(From the point of view of Violet Belladonna)

***

"What do we have to do now, Sir Roberto?" I asked as I placed a few more bandages around Sir Damian's back. The other magicians, alchemists, and medical professionals all left a few minutes ago, so we are the only ones left here. Thankfully, potions made from herbs and organic materials work on Sir Damian's body, so his body recovered quite quicker than usual. However, the steadfast soldier kept insisting that he doesn't need the potions; I bet he's just saying that because he hated the medicine's pungent smell and awful taste.

"Let me just finish this up for you then you can go on ahead and leave the castle immediately." Sir Roberto heaved a sigh as a few more hissing noises came from wherever he is right now. "There are a lot of those monsters all over Halavesta Jungle just outside of this place, but I'm sure it will be nothing compared to what you had gone through, Madame Belladonna."

"I hope it is." I gently laid Sir Damian on the bed with a smile before walking towards Sir Roberto, who stood behind a massive shelf, which hid his figure from us. "So, what exactly are you doing there, Sir Roberto?" I said as I peeked at what seemed like his workplace behind the shelf.

"Oh, well, I'm doing something with that razheema you bought with you earlier." He said as he focused his attention on the machinery operating in front of him. "You said you got this from that monster who attacked you earlier?"

"Indeed, we did," I said as I looked in awe at what I am seeing around me: countless potions, mechanical instruments, and many things that I have not even laid my eyes on before. "is this your office, Sir Roberto?"

"I'm afraid not, Madame Belladonna, but when the king personally called for me to come here, he ordered some soldiers to move the entirety of my office in this here place. Can you believe that man!?" Sir Roberto replied with a hearty laugh as he slowly took a blue metallic sphere on his table and handed it to me. "Here. Take this with you, and you can leave." He said as he placed the blue sphere on my right hand along with five small violent orbs that looked like tinier versions of my now destroyed razheemas on my left hand. The blue metal had these little letters inscribed on it, which I could never comprehend no matter how much I looked at it with squinted eyes. Meanwhile, I could see what seemed like violet toxins playing inside of the five smaller orbs, giving it its intense purple color.

"What is this, Sir Roberto?" I asked as I looked at the enormous blue sphere on my hand. I couldn't even properly contain them on my palms because of how massive it was; I think it was bigger than my face.

"Remember that old rock you were dragging earlier? I believe you said you got it from the giantess you battled earlier, no?" Sir Roberto said as he knelt in front of his large wooden shelf. He then started rummaging on a drawer at the very bottom of the said shelf.

"Why, yes, Sir Roberto. I believe it was my opponent's weapon of choice." I hurriedly said as I placed the sphere and the smaller orbs on the table beside his shelf again.

Sir Roberto then looked up at me as he pulled a silver longsword out of the lowest drawer on his shelf. I then took a step back as he stood up with it. "Well, you're in luck. That has got to be the most powerful razheema I have ever seen in my whole damn life!" He said as he walked towards Sir Damian with an excited chuckle while wiping his sweat on his orange robe's collar. Orange, huh? Can't say I'm a fan of his fashion sense.

"What exactly do you mean by 'most powerful'?" I asked as I stood there beside his humongous shelf with a dumbfounded look on my face.

He then decided to ignore my question as he suddenly said, "Hey, Madame Belladonna, I believe that the king has some kind of sword..." Sir Roberto said while scratching the back of his head as he placed the silver longsword on the bed that I used earlier.

"You mean the Sword of Legends?" I whispered with an embarrassed voice.

Sir Roberto then grunted in defiance as his eyes rolled. "Yes. The Sword of Legend. Ugh! What a stupid name."

"It's in there." Sir Damian said as he pointed at his armor and weapon on the ground around him.

"Oh, great! The king managed to give you the sword, then!"

"No, uh..." I said as I cleared my throat while fidgeting as I gazed at Sir Roberto. "He didn't really, you know, gave it to us. We uh... We stole it. We ran away with it along with the princes because I thought it would be uh... relevant, I dunno."

