Path Of War-Chapter 340: Reforged Blades II

To fix this issue, he had to make it more sensitive somehow.

'I'll have to increase the surface area,' he hoped.

It was his third try. Finally, the enlarged emerald started to respond. A success.

Lastly was the hardest crystal, ruby. This crystal would go into the Executioner's Blade, and it had to respond to the absorption of chakra. He struck a wall at this point. Because, like the emerald crystal, the ruby was unresponsive.

Arthur recognized the issue: he lacked the ability to absorb chakra. Yes, he was able to absorb natural energy—a talent developed from senjutsu training—but not raw chakra.

Something that could fill this gap was what he needed—a workaround. He required a chakra absorption source that he could incorporate into the ruby.

An idea came to mind. He returned to his lab via teleportation and began searching through his collections. There, he took a sample of Jugo's cells. Jugo was the ideal answer because of his natural capacity to passively absorb energy from the environment and transform it into chakra.

All Arthur had to do was reassemble these cells to also react to blood. And thanks to the centrifuge, this would be more than possible. However, to remove the passiveness of collecting natural energy might not be removable.

He returned to the research facility and proceeded to carefully remove a very small amount of molecules—a hazardous and volatile procedure in and of itself—from the cells. He then repeated the fusion process by carefully incorporating this essence into the ruby crystal.

The outcome was different this time. A faint, nearly undetectable energy pulsed through the ruby, subtly drawing in the surrounding chakra. It was sufficient to produce the required reactive property, but it didn't seem like true absorption.

To test, he placed the ruby next to his chest. It not only stuck to him; he could feel iron from inside him drawing closer to where the ruby was attached.

Arthur further tested its properties by entering Simian Sage Mode. But when he tried to gather the natural energy, he found himself unable to!

'Good...' he thought to himself.

Now this new Executioner's Blade could also siphon natural energy to repair itself.

The last step was to incorporate the three crystals into each sword's core after they had been successfully fused and imbued.

Throughout the entire process, this was the most straightforward step. In order to insert the appropriate crystal—the emerald into Hiramekarei, the sapphire into the Boltswords, and the ruby into the Executioner's Blade—he carefully made a tiny hole in the hilt of each weapon.

After that, he sealed the cavities, making the crystals an essential component of the weapons. Once the intricate fusion of the crystals was complete, the final assembly was nearly anticlimactic, and the entire process took no more than an hour.

The swords were now bonded to their intended users thanks to the crystals embedded in them. They would only react to Hoshikaze, Kaito, and John's particular chakra signatures.

The weapons would be inert if anyone else tried to use them. Even worse, they could set off a defensive mechanism that could damage a false wielder with a surge of feedback chakra or, in the worst case, cause a localized detonation that would destroy the weapon and the unauthorized user.

This was as much security as he could put in place for the time being.

A part of him longed to give these three weapons sentience, akin to Samehada. Its ability to fuse with its wielder and its appetite for chakra made that sword an incredible weapon.

The issue was that Arthur only fully comprehended the workings of six of the Seven Swords. Samehada was still unknown. Only twice had he come into contact with it, both times during intense combat, leaving him with insufficient time or opportunity to collect the comprehensive data required to replicate its sentience.

He would have to take the weapon from Kisame Hoshigaki and dissect it before examining its chakra pathways and structure in order to produce sentient weapons like it.

But that would undoubtedly cause problems with the Akatsuki, set off far too many alarms, and, to be honest, wasn't worth the possible trouble at the moment.

No, these bonded, reforged blades were sufficient for the time being. They were particularly sensitive to his clones, strong and dangerous.

Testing the reforged blades' abilities was an essential next step after they had cooled and fused. In order to observe their operations without attracting undue attention, Arthur chose to do so in the relative seclusion of the wilderness that surrounded his village.

He could use these weapons without risk; as their inventor and the source of his clones, the crystals inside understood his basic bond and would not malfunction.

He started with the Executioner's Blade. Its capacity to heal itself by consuming the blood of its adversaries was its distinguishing feature.

