Chapter 100
Axel followed the mother daughter pair down to the portal outside the manor. Drawing her wand, Francesca tapped it a few times with her wand, making it whirl to life.
"Come along," she said, stepping through.
As he walked through to the other side, Axel was stunned by the scenery.
In front of him was a huge hall, filled with heat. The place resembled a Smithy, with forges of all kinds set up everywhere. Loud sounds of metals being hammered were being produced by the men working, making the place quite lively.
Upon seeing them, workers were surprised at first, but then continued to work after a gesture from Francesca.
"This is the Valentino Weapon Factory, first level," said Martina over the noise. "The magic weapons produced here are used for commercial purposes, one of the things our family is famous for," she said as they walked, pointing at the rows of different kinds of weapons on their side.
Axel looked at the neatly organized row of shiny weapons. There were all kinds of them, from swords and knives, to bows and arrows. Picking one up at random, Axel found it to be quite good.
"All of them are enchanted with various enchantments like unbreakable, no-rust, self-sharpening," said the woman upon seeing his interest. "You can take as many as you want," she offered generously.
"Don't mind if I do then," said Axel, taking out his wand.
"Oppugno Totalis," he murmured.
Instantly, more than a hundred weapons floated out of the racks, making the Valentino women widen their eyes. Ignoring their surprise, Axel opened his magical pouch and held it up.
"How… is your brain not exploding right now…?" Asked Martina in utter confusion. The spell had already been disciphered by her, and she had realized just impossibly difficult it was to do what Axel was doing so casually.
Axel shrugged, his mind fully concentrated on the weapons. "Talent and practice," he muttered, jerking the wand in his direction.
*Swish* *swishswishswiswish…*
One by one, the weapons began going inside the pouch at an incredible speed, enough to pierce through someone. The only safety net was that they were all sheathed with protective covers.
Within seconds, the whole rack was empty, as Axel closed his pouch. "Thanks. They'll be of use in the future. It would make things a lot faster…" he said, not specifying the purpose.
"...."
But, looking at what he just did, it was quite clear what it was going to be used for.
'Hopefully, not against us…' wished Francesca, feeling a chill recalling their foolish blunder of offending this person. 'Well, we can only do our best to make up for it.'
Putting on a smile, she began walking again. "Let's go. What we need is in the custom section," she said behind her back.
"The custom section is the restricted area. It's packed full of secrets and extremely rare resources, so only family members can access it," explained Martina as they walked past the wand section.
"Well, let's get this over with quickly," he said, recalling the messages on his MM. He was just needed for some tests. Then he'll be free to do whatever he wants while Francesca works hard on his wand.
After going through a few security checks, they reached a large pair of double doors, seemingly made out of gold. Francesca put her hand on the door and after a few seconds, the doors swung open soundlessly, showing a vast area, filled with all kinds of equipment and storage drawers. "This... is the custom area. It's impenetrable, since it contains some of our most precious resources," she introduced, stepping through.
Since she didn't want to waste Axel's time, she quickly asked Axel to take out his wand while tying her hair in a knot.
The first thing she did was to examine it under some kind of magical item which looked awfully similar to a microscope. After doing a thorough examination, she looked back at Axel in surprise.
"Just... what the hell did you do with your wand?" She couldn't help but ask again. She hadn't known the exact magnitude of the output through ordinary analysis, but now that she had done it thoroughly, the amount of power required to do that damage turned out to be much more than what she had expected.
Martina frowned at her mother. "You can't ask, mom." she reminded warningly. "Why can't we start already?"
Francesca was once again surprised at her daughter's fierce protectiveness towards Axel. Though it does make sense now since Axel had just saved her from a terrible fate.
"She has already grown up..." she thought, feeling like it was just yesterday that she was claiming she would never marry.
Shrugging helplessly, Francesca got behind a row of magical equipments, beckoning Axel to stand in front. "Please stand here. I need to run several tests before we get started on customizing your wand."
Axel looked at Martina, who nodded reassuringly. "Alright."
Francesca ran several tests on Axel, evaluating him with her critical eyes. From time to time, she would show astonishment and approval, sometimes nodding to herself, but Axel just stopped trying to interpret her gestures' meanings after a while.
