Kane opened his eyes and gasped loudly for air.

He lay flat on his back against the wooden floorboards of their rented inn room. The agonizing fire in his veins had vanished completely, leaving behind a strange and powerful thrumming deep inside his chest.

He blinked a few times to clear his blurry vision, then looked down at his own torso.

The glowing blade of Mjoldr was buried straight into his sternum.

There was no blood pooling on the floor or any pain radiating from the strike.

Grieselda stood quietly over him, maintaining her blank and doll-like expression as if she had not just impaled him.

She reached down and grabbed the leather-wrapped handle of the weapon.

With a smooth motion, she pulled the axe free.

The steel slid right out of his chest, and Kane watched in fascination as his unbroken skin closed seamlessly without leaving a single scratch or scar behind.

’Okay, that was definitely a new experience,’ Kane thought, sitting up slowly and rubbing his chest where the blade had just rested.

’I guess this is how fallen angels handle forging.’

Blue text immediately flooded his vision

[Weapon Bond Forged: Mjoldr]

[The Grimfang Corrupted Heart has been divided between host and weapon]

[New Passive: Primal Resonance]

[Effect: Mjoldr responds to your heartbeat. Attack speed increases when Rage is active.]

[Unexpected anomaly detected during forge process]

[Fallen energy signature absorbed into weapon] 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

[New Hidden Property Unlocked: Soul Brand]

[Effect: Mjoldr can mark enemies struck three times, weakening their defenses permanently.]

Kane read the messages twice to make sure he understood the gravity of what had just happened.

He looked up at the pale girl sitting patiently on the edge of the bed.

She didn’t just upgrade his gear using the bear heart because she had actually bound a piece of her own fallen essence directly into the steel.

"You put a piece of yourself in there," Kane said, his voice quiet but filled with respect.

Grieselda simply tilted her head slightly, offering no verbal response.

He reached out and took the newly forged axe from her hands.

The moment his calloused fingers wrapped around the hilt, he felt an immediate connection.

The weapon pulsed in perfect unison with his own racing heartbeat.

Thump... Thump...

It felt less like a forged tool and more like a living extension of his own arm.

"Let’s see what you can really do," Kane muttered, climbing to his feet.

He turned and took a casual, effortless swing at a sturdy wooden support beam near the corner of the room.

There was no extra effort behind it.

The blade sliced through the solid wood like it was made of warm butter, cleanly severing the beam in two without making a loud chopping sound.

A crimson aura bled continuously from the steel, casting an eerie and intimidating glow across the walls.

’This is a final boss weapon,’ Kane thought, resting the magnificent axe on his shoulder with a satisfied smirk.

The wooden door creaked open right at that moment.

Thora and Sira walked into the room carrying small canvas bags filled with supplies they had bought in the bustling merchant district.

They stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they crossed the threshold.

Sira immediately noticed the severed support beam and the weapon resting on his broad shoulder.

"What exactly happened in here?"

"I just upgraded my gear," Kane replied calmly, tossing the new axe into his magical inventory so he would not alarm them any further.

"Grieselda has some very useful hidden talents that we are going to utilize moving forward."

Sira raised a skeptical eyebrow but chose not to press the issue.

Thora, however, looked back and forth between Kane and the quiet violet-haired girl sitting in the corner.

Her eyes narrowed slightly in observation.

Because of the magical Harem Bond connecting them, Thora could feel a subtle but undeniable shift in Kane’s energy.

It was a new, potent undercurrent of power that definitely was not present an hour ago.

"You feel different, Chief," Thora noted softly, walking over to check his torso for any hidden injuries.

"I feel perfect," Kane smiled, pulling her close by her waist and placing a soft kiss on her neck to reassure her.

"We have the tools we need now, so we just have to figure out who I am killing first."

He stepped out of the inn the next day to check the main plaza.

The tournament organizers had just posted the official fighting brackets on a large wooden billboard outside the arena gates.

A loud crowd of elves, human mercenaries, and beastmen gathered around the board, pushing and shoving each other to find their names on the rolled parchment.

Kane used his broad frame to easily shove his way to the front of the packed crowd.

"Hey..."

"There’s a line..."

He ignored the angry mutters and curses from the smaller people he pushed aside. He looked past Prince Aelrindor’s highly protected seeded position at the top, and he noted the various high elven champions placed in favorable matchups.

Then he found his own entry.

His first round matchup was scheduled for tomorrow morning, right after the opening ceremonies.

He fully expected to see a pompous noble or maybe an arrogant beastman assigned to fight him, but the parchment did not list a proper name at all.

His opponent was simply listed as Contestant 47.

’A number?’ Kane thought, crossing his arms and studying the strange entry.

’Nobody enters a grand tournament without a name unless they are trying to hide something specific from the public.’

He listened to the crowd around him, but none of the locals seemed to know who the numbered fighter was either.

They were too busy placing bets on the elven nobles to care about the lower brackets.

Before Kane could ask any of the nearby royal guards about the mysterious fighter, a familiar blue window flared to life right over the wooden billboard.

[Warning: Contestant 47 is not what they appear.]