Danmachi-Hell's forge

She believed that she had my flames contained because of her barrier but the truth was that much like a wild tiger given a juicy steak she had only slowed it down while it savored it's meal. We hurried as fast as we could without me directly carrying her which wasn't very fast at all for an adventurer at my level. In fact it was almost annoyingly slow to me but Hephaestus was stuck in a normal if rather athletic mortal body so nothing for it really. I got some odd looks from her familia members as we reached Babel and ascended it's floors.-

Much like the Freya familia the Hephaestus familia lived and operated out of the massive tower though Freya lived at the top while the bottom and middle floors were occupied by Hephaestus. The ironic part was that unlike the vast majority of adventurers I had NEVER set foot on any of these floors until now. I simply had no need for anything that could be found here since only equipment and magic items were found here which I tended to just make myself. That said you could practically feel the wealth of the hephaestus familia with the vast amount of workshops and stores active on each floor.-

We ignored all that however as we went up the stairs between each floor of the tower until we reached the floor where Hephaestus herself had her workshop and office.

"Looks like we are just in time." I said as we entered and I saw those familiar black flames slowly consuming the disintegrating barrier.

"Stop it already!" Hephaestus said panicked.

"Calm yourself, it's not that simple anymore. They've had enough time and fuel to become partially independent, a bit like a naughty child. I need to coax them into behaving and being obedient again." I say relaxed as I approach the blaze.

The black flames seemed to pause slightly as I approached and I could just barely feel a sort of attention being placed on me from it. I didn't attempt to force the flames to obey or even summoned more to subsume these ones back into myself. That would be such a waste in my opinion as this set of flames had almost reached the point of solidifying into a cursed spirit. I held out my hand into the flames that flowed over my skin almost curiously before the blaze began to condense upon my palm.-

I added the smallest bit of my own energy to the condensing flame to give it that last little push to becoming a cursed spirit and watched with a growing grin as it started solidifying. Soon a small kitten with glossy pitch black fur and eyes sat on my palm purring away. -

W-what IS that?" Hephaestus asked with a slight nervous stammer.

I held the little curse carefully as I turned to her "This little one is a newly born cursed spirit, a being born when cursed energy grows to a certain point and tends to be the manifested embodiment of a thing or concept. Not much different than the spirits of old you gods created with a unique difference, the ability to grow." I explained with a happy smile as I stroked the small feline with a finger idly.

"This is forbidden! Mortals aren't allowed to create new life!" she hissed with a horrified expression.

"I am not the one who made this little one, you are. Sure I provided the final touches with my power but you are the one who fed it, nurtured it and refined it into what it is." I said honestly.

"I don't understand how this could have happened though." she said confused but calmed down since a god making new life wasn't forbidden.

"I'm not surprised you don't since you aren't familiar with cursed energy beyond myself and my tools. Cursed energy isn't passive like mana it's closer to the soul and thus more active. It's fueled by mostly negative emotions but not unaffected by positive ones despite this. This little one was born because of your own emotions when you tried to use it and fed it mana. Curiosity, love and excitement all mixed with the innate predatory nature of my flames to take this form when actualized, a cat." I explained casually.

Cats weren't harmless creatures despite what a great many people seemed to believe, quite the opposite in fact. Most felines were extremely prodigious hunters by nature even if they didn't need to. In addition to this cats saw nearly everything as prey which aligned perfectly with my flames. When I said love I didn't mean like that between a couple or a parent to their child but the love Hephaestus held for crafting.-

The context here however didn't matter as it was merely that warmth she felt about crafting something with the flames that worked into them. After eating an amount of mana great enough to hold a level six it was little surprise that the flames had grown dense enough to almost self actualize into a cursed spirit on their own. What I did at the end there was give them the last little push needed to finish that process since if I wasn't wrong this world didn't have any experience with cursed spirits and thus couldn't do it passively like in JJK.-

If you are wondering whether this cat was dangerous as a cursed spirit then that was also thankfully not an issue due to the uniqueness of this situation. See the flames came from me and were actualized by me so naturally this cursed spirit was also bound to me quite intimately. The best way to describe it would be that it was now like a familiar was for a mage, under control but it's own thing at the same time. That said if I fed it regularly it's power would grow equal to and perhaps even greater than my own as far as fire was concerned.-

Unlike me the [hell fire] cursed technique was it's innate technique and that meant it's potential with it was likely higher than my own as my main focus was on my [Hell's forge] innate technique. Right now it's firepower(pun intended) was quite weak as a new born cursed spirit but as it developed it could absolutely reach Special grade.