He tested this by channeling chakra into his arms and purposefully breaking the wide blade in half. Even before its self-repairing capabilities took over, the weapon's inherent durability was demonstrated by the crude break.

If the repair failed, he didn't care; he could always start over.

After spotting an elderly grizzly bear shambling through the forest, he threw the broken weapon with perfect accuracy. The bear was instantly killed when it was hit in the chest. Arthur walked over to the fallen beast and took out the hilt that was still in its fur.

He looked at the blade's broken half. The sharp edges started to slowly heal, almost imperceptibly at first, by using the bear's blood as fuel.

He experienced an odd feeling as the blade knitted itself back together. It was an instinct, a desire for more blood, a sense of increasing power. He then looked down at his arms and saw that his veins were swollen, a tangible representation of the force the weapon was drawing from the dead animal and, in some way, intensifying inside of him.

'It's strengthening me,' he believed.

This unanticipated consequence was undoubtedly advantageous. However, how would it respond to something stronger, like Sage Chakra?

Arthur teleported to the colourful, sun-drenched Cayman Jungles to look into this. Upon arrival, he briefly closed his eyes and waited.

Abruptly, a tiny, hairy body threw itself onto his back, with thin arms encircling his neck. Koko.

"Please don't leave again, daddy!" she screamed as she started to swing playfully from his arms with the naiveté of a child.

I'd like you to test something for me," he calmly said. Then he withdrew the Executioner's Blade. "Here..."

Koko's big, bright eyes were focused on the weapon. Yes, it was shiny, but there was also a strange, almost predatory glint in her eyes. She seemed more interested in eating it than in holding it.

Her tiny hand closed around the hilt as she took it, but then she flinched.

"I don't like it, daddy!" she cried as she threw the weapon far into the woods. Arthur remained passive, being fully aware of her response. On contact, the blade was trying to absorb her Sage Chakra while preparing to detonate. "It's also heavy and stinks!"

Extending his arm, the weapon returned right back into his palm. Then he opened a scroll, and the Boltswords appeared. He raised the swords in the air, and Koko watched in fascination.

The bright blue sky above them started to grow darker after a few seconds. Black clouds began to form, whirling and spreading at an unnatural rate. Then a deep rumble of thunder followed by flashes of lightning flickering within the growing storm clouds.

It caused Koko to gasp in astonishment.

Arthur swiftly lowered the Boltswords, and the dark clouds broke up as quickly as they had appeared, allowing sunlight to return to the canopy of the jungle.

"What was that, daddy?"

Arthur clarified, "These swords have the ability to control the weather... Compared to a natural storm, they can create thunderclouds much more quickly."

"That is so cool! You're like a superhero, daddy!"

Arthur mentally noted that he needed to find out where she was learning these terms from.

He dropped the Boltswords and materialized Hiramekarei, disregarding her claim to be a superhero. He thought that of the three, this was possibly his best creation. Why? Because at first it had no blade at all. It was just a hilt.

A flick of his wrist caused a weapon—an axe with a sharp, defined shape—to emerge from the blue, pliable chakra.

Koko's eyes were fixed on the transforming weapon, completely enthralled.

When Arthur flicked his wrist once more, the axe vanished and instantly reformed into a staff. With one more flick, it transformed into a set of nunchaku, which are segments of the chakra joined by a flexible energy chain.

"I want it! I want it! I want it now, daddy!"

Koko held out her hands and pleaded. Calmly, he said, "Perhaps another time."

He was wise enough not to give her a weapon that could change form at will. In fact, any of his weapons in her hands would likely be destroyed; that or she would be the one doing the destroying.

Her face fell in disappointment as she moaned, "Awe!"

The blue chakra dissolved back into nothingness as he sealed Hiramekarei away. Now Arthur's had concluded. He'd seen what he needed to see.

Hiramekarei could now transform better and faster, the Boltswords controlled the skies, and the Executioner's Blade repaired and improved its wielder.

His clones would now be virtually unstoppable.