Master at work

Every wolf could hear the sound of ringing metal in the pack. A constant Bang bang rings their ears if they step too close to the forgery. When Krillian first woke that morning, he had no idea how many wolves he would find standing in a line at the forge, ready to hand over their weapons. Gabby was giddy with excitement as she watched the witch get to work. He was quick and began to cast molds of the various weapons until he had one of each. He also took note of the wolves whose weapons he held, taking in their height, arm length, and other things that would come into play when making the perfect weapon for each of them.

After he had every weapon down and its owner, he quickly got to work stripping the metal of any fabric or nonmetallic substance. He lit the forge with a golden flame, and the room soon became wormer as he began to melt down a section of weapons that were all the same type. From his shadow, he pulled out a bracelet and tossed it to Gabby.

"That's a bracelet I made to protect me from the heat of the golden flame."

"It's okay. The heat isn't that bad." Gabby was quick to protest at the gift, she could feel the power inside of it, and she knew this wasn't easy for him to make.

"It's not just the heat; it protects you from the flame and is made to burn away any impurities. That can mean anything, even the things that make you you. Exposure to its heat for too long can burn away your personality." The hybrid's eyes went bright as she quickly put the bracelet on without protest. Just as she saw Krillian put one on, too, she noticed the runes written on them glow dimly on her wrist, but they burned a lot brighter on Krillian's.

"Why is yours so bright? Mine is only dim."

"Oh, that is the response it has to your proximity to the flame. These bracelets are charged with only a certain amount of energy, so it only uses as much power as necessary, so the closer you are to the flames, the more power it uses."

Krillian went back to work after he watched Gabby begin to study the ruins on the bracelet. He went over to a barrel filled with black crystal sand. He placed his hand inside to test the quality. For every creature, the level of mana absorption is different, and so is the type of energy they use. For witches who are made of energy, they use mana, the thing that fuels their magic and life force. Mana is the energy of the universe, a piece of creation. Humans have mental power; that's what powers their psychic abilities. The Elves have their spark essence; it allows them to push and pull the elements. Lastly, for wolves, it's nature energy, a power given to them by absorbing the energy of the moon through the plant life around them. It allows them to manipulate the forest around them, strengthen their bodies and become resistant to attacks from other energies. He knew that because this black sand was born from nature and moon energy, it would be slightly different from black sand born of mana.

The one thing I could tell is that it had very little interest in my mana, meaning it probably wanted a connection with the energy it was born from. This would work perfectly for the wolves. With a snap of his fingers, a silver furnace rose from his shadows. It had a glowing red gem on one side, showing that it was hot and ready to be used.

"Is this the smelting process, and what kind of furnace is this? The older man's had coal in it. Yours doesn't?"

"This is a furnace made to smelt Black sand. instead of running on coal, it is heated with ruin magic; I also tweaked it by placing a chamber for hell fire in it." With a shovel, I scooped up a large amount of black sand and poured it into the opening at the top. Although the furnace was empty, the black sand didn't move from the first chamber.

"You see, the runes make a barrier of energy and magic that hold the black Sand in place; once it gets a certain temperature, it'll melt and fall to the second compartment, where it begins to meld and mix with the magic and energy that it absorbed by going threw the first energy barrier." As I spoke, I showed her a diagram of the inside of the furnace. She was very interested in the ruins and each power they possessed.

"What are the third and fourth chambers for?"

"The third chamber is the one I added in by purifying it in hell fire; it makes the metal even strong, and it absorbs an abundance of power. Plus, it blesses the metal, so it'll also have the power to kill a corrupts."

"Wait, so these weapons can kill demons?"

"We'll not demons, demons are a lot harder to deal with, but these weapons will be able to harm them savorily." As I was about to go into a full-on nerd, spew about weapons, a tingle of magic energy went up in the air. It kept ringing out from the furnace in slow douses.

"That feeling comes from the black sand. As its molten form reaches its final stage, it begins to transform."

"You mean into goddess steel? Is that the same thing your swords are made from?" Kril smiled at her.

