I looked at the child-like figure in a simple kimono, unable to connect her with any of my imagination about who would replace Vortigern. She had long silver hair, a delicate face with amber eyes that were slightly dull, but had that glimmer of child-like curiosity. She quickly noticed my gaze and also looked at me, her eyes showing recognition and strong attachment. I turned to Morgan, and she just shrugged.
-"Not my fault. François and Souiken instilled her with a belief that you are her lord and father."
-"Father!"-She approached me, stopping a step before me and waiting for my response.
-"I'm not your father, but your guardian."-I told her patiently.-"You can call me Eno or Son like others."
She nodded, her ego not developed enough to overthink my sentence, accepting it at face value.
-"Lord Son!"
-"Son is enough. What is your name? Do you know about your tasks?"
-"Yes. I was named Melusine, and I exist to ensure the Age of Man never comes."
-"Exactly. Morgan will be helping you, as I might be unavailable. Do you have any questions?"
-"Yes. Can I be your knight?"
I blinked, surprised by her words.
-"Why?"
-"Because everyone who is strong and important is a knight, and you are my guardian, so I want to be your Knight."-She explained, her pure eyes twinkling with excitement.
-"Sure."-I nodded, smiling at her.-"You shall be my knight."
She showed a satisfied smile and looked at Qingyan standing next to me. A moment later, she mimicked her posture, trying to appear like her, like what my Knight should be in her eyes. Everyone watched this with tenderness in their eyes. No matter the reason why she was created, right now, everyone could only see a child playing adult.
-"Because of her importance, I decided that she would be granted a title of Princess, giving her protection and recognition in Britain."-Artoria chose this moment to speak up.
-"Good, let's try to make sure she isn't a tool, but an actual person and ally."-I agreed with her fully.
I wanted to say something more, but I felt the ground tremble under our feet. I instantly turned toward Londinium and saw a cloud of dust rising from there, my formations coming to light to keep everything contained. From the corner of my eye, I saw Artoria clutching her heart. She quickly collected herself, but this was an obvious sign that something had happened.
-"He knows."-She told me.-"He won't let another dragon like him exist."
-"Then we have to fight."-My eyes turned gold to see the best way forward.-"Artoria, Morgan, and I will keep him out of the battle. Gawain will be the commander, and Kay and Agravain are to assist him as deputies. Capture the city as we keep him occupied."
The three knights looked at Artoria, who nodded.
-"We will not disappoint you."
I nodded and flew into the air, quickly moving above the Londinium, where I could see Vortigern's draconic form trying to break through my formations. Grabbing my Royal Scepter and my standard, I strengthened the formations, focusing my attention on Vortigern. We couldn't fight here, so I needed to take him away.
Luckily, as his attack wasn't something well thought out, there were some things that could be exploited. Most notably, the magic power that kept us out of the city now disappeared, leaving him exposed to attacks. That small opening was all I needed.
~"Dominus custodit te ab omni malo; custodiat animam tuam Dominus. - Mikael."~ Summoning the same angel, I commanded his power to open a passage where Vortigern was, sending him to the Ends of the World. After confirming his disappearance, I waved my hand, opening the same entrances by Artoria's and Morgan's side before entering one myself.
At the Ends of the World, Artoria didn't waste time, rushing at Vortigern the moment he approached. She slashed with Excalibur, using miracles in between her attacks to ensure he couldn't approach us. She took the role of vanguard upon herself, allowing Morgan and me to focus on spellcasting.
And Morgan utilized this fully, finding a safe place and gathering all the magic power she could to use her spells. And what she was preparing was no normal spell, but something she based on my Rhongomyniad, something she called 'a spell equivalent of divine punishment' .
But this wasn't something she could achieve in a few seconds, so I flew up and, following Artoria's lead, I joined the fight to keep Vortigern's attention off her. After filling the skies with dark clouds, I rushed at the giant dragon while stars started to rain down on him. Vortigern's draconic form wasn't small; he was at least a hundred meters long with a wingspan twice that. Compared to him, we were like ants, but size also made him an easy target.
~"Know that there is no mercy for you, you will only perish. I am the heaven that you imagine."~I started to chant, as a divine aureole appeared behind my back~"Univers Immortel Metatron!"
