Chapter 48: North Wales - 13 -
North Wales Castle, the Lion King’s study.
Artoria Lancer sat before a mountain of paperwork, pressing a hand to her brow in frustration. Beside her, the potent medicinal tea Tamamo had brewed was growing cold.
“Your Majesty, this is a letter from King Bellinant of Sugales requesting an extension of the alliance,” Galehaut reported, carefully presenting the documents. “Additionally, requests regarding trade agreements have arrived from King Wurien of Gore and King Brandegoris of Strangore.”
Though Britain currently faced the massive common enemies of Vortigern and the Saxons, the political calculations of the various kingdoms and lords remained a tangled web.
There were those who sought to alleviate the Saxon threat by allying with the formidable military might of North Wales, and those who played a cautious game, attempting to keep North Wales's growing power in check.
“Such flimsy letters,” Lancer muttered, tossing her quill onto the desk with a snap. “I should just tear them all to shreds and push the borders forward with my holy lance.”
Ever since Kay had returned to her side, she had grown even more disillusioned with the wretched duties of the throne and the tedious games of politics.
Clinging to Kay, feeling his warmth, and enjoying the meals he prepared—those simple pleasures made her days feel too short. The idea of wasting her time on this endless paperwork was intolerable.
“...I honestly think I should just hand the throne over to my brother and enter his harem as a full-time housewife.”
“Your—Your Majesty! Please, refrain from such dangerous jokes...! Sir Kay would be absolutely horrified if he heard that!”
Galehaut turned pale, frantically trying to dissuade her.
Bang!
The study door burst open violently, and Calogrenant, Commander of the Second Order of North Wales Knights, rushed in, covered in dust and grime.
“Reporting, Your Majesty!! A massive force of Picts has crossed the northern border and invaded!”
“The Picts? Why would those barbarians suddenly—?”
“It appears to be a large-scale raid to plunder food and supplies before winter! Their numbers reach into the thousands. Sir Digor, Commander of the Third Order, has locked down the fortress and is fighting a desperate defensive battle, but the numerical disparity is too great. Its fall is only a matter of time!”
Digor.
Once a fierce ally of Galehaut, he was a powerful warrior who had eventually submitted to the Lion King’s might to become the Third Knight Commander.
Lancer stood up immediately and seized her holy lance.
“First and Second Orders, prepare for immediate departure! I will lead the vanguard and personally crush those monsters—!”
“Hey, hold on a second.”
At that moment, Kay appeared, leaning casually against the doorframe of the study.
“Thousands of Picts? That’s too far to march a whole army. The fortress will be rubble by the time they arrive.”
“Brother! But if we leave them, Sir Digor and his men might be annihilated. We must move the army quickly—”
“Forget it, I’ll go.”
Kay flashed a grin.
“I’ve spent the last few days doing nothing but cooking inside the castle; I feel like my muscles are starting to grow mold. I need to stretch my legs. While that Digor guy holds the line, I’ll just fly over with a small elite group and take their head.”
“That is reckless! No matter how exceptional your strength is, you cannot break through an army of thousands alone!”
Lancer panicked and tried to stop him, but Kay was already calling out into the void.
“Medusa!!”
At Kay's call, Medusa, who had been in her spiritual form, slowly materialized.
“I am always on standby, Master. Shall we depart?”
“Yeah. Let’s fly to that northern fortress as fast as possible.”
Just as Kay turned toward the garden, Artoria Alter suddenly intervened, resting a black holy sword upon her shoulder.
“I’m coming too, brother. I’ve eaten nothing but meat for days; I need to perform a little sword dance to help with my digestion.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Alter hopped onto the back of the dazzling white Pegasus that Medusa had summoned.
Kay climbed on in front of her, and Medusa took the reins.
“Wait—wait a minute! What about me?! I am coming with you, brother!”
Lancer rushed forward to mount the Pegasus, but the creature let out a strained whinny, already burdened by the weight of three riders.
“Whoa there! If you climb on too, you'll break the horse's back! You're heavy, so stay at the castle and lead the army here slowly! We'll go ahead and clean everything up for you!”
“Heavy? What... WHAT?! BROTHER!!”
Leaving Lancer’s screams behind, Kay soared into the sky atop Medusa’s Pegasus, cutting through the air at lightning speed toward the north.
Left alone, Lancer stamped her feet in a fit of rage and indignation, slamming her holy lance into the ground.
“That... that sly fox, Orta!! How dare she cut in line again!! Deploy the First and Second Orders immediately!! I will not leave a single Pict alive!!”
