After reaching the maximum level, my "soft rice system" finally arrived.

Isabella stretched lazily, her black military uniform outlining a languid curve.

As the third princess of the empire, Isabella has been the focus of countless people's expectations and attention since she was very young and could remember things, due to her extraordinary talent.

Supporters hope she will become an excellent empress and lead the Aran Empire to greatness once again.

Meanwhile, her opponents have been observing and studying her every word and action day after day, year after year.

They wanted to find her weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and then strike this young candidate for the throne dead.

Therefore, in order to meet the expectations of others, Isabella has always held herself to the highest standards.

While other noble girls huddled together, discussing the latest fashion trends and romance novels from Black Tower, Isabella navigated the military, the Bureau of Administration, and the Adventurers' Guild, undergoing the most rigorous imperial education.

What accompanied her day and night was not the teddy bears, flowers, and pretty clothes that other children her age had, but rather cold military orders and that cold, glaring practice sword.

Abandon the leisurely pursuit of praising butterflies and flowers.

Give up on your sweet, romantic love.

She also didn't have any close girlfriends like other girls her age.

Because a so-called "ideal king" who perfectly meets the expectations of his ministers and father should not have such a weak mental flaw as relying on others.

but.

Looking back now—

Isabella glanced sideways at Charles beside her.

His black hair, along with his mage robes, was being blown about by the long wind, making a rustling sound.

It seems appropriate to rely on others sometimes...

It looks pretty good.

......

Charles walked forward step by step.

Then, they arrived at the place that was originally called Hailan Mansion, but is now a ruin with broken walls and crumbling walls.

With divine blessing and through repeated repairs by divine power, the Second Prince withstood most of the impact and heat released by the Heavenly Punishment Sword.

This gave the other nobles who were watching an opportunity to escape.

At least many of the nobles were themselves superhumans, and those who weren't superhumans had similar bodyguards and guards, and they had kept a considerable distance from the Second Prince from the beginning.

So most of the nobles, though disheveled and humiliated, managed to survive.

Of course, a small number of unlucky nobles were not so fortunate, and their wails and cries of agony could be heard from time to time.

However, when Charles arrived, all the noise vanished in an instant, and the air became eerily quiet.

Those nobles weren't blind—

Therefore, they naturally knew who had created that towering meteor.

If many nobles previously harbored ulterior motives, believing that if they could gather the power of numerous great nobles and invite a few near-legendary figures, then the power of a legend might not be so unshakeable...

Now, after that divine being was so easily defeated—

Even the most audacious madmen and ambitious schemers were now as quiet and obedient as the trained hamsters in the Golden Deer Merchant Guild's pet shop.

Damn it, are all the legends who come out of the Black Tower monsters?!

That's how the golden elf is.

Now, even the apprentices she teaches are like that!

Can wizards be this unreasonable?

......

Charles ignored these nobles.

How to deal with these nobles, whether by killing them all or by coercing and bribing them, was a matter for Isabella to worry about.

After all, he came from the Black Tower and did not have the standing to make decisions on Isabella's behalf.

Charles walked step by step to the center of the ruins.

What came into view was a huge crater.

In the extraordinary world of the Western Continent, there has always been this perplexing problem—

Whether they are lower-level, middle-level, or high-level extraordinary individuals, or legends or near-legends.

The amount of magic that their physical bodies can store and mobilize—

In other words, the so-called personal power attributed to oneself must have an upper limit.

Whether for humans, vampires, high elves, wyverns, or even dragons, this upper limit may vary depending on individual differences.

But without a doubt, it truly exists for every individual.

With the legendary rank being the limit, the upper limit of magical power has become an insurmountable chasm that countless legends throughout the Western Continent have struggled to overcome over thousands of years...

Countless prodigies, heroes, and kings have been trapped before this limit, unable to make even the slightest progress in their entire lives, and ultimately only able to die in despair.

However, for Charles—

This problem, which seemed almost unsolvable to the powerful figures of the Western Continent, actually had an answer from the very beginning.

once......

There is such a group of people, such a race.

They are unable to absorb magic power to temper and strengthen their physical bodies, nor can they use spells to mobilize the magic power circulating in the world for their own use.

Or rather, the laws governing their world simply do not allow for the existence of things like magic.

If placed in the Western Continent, they would be what is called "a race abandoned by the gods".

The pinnacle of individual combat prowess among them—the so-called free-fighting champions—would probably be comparable to a newly-entered second-tier apprentice knight in the Western Continent.

It should be noted that in the Western Continent, even the lowest-ranking goblin tribe has a goblin chieftain who is at least at the third rank.

Yet, this is precisely the group of people abandoned by the gods—

They can use submersibles to descend to the deepest parts of the ocean abyss, where even legends cannot stay for long;

They can also use aircraft to reach the distant starry sky that even the wings of a giant dragon cannot reach;

The ultimate weapon they created could rival or even surpass forbidden spells, even if the one who unleashed that ultimate weapon was merely a mortal with no strength to even kill a chicken.

With their insignificant physical bodies, they ignited the sparks of civilization in every corner of the planet—

Even further, we turn our gaze to the deeper reaches of the starry sea.

And in this other world, the product that materialized the wisdom of that race's civilization—

It was the forbidden spell against the gods created by Ciel—

"Divine Retribution: The Sword of Damocles".

His previous demonstration at the Extraordinary Academy was not wishful thinking, but a practical conclusion that Charles had already reached through actual verification.

Therefore, the second prince's assumption was wrong from the very beginning.

Even if he had miraculously survived the majesty of the sword of divine retribution, Charles was not at all on the verge of exhaustion as he had imagined.

After all, what Ciel used was not the magic power he had stored up himself.

The outcome of this battle was, in fact, a foregone conclusion from the very beginning.

"So, not reading can be deadly."

......

Charles shook his head, walked down the edge of the cave, and came to the deepest part of the pit.

The second prince had been evaporated without even leaving a trace.

The intense heat from the sword of divine retribution burned away the soil it touched, leaving only a pure white crystalline solid at the bottom of the pit.

At the bottom of the pit, there are some bright spots with a metallic sheen that are particularly eye-catching.

This is the product of the descending god's half-body after it was shattered by Sharl. At this moment, it no longer has its own consciousness, so it can only manifest in the present world in this rootless and sourceless way.

If left unattended, these fragments of divine power will soon dissipate completely.

And that is also the purpose of Charles's visit.

Although it is only a fragment of divine power, it once housed half of a true god.

The secrets that can be uncovered from it are countless.

With a slight thought, Charles absorbed these fragments of divine power into his sub-plane.

After Charles had done all that, only one last thing remained in the grayish-white pit—

A sword blank, its shape completely deformed by high temperature and impact, flowing with lava.

In the Sharl's forbidden spell library, "Divine Punishment: Sword of Damocles" was classified as an "experiment" and was never registered as a spellbook in the Black Tower Library.

As the name suggests, a test subject is one that has visible defects that have not yet been corrected.

This is not because the spell model of this forbidden spell is not yet perfect—