The battle between the talsmith and his forr [friend/lover] wasn’t pretty, to say the least.
It was violent.
It was brutal.
It was...necessary.
It’s often been said that when warriors clash with one another, that the emotions and desires that they carry in their hearts beco evident in their strikes.
If one were to watch this battle unfold, they’d be able to feel the anger of having been hurt, the anguish of solitude and the sorrow of separation in every exchange.
Eventually though, all battles must co to an end.
"Please...just die."
The talsmith managed to make an opening, not one ant to deliver a pointless fatal blow that wouldn’t even kill his old friend anyways, but one ant to destroy the very weapon he had helped to make him for in the first place.
*CRACK!*
"NO!"
"And now...we both go."
Once the blade was destroyed, a powerful conflagration erged from the damaged bits and engulfed both talsmith and warrior in flas, reducing both of them to ash.
For the warrior, this was the mont his tattered and damaged soul could finally find release.
For the talsmith...this was his way of not only seeking ands for the damage he had accidentally caused, but...to also accompany his dearest to the world beyond.
He had already left them once, he wasn’t going to let him go again.
"I’m sorry I couldn’t have been there to save you from yourself...but this ti, I’ll be sure to accompany you onto death."
...
As the fire raged and burned the two into ash, the flas had...an unusual effect on the hamr and blade.
The cursed sword was broken, thoroughly so, but the curse within it still had a bit of fight in it. It just needed a brand new vessel to keep going. The flas being produced at this mont acted as a catalyst for this curse, enabling it to move on to whatever vessel it needed to find.
As for the new vessel, it was none other than the talsmith’s hamr.
Normally, such a mundane tool would not be suitable to house such a vicious curse, but then again, it wasn’t a mundane tool anymore.
The talsmith had used his hamr to break apart a countless number of corpses, pulverizing dead flesh into mush and breaking brittle bones into dust.
The talsmith didn’t know it at the ti, but every ti he used the hamr to process corpses, whatever lingering desire or resentnt that was still in the dead’s flesh and bones would enter the hamr bit by bit.
Unknowingly, he had transford his hamr into the perfect vessel for a curse.
Well...a curse related to [Death] that is.
...
On this day, two souls disappeared from this world.
They had no legacy to leave behind.
No family to mourn for them.
No enemies to curse them.
They were friends or lovers, sothing of nature, but no records showed which way.
The only proof that they ever existed, ca in the form of a singular object.
A strange looking, rusted old hamr with a handle that looked to fit better on a large weapon.
...
As ti marched on, as it usually does, the talsmith’s hamr was eventually found by soone.
Over the course of decades, centuries even, the hamr exchanged hands dozens upon dozens of tis, between both the virtuous and vile.
Over ti, it had been used for both killing and crafting.
Over ti, it had lost it’s original aning.
Until, finally, it was sealed away, never to see the light of day ever again.
At least...that’s how the story would’ve gone...
_____________________________________________
"Huh...what a truly tragic story."
After completing his second run of the hamr’s mory, Zhen Liu found himself back in the weird ntal theater space once more. However, in place of where that weird projector was sitting on before, Zhen Liu saw that the [Hamr of Damnation] itself was just...laying there.
After learning the true story behind this funky blacksmithing hamr, Zhen Liu noticed that the vibe it was giving off at this ti felt...different. Before, it felt as if it was giant ball of anger and determination all wrapped into one killer ss, a bastardization of the talsmith’s original intent combined with the sorrows and grudges of the dead. But now...it was just radiating pure sadness. It was as if the hamr itself didn’t know what it’s origin was, and that this was the first ti it was reminded of it.
"I suppose...even a cursed object can be influenced."
In a weird way, the cursed object had forced itself to think it had a much more violent origin, a much more vicious start, in order to maintain itself.
A majority of cursed objects tended to be, at least from what Logos and Pathos told Zhen Liu, the result of soone having an incredibly ingrained desire or grudge being unfulfilled as a result of death and forming into sothing more concrete. While this description also applied to [Desire Cores] to an extent, there was a massive difference between the two.
A [Desire Core] is the crystalization of a strong desire in that exact mont, of soone alive and well, condensed by the power of [Chaos] to create a simulacrum of a soul. It turns the fleeting into the foundation.
Cursed object...doesn’t get that luxury.
A curse is simply a wish, a ans to invoke supernatural harm on soone based on a particular desire or a grudge, a thing more fleeting than the desire itself.
But what happens when the desire or grudge that composed a curse, turns out to be nothing more than a misconception?
Such an occurrence can never happen through conventional thods.
But...[Chaos] is anything but conventional.
Zhen Liu stared at the cursed hamr, wondering what his next move should be.
A part of him wanted to simply use this opportunity to dispel the curse completely, release whatever lingering [desire] was in it and convert it into a [core] for so later purpose. It would destroy the hamr in the process, but it was sacrifice this part of him was okay with doing.
He technically didn’t need another aether treasure anyways, since he still had that bone club and the kaijin to an extent.
But...another part of him thought about just...using the hamr as is.
He couldn’t fault the thing for being created in such a jank way, he couldn’t fault it for being a cursed object that was used and abused in a hundred different ways over the course of several lifetis.
It sounded strange to empathize with an object of all things, but then again...he also had the ability to turn items with heavy sentintal value into kaijin now.
And he recognized that this cursed treasure, regardless of it’s heavy burden and blood covered rust, was originally an item carrying a heavy amount of sentint.
Nothing was more sentintal than a gift given from the heart, after all.
"...dammit."
Having co to a conclusion on what he wanted to do next, Zhen Liu walked over to where the hamr was still laying and simply picked it up.
"Huh...first ti in a while I can describe sothing I lifted as being ’heavy’. How novel."
The weight of the hamr in his hand was much denser than he expected. Whether that was due to how the hamr was constructed or because of the weight of the sins it carried, Zhen Liu didn’t know. What he did he know that this was probably gonna be one of the dumbest decisions he was ever going to make.
Taking the hamr in both hands, Zhen Liu began to do one thing most people would be called crazy for doing.
He was going to talk to it.
"I’m going to be operating under the assumption that you’re probably sentient or at least close to it and just...start talking. Sound good?"
"..."
"Cool...anyways, I can literally feel that you’re going through a bit of an existential crisis, it’s not everyday one gets forced to rember the truth about themselves in such an...unusual manner...but you don’t gotta do it alone."
"..."
"Funny thing about pain, trauma or anything really, is that it’s a lot easier to get through with soone who’s going through or went through sothing similar. And if anyone knows about feeling a bit weird about not knowing what to do with their existence...well, I like to think I have so experience in handling those kind of feelings."
"..."
"So...why don’t you just tag along with for the ti being?"
"..."
"I don’t know if I can promise that, but I can promise that it’ll at least be one hell of a ride."
"..."
"Excellent."
Soon after getting the hamr’s consent to tagging along, Zhen Liu felt his conscious return to his mortal body.
’Man, I am never going to get over this feeling, am I?’
_____________________________________________
"Hey...how long have we been floating here and watching whatever this is unfold?"
"About...three minutes."
"Huh...feels like it’s been way longer than-oh shit, he just dropped Zhen Guo!"
"Shi-wait...he’s just floating."
"Huh...lack of gravity is weird."
"Wait...I think Zhen Liu’s done."
"What makes you-oh."
As the Zhen Clan scions tried to figure out what Zhen Liu had done exactly, they finally noticed that the cursed hamr looked... different.
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