Leon swung his blade through the air, putting every ounce of skill and talent he possessed in the ways of the sword on display. Silver-blue lightning flashed along the blade, and Leon’s movements sped up to the point that any mortal who tried to watch wouldn’t have been able to track the blade. His speed and power were immense, beyond anything any other mage of comparable power might’ve been able to achieve.

“Not bad,” the Thunderbird grudgingly admitted. “Not great either, but I can work with what you have.”

She had taken a seat on the highest marble step, while Leon had gone down and grabbed his sword to demonstrate what he could do. If the Thunderbird was going to train him, then she had to see what he could do first; she didn’t avidly watch him, after all, and so wasn’t already aware of Leon’s capabilities. Throughout all of this, Xaphan continued to watch, but the Thunderbird didn’t appreciate his presence, and so continued to force the demon to remain silent—though she did so with her own presence rather than using her power for something so mundane. She trusted the demon to learn from the past and keep his mouth shut.

“Take a breather for a moment,” the Thunderbird commanded. Though rest wasn’t needed, he complied.

The Thunderbird rose from her seat and walked over to him where he was training on the red and white stone tiles surrounding the marble platform. She stood opposite Leon about ten feet away with her hands behind her back.

“Attack me,” she ordered.

Leon cocked an eyebrow in confusion and didn’t move.

“Swing that sword and try to strike me,” the Thunderbird repeated. “Don’t worry, you’ll be incapable of harming me.”

Leon took a few hesitant steps forward, but with the Thunderbird’s look of utmost confidence spurring him on, he sped up and stabbed forward with significant force. He still held back enough to come to a stop if he needed to, but he acquiesced to the Thunderbird’s command and attacked her.

About a foot away from her, the blade stopped in the air. Leon kept pushing, but the blade simply wouldn’t move closer, as if there were some kind of invisible wall between the thunderbird and the tip of the sword.

Once the point was made, the Thunderbird gave Leon a proud smile and said, “That blade is mine. It’s made of Adamant metal and cannot harm me.”

Leon withdrew with slight confusion and waited for the Thunderbird to continue her explanation.

“Adamant metal is an alloy of metal and mana. My mana went into that blade, and so it can’t do anything to touch me.”

Leon held up the sword to examine it. He’d noticed long ago that there weren’t any enchantments upon it that he could discern. They could’ve been hidden beneath the deceptively simple hilt and crossguard, but he’d never tried taking them off to see for himself. If the blade was somehow made with the Thunderbird’s mana, though, then Leon could understand why it was so powerful despite the apparent lack of enchantment—with the Thunderbird’s divine power fused into the blade itself, it clearly didn’t need any enchantments, since the blade had existed for however many millions of years the Thunderbird had been gone, and for however many thousands or millions of years it had been alive, all seemingly without enchantment.

The blade needed no maintenance, Leon’s lightning magic could be channeled through it almost effortlessly and could even be amplified by it under circumstances that Leon hadn’t yet discovered. The blade itself was incredibly hard and yet wasn’t nearly so brittle that such hardness would imply. It was sharp enough to slice through mages like butter and didn’t weigh even half of what its size might suggest. All of this without a single enchantment.

What was more, Leon always felt more confident and fearless whenever he held it. It had felt warm and familiar to the touch, like the hand of a cherished lover or reliable brother, and that led to Leon quickly picking up the habit of resting his hand upon it when he wore it at his hips. There had even been several times where his fear or anxiety almost got the better of him, and it was only the power and familiarity of the sword that kept him from losing control or composure. Of course, since he began to store the weapon in his soul realm, it hadn’t been doing that so much, but simply remembering what it was like when he wore it at all waking moments, he could believe that it channeled the Thunderbird’s power.

The more Leon thought about it, the more he believed it. Mana was simply the combination of blood and magic power. Blood and magic power were fused in the heart, using either stored magic that was taken from a mage’s soul realm, or from the lungs where magic was absorbed from the air. Alternatively, mana was produced in the bone marrow of higher-tiered mages. It was the medium through which magic power was channeled, and the Thunderbird’s bloodline was what allowed Leon to call upon his ancestor’s unique lightning powers. If the sword had been forged with the Thunderbird’s mana, then it might share that unique power over lightning and be almost kin to Leon.

