BANG! BANG! Ding!

Watching Ashley forge, the now metallic Hellish Volcanic Alloy hammer and anvil lit up while the white bone swords were bathed in blue white flame. Around Xero were several different types of Nature Dragon bone swords that weighed heavy or light.

Some had been forged into short swords while the biggest, which had the size of a huge heavy greatswords that was almost exaggerated in size, had been reduced to the of a bastard sword but the density was even harder than before while also being much higher quality as the impurities of the bone had been burned by Ignia.

As Xero had requested, she did not burn Ashley which allowed her to focus on her work and properly forge the swords without injury. Well, mostly.

Her body was still weak to the fire so even if Ignia didn’t attack, she had to rest after each forging, as well as quench her body to release the heat building up. These are things that she can only train to resist better for the future. What’s more, she can not do it all in her demon form, which was the proper method to use it.

The armor was shiny black and she could not handle the form to some better degree and both of them resisted the demon corruption particles better.

Xero kept improving the nature control magic while Ashley forged and Ignia moved inside the forge sometimes spewing flames directly at the sword if the material wasn’t melting enough.

It was shown at this time how Ashley and her had a mental connection since she didn’t even have to say anything and the little flame spirit that shouldn’t know anything about forging, knew when to shoot her flames.

As she finished the next sword, she returned to her devil form and dropped down coughing.

“I think that’s okay for now Ashley, you already crafted seven swords.” Xero said getting and saw her breathing heavily and releasing a black smog with each breath.

She smiled weakly, “I’ll be alright, i just spent too long in my demon form i just need time to filter out the particles for now.” She said and returned to the seal while Ignia remained as did the forge whose flames turned off but was still gathering mana.

He looked at her and thought of something, “Can’t you remove the demon corrupting particles from Ashley?” He asked.

She shook her head, “Grah!” she shouted.

Xero sighed and patted her head.

He looked at the unfinished swords and stored them before taking the finished ones and went to find a place for them to charge up.

They traveled to Zip’s smithy only to be awestruck by the near battlefield conditions as people were roaring at each other to try and get breakthroughs before.

Xero pulled out Edge and flew over to Zip who was behind a very powerful knight who had his sword in hand. “Bro! What is going on?!” Xero called.

Zip looked up and saw Xero and told the Knight to ignore him and Xero went in easily and landed next to Zip.

“Whats going on?” Xero asked.

“They came for breakthroughs.” He sighed.

Xero looked at them all on the brink of fighting. “Why not just reject them all.” Xero said.

His voice wasn’t loud but it was enough for some nearby people to hear.

“Oi! Brat what did you just say! Reject! You want to reject us from getting a breakthrough! Who the hell are you!” the guy roared.

Besides just the many national people, there were freelance mercenary and this man was one such person who was below level 31 so he wanted to get the breakthrough.

What followed was hundreds of shouts that were slowly filled with killing intent towards Xero until the knight stepped forward towards the approaching crowd. “THAT’S! ENOUGH!” he shouted and with a swing of his sword he caused large slash in front of the gateway.

“Until you bastards shut up and line up, anyone who crosses that line will be cut down!” The royal knight said releasing unending killing intent that subdued the low ranking people.

“I’ll go first then!” one of the men said when suddenly someone grabbed him.

“Who died and made you king! I’m going first!” Another person said and thus started the argument again.

Zip had veins appearing on his forehead when suddenly he felt an intense rage and Cinder came from behind. “SHUT UP YOU DEAD WEIGHT! All you bastards get out of here! I’m not gonna do anything for you pieces of poor shit!” Cinder roared.

Standing even taller than the knight, her imposing but sexy figure caused some men to feel a bit of fright.

“Who are you to reject us!” One guy shouted.

“I’m the one tempering, forging and everything else! And I don’t feel like letting filth like you into my forge!” Cinder shouted.

“You're just a familiar, it’s not up to you!” Someone roared back. “You should just back to the bed you crawled up from and wait for your master you bitch!”

Cinder’s arms and forehead instantly filled with veins as she clenched her fist and jaw. “Oh, so you weaklings are able to command me. So if you say that i have to open my legs i will just lay down and spread them?” Cinder said grabbing her hammer that was in its smallest form.

The man laughed, “She finally understood! Bitch that’s exactly how it works!” the man said.

