From The Ashes - 038

Chapter 038 – Enchantments and Magic Formations

[2012]

Frigga had looked on silently as Eitri had handed the finished weapon to Noah but when she felt the terrifying remnant will inside the blade awakening as soon as the young warrior unsheathed it, her pupils shrunk and her muscled tensed.

She clearly felt the immense threat that the weapon posed to her even as one of the strongest Asgardians alive, its innate strength easily rivaling her son's beloved hammer.

Even more appalling though was the aura of crushing intent that Noah unleashed with a mere raise of his brow, the horrible force of his will suppressing the demonic weapon like an adult disciplining a naughty child.

Goosebumps rose on her flesh as she watched this display of unrivaled power, her heart trembling as she felt for herself why he deserved the title of Supreme even amongst other wielders of the 'Soul of Will'.

And when she listened to Eitri's words as he explained more about his creation, Frigga truly wished that Noah would never master this horrific blade as she had no doubt that its strength would rival Gugnir once he had done so.

The more realistic part of her though knew that Noat would master this weapon as a being of his will wouldn't allow himself to fail.

It added to her worries as she naturally did not wish to see a man that held a sense of resentment for her husband to grow in strength.

Still, the Queen knew that the only solution was to double down on her efforts to find a way to forge a real connection between Asgard and this warrior and make him feel as if he belonged or at least make him reluctant to attack.

No part of her thought about planning an assassination or preparing to curse Noah through witchcraft though since she knew that such things would not work on a being that held power, which most likely rivaled her husband.

The retaliation for such a heinous action would also be much worse than the one they might face due to his current grudge against Odin. The disadvantages vastly outweighed the possible benefits and the chance of success was basically nonexistent, so Frigga had dismissed this idea from the very beginning.

Not to mention that in the short conversation that she had had with Noah, Frigga had also realized that her son's impression of him seemed most accurate.

He was a good man. Polite, collected, calm – it was hard to find a flaw in him at first look. Though Noah had seemingly experienced too much loss, which made him come off as a bit withdrawn and hard to approach.

Still, by all standards, he was someone that Asgard should strive to ally with and not alienate.

Thinking up to this point, a few schemes couldn't help but pop up in mind when she recalled how Sif had talked about Noah, and the expression and look in the younger warrioress' eyes.

…

"The Dwarven King asked me to pass on a message in confidence, my Lord.", Johann spoke up after our return to Asgard and the floating mountain that belonged to me.

It was just the two of us sitting at the stone table, Bahat laying in my hands as I looked at it with a faint smile, feeling its ferocious and unbending nature.

Hearing Johann's words, I drew on the Space Stone's cosmic energy to isolate the space around us, just to make sure that the bearded old king wouldn't listen in on our conversation.

"What message?", I inquired, knowing that Eitri had most likely hidden some of the blade's true capabilities as he didn't want the Asgardian Queen and her Einherjar to know about them.

It wasn't an act of betrayal on his part as he just omitted something that his craftsman heart did not allow him to reveal to anyone besides the wielder of his creation. Johann was obviously an exception since he had my full trust, which wouldn't have been hard to notice for Eitri.

Johann's next words and actions also confirmed my thoughts as he grabbed a small booklet from within his cloak and passed it onto me while saying: "He told me that a sword made from the essence of a Leviathan and Dwarven enchantment was not a simple weapon. He said that he himself could not fully comprehend what the sword would be capable of in the right hands."

"What he knew, he wrote down and asked me to pass along though.", Johann ended with a gesture to the booklet.

“He is a true craftsman … “, I sighed ever so slightly as I took the booklet, promising myself to remember Eitri's kindness and repay him in the future.

Shaking off those thoughts for the moment, I turned my gaze to Johann again as I asked with mild curiosity: “Anything peculiar about the Dwarven forging technique?”

Johann's gaunt red face held a wry smile as he replied with eyes that were alight with fierce scholarly desire: "It isn't a forging technique in the typical sense, my Lord. In truth, calling it 'forging' might even be considered a gross misnomer."

"Ohh? Do tell.", I encouraged him to continue as his words piqued my interest.

"Well, the most obvious point is that the Dwarves are too tall to forge intricate weapons that are nothing more than toothpicks in comparison to their size. But even for bigger objects, they don't pick up their hammers to forge anything.", Johann began, recounting his observations and conclusions.

"Instead, the Dwarves could best be described as masters of magical enchantment and engineering since they produce those godly armaments by carving multi-layered molds with hundreds of magical formations and enchantments that ultimately gift their creations the powers that they possess."

“From what I understand, the most important skill of a craftsman is to ensure that the multi-layered enchantments and formations don't conflict with each, as well as making sure that the integration of those enchantments produces the desired effect.”

“The second point would be to find a material that could withstand such overbearing enchantments, which is why they need the forge as it provides them with a tool to make use of those extraordinary metals once they specified them.”

"Those Dwarves are basically scholars and researchers that study the field of enchantment and magic formations and its effects on artifacts, not blacksmiths.", Johann concluded.

My expression was rather calm since I had expected such a thing to be the case as it seemed counter-intuitive to believe that those giant Dwarves could forge intricate weapons of such small sizes.

For sure, they could have used special tools but what Johann said made much more sense since carving magical runes and formations into the molds promised greater success as it was work that mostly required a learned mind, patience, and a steady hand.

Additionally, it also wasn't a work that had to be finished in one sitting from what I understood, whereby forging a weapon made out of Uru for example was not something that could be interrupted as once it was cooled, the metal was near indestructible, not to mention much harder to enchant.