"Yes, but my swords are a little different. Each one has a different kind of enchantment on it as well. There are ruin enchantments, and then there are sacrificial enchantments. Ruin enchantments are added to the weapon after it's made; the weapons then take on the power of those ruins. Sacrificial enchantments come from the ingredients you sacrifice to the goddess steel. But there is a method only used by my family because the method is dangerous and almost impossible to control the outcome of the weapon. This method is called the defray method, born from learning how to combine the other two types of enchantments. You see, the problem with combining is simply experience and mastery." Krillian pulled out an old leather book and showed it to Gaby. It depicted the different ruins and the powers. Then moved on to the sacrificial method.

"I think I get it now. Each part of a sacrificial object can give it a different effect. So just throwing a dead snake into the goddess steal and expecting it to do one thing isn't going to work. Each part gives a different effect the bones would make for turning the metal into a whip giving it strength and flexibility. The fangs and poison can be mixed with poisonous plants for stronger effects."

"So let's say you tried to make a sword with poisonous effects, but you only had the skin of a snake but a rune of poison. Do you think you're going to get the effect you want?"

"From what this says, a weapon made from the skin and scales will give the weirder the ability to cover their body in metallic scales. But because of the poison rune, it'll make the scales poisonous even to the wielder."

That's why my family is the only one that mixes the two. From the day we are born, the defray family slowly start telling us the different effects and way to accomplish combining the two methods. By the age of nine, we are expected to have memorized all the text on both runes and sacrificial practices, and at ten, they allow us to start forging by using the combined method."

"What's the first thing you forged?"

"It was a dagger that, when used, would put whoever was stabbed into a coma." Gabby looked wide-eyed at the witch. "I put it right threw my uncle's chest when he bad mouth my mother." Just as his sentence was finished, a wave of energy moved threw the room, and the furnace separated itself, revealing a shiny black stone made up of tiny teardrop-shaped stones.

"That doesn't look like enough to replace all the weapons; how many times are we going to have to do this.?"

"Oh no, this is more than enough. You see, during the first trials of making goddess steal, it was found that an entire crate of black sand would only give you a handful of goddess steal. My family was the first witches to discover black sand, which later set them down the path of being the first to create magical weapons and items. They realized that. The amount it would take to make magical items and the amount of black sand they could mine would never be equal. So they combined goddess metal with regular metal and stumbled upon something that reshaped their ideas." Krill pulled one tiny teardrop from the lump and tossed it into the already melted metal from the weapons before. For a second, nothing happened, but slowly the red and orange molten mixer began to brighten and become white hot with rainbow-like shimmers threw it.

"I can feel the power come off the mixer that's not regular metal anymore; all of it has been turned into goddess steal."

"You are correct. It was discovered that since all metals are a part of Gaia, it would only be right that all metals can become goddesses' steal. Now it's time to get started." Magic began to move from Krillians body as the Liquid Metal rose from the pot and began to move into the molding. The who's h went one at a time with each weapon type. He would place them in the mold, cool them with magic and shape them with a rune on his bare hand. He didn't need tools; his very hands were his tools as he crafted every weapon with the utmost care and power. The souls of hammering that wrung out from his shop were his bare hands reshaping the weapons until they felt perfect. Gaby watched as Krillian worked his magic and recreated every weapon that had come to him. But that wasn't the only magic that he worked that night.

The sun had fallen and risen again when the wolves were told to line up at the forge. They could believe it when they reserved the order to pick up the weapons. It had only been 24 hours since they dropped it off; it would take a miracle to be finished already. Although there was something in the back of their head, a whisper they were forming, maybe they should try to give the witch a chance. The line had grown large before the ring's noise stopped coming from the forge. The large sliding iron door attached to the forged slide opens. Gaby stepped out and looked like she had utterly last of mine as she mumbled under her breath.

The wolves couldn't understand what she was saying, but if a witch had heard her, they would know she was repeating the names of thousands of different Runes and their abilities repeatedly. As the hybrid walked by them, they wondered what had happened there.

"Don't worry about her. She is just going threw an information overload." It was kril who spoke up, catching everyone's attention. He looked energetic as if he didn't work all night long. "Each weapon has a number next to it. It will match the number I gave each one of you yesterday when you dropped off your old weapons. Krill walked away from them with a sword in hand. Letting the wolves go and find their weapons. He twisted and turned while looking for someone until he found the man and tossed the sword his way. Maddox caught the blade with ease. He quite giant raised an eyebrow at the witch.

