Until the end, Hephaestus didn't cry, scream or show any sign of weakness. Ryan realized that immense power wasn't the only thing that made the elder gods fearsome. Their pride was equally as impressive. While Poseidon couldn't help but ignore his pride a little and ask for help when Ryan fought some powerful foes, he only did so to protect his pride… After all, it was humiliating for him to stay in that form.

Regardless, Hephaestus eventually passed out due to the exhaustion and the bleed… probably. Ryan couldn't tell since he returned to his normal size after a while. Thanks to that, his wounds began to heal faster, but Ryan wouldn't let that happen.

​​

Mithril Hammer of the Destruction

Effect: With each attack, this weapon stores part of the energy of the impact, and that same energy can be used against the energy whenever you decide to do so.

Strength + 2400, Endurance + 1500, Recovery + 1500, Speed + 1500, Mentality + 1500.

Durability + 2000/2000

You obtained 756.365.688 coins.

Congratulations! For defeating Hephaestus, you have become a Level one Blacksmithing Lord!

You obtained the following skills: Instantaneous Forge, Heat Field, and Fire Absorption.

All of your statuses have increased and will increase by one hundred points once this class levels up.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Instantaneous Forge.

Effect: It grants the power to create weapons, armor, and accessories using any material instantly. The higher level this class is, the more powerful the forged creations will be.

Cost: 5.000 mana

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Heat Field.

Effect: It grants the power to summon a magical field that will cause fire damage over time on all enemies. At the same time, the field will increase all your status by one hundred points per level.

Cost: 1.000 mana per second

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Fire Absorption.

Effect: It decreases the power of fire-based attacks by one hundred points per level. When you succeed in canceling the total damage of the attack, you will be able to absorb it and then restore your health, mana, and stamina. The amount absorbed will be a percentage equal to the level of the skill.

You obtained 01 status points.

"Why a hammer?" Hephaestus asked. "I thought you really liked crossbows."

"I am in dire need of melee weapons, so I decided to create one," Ryan said. "Considering the effects that your spirit gave to the weapon, I would say that I was right in doing that."

"Is that so…" Hephaestus said.

"What? Aren't you going to curse me or something?" Ryan asked.

"I lost this time, and the loser doesn't have the right to say anything. I will just wait for the perfect moment for my revival," Hephaestus said.

Unlike Poseidon and Thanatos, it seemed like Hephaestus won't cause much of a headache to Ryan. Still, it was hard to say if that was good or bad. After hearing that, Ryan couldn't help but wonder that perhaps disposing of those weapons would be the best thing he could do, but he probably couldn't do that without not freeing their spirits. Regardless, it was a question for another time. Ryan had to check things with Femradiel and Alissa.

At the end, when Ryan made Hephaestus fall from outer space, he made the battlefield change locations a bit too far away from the others. So, he had to use Teleport for five hours to get close enough. However, once he did, something happened. The entire world began to tremble, and then a powerful shockwave coming from the battlefield headed toward Ryan. He covered his eyes, but then he felt a lot of mana spreading in that world.

"Shit…" Ryan muttered.

In a hurry, Ryan approached the battlefield, but he saw the result of that explosion; even for far away… something attacked the area and destroyed even Hephaestus and Tyr's dungeon, leaving only a massive hole behind. It was much bigger than the one caused when Alissa fought those two aliens that could make things explode… still, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that Femradiel, Alissa, and the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Why now of all times…" Ryan bit his lips in annoyance.

The dust cloud took a while to disperse, even though Ryan used magic to make it disappear. He started to look around for survivors, but he didn't find a single trace of the armies… and that was weird considering that there were more than three hundred thousand of them.

Ryan sighed in relief when he found a massive wall of ice at the border of the hole, and then he found Femradiel, Alissa, Nakine, and some dragons behind it. When he arrived, the wall collapsed entirely, and everyone was unconscious. Femradiel and Alissa's presences were fine, just weakened, but the dragons were about to die. Ryan healed them as fast as possible to avoid the worst, but even so, they took a while to wake up.

"What happened here… where are all the others?" Ryan asked with a look of astonishment on his face.

Even Femradiel and Alissa weren't waking up. Although their wounds had been healed, their bodies were too weakened for some reason… when they woke up, they showed a look of surprise on their faces as well.

"What's up, Ryan?" Femradiel asked.

"What happened?" Ryan asked.

"What do you mean by… wait, weren't we fighting a moment ago?" Femradiel frowned.

"Yeah, now tell me, what happened after Hephaestus and I left?" Ryan asked.

"We fought Tyr for a while… and then… I don't remember anything," Femradiel put her right hand on her face trying to remember what happened, but apparently, she couldn't remember.

Ryan tried to get some answers from Alissa and the others, but they didn't know anything either. In fact, they froze in shock when they saw the massive hole nearby. Something attacked all of them, and they tried really hard to survive, but they couldn't even remember what that was. However, things were only about to get even weirder in the next few days…