North Wales Castle, the Lion King's study.
Artoria Lancer sat before a mountain of paperwork, pressing her brow. Beside her, the potent tea Tamamo had brewed was cooling rapidly.
"Your Majesty, this is an alliance renewal letter from King Bellinant of Sugales," Galehaut reported, carefully handing over the documents. "And we have received requests from King Wurien of Gore and King Brandegoris of Strangore regarding trade agreements."
Though Britain currently faced the twin threats of Boadican uprisings and Saxon invasions, the political calculations of each kingdom and lord remained tangled.
Some sought to ease the Saxon threat by allying with the military might of North Wales, while others measured its power, waiting for an opportunity.
"Such flimsy letters," Lancer muttered, tossing her quill onto the desk. "I should just tear them up and spear our borders forward."
Ever since Kay had returned beside her, she had grown even more disillusioned with this wretched throne and its political games.
Showing up at his side, soaking in his warmth, getting a meal from him—those small comforts made her days too short to waste on paperwork like this.
"…I might as well abdicate and become a royal concubine, play housewife full time."
"Your, Your Majesty! Please—such dangerous jokes…! Kay will freak out if he hears that!"
Galehaut turned pale, trying in vain to stop her.
Bang!
The door to the study burst open as Calogrenant, Second Knight Commander, came barreling in, dust flying from her armor.
"Your Majesty! A massive Pict force has crossed the northern border and invaded!" Calogrenant panted.
"The Picts? Those barbarians—why all of a sudden?"
"It appears to be a large-scale army intent on pillaging food and supplies before winter! Their numbers are in the thousands, and Sir Digor, our Third Knight Commander, has locked himself inside the fortress for a last stand. But with the numerical gap, its fall is only a matter of time!"
Digor.
Once Galehaut's comrade in arms, he had submitted to the Lion King's might and become Third Knight Commander.
Lancer stood at once and grasped her spear.
"First and Second Knight Units, prepare to march! I will lead from the front and cut down those monsters myself—"
"Hold on a sec."
At that moment, Kay appeared, leaning casually in the doorway.
"Thousands of Picts? They're too far away to march that many and expect to keep a fortress standing. It'd collapse before they got there."
"Brother, but if we let them be, Sir Digor and his men could be wiped out. We must send reinforcements—"
"No need. I'll go."
Kay cracked a grin.
"I've been cooking inside the castle for days—I almost feel like I'll grow mold on my muscles. Time to get some exercise. While that Digor fellow holds them, I can fly in with a small force and cut off their head."
"That's reckless! Even with your strength, you can't break through thousands of soldiers alone!"
Lancer panicked and tried to stop him, but Kay was already calling out into the air.
"Medusa!!"
Whoosh! Medusa, who had been in an ethereal state, materialized.
"I am always on standby, Master. Shall we depart?"
"Yeah. Fly us as fast as you can to that northern fortress."
Just as Kay was about to head for the garden, Artoria Alter strode in, shouldering a dark blade.
"I'm coming too, brother. I've eaten nothing but meat these past few days—I need to dance with my sword to aid digestion."
Without another word, Alter leapt onto the shining white Pegasus Medusa had summoned.
Kay followed, and Medusa took the reins.
"Wait, wait! What about me?! I'm coming with you, brother!"
Lancer dashed forward to mount Pegasus, but the beast heaved under the weight of three riders and gave a strained whinny.
"No way, you'll break its back. Stay at the castle and lead the army. We'll clear it out first!"
"You, you… Brother!!"
Ignoring Lancer's cry, Kay vaulted onto Pegasus, and at Medusa's command, they shot into the sky toward the north at the speed of light.
Lancer was left alone, stamping her feet in frustration, and slammed her spear into the floor.
"You... you sly fox, Alter!! Cutting in like that!! Deploy the First and Second Knight Units now!! Not a single Pict shall survive!!"
――At the northernmost stronghold of North Wales.
Sir Digor, drenched in blood, swung his greatsword at waves of Pict warriors.
"Hold your ground!! Defend this fortress with your lives until reinforcements arrive!"
But the battle had already grown desperate.
The Pict warriors, their bodies tattooed and clad in bone and hide, scaled the walls like zombies, fearing no death.