There was just one thing left that brought Leon doubt that the sword was made by the Thunderbird: the sword’s appearance. The sword’s aesthetic was quite simple, just a long straight sword that could be used with one or two hands, hardly what one might think appropriate for the Archdukes of House Raime, let alone the Thunderbird, a beast powerful enough to be considered equal to divinity.

“You made this?” Leon asked, his eyebrows raised in both confusion and curiosity.

“I made the blade, yes, but not the hilt,” the Thunderbird said. “Give it to me for a moment.”

Leon complied, handing over the sword to the Thunderbird. He didn’t feel quite right handing the blade to someone else as the sword was so comfortable in his hand that he felt that the sword was his, but he wasn’t going to deny the Thunderbird anything right now.

The Thunderbird casually swung the blade around, and Leon might’ve imagined it, but he thought he saw the sword light up as if the blade was joyful to return to the hand of its creator.

‘That thing can’t have a mind of its own, can it?’ Leon thought to himself as he took in the sight of the Thunderbird holding the sword.

She wasn’t there to show off, though, and the Thunderbird quickly stopped swinging the sword around.

“It feels great to have this in hand again,” she said, looking down upon the sword like a mother upon her child. Leon could understand the sentiment, after three years of ownership, he never wanted to part from the blade again.

“Should we leave you alone with it for a while?” Xaphan couldn’t help but ask from not too far away. He immediately regretted opening his mouth.

The Thunderbird responded with a wave of her hand, slamming the demon’s face into the ground and all-but dousing his fires. He was still mostly obscured by orange flames, but it wasn’t such a great conflagration as before. She then turned away from the demon, dismissively turning away from him to add insult to injury; he wasn’t worth her attention.

“Now, let me see if you’re still in there…” the Thunderbird muttered as the sword floated out of her hand and into the air to hover about four and a half feet off the ground.

Before Leon could even process his surprise, the hilt suddenly flew off the blade and hovered in the air a couple feet away, leaving the blade itself bare.

The Thunderbird closely examined the sword, but in the end, she simply smiled, shook her head, and said, “I thought not.”

“What are you looking for?” Leon asked.

“Look at this,” the Thunderbird commanded, showing the blade’s tang to Leon.

Not sure what he was supposed to look for, Leon examined the tang. He didn’t see anything particularly noteworthy, save for a long, thin cut in the metal, as if a sliver of metal had been carved out of it.

“I don’t think I’m seeing what you want me to see…” Leon said.

“This little scratch is where the Iron Needle used to be,” the Thunderbird said, her tone light and breezy as if she wasn’t talking about her old superweapon.

“You had a Universe Fragment in this sword?” Leon asked, his mind struggling to comprehend what that truly meant in the light of everything the Thunderbird had told him. If was as cataclysmically powerful as the Thunderbird had claimed, then it was huge.

“I did,” the Thunderbird confirmed.

Leon stood there for a moment lost in thought. The Thunderbird had told him a lot over the past few hours, and he would probably need a few days to properly process everything that had been revealed. However, one thing did occur to him.

“So, the Storm Diamond could control the weather… What did the Iron Needle do, specifically?”

“It was possessed of immense lightning powers,” the Thunderbird explained. “The holy lightning that I created—and you inherited—was derived from the lightning I could conjure with the Iron Needle.”

“How strong was the Needle’s lightning? And how much of it could it summon?” Leon asked, his face going white and his heart skipping a beat.

“Our holy lightning can banish all illusions and free the mind from any shackles placed upon it, as well as make regular lightning magic look like a few harmless sparks!” the Thunderbird boasted, her face lit up with prideful enthusiasm and her arms raised to the heavens, conjuring more silver-blue lightning from the Mists of Chaos. “The Iron Needle’s lightning, in addition to that darkness-banishing quality, was more than capable of vaporizing just about any material in an instant, with the only possible exception being Adamant metals. And it could bathe a plane in this lightning with little trouble, assuming you were able to properly control it.”

“And this thing was in your sword?!” Leon cried out.

“It was,” the Thunderbird said, her face smiling as Leon began to understand just how terrifying of a weapon the sword used to be. The sword itself, as it was now, was strong, but it wasn’t nearly powerful enough to do what the Thunderbird claimed the Iron Needle was capable of.

