Bang—
As if all his strength had been exhausted, Vortigern was pierced by the Sword of Promised Victory without any resistance. He then stumbled and flew toward Londinium for a while before his massive body finally collapsed beneath the city walls.
Is it over? Did we... really defeat Vortigern?
Looking at the White Dragon fallen beneath the city walls, just like in the original epic, Gawain, Lancelot, Percival, and the others who were still conscious couldn't help but have this thought.
Artoria lowered the Holy Sword of the Planet in her hand. At this moment, her face was pale from the depletion of magical energy, and even the hand holding the sword was trembling slightly.
She first looked at the White Dragon, now lying on the ground, its entire body scorched black, with a large gaping hole in its chest.
Although thanks to the powerful physical body of a Dragon Kind, he hadn't completely died yet, such a wound was no longer something Vortigern—who had catalyzed his dragonification by devouring a corpse—could heal.
Furthermore, just as Merlin said, he wasn't going to live much longer anyway.
Thinking of Merlin, Artoria silently turned her gaze toward the white figure lying in the withered petals not far away.
Did Merlin truly die just like that?
The young girl's heart felt heavy, and her mind uncontrollably began to recall all the moments she had spent with this fellow who claimed to be her teacher.
In her understanding, no matter how terrible Merlin's personality was, or how much he liked causing trouble and toying with women, he was still her comrade.
He was even one of her few friends, perhaps even family.
Frankly, Artoria fundamentally didn't believe Merlin would die just like this. After all, he was so cunning, so desperate to stay alive. How could he not have prepared a backup plan, a third plan, a fourth plan?
But when Gawain went forward and thoroughly examined Merlin's corpse, then shook his head at her and informed her that the blessings on all of them had disappeared, Artoria fell completely silent.
Yet the young girl ultimately restrained her emotions and didn't go to look at Merlin's corpse. Instead, holding her sword, she walked toward Vortigern.
"It is all over, Vortigern," Artoria said softly, looking at the White Dragon before her.
"...Yes, it is all over."
Vortigern weakly raised his eyelids, his massive dragon pupils gazing at the Child of the Red Dragon who had defeated him. His words were plain, containing neither the anger and unwillingness of a loser nor the provocation of having killed the enemy's general.
"To think you could actually gain the World's recognition by relying on a borrowed ideal. I must say, this world is truly messed up."
The White Dragon said with a hint of mockery.
Hearing his words, Artoria revealed a puzzled expression.
"Why do you say that?"
"Heh, actually believing in a manufactured tool rather than a human. Do you think a world like this is truly suitable for human survival?"
"You are wrong, Vortigern. I am not a tool, I am a human. I am Artoria Pendragon. The title of King Arthur is merely a name. Before being a King, I am a human."
The young girl seemed highly averse to Vortigern calling her a tool rather than a human, which made her—having learned how to be an adult from that person long ago—very unhappy.
So she argued strongly on the basis of reason.
"The reason I was recognized by the World and the Holy Sword is because I understood my mission, and what I want is to save everything. It is precisely because of this that I defeated you."
"Ha, haha, hahaha!"
As if hearing the greatest joke in the world, even though Vortigern's body was already showing signs of dissipating, he still laughed loudly, ignoring his wounds, as if Artoria's words contained endless amusement.
"Save everything? Don't make me laugh, Arthur. Is your so-called 'saving everything' abandoning this island that birthed you and your people, and handing everything over to this damned World, turning them into nourishment for a new era?!"
"And you, who are like this, actually insist you are a human? So cold-blooded, heartless, and ignorant. How dare you call yourself human!"
What?
Hearing Vortigern's almost manic words, Artoria instantly froze.
Abandoning the island and the people? A new era? Nourishment?
What do these mean? Isn't everything I've done to lead Britain towards a brand new future?!
Shouldn't the one who is not human be Vortigern? The one who insists on retaining the Age of Gods, ignoring the fact that Britain will be abandoned and pruned by the World, even affecting the entire World?
The young girl, completely ignorant of the truth, looked bewildered. This was what Merlin had told her since childhood, but why did Vortigern speak of such a tragedy?
"You don't know? Having drawn the Sword of Selection, did you not see the scenes of the future?"
Seeing Artoria's bewildered and helpless expression, it was now Vortigern's turn to be shocked and confused.
He had always thought Artoria knew the scenes after the fading of the Age of Gods, just like that stubborn Uther and destiny's loyal servant, Merlin.
That was why Vortigern hated this niece of his so much.
But, if she doesn't know all this, if she has even been deceived all along the way, then she...
Vortigern understood something, and a look of pity couldn't help but appear on his face.
"How truly pitiful, Arthur..."
"Enough, Vortigern. For a loser, you talk too much."
Just as he was about to tell Artoria everything, a voice abruptly rang out.
