“Fascinating.” Ira stared at the arm in his hands while the door closed. Pulling on it, the arm collapsed into its thread form. “Looks like I snipped off a bit of his soul... Eh, he’ll be fine.” Ira tossed the threads onto the table with the other materials.

Moving the table into the forge room, he sealed the door behind him. Standing in the centre of the room, his chest opened up. Flames exploded out, lashing at everything in the room as the temperature rose to insane degrees.

Heavy thumping sounded in the room as his molten heart pulsed. The heat increased with every beat of his heart, as magma spewed out of the open hole in his chest. Reaching out, he grabbed the pile of bones and the midnight wood, then pushed it all inside himself.

Blue flames spun around the items, melting them together as he added the other wood and the ashes into the mix.

The items took on a golden glow as he added in the angel intestines.

The beating of his heart intensified, ramping up the temperature even more as he honed in his mind on everything he had learned about Ed.

A vague silhouette formed under the angelic golden light, the shape slowly solidifying under the intense heat and pressure imposed on it.

“And now for the final piece.” Reaching out for the threads, they seemed to gleefully latch onto his hand. Coiling around his arm, the threads threw themselves inside.

The threads dug into the item, draining it of its golden hue and marring it with an inky blackness and a bloody red.

The item started to shake, its form destabilising, twisting and bending as it was pulled apart by the threads. It constantly changed shape as the golden glow was beaten back again and again.

The heat continued to batter everything, forcing it to combine as a beam of red light shot out from his chest and slammed into the opposing wall. The item floated out of his chest, following along the beam of light as its form constantly shifted.

Ira’s heart pulsed one more time, shooting out a wave of blue fire that dominated the red light, bending the item to his will. His chest closed up as the item dropped to the floor and the room slowly started to cool down.

“Feisty little bugger.” Picking up the item, he observed it curiously.

Its body was a dark, void-like black, with faint red streaks pulsing through it like veins. The colour tapered off to an ashen colour on the sides, only to turn to black on the back once more. The body of the instrument bowed in on both sides before curving back in, forming a curved hourglass shape.

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Four white strings stretched up the neck, tainted, much like the rest of the instrument, with flecks of red.

Something seemed strangely beautiful about this violin, but at the same time, incredibly wrong. Ira felt a pang of sadness wash out from the violin, as it wept. The angelic hymns that he was expecting did not come. Instead, it sounded melancholic and depressing. As if it had seen the end of everything but was powerless to stop it.

“I wonder if Ed would be willing to give me another arm? I could make some interesting things out of him.”

~

The door cracked open, bringing a stop to their conversation. Ira walked out of the room carrying a mostly black violin. Ed felt something lurch in his soul, as the violin flew out of Ira’s arms and crashed into him, turning into threads and disappearing into his body.

Ed felt strange, like some missing part had returned to him, but it also felt entirely new. He felt a comforting presence in his body. His soul hummed as if it had found a trusted tool.

“Those threads of yours are quite interesting. Would you mind giving me some more?” Ira asked, to which Zara glared daggers at him, already jumping out of her chair. “Alright, alright. I’ll take that as a no. There’s no harm in asking.”

“Now, I’m sure you’re wanting to test it out. Feel free to use one of the training rooms, I’m sure Zara would’ve found one of them by now. In the meantime, I’ve got work to do.” Saying that, Ira disappeared into the room once more.

~

A blast of gold rippled through the air as a fist collided with a toothy maw, sending a dragon crashing to the ground.

“You could have just taken it, you know? It’s not like they’d be able to stop you.” Superbia said to Ira.

“There are always other ways to get it. Besides, it’s not like I’m lacking in materials.” Ira threw an axe through the air, cleaving the dragon in two. “See, got more stuff right here.”

Growing in size to dwarf the dragon’s corpse, he skinned and treated the body, separating all the materials. He pushed everything into his body, where everything was split off and sent to his avatars to be stored.

“That’s true. I could always get my daughter to get some of it for you.” Soaring into the sky, he pulled in a horde of dragons, guiding them around as he blasted them apart with magic.

Ira swallowed everything as the carcasses rained down on him.

Finishing off this battle, the two disappeared, teleporting to beneath a towering tree that's branches stretched off into the horizon. Taking a moment to relax, the two gathered fruits from the tree, before sending them off to different parts of Hell.

“Maybe, but that reminds me. She said she could use the information I gathered from him.” Pausing his collection of the fruit, he took out his phone. Sending across everything his avatar had learned. He went back to gathering more fruits. “How long are you planning to stay out for?”

“Only a few more days, then I’ll visit my daughter and see what this Ed guy is all about.”

“You’re sounding like an overprotective father right now.” Ira chuckled.

“Don’t be ridiculous. He doesn’t even come close to my daughter. Besides, I quite like her girlfriend, even if she is from Lust.”

“You’re just happy she’s no longer dating that guy from Sloth.”

“Don’t get me started on him. That was many centuries ago, but it still gets my blood boiling. Sloth! Seriously! How could my own daughter lower herself to date someone from Sloth...” Superbia went on a tirade lasting an entire day.