Chapter 267

Clang! Clang!

The sound of a hammer striking heated metal resounded.

A small giant.

Dwenno was pouring his soul into the hammer.

His appearance was more solemn than ever.

Fwoosh-!

From Dwenno’s hands emerged a bright yellow flame.

The flame was golden in hue.

“Sharp enough to slice through the Black Flame.”

Dwenno muttered.

Clang! Clang!

“Strong enough to withstand the Black Flame.”

Dwenno, who usually praised beauty, was making his own weapons as beautiful as possible.

However, he wasn’t paying any attention to the appearance of the sword he was making now.

He didn’t engrave beautiful patterns on the sword’s blade.

The edge didn’t emit a dazzling light.

What he had poured into the sword was only one thing: the hope that its user would not succumb to the Catastrophe Flame.

Fwoosh-!

The bright yellow flame, symbolic of Dwenno, shone brightly.

It seemed to Kyle, who was watching by his side, that the flame gleamed like gold.

Eventually, the flame settled down.

Dwenno extended his hand.

The sword was still red-hot, but Dwenno paid no mind.

As a dwarf beloved by fire, he had a strong resistance to heat.

Thud!

Dwenno, holding the sword blade down, presented it to Kyle.

“Take it and see.”

At this, Kyle hesitated.

Though Dwenno, with his resistance to heat, might not be affected by the heat of the red-hot sword, Kyle was not the same.

After a moment’s hesitation, Kyle extended his hand.

Thud!

The searing heat could be felt in his hand.

Hwoooaaahh-!

But only for a moment.

The heat soon turned into warmth.

The red-hot sword quickly changed into a translucent silver.

The rough longsword created by Dwenno seemed unbelievable.

But the sword was perfect.

The moment it was gripped, it felt like it had become a part of the body.

Hrrrrrm-!

The sword emitted its name.

Reacting to Kyle’s touch.

“I made this sword inspired by the sight of you.”

“Didn’t you say there was nothing inspirational about me?”

Dwenno, who worshipped beauty, drew inspiration from all beautiful things.

He particularly drew the most inspiration from Lissinas and Luna.

To a lesser extent, he drew inspiration from Aron as well.

But he once said he had never drawn inspiration from Kyle.

“That’s right. I thought I couldn’t draw any inspiration from you.”

Dwenno burst into low laughter.

“You looked like someone without dreams.”

The beauty Dwenno spoke of wasn’t about outward appearance alone.

He was a dwarf who believed that the process of a person pursuing and achieving their dreams was the ultimate beauty.

Lissinas held the great aspiration to save the world.

Luna had the goal of making a world bloom with flowers.

Aron dreamed of a world where many children were not unhappy.

Dwenno also had the dream to leave behind beautiful works of art.

But Kyle had nothing.

“To me, your inner self appeared like nothing but the ashes left from a fire.”

“That was not an inaccurate assessment.”

Kyle burst into laughter.

When Lissinas revealed the plan to subdue Erebus.

Luna treated Lissinas as if he were insane but didn’t ridicule his aspirations.

Aron was initially scared but soon placed trust and faith in Lissinas.

Dwenno, though finding it absurd, lent his power to Lissinas’ grand ambition.

But Kyle was different.

From the first time Lissinas approached, Kyle mocked him, and even as they started their journey together, Kyle continued to scoff at Lissinas’s dreams.

Now, the reason why could be understood.

‘Because I had no dreams myself.’

Kyle had wriggled through life day by day.

That’s why the title he received was the Hero of Survival.

The cursed hero who had seen all his comrades d*e.

A person whose purpose was merely living day by day, without pursuing any ideals or goals.

That was how Kyle viewed himself.

“In truth, that was what I disliked most about you.”

Dwenno smiled bitterly.

“So, I might have turned my eyes even further away from you. I thought you lacked any beauty and thus turned away.”

“That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it was inappropriate and ugly of me.”

Dwenno looked down at his own hands.

“The grayness I saw in you reminded me of my own past.”

“My past?”

“Yes.”

Dwenno clenched his fists.

“People say I am the man loved by fire. But to me, this power was a curse.”

After his power awakened in his youth.

Dwenno burned everything he touched.

Everything around Dwenno was desolate.

“As a dwarf, it was unfortunate. My flames even melted the anvil and hammer.”

The flame that even Great Spirit of Fire and Phoenix feared.

The cursed dwarf who turned everything to ashes.

“When you had nothing around you left standing, how did you become a crazy dwarf obsessed with beauty?”

“Drop the ‘crazy’ part.”

“Be thankful I don’t call you a perverted dwarf like Luna.”

Looking at Kyle with dissatisfaction, Dwenno spoke.

“One day, I met a lady elf.”

“So that’s why you’re fixated on Luna being your model? Is it because you remembered an elf you met once?”

“Never compare her with Luna. That would be a mockery of her.”

Dwenno was uncharacteristically serious.

Actually, the reason Dwenno asked Luna to be a model so often was simple.

When she kept her mouth shut, she was the quintessential beautiful elf.

“She was an artist. An artist who captured the world’s stunning landscapes on her canvas.”

“Was she a famous painter?”

“No, just a wandering artist. A woman who departed from her kin because the elf society bored her.”

Dwenno smiled faintly.

“But the art she created was incredibly beautiful.”

That was the moment Dwenno became fascinated by beauty.

“In order not to destroy beautiful things, I put in serious effort to control my power. And I succeeded.”

