As per usual, Icarus found himself on yet another journey out of the Void and into the world that was becoming increasingly alien the longer he remained away from it. In this instance, he’d scoured for rumors of purified sources of carbon and iron, intending to form a superior steel alloy through a folding process that focused less on striking metal and more on reinforcing it to allow it to meld and remove its own impurities. Certainly, the process was not exactly unknown, but the restricting factor was the quality of the materials.

In most instances, Icarus had only come across meteorite iron and it was sold often at an exorbitant price as “sky iron”. Although it was fairly pure, the quantity was far too low and most would be burned away in a forge due to the fact it was mostly shards at the time of purchase. Indeed, when it came to forging with iron, a large quantity was always needed as it blended with air, cooled, and created what was coined as “scale” far too quickly.

This process he focused on was essentially intent on creating a basin that could withstand the heat requirement to melt iron and carbon sources sufficiently to blend them. From there, he would forge out a blade, cool it, then snap it in half to observe the grain structure of the material. From there, he could determine if he required more iron or more carbon to fill the gaps in the alloy and begin his process of forging blades of the highest quality steel.

He didn’t fashion himself as a blacksmith, but it would be a good way to earn coin and improve his own armaments for future encounters. Folding those two elements of a rather high purity would generate an equally pure, hard, and sharp steel. In essence, folding the steel, stretching it, the folding it again would layer the steel and forcibly reinforce the grains by compressing them. To properly do so, however, he would need an amount of steel that began as more than a dozen feet to forge it down to three feet, not including the tang. 

As he forged, scale would develop along the surface, requiring him to scrape it clean with steel brushes before applying flux. Flux was basically powdered iron filings or some extremely fine sand since it would serve to prevent further scale from developing so he could fold the steel on itself. Overall, the task ahead was one of a monumental nature since he intended to create a sword multiple times the normal density of a steel sword without making it far too heavy. That would require a fuller and a counterbalance in the handle.

This pursuit of artisanal excellence eventually led him to the conclusion the only location he could find sufficient amounts would be near a volcano. Investigating those rumors led to him finding out about a wasteland of multiple volcanoes, magma flows raging across landscapes, and absurd living conditions. Icarus gazed out at the landscape before him and smiles beneath his mask as the fiery lands of the Brimstone Incarnate stretched before him. Sometimes, it really paid to be inquisitive.

A gust of wind could be felt from a couple yards from Icarus, as arcane energy ripped open a swirling portal through space.  A young man stepped forth from the portal, wearing a suit of ornate crimson armor, an exotic looking sword sheathed to his side.  This young man had the crest of a phoenix on his breastplate.  His hair was raven black with streaks of red running through it, and eyes of bright sapphire blue.  He surveyed the the landscape, and took a deep breath of the sulfurous air.  The portal behind him dissipated into thin air  Hiro looked about once more, seeing another figure standing among the volcanic landscape.  He looked familiar, it was someone he met, but hadn't been able to remember the name he gave at the time.  Hiro approached the man and gave a simple wave as he approached him.

"Ho there!  We've met before, but I haven't remembered your name.  I'm Hiro Kouen, if you don't remember.  What brings someone like you to a desolate area like this?"  The young man asked cheerfully.  "There's not much here besides volcanoes, sulfur, lava, those who dwell in them, and people who are attuned to fire, like yours truly,"  he said with a laugh.  He had intended to come here to train, but wasn't expecting to see anyone here.

Icarus almost chuckled when he saw Hiro arrive nearby at roughly the same time as him. The timing couldn’t have been better and he had an appreciation for the old man’s progeny. He had an honesty about him that wasn’t exactly common anymore, with earnest effort pushing him to greater heights as time passed. He could think of worse companions for this endeavor, and a person with an affinity for fire could also prove useful in the forging process if he could be contracted temporarily afterward.

Walking up to greet him, he offered his right hand. ”Yeah, Icarus. It’s been a bit and I’ve mostly been continuing the illustrious life of a hermit in the Void,” he explained after retracting his hand. ”As it happens, I’m here because this place is basically a giant kiln with ores from deep below the surface of the world. I’m trying to obtain a few dozen pounds of iron, carbon, and a few trace minerals to create a powerful alloy I intend on forging into a set of weapons.”

