To the joyous weeping sounds of the insane blacksmith, Metra bowed down. The weapon was lodged into the misshapen mould. Even the First of Wrath struggled to bend the Elementium into such a shape that she could pull her new armament out. “Come here, you glorious hunk of metal!” she growled, managing to dig her fingers between shaft and mould.

Metra lifted the shaft out of its confinement. It was of silver-white, the colour of pure Mithril, and beset on the end by a sizable thorn of prismatic beauty. The triangles that fragmented the inside of the see-through metal were of the seven colours spread throughout the Collimets. Brown for earth, blue for water, green for air, red for fire , deep purple for shadow and gold and silver for light. Red and brown were represented the most, gold, silver, and blue the least.

Metal screeched against metal, as Metra twisted the handle to free the head of the weapon as well. Other, seemingly misplaced sounds joined the mix. Repeated, heavy guitar sounds, as if a metal band was getting warmed up nearby. Metra slammed her sandal-covered foot down on the mould and received a prompt drum beat as an eager response. “I SAID…” she screamed, the green of her eyes glowing intensely. The metal around the stuck part of the weapon also began to glow – just with heat rather than power. “…COME – OUT!”

Finally, the mould gave way and the weapon cut through the air. The electric guitar sounds rose into an ecstatic shred, while pieces of glowing hot metal flew through the air and the creator cried with joy. Metra grinned widely and inspected her weapon. John did the same.

The head was that of a halberd. One side was a massive, curved axe blade, the other a slightly curved spike that could ram through one temple and come out the other. Between both, at the tip of the weapon, sat a dagger-length blade whose end extended past the upper edge of the axe. All three elements were made from the same Fusional as the thorn at the opposite end, but the flat parts of the axe were also covered in silver and gold tendrils that served both as decoration and conductors for the numerous enchantments on the weapon.

In the middle of the head sat a massive gemstone, connecting the weapon elements. It was of a grey colour and had been polished into a completely smooth surface. John could see the occasional bit of electricity rush through it. It was what had become of the Heart of Stone and Thunder, the bonus reward from their latest Raid.

Metra swung the weapon through the air a couple times. Each time, the guitar notes reverberated in the air. After the Glockenspiel sounds of Strimata, they seemed simultaneously out of place on a similarly created weapon and all the more fitting. For a weapon that belonged to the First of Wrath, clear bell tones would have been too harmonic to properly underline the brutality of her fighting style. While John spontaneously asked himself what music genre fit each of his girls the best, Metra said, “Heavy.”

“Metal, very much so, I agree,” the Gamer joked and then asked, “Are you using the weight-adjustment enchantment?”

“It has that?” the First of Wrath wondered and weighed the weapon in both and then one hand. “That’s fucking awesome. Can it get heavier as well?”

“Well, it says it can. Up to seven times base weight.”

“Oooh?” Metra got a dangerous grin on her face. John could see the slow transformation. From one hand, to both hands, to her muscles tensing more and more. It was like watching someone hold a bucket that was filling with water. Easily at first, but soon her biceps stood out visibly. The strain spread to her shoulders, down her back and to her legs, until she was using her entire strength to hold Rex Magnar up. As little as he was attracted to burly women, Metra manoeuvred the edge of what he found gorgeous even while she was doing her best holding it up. Clenching her teeth, John could see her amp up her rage to keep her Strength scaling up with the demands. “By Mother Chaos,” she eventually growled and the strain subsided. “This thing is HEAVY!”

“How far did you get?” John asked. “Full 700%?”

“Triple, quadruple maybe?” Metra’s answer had the Gamer raise an eyebrow. She hadn’t topped out her rage buff, but she had also only held the weapon. Swinging it would be a whole different endeavour. “You want to try and hold it?”

John nodded. Unlike Strimata, the halberd didn’t have the Cut the Unworthy Attribute, so he could hold it without issue. The rapier had only allowed him to carry it to Lydia and even then vibrated threateningly whenever he had touched the handle. When he did the same now with Rex Magnar, it only let out a curious string sound. “I got it,” he said when his grip was secure.

“You sure?” Metra asked with a teasing grin.

“Mostly,” the Gamer laughed, something he was immediately interrupted in when the blonde berserker babe let go. The weight of the halberd almost had him fall over forwards. Letting his legs give in and pulling his arms up, he barely managed. “Yeah, it’s heavy,” he wheezed. Since he wasn’t the chosen owner, he could neither make it lighter or heavier. What he was barely holding onto was the true weight of it.

Metra took the weapon and lifted it with both hands. “Alright, I am going to take this baby for a spin. What’s its name by the way?”

Quietly, Marathyu whispered, “Rex Magnar.”

“King Magnar. Weird name, but alright.” The weight diminished enough for her to rest it on her shoulder with just one hand. “Are you going to keep on crying or do you want to tag along?”

“I have seen all I need to,” the blacksmith responded, and the two turned away. Marathyu would get up whenever he wanted. Dealing with someone who was both bonkers and valuable was not worth the discussion and there were no other urgent projects he needed to get to. Between Strimata and Rex Magnar, only a couple of grams of the Collimets remained. Not enough to start any new projects. John could predictably get two more large servings by learning the names of the Mother of Water and the Father of Light, but otherwise they were now reliant on the generation by the Elemental Islands.

