He could feel it in his hands.
The way the hamr struck the anvil. The way the tal folded in perfect layers. The way the core rings aligned this ti without collapsing.
He was getting closer.
The thought of failure didn’t bother him anymore.
If anything, it felt like progress.
Every mistake carved a little more clarity into his mind. Each flawed attempt refined his intent.
He had learned to treat errors like stepping stones.
This wasn’t just a forging process. This was sothing deeper.
This was his Path.
This was who Naless Death had always been.
Soone who kept moving forward.
Soone who could lose a hundred tis and still rise.
Soone who would eventually win.
Because he refused to stop until he reached the end.
Finally, after what felt like another lifeti inside the forge, he looked down at what lay in his hands.
A cube. Roughly the size of a human palm.
Silver, tallic, and alive with faint pulses of rune light under its surface.
A Womb of Devil, fully ford.
"It’s done," he said softly.
Leonora walked up beside him.
She’d been playing gas, but her attention now shifted entirely to him.
She tiptoed and peered over his shoulder, not at all shy about the closeness between them. After years together in the forge, such things had stopped mattering.
"What will that thing do?" she asked curiously, squinting at the cube.
"It’s a computer," Naless Death replied.
Leonora blinked, surprised. "Didn’t you say the Womb of Devil’s purpose was to create a Devil that could end the world?"
He gave a wry smile.
"That depends on how it’s used. If I do this right, it’ll beco a tool to manage my techniques, and turn them into skills, classes, traits, title, and more. It will manage everything needed for my Path."
Leonora looked genuinely confused.
"Uhhhh....?"
"It’s fine. It’s hard to understand."
Her competitive spirit flared, seeing how easily he accepted she couldn’t understand anything.
She folded her arms.
"Try ."
"The Womb of Devil was originally ant to create powerful beings. But I’m going to turn this thing into a computer. Think of it as sothing like an Assistant AI."
"How are you going to do that?"
"Like this."
Without warning, Naless Death devoured the cube.
Leonora’s eyes widened. She beca worried for him, since she had seen how much effort he put into creating the Womb of Devil.
"Why did you—"
"It’s fine," he assured her. "I’m absorbing the information."
The cube dissolved into black energy and vanished into his body.
Waves of information surged into his mind.
A few minutes passed in silence as Leonora watched him with one eyebrow raised.
Then, he extended a hand and recreated the Womb of Devil from scratch using his Shadow Core Concept.
Once it was complete, he created another object, a black mirror that flickered unnaturally.
"That’s the Abyss Mirror, you talked of?" she guessed.
"Sort of. It’s weaker than the original, since that one was a Sacred Treasure but it’ll do," Naless Death said. All Sacred Treasures had a unique energy, which he couldn’t replicate yet. "Now watch this."
He touched the surface of the mirror.
His body pulsed once, and his expression tightened.
He copied everything into it—his mories, knowledge, techniques, every Concept he’d ever touched, and every mistake he’d ever learned from.
His entire mind went in, like data transferred into a disk.
Once done, he placed the Abyss Mirror inside the Womb of Devil and sealed it.
Holding up the cube, he said,
"If I just left it like this, the Womb of Devil would create a being that holds all this knowledge and power. Do you know how it manages that?"
Leonora shook her head.
"Runes," Naless Death said simply. "Runes of Creation, Stability, Evolution, Growth, Eternity, and a lot more Runes."
He tapped the cube gently, thoughtful.
He found it weird how the dwarves who made the original Womb of Devil had access to so powerful Runes.
This level of technology shouldn’t exist yet. It felt sothing from the future, not past.
Naless Death decided to ignore the issue for now, and focus on the important things at hand.
"I’ll feed energy into these runes to activate the creation process. The cube will begin forming a Devil based on what’s inside. But before it finishes, I’ll corrupt the process with Void Energy and turn it into a Firmant."
She looked confused again.
"Firmant?"
"Think of it as a creation with a consciousness," he explained. "If I can do this properly, the cube will beco a living being that contains my abilities, mories, and knowledge... and it’ll be able to manage everything related to my Path."
"That... doesn’t easy."
"It is not."
Turning Womb of Devil into a Firmant was far harder than just making a new Elent.
"Alright. I get that it’s a computer now, that will manage the Classes, skills, traits, and more that will be created from your mind.
"But how’s that supposed to help you? A Path should make you stronger, right?"
"That’s a bit harder to explain. See—"
Naless Death created another cube—a second Womb of Devil—again using Shadow Core Concept.
"This cube is different," he said. "I’m not going to use it to create a Devil. I’ll use it to create a simulated universe."
Leonora’s eyes widened. "Like the Akashic Record from my world?"
"Yes. When you told about the Womb of Devil simulation on your planet, it gave the idea."
He continued, "I’ll create a race inside this world. They’ll live, grow, and evolve naturally. Based on their life experiences, they’ll choose Classes. They’ll gain Skills, Traits, Titles, and other powers as they level up."
"That’s quite normal compared to the grand image of a Path I had."
"It is," he agreed. "But sotis, the simplest structure is the best foundation."
"Is that your full Path then?" she asked.
"No," Naless Death said. "That’s just the first half of Step One. Out of three steps."
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