Overall, it was a monumental task at the end of the day with the most important portion coming from the forging process itself. He devised a new method in the past couple moments concerning how to prevent the development of scale, but it was untested. That would have to wait until he could at least collect the materials he needed. ”Care to join? I need someone with a bit of an affinity for the heat since it would probably help to find ore of amazing purity. I’ll offer a sword out of the forging process as a result.”

Hiro was honest like his father was, it was a good trait he picked up.  A lot of people nowadays were more guarded or more jaded in their personality and behaviors.  Hiro, not as much.  Icarus reintroduced himself, and extended his hand, the lad giving him a firm handshake, smiling all the while.

"Ahh, I see, I remember my father talked about you among the many stories in his past.  He thought of you as a rival, sometimes coming to odds with each other, but he didn't hate you.  Anyway, Sir Icarus, glad to see you in the light of day.  You're going mining?  My father taught me about metals and smithing, though I was never good enough to take up the hammer myself.  I know enough to recognize a good blade, to upkeep my own equipment.  I can tell quality steel from basic iron.  I've also learned some other tricks from my training with Lord Drae that might come in handy, even for this."  The lad looked around as if looking for any one who might overhear what he was about to say.  He leaned in close to Icarus.  "I've gained affinity for other elements," he whispered with a grin.   "A powerful alloy, special weapons?  Hell yeah I'm interested!  I even know a particular blacksmith if you need help at the end.  She's young, a little . . . crazy, but a genius at working with metals!  Her name is Tempest, she's a Rosenite, part of Lady Angela's family.  I had the remains of my father's star metal sword, Temenos, and she was able to give it a rebirth into a similar sword called Empyrean, using lacriamium as a base."  Hiro looked eager to get started.

"So, lead the way, my friend!  Hope you have pickaxes and such, since I didn't bring any, hah!  Didn't think I'd be going on a mining expedition today!"

As Hiro explained how his father portrayed him, Icarus chuckled at the thought. Old man Sabs had actually thought of him as a rival while Icarus recalled only one incident where they found themselves on the opposite sides of a war. If memory served, Sabishii had been appointed a local duke and war commander over some city of criminals by a sociopath. They had fought through the streets as Icarus pushed to make him see just how his cause had been warped since he had always known the man to be more “black and white” in his interpretation of justice.

When Hiro inquired on whether he had pickaxes, Icarus looked off toward the volcanic landscape. ”Ah, no I don’t, but I’m just here to scout and protect this guy,” he explained, opening a new gate to Adeluna City. Icarus waited for a minute and began tapping his boot on the ground as no one came out. Walking to the gate, he reached his hand through it before poking his head in and spotting the craftsman he had contracted a while ago. ”Oi! Arsehole! Come on, time to go!” he shouted at a now-surprised middle-aged man.

Icarus retracted himself from the gate and within a moment, his contracted craftsman came. ”Let me introduce Flynn. He’ll be joining us and doing most of the heavy lifting. I’ll be providing him with a gate every couple of hours so he can offload whatever he finds,” he explained.

Hiro wasn't aware of this, but time changed Sabishii's perception of things, and people.  Sabishii realized he was being used in that situation, and Icarus was only trying to do what he thought was best.  It took time.  He mellowed as years went by.  Black and white turned to shades of grey.

Icarus said he did not bring pickaxes or tools, he was here to support another unseen man who had tools.  He then opened a portal, slipping half inside to fetch the man he mentioned.  It was a middle-aged man named Flynn, who was probably not used to magic and sorcery like he was about to be exposed to.

"I see, I see.  It's a pleasure to meet you, sir.  Name's Hiro Kouen, we'll be guiding and protecting you today," Hiro said with a bow.  "Now, off to this mine of yours, shall we, Icarus?"  He waited for Icarus to direct them in the right direction, and Hiro followed alongside him and craftsman/miner.

