Back in the mountain.

Ramza was busy rubbing the miraculous herbal ointment on Zemeth's feet. Although Zemeth's feet were already healed he still wants to make sure that the blackness won't return.

Then he noticed that his friend's fingers were already moving a little, he looked at his face... Zemeth's eyes were opening up! He jumped with joy. "Bro, I'm glad you finally woke up! You have no idea that you were asleep in this healing room for five days," he exclaimed.

Zemeth brows furrowed. He slowly roamed his eyes around the room. "W-where am I?" he asked in confusion.

"You are recuperating inside Immortal Vearah's Healing Room!"

"W-who is Immortal Vearah?" asked Zemeth in confusion.

"She is Esmeralda's teacher, her mentor. I'm sure you still remember Esmeralda in the forsaken castle, right?"

Zemeth nodded his head. "What I'm doing here?" he asked, looking at the marble table that he was lying in.

"Did you remember that when we escaped the castle, your neck was injured? Someone slashed your neck with a poisoned knife and Ivy was gone..." Ramza said sadly.

"Where is Ivy!?" Zemeth asked after remembering that Ivy was gone before he loses consciousness.

"Ogeme told me that while he was stationed outside the castle waiting for us to get out, he noticed a guy hovering in the air carrying a woman in his arms and going to the direction of the castle. He was unaware that we already escape the castle during that time. He thought it was just another ordinary vampire, he didn't expect that the vampire was holding Ivy in his arms. He only knew about it after he found us at the base of the hill looking for Ivy everywhere."

"What happened next? Hurry...fill me the details!" Zemeth demanded.

"Jegun emptied the magic healing potion in your mouth to save your life. Then the elves and the leaves left..."

"How about the boys? Ella and Agran?" asked Zemeth.

"Everyone is safe, only Ivy was missing. Grandfather Jegun brought everyone to the island which was his master's home in the past. The island is beautiful, it has an endless white beach and teeming with nature's blessing. The boys love it there including Ella and Agran. Only four of us are here in the mountain, including Kate..." he explained.

Zemeth's brows furrowed. "Huh? How did you find Kate?"

Ramza smiled. "Esmeralda and her entourage accidentally left their portal relic in the ground after escaping the castle. Ogeme found it and gave it to me. I got curious where the portal will lead me to...after opening it...I found myself here. I met Esmeralda, Immortal Vearah, Aspen, and found Kate in this mountain. The rest is history," he said.

"I see... " Zemeth said trying to digest everything slowly.

"How are you feeling now?" Ramza asked his friend.

"I'm feeling good," Zemeth answered. "I think the one who took Ivy away and injured me was a vampire who escapes along with us..." he said.

Ramza was shocked. "How come? No vampire was able to come close to us. There was only plenty of dark shadows attacking us during that time..." he recalled.

"That's what you know... I presumed the vampire disguises as one of the elves and was able to spy on us while we're still inside the cave," Zemeth took a wild guess.

Ramza nodded his head. "You could be right, bro. The golden dagger was also missing! Whoever got Ivy he was also the one that stole the golden dagger," he concluded.

Zemeth released a deep sigh. "I'm worried about Ivy..." his sigh intensifies.

"I know...I'm also worried about her..." replied Ramza. "Don't you know that when we're still on the island, your feet start to blacken due to the poison? The boys and I are planning to find a healer in the Nephilim Kingdom to get the poison out of your body..."

Zemeth inspected his feet in horror and sighed in relief after seeing that the skin already returned to normal.

Ramza showed him the herbal ointment. "Immortal Vearah instructed me to rub this ointment in your feet every day to cure the poison. Thankfully, it works!"

"Thank you so much for taking good care of me, bro!" Zemeth said feeling grateful that his friend never give up on him.

"Ah, don't thank me. You should thank Immortal Vearah because she allowed us to use this healing room to cure you. The candles burning around you are miraculous, they repair damaged cells in your body brought by the poison. I'm sure she has other medicines that she uses to cure you so that the poison will finally be exterminated from your body," Ramza said.

"Okay, I'll thank her after I get out of this room," Zemeth said about to get off the table.

"Ah, not so fast! Let's wait for Immortal Vearah to enter this room first. If she gives you the go signal then you can finally leave this room," Ramza told him.

"Alright, Zemeth answered, his feet dangling below the table. He looked at the burning candles scattered all over the room. Then he noticed that his clothes were new. Who change my clothes?" he asked.

