Arriving at the infirmary I notice Harko accompanying Jathorn while talking to an armored person, likely a commander or captain to relay orders.

"How is Jathorn holding up?"

Harko looks over noticing me

"in a minute, I have a responsibility to take care of."

I wait by the door, overhearing them talking about managing the damages done by the void, and something about the star, soon after the man leaves.

"Alright, we can talk now"

Harko tells me as she sits down on a chair next to Jathorn, I approach and take a chair to sit down as well.

"soo how is Jathorn's condition?"

I ask Harko as they look at me

"Well, the good news is that Jathorn is stable despite having lost a leg, he's lucky the leg he made for himself slowed down the bleeding enough for you to have time to heal it"

I look at Jathorn unconscious resting on the bed

"I'm glad to hear that, how long is he going to be in this state?"

Harko hesitates for a moment

"Well... He used a lot of his remaining stardust to fight the Herald, we will have to go to the red canyon and gather some stardust remnants or he might fade, collapsing under the unstable star matter left within him."

I nod, despite knowing he's not that trustworthy I can't just let him die like this.

"Alright, I suppose the sooner we go the better right?"

Harko looks at Jathorn

"Yes... we will have to go tomorrow there, today ill have to help my people with repairs and arranging other rituals for those who have fallen, we will first head to the Voxulium blacksmith though, that greatsword the Herald used will come in advantage as a weapon for yourself, in case you want it"

I can use the sword of the Herald? heh, I suppose it's more of a family heirloom since now ill be the one using it, why not?"

"Sure, that weapon is strong and I bet I could get stronger with it"

Harko sits up from the chair

"let us not waste time then, Xavier. Meet me outside by the vermilion trees, ill have the blade there and we will head out for the blacksmith"

I nod as Harko leaves the Infirmary... Seems that Harko isn't aware of the guests that should arrive soon, maybe it's just Jathorn who called them here, I'm not sure.

I spend some time at the side of Jathorn feeling guilty I didn't join him sooner, but I'm glad I got there when I did stopping him from total damnation.

I make peace with myself as I leave the infirmary bumping into a soldier with light armor

"Ah- Excuse me Blue Dreamer, I'm a bit clumsy"

I reassure them it's no problem and walk out, seeing people rushing wounded soldiers into the infirmary and apothecaries making their way to the Infirmary, I suppose those were the orders Harko gave to the man they spoke to.

I make my way out of the beacon, jumping down this time knowing I can make myself wings to slow my fall, the dramatic entrance I made to fight the Herald hurt my knees a lot, and I can still feel the pain from the impact.

I land and make my way close to the Upbringing fields at the vermilion trees, seeing Harko with the greatsword

"You ready, Xavier?"

I nod my head as I approach Harko

"Indeed, let us head out to that blacksmith as you suggested, I'm curious to see who they are"

Harko has trouble dragging the greatsword, seems too heavy for them

"let me try to hold it"

Harko nods

"If you so wish"

Harko hands me the greatsword, I lift it with my right hand, and I can feel the weight of the sword reducing as its size adapts to mine. Sparks from my right hand both ethereal and blue seem to interact with it, I wonder if it's from the roots the Herald told me about.

Harko seems very curious as to why the greatsword specifically reacted to my touch

"Huh? The greatsword adapted to your grip as if it was made for you, but why?"

I shrug

"I am not sure how neither can I know since I don't know much of this world but I like that the sword chose me"

Harko seems a bit worried about the reaction

"I hope its a reaction to your hand, after all, sparks flew from it as it reduced its size"

The great sword was longer but less wide, its weight was now satisfying to hold, my right hand powerful enough to hold such a heavy blade.

"Im convinced it was from that, after all, I'm the only one with such a hand and it only reacted to me, so I would say you are right"

Harko seems a bit convinced but still questionable

"I suppose that is a fair point, lets head out now"

Harko begins to move towards the wall's gates, I follow from behind with the greatsword on my shoulder, after a bit of walking we reach the gate and Harko opens it up. They put down an order to contact them through the star if there is something to happen while they are gone and then we leave the light beacon walls, out into the dim darkness.

We begin marching north of the Beacon, we walk alongside a road with trees possessing black leaves, some of them have a sort of grayish fruit on them

"what are these trees called?"

Harko looks at them for awhile

"Those should be Black Heart trees, the void creatures for some reason hate being around these trees causing them a lot of distress, you may have noticed the trees that surround the beacon are much like these, it helps to delay attacks from the void and stop frequent invasions"

I look ahead of the road noticing a building in the distance

"That's impressive for some trees, and is that where we are headed?"

