The massive circular arena of Cleopolis.
As the morning sunlight began to heat the white sand floor, an unusually large number of fairies had gathered in the stands around the arena, holding their breath.
At the very top of the stands, beside Queen Gloriana, Britomart, Bavanshi, Caster, and the Servants had taken their seats. But their condition was somehow strange.
"Haaah... My back feels like it's going to snap. This is the first time I've met someone whose bedroom arts are this effective, and he doesn't even seem tired."
Tamamo let out a yawn with hollow eyes and drooping tails, while Caster was practically nodding off, leaning on her staff. Jeanne d'Arc Alter and Medusa also wore dazed expressions, their cheeks faintly flushed.
Britomart and Bavanshi, who had witnessed last night's wild and beastlike five-way encounter through a crack in the door, immediately flushed bright red at the sight of their languid state and coughed awkwardly.
"T-there! It's starting!"
Britomart hurriedly pointed toward the arena to draw everyone's attention away.
In the center of the arena stood the strongest warrior of the fairy realm, the king of the Fang Clan, Bagest.
Opposite her stood a human man, Kay, sleeves rolled up and leaning lazily with Hippolyta's Axe resting on his shoulder.
"There are no rules, human. No, Kay."
Bagest's eyes flashed with a predator's gleam. In her hand, the massive weapon she held, the fairy sword Galatine, forged from the horns of Bagest by the fairies of the Fang Clan, began to emit a sinister crimson glow.
The fairy sword made in imitation of the holy sword Excalibur Galatine, and it had existed long before Gawain ever used Galatine.
"Bring out everything you've got. I, too, will stake the pride of the Fang and tear you apart without leaving a scrap, then keep you safely in my belly!"
"You've got a pretty savage appetite this early in the morning. Don't go getting indigestion."
"Haaah!!"
Before Kay's taunt had even finished, Bagest kicked off the sand and launched herself forward.
An explosive leap that seemed impossible for such a massive body. In an instant, she closed in on Kay and raised Galatine high into the air.
A greatsword falling straight down from the sky.
It was a simple trajectory of brute force, yet within it lay the ferocious swordsmanship of a beast that had slaughtered countless monsters and enemies.
Rather than dodge, Kay gripped the shaft of the golden axe on his shoulder with both hands and raised it overhead to block.
KWAAAANG!!!
The instant the greatsword and axe collided head-on, an enormous explosive roar, like a cannon shell detonating, sent the sand of the arena blasting outward in every direction like a tsunami.
"Ghk...!"
Kay gritted his teeth. Even with the overwhelming strength he had honed by taking blows from Scáthach, both feet sank into the sand and he was shoved backward.
A vibration that felt like it would tear his grip apart ran through his bones.
'Damn it. She's a monster completely outside the norm.'
"Oh? You didn't deflect my strike or dodge it, but took it head-on with pure strength. You've got a sturdier frame than I expected!"
Bagest twisted her sword with a vicious grin. Galatine's blade scraped down Kay's axe shaft, scattering crimson sparks.
While pressing down on Kay's defense with her sword, she curled her empty left hand like a beast's claw and thrust it fiercely toward Kay's exposed abdomen.
The swordsmanship of a fairy knight was closer to a wild beast's survival instinct than a knight's dignity.
"But defense alone will never satisfy me!"
Rather than evade the claw aimed at his stomach, Kay bent his upper body forward and drove himself deeper into Bagest's embrace.
Using the axe shaft as a lever, Kay slid the path of Galatine that had been crushing him off to the side at an angle. The instant Bagest's force went astray and her posture faltered by the slightest degree, Kay spun his body like a top and slammed his right elbow, driven to the limit by centrifugal force, into the center of Bagest's chest.
PWOOM!!
"Kuh...!"
With a thunderous impact that shook heaven and earth, Bagest's massive body reeled and was shoved back three steps.
An overwhelming blow that seemed impossible to have come from a human's bare body.
Bagest did not even seem to feel pain in her chest; instead, her eyes flashed and she let out a cry of ecstatic delight.
"Hahaha!! Splendid! Those thick arms, that rough impact! To damage me with bare-handed strikes! As expected, you're such a lovable prey that it would be a shame to chew you up!"
Bagest laughed like a madwoman and readjusted her grip on the greatsword. This time, black heat poured from Galatine's blade like a mirage, distorting the air around it.
She kicked off the ground and charged, swinging the greatsword in a horizontal arc.
Kay tried to parry it with his axe, but the heat pouring from Galatine blurred his vision, and Bagest used the recoil of her swing to lift her massive leg and drive a spinning kick straight toward Kay's waist.
KANG!Puk!
He barely blocked the kick with his axe, but the tremendous force sent Kay flying and rolling across the sand.
"Tch. If this turns into a pure strength contest, my joints are going to give out first."
Kay rolled to absorb the impact, sprang up at once, and took a deep breath.
"[Ansuz]."
As Kay poured in mana, the rune carved into the axe awakened in a fierce blue blaze.
In an instant, the air of the arena contracted sharply, and around the golden axe blade, a compressed storm blade of vacuum began to whirl like a gear.
"Here I go!!"
Kay gripped the storm-wreathed axe with both hands and swung it wide.
KWAOOOOONG!!!
An enormous invisible vacuum slash tore through the air, kicking up a sandstorm as it engulfed Bagest.
"You think some flimsy wind like this can lift me...? Ghk?!"
Bagest tried to shield herself with Galatine, but this was no ordinary wind.
The compressed blades sliced into her skin, and the tremendous pressure lifted her heavy body into the air.
Kay used the recoil of the wind to leap upward as well.
Twisting his body toward the helplessly rising Bagest, he brought the axe down.
KAGAGAGANG!!