“Where is it?!” Leon demanded to know.

“No clue,” the Thunderbird said. “All I know is that Jason Keraunos had it when he was killed, though it proved insufficient for dealing with the local Planar Lord, and when the sword next showed up in your family’s hands, the Needle seemed to be missing, as the sword had lost most of the power it displayed when in my hands.”

Leon stumbled backward, not only at the realization of the missing superweapon but also due to the Thunderbird’s nonchalant attitude about it.

“How do I find it?” Leon asked. “I can’t just leave it be…”

“Is that question motivated out of worry for everyone around you, or just because you want it for yourself?” the Thunderbird asked with a knowing smile.

“Both,” Leon honestly replied.

The Thunderbird laughed at his instant reply and said, “I appreciate your candor, but there’s no need to be worried about the Iron Needle. Universe Fragments are… temperamental, and it’s a rare breed of people who can wield them safely.”

“I remember you saying that they choose their wielders somehow? Like, you had to impress them… Does that mean they had minds of their own?” Leon asked.

“In a way,” the Thunderbird said. “As I told you before, they’re not intelligent in the traditional sense, not in the way you and I are, but they do have some kind of alien will. If you hope to master a Universe Fragment, you must prove yourself worthy of it, as I did for both the Storm Diamond and the Iron Needle. If you do not, then it will destroy you. Regardless of how powerful you may believe yourself to be, you will always be lacking compared to a Universe Fragment.”

“How did you do that? Impress the Storm Diamond and Iron Needle, I mean?” Leon asked.

“I passed their tests,” the Thunderbird replied, smiling at Leon in such a way that he knew he wouldn’t get any further specifics from her.

“Ok. Missing Iron Needle. How about the Storm Diamond?”

“It was placed in the clan’s vault before King Jason led the clan to its doom. It’s probably still in there, protected by the only material that can withstand Reconstitution: Adamant.”

“You keep going on about this Adamant stuff, could you be more specific as to what it actually is?” Leon asked.

“Metals infused with mana. Sort of like mixing blood with melted steel, just much more complicated and with much higher grades of metals. Wouldn’t make much sense to actually try to make something as weak and pedestrian as steel into an Adamant metal…

“Anyway, Adamant metals are much tougher, harder, and magically stronger than the normal metals that they are made from, to the point of being practically invincible. The only time I saw Adamant weapons fail and break was during the war between the Gods and Devils when such weapons were matched with Universe Fragments and other Adamant weapons. Weapons made from Adamant metals are incredibly powerful, assuming they’re being used by someone who shares blood with the person who used their blood to make the metal in the first place. It’s typically impossible to harm someone with an Adamant weapon they share blood with.”

“How can I make Adamant metal?” Leon asked.

“Through a process called Skyforging,” the Thunderbird said. When Leon stared at her in expectation, she said, “It would be useless to explain further, you have little knowledge in forging weapons.”

“If I can create powerful weapons that no one else can use, except maybe any future kids I may have, then I will take the time to learn,” Leon said with absolute seriousness. “What other capabilities does this sword have?”

“It will never betray you—no one else can wield it save for you since you are the last inheritor of my power,” the Thunderbird explained. “It is like an extension of your own power, it will respond to your will. Whatever you need it to do—amplify your power, block the power of your enemies, return to your hand if you and it are ever separated—it will do so to the best of its abilities. You are its wielder and you and it share blood, so it aligns its will with yours.”

“What happens if someone who doesn’t share our power attempts to use it?” Leon asked, his eyes narrowing a bit in excitement.

“The blade would respond to their will with thunder and lightning, and the hapless wielder would likely be rendered ash upon the wind.”

“Sounds like it could be useful…” Leon said, a vicious grin appearing upon his face at the possibilities. If he could trick someone into attempting to use it, then surely the blade would respond by killing them? So, if he were to get a more powerful mage to pick it up, one whose power was beyond his capability to fight, then would the sword kill that person for him?

“Less so than I think you’re imagining,” the Thunderbird stated, sending the cold rush of disappointment rushing down Leon’s spine. “It’s not intelligent enough for that, and it can only display the same strength as its wielder.”

“But if it was made with your mana, then doesn’t it store your power?”