Born as Fantasmal Beasts bred for war, their overwhelming numbers were shattering North Wales's defenses.
'…Is this the end?' Digor gasped, closing his eyes to brace himself.
BOOM! A tremendous roar split the sky as a beam of light pierced the clouds above the fortress.
It was Medusa's Pegasus.
"We have arrived, Master."
"Good. Medusa, from the air, use your Mystic Eye to suppress the archers in the rear! Alter, you run wild however you want!"
"Hmph. I need no orders to do that!"
Alter leapt from Pegasus. From her obsidian blade, suppressed tyrannical mana began to erupt.
"Filthy savages. Burn away without a trace!!"
She swung her blade toward the ground. This was no Noble Phantasm, just pure mana compressed to the extreme and released.
KRAAAANG!!! The massive black slash swept the earth like a tsunami.
Hundreds of Picts struck by the shockwave exploded into bone and flesh, turning to black ash.
The defenders on the walls and the Picts alike froze in terror at the overwhelming firepower.
But the real horror was yet to come.
Next to leap from Pegasus was Kay.
He drew a colossal weapon from his back—a legendary axe the Amazons' queen was said to have wielded: Hippolyta's Axe, over a meter long.
"You sure about this, brother? Facing that many alone?" Alter asked, gathering her mana.
Kay simply smiled and replied, "I'll win."
Bang!! Kay landed in the midst of the Pict horde, his feet crushing the earth.
The ground cracked in a web around him for dozens of meters.
The Pict warriors roared and charged, spears and axes raised.
But Kay did not flinch. In fact, he didn't need to dodge.
He ignited the runes Scáthach had carved into the axe.
"Let's get started."
He swung Hippolyta's Axe in a wide arc.
Fwoooom!!Kshack! With a single swing, the upper bodies of a dozen Pict warriors within a five-meter radius were shredded into the air with a gruesome crack.
Brutal and raw, a carnage wrought solely by overwhelming strength.
"Arrrgggh!!" Pict warriors, panicked, jabbed at Kay's back with their spears.
But their spear tips, strengthened to steel by rune magic, could not penetrate Kay's mana-honed muscles—they pinged off harmlessly.
"Like mosquito bites."
He turned his head indifferently and struck them with the haft of his axe.
Crack! Skulls smashed like watermelons.
No fancy swordplay or Magecraft was needed.
Honed through countless stabbings in the Labyrinth and perfected by Scáthach's spear, his superhuman physique laid waste to the blood-soaked battlefield with each step and swing.
This was not combat.
It was a merciless slaughter by an apex predator.
From the walls, bleeding and horrified, Digor watched with his jaw agape.
"That man is… no mortal. The incarnation of Camulus, god of war and hunting…!"
Overcome with awe, Digor dropped to his knees.
Kay's raw violence, Medusa's Mystic Eye raining down from above, and Alter's black flame slash—they obliterated the Pict army of thousands that had seemed poised to trample North Wales's defenses, leaving no trace.
"Hah… Is it over?"
Kay brushed the blood from his axe into the air and wiped his sweat.
All around him lay thousands of Pict corpses, the ground soaked red.
Then, on the distant horizon, clouds of black dust rose as a contingent of cavalry thundered forward.
At the front, a woman rode a massive black steed.
In obsidian armor, her underbust-baring outfit was daring, and she wielded a colossal black lance.
It was Artoria Lancer Alter.
"Tsk. I came here hoping to show my lance's power to my brother, but I suppose I'm a bit late."
Artoria Lancer Alter stopped her black steed and gave Kay, standing atop a mountain of corpses, a bewitching smile.
"Well done, brother. Still fighting in your blunt way."
"And you look like you just heard the news and rode straight here. Did you eat anything?"
"Heheh, could any proper meal pass your lips without you by my side?"
Lancer Alter seductively wiped the blood from Kay's cheek with her thumb and whispered.
Artoria Alter scowled fiercely, but suppressed her anger—she'd been beaten to the punch.
With overwhelming force, Kay had reduced the Picts to dust, and now Lancer Alter had joined the fray.
It seemed another storm was about to slam into North Wales.