The next moment, under everyone's astonished gazes, a certain white-haired incubus—who should have had all his bones crushed and been dead beyond dead—appeared beside Artoria again.
"Merlin?!"
Everyone revealed looks of disbelief, especially Gawain. Convinced that Merlin had died back then, he was currently completely dumbfounded.
"Everyone, I trust you've been well~"
The joyous incubus grinned and greeted the people looking at him.
"Merlin, you truly didn't die!"
Artoria looked at Merlin, who had suddenly appeared beside her, and instinctively felt a surge of joy, a smile appearing on her face.
"Well, I have you to thank for that, Lily."
Merlin chuckled lightly and took that pinkish-white petal from Artoria's hair.
But the young girl quickly snapped out of her joy, her gaze then looking straight at Merlin.
"By the way, Merlin. You heard what Vortigern just said, right? What is going on? Are you... hiding something from me?"
Artoria's tone was somewhat uneasy; she seemed to have noticed something.
But Merlin deliberately didn't answer her question. Instead, he turned his gaze to Vortigern, the smile on his lips turning slightly cold.
"Vortigern, losers should obediently bite the dust. Spouting meaningless words to deceive my Lily is impolite."
"Heh, meaningless? For a mere prophecy and destiny, you, an incubus, actually deceived a girl who has barely come of age. How truly sickening."
Vortigern seemed to have anticipated that Merlin wasn't completely dead. Seeing the fellow appear again, he couldn't help but sneer.
"Merlin! What exactly is he talking about? Did you truly deceive me!?"
To the side, Artoria finally realized Merlin's abnormality. Complex emotions surfaced in her heart, and she couldn't help but question him.
"No, Lily. I have barely ever told a lie."
Merlin was still smiling, but this smile, due to his words, became somewhat creepy in Artoria's eyes.
Barely. Barely ever told a lie.
That meant he had hidden a portion of it, not recounting it completely.
The young girl's eyes turned red.
But at this moment, Merlin wasn't looking at her anymore. He felt that letting this guy Vortigern stay alive was truly becoming annoying.
So Merlin waved his hand and summoned the Sun Holy Sword, Galatine, from the hands of Gawain, who was standing not far away and, due to a soundproof boundary field Merlin had set up, had no idea what was happening.
Holding this sister sword to the Sword of Promised Victory, Merlin wasn't in a hurry to kill Vortigern. Instead, as if to savor his emotions one last time, he smiled.
"Vortigern, how does it feel to have years of painstaking effort completely destroyed in an instant? Very sad and unwilling, right? But there's nothing you can do, because you are a loser."
"As a loser, a failure, you deserve to endure all this. You deserve to watch me kill you."
"Well then, loser, goodbye~"
Repeating the loser speech, Merlin's eyes shone with a twisted and sick light.
He looked forward to devouring the emotions of this Vile King Vortigern, one of the Twin Dragons of Britain.
After all, incubi fed on human emotions.
But he miscalculated, because Vortigern revealed a smile, a smile like that of a victor.
"Failure? Do you think the reason I fought you for so long, when I could have killed you long ago, was because of this so-called destiny?"
"The one who truly ought to bite the dust in defeat is you, Incubus."
Before Merlin could react, Vortigern abruptly used all his remaining strength and magical energy to roar at the sky.
The next moment, the sound of glass shattering came from overhead. Merlin's boundary field was instantly broken, and the meaning within that roar was known by a certain someone at this moment.
"What are you trying to do!!!"
A bad premonition abruptly arose in his heart. Holding Galatine, Merlin thrust fiercely toward Vortigern's throat.
But what made his heart sink was that his thrust hit empty air.
Because Vortigern's body had completely turned into particles of light and vanished at this moment. In the final moment of disappearance, Merlin saw the mockery in his eyes and that victorious smile that thoroughly disgusted him.
With this, the White Dragon's aura completely disappeared from Merlin's perception.
But immediately following that, a powerful and sacred presence he had never felt before suddenly erupted from behind them.
The next moment, the entire sky was rendered by golden light.
When Artoria and Merlin were attracted by this light and looked over, what met their eyes was the white-haired young man holding an unimaginably massive spear of light, his expression indifferent.
"Lamorak!!!"
Not just them, everyone attracted by this anomaly uttered this name in unison with disbelief.
Ignoring any of them, the light emitted by the Holy Lance in Souya's hand became even more dazzling.
"This is the Anchor of the Storm that tears the sky and connects the earth, blooming with brilliance at the end of the world."
"My Goddess, my Faith, please bestow your pity upon me once again, and grant your emissary the power to ignore all restraints."
"Hereby, the thirteen restraints are released. The Holy Lance's power is fully unlocked. Pierce through this wall of the world."
"Holy Lance, Anchor Released."
"'The Lance that Shines to the Ends of the World', Rhongomyniad."