Valhalla Saga

Episode 59/Chapter 7: God of conquest (7)

TL: Tsubak

ED: ET & StellarRain

‘A scabbard?’

Tae Ho blinked at that moment. He would have understood if it was a shield or some armor but a scabbard was really unexpected.

‘Is he talking about a scabbard like Excalibur’s?’

As Cuchulainn asked with a tone that he had thought back into the past, Tae Ho asked right after him.

‘Do you know something?’

‘I only heard through rumors that the scabbard of King Arthur is a greater treasure than his sword, but I don’t think that’s the case. What I do know is that the scabbard doesn’t make the owner bleed when they receive an injury.’

‘They don’t bleed?’

‘Well, that should be a form of expressing it. Just like amplifying your recovery rate so that blood doesn’t flow. Anyways, it doesn’t seem like Hephaestus is trying to recreate the scabbard of Excalibur. What we are trying to make now is a weapon to defeat Poseidon.’

Those were reasonable words. In the first place, the reason Prometheus said he needed Hephaestus’ help was to make a weapon specialized for Poseidon, not to simply make a strong weapon.

‘Well, I don’t think we’ll need that sort of recovery item. I already have Idun-nim’s blessing and the golden apples.’

Actually not all of Tae Ho’s recovered like before with one bite of Idun’s golden apples since he got stronger after becoming a master but he could still expect r a considerable effect.

It was the same for Idun’s blessing so Tae Ho had really persistent vitality.

In addition, he had recovery specialized items of Dark Age which he could recreate with the ‘equipment of the dragon knight’ so it didn’t seem like he needed more.

‘Right, and they are starting to look at you with eyes implying, ‘what is that bastard doing alone over there?’’

“I’m sorry. I suddenly got a thought.”

Everyone got awkward as Tae Ho spoke while laughing. Tae Ho had acted like his usual self without any awareness but he was still the master of a foreign world for the others. They didn’t know how to act if he acted this polite.

But fortunately, the awkward silence didn’t last for long. It was because Hermes opened his mouth as he had already grown quite accustomed to Tae Ho.

“Hephaestus hyung-nim. Just what kind of scabbard are you planning to make? What we need is a weapon to defeat Poseidon.”

It seemed like Hermes thought the same thing after remembering the conversation with Tae Ho and Cuchulainn.

All the others looked at Hephaestus as if requesting an answer perhaps because they thought similarly to him and Hephaestus spoke with a voice that was as blunt as his looks.

“I’m going to make a scabbard that is a weapon.”

Herme’s face contorted. To use a scabbard like a weapon? Did they have to use it as a blunt weapon?

Hephaestus was always like this. He had really delicate handicraft skills but there were many times that the people in his surroundings didn’t know what he was talking about.

But it was a bit different this time. It was because there was the previous blacksmith God that could easily interpret Hephaestus’ words.

“Hephaestus, are you talking about a scabbard that stores strength?”

Hephaestus nodded immediately at Prometheus’ question.

“That’s’ right. One to kill Gods…. I will make a scabbard that has the power to annihilate Gods.”

He wasn’t talking about fighting with the scabbard directly. It meant that the scabbard would grant the sword the power to kill Gods.

“Indeed. You are going to separate the function to create and store strength and the function to fight as a weapon. If you go with the function to create and store strength you won’t have to worry about the durability or attack power to strike the enemy and will be able to concentrate solely on accumulating strength.”

Hephaestus nodded again at Prometheus’ interpretation. It seemed like Prometheus had said everything he wanted to.

‘So…..is it like a cellphone and a charger?’

It was a comparison that had gone a bit astray but it seemed about right.

Cuchulainn let out a small exclamation.

‘Indeed, I think I know what it is. You already have many weapons so rather than increasing the number of weapons, he’s planning to make a tool to utilize all of your weapons. The God of blacksmithing indeed.’

The weapons Tae Ho had were such that could represent a world just like Cuchulainn and Prometheus had assured him.

He already had weapons like that so it would be much more efficient to create an assisting tool rather than another weapon.

Everyone started to get excited as they began to understand Hephaestus’ short words. Except one person, Adenmaha, who calmly pulled on Tae Ho’s sleeve and said.

“Master, I think that we should end it here.”

She didn’t say anything else through mystical magic, but he could understand her intentions just by looking at her eyes. Adenmaha was worried about Hephaestus’ state.

Tae Ho didn’t know it as Hephaestus had an unshapely look and didn’t show that he was hurt, but when Tae Ho looked at Hephaestus with his ‘eyes of the dragon’, he could see that the blacksmith god was overdoing it. It would be good to make Hephaestus rest immediately.

“Hephaestus, you have just woken up, so go rest for today. Echidna and Athena are going to come tomorrow, so I think that it will be better to speak then.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Hephaestus answered with a smile and relaxed a bit. It seemed like he wasn’t planning on lying down before Tae Ho left the room.

“Rest. I will take care of him.”

Adenmaha whispered while letting go of Tae Ho’s sleeve, and Tae Ho stroked her head once before leaving the clinic.