When I uttered my divine name, the white light that made up the Ends of the World stirred, making small particles of light appear around. Those specs then gathered around me, causing white glyphs to appear over my body. My halo turned into the White Crown, and the particles of light expanded it even further.
I flew high above Vortigern, all my 72 wings appearing around as the light continued to gather. I slowly pointed my standard at him, the flag flapping due to the power gathered in me. As Vortigern tried to rush at me, I unleashed the power gathered by me, and an enormous spear of light pierced him, pinning him to the ground.
But even an attack of this magnitude could only destroy some of his weaker scales, tearing his wings while barely doing any more damage. As a partial inheritor of Albion's power, he was still a well into Planetary Class, even my full power attack with sealed Rhongomyniad couldn't do too much. I looked at my standard and couldn't help but be slightly annoyed at the Thirteen Restraints, but dealing with them had to wait.
Luckily, my attack proved enough to make Vortigern unable to fly, and even if he could regain his wings with regeneration, it would take time. I let my Stars pelt him from above, while I lunged down to help Artoria, who was already taking advantage of the grounded state of Vortigern. Our every attack would only destroy a few surface scales, but such attacks slowly accumulated.
Artoria and I danced around the enormous dragon, avoiding his attacks while using every available gap to attack him. Both of us could see that this battle would take time, so we continued our battle while preserving what energy we could.
The time in the midst of a battle quickly gets hard to measure, so I couldn't gauge how much time passed before I heard Morgan's voice, causing me to teleport behind Artoria and hug her, teleporting again far from the Vortigern.
When I reappeared, I looked into the sky, where now thirteen giant black and blue spears floated. They surrounded Vortigern from above, and the blue lighting started to appear on them. Soon, I had to squint my eyes as Vortigern was fully enveloped by a pillar of blue lighting, but then, I felt enormous danger approaching us.
Without thinking, I struck my standard into the ground, enveloping three of us in Luminosité Eternelle as Vortigern's maw tried to bite us. After blocking this attack, I looked at the finally injured dragon, seeing his wounds regenerate quickly as he absorbed an absurd amount of power from other dimensions and times.
Noticing the same thing, Artoria wanted to rush forward, but I stopped her, knowing that with Morgan's spell being unable to end this fight, our only other way forward would be either unsealing Excalibur and Rhongomyniad or resorting to using my power of Night.
I looked at her, knowing that she could understand my thoughts, leaving the decision up to her. She quickly thought about the pros and cons and decided that unsealing would lead to a better outcome. She held the sword to her face, while I held my standard that was still stuck in the ground. Artoria began reciting the seals while I responded to her.
~"The enemy must be more powerful than oneself."
~"Approved."
~"The enemy must not be an elemental."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must not involve personal gain."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must not be against Humanity."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must not be inhumane."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must be for truth."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must be to live."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must be to save the world."
~"Approved."
~"One's comrades-in-arms must be courageous."
~"Approved."
~"The battle must not be against one pure of heart."
~"Approved."
With more than half the seals unsealed, both of us could unleash the True Names of our weapons. Sadly, we didn't meet the requirements for the remaining three seals, so we had to manage with what we had. Artoria raised the sword above her head, her voice clearly spreading around despite the pillar of golden light erupting from her.
~"Sheathed in the breath of the planet. A shining torrent of life. Victory is in our hands!"
I also held up my standard, the flag fluttering above us as another pillar of light, of my white Moonlight, appeared around me.
~"Split the heavens and tether the earth, anchor of the storm. O'light, may you be released from the ends of the world."
Vortigern, feeling the danger from us, tried to interrupt us while creating some distance, but found himself unable to do so as the Ends of the World itself were keeping him in place. And it wasn't like we would give him a chance to retreat, Artoria already stepping forward to deliver her blow. She swung her sword forward, the torrent of light flying at the enormous figure.
~"Excalibur Excelsus!!"
Vortigern was instantly enveloped by the golden light, but I also noticed the Stars being attracted by Artoria's strike, fusing with her light to further empower it. Not to be outdone, I held out my left hand, covering Vortigern with it from my perspective, and slowly started to clutch it.
~"Rhongomyniad."