Ramza smiled. "Don't worry... it's just me. Immortal Vearah gave me the clothes and instructed me to change your clothing," he grinned.

"Thank God or else I will die of embarrassment," Zemeth said.

Ramza smiled. "After Immortal Vearah released you from this room, I'll bring you to the fruit garden. There are lots of fruits there that are ready to eat! The fruit garden is my favorite place in this mountain!" he stated.

Zemeth stared at the door. "I will rescue Ivy after we leave this place," he said with a fierce determination etched on his face.

"Of course, the boys and I are ready to help you anytime," Ramza said. "What is your plan? We need a solid plan because they already got Ivy and the golden dagger. We can't use Ella's blood. We only have Kate..."

"I will try to visit our benefactors to get our rewards because we already completed the mission. Then I will ask them if they have another weapon that is similar to the golden dagger, I will borrow it so that we can rescue Ivy from the castle," Zemeth said.

"Okay, that's good," Ramza said. A moment later he scratches his head. "How are we gonna enter the castle this time? I'm sure, the old trick which is the genie in the bottle method won't work anymore, because the vampires will be cautious and they will prepare a trap for us since they're expecting that we will rescue Ivy anytime," he said worriedly.

Zemeth breathed deeply, his friend got a point. It seemed going inside the castle is getting more difficult than the first time they have done it. "Unless...we can penetrate the castle without passing through the entrance..."

"But how? By slicing the blazing barrier outside the castle? How is that possible? Who among us can make the barrier visible outside the castle? Grandfather Jegun? or Esmeralda?" asked Ramza.

"I dunno..." Ramza shook his head. "Let's ask them after we left this room," he said.

Suddenly, Zemeth remembered that Esmeralda can get inside the castle anytime. "Ah, we have Esmeralda! She can get inside the castle anytime. No one will hurt her because everyone is afraid that if her heart stops beating, everyone in the castle will die."

"That's great!" Ramza roared.

"Problem solved!" Zemeth declared.

Ramza shook his head. "Actually, we still have another problem..."

"What is it?" asked Zemeth.

"The problem is how to convince Esmeralda to return to the castle? Kate told me that the old woman has no plans to return to the castle. She wishes to remain in the mountain together with her mentor. We will surely have a hard time convincing Esmeralda this time..." Ramza said while shaking his head, he was losing hope already.

Zemeth took a deep breath. Right now, he was thinking of his beloved Ivy. His heart was bleeding heavily because they were separated again. He was just hoping that the vampires will never hurt Ivy severely. He needs to get inside the castle as soon as possible before they will do something bad to her. He is racing against time!

A few minutes later, the door opened and Immortal Vearah entered the room.

"Wow! My patient is finally awake! Welcome back!" Immortal Vearah told Zemeth.

Zemeth smiled at the beautiful immortal. "Thank you so much Immortal Vearah for curing my illness. I owe you my life," he said sincerely.

Immortal Vearah smiled. "You're welcome. How are you feeling now?" she asked his condition.

"I'm feeling good and ready to leave this healing room," Zemeth replied.

"Alright... you can leave this room now," Immortal Vearah said.

"Thank you!" Zemeth said, his voice filled with gratitude. He was impressed by the immortal's amazing healing capability to cure the poison in his body.

The men left the healing room. Vearah blew off the burning candle one by one before leaving the room.

Outside the healing room.

Jegun was feeling ecstatic after seeing Zemeth looking healthy as before. "It's nice to see you alive, lad!" he said merrily.

Zemeth grinned. "Nice seeing you again, Grandpa! How's everyone while I was knocked out for five days?"

"Everyone is doing good. The boys were enjoying the island. They go swimming and fishing on the beach. Then goes hunting wild animals in the forest," Jegun elaborated.

"And how about the kids? Agran and Ella?" Zemeth asked.

Jegun shrugged. "Well...you know the issue about them. But rest assured that Agran will never abandon Ella... you already know the reason why..."

Zemeth nodded his head.

Jegun released a deep sigh. "I'm deeply sorry about Ivy... I felt guilty that we weren't able to prevent those unforeseen events. Don't worry, Ivy's blood is useful to them. They won't harm her, the least they can do is smear her blood to make the golden dagger works and it won't kill her each time," Jegun said trying to comfort him.

Zemeth sighed heavily. He knows that the old man was just trying to ease his turbulent emotions due to Ivy's disappearance. He will never be okay - unless he will see Ivy again.