At that moment, Valen began his work. Starting with the alchemical array, piece by piece, the enormous armor was dismantled and placed before him by apprentice mages using Mage Hand.
It was clear that Valen had thoroughly studied the armor beforehand. He already had a complete plan for the array layout and wasted no time. With a specially crafted engraving knife, he began carving lines on both the interior and exterior of Castro’s thick armor.
No one knew what material that blade was made of, but even Perfect★ grade armor yielded to it like tree bark, metal shavings flew everywhere.
After finishing each piece, Valen would stop and explain the steps in detail.
Only after confirming that none of the watching human or dwarf blacksmiths had questions did he take a special tool to ladle out the molten mithril, pouring it evenly into the engraved lines.
After the mithril cooled, he smoothed out the surrounding metal so it fully fused with the armor.
The whole process flowed smoothly and harmoniously. It was obvious Valen had studied this array for a long time and had likely engraved it countless times before.
From morning till sunset, the forging continued, Castro’s armor was simply too massive. This beast with a wingspan of 16 blades wore gear that defied description.
As the sky turned crimson and the orange sun dipped below the mountains.
Valen finally completed the final engraving on the last piece of armor.
By then, the enormous pot of mithril had been reduced to only a tiny remnant. Outside, Anakin watched with mixed emotions, excited to witness the birth of an immensely powerful set of armor, but heartbroken because that mithril had been intended for him.
“Lord Kachar, after the mithril engraving is complete, the armor must be subjected to intense fire to fuse it completely.
But that’s not necessary now, please use your divine power to grant it greater strength, and fully meld the mithril with the armor.”
Because Li De had used this ability once before when forging Kosso’s armor, he hadn’t hidden his capability to enhance gear with divine energy.
Of course, they only knew he had this power, they didn’t realize it was actually faith energy.
The dwarves had all heard the legends of the Dawn Order, but as self-proclaimed children of the earth, they worshiped only the God of Forging and had little interest in the God of Dawn, Li De.
Moreover, the dwarves’ stubbornness made them essentially immune to the preaching of other religions, the Dawn Order was no exception.
Trying to convert these stone-headed creatures to a different faith was about as likely as getting the undead, symbols of death, to shake hands with the elves, symbols of nature and life. In other words, utterly impossible.
Though they didn’t worship the Dawn Order, the dwarves still held Li De in high regard. After all, it was easier to believe that he was a divine being ruling humanity than to believe that vampires and humans could coexist peacefully.
Li De stepped forward and looked at the freshly forged gear, prompting the bat-sized Castro on his shoulder to get to work.
Disturbed from his rest, Castro yawned and flapped into the open space.
Whoosh~
Before the astonished eyes of all onlookers, the palm-sized figure transformed once again into the primal king.
His wings unfurled to a full 16-blade span, covered in deep crimson markings that exuded mystery. His bronze-toned muscles gleamed like molten metal. A majestic bronze behemoth appeared in the clearing.
Under the influence of divine power, Castro Kachar, a mighty being who inherited the bloodlines of the Vampire Progenitor and the Bronze Cyclops, had his full potential unlocked by the system. This primal king of bats had become a fearsome weapon in Li De’s hands.
In the war against the beastmen, he had displayed overwhelming might.
With his own strength alone, he had nearly destroyed one-third of the dwarven city. Dozens of streets were reduced to ash beneath his wings, and nearly two thousand beastmen became corpses under his shadow.
Castro, having inherited Li De’s spellcasting, summoned two Mage Hands with practiced ease and re-equipped himself with his armor piece by piece.
The steel behemoth, the demon that struck terror into the hearts of beastmen, once again appeared before all.
But unlike before, the armor Castro wore was now etched with ring upon ring of glowing silver mystical runes.
This made Castro, already majestic and awe-inspiring, appear even more commanding.
He turned his head, and with his proud head held high, he suddenly lowered it toward Li De.
Submission to the king.
As Castro’s creator, Li De held absolute ownership of this King of Dawn Bats.
With the eyes of the surrounding dwarves and blacksmiths upon him, Li De stepped forward, placing his hand on the thick armor plating atop Castro’s head.
A radiant, sacred light once again emerged from his body.
Upon witnessing this, the humans around him displayed expressions of fervent devotion, many of the blacksmith believers even dropped to their knees.
They bowed to their god.
This was the great God of Dawn, their protector. No words could describe the greatness Li De held in their hearts.
At that moment, the 3,300 points of faith energy that had been accumulating on Li De’s divine interface for a month and a half surged into Castro’s armor like a tidal wave.
Fwoosh~
A holy brilliance burst forth, as if an angel had descended upon the world. In everyone’s ears, it sounded as though sacred hymns were being sung.
The ancient, radiant silver inscriptions on Castro’s armor were activated, each rune emanating resplendent divine light.
At the same time, the dark armor itself began to undergo subtle changes. Imperceptible cracks were being mended by the power of faith, while coarse impurities were being purified and expelled.
The scene was utterly spectacular. It was as if the gods themselves had bestowed a miracle, bathing the land in divine grace.
Even though Valen had seen Li De perform this act before, he was still left shaken.
No one could truly describe the impact of witnessing such a holy, angelic power radiating from a creature of darkness.
It was a shattering blow to conventional understanding.
After nearly half a sun-hour.
Li De’s faith energy had dwindled down to just 200 points. Finally, he could sense that Castro’s armor had reached its saturation point.
By now, the sky had fully darkened.
The mithril-etched alchemical runes on Castro’s armor were releasing powerful pulses, drawing in the dense surrounding mana like a vortex.
And just at that moment, the clouds above parted, revealing a brilliant full moon hanging overhead.
Its radiant light spilled across the land.
A violent tide of magic surged through the surroundings. It was as if a black hole had formed within Castro’s armor, endlessly devouring the surrounding energy.
The night itself seemed to gift this metamorphosis with even more power.
Then suddenly, crack~ a strange sound echoed in everyone’s ears, as if something had just shattered.
At that exact moment, Li De heard a system prompt.
“Ding! Congratulations. You have forged Transcendent★ Armor. Personal System Storage unlocked.”
Transcendent equipment?!!!
They had actually succeeded in forging transcendent-grade gear!!
A flash of elation appeared in Li De’s eyes.
Transcendent, those two characters alone said everything.
And it had also unlocked the personal system storage he had long awaited. This was a massive gain!
With excitement brimming, he immediately checked the attributes of Castro’s armor.
In an instant, his smile stretched so wide it couldn’t close.
As expected of a transcendent item, completely worth it.