Sunlight fell across the tabletop.
The pitch black dagger lay there like a blunted lump of iron, reflecting no light and giving off no trace of life.
"Where should I start..."
Hephaestus thought for a moment, then continued,
"Let me begin with why this dagger broke."
[Hestia Knife].
This weapon, forged personally by the Goddess of Smithing, was for all practical purposes impossible to break through outside force alone.
According to Hephaestus, whether it was magic, like Ariel, or a skill, like Argonaut, if the dagger were ever unable to bear the strain, there would definitely be some kind of corresponding change first.
Setting aside the dagger's raw durability for the moment, even if it really were pushed to its limit, this living weapon would avoid danger on its own.
Just as a person would instinctively shut their eyes if a needle flew toward them.
The dagger would shut out the storm, become incapable of enchantment, or be forced to interrupt its charge.
So in the end, this divine weapon had not shattered because of any external factor.
"Bell Cranel, you are the source of all this."
Hephaestus patiently explained everything.
Rubbing her temples, she complained,
"Seriously, how can there be a human like you in this world... actually treating [Excelia] like [Experience Points]..."
The [Hestia Knife] could grow along with its wielder.
It was not absorbing experience points. Rather, the stronger Bell became, the more the dagger changed to match him.
And yet, extraordinary as it was, even a weapon like that had trouble keeping up with Bell's rate of growth.
It was like an ordinary kitchen knife used for cutting ingredients suddenly being sharpened into a blade that could slice through iron like mud. If the change happened too quickly, minor flaws were inevitable.
Nothing showed during battle, but that had still become an indirect cause of the dagger's fracture.
"The most important point is this, Bell Cranel. During this trip into the Dungeon, you truly did experience [death], didn't you?"
Hephaestus went straight to the heart of the matter.
"Yes."
Bell answered without hiding anything.
"I do not know what secret you are carrying, but that is the direct reason the dagger shattered."
To make the explanation clearer, Hephaestus used the gods as an example.
When the gods grant Falna to the people of the Lower World, that power disappears the moment a god dies or is sent back to Heaven.
Bell's relationship with the [Hestia Knife] worked the same way.
Because it was centered on Falna, no one outside Hestia Familia could use that dagger.
Which meant Bell's death had affected the dagger as well.
"Hephaestus-sama, did you tell Artemis about this?"
Bell asked anxiously.
"No. I could not bear to let her know something like this. You can relax. I forged that dagger with my own hands, so no other god could see through it."
Hephaestus put Bell's worries to rest.
Looking at the weapon on the table, she added,
"To be honest, I never meant to forge a weapon like this in the first place. A weapon that grows alongside its master is practically heretical."
Part of it was because Hestia had changed.
That former shut in had knelt for the sake of a single boy and promised to work hard from then on. As her close friend, Hephaestus had been moved.
The other part was the boy himself, who was simply too abnormal.
Hephaestus had been genuinely curious. What kind of person could start as the weakest Adventurer, endure one hardship after another, and still keep moving forward?
Taking all that into account, the goddess had agreed to Hestia's request.
"But now, I have changed my mind."
Hephaestus looked out the window.
"Bell Cranel, I tried to repair this dagger, and I failed..."
A weapon forged by a goddess with her own hands could not be restored, for reasons even she did not understand.
Sunlight reflected in her crimson pupils, and flames burned fiercely in her left eye.
Alongside a smith's frustration was joy at the [unknown].
That was Hephaestus's instinct as a god.
"..."
Bell looked at the excitement on the goddess's face and quietly waited for her to continue.
"A weapon can reflect a person's soul, and this living dagger does so more than most."
A faint smile appeared on Hephaestus's lips.
"Your [greed] has affected the weapon. When I tried to restore it, it even tried to devour a part of me."
The [Hestia Knife] was a divine weapon in the truest sense.
To put it in extreme terms, if someone killed a god with that dagger and gathered Divine Power into it, then to some extent it might even preserve that god's thoughts indefinitely.
In Hephaestus's eyes, forging meant understanding a weapon heart to heart and pouring everything into a dialogue with it.
"Because it was something unknown, I got pulled in too deeply... By the time I came back to myself, it was already over..."
The goddess had wanted to embrace the unknown and repair the dagger.
But while she was conversing with the weapon, she was the one who ended up drawn in.
Every battle the boy had fought rang in her ears.
Every cry of his soul and every burst of passion poured into Hephaestus's mind.
The ringing of the forge and the clash of blades blended together.
The goddess's own unshakable will had resonated with the boy as well.
Seeing through Bell's concern, Hephaestus explained gently,
"As far as I myself am concerned, nothing much has changed. It is only that those feelings flowed into my mind, as though I had been walking beside you the whole way and experiencing all those battles with you, large and small."
"...."
Bell finally understood why Hephaestus had been acting so intimate.
To her, he was probably both a stranger and someone familiar at the same time. That was why her attitude had seemed a little unusual.
"Putting that aside, the real problem is how to repair the dagger."
Hephaestus finally moved to the main point.
"Since part of me has been mixed into it, restoring it to what it used to be is now completely impossible. Even if I forged a brand new one, the secret tied to death inside you would just cause the weapon to shatter again."
During the battle against Goliath, Bell had only been able to secure the greatsword that won them victory thanks to Cassandra and Lili.
The problem of the weapon shattering had to be solved at its source.
"Hephaestus-sama, do you mean forging a new weapon out of these broken fragments?"
Bell looked at the goddess and asked softly.
There was no frustration in Hephaestus's eyes, nor any regret.
She had accepted the change the dagger brought her as a matter of course and had already thrown herself into the unknown.
"That's right. What comes next is unknown territory, even for me."
Hephaestus had already failed once, but now she had a new idea.
Her crimson eyes burned like fire, carrying the passion of a smith straight to Bell.
Even though they had only just met, Hephaestus looked at the boy as if she were facing an old friend.
She smiled lightly and invited him.
"Bell Cranel, would you like to challenge the unknown with me?"