Chapter 38: The War God's Spear and Armor.
Ares jumped off his head and changed back his armor into his regular leather jacket. As for Mark, he returned to his human form, but this time the Boosted Gear was in his left hand, and on his back was the Divine Dividing.
Having both Heavenly Dragons in his body did not feal painful or anything. No, he felt complete as a whole. He turned over to Vali who looked at the Divine Dividing with bitter eyes.
Mark walked over to him as he unsummoned both. He patted Vali on the shoulder and reassured him.
"I promise to return it to you in time. I just need it for a time, maybe 3 to 5 years. In that time I will train you to surpass your grandfather and Lucifer himself without relying on Sacred Gear. Even I don't rely on it as I made the powers of Ddraig my own, but borrowing them. You can do the same."
Vali nodded.
"I get it."
Vali turned around to look at the lava-like environment he now found himself in. When he looked up at the sky he saw a rocky sealing covered in runes.
"Where are we?"
Mark grinned.
"My lair, and my territory. The Yellow Stone Super Volcano, for the foreseeable future you are stuck with us, but as I said, you are in good hands. Albion, for now, look through my memories and get yourself comfortable."m
{Alright.}
[Don't worry Albion, Mark learns quickly. He might even surpass you.]
Albion was going to demy it, but when he went through Mark's memories he was shocked. Mark had only been the host of Ddraig for a little more than 2 years with his use of Time Formations and yet he had almost surpassed Ddraig.
{How in the 9 hells did you get a scale and blood from your body Ddraig?}
[Luck.]
Mark began to walk inside his castle with Ares at his side. He looked over at Vali and motioned for him to follow.
"Come on, I will get you a room as you won't be leaving for a good while. When I feel confident in using Albion's powers for myself I will pay a visit to Heaven."
Vali followed behind Ares and Mark into the castle which was quite empty. At the moment only Mark, Calypso, Runeas, and Hephestus soon, and hopefully the rest of Mark's friends would live here. He had no maids or butlers as the whole thing was self-cleaning and repairing.
First Mark assigned Vali a room for himself. Vali instantly locked himself inside which Mark did not mind, but now that he was out of the way, Mark and Ares made their way into the forge.
It was not empty as Hephaestus was making some regular swords while using the volcano's heat. He noticed Ares and Mark enter, but he kept going at the sword he was making. It was nothing major and just something he wanted to make for fun.
"We ready to forge?'
Mark looked at Ares who was more than ready. Ever since Mark promised to help him make some new Symbols of power he had gone on a small journey around the world to gather as many materials as possible.
Celestial Bronze was preferred, but he wanted better stuff so he had made sure to search far and wide. And he had gotten several valuable and rare items.
"Yes, I gathered as many materials as I could in secret. I have them all ready to go."
Ares waved his hand in a flash of fire several items appeared on the ground. One was a small pile of glittering Copper Scales, a large tooth that was as big as Mark's leg, and a vial of purple poison. Not to mention a pile of Celestial Bronze ingots that had been tempered in his power.
However, there was one extra ingot in the pile. It was blood red and gave off bright glimmers. Hephestus chucked the sword he was making into a small pile nearby and walked over to check on what Ares had gathered.
"The body parts of Ladon, good choice. Celestial Bronze is to be expected, but what is this about."
He picked up the red crystal ingot which Ares grinned.
"I had to take a small trip to Japan where I spoke to an old acquaintance. He hooked me up when I asked for some of their shit. This is just for my new weapon, as for my new armor, let's go classical, pure Celestial Bronze with a hint of Stygian iron of course, tempered by my friend here."
Hephestus nodded as the Shinto gods had their own metal that they preferred to use in their Symbols of power. The Norse preferred Adamantime, and the Shinto gods preferred a metal called Hihi'irokane.
Hephestus thought about it for a few moments before he snapped out of it.
"Got it. What weapon do you want? Sword, axe, spear, halberd, scythe?"
Ares thought on it for a moment before he just smiled.
"Spear."
Hephestus popped his shoulders as he looked at Mark.
"You ready?"
Mark nodded, but before he did anything he reached into his ring. He pulled out 5 ingots of Stygian Iron. Unlike Zeus, Hades had not cheaped out as this stuff grew like trees all over his territory.
He passed them over to Hephestus who waved his hand and brought all the material over to his side. As for Mark he turned into his true form and walked over to one side of the forge. At this point, he already loved this forge as it had taken a great deal of effort to make it.
"I'm ready. You want my blood or Marrow to add in?"
Hephestus shook his head.
"No, that would make this more your weapon than a Symbol of Power. Your flames by themselves are good enough, but one of your scales would go a long way."