"I need a live demonstration for the wolves to know how to use their new weapons. Plus, it'll be great to show the quality of the weapons." From his shadow, krill pulled out a sword of his own. Maddox smiled as he got in his stance. "Be true not to hold back your strength. There's no point in testing the weapon if you're not going to go full out.

"If I have to use my full power, you have to use yours as well." Maddox smiled as Krillian's body began to glow, and the blade of his sword burst into flames. He wasted no time when he saw the witch was severe. Maddox disappeared before the witch's eyes, but Krillian had no fear. His eyes might not be able to keep up, but his other senses could. As Maddox appeared behind him, krillian teleported in the air behind the wolf just as he bought the sword down, breaking the ground with pure force. Maddox felt heat getting closer to the back of his neck, forcing him to bring the blade up and behind him to block his attack. Although Krillian's chi made his body more robust and faster, his weight was nowhere near heavy enough not to be pushed back by the wolf's backward slash. The witch used this opportunity to flip in the air to gain distance from him.

"Good, now we see that the blades can hold up to a wolf's strength. Now test how it holds to your nature energy. Maddox, if you will.." entities made of darkness came from his shadows. He lifted his hands and drew a rune in the air. "...figure out a way to stop these spells." The shadows began to attack him, but as he cut threw them, they only came back together. But it wasn't the shadows he needed to worry about; arrows made of light began to shoot at him. Maddox quickly covered his body with nature energy just, and when he did, the runes on his sword began to glow as his energy spread and filled his weapon. Now he understood exactly what the witch wanted him to demonstrate. With ease, Maddox began to slice down the shadows while blocking the arrows with his aura.

The others were shocked at what was happening; never had they seen someone cut threw magic, sure they'd blocked it before, but to cut threw it was never heard of—these weapons were the future of all wolfkind. As Maddox finally cut threw the glowing rune and ended the onslaught of magic, krillian began to clap for him.

"This is the ability of your weapons now. Not only can they hold against your strength, but I also made them able to become vessels of your aura and nature energy. If any of you wish to put your new weapons and skills to the test, there is an army of corrupt in your very forest. At dawn, I'll be breaking their barrier, and you can see just how powerful you will be.

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"How many dusty old hidden rooms does this place have?"

Krillian stumbled threw an old back room that Chris had to lead him to. They were on the way to find a powerful artifact that krillian could use to make a weapon strong enough to kill a catastrophe witch.

"You'd be surprised about the old thing that wolves keep. Just look over there." The boy pointed to a leg bone in a display case. " that bone from the first kills my ancestors had on this land. Over there is a Jew given to us by the elves as a peace treaty. It was a large golden gem that had a slight glow to it. And then there's this." In front of them sat a beautiful black opal necklace. But the power Krillian felt from it was unyielding.

"This is our family's greatest treasure. It's said to give whoever wears it the power of our strongest ancestors. Opal.

The first werewolf, the daughter of the Lykin king." Krillian was surprised by what he had just heard and turned in confusion when Chris spoke.

"I've never heard of her before. I had no idea the lykin king had children before he died, and how was she the first werewolf?

"Well, technically, she is the first-born werewolf, born after her father died. Her mother was pregnant with her when everyone was turned into werewolves, and when she was born, the moon goddess blessed her with more power than her father. She has led our people for many years. She was even blessed with sacred eyes. When she died, leadership fell to her two children. One wanted to live in peace as his mother had always wanted. The other called for a war with the witches. To ensure her power wouldn't flow threw her war-loving son, her daughter had her mothered power sealed away in opal by a witch, one of her sacred eyes, her k-nines, and all of her claws. Where put into her favorite stones, thus stopping her power from flowing threw her bloodline. And the Siblings went their ways. The daughter later became the leader of the peaceful faction and founded the golden peak pack. They would later lead all peaceful packs. And the brother founded the war faction and built the moonstone pack."

"I knew that the two packs were related to the lykin kings, which gave them so much power, but I had no idea that you were his direct descendants."

"Not something to be proud of once you find out all the evil my side of the family has done with his name and power." Chris tried to laugh off his comment, but it only sounded sadder than his words. The witch lifts his hand to touch the wolf.