Harko nods to my question

"Mhmm, that's where the blacksmith resides, a solidary person with the skill of an expert, he doesn't trust the safety of the beacon and I have no reason to argue with that, we are constantly attacked after all"

We continue walking towards the blacksmith's house and arrive in a minute or two, now under closer inspection the building is much bigger than I expected, it has a center cubic structure that is the size of 2 houses. on the right side expands another cubic part around the same width but half as long and on the left side a circular room of the same size as the one on the right.

At the main entrance in the middle, 2 guards seem to reside, they look mechanical but have different structures compared to my hand.

The guards make a high-pitched noise as they notice use likely to attract the blacksmith's attention, soon after the blacksmith comes out.

"Who are ye to disturb me durin' ma works?"

Harko takes a step forward

"Greetings, Vox, Harko at your service with a guest and a request for you to purify a void weapon."

The blacksmith smiles

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Ah, C'mon in me friends, I hope you didn't bring no void scoundrel on yer way here ye?"

Harko nods

"none accounted for"

I follow Harko inside, I ask Vox a question

"Excuse me, Vox, I hope this doesn't make you mad for the question but are you blind?"

The blacksmith doesn't seem too troubled by the question

"Tis' a long story me boy, tis' true I ain' got proper eyesight, but I can work wi' it."

Harko taps my shoulder

"show him the greatsword"

As they reminded me, I give the blacksmith the greatsword and it seems that the blacksmith is strong enough to hold the sword without that much problem

"Le'me see what am workin' with here"

The blacksmith insects the blade for a bit

"I tell ya what, tis' blades been forged with skill"

He flicks his fingers against the blade's metal which the metal reacts in waves similar to those water droplets make in water

"O' ye' tis' blades forged by a master. It even has void ripples, yer got a fine blade here"

Harko then asks Vox

"Can you purify such a blade? it was wielded by the Herald but we managed to defeat it"

Vox seems impressed

"Tha Herald? The weapons that beast hold ar' no joke I tell ya tis'. yer weapon should be able to be purified, gimme' some time and I'll have this beaut' purified"

Vox glances in my direction

"But before that, I'll need ye to brawl with me, I gotta watch this beaut's strength"

I glance at Harko and they nod their head

"Alright, Vox, I'll fight you then, I suppose we shall do this outside yes?"

Vox walks outside

"Yer gad damn right son"

I follow Vox outside and Harko does the same, sitting on a cut tree stump chair at the main entrance to view the fight

Vox hands me the greatsword and he takes the hammers on his belt, we distance ourselves from one another and prepare

"Countdown for us will ya' Harko?"

Harko begins to countdown

"3...

2...

1.."

"Commence!"

Vox rushes at me, I swing the greatsword horizontally as Vox jumps and evades the attack, he throws one of his hammers at me which I block with the sword's handle, I take the hammer and throw it back at him, and he dodges the hammer as he lands, aggressively continuing his rush.

I slam the greatsword into the ground vertically which causes a shock wave throwing Vox off his feet, I throw the great sword towards him creating a blue chain around the hilt, Vox puts both his hammers in front of the sword, and as soon as they touch Vox redirects the blade's momentum down with both of his hammers creating earth spikes to come towards me.

I use my right hand to push myself away with a combustion dodging the spikes, Vox threw another hammer while I was dodging the way I was headed, I lean on my back to dodge the hammer which grazes me, I let go of the chain on the sword and make a chain on his flying hammer redirecting its momentum towards Vox.

He throws his other hammer to it which creates a shockwave that breaks my chain, I take hold of the chain on my greatsword and pull it back to me, Vox goes for his hammers as I engulf the blade in blue fire, He then waits for me to attack.

I impale the sword in the ground and use its hilt to jump towards Vox, meanwhile, the fire of the sword spreads below Him, I charge my right fist with a great combustion, Vox blocks as the fire from below begins to emerge, I hit his hammers with my right fist letting go of the charge releasing a powerful shock wave sending him flying a few meters

"Aye' use yer weapon more, I don' need to know yer strength mate, I need to know the weapon's strength"

I grab the sword from the ground and nod, dashing towards him with another vertical swing, Vox sidesteps as I go for the slice and hits the blade with his hammers which causes an Ethereal explosion throwing both me and Vox back

"Agh!"

I yell as I fall to the ground

"What the fuck was that?"

Vox groans as he nods his head

"Ayup, The blades a bloody behemoth fo' sure. My arse expected tis' but I ain' seen such a strong one till now mate"

He clarifies my question

"As for what tis' was, Void ripple forges powerful kinetic storage, That thing's got a massiv' storage for it to send its wielder to bloody hell."

With that, a question comes to my mind

"Ah I see, I got a question though Vox, how are you able to fight this precisely with bad vision?"

He chuckles

"Do ye know anything of echolocation son? if not, I can use me voice or hammers to find ye even in pure darkness, am also able to sense things through tha earth"

I go to grab the greatsword

"That's quite an interesting way to see things, shall we get this weapon purified?"