Without flinching, Mark ripped a single scale off his shoulder. He sent the scale down toward Hephestus who grabbed the scale with tongs, not his bare hand. Mark was a big dragon and he had big scales which were tougher than armor.
And he was already regenerating his scale back with how fast he healed. Hephestus looked at all his material and he thought of how to do this. Different designs and material combinations flashed through his mind.
He then got an idea. He looked at the scale in his hands and decided to make the main body out of this, but he would add some of the other material to it throughout the forge.
"You may begin to heat the forge."
Mark took in a deep breath of both air and mana as he ignited those world-ending flames and blasted them into the forge. The Runes turned on drawing power from the flames to protect the forge and channel their might.
Seeing this made Albion shocked.
{You can even use those flames?}
'Yeah.'
[I told you, Mark is full of surprises. Once he masters your venom and abilities you will second guess yourself.]
Hephestus turned into his Divine Form filling the room with even more heat and power. His Divine Energy surged as he placed the scale in the forge with care. Mark was a Heavenly Dragon and his scales would be beyond tough.
It was a good thing he had all the time and the strongest flames to work with. When he felt the scale was hot enough he pulled it out of the forge and placed it on his anvil. He began to hammer it with blows down the middle to fold it like it was a piece of metal.
Ares all the while watched this with pure focus as that was his new weapon in the making. Zeus had banned the gods from making more Symbols of Power as he feared being overthrown.
Well, he was right, but his stupid rules could no longer bind Ares. Zeus had lost the loyalty of both his gods of War and his Divine Smith as well. Three big losses for the King of the gods as he had a Heavenly Dragon gunning for him.
Ares saw how Hephestus folded the scale once and placed it back in the forge. He repeated this over and over until the scale now looked like a flat ingot. Once it got to this stage he brought over one of Ladon's scales.
Scale by scale he added them to Mark's and hammered them into one single piece. Each of the blows came with the strength of a mountain and with Mark's flames he had more than enough power to soften the scales.
Once he got them to this point he brought over one ingot of Celestial Bronze, one of Stygian Iron, and a single Hihi'irokane ingot. He left the scale mixture in the forge to let it be tempered in the heat of the strongest flames.
Meanwhile, he worked on the three metals he had to work with. He stacked them on top of each other and with his own flames force welded them together. Once they were stuck as one, he placed them next to the scales.
He reached in with tongs and pulled out the scales as they were ready. He began to hammer them over and over to give them length and flatten them out. Once this was done he placed them right back in the forge and waited.
He watched both the metals and the scales with a hawk-like eye. When he saw the metals begin to turn to liquid he pulled them out along with the scales and placed both on his anvil. He began to hammer them into the scales with careful attention to detail.
He missed out on not one detail of his work and over the course of several long hours hammered out the material into a spear able to destroy gods. He took the still-burning hot spear and looked over at Ares.
"Give me your Marrow."
Ares sighed and just like Mark had done, ripped out some of his own Bone Marrow. When Hephestus got this, he poured both Ladon's venom and Ares' Bone Marrow into it. This was the last step as the weapon drank in both greedily.
A surge of Divine and Draconic energy surged from the spear, but Hephestus did not let it go. With his own Divine Energy, he made sure that the strongest energy in the weapon was the power of Ares.
Once this was done, he looked at Ares and nodded. Without hesitation, Ares reached out and grabbed the still-burning spear in one hand. He channeled his own Divine Energy into the spear to bind it to himself.
When the spear became his second Symbol of power the entire spear cooled in his hands. He spun the spear single-handed and brought it up to his face. He ran his hand from the spear tip all the way down to the end.
(Image)
"Magnificent."
Ares summoned his sword in his other hand and knew he had to get it reforged someday.
"So, we still got time to make my armor?"
Hephestus looked up to Mark who had stopped breathing his flames.
"I am not getting tired so let's start."
Hephestus rolled his arm as he was not tired, but more excited them ever.
"Alright then. I can't wait to see his face when he realizes he has been surpassed and outgunned. By the way, what will you do with the Masterbolt Mark."
Mark had only one answer.
"Eat it. I am missing a good Lightning Affinity and it will be a perfect tonic for me to give myself an innate affinity for it."
Albion chimed in as he thought Mark had enough.
{Don't you have enough affinities? Space, Time, Poison, Acid, Fire, Lava, and Earth.}
[It is never enough. Besides, Mark strives to be the Emperor of Dragons, not just the Emperor of Red or White Dragons so get used to him having great ambitions.]
Either way, it was time for the armor of Ares. Just like before, Mark gave three of his scales over to give Ares the best starter material. He would not cheap out for his friends as long as they did not cheap out on him. And Ares would honor the bro code.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone