"The first armor I made for you, you brought me back as scrap," Yules deadpanned, staring me down with an empty look in her eyes.
I fidgeted, but only a little. "Yes."
Mia snickered quietly.
"Then, when I make you two a set of armor meant to withstand just about anything you could encounter on your level… you bring it back to me as slag."
Mia stiffened and leaned a bit further into my side. It took me a second to find my voice.
"Yes?"
I grew worried under Yules' unrelenting stare. A stare that suddenly shifted from 'somewhat intimidating' to a full-blown grin, so radiant that my heart would have skipped a beat if I wasn't stressed out.
"You two are perfect! Aren't they perfect?"
She addressed the second comment to her mother. I felt my cheeks flush white from their customary blue color as the woman chuckled.
"Indeed. Think you can handle them? Or should I step in?" Tibath teased, her gaze travelling lazily from me and Mia to her daughter.
"I can, of course! Don't you dare interfere! You know how much I've been working to improve, Mother."
"True, but they are Barons now, dear. Have you improved enough?"
"I'd prefer Yules," Mia piped up, earning herself a pleased look from the younger demoness. Not that Yules was without a comeback of her own.
"I made that armor for a Viscount the other day!"
"A Viscount who wanted to show off. Besides… What will you use as material, hmmm? They've almost outgrown Lagyel sand, and that's an achievement all its own. Your fires have grown stronger too, haven't they, Hayden?"
I squirmed under Tibath's gaze, feeling oddly vulnerable. Her eyes had a piercing look in them that verged on huger.
She was right, though.
"Yeeeessss," I replied slowly. "Some stuff happened during the whole Desire mess, and, well… my sword and flames evolved? Seeing as they're kind of linked —"
"Ah. That." Tibath's face visibly darkened. "I can't express how happy I am to know you two made it out alive. My daughter needs all the friends she can get, and she would have been crushed by your deaths. I've grown fond of you, too, admittedly."
"Mooom!" Yules' voice hitched, her cheeks exploding into a flush that seemed to spread over the entire upper half of her body. She did not, however, naysay her mother, which I found interesting on its own.
I also found the way Mia was watching Yules to be quite interesting. It was some mixture of caution and amusement that I couldn't quite make sense of.
Tibath laughed. "Oh, hush, dear. Now, Hayden, let me see your soul blade, please? I assume it's the weapon you were referencing?"
I hesitated. For some reason, I felt extremely reluctant to hand the sword over to anyone, even for the shortest of inspections. In fact, I couldn't think of a single occasion I had parted with it willingly since I got it.
Mia occasionally handled the blade, shifting it out of the way when I left it on the bed or something, and it didn't seem to react to that. I figured it would be okay.
But when I actually drew the sword from its scabbard, a wave of protest slammed into my mind from the blade itself.
It took me several long minutes of sitting there, nearly blind and deaf to the outside world as my mind rapidly communicated with the blade, before I gasped and realized my eyes were closed. I blinked them open and sent everyone watching me a sheepish smile.
"Sorry, just… my soul blade was suddenly, urm…"
"It did not want to be parted from you," Tibath explained for me, her eyes much more intent and focused now.
Even when she'd made the request, she was still relaxing against her store's counter, watching us with a soft smile. Now, though? Now she had straightened up, and her attention was fully on me.
I didn't care much for that. It felt like some massive leviathan of flame and smoke was eyeing me up, especially since I got my first real, unobstructed look at the demoness's soul. I hadn't even noticed she was veiling part of it before.
I also realized that I'd been off in my estimations of her. Tibath wasn't just a noble. She was a Duchess. Not quite as impressive as a Grand Duchess, sure, but then she'd never be that. Not when her Emotion was Passion and her mother still stood as the Grand Duchess.
"No, it did not," I admitted, suddenly a little worried I'd given away too much. After all, I knew the consciousness of my sword was way ahead of where it should have been, since it had belonged to my mother before. I was basically just retreading its upgrade path.
"Did you manage to convince it?"
Again, I hesitated. Only for a moment, though. This was still Tibath: Yules' mother, and the woman who'd chosen to help out a teeny tiny mortal recruit when she didn't have to.
I held the reluctant blade out to her. "I did."
She reached for it slowly, reverently, placing one hand on the hilt and using the other to support the blade. The second I let go of the sword, I noticed her muscles clench as a tiny bit of her mana leaked out, but those were the only signs of strain she showed.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
To my utter shock, where her hand was supporting my blade's edge, a single bead of blood welled up.
"Hm. I… see," she muttered. Her eyes were oddly unfocused as she eyed my sword up and down, shifting it ever so slightly. She sent out a pulse of mana that sank into the sword, making both me and it flinch in surprise when I felt the echo of the action reverberate in my soul.
"Wait, no!"
My shout and frantic urging through our soul connection didn't help. My blade ignited in its beautiful emerald flames like a bonfire set up with gasoline. I was halfway out of my seat and ready to offer profuse apologies, along with whatever healing I could, when I froze.
Tibath didn't care. Abyssal flame was licking over her arms, clothes, and soul itself, and none of those things gave a single indication of catching on fire. If anything, she looked comfortable.
"Ha! A temper, hmmm?" An amused smile flickered over her face. "That's warranted. You are a beautiful blade, housing a beautiful fire. I have to say, whoever made you was a true artist, not to mention a supremely skilled soul-smith."
To my surprise, that actually served to tone the flames down. In fact, they shimmered and swayed in a manner that somehow conveyed embarrassment. I decided to sit down, keep my mouth shut, and just enjoy the show.
Because apparently a Duchess could just ignore Abyssal flames of that intensity like they were nothing, even though I knew she'd had no defenses up to protect herself.
