Alex didn’t hesitate. He and Brand had already discussed the forging plans in advance. He’d been waiting for this day, specifically, for the dragon tendon to be ready. Without a word, Alex reached into his interspatial ring and pulled out several pieces of rare tal.
Two silver-colored ingots, one slightly larger than the other, They were Ulim steel, renowned for its hardness and resilience. Alongside them, he laid out two smaller, glowing pieces of refined mithril, shimring faintly with magical energy.
These weren’t just any tals. They were high-tier materials, collected from the Travers family’s vault and confiscated from dark wizards during Ministry operations.
“The equipnt I want to make has a very specific tal composition,” Alex explained. “I’ll need to fuse the alloys first before we can temper them properly.”
He raised his wand and cast a spell from the control system magic, carefully manipulating the chunks of tal in the air. Each one slowly began to lt, turning into liquid tal as he brought them together.
With practiced precision, he adjusted the fusion ratio, just like the instructions he’d morized from the Ministry’s alchemy lab. Once the alloy mixture stabilized and reached a balanced structure, Alex let it cool slightly, guiding the molten blend into the waiting stone scoop.
Brand watched the entire process, his eyes narrowed with curiosity.
“You know, Alex,” he finally said, “there’s sothing I don’t get. Your alchemy skills are already top-tier. With what I just saw, you could probably shape your equipnt directly using magic. So why go through all this? Why use the old-fashioned way of forging when you clearly don’t have to?”
From his perspective, Alex’s abilities were more than enough to bypass the forge entirely. But the young wizard had chosen to co here, to sweat with them, to hamr and shape tal with fire and steel.
"You don’t get it," Alex said with a faint smile. "Sure, ordinary alchemists can use magic to shape tal directly, but when you mix different magical tals that way, the bonds between them aren’t that strong. You’ll always end up with so impurities. If you really want them to fuse completely and unleash their full potential, proper forging is absolutely necessary."
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes glinting with excitent. "Take those expert goblin craftsn, for example. It’s not like they don’t understand magic, far from it, but when it cos to crafting high-grade equipnt, they still stick with traditional forging. Only after shaping the item with care and then engraving it with runes do they reheat and relt it. That’s how you end up with sothing worthy of being called a 'holy weapon.'"
Part of this knowledge, Alex had picked up from a goblin officer who got a bit too talkative after one firewhisky too many during a deal at Gringotts. The rest ca from his own experints while researching enchanted items.
Of course, none of it would’ve been possible without Minister Bagnold’s support. She’d gone out of her way to secure rare alchemy materials for him through her contacts in the Sir rlin Bloc. She’d promised to back him up however she could, and true to her word, she hadn’t let him down.
Brand’s eyes widened in surprise. "You an like the Sword of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s Diadem?" Up until now, he’d only been told Alex needed help forging a powerful piece of equipnt. He had no idea it was this ambitious.
"It’s not quite at that level yet," Alex said with a shake of his head. "A true magical artifact needs to be nurtured, trained even. What makes sacred artifacts so powerful is their potential to grow stronger over ti. Right now, I’d be thrilled just to make the prototype."
"That’s still incredible," Brand said, clearly impressed. "To witness the birth of sothing like that... it’d be an honor."
"I hope we get that far," Alex said, glancing at the materials. "I really have no idea how well this will go. It’s my first ti trying sothing this complex. Let’s begin. Just rember to use the magic anvil and alchemy hamr I customized for you."
"You got it. Don’t worry." Brand gave a serious nod, then turned to his fellow centaurs and shouted, "We’re starting! Stay sharp, everyone!"
With that, Brand carefully placed the stone ladle into the roaring furnace while Bane, already drenched in sweat, worked the bellows with all his strength. The flas inside the furnace blazed hotter and hotter, but the tals they were using weren’t ordinary, they resisted the heat longer than most.
Everyone kept their eyes glued to the furnace. It took nearly half an hour before the contents inside finally began to lt, forming a thick, glowing red liquid. By then, Bane was visibly exhausted, sweat dripping from his face and soaking the floor.
"It’s ready! Ti to shape it, get the mold!" Brand bellowed once the molten tal reached the right consistency.
Alex moved quickly. He pulled out a special box, designed to withstand extre heat, and opened it to reveal a dragon heart tendon.
Brand imdiately turned to Firenze and shouted instructions. Firenze, without hesitation, used a pair of iron tongs to scoop the red-hot molten tal and carefully pour it into the long mold containing the magical tendon.
The room fell quiet for a mont, the sound of crackling flas and the hiss of tal against enchantnt the only things echoing through the forge.
As the molten iron poured over the dragon’s heart tendon, it didn’t cause the slightest damage. In fact, the tendon’s silver-blue glow remained steady, completely unaffected by the searing heat.
Even when the red-hot tal fully subrged and wrapped around it, the faint silver light continued to shine through the surface, flickering like a heartbeat beneath the molten layer.
“That thing inside… it looks like it ca from a magical creature, but how is it still intact in that heat?” Brand stared at the mold in disbelief.
Alex simply smiled. That’s exactly why he’d soaked the dragon’s heart tendon in Thundris Tempest Rune for so long.
Even though it was from a vicious Hebridean Black, that didn’t make it immune to the limitations of biology. Only by infusing it with the raw magic of Thundris Tempest, an energy strong enough to resist even Fiendfyre, could it survive this process.
Not only would it endure the forging temperature, but it would also imbue the final weapon with the storm-charged essence of lightning.
Once the tal had fully settled around the tendon, the room quieted. Everyone stood silently, waiting for it to cool. They knew the real forging hadn’t even begun.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait too long. The molten tal slowly solidified into a dull-red, rectangular rod, about a ter in length.
“All right, onto the anvil!” Brand barked, his voice loud and steady.
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