Cinder grinned as her eyes shined, “Alright, i will give the one that said that a free tempering, come up.” She said.

The man that had insulted her grinned and laughed. He took some steps and looked back, “Ahaha, this is how it’s done!”

At the same time, the people looking at him with rage before they turned into astonishment and then into fear.

The man saw this and felt something was wrong when suddenly a really large shadow covered him from behind.

BOOM! PLAA! CRACK!

The sound of bones breaking, and meat being smashed was heard causing the countless men that were waiting to rapidly take dozens of steps back clearing the gate.

“Oh dear.” A deep female voice came from the giant figure. It slowly lifted the massive hammer with one arm and looked at the minced meat under it. “How utterly weak and pathetic, it didn’t even last one tempering hammer.”

This massive iron golem that could now speak in her Demon form was indeed Cinder. Her demon form stood almost 6 meters tall and like a massive muscular gorilla with a thick tail behind her and an enormous hammer in her hand. Two glowing red eyes looked at the bloody pulp without remorse and then looked at the crowd of men. “Now who were the ones who wanted to be forged?” She asked in a slow voice that caused the people to feel a shiver run down their spine.

Before anyone even said anything, they all turned and ran away in fear of being killed.

Only when no one was left did she slowly shrink back to her devil form and turn while raging.

“Wow.” Zip said simply.

Cinder snorted, “Pieces of shit, let’s see them try and come back.” She said and spat on the ground. “So little bro, what brings you here?” Cinder asked. “Ashley is just resting so i thought to come see how you were doing… i didn’t expect…”

“It’s the contract for the damned breakthrough. Many people are shouting that they are Lurian empire citizens but don’t show shit towards it. No one even read the agreement yet and they think breakthroughs are free much less other benefits.” she said.

“Maybe now we can get to work.” Zip said.

“Hmm, you go ahead boss, i need to start forging my minions and see if i can’t get some more Plated devils or other types of demons. We will need the extra security” She said.

Zip nodded and bid Xero good luck with classes and went to work with forging tools that had been ordered.

Xero decided to watch Cinder while Ashley was resting what she brought out were some of the large trees to make more minions but and formed five cores from one tree unlike the two she used to form when she first developed the forge.

What surprised Xero though was that she took four and threw them into the lava pit that erupted into flames before getting the ‘smashed meat’ that was just laying at the gate and put it under the core.

Xero was about to say something when she began and started to pound down.

One after another she forged the body and core and at the end the body began to piece itself around the core with it being in the chest and formed a zombie like creature but very quickly red veins appeared on its body and it blew up and the ashes were sucked up.

It soon joined the cores in the lava pit and she went to the now several meter tall pillars that controlled the intricate controls and had been upgraded by Valmor. She didn’t need to pound it anymore and just touched several spots to start activating the effect she wanted and binding the cores to her lava pit.

She smiled, “Ah, this upgrade is so good.” She cheerfully said as she looked at her improved forge.

There was a stronger absorption of mana, less leak and what is more, the lava pit aided the minions in growing stronger after the initial dip and constant rebirth. The lava was also not pure lava of stone, wanting to prepare new and strong minions, she had filled the lava pit with metal ore but with her improved forge she could make it that the material remain in the lava in a constant liquid state making it easier to absorb the mana filling the lava.

“Why did you use the corpse in the last forging?” Xero asked.

“Why? Of course i would use fresh useful material. Undead demons are much better for making Death Knights then having to forge a metal skeleton and bringing it to life with a demon core.” Cinder replied.

“W-won’t you be hunted for that?” Xero asked.

“No, why would I?” She asked.

“Well… i mean… you used a human corpse!” Xero said.

Cinder looked at him confused, “You think humans never fed or used human bodies to improve their familiars before?” Cinder asked curiously.

Xero froze when she said that and Cinder smiled when she realized the boy's naivety towards the world.

“Little bro, you haven’t seen the world yet, you haven’t once seen what a demon cultist is like and you have never seen what specific familiars are like. There have been more than one time that stories reached Hell where specific familiars are summoned and killed before they are bound due to their innate nature. That innate nature is the requirement of human sacrifice. Don’t worry about the zombie demon. For it to come out would require it to be at least level 25. It’s body needs to be endlessly refined and by then i will already have the armor ready to make it into a Death Knight before i bind it to him. After it is on, it will no longer be a corpse but a true demon.” She said.