Dwenno looked down at his hands.

“I loathe the part of myself unable to control my power in the past. The reason I turned my eyes from you was due to the ugly desire in me to avert my gaze from the past.”

Dwenno looked at Kyle.

“It was only recently that I started looking straight at who you really are.”

“So? How about it? Did you see anything inspiring like dreams?”

“No, you’re still all gray. But I see something I didn’t see before.”

“What’s that?”

“Even without anything, you don’t stop moving forward.”

Dwenno’s gaze softened.

“And I realized that it’s for the sake of us.”

To Dwenno, Kyle was someone who didn’t carry his own burdens but silently carried his companions’.

“So, when I realized that, it all became clear. You, just like anyone else, possess a beauty that cannot be exchanged with anyone.”

Dwenno gave a faint smile.

“That’s why Lissinas chose you, why Luna relies on you the most, and why Aron wished to be like you. And why I, who wouldn’t make weapons for those I don’t like, created something for you.”

Dwenno stared directly at Kyle’s face.

“Perhaps my aesthetic senses instinctively recognized your inner beauty even before.”

Dwenno beamed with pride.

“So that sword is my greatest masterpiece.”

Kyle looked at the sword in his hand with a slightly shocked expression.

Dwenno never referred to his creations as “works”.

Because Dwenno didn’t particularly enjoy creating weapons.

Yet, he called this seemingly rough longsword a masterpiece.

“That sword is like you. It contains no mana. To others, it’s just a sturdy and sharp rod.”

The sword created by Dwenno was excessively plain.

Dwenno liked everything to be flashy.

“But… the moment you grip it, the sword can become anything.”

It could become a powerful weapon or a mighty magical staff.

Or it could serve as a catalyst to summon a familiar.

“It is the one and only… sword for all classes.”

Kyle looked down at the sword.

He could feel the sword responding to his abilities.

“What’s the name of the sword?”

“Posteritas.”

At Leo’s question, Dwenno grinned meaningfully.

“It means the future.”

*

“This is Lord Kyle’s sword?”

Mel gasped in awe at Leo’s murmur.

“How do posterity evaluate this sword?”

“The dwarves presume it to be one of Lord Dwenno’s failed works.”

Dwenno’s weapons were all so beautiful they could be considered works of art.

And even after thousands of years, they maintained their forms.

Of course, the supreme masterpieces used during the Final Expedition, which are highly regarded, hardly remain.

Even if some do remain, they are almost destroyed from fierce battles, yet barely maintain their shapes.

But this sword was plain, with no trace of power.

Moreover, its physical form had not remained intact.

And with no clear history of the sword, the dwarves considered it Dwenno’s failed creation.

“Can it be, Leo-sama, that this was the sword you used?”

Mel’s amazement was met with Leo’s calm reply.

“This is the last sword that Dwenno made.”

“Is that so?”

“In the battle following the completion of this sword… Dwenno lost his life.”

Leo’s gaze grew heavy.

“Advance, Kyle. Create a path for those who come after… That sword is for that purpose.”

Even as his lower body burned away and his life faded, Dwenno’s eyes burned intensely as he delivered those words.

And following his will…

The sword successfully opened the path to the future.

“Who would have thought this was Dwenno-sama’s final weapon?”

Mel, who heard a fact she did not know, was astonished.

Like a young girl listening to an old tale, her shining eyes suddenly realized something.

“Wait a moment. That would mean…”

“Yes.”

Leo extended his hand toward the sword.

Hrrrm-!

Even though the sword had deteriorated beyond recognition, it responded to its master’s call, breaking the silence of five thousand years.

“This is the sword that subdued Erebus.”

Hwaack-! Thud-!

The sword that had hung on the wall flew into Leo’s hand.

As if rejoicing at being back in its master’s grip after thousands of years, the sword continued to resonate.

And simultaneously…

Hrrmm-! Hrrmm-!

The legacies of Dwenno preserved in the armory began to react.

Mel looked around the armory in shock.

Hrrrrk-!

From Leo’s hand emerged a bright yellow flame.

The fire of Dwenno awakened by the power of Pibua infused in the foil.

This flame gave birth to all the armaments present here.

“Dwenno never called his creations ‘artworks.'”

Leo looked around at Dwenno’s legacies.

“But he didn’t lack in affection.”

Dwenno poured his heart into creating armaments.

The reason Dwenno was called God’s Blacksmith.

It was because his weapons possessed wills.

Not the artificial wills produced by magical engineering, like an ega-sword.

But purely the wills that resided within the weapons.

They seemed to cry out for something.

“Perhaps these armaments have been here for millennia, or for hundreds of years.”

From the dwarves’ perspective, the legacy of the great God’s Blacksmith must have been precious and worth preserving.

But could these armors wish to rust away as such?

Hrrrrrkk-!

The armaments emitted a bright yellow flame.

And in an instant, they returned to their splendid forms from the brilliant past.

Mel opened her mouth in awe of the sight.

“I see.”

Leo nodded at the sight.

Previously, Luna had asked why he didn’t refer to his creations as artworks.

To which Dwenno replied,

“The essence of arms is as tools of combat.”

Dwenno often muttered while hammering,

“They’re objects ultimately meant for the battlefield. Hence, I cannot call them artworks.”

Dwenno offered a bitter smile.

“These children… destined to disappear in the battlefield someday. Maybe that’s the greatest happiness for them.”

“Do you still… have the will to fight?”

Leo asked.