Flynn nodded and introduced himself, quipping ”Well, don’t you seem a bit nicer than this unpleasant bastard? First time he comes into me store, he drops a severed hydra’s head’on me desk and asks if I need the scales, say’n’e could go back and git more iffa need more. Meanwhile, this thing is still blinkin’ and bleed’n so’e stabs it one in’ta stump!” Flynn described in illustrious detail. Sure, he might have seemed a bit rough and unrefined, but he was also the only smith Icarus trusted in his expertise and the only one he found to be fit to partner with. In fact, it was Flynn’s idea once he saw Icarus’ ability to use gates, wondering if, under the right conditions, they could interlock the bonds of the metal to stack it in a manner that would make it incomparably powerful.

”All right, all right, I cleaned the counter after. Anyway, you said you wanted the best source of pure material around. What do you say? Isn’t this a fine kiln?” Icarus asked, pointing at one of the nearby volcanoes. Flynn took a step forward and looked toward it. ”Aye, that’ll do, pig,” he replied, walking toward one of the cooler lava floes. ”Why am I a pig, now?!” Icarus replied. ”It’s a lot faster than ‘pain in me arse’, now, intit?”

Icarus shook his head and replied to Hiro’s question. ”It’s actually a bit more complicated and dangerous than you might think. He’s walking to one of the lava floes to see a good location where the volcano spewed a deposit of ore. It normally hardens in clumps devoid of excess waste, meaning the purity is exceptionally high. So, for the next hour or two until he finds a good one, we’re stuck, as you would say… ‘shooting the shit’,” he described, scratching the back of his head, at a loss for the whole situation.

”Let’s kill some time. What have you been up to since the last time I ran into you. I believe we were busy killing giant bugs?” Icarus asked, eager to make time pass as quickly as possible during this situation.

Hiro smiled, holding back a laugh as the two men went back and forth with their banter.  Apparently, Icarus gave him a fresh hydra head still bleeding right on his clean desk.

"Wait, you killed a hydra, and brought it's still bleeding head over to Flynn's desk?  Isn't hydra blood poisonous or something?  Hope you got some hardcore strong alchemical cleaner or something," Hiro said, smiling, trying to hold back laughter.  "But to be able and willing to work with hydra scales, must make you a master craftsman, Flynn.  My father was a master blacksmith, you probably would've gotten along well with him." Hiro listened to them continue their banter, smiling and laughing.  He needed a nice, lighthearted adventure like this.  He listened to Icarus explain how they had to kill time as Flynn searched for deposits of this material they were looking for.

"Ahh, I see, I see.  Fair enough, so there was an insectoid race that was going around trying to kill the Gods.  They were defeated, a new continent revealed itself, and trade began with that continent and it's people, because that's where the insects apparently came from?  What else happened?  Lady Dalanesca got possessed, and seemingly killed Lady Angela, I was having a hard time enough, dealing with my Father's death, but that pushed me over the edge.  Lady Angela turned out all right in the end, but it hit me hard, because Lady Angela, she's such a nice and kind Goddess.  She's like the warm and kindly Mother of all of Revaliir.  You have a problem, you can go to her, and she'll bake you some cookies, and take care of you.  Dalanesca, she killed my parents, and she was going to take Lady Angela away too.  It was hard.  But then, a couple of remnants of DaeLuin, our home world, arrived, and helped pull me out of my funk.  Uncle Blaze, Kythe, Brwlyan, they all arrived in Revaliir, heroes and friends of my father.  They helped pull me out of despair, and Kythe even started a Guild called Nosse, which I ended up joining.  I also started training with Lord Drae, who was teaching me the other elements.  I've started learning not just how to cast all four elements, but combine them in different ways."  He gave a moment of thought.

"I can combine, say, fire and lightning, and make something called 'plasma,' which is like a fiery, energized gas that I can direct like a beam.  Or I can combine earth with fire, and unleash molten rock, lava at enemies.  I could take earth, combine it with water, and unleash a mudslide.  Water and Fire can unleash pressure waves or steam, and you get the drift.  It's versatile, and powerful, but difficult to master.  I'm still working on it."

Icarus almost felt himself going numb from all the information he was processing as Hiro explained pretty much everything he had missed. It seemed the world was changing rapidly as he spent more time away from it in his hermitage. Still, he would have never had the inspiration for the weapons he intended to craft if it hadn’t been for his seclusion. Being alone had the perks of having plenty of time for contemplation. 