Responding to my words, all the Moonlight around us rushed at Vortigern like a thousand small spears. But those were but a small taste of what appeared high above. From there, a beam of light fell on Vortigern, causing all the energy around him to envelop him in a rapidly spinning sphere. As my hand clenched further, the sphere continued to shrink, its power growing in both strength and density.
Soon, the whole sphere began to look like a small star, its light appearing more like plasma. I started to feel resistance, but I held on until the sphere containing Vortigern and all that power was only a few meters in diameter. When I felt that I couldn't go any further, I struck the ground with my standard, causing the space and time around the sphere to shatter, as the sphere imploded.
All that power rushed into Vortigern's body, tearing it apart like the space-time around it, and when it finally disappeared, the giant dragon fell to the ground, its body mangled beyond recognition. Artoria observed him for a moment before stepping forward, approaching where his heart should be.
Morgan and I followed her, and soon, we stopped before a split-open heart, an unfamiliar yet recognizable figure lying inside. It was Vortigern, his human body. He was alive, barely, but his eyes looked at us three with a strange kind of satisfaction and exhaustion.
-"You've won."
We nodded, letting him speak his last words.
-"Young king, I hope you can live up to everyone's expectations. Princess Morgan, I also hope that you can lead Britain into a better future than the world wishes for it. And you, Foreigner, watch over two of them, don't let the cruel world turn them into tragic heroes."
After he finished, we could feel how the life left his body, the whole mangled dragon behind him disappearing into ash. We watched how he turned into nothingness, returning to Londinium after the last spec of dust ceased to be.
We returned to the camp near Londinium, only to find Gawain with tears in his eyes.
-"Your Majesty! Thank God, Thank the Law, Thank the Son…"
-"Calm down, what's going on?"
-"It's you, Your Majesty! You've been missing for almost half a year!"
-"What?"-Artoria looked at me.
I thought for a moment before answering.
-"We might have shattered the space-time too much, causing some anomaly."
-"Will it be a problem?"
-"I believe that Merlin took care of it."
-"I did, but you'll have a mountain of paperwork waiting for you."-Merlin's voice appeared around us, while the second part of the sentence sounded more quietly next to my ear.
-"Thank you."-I responded to her quietly.
-"I need to go."-Artoria was still worried that something had gone wrong.
-"Sure. We'll deal with the finishing touches here."-I nodded at her.
-"She smiled under her helmet, before following Gawain toward the ruined Londinium. When two of them left the earshot, Morgan walked to my side and linked her arm with mine.
-"Let's go."
I nodded and led her to where Melusine was waiting for us.
-"Are you ready?"-I asked her.
-"Yes."-She nodded, her eyes devoid of any doubt.
-"Before we begin, promise me something."-I looked her in the eyes.-"I can't be sure how hard this task will be for you, nor how it'll affect you. So no matter what, never try to lie or conceal your state or pain from us. Suffering in silence isn't noble; it only makes others worry about you more. I learned it from my own mistakes."
-"Yes, Son."
-"Then let's proceed."
Morgan and I carefully connected Melusine to Britain's ley lines, allowing her to use Albion's power like Vortigern did, just with less turning into a crazy dragon. It took us three days to ensure everything was done properly, but Melusine confirmed no discomfort, though she quickly fell asleep after we finished, most likely due to her body needing more time to adapt.
After leaving hr in a safe place, we joined Artoria, who began dealing with the aftermath of the war. First on the to-do list was restoring the capital, but she rejected the idea of rebuilding it, instead she asked Morgan and me to cooperate pon buliding entirly new castle and city, similar to one from Singularity, but for humans to live in, not just exist.
So both of us got to work. Morgan commanded fairies to build the white walls and the foundation for the city and the castle, while I brought Lateran specialists to organise the city itself. Angels and Fairies cooperated easily; the pure fairies were quite easy for Sankta with Empathy to work with, and Sankta, who never lied or deceived, were also a company the fairies enjoyed.
As such, the work progressed quickly, and in just two months, the entire city was built anew, with a white castle towering over it. The people started flowing in not long after, attracted by the Holy City built by Angels and Fairies. Soon, the news about this city spread throughout Britain, and then the rest of the world; there were many names the city received: the last city of gods, the Holy City of White Walls; but there was only one true name of this city: Camelot.