I mean, plenty of people had defended themselves from my flames. The thing was, they were actively putting up a defense. It didn't work great, because my blade could cut through those, but a sufficiently powerful magical barrier could absolutely delay the flames.
Their real threat, in spite of their ability to burn mana away, was when they caught onto one's soul. Once that happened, even if the target reacted quickly enough to avoid being incinerated on the spot, getting rid of the flames was a painful and lengthy process.
Letting Abyssal flames freely lick away at your soul, though? Not to mention being unaffected by it? Yeah, I was all the more terrified of Tibath. So, was it really a surprise that I visibly flinched when she returned her attention to me?
"I must say, Hayden, you have my congratulations for how much you've helped your soul blade grow. Sincerely. It is an incredible mark of competence. Now, I'm going to ask you how you managed to push it this far a bit later, but… Do you have any idea what the level of your blade actually is? Or your flames, for that matter?"
I realized with a start that I'd been forgetting to check just that, over and over again. I could have taken a peek at any number of Absorption Stations, but I just… hadn't.
"No, actually."
Mia let out a huff that was something between annoyance and amusement.
Tibath rolled her eyes with a smile of fond exasperation. "You need to keep track of these things, Hayden. However, to give you my own estimate… Earl. Your blade and flame are roughly at the level of an Earl, now."
My mind spun.
Earl. Such a silly little word. One off from Marquis, the level of Naberius himself. Two levels under the Duchess standing across from me.
I swallowed thickly, suddenly aware of the smugness radiating off my blade.
My sword was on a higher level than me.
"Now, I know you are aware that the easiest way to improve your sword is to feed it souls via the Absorption Station," Tibath continued, unaware of or not caring about my inner turmoil. "However, I can also tell that's not what you've done."
"Hm? How?" I asked, jolted back into the conversation by a rush of curiosity.
"Simple. If you had, your soul blade would have no special characteristics. Instead, it houses Abyssal flames, is much deadlier than you'd expect, and it can… drain the mana of its targets, I think? And there's some other quality too, not that I can put my finger on it. Swords are not my specialty."
She shrugged idly, like the fact that she could diagnose all of that so easily wasn't close to giving me a heart attack.
It was sometimes easy to forget who Tibath was. And I'm not talking about her being the daughter of Passion, a Grand Duchess. No, it was her skill as a crafter than often slipped my mind, simply because she was content to run a relatively 'small, humble' shop and hop between worlds to look for unique materials.
The truth was that she could have parked her ass in a manor somewhere, opened commissions, and had demons from every layer begging for her work. She was a true artisan, a master of her craft. The few times she'd shown off a couple of her really high-tier armor sets had driven that point home.
Granted, demons from all over still did beg for her to accept her commissions. She just decided which to accept based solely on her whims. From what Yules had let slip, her 'whims' didn't accept many at all.
I licked my dry lips and tried to move on from Tibath's dissection of my sword's abilities. "That's… accurate. So, if I had used souls only, then…?"
"Your sword would just get tougher and sharper. None of the special features would be present. Then again… I have a feeling this sword is a little unique, even considering typical soul blades. It's certainly tied tightly to your bloodline. And it was… shattered? Yes, shattered during the death of its previous owner. If you had used souls alone, then it would have slowly returned to whatever it used to be in its previous owner's hands. As it is, its growth and recovery have made it more uniquely suited to you." Tibath grinned. "That's a good thing. Not to mention the typical soul price of such upgrades."
She offered my sword back to me. I took it gingerly, stuck between appreciation for the blade and a pang of regret.
If what she'd said was true, then… Well. I'd had a chance to get something of my mother back, at the cost of the sword possibly not being as good a fit for me. Wasn't sure how I felt about the whole thing, really, but the warm reassurance radiating from the soul blade did help.
"Out of curiosity… how many souls would it have taken to get the blade to this point?" I asked, idly running my fingers over the sword.
"From Viscount to Earl? Ten million souls, give or take."
I choked at both the number and Tibath's casual tone. Mia's eyes were comically large, too. Her tail puffed up and straightened from where it had been brushing against my leg rhythmically.
Ten million souls?
I mean, I'd suspected that the cost always increased by a factor of ten. Getting the soul blade to 'base' level had cost a thousand, so that checked out once I did a bit of quick math in my head, but…
Upgrading the dang thing further using souls alone was out. Just… out. Sure, higher quality souls would reduce the cost in terms of sheer numbers. But if I had those souls, I'd rather hang onto them for other stuff. Like, say, devouring them myself.
Tibath laughed at my expression. "Don't worry about it! You've managed so far. I'm sure you'll find a way to upgrade the sword further, and it'll work better besides. Now, I do believe we need to discuss what materials my daughter could use to make your armor, as well as your ability to pay for her work."
"About that," I began, feeling a tiny bit of anticipation. "We were thinking we could, once more, offer some unique resources we got our hands on? Both to be used during crafting, and as part of the payment?"
"Of course," Tibath deadpanned. Amusement danced in her eyes as we both ignored her daughter's protests about payment and such things. Yules was growing increasingly insistent that she didn't want to charge us for anything. "And what are these 'unique resources'?"
I smirked. "Well… Got some way to store angelic soul essence?"
The smirk shrank a whole lot when Tibath's eyes sharpened and her aura bent around me like the jaws of an eager beast. Mia let out a little eep. If I didn't know the Duchess wouldn't hurt us, for her daughter's sake at least, I would have fled for the hills.
As it was, I could barely breathe as she leaned towards us, her voice low and smoldering with hungry fire.
"Explain."