“My power has long since dried within it, now it draws its power from you, its wielder, and as such can only really display power on your level. Of course, if you were to find the Iron Needle and replace it, then things might be different…”

“So you’re saying if I find something else for it to draw power from, then it would?” Leon asked. “And if that thing were horrendously powerful, then the blade would be just as powerful?”

“Yes,” the Thunderbird confirmed.

Leon couldn’t keep the smile of anticipation off his lips. It was like he had a key to immense power and he just had to find the door it went to. Unfortunately, he had nothing that could really be used as the sword’s power source, any gem he might try to charge with magic power and put into the blade would still only provide as much power to the sword as he did under normal circumstances.

‘However… there may be other possibilities…’ Leon thought as he looked around his soul realm. It stored all of his power, far more than the blood in his body was able to—at his power, about fifty or sixty percent of the blood in his body was mana, while all the rest of the magic power his body produced was stored within his soul realm. It was carried from his lungs and his bone marrow to his heart, where the excess mana his body couldn’t handle was stripped of magic power, rendering it normal blood, and stored in his soul realm.

It was possible for an object to tap into that power by inscribing his Mana Glyph upon said object, though it presented sizeable risks. It would open that object up to the power of his soul realm, but it would also open his soul realm up to whatever that object came into contact with. It could potentially allow anyone who came into contact with his sword to hit him where he was most vulnerable. In other words, every time someone touched his sword, possibly even those who only touch his sword with their own weapon, his soul realm itself could be at risk.

Of course, Leon only entertained that idea because of what the Thunderbird told him; that the blade was made of Adamant metal and channeled their shared power. If no one else could wield it, then it took away a significant risk of connecting the sword to his soul realm. However, the risks were still great, and Leon decided to shelve the idea for the time being.

There was still something else that could greatly benefit him in that area, though, something that the Adamant weapon apparently didn’t need.

“How about enchantments?” Leon asked the Thunderbird. “What can you teach about those?”

“Patience, boy,” the Thunderbird said with some amusement. “It’s fine to take things slow for a few days. We’ll get to it, but for now, we need to get back to training.”

Much had been just explained to him, and Leon still had more questions, but he nodded and prepared himself for whatever would come next.

“Keep in mind your goal,” the Thunderbird said as she began to telekinetically put the sword back together. “You are to achieve Apotheosis, return to the Nexus, and seize back what rightfully belongs to my clan! Find the Iron Needle and the Storm Diamond and kill all who oppose you! The clan is in your hands, boy, so train with everything you have!”

“I will!” Leon shouted, letting himself get swept up into the Thunderbird’s pace despite cringing a bit when he saw Xaphan trying not to laugh to himself out of the corner of his eye.

“Good! Then come at me again and let me taste your power!” the Thunderbird roared.

Leon complied, charging at the Thunderbird as his body became enveloped in silver-blue lightning. At first, he tried to use his exceptional speed and strength to land some hits on the Thunderbird, but she effortlessly blocked and parried every strike. He then threw himself back to get some distance and fired off some lightning bolts, none of which had any noticeable effect on his ancestor.

It was a short clash, barely even five minutes, and the Thunderbird was completely unfazed. Her absolute immunity to his lightning didn’t take Leon by surprise, but he was still in awe that she didn’t even block his lightning bolts.

‘Then let’s try something else…’ Leon thought to himself as his arms erupted with bright red-orange fire. He punched forward, putting all of his strength into this attack, and let a gout of flame rush out of him toward the Thunderbird.

The Thunderbird simply smiled and waved her hand, causing the fire to halt like it hit an invisible wall.

Leon stopped at this point. They weren’t properly fighting, the Thunderbird just wanted to see his power. However, as he saw his fire die down, one more question came to him that he had to ask. It was one he’d asked before slightly differently, but now he wanted to be as specific as possible. He didn’t want the Thunderbird to brush it off by saying that it didn’t make sense.

Leon straightened his tongue, taking a moment to think of the straightest way he could say this so that the Thunderbird had to give him a straight answer.

Besides, the Thunderbird had indicated that their conversation was mostly over, so Leon didn’t expect to get distracted by his own curiosity again. He needed a definitive answer from his ancestor to this question.

“Did I inherit anything from my mother, like I inherited your lightning from my father?”