"Seeing that Alexis let you go without a scratch, it must mean that you taking this much blood indeed had no effect on him" Hephaestus sighed helplessly and snatched the blood from Thor's hands. If their Young Master had been hurt, Thor wouldn't be alive and kicking right now. It would have been a miracle if he wasn't buried in the pits of Cocytus.
"Of course he was unharmed! He is Asgardian! In fact, he giggled happily the entire time" Thor harrumphed. The more he spoke, the less Hephaestus felt he had to hold himself back. Luckily, his reasoning reminded him that he was weaker than the Thunder God by a large margin, and he held himself back.
"We would use some of the blood for this Chief Soul Weapon. With the amount here, we would be able to brand his armor and other soul weapons as well" Although he wasn't happy that Thor stole the blood from a one month old, it was there to be used. Plus, it was more than enough for all of the weapons that had been made.
"Speaking of which, where are the other weapons?" Thor asked.
"Being tempered on Nidavellir" the leader dwarf answered.
"If only we had a lot more of his hair for the other weapons as well" a dwarf mumbled.
"Don't worry about that" Thor bellowed. "I have all the hair that was cut off when he had his first hair cut" he continued and pulled out a large bag full of golden yellow hair. It was amazing how he refused to see the twitching faces of everyone here, and went on to present a handful of the hair to the dumbfounded Hephaestus.
"Let's just get this done with" Hephaestus sighed and took a strand of the golden yellow hair. He dipped it in the blood while mumbling some words. The hair lit up and swallowed a substantial amount of the blood in the bag. Seeing this, Thor worriedly asked, "Would it really be enough. One weapon alone took so much blood".
The leader dwarf waved his hand to dismiss Thor's worries and said, "It is more than enough. The others would require only a drop of blood".
"Whew. That's good to know" Thor responded and returned his attention to Hephaestus.
"I need your help Havard!" Hephaestus screamed as he placed the blood soaked hair on the axe. He held it like how one would hold a nail about to be hammered, with the tip of the hair on the axe. Sweat fell profusely from his face as if he was in battle, and his arms shook heavily like he was trying to support a large amount of weight.
Havard, the leader of the dwarves, rushed to Hephaestus' side with incredible speed. A large hammer magically appeared in his hands. It had a handle that was twice his height and a head that was almost his size. It looked unbelievably heavy, but he brandished it like it was just an abnormally large spoon – with dexterity and amazing deftness.
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
*Bang*
The two – one god, one dwarf – hammered the blood soaked hair on the axe powerfully. They worked with amazing skill, and their teamwork was impeccable. The hair was being hit at all times. Immediately Hephaestus removed his hammer, Havard's would come crushing down on the hair. Little by little, the hair was hammered in under the efforts of Hephaestus and Havard. As they hammered away, Hephaestus continued with his strange chants. And Havard emulated him. Before long, all the dwarves were speaking in the strange tongue, and a blue light was being gathered from their bodies and deposited into the hair strand.
"Amazing" Lilith gasped at the magical scene. It was so beautiful.
"It is indeed" Thor nodded and smiled. But he wasn't comfortable for long. Before he could say anything else, his name was mentioned.
"Thor! Gather the elements! When I give the signal, let them descend upon the axe!" Havard screamed.
Thor nodded his head in acknowledgement. Although Havard didn't see it, he knew the Asgardian heard him. Sure enough, several dark clouds formed in this hall, right above the heads of everyone else. As Thor's eyes lit up with lightning, so did the clouds.
*Brack*
Lightning elements quickly assembled within the dark clouds, awaiting the command of the one who summoned them.
"Now!" Havard screamed and lifted his hammer high into the air. Hephaestus did the same. Several large bolts of lightning – each bigger than a red maned horse – descended onto the hammers
*Ka-boom*
"Hah!"
"Grah!"
The two men shouted and dropped their hammers simultaneously.
*BOOM*
The two hammers crushed onto the hair strand with incredible precision. Lightning was transferred from their hammers into the axe head and the dark clouds dissipated.
"Oh Great Flames of Chaos. He who stood with the Origin King as general over the masses. One who is noble and before all else, kind. Please bestow onto us your flames that this axe, forged from devilstone, with the blood and sweat of myself and a hundred dwarves, and branded with the blood and power of the Supreme, would finally be complete!"
It was strange to see a god asking an Origin artefact for its blessings, but Hephaestus did it anyway. The sleeping Chaotic Flame at the corner of the hall blazed powerfully when Hephaestus mentioned the Supreme. It rose grandly and burned brightly, overshadowing Thor's lightning feat effortlessly. A small ball of fire detached from it and approached the axe head. It melted into the hair strand and disappeared.
Immediately, Hephaestus and Havard got to work. Under the chanting of all the dwarves who supported them from the side, the two hammered on for a few more minutes. Their sweat fell onto the ground like heavy raindrops, but their smiles blossomed as they got closer and closer to completing their task. Finally, under their immense efforts, the weapon was completed. The usually indefatigable duo were exhausted, but they kept their footing.