And around noon the next day.

Athena and Echidna returned with the help of Hermes and went to the clinic along with Tae Ho.

“Hephaestus.”

“It’s really good to see you again.”

Hephaestus smiled and answered at Athena’s call. He was much better than yesterday.

‘Why is his reaction like that? Does he like Athena?’

Cuchulainn spoke in a low voice as it was a bit interesting.

Actually, Tae Ho and Cuchulainn didn’t knowthat  well but the relationship between Athena and Hephaestus was quite strange.

Hephaestus fell in love with Athena from the first time he saw her and asked Zeus to give her to him as his wife. But Zeus didn’t listen to his request, and Athena didn’t see him in a good light because he was suddenly trying to become her husband.

That’s why Hephaestus suffered alone and in the end went crazy after enduring it by himself for so long and tried to rape Athena.

But his opponent was the Goddess of warfare Athena so one that got punished was Hephaestus.

But Hephaestus’ sperm fell on Athena’s thigh in the middle of the quarrel and from the semen which Athena wiped off, Erichthonius was born with the body of a snake.

Athena couldn’t leave Erichthonius behind as he was just a baby so she raised him. After that Erichthonius became the king of Athens and offered it to Athena. That was the reason Athens became the most important city of Athena’s sacred force.

Hephaestus awoke from the madness and begged for forgiveness several times.

Athena rejected him at first but realized that Hephaestus had been mad at the time and was repenting sincerely since then. After also taking into account Erichthonius, she decided to forgive him.

After that, the 2 Gods had a really awkward relationship.

“I also couldn’t have imagined that I would be this glad to see you Hephaestus. Thanks for having endured until now.”

Hephaestus lowered his head with a face of embarrassment and guilt as Athena spoke to him while she laughed softly and he showed a faint smile.

And Echidna, that had been looking at all of this clapped out loud.

“How warm, how warm. I’m sorry but why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Echidna.”

“Greetings to the ancient dragon. I’m Hephaestus.”

“Hm, I like you because you are affable.”

Echidna liked that he used the nickname of ancient dragon instead of mother of all monsters.

She then checked Hephaestus from head to toe and then asked Tae Ho.

“Master, can I proceed with the talking?”

“As you wish.”

The reason he called Echidna hurriedly was because he had told her that Prometheus needed the flames of Typhon.

Even if Tae Ho was the one to do the talking he still needed k Echidna’s opinion about the matter so it would be better if Echidna proceeded from the beginning.

Echidna laughed delightedly as Tae Ho agreed and then asked Hephaestus with a sharp tone.

“Right, so you want to forge something in our territory?”

“That’s right. Now that I can’t use my smithy, I need Typhon’s fire to make a weapon suitable for the master of Asgard.”

“Mm…. the conditions are a bit tricky but it’s not impossible. I think that it will be possible if master helps.”

“I have to help?”

Echidna put on an expression of disgust and shrugged her shoulders at Tae Ho’s questions.

“I already told you before but Typhon is still alive. He will get angry like the flames if a God of Olympus enters him. They will probably die as soon as they approach the flames of Typhon.”

Typhon was an entity born with the fate to oppose the Gods just like the World Wolf and the Space Snake of Asgard. There was no way he would allow the Gods of Olympus to use his strength.

“Master pushed away my strength and made your territory when you fought against me right? You just need to do something similar inside of Typhon. It should be a tough job as you have to endure the rage of Typhon while forging the object, but there are no other methods besides that.”

‘So you have to blow the bellows inside the smithy.’

Tae Ho nodded at Cuchulainn’s interpretation.

“I will do it if it’s necessary.”

“Hou, I like you because you are rousing.”

Echidna giggled and looked at Hephaestus again.

“And you, you shouldn’t only need a place, right? You have to make an object suitable for the master of Asgard just like you said. It won’t be enough with the ingredients humans use.”

“That’s right. It’s not enough with normal ingredients. I need special ones.”

“How troublesome. I already checked the smithies in this place but they only have normal ingredients.”

The one that spoke while frowning was Prometheus.

Echidna also frowned and spoke.

“We don’t have amazing ingredients either. Us monsters, don’t fight with weapons.”

They had a smithy that made tools necessary for daily life inside the city of monsters but there wasn’t a smithy or a blacksmith that specialized in making weapons.

Worry spread on everyone’s faces. The simplest thing was to bring the ingredients from Hephaestus’ smithy but the difficulty of infiltrating the base of Aphrodite and the mount of Olympus, that was ruled over by Zeus was really high.

‘And Aphrodite was aware.’

Just like Cuchulainn had said, Aphrodite had closed her eyes on the infiltration of the group. It wasn’t that she hadn’t noticed. They had to give up on the ingredients in Hephaestus’ smithy.

Tae Ho thought for a while and then took out an equipment from the air.

“Hephaestus, can you use this?”

“The shield of Achilles…..”

A flood of emotions surged onto Hephaestus’ face. He treasured Achilles quite a lot as he grew under Thetis and Achilles was her son.

