Hephaestus trudged deeper and deeper into the cave systems trying to sort out the complicated thoughts in his mind.
Hephaestus knew he was ugly. After all, if he wasn't, his birth mother wouldn't have thrown him away. He just had to accept it.
Born as a god, his physical disfigurements were quite permanent. Perhaps if he had better control of his godly powers he would be able to change his face to appear scarless. However, his reshaped face would revert to its original scarred form anytime he revealed his true godly form. Not to mention his permanently lame leg.
The most baffling part was that Hephaestus couldn't help but believe that he used to have a perfect face at one point in his life. Even though everything he knew about his life said otherwise.
For some reason when he looked deep into his mind, he would envision the face of a black-haired man. A complete stranger that he had never seen, yet was imprinted into his mind giving off a familiar, no familial sense.
Hephaestus sighed.
Perhaps it was a long-lasting issue caused by the fall from Olympus. Maybe if he became a stronger god, he would be able to sort out the cause of this issue. After all the power a god of sculptures held was quite minimal.
In a battle against any other god, he would be quite helpless.
What could he do? Block the lightning bolt of Zeus with a statue? Throw one at him?
Hephaestus couldn't help but chuckle at the image of himself throwing a statue at the king of gods and hitting him in the head.
Jokes aside, something deep inside Hephaestus told him that his destiny did not end at sculptures. He had more to show.
As Hephaestus walked deeper and lower into the ground, the temperature began to rise. For some reason, the heat didn't bother Hephaestus and only gave him a warm feeling inside.
His worries would burn away more as the temperature grew until even the rock surrounding him started glowing a dull color.
Sensing a great sense of yearning appear in his body, Hephaestus followed his instincts until a large cavern filled with molten lava and metal appeared before him.
Hephaestus took a deep breath as he took the image of the lava pool all in for a moment.
This was where he was meant to be. He could feel it.
Something about this pool of lava screamed destiny.
Hephaestus grabbed a piece of metal on the floor and dipped it into the lava until it was red hot. Using his bare hands, Hephaestus shaped it into the shape of a hammerhead. Even though his hands should've been severely burnt, Hephaestus had the odd feeling that it wouldn't hurt at all.
It was as if fire and lava would bend to his will.
Grabbing another piece of metal, Hephaestus made it into a long cylindrical rod before welding the two pieces of metal together with the heat of the lava fusing them perfectly.
As Hephaestus looked at his completed creation, he felt a smile appear uncontrollably on his face.
He felt his godly powers increase as he gained dominion over another area.
As he held the newly forged hammer in his hands, his body combusted into orange flames, tickling him with warmth.
His dark gray hair slowly rose up and turned orange like fire.
He was the god of flames.