Xero nodded understanding that she wouldn’t recklessly do anything but he did look at the Royal knight but the man just turned a blind eye to it.

Xero realized a small bit how the adult world worked and frowned but still realized there were things that couldn’t be changed like the nature of devils. No matter how nice Ashley or Cinder were, they were devils and would think of their enemies as nothing more then material.

At that moment, Ashley woke up and found herself in the smithy and looked at Cinder’s new forge and her eyes shined.

“Ohh! Cinder, temper us!” she said quickly.

Cinder chuckled, “Alright, a quick tempering then, i did need Ignia’s flame for forging some good stronger minions.” Cinder said.

“Oh right! I need some unbound minion cores!” She said.

“Okay but get on first.” Cinder said.

Ashley happily pulled Xero to the forge where they took ten hits and felt the mana fill their bodies and repairing the damage making them much more powerful but Xero felt weak to the knees because Cinder’s impacts had gotten even harder since she started.

Cinder soon ran off and returned with more material to make minions and created ten cores and handed them to Ashley.

“What are those for?” Xero asked.

“Of course, they are for my minions.” She said.

Xero was completely confused and looked at Cinder for an explanation.

“Ashley’s minions are Sword ‘Demon’ Minions. They only have sword spirits as their ‘soul’. Only when she forges a Sword Demon Minion with a demon core will the sword spirit be sucked in and refine the demon energy into it’s spirit becoming a devil’s soul. Ashley can’t make demon cores like i can so this is another mutual benefit we get off each other.” Cinder explained.

“Oh i see!” Xero nodded but was surprised when suddenly Ashley pulled out the largest unrefined nature dragon bone sword.

“Here, this is an unnecessarily large sword that is too cumbersome. I don’t like big swords if they aren’t masters sword. Consider it payment but because of the rarity, i want another 20 cores.” Ashley said.

“Ohh~!” Cinder took the sword with one hand and gave it a punch and feeling the vibrations. “Full refined Nature Dragon bone. This is perfect! I just made a Zombie demon, so with this i can make a unique Dragon Death Knight!” She said happily going as far as to kiss the sword and laughing that she will prepare the cores at once and ran off to get the material.

She wasted no time at all to make the extra cores and the two left with the freshly forged demon cores that lacked a soul.

They returned to their own forge and Ashley took the finished swords, “Alright, now to bind.” She muttered and suddenly her aura turned dangerously sharp as a strange barrier like waving came off her body and the ground turned black like volcanic land. It expanded to 10 meters with her at the center and in the circle space there were stones with an indentation on top.

Ashley took the swords and one by one she put them on the slice that expanded to the perfect size and sucked the sword in perfectly. The stone soon began to glow and changed to a green moss covered rock and the area around it began to follow.

“Master, can i see your other favorite swords.” She said.

Xero called out the other Sword demons and the ones they used the most and those that were the strongest were each put into the stones causing the different magic of the swords to change the ground into different forms as they merged with the stone.

“What are the stones?” Xero asked.

“Sword pedestals. They house Sword demons and devils and act as the permanent respawning place of my minions as well as making it impossible for them to break away from my command now.” She said, “Even if they die, they will simply reform in the pedestal they are bound to.” Ashley said.

“I see.” Xero nodded and Ashley nodded before she ‘closed’ the Sword Devil field causing the stones to vanish into thin air as if it were an illusion.

Still, Ashley used her Sword Artillery spell and easily summoned out the stored sword demons.

“Alright time to make some little devil minions!” She said starting with Xero’s original earth sword that was the strongest sword demon they had.

***

HYA! HYA!

The continuous shouts that came from a large group of men wielding swords could be heard in the Null city Knight and Guard training ground. They all stood in line at a distance safe from each other and performed the same moves until they were covered in sweat.

Among the sweaty men was a very rare sight for the knight trade and that was a woman. Beside her was a 15 year old sized boy made of crystal covered with thin crystal armor while in his hand was a natural weapon formed of crystal that he was swinging just as vigorously.

This was Jasmine and her Gem Knight, Crystal, who had both taken up training as knights as a form to improve themselves.

They did not have the limitless power of the academies behind them so they could not search for spells and could only train the spells they did have.

