"Alright, let's do this thing," Zhen Liu said to himself, Logos, Pathos, and Blazejudicator.

After securing the metals he needed, Zhen Liu took over the former smelting/[Core] creation room and got ready to fix up his way home.

'Huh, I wonder if this count as practice for swordmaking later…'Zhen Liu mused as he extracted the [Key to Nowhere] from his pocket.

The process to fix this crazy magical key of his was...surprisingly straightforward.

The teleportation accident had created a whole mess of microfractures inside of the key's structure, rendering the whole thing into what was, as Pathos described, "a fucking funhouse of horrors where the prize was gonad inversion."

Either way, the first thing Zhen Liu had to do in order to fix the key was...to break it.

"Seriously?"

=Yes, seriously.=

"Why?"

=At this point, we have to turn those micro fractures into macro ones in order to better apply the sealant needed to fix your key,= Logos explained. =If we had the right tools, we could technically pipette this stuff directly into the cracks. But we are way too far to have that be applicable in the moment.=

'I...fair enough.'

And so, with careful placement of the key on a stone anvil and a quick swing of his [Hammer of the Dearly Departed] plus a generous application of [Chaos], Zhen Liu shattered the [Key to Nowhere] into large chunks so that he may fix it and refine it further to an even greater state.

Huh, I guess the microfractures were worse than anticipated. There should've been a spatial explosion.

'Excuse me?!'

=Don't worry, the explosion wouldn't have done anything to you due to most of the energy being aether-related. At worst, you would've ended up with a black eye...maybe a cracked rib or two.=

'...it still disturbs me how casually you treat my health.'

=Make a healer Kaijin then.=

'Working on it.' Zhen Liu protested. 'Now, what do I do next?'

=Well, now that the cracks are more obvious…=

Aside from the bars of [Malevolent Gold], amongst the tributes given to him were ingots of [Sorrow Copper], [Azure Lead], [Hateful Silver], and [Cursed Iron].

In other words, they were all metals that no sane aether warrior would ever think of working with unless they were trying to curse someone so hard that their children's children would end up being cursed as well.

In the hands of Zhen Liu and the power of [Chaos], though, such materials were simply just that: materials.

That stated, Zhen Liu couldn't just use these metals in their current form; he needed to enhance their innate characteristics to strengthen his key.

'Alright, Blazejudicator. You're up.'

[Of course, Executor.]

Tapping into his power, Zhen Liu produced the [Seven Flames of Vice] around himself, alongside his own [Ghost Flame] in his hands, the color of which was looking a touch…different from before.

Usually, the [Ghost Flame] was an unearthly green color that evoked a sense of dread, death, and ghostly presences. Now, it was a deeper green and was developing a strange golden tint to it.

Correction, an even deeper golden tint.

'Okay, what the fuck is going on with the [Ghost Flame]? Normally it stinks of death and brimstone; now it sort of… smells oddly refreshing? Like graveyard flowers?'

Why do you know what that smells like?

'You've seen my memories; I'm usually one of the cousins that get called on to freshen up grandmother's grave.'

Ah. Right.

=To be serious, though, I think the [Ghost Flame] is mutating due to a combination of Blazedjudicator's meddling and your very existence, milord. [Chaos] means progress, after all.=

'Hmmm. Wait, didn't I worry about this before?'

Regardless of any weird mutations in his abilities, Zhen Liu decided to bring his attention back to the reforging of his key.

Using the eight summoned aether flames, Zhen Liu proceeded to melt down the required ingots and refine their characteristics until they were at least three degrees stronger than how they initially were.

It was a good thing Zhen Liu had chosen to do this in a private room; otherwise, the ominous and malevolent aura would cause most mortals exposed to it to either go insane or possibly melt.

…Not even joking on that…

"Huh…that's…creepy."

"Downright disturbing—that's the word you're looking for."

"Yeah…"

Directly outside of the former smelting room, Lythero and Antonio were staring at the entrance with tense expressions and defensive postures.

This was due to the very simple fact that a creepy aura of shadows and malice was leaking out of said smelting room, to the point that one could visibly see it attempting to escape.

In other words, Zhen Liu's crafting was as flashy as his usual fighting techniques.

The two of them had wanted to stick around and provide moral support once they heard Zhen Liu was going to fix up his way home but were explicitly warned to stay outside as he worked.

And it wasn't until they saw this aura that they understood why he gave them this warning.

"Wait a minute…" Lythero suddenly muttered while staring at the creepy aura. "Do you think it's actually as ominous as we think it is, or is it just Zhen Liu showing off for the sake of showing off?"

"I don't know," Antonio replied. "I know he has a habit of acting big for the sake of intimidating and confounding his enemies; I don't think that includes us."

Staring at the entrance, the duo eventually came to the conclusion that they weren't going to get anywhere unless they actually tested out the lethality of this aura. Thankfully, Lythero happened to have a bunch of bananas in his pockets from lunch earlier.

"What do you think is going to happen once we throw a banana in there? I'm going with rapid aging leading to decay," Lythero suggested as he prepared the fruity sacrifice.

"I am going with…burst into flames," Antonio retorted while gesturing to the entrance. "There is a whole lot of heat coming out of this thing."

"Fair."

With bated breath, they threw the banana…

Horrific noises that could never be transcribed with mortal letters, and that's including the phonetic alphabet.

…which was then followed by stunned expressions as they watched the banana go through a life cycle that was unnecessarily tragic before ending it all by splattering on the floor, rotten yet smelling as tempting as slow-roasted bison meat.

"Did…did we just watch a banana go through the cycle of life and death and all of the weird little stages that make up the human experience?"

"Did we just see a banana get out of an abusive relationship with their high school sweetheart turned junkie trafficker?"

"..." Googlᴇ search NovᴇlFirᴇ(.)nᴇt

"...we leave it alone."

"We leave it alone."

…Alright, back to the serious shit…

Prior to this moment, Zhen Liu found the act of finely manipulating [Chaos] to create his eclectic assortment of treasures to be a rather tiresome task.

[Chaos] was naturally unruly, and forcing it to behave felt like attempting to take a cat on a walk… using a leash designed for crickets.

However, now that Zhen Liu was the [Chaos] equivalent of an Aether Lord, a Shaper Lord perhaps, he found the task to be significantly more bearable.

Using [Chaos] was now like using a proper cat-sized leash for a cat to take it out for a walk. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was doable.

Thanks to this upgrade in his handling abilities, Zhen Liu was able to get…a little more creative with the materials being integrated into his key.

Well, Pathos was able to become more vicariously creative through Zhen Liu's hands.

'Are all of these runes necessary for it to function? I'm fairly certain I saw something about being able to turn this thing into a weapon.'

Don't worry about it, Pathos said in their most comforting tone, in the same way a mother assures their child that the dentist wasn't going to hurt. Just know that Logos and I have made sure that not only will this key never break again, but that it will be useful in case you end up without any of your usual tools of murder and mayhem.

=Don't worry, the design will be legally distinct enough to prevent any chances of copyright infringement.=

'Not what I was thinking about, but sure.'

A part of Zhen Liu was expecting to mix all of the metal ingots together to make some sort of super alloy of damnation. Instead, he ended up making several small alloy mixtures that basically served as weird magical circuit components.

Once all the components were made, all Zhen Liu had to do was to bring it all together and then fire it up in order to fuse it altogether.

In theory.

Zhen Liu has gotten incredibly used to the idea that nothing would ever go smoothly in his cultivation life, and this time was no different.

'Alright, this is either going to work amazingly, or the curators are going to tell me that I'm going to need some kind of unnecessary super aether flame...gods above I hope it's the former.'