‘Let’s hope that the Tier 5 upgrade, whenever I get there, accelerates things further,’ John thought. The last upgrade had doubled the potency and, by extension, halved the generation time of one gram from 100 to 50 days. Getting that down to 25 would still make things extremely slow but, with any luck, a final upgrade to the Mine would also make these metals occur on the lowest levels of that Building. At that point, John could hope to equip the rest of his girls. Rave, Aclysia and Beatrice could all use an upgrade and his own equipment would certainly benefit from a treatment with more than minimal amounts of just two Collimets.

“So, do tell me what Rex Magnar can do exactly,” Metra said, while they walked the way back they had come from. “Unless ya want me to get bored and fucking smash something in here.”

“That’d be rather bad for my purse.” John unashamedly put one hand on her butt while they walked. The other brought up the Observe window again and tapped on the different Attributes. “Pretty sure you know these two already.”

“Seems to be just better versions of what Qiada had,” Metra pointed out. “Spell Extension instead of Power Extension. The wording definitely makes it out to be an upgrade. Spell Hold is a change from Spell Storage, but I guess it works for me. I don’t store spells for long anyway.” She got a little bit closer, putting her own arm around his side. It was a bit odd for John when she did that, because she was almost better built than he was. His love outweighed that bit of oddity though and he just squeezed her round ass a bit more liberally.

“Yeah,” John agreed and opened a couple more Attribute windows. “All of these are just what you expect them to be.”

“Fucking love that one,” Metra grinned. “No fearing this shit will break when I use it.” She looked over her shoulder and at the blade. “Hear that? I’ll swing you as hard as I can at everything that deserves my wrath.” An eager series of drumming sounds reverberated from the weapon. “This is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“Keep your enthusiasm for what else it can do,” John told her and opened the last three windows. “First, we have a building electricity discharge…”

“…then we have the ability to wreck the landscape in an advantageous fashion…”

“…and lastly… I don’t even know exactly what this would do. Some kind of magical rocket propulsion?”

“I wanna try,” Metra whined and grinded against him in an excited fashion. Excited in a large number of ways, as John could verify the rage, impatience and desire through their mental connection. They were finally outside when John looked around.

“Let’s go over there,” he decided and pointed at an area west of them, at the shore of the channel. “Should be remote enough for a weapon’s test.” He beat his chest with his right and gave her a smile. “I might not be that strong on my own, but I’ll do my best to give you a satisfying target. This body is still sturdy.”

“Seriously?! Yes!” Metra practically screamed her excitement. In order to keep touching her butt while they walked, John had to accelerate his steps. She was barely able to keep herself from just running at the prescribed location.

The Military district of the Guild Hall lacked any kind of landmarks. Trees and such seemed unnecessary or obstructive to the infrastructure tasks. If there had been more available space, John would have considered building several dummy biomes for drill tasks. It was a thought he kept for the eventual final upgrade.

“Here is good,” John said, not wanting to go all the way to the channel and everything else was just green grass anyway. He let go of Metra’s butt and walked several metres away. Pressing the single button, he equipped the entirety of his battle regalia. The weight missing from his right hand informed him of the one item he had recently given away. Not that it was the only hole in his arsenal. Right Hand, Underwear and Accessory slots could all benefit from an upgrade. “Now, I might inevitably lose, but I will fight back!”

“That doesn’t sound like you, my king,” Metra returned, lifting Rex Magnar from her shoulder and placing the thorned tip on the ground. In its entire length, the halberd was even taller than she was. About two metres, in total, if John had to make an estimate. “Your warranted pride in your abilities should give you the confidence to declare your victory!”

“Maybe I’m making myself seem weaker to lull you into a false sense of security.”

“That does sound more like you!” Metra laughed and ran a hand through her blonde hair. The strands fell back in front of her forehead almost immediately. What could be confined of her wild mane already was by her ponytail. Repeatedly, she stabbed the ground with the end of her weapon and coerced a drum beat from the halberd, each louder than the last.

It was a beat of war. Made his hair stand on end. Metra’s grinning expression changed from one kind of joy to another. She showed more of her teeth. Her gaze reflected a thirst for many things. Blood, violence, him, it all mixed, wrestled for dominance. The First of Wrath gave preference to certain things, let the differences in emotions irk her and her anger rise. Rise until she could no longer stand there and just beat the rhythm of war.

In one swift movement, she grabbed Rex Magnar with both hands and charged forwards. The only beat now was that of her feet hitting the ground at superhuman speeds. John conjured an Arc Lance in his left hand, but didn’t attempt to aim. He didn’t attempt to do anything. He let the long, crescent axe descend on him and heard the series of ecstatic metal guitar sounds. They abruptly ended in a short, annoyed note when the weapon clashed against his forehead and caused a series of blue and light purple sparks to rise from his skin.

