After entrusting the power of Dying Will to Bete, Tsuna once again returned to the Hephaestus Familia.
Here, he had his own personal room—so that when things got busy, he wouldn't have to go back to his Familia just to rest.
"Tsuna!"
Before he even opened his eyes, two massive, soft things pressed down on his face, nearly suffocating the still half-asleep boy.
Pushing away the person on top of him, Tsuna sat up on the bed, his head full of question marks.
"What's going on?"
"It worked!"
The dark-skinned beauty sitting before him grabbed his shoulders, eyes gleaming with excitement. It took Tsuna a moment to process what she meant.
"The new forging technique succeeded?"
The new method of forging—jointly developed by Hephaestus and Tsubaki—was a revolutionary process that incorporated Excellia as a material for weapon creation.
"That's right! We finally did it!"
With a burst of joy, Tsubaki threw herself at him again, burying his head into her abyss.
Once again on the verge of death by suffocation, Tsuna didn't push her away this time. Instead, he decided to properly savor this wickedly pleasant experience.
"It's all thanks to your help that Lady Hephaestus and I succeeded in infusing Excellia into the weapon—creating a complete weapon sublimation!"
After fully enjoying that advantage, Tsuna finally pulled himself free from Tsubaki's arms.
"So, how did it turn out?"
He couldn't help his curiosity—what kind of weapon had been created after infusing it with Excellia?
"Hehe~ Of course, it's something never seen before! It completely surpasses convention—breaking through the limits even Magic Swords couldn't overcome! There's no longer any restriction on usage, and it even possesses magical and skill-like properties."
Tsubaki's words made Tsuna's eyes widen in disbelief.
This wasn't just a small improvement—it was a leap across dimensions.
In the Labyrinth City, Magic Swords had always come with a limit on the number of uses, no matter how powerful they were.
In fact, it was precisely because of their immense power that such limits were necessary—otherwise, they'd throw the entire market into chaos.
And yet, against all odds, a weapon that defied those very constraints had been born.
As Tsubaki said—it was truly unprecedented, beyond anything conventional.
"And you know what? This time was just an experimental attempt by Lady Hephaestus and me. We didn't expect it to succeed so smoothly."
At that, Tsuna finally understood why it was a "Magic Sword."
An experimental forge meant the materials were chosen for testing the method's validity—more for proof of concept than for mass production.
"The materials came from the Amphisbaena we defeated last time, didn't they?"
"Exactly."
Receiving her confirmation, Tsuna nodded in understanding.
The Drop Items from Amphisbaena could only be used to make Magic Swords—the materials were simply too perfect for that.
"The dragon fangs as the weapon's core, the crystal as its power source… did you use the dragon's heart too?"
"Of course."
A confident smile appeared on Tsubaki's bronze face.
"We used everything. But being able to make use of the dragon's heart at all was thanks to your special forging space. Storing it in that unique preservation chamber kept the heart fresh—otherwise, it would've been useless."
A dragon's heart that radiated magic was the finest fuel imaginable. But that magical emission wasn't endless—once too much time passed, even a living dragon's heart would die completely, losing all vitality.
Once the freshness was gone, the best it could serve for was tempering steel.
However, Tsuna's Forging Space had accounted for this issue. Within it, there was a special vault capable of temporarily locking in a material's freshness.
Tsubaki pressed Tsuna's head back against her chest once more, her tone filled with excitement and gratitude as she offered her "thanks."
"This success… was mostly your doing."
Tsuna accepted the "reward" with a smile.
"I'd say you two did just fine yourselves."
Leaning against the doorway, Hephaestus had been standing there for a while, watching the two of them interact, unsure whether to laugh or sigh.
Only then did Tsubaki finally release him with a grin.
Hephaestus, noticing the faint smile still lingering on Tsuna's lips, asked with amusement,
"So, how was it? Was Tsubaki's embrace comfortable?"
"Very. Though, I imagine Lady Hephaestus's would be just as nice."
"You little pervert."
Hephaestus rolled her uncovered left eye, but she still walked over and sat beside him on the bed. Then, with a gentle smile tinged with affection, she pulled the "little pervert" into her arms.
"Is it really that comfortable? Even though my body's all muscle from years of hammering metal?"
"Not at all."
Tsuna couldn't feel any of that hardness she mentioned. In fact, like Tsubaki, her body felt surprisingly soft.
"I can't feel a single muscle on you. Maybe all that training went into the right places instead. How else would Lady Hephaestus manage to make her body even softer than before?"
"If you think you're all muscle, Lady Hephaestus, I wouldn't mind if you held me more often. Just to confirm, you know."
"You really are hopeless."
Hephaestus laughed and scolded him, though there wasn't the slightest hint of anger in her voice.
After spending so much time together, she'd come to understand this boy well—Tsuna was simply a mischievous little pervert who liked older women. Though, truthfully, there was a bit of quiet restraint mixed into his charm.
Still, he was an honest one.
And as for his "perverted" tendencies—well, what boy didn't have them?
Hephaestus could see clearly that he wasn't lying. In fact, it was his honesty that had made her start to like him a little.
"This time, the forging test with Excellia went extraordinarily well—far smoother than Tsubaki and I could have imagined."
"The potential of Excellia in forging is beyond belief. The sublimation of the Magic Sword truly surpasses all prior expectations. Removing the limitation on usage has raised its value far beyond that of ordinary first-tier weapons."
"And since we used the Drop Items from Amphisbaena, this Magic Sword now carries a power unique to that monster."
That, too, marked the beginning of an entirely new branch of Magic Swords.