But the shield was right in front of him and Achilles was the great hero of Zeus.

The painful truth that he didn’t want to admit and that anyone capable of thought could think of appeared in his head.

But it was an unavoidable thing. Hephaestus shook away the unnecessary emotions and looked at the shield he made as the God of blacksmithing and then shook his head.

“That’s impossible. It’s certainly a masterpiece that I didn’t save good ingredients and hard work to make but in the end I made this only for the human Achilles. It’s lacking too much to be used as an ingredient for what I’m about to make.”

Hephaestus hadn’t only thought of Poseidon. He was also taking into account Zeus, the master of Olympus. They needed a weapon to face him andthe shield of Achilles couldn’t accomplish such things.

“But wouldn’t it be better than having nothing? We don’t have anything right now.”

“No, we do.”

The one that interrupted Hermes was Athena. When everyone turned to look at her, she took a breath while closing her eyes and then spoke to Tae Ho.

“Master of Asgard, do you remember what I promised before? It’s funny to say this now… but I promised to give you a reward.”

“I do remember.”

“I will keep my promise now. I was able to take over Apollo’s sacred force thanks to your help….. and that’s why I became able to do this.”

Athena amplified her divine power slowly and then a beautiful silver divinity arose from both of her hands.

Athena spread her arms slowly. A shield surged up like the sun from inside the silver divinity.

“Aegis!”

Hephaestus yelled. Hermes and Prometheus also gulped dry saliva and Echidna took a defensive stance by reflex.

The shield of Gods Aegis.

The strongest shield that was easily one of the best treasures among the ones Athena possessed.

Athena raised the round silver shield that had the head of a gorgon in it and then turned to look at Hephaestus.

“Hephaestus, how about this? It’s a shield that has the strength of the God of battle Pallas and mine.”

Athena defeated the Titan God of battle Pallas in Titanomachy then made a lump of force with his body and strength. With this  Hephaestus forged it into Aegis.

Just like Athena had said, they were the best of the best ingredients as it had both the power of the God of battle Pallas and the Goddess of warfare Athena.

“It’s enough. But Athena, will it really be okay?”

“It’s a battle to rescue Olympus. I hope my strength is of use to the master of Asgard.”

Athena put a bright smile without any regrets. Hephaestus, who had fallen in love with that smile of hers, couldn’t say anything else.

“Thank you.”

“No, I just kept my promise. We are the ones that are eternally grateful to you.”

When Tae Ho and Athena expressed thanks to each other, Echidna clapped again.

“How warm, how warm. Anyways, you have everything now? The place, the ingredients, and the master that will forge the sheath for master.”

“We still need time. Hephaestus hyung-nim. How long do you think it will take?”

Hermes butted in and asked Hephaestus.

And Hephaestus touched his beard and answered.

“I can’t be sure but it won’t take that long. The problem is how fast will the ingredients of Aegis absorb Typhon’s power.”

It wouldn’t take that long to make the scabbard itself as the shield of Achilles had been made in only a day.

Siri, who had been silent during the conversation, opened her mouth.

“If Poseidon maintains his current speed…. I expect that he will take one week to reach a relevant distance. We will have to give up on all the cities and villages between us and him but there won’t be many sacrifices because evacuations have already taken place.”

Siri had been preparing with Bracky to defend against Poseidon while also surveilling him. There were no mistakes in her words.

“One week is enough. It will probably end before that.”

Prometheus also nodded at Hephaestus’ words.

They now had time, place, ingredients and a blacksmith. But there was still one person who was worried.

“Master, will you be fine?”

Adenmaha pulled on Tae Ho’s sleeves and asked. It was because she was worried that he had to endure Typhon’s rage.

“I’m fine. I have to endure before Adenmaha gives me the promised reward.”

“Hm hmph.”

Adenmaha flushed and snorted desperately and Cuchulainn decided to leave Tae Ho alone as he dealt the final blow like a habit. It seemed like the only way was that Adenmaha had to endure it well.

‘Anyways, it’s interesting. The fire of the strongest monster of Olympus, Typhon, will be added to the power of Asgard and Erin, and on top of that the power of the Goddess of warfare Athena. And the one combining them into one is the best blacksmith God of Olympus.’

Erin, Olympus, Asgard.

It was the birth of a weapon that was combined with the forces of the three worlds.

“We won’t need to waste more time. Let’s start immediately.”

Tae Ho said and Hephaestus and the others nodded.

&

The passage of time was impartial to everyone.

When Tae Ho’s group was gathering their strength to make a new weapon, the others were also moving at the same time.

Aphrodite left Cyprus,  her hands trembling in rage, and headed to Poseidon. Dionysius rose up and looked at Artemis’ and Apollo’s sacred force.

As Poseidon surged up from the sea and stepped on the ground countless voices filled his ears

Go, go, sweep down everything.

Poseidon said that he would do just that. He not only created countless hailstorms but also began creating a sea that would devour the land.

And once again in a distant place. At the end of the world beyond the east.

The greatest hero that could overwhelm even Gods started to head to the west.

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