‘1500 mana from one proper hit,’ John thought and tried to back away. As he took half a step away, Metra kicked towards him. Her foot disappeared in a suddenly opened tear in space and appeared again behind John, shoving him forwards. A clenched fist was ready to greet him, but John had already raised his hand in anticipation. The Arc Lance blasted point-blank into Metra’s face and gave him room to dodge her swift strike and roll to the side.

“And here I thought you would be too fucking good to go for my face!” Metra screamed, shaking her head to clear the cloud of arcane particles.

“Hey, you went for my head!” John returned. “I guess this just shows how little you know me.”

Both of them were smiling and Metra set after him. This time the Gamer did his best to dodge. He teleported with the just won stack of Shifting Momentum. He was behind Metra and rolled forwards. Rex Magnar cut through the air and then vanished into a spatial tear. John teleported again, this time with Skitterstep. Metra slammed into the ground from above, her weapon once more in hand.

The impact missed the now invisible John, but the ground was torn apart. As if water, the lawn rippled like a wave. Then, it tore open in a ten-metre radius around the First of Wrath, separating the ground into a number of earthen plateaus, each coming to a halt at a different tilt. John almost got his foot caught in one of the crags. It nullified his short invisibility.

“WHO DOESN’T KNOW WHO, HUH?!” Metra shouted and immediately set after him. She swung the halberd in a wide arch and John narrowly escaped. Then he charged in. Metra greeted that approach with her knee. John let the counterattack bounce off Particle Skin and clawed into her right shoulder with his bare hand. Five-thousand mana evaporated in an instant as he activated Arcana Ray on each of his fingers. Metra let out a sound of pain and joy while the base of her arm was molten at numerous points.

She rammed the shaft of Rex Magnar into his side. 315 mana gone, but Particle Skin let him stand there. She tried to knock his arm aside. 98 mana gone, still no issue. She gave him a headbutt. 221 mana eliminated. Each second drained 500 more, the Arcana Ray consuming it to great effect. Metra dropped her weapon and simply slugged him, a more effective solution at close range.

John dropped Particle Skin and let his health take the hit. Letting go of her shoulder, he let the impact catapult him away. Metra opened her fist and her new halberd slammed back into her grip with the eagerness of a weapon of war. She tried to grip with her second hand as well but, just as John had wanted, too much of the connection was seared away for her to have proper control over the limb. Sinews may not have been a factor when fighting an Artificial Spirit, but magical flow was.

“Do you know how long it will take for me to grow this shit back together, you beautiful asshole?!” Metra demanded to know.

“About as long as it will take me to regenerate the mana I spent on it,” John grinned. “I know you down to the numbers, my gorgeous tanned sex slave.”

“I fucking love you, Master!” Metra declared and slammed her weapon down on the ground. The earth cracked even further, the split travelling towards John and forcing him to move. Metra jumped through a large portal the same motion had torn open. Teleporting to the rightmost point in his field of view, John barely avoided a strike to the back. Skitterstep triggered, he distanced himself another two metres and had the ground swept away from under him as another shockwave rippled through the grass.

He caught himself, rolled, and got back up just as the invisibility faded. Relentlessly, Metra pursued. Exuding heat and growing lightning, Rex Magnar made each of her wild swings a threat bigger than the last. By keeping to her right, abusing the crippled arm, and using the other Shifting Momentum stacks, John kept evading her, but he had no win condition. There was no way for him to win against Metra. Not on his own. Maybe if he used the Arcane Ascension on Purgatory, he could have seriously harmed her. However, that was an action about as appropriate for their playfight as it would have been for her to manifest her armour.

When he was out of teleports, Metra howled triumphantly. ‘She kept count.’ John wasn’t surprised. For all her anger, Metra was a battle genius. It was the basis of her existence. Information she had was information she would use. He tried to get away and simply ran. Metra set after him on foot. Her mana was tapped from her own repeated teleportation. The only advantage he had over her in this brawl was the sustained usage of his magic.

Not a particularly big help when her physical superiority was this oppressing.

She was right next to him in a moment. John conjured one more Arc Lance. Not to hit her with it, just to spend the necessary mana to teleport again. An explosion of electricity hit where he had just been. He felt the aftereffects tingle on his back. He turned around, wanting to fire the already paid for Arc Lance.

He was met with the sight of Metra jumping at him again and a red pulse travelling through the prismatic blades of Rex Magnar. A moment later, a torrent of fire and lightning poured out of the spiked side of the weapon, propelling Metra forwards. It was a messy flight, holding onto the weapon with only one hand made it difficult to steer and inexperience did the rest.

Metra slammed into John. Their bodies fell together. The Arc Lance uselessly fired into the air. The First of Wrath rammed the weapon into the ground above his head. He pulled at her hotpants. She opened his zipper with one hand and yanked down pants and trunks. He guided her wet cunt above his erection. She sunk down with one delightful moan. “Sex slave duty time,” she gasped.

“Time to make you cum so many times you turn into a quivering mess under me, you mean,” John responded, uncaring if someone caught them. Children weren’t allowed in this corner of the Guild Hall, which would have been the only issue. “You’ll lose this battle; we both know it. Might as well give up now.”

“Fucking make me!” she shouted.