't remember any right now save for her daring to demand a foot rub from one of my apprentices the other day. The second those words left her lips I knew I would be kicking her out this week; Millennium long Friendship or no. No one, and I mean no one, disrespects my children like that. Not in front of me."

The silence stretched longer this time, until with a final angry puff of air and a long draw to finish her drink, she looked back up at me.

"You are… Bizarrely easy to talk to, you know that?" I nodded sagely, pointing with a single claw towards my ears.

"I've always been told that I'm a great listener. My head is fifty percent ears by volume, afterall." For a second, there was nothing but dead, awkward silence, until it was shattered by an unbelievably undignified guffaw by the always poised and composed goddess. Taking a moment to conduct herself, she slowly rose from her seat while wiping at her eye and gave me the first true and honest smile I'd ever seen from any god or goddess since arriving at these city walls.

"Thanks for the chat, Max. It… It really helped to get all that off my chest." Her smile then slid into a conspiratorial smirk.

"Though, if you ever try to tell anyone that I got weepy in your living room, then my retribution will be carved deep into the lore of this fair city, as a terrible warning to all who would dare besmirch my good name."

"Tell who what now?" I said, returning her grin as I stood to walk her out.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, mysterious stranger." That earned another laugh from her, but as we approached the door, that smile faded as she turned to me, far more serious now.

"And Max? Don't… don't let her try and get to you too. If you give her so much as a crumb of charity, she'll never stop begging for more; Not as she is. She still has too much growing to do before I'd ever trust her again with anything as kind as a helping hand." I nodded solemnly, for both the request itself and the spirit of it, as I'm sure it was difficult to ask someone to also forsake their once friend.

"I'll be sure to seal my heart and purse strings as tightly as my lips, Hephaestus." The laugh that garnered was a touch more sad than the ones before it. X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X Author's notes Straight up no excuses from me for why I haven't updated in a while. BF6 and Arc Raiders have been sucking up all my free time. But as the glitz and glamor wears off, I'll hopefully be getting back into writing more often. Thank you for your patience.

Also, I wrote this in like, two days over the course of a total of 6 hours, so I'm kinda hyped about that. Im sure its riddled with errors I missed, but if only I had that kind of WPM on the regular!