Over a hundred thousand years ago, Azeroth, ruled by the Black Empire where the Old Gods held sway, received aid from the Pantheon.
And so, under the leadership of the great forger Khaz'goroth, the Pantheon devoted its full efforts to creating an army whose essence came from Azeroth: the Aesir and the Vanir.
The Aesir were shaped from metal and wielded the power to command storms; the Vanir were formed from stone, and the earth was theirs to command.
These two immensely powerful kinds were known as the Titan-forged, or Lesser Titan Keepers.
Al carefully ran his hands over the enormous forge before him. With [Hyperthymesia] at work, not a single tiny detail in the chamber escaped his eyes. After a long period of careful thought...
Click.
With a crisp sound, a hidden compartment at the forge's lower left corner sprang open. Golden light startled the unprepared youth.
"I'm rich..."
He rubbed his eyes blankly. Before him lay an entire box of lesser Titan-forged cores, their intricate components giving off a soft luster within the keeper power enveloping them.
Like rare treasures beyond compare, these creation cores were, in a sense, beyond valuation. What they represented had no precedent and would never be matched.
"One, two, eight... Twenty-five in all. Are these creation cores the foundation for creating the stone guards? But..."
Al knitted his brows tightly, troubled. These creation cores were like hot potatoes, leaving him in a bind, unsure what to do with them.
"If I put all these cores into the stone guards..."
"Wouldn't that be shooting myself in the foot?"
The youth knew that even if he activated every stone guard, he would merely create twenty-five troublesome enemies with incredible speed and boundless strength. Without the corresponding authorization, all his efforts would ultimately come to nothing.
"Forget it. I'll figure out how to operate this big thing first. Maybe there'll be a pleasant surprise."
With that, the youth began feeling and prodding around, climbing up and down the enormous, several-meter-tall forge like an agile monkey.
"They call this Titan-forged? It's not all that impressive. With such a crude structure, spending another moment figuring it out would insult my intelligence..."
Al smugly dusted off his hands, his face full of mockery. He went around to the forge's rear side and began his experiment.
"What's this huge recess for? Let me think. It should be for fuel. Maybe those four-colored crystals will come in handy."
Taking four differently colored empowerment crystals from his spatial backpack, the youth roughly stuffed them all into the slot he suspected was the fuel port.
"Creak... creak... hummm..."
First came the crisp sound of gears meshing. The dust-covered behemoth began running, and with a tremendous hum, the forge fully activated.
"As an outstanding researcher, brute force works miracles-that's the bare minimum of professional competence."
Watching the black flames dance inside the forge, Al nodded in satisfaction.
"The fuel's burning a little fast. I'd better get moving."
The youth noticed the crystals in the fuel port slowly disappearing. He immediately snapped out of it and hurried to the other side of the forge.
"This recess should be where Khaz'goroth released his Titan power? Then the corresponding..."
Al carefully felt along the diagonal from the slot.
"Found it! This should be the outlet for the finished creation cores."
"But... where am I supposed to find Khaz'goroth's power? If only Nablya hadn't destroyed the black empowerment crystal."
After a long while, the black flames inside the forge slowly faded, and the clicking of its machinery became almost inaudible.
The youth sat dejectedly on the floor, his face full of regret. He stared at the creation core in his hand, unwilling to accept this.
It was like entering a mountain of treasure and returning empty-handed. Without sufficient knowledge, the little sphere gleaming with pale golden light before him was nothing more than a pretty piece of art to Al.
"Huh? Wait..."
As though he had discovered a new continent, the youth brushed the dust off his backside and flew upward.
On the dome, Khaz'goroth's enormous statue had its eyes slightly open. Its dull bronze pupils seemed to watch everything.
"What are you looking at?"
Al slapped the statue's face, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"Keep looking and I'll gouge your eyes out."
He bared his teeth at the statue. Having found nothing, the youth prepared to leave.
Just as he was about to turn back, Al seemed to notice something. He immediately turned around and returned to the statue.
"Did the Earthen who carved this statue have a grudge against you, old man?"
Al's expression was a little strange as he slowly reached his right hand toward the statue's eyes.
Pop.
The youth effortlessly thrust two fingers into the statue's eyes, and Khaz'goroth's mouth abruptly opened.
Seeming to sense something, Al suddenly twisted aside, narrowly dodging a scorching beam.
"Could a carbon-based life-form come up with a design like this? Wait, Titan-forged seem to be made of either stone or metal. What rotten luck."
Still shaken, Al patted his chest and looked at Khaz'goroth's statue.
A golden-red beam streamed continuously from the statue's mouth toward a wall of the chamber. Perhaps because its temperature was too high, the beam gradually changed color, slowly turning rose-red.
A moment later, the beam vanished. The statue's eyes popped back out, and its mouth closed, as though nothing had happened.
Al approached the wall the beam had scorched. Made from some unknown metal, the sturdy wall now had a round hole three feet across burned into it. Steaming red liquid dripped from the edges of the hole with sizzling sounds.
An enormous red button appeared before the youth inside the round hole.