"All done," she declared after a while, as she waved her wand, summoning several precious materials from the drawers.
Putting his wand on a pedestal, she got to work, slowly dissecting it. "The first step is to decide the operation of the core. Your current core is Cherub hair, which makes your situation quite unique," she said, launching into an explaination.
Cherub hair cores aren't that popular to begin with. Generally, it doesn't enhance your spells much, but as your bond with your wand strengthens, the powers of the wand increase proportionally. But, this is where the peculiarity lies," said Francesca, pausing in her explanation.
"What is it?" Asked Axel, also looking at the slow dissection.
"Usually, the increase in power is not very significant, since the strength of the bond is not much. Cherub wands are... very hard to please. If that was the case here, your wand would have already been destroyed.
But somehow... your bond is not only stronger, it's somehow stronger to the point of being able to withstand that much amount of power without getting utterly burned. I still can't understand how," she said, shaking her head in wonder.
Axel didn't say anything, even though he knew the reason: his bond strength was so high because he had been following the system's instructions on this.
"So, it can be fixed, right?" He asked for confirmation.
Francesca smiled, as she gave him a nod. "Not only that, we can also upgrade your wand significantly, so that it can handle a lot more power than before."
Axel's eyebrows shot up. "That's possible?"
"It's possible, Axel." said Martina, who had also been observing the wand. "That's what I had asked mom to do in the first place. Your bond is quite strong but the material that's made up your wand is not able to withstand your magic. The wood does not suit you anymore, and cheerub cores aren't strong enough. So, we need to change the wood of your wand, and make the cheerub core stronger and more durable, so that you can cast stronger magic without damaging it."
This is what she had wanted to do from the beginning. But the procedure was so difficult and exclusive that outsiders don't even know about it, let alone having their family do it for them. She had been very glad when her mother had agreed to do it for Axel, but now she felt it was the least her mother could do.
Axel nodded slowly. "So, what kind of wood are we using? Will it be possible to use "that" one?" He asked, looking at Martina.
Martina brightened up at that. "Actually, I had started my research the moment you gave it to me and I have to say, I've never seen anything like it," she said, taking out the piece of wood that Daphne had given him.
As soon as she took out the wand, Axel could feel the magic radiating from the wood. Activating his Arcane Eyes, he could see that Martina had actually made some progress in unsealing it.
"What.... in the pluto's name is that," asked Francesca, looking at the wood in astonishment. Martina just smiled as she handed the wood.
"It's one of the gifts Axel got for Christmas. Just check it out," she said knowingly.
"My gods....."
As expected, Francesca's surprise kept intensifying the more tests she ran. "This... I've never seen anything like this. It is emanating a strong amount of light magic," she said as she looked at Axel. "It's actually perfect for your wand."
"Really?" Asked Axel in confusion.
Martina nodded. "It is. Cherubs are small magical creatures, very much like pixies and fairies. They are light magic oriented and very weak. So, the core of your wand is also weak. But, If we use a small amount of this wood in your wand, we can also strengthen your Cherub hair core with it." she explained.
"But... there's one problem," said Francesca, summoning out several more materials from the drawers.
Axel sighed. Of course it can't be that simple.
"What is it?"
Francesca looked at the materials she had summoned with a difficult expression. "This wood, combined with the Cherub core makes your wand far too much orientated towards the light magic. I don't suppose your dark spells were very effective before this?" She asked, looking at Axel.
Axel had to agree to that. The dark spells he had tried weren't all that powerful so he had stopped using them.
Francesca sighed. "Then you will be completely unable to cast them if I use this wood. I don't have any material that is strong enough to neutralize its light attribute."
"Actually… it would be really helpful if you happen to have body parts of an extremely dark creature. It would be even more helpful if it has aged thousands of years…" said Martina, giving Axel a sneaky look.
Axel understood her hint, taking out a Basilisk fang from the depths of his pouch. "I have a thousand year old Basilisk body. Would it do?"
"What...?" Francesca just looked at him for several moments. "Did you just say... a Basilisk? A 1000 year old one at that?"
But since when has Axel needed to explain anything? "You heard what you heard, Mrs. Valentino. No need to ask questions."
Putting his hand in his pocket, he took out another pouch made out of dragon hide, from which, he slowly withdrew a small, black stone.