"You are now born! Birthed from the baptism of the chaotic fire of the Chaotic Flame and the tempering of Thor's lightning, you have been made anew. Harbinger of Chaos is your name! Connect with your master, and grant him a pleasant awakening!" Hephaestus loudly chanted.
"Resonance!!!"
His chants elicited a response from the axe head that slept soundly all this while. It lit up with a white glow so blinding that any mortal would have had to close his/her eyes; but none of those here were mortals. They watched intently, not planning on missing even a single detail. Suddenly, a golden pillar of light descended onto the axe. Hephaestus and Havard looked stunned. It was obvious that this wasn't their doing. Hephaestus panicked, thinking that something was wrong. As he rushed to intercept the golden light, Havard held him back.
"A gift from the Allfather. That's Gungnir's light." The golden light descended into the axe and disappeared. Finally, the axe head was calm.
"Why did Father send Gungnir's spirit to Mane?" Thor was surprised by what he saw. Unlike Havard, he knew exactly what that light was. It wasn't a simple 'gift'. It wasn't Gungnir's light, but Gungnir's spirit itself! Granted, it would return to the Allfather just as quickly as it left, but it was still Gungnir's spirit.
Forseti looked at Thor with a puzzled expression was well; but his expression eased when he remembered something. He drew close to the Thunder God and mumbled in his ears, "Even Grandfather cannot distort the barrier of Zandor from so far away. He must have used the axe head to bestow Mane with a skill"
"That makes sense" Thor nodded. "So is it done?" Thor asked Hephaestus.
"I don't know. We need a handle as well. And maybe more blood. Maybe that is what will awaken it" Hephaestus seemed uncertain. As a maker of several godly weapons, it was strange that even he couldn't tell whether the Harbinger of Chaos was truly awake.
"I have a branch from the World Tree. It was a gift from Grandfather; a gift wasted on me" Forseti chimed in a produced a deep black rod from his bag. What was strange was that the 'rod' was glowing with a black light that seemed to excite the Chaotic Flame. Forseti saw this, and so did the others. Without asking for their opinion, he bowed slightly to the Chaotic Flames and tossed the 'rod' to it.
*Crackle*
The Flames of Chaos spat excitedly as they consumed the branch of the World Tree. It suddenly looked much brighter.
"This" Hephaestus scratched his head helplessly. He didn't know how to say that Forseti shouldn't have done that. The Chaotic Flame had been a big help, so it was hard to condemn Forseti for his actions. But the question now was, what were they going to use for the haft since the branch had been given out?
"Don't worry. My uncle has a few scales from the World Serpent. I'm sure that would be even better" The eyes of Hephaestus and all the dwarves lit up when they heard Forseti's words. Their hungry looks scared even Thor, who quickly produced a few blue scales from his bag. There were about seven scales, and each one was as big as Thor's fist.
As Hephaestus and the others appraised the scales, the vampires noticed something extraordinary.
"What is that?" Vlad wondered as the previously silent axe head lit up again. But this time, it wasn't a white light that surrounded it, but countless streaks of blue lightning. Several runes appeared on the axe head as lightning leaked out of it.
*crackle*
"Such pure energy" Alucard marveled. As beings that feasted on the energy of others, vampires were much more sensitive to the pureness of the energy leaking out of the axe than the others. But no sooner had they realized the strange scene than the others also caught on.
"It is even purer than my lightning" Thor mumbled in amazement as the lightning leaking out of the axe head grew stronger.
"It is awake! It is awake!" Hephaestus grabbed Havard happily and screamed. The short dwarf laughed foolishly and played along. Under the gazes of the excited dwarves and Hephaestus, a pillar of lightning was produced from the axe head and drowned it completely in a 'pseudo' lightning storm. The lightning bolts broke out of the hall and ascended into the sky in search of their owner. A golden thread of light traveled with them as they exited the planet.
"It's gone to find Mane" Thor smiled. Although the axe head was still here, its energy had left to find its master, and when it did Mane would truly awaken. This was what truly helped Mane. This was what granted him the ability to use lightning. It was his weapon. He just didn't know it yet.
"In the end it awakened" Havard laughed. "I thought we were going to need more blood" a dwarf joined in. "Yeah. What would you have done if we indeed asked for more blood" another dwarf teased Thor.
"Oh I have a lot more here. You should have seen his face at the time. It was like he was taunting me to take as much as I could! Hahaha." Thor laughed and produced three more large blood bags. They were even bigger than the one he gave them. Seeing this, all of them felt like puking blood. What a shameless grandparent; taking so much blood from the boy when he was only one month old, without feeling an ounce of guilt or remorse!
Thor's laughter continued under the looks of scorn from all those here