"You are not responsible for your ancestor's wrongdoings, trust me, I've learned that the hard way. all we can do is move forward and take a different path than they did." The two boys stared at each other in silence, soaking in each other's presence. Chris blushed at how close he realized they were getting, and that blush made Krillian smile in mischief. He got even closer to the wolf, so close he could feel the low pure and rubble from him. He got right up to his ear. "So are you going to give me the necklace, or do you want to do something about what's happening down there? Little wolf." Before Chris could grab him, Krillian teleported behind the glass case. The necklace was in.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" Chris huffed out.

"Oh, I do, but I've been waiting for you to say it." Chris smiled at the witch.

"Say what exactly?" Krillian smiled as the wolf opened the glass case pulling out the box that contained the necklace.

"You know what I mean? I'm not admitting anything until you do; until that four-letter word comes out of your mouth, I'm going to act like I'm oblivious." Krillian smiled as he got the necklace in his hands.

"How long have you known?"

"I didn't figure it out till a few day's ago when I showed gabby a witch's true form. And when I transformed, I saw all the energy around the pack, and I could also see the little strings that linked the two wolves together. I didn't know what it was till I saw your mom and your dad linked up, and then I saw ours."

"Wow, I thought only the sacred eyes could see the bond."

"We, as a child of Hecate, can see all energy and control it. It's even stronger when I'm in my true form. Although ours was quite weird, where our two strands meet, it almost seemed to branch off in a thi... Never mind, forget we have to get back. It's almost time for the raid on the forest." Krillian was about to turn from Chris when the wolf grabbed his hand and pulled him close.

"I want to clear something up; I have to do something before I can call myself your mate. You showed up when that part of my life was already complicated."

"Well, let me know when you uncomplicated it; until then, this witch is single," Chris growled and put his hand on Krillian's hip, lifting him in the air and making them face to face.

"You can do whatever you want until your mine, but remember, there is no one in this entire pack who could make you feel half of what I could." The sensation that flowed threw kril made him lose grip on his transformation. His hair began to glow and float as his eyes changed to look like molten gold his pupils and irises were gone. To Chris, there was no more beautiful sight than the witch in front of him. His eyes reminded him of honey, and his scent was of burnt vanilla. And all he wanted to do was find out if he tasted as sweet as he smelt.

The door to the room burst open. Denah stood there, shocked at sight before her. When Kril turned to her with his eyes still glowing, she felt as if she had stepped into an ocean of emotions and had to shut off her mental abilities quickly. She glared at Chris before turning to the witch; her eyes immediately softened and turned to worry.

"Something's happening to the barrier; you need to come to see it." the wasn't another word spoken as she ran and ran outside with them not far behind her. She started going to the edge of the barrier, where screaming could be heard. And that's when the witch saw it. The border was shimmering with different colors. As he made it to the edge, he saw the alpha, and most of the wolves of the council were there too. In front of them were seven corrupt burning as the flames around their bodies began to change from one color to another, just like the barrier was.

"Krillian, do you know what's happening?" Krillian darkened in rage; he wasted no time putting out the flame and using his golden flame to turn them to ash.

"This is an abomination." His anger rolled off him in waves, and so did his power. It was suffocating to some wolves forcing them to back away from him. Now it was apparent that krillian was most definitely a witch to be feared. No wonder the witches of his family were always feared.

"Krillian, you need to calm down. What's going on?" Gabby stood next to him, but her face had turned pale, like she just saw something terrifying.

"Kr..il their souls. They were..." Krillian grabbed the hybrid's hand as a tear fell from her eyes. That's when some of the older wolves started to understand what was happening. Long embedded in the very bodies of witches was never to defile the soul; spells that affected the souls of others were taboo. Witches always believed that every soul must return to the cycle. But for them to be this shaken means that a witch has crossed the line, and they could feel it.

"That spell belongs to the darkest of taboos; in exchange for power and destruction, it burns the soul until nothing is left."

"You mean it destroys the soul...completely?" Gaby was shocked although she could see it happen before her eye just a moment ago, she couldn't believe it was happening. She couldn't understand why she was so shaken by what she saw and heard, but all she knew was a feeling of disbelief and anger within her.

"Yes, and this could mean only one thing, that whoever makes the corrupt is here from the first coven. Is that right, Krillian." The witch nodded his head to Maddox.

"Yes, only witches from my coven know the existence of both taboo spells. Alpha, it's time I bring down this barrier. Who's ever in there needs to pay for this.”