"What is this?" Asked Martina, taking the stone from him.
"Careful," he warned, but she touched it anyway.
!!!
"Wha—!" Martina almost dropped the stone to the ground, as she backed away from it in horror.
Axel caught the stone unhurriedly, giving it to Francesca. "Take this as well. It might be of some use."
"That… that's —!" Martina was tongue tied after realising what the familiar horrible sensation she just felt from the stone was. The power... it was quite similar to the one she felt on the night of Halloween.
Axel gave Martina a nod, confirming her suspicion. At the night of Halloween, the Demogorgon wasn't completely destroyed.... It did leave something behind. Axel had spotted it using his Arcane Eyes, and taken it as a compensation for his wand.
Francesca was quite unnerved by the stone in the beginning, but she didn't freak out like Martina, only looking extremely confused as she began examining the stone.
*Clink* *Clink*
But then suddenly, she dropped her equipments, backing away from the stone as if it would kill her. "My gods... I don't believe it..."
Axel's brows furrowed. "You know what this thing is?" This was unexpected. This was a creature from another world after all.
Francesca nodded, her mind jogging up her memory. "I... I think I do, but I thought these things only existed in rumors. If I'm not wrong… it's a dark stone obtained from slaying a Demogorgon…"
"?? How do you know that?!" Axel couldn't help but ask. If she knows about this, then it means that there has been a precedent to a Demogorgon entering this world.
"What?! So it really is a dark stone?!" Francesca really freaked out this time. Axel had never thought he would see the day that the always stoic Martina's mother would have such intense reactions.
Even Martina was looking at her mother like she was seeing her for the first time, but then she couldn't help but shake her head ruefully in understanding. Hadn't her situation also been the same? No matter how mature and knowledgeable, people will lose their shit when it comes to Axel.
"Mrs Valentino," said Axel, waving his hand in front of the stunned women who seemed to be lost in thought. "What exactly do you know about this?" He asked.
Francesca looked at Axel for a long time. "How do you…sigh…you really are a boy of wonder, Axel." She murmured, shaking her head. How long has it been when she had been this surprised and curious about something? And the most maddening prospect? She can't even satiate her curiosity.
Activating her Occlumency, she regained her original look. "I'm not feeling very inclined to share the details, but suffice it to say it has happened long in the past, and you don't have to worry about a Demogorgon showing up anywhere in this age," she said tersely, getting back to working on his wand.
"You…" Seeing her mom being so petty, Martina looked at Axel with a look of worship. "You actually managed to piss off mom..." she murmured in wonder, letting out a giggle. "That hasn't happened since forever."
Axel wasn't so pleased with the situation.
"Is there anything else you need me for? Quickly get it done. I have something to do." He said, taking out his Magi-mirror. He wasn't going to wait more to read the messages. Despite his logical judgment, he just couldn't wait longer.
!!!
*Crack*
And it was a good thing that he did so. Because as soon as he opened the messages, the screen cracked under the pressure he unconsciously put on the Magi-mirror.
"Axel? What happened?!" Martina was alarmed
Axel took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Martina, I need to go to Britain. Right now." His voice was calm, but the magical fluctuations emanating from him were making the whole place shake.
"Britain? What hap—?"
Axel cut her off. "Martina… Now," he said, opening his eyes. But they were not the usual amber eyes. They had turned sea blue.
Francesca had already gotten a better grasp at the situation. She took out the Portkey ring from her pouch, activating it and giving it to Axel. "Here. You will need to press the button after getting out of this room. The Portkey is restricted here," she told him curtly.
"Thanks," Taking the Portkey, Axel gave her a nod of genuine acknowledgement. He was grateful she was willing to do this despite the previous situation. "And if you really want to know, I killed the Basilisk, and the Demogorgon. That's how I have the materials," he told her, nodding at the dark crystal and the Basilisk fang lying on the table.
With that, he disappeared from the spot, followed by the opening and closing of the door.
At once, the two women looked at the door in alarm, before looking at each other, each mirroring the surprise in the other's eyes.
Did… Did someone just casually break through their "impenetrable" room's defenses?!
...
A.N.: Next: Daphne
Next next: For the Record, I'm single
Next next next: The way of water unlocked
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