Having finished with Megumi Kato and Yukino Yukinoshita, Ren Isana's gaze landed on the last of them, Mahiru Shiina. She was a member of the team too, and he wasn't about to treat her differently.
"Mahiru, have you run into any problems on your end?" Speaking of Mahiru Shiina, she had been studying under Lord Miach all along, so perhaps she didn't need anything arranged for her.
Mahiru Shiina blinked, then said, "Nope. Lord Miach is passing his entire inheritance down to me. I've learned a great deal already, and all I have to do is keep working through it step by step."
Of the four girls, Mahiru Shiina was the one who needed the least worrying over. Miach thought extremely highly of her, which meant Mahiru Shiina now held a god's inheritance.
"Is that so? Then I'll pass you some healing and support magic from other worlds when I get the chance." Ren Isana let the matter drop but was happy to lend her support all the same.
He would cultivate the finest support in the universe himself. Down the line, if the opportunity arose, he could even turn her into a genuine angel — though that would have to be taken slowly.
So far he hadn't heard of any world that possessed the power to reincarnate someone as an angel. Perhaps if that demon world ever joined up with them, the chance would present itself.
With his teammates' plans settled, they went off to train. Days slipped by, and before long the school entered its new term. Ren Isana and the others knuckled down to study.
Except that what the school taught was of no further use to Ren Isana, so Natsuki Minamiya simply stopped bothering with him — and sometimes had him teach the class in her place.
That was aggravating in its own way, though his classmates were delighted. Everyone knew exactly how strong Ren Isana was, and having him teach was a genuine treat.
The first break of the new term arrived quickly. Knowing the holiday started the next day, Ren Isana thought it over and said to Asuna, "Let's go see Maya. You've slain a god now, and your weapon has been bathed in a god's blood, so it should be ready to be elevated into a [Noble Phantasm]."
He had told her about the [Noble Phantasm] business back when he was writing on her leg, so she already knew he could forge them.
"Sure!" Asuna agreed without a second thought. She knew perfectly well how formidable Ren Isana's [Noble Phantasm] was — it could become whatever he wanted it to be, which was precisely why he had forced more than a few wardrobe changes on her. As for the circumstances of those, no further comment was needed.
She was genuinely looking forward to seeing what kind of [Noble Phantasm] her weapon would become. Decision made, Ren Isana brought Asuna out, and the two left the school and headed straight for Maya's shop.
Maya didn't seem to be in today; they didn't see her when they arrived. The shop manager knew Ren Isana by now, though, and Maya had apparently left standing instructions that he could use the equipment whenever he liked.
When the two reached the forge, Tsubaki wasn't there either — only a few members of the Hephaestus Familia. After exchanging greetings with the familiar faces, Ren Isana had Asuna produce her weapon.
"I picked up some materials recently. Let's upgrade this first." As he spoke, Ren Isana produced a Dragonia scale he had brought back specifically from the Flügel.
The scale he set down was a full meter across. The sight of it stopped Asuna cold, and every smith in the room turned to look.
"What is that?" Asuna stared at the scale in bewilderment. Why was it so enormous? And there was a suffocating aura radiating off it. What creature had this come from?
Ren Isana chuckled at the scale in his hands. "This is a Dragonia scale. I only brought one back. If we need more, I can go get them — the person holding onto them has an entire Dragonia corpse."
There was no question about it: this was part of Lil' Jilly's collection. There had been so many of them that Ren Isana hadn't bothered hauling much home. This one scale was more than enough to strengthen Asuna's weapon; he only needed a fraction.
With that in mind, Ren Isana snapped a small piece off the scale and put the rest away, keeping only a palm-sized shard of dragon scale in hand. That was plenty.
He shrugged off his outer clothes and handed them to Asuna, took up her weapon, and got to work. The ring of hammer on steel filled the forge. He worked in a considerable number of additional materials, pushing her weapon straight to the top grade.
Ren Isana examined the strengthened blade and nodded in satisfaction. "Because of the Dragonia scale, this weapon now has a genuine indestructibility property."
And that property brushed up against time itself. The only way to destroy this weapon was from the inside — meaning that as long as Asuna didn't want it broken, the blade would hold this state indefinitely.