Al: The last time I was this speechless was the last time. All these fancy tricks just to hide a red button? Did this chamber's designer come from Hollywood? Stick to writing scripts, will you?
Complaints aside, Al still studied it carefully for quite a while.
"Let's make a bold hypothesis. This red button... Anyway, I'll start the forge first."
With the familiar humming sound, the forge started up again. This time, Al deliberately stuffed a few extra crystals into the recess, just so it would run a little longer.
Taking out the twenty-five creation cores, Al carefully placed them in the diagonally opposite recess. Watching the unresponsive forge, the youth gritted his teeth and slammed his hand onto the red button.
"Warning! Warning! Creation forge reversion system activated!"
"Warning! Warning! Creation forge reversion system activated!"
Al listened in utter confusion to the unknown language ringing through the chamber. He scratched his head and simply stopped paying attention, instead carefully watching the creation cores for changes.
The forge, which had been unusually quiet just moments ago, suddenly began humming. The creation cores placed in the recess had also vanished.
As time passed, Al's expression grew increasingly focused. He stood guard at the recess on the other end, constantly watching the forge for changes.
"Pfft... pfft..."
A cloud of brown smoke flecked with golden glimmers gushed from the recess.
"Fuck... where are the crystal bottles? Where did my crystal bottles go?"
Al frantically rummaged through his spatial backpack, but he had forgotten something: on the way up the mountain, he had dumped all those research instruments on the dwarf.
Hemet: You chose this, idol.
Watching the slowly dissipating brown smoke with heartache, he made a bold decision. Throwing caution aside, Al hurriedly thrust his head forward, brought his mouth close to the recess, and sucked hard.
"Burp. Clean and sanitary."
After a full belch, the youth slumped dizzily onto the floor. The translucent system screen began flashing.
[Unknown gas intake detected] [Connection to Khaz'goroth's power detected] [Warning! Energy quantity excessive] [Warning! Energy overload...] [Warning! Host's body on the verge of collapse] [Repeated warning! Host's body on the verge of collapse]
The transparent screen flashed wildly, but the youth seemed not to hear it. His face was flushed red, and his whole body convulsed.
Half of Al's body shone azure blue, while the other half radiated scorching heat. These were signs of imminent partial elementalization. His body had already fallen into disorder and was about to collapse.
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
Water and fire elements collided violently, releasing scalding steam. By sheer ill luck, the spatial backpack at Al's waist fell to the floor, about to be touched by the right half of his body, which was turning into fire.
"Ah..."
A desolate sigh sounded. The statue on the dome opened its half-closed eyes, and those supposedly dull eyes suddenly became lively.
"You little brat. You actually gouged my eyes."
The statue's lips and teeth moved slightly, and its enormous bronze face seemed to come alive.
Looking down at the elven youth in dire straits, the statue rolled its eyes in a humanlike gesture. Then a brown light bearing the power of the earth shone upon the youth.
A moment later, Al returned to normal. His firm muscles were exposed beneath his tattered robe, the results of his many years of training under Salorian.
Al now seemed to be sound asleep. He smacked his lips, rolled over, and sprawled facedown on the floor. Before long, he began snoring.
The spatial backpack on the floor floated up, and the masses of four-colored crystals inside spilled across the floor.
"Ignorant, fearless little brat."
Whether it was an illusion or not, a faint smile seemed to cross the statue's rigid face before vanishing in an instant.
The crystals on the floor began to spin, arranging themselves neatly by color.
"Let's start with that fellow Aman'Thul."
Before the words had faded, the golden crystals began melting. Sandlike power of time formed a whirlwind, floating there in midair.
"And Norgannon..."
"Eonar..."
Next, the corresponding powers of the other three crystal colors also began to spin, then merged into a four-colored tornado that burrowed into the youth's forehead.
"And one more seal. Growing too quickly might leave you lost in power, and then my interference in this timeline would lose its meaning. Well then, brat, we'll meet at the end of time..."
"That was a really good sleep."
Al stretched lazily and habitually smoothed his golden hair.
A moment later, with a startled cry, the youth jolted to his feet. He touched the intact robe on his left side, then the bare skin on the right half of his body. Al looked a little dazed.
"How did I wake up half-and-half?"
Checking the system's history, Al broke out in a cold sweat, his expression showing relief at having survived a disaster.
"Why's there nothing after 'body on the verge of collapse'? And why did everything in my bag fall onto the floor?"
Scratching his head in confusion, he stuffed all the valuables scattered on the floor back into his spatial backpack.
"Where are my crystals? Does running a forge come with a brokerage fee or something? That was all my hard-earned money!"
With a wail, the youth knelt on the floor in utter anguish. Then he seemed to notice something and instantly turned to stone.
A high elven-style mirror lay flat on the floor. As Al passed it, he happened to notice what looked like something on his back.
He simply tore off his ruined robe and turned around. The moment he twisted his head back, he saw a hammer with pale green markings on his back.
"A tattoo, huh? Going gangster? They tattooed a fucking hammer on me?"
The elven youth collapsed onto the floor, with nothing left to live for.