Bagest reflexively raised her sword to block, and their weapons clashed again in midair.
The roar of sparks and grinding metal rang out. But under the weight of Kay's strike, carrying the force of the storm, Bagest was finally overpowered and sent plummeting to the ground like a meteor.
KWAANG!!
"Haaah!!"
"Krrgh...!!"
From the cratered ground, the two of them burst through the dust and immediately launched into a brutal close-quarters brawl without yielding an inch.
When Bagest's Galatine came for Kay's side, Kay angled his axe shaft to knock it aside and kicked her shin.
When Bagest tried to seize Kay by the collar with brute strength and throw him, Kay instead wrapped around her arm, locked a joint, and used her own force against her to slam her to the ground with a shoulder throw.
A desperate struggle where strength, technique, and ferocity collided perfectly.
"Hahahahaha!!"
By the time scratches of all sizes had accumulated on both their bodies and their breathing had grown rough, Bagest rose from the sand, licked her bloodied lips, and burst into a mad laugh.
Her eyes were now dyed with something beyond fighting spirit—an eerie, sticky affection and heat directed at Kay.
"Truly, truly amazing, human! No, Kay!"
Bagest brushed back her sweat-soaked hair and smiled a smile that was both utterly alluring and utterly savage.
"Even before my overwhelming strength and beastly instincts, you never lose your nerve, and instead you turn my own power against me to carve into my bones! That fighting spirit! And that sturdy male body...!"
She planted Galatine into the ground and spread both arms toward Kay.
"I'm starting to like you more and more. Chewing you up and making you into my blood and flesh would be fine, but... I've changed my mind. You're more than worthy of being my mate! I'll keep you by my side for life and crush and ravish that body day and night! If it's you, I'm sure a strong child will be born!!"
A bombshell declaration and an outright proposal shouted before thousands of fairy spectators.
In the stands, Caster and Tamamo sprang to their feet, killing intent pouring off them, while Britomart clapped a hand over her mouth as if she might faint.
"Don't talk nonsense. I'm not a dildo."
Kay let out an incredulous snort and readjusted his grip on the golden axe.
"And before you start spouting nonsense about mates and whatever else... why don't you beat me first, then say that?"
Kay's merciless iron wall of a reply.
At those words, rage, shame, and a strange sense of depravity crossed Bagest's face in turn.
"How insolent. Then I'll crush you thoroughly and make you mine by force!!"
Bagest roared and yanked free the Galatine planted in the ground.
At that moment, behind her back, the shape of a massive black beast began to rise like a mirage. The demonic form of the calamity-bringing monster Black Dog was finally unleashed.
RUMBLE...
Galatine's blade was wrapped in black flames and blazed like the sun. Her muscles swelled unnaturally, and she was draped in the lightning and chains of a demon hound.
The air of the arena grew so hot it was hard to breathe.
"This is my full power! The essence of the Black Dog, Kay!!"
As Bagest kicked off the earth, the giant phantom of the Black Dog expanded as if it would swallow the arena whole and poured down toward Kay.
Bagest's unique power, known as Wild Rule. As the Black Dog, the pinnacle of the Fang Clan, she devours and preys upon the power and blessings of her opponent.
She also deploys a fairy domain obtained by devouring the fairy foul weather of Cornwall. As time passes, Bagest's mana recovers, and the damage she takes from enemies is halved.
"...Well, fine. Then I guess this is the point where I stake everything too."
Kay's gaze turned cold.
He planted the axe into the arena and drew the sword at his waist. The red blade proved it was a demonic sword.
A demonic sword made from the bones of the sea beast Kurd. A demonic sword made from the same material as the demonic spear Gáe Bolg.
"Let's see whether my full power... can really work on a genius."
His eyes flashed red. Those eyes were like the abyssal gaze of the master of a demonic land.
[Wisdom of the Demonic Realm]
"The one who wins is me!!!!"
Bagest charged, smashing the ground beneath her feet. The sword swung like the jaws of a demon hound trying to tear Kay apart. The fairies were certain Kay was about to die, but Gloriana could see it.
Kay, right now, had no opening at all... he had become a man without weakness.
Whoosh~!!!
"...What?"
Kay avoided Bagest's first slash by shifting half a step sideways.
"It was just too obvious. Sorry."
If it had been the old him, he would have taken the hit and used [Six-Section Bone-Cleaving Strike]. But the moment he used Wisdom, the tide of battle changed dramatically.
Instinct, [True Eye], valor, the blessing of spirits, future sight, endless martial training, self-suggestion.
"My wife told me not to lose to anyone. So I guess I'll have to cheat a little."
Frenzy, galvanism, monstrous strength, the teachings of the cow, a masochistic constitution, overcharge, mana burst, Chinese martial arts.
CLANG!!!!
His left fist slammed into Bagest's ribs, unleashing a fierce shockwave and twisting her body sideways. Seeing the follow-up sword strike in the future, Kay dodged it quickly and countered with his own blade.
[Unyo].
Shwaaaak!!!
A slash delivered with blinding speed through footwork. Bagest failed to evade the strike and was cut by Kay's sword.
She was shocked that her own body had been carved open by a sword, and then Kay's figure vanished before her eyes.
Ninjutsu, Presence Concealment, [Fist Realm].
BOOM!!!!!!
Kay's kick smashed into the back of her head. Immediately after, a sword strike slashed across her back.
"!? Where are you!!!"
Kay vanished, his red eyes gleaming as though he had already seen every possible attack in the future.
"Sorry. If I lose to you, I'll get my ass kicked by the kid's mother when I go home. So you can just get hunted down today."
He was using even the cheat known as the Wisdom of the Demonic Realm. He could not afford to lose.
For him, defeat would be an insult to Scáthach, his master and mate.