Vox Nods as he starts going inside, I follow him from behind and Harko follows as I enter.

"Gimme' that blade son, it's about time I get back to me work. Do know it'll take awhile, such refined weaponry takes time to refine."

Harko seems satisfied with the answer

"Good to hear that blacksmith. May we wait here until your work is finished?"

Vox nods to Harkos's question, I chime in

"Can I see how the process of purification works?"

Vox looks at me

"as long as yer ass doesn't get in the way, yer free to do as you wish son."

I give the blacksmith space as I look at his process, he first takes the blade and puts it into a furnace, heating the blade for a few minutes, then using his hammers bangs on the sides of the sword creating a ripple in the structure of the blade.

"Even fresh out the oven tis' behemoth has ripples, oho this is going to be quite the artwork"

he then puts the blade on an anvil and begins to hammer it down, storing kinetic energy as the blade begins to emit an ethereal aura, he lets the blade sit on the anvil as he grabs 2 white stones that he uses as flint and stone.

"darn rocks are solidified stardust, ain't no void matter remaining the same after some sparks"

Each hit of the stones makes sparks that get stuck to the blade, after some sparks get stuck to the blade, he takes a mold and places the blade into it molding the weapon's blade.

Using the mold he uses fragments to create a sort of sheath for the weapon, he sheats the weapon emanating an ethereal aura as the fragments begin to take an ethereal form, Vox then takes the blade and goes to the right part of the building where puts the weapon into a slot and sets up the machine that begins to work on it and waits.

"Now's the part where my work gets stale, I gotta get me a manual purifier these days to spice it up"

While waiting I decided to ask him some questions

"Why is there required a fragmented sheath for this operation?"

He sits down as he waits

"Well, them fragments help extract the ethereal matter and reverse its purpose to operate oppositely compared to its normal state"

His voice tone and accent changed when he began explaining, I suppose he has more than meets the eye beneath his regular self.

Radiance can be seen from the mold and Vox stops the machine.

"Tis' my favorite part, when em glow appears them mold's up for cracking"

He brings the weapon from there to the left of the building in the round room, he puts the blade under a sort of machine that presses down against the blade making the mold crack and break, a radiance can be seen from the cracks as the sword's freed of its sheath, beautiful patterns now spread on the sword's blade.

"Don't cha' love the beaut' these weapons develop? Darn swords work like mystery geodes, outside it looks like em regular run o' the mill rock but inside hides a treasure!"

Vox takes the blade that now takes a grayish-white radiant color and goes outside, he puts the blade against a tree and throws his hammers at it, the impact causes an explosion much like the one from before but this one implodes as the sword gets enveloped in a white aura

"This bloody blades a work of art mate, worth hanging on a wall if yer askin' me, perfection between pandemonium takin' form of a great sword, simply amazing."

I am amazed at the swords radiance and beautiful patterns

"Woah, the purification process is such an interesting spectacle, it's almost like making art out of-"

A realization hits me from his words

"Pandemonium"

Vox chuckles

"Darn, right son! The ethereal matter the void uses is pure pandemonium, one can't even enjoy the beaut' of chaos cuz the darn things unperceivable to our eyes"

Harko bows to the blacksmith

"The Light Beacon has gratitude for your continued help, blacksmith"

Vox sighs

"Remind me how many times I told yer bloody ass to just call me by me name"

Harko thinks for a bit

"This should be the 20th time"

Vox looks at Harko a bit annoyed

"Well make it yer last!"

I chuckle at their talk and move to grab the greatsword, as soon as my hand takes the greatsword in hand ethereal roots spread in the blade and its hilt glows blue

Vox looks very interested and seems to be questioning the reaction

"If me senses don't deceive me yer blade fits you oddly well, too well, me ass can argue it was probably made for you specifically"

A sense of anxiety creeps down my spine, could he be onto me?

"But on second thought yer blade's a work of masterful art, likely just a reaction of such good work"

I nod to his second thoughts

"Agreed with you here Vox, thank you for your work on this blade, I owe you one"

Vox looks at Harko

"I disagree, son, I have a debt to pay to the Light Beacon supplying me with em materials needed to do me job y'know"

Harko nods

"Our supply won't stop coming in, your job is highly valuable and rather rare around these parts"

Harko begins to move toward the Light Beacon

"Well, I too owe you my personal gratitude blacksmith"

Vox face palms, giving up on reminding Harko about using his name instead of "blacksmith"

I then follow Harko back to the Light Beacon, I'll need to learn the capabilities of this greatsword. The Heralds gift is more than what I could ask for. With that we continue walking on the path toward the Light beacon, we have a lot more work to do back at the beacon, and tomorrow is an exciting day.