To break it from within, she would have to destroy it with her own strength, and she wasn't remotely capable of that yet. Which meant this rapier could effectively serve Asuna as a family heirloom.
Asuna's eyes lit up at that. Now she was even more eager. If it was forged into a [Noble Phantasm], what rank would it reach, and what special abilities would come with it?
"All right, get ready." Ren Isana looked over Lambent Light in his hand and told her to stand aside, then began drawing a [Magic Circle].
He had done something similar when elevating his own weapon into a [Noble Phantasm], so the process was second nature by now. With the [Magic Circle] complete, he activated it, and the weapon linked itself to Asuna.
Asuna's past began to be read out and channeled into the rapier before them. The blade, stained with a god's blood, began to transform, growing stronger by degrees, until at last it became a [Noble Phantasm].
It was, after all, a weapon that had drawn a god's blood — a God-Slaying Blade in its own right. Ren Isana wasn't the least bit surprised it could become a [Noble Phantasm]. The only question was what rank it would reach.
The transformation ended quickly, and Asuna's rapier melted into her body. She felt out the state of her [Noble Phantasm], and delight flashed through her eyes. "It's an A-rank [Noble Phantasm]!"
Her voice was full of excitement. That the rapier had reached A-rank had genuinely caught her off guard. She had been hoping for B-rank at best.
Hearing that, Ren Isana's eyes lit up and he said in mild surprise, "That's probably down to the scale I worked in. It is a high-grade material, after all."
He worked out the reason quickly enough: it was the material added at the end. This amounted to dragon-slaying on top of god-slaying, didn't it?
He wasn't the least bit surprised the rank had been pushed up.
"That's what I figured. And when the [Noble Phantasm] is released, it produces a wind blade with serious killing power!" Asuna was most excited about her rapier's ability.
The blade could store Magic Power in ordinary circumstances and release it all at once when needed, and the resulting force was formidable, with an extremely broad area of effect.
The more she looked at the rapier in her hand, the more she loved it. Ren Isana had forged it for her with his own hands and strengthened it with his own hands. It had always meant something to her, and now that it was this powerful, she loved it even more.
"Does it need to charge?" Ren Isana, however, wasn't entirely satisfied with the answer. Having to charge it would take some of the shine off — other people's Excalibur fired whenever they felt like it.
"Not exactly. It just gets stronger if you charge it." Asuna explained. She could fire it without charging, but the output was fixed; charged, it became far more terrifying.
Having gotten the picture, Ren Isana finally nodded in satisfaction. "It seems Dragonia scales are excellent for pushing a weapon's rank ceiling. If anyone else wants a [Noble Phantasm], tell them to come to me and trade."
He had no intention of making [Noble Phantasms] for free anymore. At this stage, if they wanted one, they could bring something to exchange for it.
Asuna nodded, entirely supportive of the policy. This suited her fine. With the weapon strengthened, the two of them left the forge together, and once out of Maya's shop, Ren Isana thought for a moment and settled on their next destination.
"Let's go find Emilia and the others. I think they're at their school right now." He announced where they were headed.
Besides Emilia, Kisara Tendo and the rest were at the same school. He owed a visit to the people he had brought back — especially Kisara Tendo.
Of all the worlds Ren Isana had explored, that one had integrated with theirs the fastest. That world hadn't had a choice, and with the enormous benefits available on this side, its people had folded in remarkably quickly.
"Sure!" Asuna had no objections. She hadn't seen Emilia in a while either. Decision made, she pulled out her phone and sent Emilia a message.
Watching her tap away, Ren Isana said as they walked, "While we're at it, let's call out Kisara Tendo and that Shiba young lady too. Ever since they came to this world, they've been left completely hanging."
He had made arrangements for Emilia, but he'd had no time whatsoever for Kisara Tendo and Miori Shiba. Now that there was a chance, he might as well bring everyone out at once.
Asuna rolled her eyes at the suggestion. "Oh, so you do know. I thought you hadn't noticed. Miori Shiba gave me an earful about you a while back — she doesn't even have your contact information."
Before Asuna entered the No. 3 Dimensional Rift, Miori Shiba had added her as a contact, and through Emilia at that. She had never managed to add Ren Isana, because he had already left for another world.
Hearing him bring it up now, she had assumed he was oblivious. Apparently he had been aware the whole time.