He briefly explained the difference between hydras and how blood toxicity was often causes by their bodily reactions to stress. In a way similar to normal people experiencing a fight or flight response, a hydra’s body reacted by turning it toxic to stave off predation. If one could inflict a critical wound quickly enough, however, they could prevent at least a portion of the body from processing the toxin and requiring precise handling. This had been the case when he severed one of the heads of a sleeping hydra. He surmised it would take about 24 hours for the toxin to filter out of the creature’s system since he had no means of extracting the gland in a quick fashion.

”And here I’ve been busy formulating guidebooks for novice adventurers to not get eaten by giant spiders and documenting the Void. I don’t believe the combinations are going to be the most useful at the moment, though I suppose if you could control the temperature effectively, magma would likely be crucial. Imagine a blanket of molten earth at just the right temperature to heat steel until it is a solid yellow-orange throughout over ten minutes,” Icarus trailed off, excited at the prospect of a living forge that could help refine the carbonaceous steel effectively.

From about fifty meters away, Flynn was calling out to them as he needed assistance moving a group of large rocks that were surrounding a large chunk of iron ore about a fist in size. Groaning, Icarus had a feeling this would take a day or two to find enough materials before they could forge weapons. 

Hiro and Icarus went back and forth talking over some time.  He explained the hydra blood toxicity thing.  As if a multi-headed monster wasn't worrisome enough on its own, if you didn't kill it fast enough, the blood became poisonous.  Hiro figured the best way to deal with them was to burn it with fire, but Icarus intended to use it for materials.  A pain in the ass.

"Magic could be used to manipulate a forge, to create an increased heat that could heat steel and other metals to extreme temperatures, imagine all the kinds of alloys you could make with super heated forges.  I'm sure either a fire elementalist, or an enchanter could come up with something like that."  Hiro continued their conversation about metallurgy.  They were interrupted by Flynn who was calling for their help.  A group of rocks were blocking the way to some iron.  Once they removed the rocks, it revealed a small chunk of iron.  He could tell by Icarus's reaction that he was getting frustrated by the amount of time this was taking.  He agreed, giving some moments to think.

"Okay, time for a change in strategy, lemme see that iron ore please, if you don't mind, Flynn," Hiro said, taking the iron ore in hand.  He felt it with his fingertips, channeling earth magic through his hand.  He closed his eyes for a few moments to concentrate, reopening them, his eyes now glowing with a powerful blue light.  He placed his other hand on the ground as if trying to track something.

"I have the "signature" of iron ore.  This is actually good training, I think.  Metal is part of the Earth.  It has a mana signature, and i have aura sight.  I can sense where similar ores are located within a a certain radius.  There's some bits here, here, and there," Hiro said, pointing forward at three positions ahead of them.  He talked walking forward.  "Let's see . . . if I can extend my . . . consciousness ahead . . . earth sense, aura sight, follow the mineral veins, this might take a few minutes, hold on,"  Hiro sat down on the ground crosslegged, with the ore still in his hand, he closed his eyes and was silent for a few minutes.  Was he still alive?  Was he okay?  He opened his eyes suddenly.  He held his head as if in some pain.

"Ow, my head.  Remind me I need to practice this a bit.  There's a mineral vein filled with iron and heavier metals near an old lava tube that looks like a cave about about 15 minutes ahead of us in that direction," he pointed in a direction.  "My body feels cold, my head aches."  Hiro shivered heavily and required some help up.  He pulled his cloak around himself tightly.  "I could use a drink of water, I have a canteen in my belt pouch.  B-basically, I astral projectioned myself outward, and used aura sight and earth weaving to extend my senses to follow the veins of rock and minerals until I found where the largest deposit of metals around us.  I took some recoil from doing that, because I'm not as practiced in astral projection.  Leaving your physical body through magic reduced my body temperature, and I haven't taken a drink in a bit.  Got a bit dehydrated I assume.  But we should have enough materials once we get there and dig through it.  There was a vast amount of earth and fire energy in that direction with the ore.  We might find some interesting materials there."  Hiro smiled at his companions, though his face was somewhat pained.