"Huh." Sir Roberto said as he took the still sheathed sword sitting in its pale-colored scabbard on the floor. "Well, you did well on that. Without the prince, this sword will be useless, and without the sword, the princes will be nothing." He then held the sword tightly on his hands and attempted to unsheath the blade. However, funnily enough, no matter how hard Sir Roberto tried, he couldn't unsheathe the darn thing. "Watch." Sir Roberto said as he approached Prince John, who's sleeping soundly on his crib just like he was earlier while we were running away. Sir Roberto then gently lifted the prince's small hands and placed his palm on the scabbard.

"Hey, what are you—" I said as I hurriedly approached Sir Roberto but quickly stopped speaking when I saw the sword exude a beautiful emerald brilliance from within its scabbard.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Sir Roberto whispered as he gently moved the prince's hand away from the sword. "Forgive me for my impudence. I just..." He said with a sigh as he gave out an awkward chuckle. "I just wanted to see it for myself before I... before I die. The brilliance of the promised sword and how only the legendary hero could activate it—a connection so steadfast that the sword itself would not permit anyone to use it other than the one destiny chose. A light so dazzling that I..." Sir Roberto then started choking on his words as tears began to fall out of his eyes. "... I don't want to die yet. I wish to see my prince unsheathe this sword himself."

I then placed my hands around Sir Roberto's trembling shoulders. I know that I'm trying to act as relaxed as I can, but I know for a fact that none of us here forgets that war is still brewing wild outside of this very room.

"You won't die, Sir Roberto, not today. The empire will rise again, and so will you. I believe that." I said in a weak whisper as I patted Sir Roberto's back.

He sniffed as he wiped his tears on the back of his hands with a nod. "I believe you were curious about that metal sphere that I had just given you."

"I, well..." I stuttered as I saw the newfound determination in Sir Roberto's eyes. I nodded as I looked at his tear-filled gaze. "That's right."

"It's that razheema you got from that giantess you spoke of; it's the same damn thing with a heck of a lot of modifications that I personally added." He then walked towards his shelf again as he spoke. "I found out that the stone itself contains such an unbelievable amount of untapped energy that..." Sir Roberto sighed as he placed the blue metal before my very eyes as his face lit up like the brilliance of a thousand stars. "... this razheema gives its user an unprecedented amount of mana that even I could not imagine how much it gives."

"Pardon?" I said with a stutter as Sir Roberto placed the orb gently on my hands.

"I coated the razheema with a blue tungsten casing to make it sturdier with or without your barriers." He then pointed at the area in between my eyes as he continued. "The tungsten I used there are ones that are personally given to me by the king's confidants as payment for my service today. I heard that they're imbued with some sort of ancient magic that I had never heard of before, which explains why it's filled with these unknown scriptures all over it, but I would happily give it to you just for the fact that you made me see such a wonderful razheema." He then took a step back as he waved his hands lazily at me. "Go on, activate your new weapon now."

I looked at Sir Roberto with a dumbfounded gaze before closing my eyes and focusing all mana within me into the blue sphere in my hands. Like a lion sprinting through a crimson forest, I could feel the magical energy in me rushing from within my heart towards all of the veins in my body as it gradually extended its arms towards the flowing magnitude of unwavering might contained in the ball on my hands. Like two lovers destined to meet, my magical energy clasped the blue sphere's fingers and held the razheema's hands tightly with an embrace that will never, ever end. I breathed the cold air around me as I slowly opened my eyes, revealing a white light spewing out of my eyelids.

