The vortex of power reached its zenith.
The earth's roar and the star's shriek intertwined into a singular, cataclysmic torrent of energy, raging at the heart of the runic platform.
The white blaze was so blinding it felt as if it might sear the very retina.
"Now!" Karrion's voice boomed like thunder, cutting through the furious roar.
Veins bulging in his muscular arms, he snatched up the heavy ingots of metal he had staged nearby.
Each ingot glowed with a strange, dark purple hue, its surface pitted with tiny pores as though the metal itself breathed.
Without a moment's hesitation, he hurled them into the churning core of the vortex.
Sss—!
They hissed like scalding irons plunged into ice water, like living creatures cast into a furnace, emitting a shrill, tortured screech.
Upon meeting the mingled Starblood and geomantic fire, the ingots warped violently and melted, the dark purple liquid roiling and boiling in the white blaze.
Karrion's forging hammer—ever-present—was suddenly in his grasp.
Its head pulsed with the glow of ancient runes.
He strode forward, ignoring the searing heat that could melt steel, and with arms like iron, brought the mighty hammer crashing down onto the molten mass!
THOK!
The first blow.
Golden sparks erupted like a torrential storm, their searing fragments scarring the cavern walls.
The molten metal wailed in agony, as if alive and writhing against its fate.
"Gabilân dum!" Karrion roared in the old Dwarven tongue, each word an invisible shackle binding the raging force.
His hammer strokes were like lightning—swift and unerring.
He brought it down like an avalanche, lifted it again like a whirling gale.
Each strike landed precisely at the nodes where raw power surged.
He channeled the wild conflagration—Starblood intertwined with earth's fiery veins—into the shifting metal, forging and compressing it with unrivaled force.
The hammering intensified, a relentless cascade of blows.
The cavern trembled violently as the magma lake below heaved titanic waves.
Raine's body jolted.
He felt his last reserves drained with each blow, drawn from his blood and melded into the nascent blade.
His vision dissolved into blinding white.
His ears rang with deafening thunder and the anguished screech of metal.
Pain had become numbness, leaving only the hollow emptiness of total exhaustion.
Karrion's hammering reached its final crescendo.
Sweat streamed down his brow and neck like rivulets, only to flash into vapor in the searing heat.
His bloodshot eyes were locked on the blade—its silhouette painfully emerging from the molten haze.
The sword's body glowed a flowing magma-gold, like solidified lava or a star set aflame.
Yet streaks of untamed, chaotic energy still flickered across its surface.
"Not yet!" Karrion roared, hammer strokes accelerating once more.
He had to master and unify this tremendous force.
At that moment, Thalia, ever guarding the platform's fringe against corrupted beasts, sharpened her gaze.
She cast a swift glance toward Karrion's fierce focus and Raine's near-unconscious form.
Her fingertip brushed against her chest, beneath layers of cloth—the source of her life, and her shackle.
A flicker of hesitation passed.
It was swiftly replaced by resolute determination.
She raised her left index finger, summoning a mote of the purest, almost tangible starlight.
This radiance was neither the feral glow born of Raine's blood nor the tremors of her own heart's shard.
It was gentle, pristine—an ancient, calm force.
Not the star-core's power, but the faint reserve she'd gleaned through her communion as a guardian of the stars.
At the apex of Karrion's swing, she flicked her finger.
That spark of starlight streaked across the scorching air like a meteor, striking the prepared basin of special cooling fluid on the platform's far side.
It vanished silently into the inky liquid, but the basin's surface rippled, faint and serene.
Karrion seemed oblivious—perhaps he noticed, but the forge stood at its critical point; he could not afford distraction.
With a final roar, he summoned every ounce of his strength, hoisting the perfected blade aloft.
The blade quivered resentfully as if alive, golden flames clashing with its dark-red veins in wild tumult.
"Khazâd ai-mênu!" he intoned one last time.
The final Dwarven syllables echoed.
Karrion drove the scorching blade into the pool infused with cooling draught, and that single drop of pure starlight!
SSSSH—!!!
An earsplitting shriek rent the air.
A torrent of white steam exploded forth, shrouding the entire platform in dense mist.
