CHAPTER 378: BIRTH

The hammer trembled. At first, it was only a faint vibration, like the quiver of a mountain before an avalanche. But with each pulse, the sound deepened, resonating through the void like a drumbeat older than time. The celestial flames battered against it, searing and white-hot, yet the hammer only glowed brighter, its surface alive with veins of molten bronze and streaks of deep earth-gold.

It began to sing.

Not a song of melody, but of resonance—a deep hum that carried the sound of stone grinding against stone, of metal clashing upon anvils, of sparks leaping into life. It was the echo of the first forge, the eternal rhythm of creation itself. Every pulse felt like a heartbeat, and with each strike, the void shook, as if the hammer were beating against the foundations of existence.

Then—

CRACK!

The hammer split, fissures webbing across its surface. From those fractures spilled molten radiance, rivers of liquid fire that did not consume but formed. Shapes flickered within the light—mountains rising from seas, fortresses carved from bedrock, artifacts of impossible design. The hammer shattered into countless fragments, yet none of them fell. They hovered, orbiting one another like broken planets awaiting rebirth.

The celestial flames converged, trying to scour them, but instead, the fragments absorbed the fire, bending its wrath into fuel. For a moment, the void was drowned in a glow so bright it threatened to erase everything within it.

And then the forging began.

Piece by piece, the fragments slammed together with the weight of worlds colliding. Sparks burst outward, painting the void with arcs of copper and gold. Each strike was deliberate, as though unseen hands shaped them, reforging what had broken into something greater. The molten streams poured toward the colorless orb, drawn into its heart until the orb itself throbbed like a forge at full flame.

The voice returned, deeper than before, as though even it carried the weight of iron and stone:

"He struck the first flame against stone, and from that spark, a world was given shape. He raised mountains from the sea, and the bones of the earth sang at his command. He is the shaper of permanence, the hand of creation, and the eternal forge of will."

The fragments aligned one final time, collapsing into a surge of bronze-gold dust. It streaked toward the orb in a stream of molten light, vanishing into its center. The orb convulsed once, then steadied, glowing now with an undeniable solidity—dense, heavy, eternal. The essence of creation itself had been bound within it.

And then, the name fell like an anvil, final and absolute.

Dri.

The First Dwarf.The Creator. The One Who Gave Form to the Formless.

The orb pulsed, radiant with his power, a steady, unyielding glow that did not dazzle but endured. Where the essence of Lucifer had rebelled and burned, where Kael’s blood had pulsed with life and sacrifice, Dri’s power was different. His was permanence. Structure. The eternal foundation upon which all else must stand.

The void shuddered in response, as though acknowledging a truth that could not be denied.

...

The multicolored orb pulsed erratically, its surface shimmering like liquid glass. Blue, grey, gold, violet, black, and silver flared in turn, then all at once, colliding in a whirl of impossible colors. Unlike the steady beat of the hammer or the regal flare of the horns, this one was volatile, alive, unpredictable. It was not one essence—it was many, all struggling for space, yet bound by something deeper.

The celestial flames swept toward it, expecting resistance or collapse. Instead, the orb devoured them. Each lick of fire was pulled inward, its raw destruction consumed and transmuted into new hues of light. The orb expanded, trembling with so much energy it seemed it might explode.

And then—voices.

Not words at first, but primal roars, echoes, whispers, songs. Six distinct sounds overlapping in the void.

A resonant thrum like shifting stone.A roar that rolled like thunder under the sea.A guttural growl layered in gravel and grit.A chorus of howls wreathed in spectral flame.A whisper that was not a whisper, black and formless.And a crystalline cry that rang like music, sharp and eternal.

The shapes began to form.

A towering figure of living flesh and scale, four eyes glowing with psychic light—Saareiya, the T’Shalari.A colossal tortoise cloaked in earth, its shell a continent unto itself—Galeno, the Divine Tortoise.A winged gargoyle of grey, alchemical sigils running across its skin—Maverick, the Gargoyle.A massive three-headed hound wreathed in violet necroflame, eyes pits of death—Stygian, the Hell Cerberus.A shadowy formless being, its body shifting and collapsing like ink in water—Onyx, the Cursed One.A sleek drake with scales of shimmering azure, its mane of sound rippling in visible waves—Sage, the Sound Drake.

They emerged around the orb, not fully flesh, not fully spirit, but radiant projections of soul and essence. They circled it, their gazes fixed on Ethan’s core, on the colorless orb now infused with the essences of Lucifer, Kael, and Dri.

The celestial flames recoiled. They had burned rebellion, drunk blood, endured creation. But this... this was different. This was bond. This was not a single essence fighting to endure, but six souls bound together, overlapping like threads in a tapestry.

The beasts raised their heads and voices, a unified sound erupting from them—a song of defiance and harmony. The orb trembled and burst open. From within, six streams of multicolored dust spiraled outward, weaving together into a helix of light. They merged into the colorless orb, dyeing it in shifting hues, never settling, always changing, yet impossibly balanced.

The voice returned, quieter now, but filled with awe:

"He walked not alone but bound his soul to others. They lent him strength, and he gave them purpose. He is no master nor slave, but the bond itself—an eternal pact of spirit and power. In him, the many become one, and the one becomes many."

The fusion settled. The orb gleamed with swirling light, alive, as if it breathed. It pulsed once, and Ethan’s essence resonated with it. His veins—if they could be seen—would now shimmer faintly with shifting colors, a living aurora beneath his skin.

And yet, there was no mistaking the truth. This was no inheritance from another world. This was his. His bonds. His beasts. His power.

The void shook, not with rebellion, not with blood, not with the weight of creation, but with a new truth: connection.

The fusion did not end with the orb settling. No, this one went deeper.

The six beasts dissolved into motes of light, their forms shattering into streams of essence that flowed into Ethan’s core. For a heartbeat, silence ruled. And then—his body began to reform within the flames.

But it was different.

When the horns fused, he gained rebellion’s crown.When the droplet fused, he bore the mark of blood’s eternity.When the hammer fused, he carried creation’s weight.

But this—this was alive.

Across his chocolate-toned skin, faint veins of light rippled beneath the surface, like shifting constellations. They did not stay one color. Instead, they pulsed and changed endlessly, as if the six affinities were competing for dominance but never clashing.

Grey lines hardened briefly like stone, only to fade into shimmering silver sigils of alchemy. A faint violet fire traced his collarbone before dissolving into a ripple of sound, felt rather than heard. A shadow flickered across his chest, vanishing into golden earthen glow.

It was not chaos. It was balance. A balance only he could maintain.

His presence thickened, not with the crushing weight of a single truth, but with a living resonance. To look upon him now was to feel six forces whispering at once, threading into one another—earth’s steadiness, alchemy’s transmutation, necromancy’s hunger, curse’s inevitability, sound’s vibration, and the boundless, alien tide of psychic will.

And unlike the other fusions, this one bled outward.

The very void responded. The black ground trembled like stone echoing a great beast’s step. The air shimmered faintly with spectral light. Even the white flames bent, humming in tune for the briefest of instants, as if the cosmos itself acknowledged the pact he embodied.

The voice, when it returned, was hushed, reverent:

"He is no singularity alone. He is chorus. He is pact. In him, bonds do not chain—they become power. The beast, the man, the spirit, the curse, the song, the stone—within him, they are eternal."

The light dimmed. The orb pulsed once more, then folded back into his essence. The shifting glow beneath his skin quieted but never vanished. It was there now, woven into him forever—a living reminder that he was not one, but many.

The birth of a new race was reaching its climax. Ethan was becoming something new. Something powerful.