"Sir Roberto... I... What is this?" I asked as I felt the devil shit's powers penetrate through the deep crevices of my own mana as my body tries its best to wrap itself around it like water and oil playing endlessly together, making me feel a soft texture running all over my heart. The razheema's might clasped itself onto my core while my body entered the blue sphere, gently wrapping its insides with the poison in my core. Both bounced off from one place to another, making me feel like I'm falling on an endless whirlpool in the vast array of light in the middle of the universe. One time I am feeling like I am swimming in milk, then when I let my guard down, I saw myself eating my own body and puking it all up before eating the rest of my head off. All of such visions started appearing in my mind that I could hardly feel my body touching solid ground, making me fly into the endless skies that the razheema had shown me. After a while, the feeling itself vanished, and the light coming out of my eyes disappeared with it gradually. However, I could still feel the noticeable changes that happened through my magical power. "What the fuck was that?" I screamed while panting as I looked at Sir Roberto's excited gaze.

"That, my dear, is what happens when you suddenly imbue your body with a huge amount of magic energy. How does it feel?" Sir Roberto replied as he took the five violet orbs sitting on his table.

"I feel... wow... I feel like I had just eaten the best food I ever had but also so disgusted that I felt like I had just seen what is happening on the battlefield." I replied while smiling while furrowing my eyebrows.

"Eh. Sounds about right! It gives you pleasure and disgust. That's what it feels like when your body welcomes this newfound might but also rejects its tremendous power." He then took three dark-green potions out of his shelf before approaching Sir Damian. When he walked past me, he placed the five small orbs on my hands again with a lazy look on his face. "Give it some time. You'll get used to it."

"What about these five orbs, Sir Roberto?" I said with an excited tone. "What do they do?"

"Oh, that?" He said as he forcefully made Sir Damian chug on all of the dark green potions on his hands, making the poor soldier flail uncontrollably on the bed. "Just some regular razheemas. Makes poison damage stronger, though; you'll like it. It's cute too." Sir Roberto explained further as he opened another one of those dark-green potions.

"I can tell," I said with a light chuckle.

"No more, please!" Sir Damian begged, but Sir Roberto immediately shoved the potion into his mouth again forcefully with 0 effort.

"Anyway," He said as he looked at the potion gradually descending into the injured soldier's stomach. "Once you leave this place, what will greet y'all is the Halavesta jungle right away." He then stepped away from Sir Damian, who's now coughing loudly with a tortured expression plastered all over his face. "Let me warn you, though. The whole place is filled with those damn hellhounds. I will be okay from here. " He then pointed his thumb on a wooden door on his left. "I'll go there. That one leads back to the battlefield." Then he pointed his other thumb to a metal door on his right side. "That one leads outside."

"I see," I said as I looked at the metal door while Sir Damian prepared his armor while taking the silver longsword that Sir Roberto placed on my bed. I heaved a deep sigh before gulping my saliva. "All the best to you, Sir Roberto," I said, extending my hands towards him.

"You too, Miss Belladonna. Take good care of the princes, will ya? No need to do something about my little nephew there; he can take care of himself just fine!" He chuckled as he grabbed my hands and shook it tightly.

I then carried the princes on my hands again as I allowed the blue metal sphere to fly beside my head while the other five violet orbs orbited around it swiftly.

I placed seven layers of strong barriers around the princes as Sir Roberto and Sir Damian tightly embraced each other while whispering words of farewell to each other. Usually, spells like this would be enough to deplete my mana down to its bare minimum, but even if I coat the princes with 14 more layers, I would still have enough mana to last for a century. If it weren't for the fact that eight layers of coated barriers will prevent air from entering through it, I would have given the princes 500 coats every second! Even if I do that, I am confident that I would still have enough mana until I die. What a frightening blessing this razheema has given me—of course, it's more than frightening for our enemy to know that we have gotten this. This devil shit alone must have been the reason why the enemies managed to penetrate our walls.

Fuck! I'm glad I stole it!

"Let's go, Madame Belladonna." Sir Damian said to me while Sir Roberto placed all sorts of mechanisms and potions inside of his huge leather bag.

I stood up with the princes around me as I walked into the metal door. Before I pulled it open, I turned my head towards Sir Roberto and nodded at him with newfound fire in my eyes. When Sir Roberto flashed a thumbs-up on me with a huge grin, I pulled the door with all my might and—

Eh?

It's not opening?

"Push it, Madame Violet."

EEK!?