The pool's liquid boiled violently, churning without pause.
An indescribable essence filled the cavern.
It was the purity of the stars, the ferocity of earth, the sacrifice of blood—and a whisper of gentle starlight drawn from the shadow-witch herself.
All sound abruptly ceased.
The steam slowly dissipated.
Deadly silence.
Then…
HUM—!
A high, crystalline note rang forth from the blade.
Like a celestial dragon's cry—or the dying echo of shattered stars.
The sound pierced rock and vault alike, as if to carry across all of Aethyria.
There, suspended above the cooling pool, hung a longsword.
Its form was noble and austere: a slender blade of seamless grace.
Most striking was its very substance.
It seemed less metal than blazing gold flame, its radiance swirling yet never scorching flesh.
Along its flame-like body, twined dark-red veins, living arteries pulsing with the raw fury of earth's veins.
Its hilt was abyss-black, devouring light, wrapped in coarse leather for a sure grip.
The sword exuded an indescribable aura of power.
It held the stars' purity and vastness, like the brightest beacon in the void.
And the earth's primal heft and ferocity—like a volcano's heartbeat before eruption.
A divine weapon.
The Starfire Blade.
At last… it was born.
And in that heartbeat of creation…
The final tether holding the ritual fractured and broke.
Raine could no longer endure.
His vision went black; his consciousness plummeted into boundless night.
His body, drained of strength, collapsed like a marionette cut free, slamming into the blistering rock.
THUD!
A heavy thud.
His face was ashen, his lips parched and lifeless.
His chest rose and fell with such feebleness it might cease at any moment.
The price had been paid.
Karrion panted heavily, sweat matting his beard.
He stared at the floating Starfire Blade, his dwarven heart alight with fervent triumph.
He felt the raw terror of its power, as if clutching the very heart of a living star.
With a calloused hand, he reached out and gripped the warm hilt.
Power!
Unimaginable force surged from the hilt into his arm.
Pure. Savage. Rending reality itself!
And then—
"ROAR—!"
Savage howls erupted from the cavern's mouth.
Thalia's defenses—diminished by her diversion and Raine's collapse—had finally been shattered!
Gigantic, feral, corrupted beasts burst through the failing shadows, their crimson eyes fixed upon the floating blade—and the unconscious Raine.
They lunged forward at astonishing speed, bringing the stench of corruption on the wind!
"Filth!" Karrion's eyes blazed with fury.
Perfect timing!
Let's see how this new toy fares!
Without a wasted gesture, he reversed his grip on the Starfire Blade and casually swept it toward the lead corrupted wolf, its massive form bristling with bony spikes!
No earth-shattering clang.
No ostentatious flourish.
Only a single streak of gold light, like lightning piercing the black, snapped past.
SLICE!
The monstrous wolf didn't even cry out; its massive carcass was cleft neatly in twain.
The cut was mirror-smooth.
Strangest of all, no tainted ichor poured forth—instead, golden flame burst from the wound.
The flames spread instantly, devouring both halves.
Corrupted flesh, twisted bones, and the tainted shadow energy clinging to them all melted away in the purifying blaze.
In a blink, only wisps of smoke and a handful of clean ash remained.
The other corrupted beasts froze in stunned hesitation at the display.
Karrion cracked a grin, revealing white teeth.
"Next!"
He became a whirlwind of dwarf-hewn strength, surging forward into battle.
The Starfire Blade trailed fiery arcs in his grasp.
Each swing saw corrupted forms cleaved, purified, and turned to ash.
Creatures that had once vexed Thalia proved as feeble as paper before this newborn divine weapon.
Blades of light flickered; golden flames roared.
In mere breaths, every beast on the platform lay cleansed.
Silence reclaimed the cavern, broken only by the magma's gurgle and Karrion's heavy breathing.
The dwarf-forger gazed down at the Starfire Blade in his hands.
Its golden blaze settled into a steady glow, yet the dark-red veins still pulsed as though alive.
He nodded with grim satisfaction.
"Not bad," he muttered.
He grumbled softly before turning to Raine's motionless form, brow furrowing deeply.
The divine blade was forged.
But its price appeared far steeper than any had foreseen.