Maxwell stared at the blade for a long while as the recent memories associated with it flooded his mind. The walls that separated the different territories manned by small armies cut down like they were paper and the superweapons he had made destroyed in what seemed to be mere seconds flashed in his mind. These were terrifying memories but also hopeful ones as well now.

  As they showed the promise the blade now held for him, if he could harness its power correctly, then he would be assured of his realm's continuation. This would also prove Phabium, the god of monsters that had saved him from his endless wandering and torment in the void, that he was right to do so and that his choice was not only a good one but a great decision indeed.

  Though how to use the blade. It was a hero's weapon, which, considering what he knew about such things, meant it was more than likely already trying to get some new hero to take it up. He couldn't see how, but that would be how such tales went. Some lucky nobody found a heroic artifact, and now he's leaving a path of destruction and devastation related to the specific villain of the tale.

  In fact, he recalled some knights' blades from the game the age of legends that fit such a thing perfectly. So with the thought of that particular scenario with one of the grass pixies somehow getting the hero's blade and going on a rampage in his domain with it. He was left no other way forward than processing the blade in some way. He couldn't turn the blade into raw material, as he didn't have any great smiths that could use such material.

  Not to mention the new heroic material may very well lose power during the change, which would be unacceptable. As this would be perhaps one of his greatest triumphs, to turn the blade of a fallen swordsman hero would be a crowning achievement for him and his realm. If the results turned out to be subpar, it would ruin the entire achievement.

  So how to handle the blade? He gazed on the blade with greater intensity, thinking on what to do and how much time he had to do it. As the blade was no doubt working in some way to move events to give rise to a new hero to wield it. As he continued to stare, he let out a big sigh in frustration, causing a small ghost-lead tornado to form in front of him. This took his attention away from the blade at the newly spawned ghost-led tornado. Then as he gazed at it and then turned toward the blade, looking back and forth for a few moments, the idea hit him.

  It was perhaps time to improve himself personally once more, and what better thing to use to expand his power than a fallen hero's blade? Though how to exactly go about doing this or how to get such a weapon infused into himself was now the real question he had to answer. The blade was absurdly sharp. This was one of the reasons it was so dangerous. With no ease at all, the blade has gone through his toughest undead like they had no defense at all.

  No how-to to combine such a blade with himself. It wasn't like he could use a sword in his current state. He could probably pull it off with his SMOG CONTROL, but that probably wouldn't be all that effective in the end. Then it occurred to him he could use the gate of undeath. It was that gate he had made effectively out of his own skeletal jaw that allowed him to create ghost lead tornados.

  Surely combining the hero's blade with his gate could only improve the power of the gate of undeath, allowing him to do even greater acts of necromancy. So with an idea of what he was going to do next, it was time to implement it. He grabbed the Gratana firmly in his necrotic smog hands and brought it towards the gate that was once his mouth before he had become a skeletal building.

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  He decided the best way to do this would be to use the necrotic wind to fuse the blade into the gate, as that was what he'd be having improved. So he opened the gate wide and released a powerful ghost leaf tornado that took the blade from his smog hands and forced it firmly into the gate. The blade began glowing green, trying to fight what was happening with whatever power it held.

  Maxwell merely poured more necrotic wind into the ghost leaf tornado, making it stronger to push against the power of the Gratana. The battle of necrotic wind and heroic grass blade went on and on. The powers were building and clashing, causing strange winds to blow throughout the kingdom as a result.

  Those of the kingdom of necrotic smog stopped what they were doing and began to watch what was happening. The grass pixies did so in a silent horror, feeling some of what was being done to the heroic blade. Well, those undead citizens made by Maxwell gave a silent cheer as their king and creator grew in power with their greatest enemy's weapon. The powers of the winds built up and up as the opposing forces were reaching the end of the battle of wills.

  So it was in a final crescendo that Gratana fused with the gate of undeath. It did so in a wave of power that traveled through the kingdom of necrotic smog and out of it. For a moment only silence remained as Maxwell did the equivalent of panting as if out of breath. Though instead of lungs inflating and then deflating, there was a constant necrotic wind coming out of Maxwell now.

  For a moment Maxwell wondered at what kind of changes adding a hero's blade to himself would be, then a blue scroll appeared before him, and he read it with great interest, wanting desperately to know his plan had paid off.

  Maxwell looked at the new abilities he had gained and found himself wondering if he should whistle or groan. As the abilities were great, a constant flood of ghost blade tornados to help reinforce against any intruder who was pushing deep in would be a great thing. The other two new abilities were worrying him, though. As it showed a level of power that he was pretty sure no monster kingdom had ever had.

  Since villains were the equivalent of heroes, then him being able to create a steady stream of them to a small degree would be the type of ability that could be a game changer. In any event, he could tell Phabium that not only had he used the Gratana to its fullest abilities but also could turn the tide to some small degree back into the monsters' hands. Which would no doubt put him at the top of several people's lists.

  The ones where they send people not to kill you but to wipe any trace of your existence. He was pretty sure he was on the top of a few kill lists within the nearby woods, but those new abilities would put him in the crosshairs of some very dangerous people. Though Maxwell wasn't afraid at the moment due to the fact that being on those lists meant he was doing his job very well.

  So it was that Maxwell was looking to see what these villains that could be created from his little trial would be like in the end. As well as how the rest of his kingdom would look upon them, truly even more interesting times were ahead.