Shattered Ash Knife

The «**Shattered Ash Knife**» (青へき風はいの短剣, *Hekihai no Tanken*?) is a «Priority» 47-class «Divine Object» dagger, forming naturally over a duration of approximately eight centuries at the roots of the Ash of Antinia. It is the personal weapon of Hildegarde Strauss.

## Background

Sometime in the Year 6 of the Imperial World Calendar, Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, planted an ash tree in fresh soil. The tree had a host of divine blessings from the goddess and it is these blessings that allowed it to endlessly grow larger over the centuries. It acted as a mystical (and physical) barrier against a nearby active volcano which had a continuous number of eruptions over the centuries.*[citation needed]*

Sometime in the fourth century, with tenuous records pinning the date to the Year 346, the volcano began spewing endless swaths of lava, burning the surrounding forest even with the ash tree's protection. The ash tree "mourned" the death of its friends as it survived alone in the hellish environment. Perhaps out of spite, the ash tree developed a synergistic relationship with the magma and a strange phenomenon at the roots of the tree synthesized into a naturally formed «Divine Object».*[citation needed]*

It is unknown exactly when the «Divine Object» synthesized but it was present, stabbed in the cooled lava when a group of «Sacred Arts» researchers explored the area on the Eighteenth Day of the Tenth Month in the Year 933. For the next three centuries, no one was able to remove the «Divine Object» which was given the name of «Shattered Ash Knife» from its resting place until the Seventh Day of the First Month in the Year 1222 when Hildegarde Strauss extracted the object.*[citation needed]*

## Stats

 Life
 Priority Class

## Abilities

### Armament Full Control Art

When the «Armament Full Control Art» is in effect, the «enhancing» stage summons a system-generated circle around the back of Hildegarde out of which either obsidian shards or molten lava (or both) synthesize from both the «Life» of the dagger and the free spatial resources floating in the air. Hildegarde can now freely manipulate the sharp glass and/or fiery globs of death as scorchingly powerful ranged weapons.*[citation needed]* She is also capable of extending the reach of her dagger by summoning lava to flow across the blade's surface which then hardens at whatever desired length she pleases; she is able to turn her dagger into all sorts of other bladed weapons via this method.*[citation needed]*

In order to achieve the second «releasing» stage of the «Armament Full Control Art», Hildegarde must be prepared to hurt herself for the unleashed memories of the «Shattered Ash Knife» returns the object into its former form: a lava-shaped dagger. As the wielder, she is relatively safe from the extreme heat but the «Memory Release» cannot be maintained for long due to this heat. The area around Hildegarde also melts from the heat radiation of the object, essentially making her "stand" in a molten pool of magma which she can freely manipulate.*[citation needed]*

## Notes

1. ↑ The Latin letters making up the Object ID stand for **N**on-ranged, **D**ouble-Edged, **D**agger, **S**ingle-Handed and the alphanumeric characters following that is the hexadecimal form of the number 1,743,847,334 which represents the order in which this specific weapon type was made in.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Volume 23, Chapter 3, Part 3