The training did have a great result though. Although Crystal was made out of solid gemstones his body was ‘flesh and blood’. He had sparred on several occasions with one of the few knight familiars and his armor broken and his body pierced. He would drip water like blood that was crystal clear but definitely blood. They were even curious about his autonomy and had it identified, even though they could see through him. They found that something blocked the view from inside and in fact, his innards were just like humans.

Since he first evolved, he had previously had a personality like one of a lovestruck boy towards Jasmine, and suffered at Zip’s hand for it, but after the two began to train in earnest this was slowly suppressed as he trained hard every day.

Jasmine had previously reached her own personal limit at level 10 when Crystal was still a Gem Spirit. Only after he had evolved did her own potential drastically multiply. She was already level 15 and her slightly plump figure had greatly matured. The excess fat on her waist, hips and legs, were burned off and left a natural look but her bust did not decrease at all. Her size was not exceptionally large but it was due to her overall plumpness that it didn’t look big. Having thinned out a bit, her female charm actually appeared and her breasts seemed bigger due to that.

Of course, none of them actually dared go after her because everyone in the entire city learned their lesson about trying to take one of the Null family’s women. They would not know how they died if Zip returned to them courting his wife, much less since her Gem Knight had developed from level 18, which was its level when it evolved, to level 21. All these common knights were limited to level 20 so how would they fight against him. Only the commanding knights, who had familiars, could fight against him now.

As the days training comes to and end, Jasmine was breathing hard and walked back to the house with Crystal. Nil was standing there nodding, “Good job, your are advancing quite well.” He said.

“Thank you father.” She said and noticed how he was in his armor and turned to see the large bird that he had arrived with prepped for travel. “Is father going to return to the dungeon?” She asked.

“I am, i have stayed a bit long already and i am worried about the kids who were still there.” he said.

She nodded, “I see. That does make sense, father. Zip and Xero are mild mannered and you shouldn’t worry but i guess Void doesn’t give much confidence considering what you told us.” She said.

Of course Nil had revealed how Void had bed one of the princesses, even though she had disguised herself and tricked him, causing him to be married to her by force.

“Do you want to come as well?” Nil suddenly asked.

“Huh?” Jasmine muttered in surprise.

Nil smiled, “You miss Zip don’t you. I have already talked with Opal and she thinks that, since you are taking the path of a female knight, it would be better for you to go to the Snake Nest and train in a better place. Xero can also help you make the spells there if you need it.” Nil said.

Jasmine blushed a bit, “What about mother? Will she not be lonely all by herself?” Jasmine asked.

“She told me, ‘I have Nero, Zilch, Eva and Conner as company so take Jasmine and make sure she returns with my grandchildren.’ She was quite adamant about the last part in particular.” Nil said.

Jasmine’s cheeks turned bright red, a smile was on her face showing the she herself wished for that same end result. How could she not want her own baby with Zip.

“O-Okay.” She nodded.

“GREAT!” Opal suddenly shouted from behind Nil, who was smiling wryly.

The cheerful bright middle aged woman came out cheerfully, “Now dear, if Zip is being a hard head you don’t need anything else besides a little charm i prepared.” Opal said with a smile and handed the girl a little charm but then slipped something into the girl’s hands and got in close, “That is ‘another’ charm that he just needs to drink before going to bed.” She whispered. “Come back with at least two or three grandchildren dear.” She said while laughing and going back inside.

The girl was bright red while Nil was smiling wryly. “That woman.” He shook his head.

Next Eva walked out with the girl’s belongs prepared already. “Young miss, the mistress already prepared your clothing and things… as well as possible ‘other’ clothing.” She said.

Nil shook his head, “Seriously, that woman! She really does hope for you to have children on this trip.” He said shaking his head.

Jasmine’s face was almost burning as she watched Nil take the things into a magic bag. “I guess we should go before Opal embarresses you to death.” Nil said.

Jasmine just nodded and unsummoned Crystal before stopping and turning to the knights. “Will it be okay without father here?” She asked.

Nil looked at the strong and ‘manly’ knights and narrowed his eyes as he said in a loud voice, “The one trying anything had better hope i don’t find out and i will find out!”

The voice traveled to the ears of all the knights who felt a shiver down their spin and made sure to drill into their souls the notion of never trying to gain Opal or anyone of the Null family.

The two mounted the bird and headed to the Everlight academy to take the portal from there back to the Snake Nest.