***
At the northernmost fortress of North Wales.
Third Knight Commander Digor, drenched in blood, was swinging his greatsword against the surging waves of Pict warriors.
“Do not retreat!! Defend this fortress with your lives until reinforcements arrive!”
Digor shouted desperately, but the situation was hopeless.
The Pict warriors, their bodies covered in tattoos and draped in the bones and hides of beasts, climbed the walls like zombies, utterly fearless of death.
As Phantasmal Species, they were born as a race built for combat.
Before their overwhelming numbers, the defenses of North Wales were collapsing in multiple places.
...Is this where it ends?
Just as Digor gasped for air and prepared to close his eyes.
K-BOOM!!
With a thunderous roar that split the heavens, a streak of light pierced through the clouds and descended upon the fortress.
It was Medusa’s Pegasus.
“We have arrived, Master.”
“Alright. Medusa, use your Mystic Eye from the air to neutralize the archers in the rear! Orta, you just run wild!”
“Hmph. I would have done so even without your command!”
Alter leapt from the Pegasus.
From the obsidian holy sword in her hand, the suppressed mana of the tyrant began to condense with explosive force.
“Filthy barbarians. Burn away until not a trace remains!!”
Alter swung the holy sword in a massive arc toward the earth.
She didn't even use a True Name Release; it was a pure discharge of mana, compressed to its absolute limit and unleashed.
KRA-BOOM!!!
A colossal black slash swept across the land like a tsunami.
Hundreds of Pict warriors caught in the strike were vaporized instantly, their flesh and bone separating before they could even scream, scattering into black ash in the wind.
The sheer scale of the firepower left both the defenders on the walls and the Picts frozen in shock.
However, the true terror was only beginning.
Following Alter, a man leapt from the Pegasus: Kay.
In mid-air, he drew the massive weapon strapped to his back. It was the legendary weapon once used by the ancient Queen of the Amazons—the colossal Hippolyta's Axe, measuring well over a meter.
“Are you sure about this, brother? Facing that many alone?”
As Alter asked while reeling in her mana, Kay replied with a short, confident smile.
“I’ll win.”
SLAM!!!!
Kay crashed into the heart of the Pict main force, stomping the earth.
From the point where his feet touched, the ground shattered and cracked like a spiderweb for dozens of meters.
Recovering from their shock, the Pict warriors roared like beasts and charged Kay all at once, thrusting spears and swinging axes.
Kay didn't dodge. In fact, there was no need to.
He ignited the runes of Scáthach carved into the axe.
“Shall we begin?”
Kay swung Hippolyta's Axe in a wide, horizontal arc.
BAM!! CRUNCH!
A single swing.
The moment the blade sliced through the air, the upper bodies of a dozen Pict warriors within a five-meter radius were sent flying with a gruesome tearing sound.
It was the start of a pure massacre, crude and mindless, driven solely by overwhelming physical strength.
“Gwaaaaah!!”
Terrified, several Pict warriors stabbed their spears into Kay’s back.
However, the spearheads could not penetrate Kay’s muscles, which had been hardened like steel through rune magic; they simply bounced off with a metallic ping.
“Feels like mosquito bites.”
Kay turned his head indifferently and struck them with the haft of the axe.
With a sickening squelch, the enemies' skulls were crushed like overripe watermelons.
Fancy swordsmanship or magecraft were unnecessary.
This was a physique beyond normal limits, forged in the hell of the Shadow Realm after being stabbed tens of thousands of times by Scáthach’s spear. Every step he took, every time he slammed or swung the axe, a mountain of Pict corpses grew and a spray of blood erupted.
It wasn't a battle.
It was a merciless slaughter carried out by an apex predator.
Watching from the walls, bleeding and breathless, Digor’s jaw dropped.
“That man... he isn't human. Is he the incarnation of Camulus, the God of War and Hunting...!”
Overcome with awe, Digor found himself dropping to his knees.
Kay’s raw, primal violence, Medusa’s Mystic Eyes raining from the sky, and Alter’s black-flame slashes incinerating the earth.
The army of thousands of Picts, who only an hour ago seemed poised to trample the defenses of North Wales, were completely annihilated by three monsters.
“Whew. Is that it?”
Kay shook the blood off his axe and wiped away his sweat.
Thousands of Pict corpses lay strewn around him, and the earth was a muddy red slurry of blood.
Then, on the distant horizon, a group of cavalry appeared, kicking up clouds of black dust as they charged at a furious speed.
At the lead was a woman riding a massive black horse.
She wore obsidian armor with a daring underbust design, and in her hand, she gripped a colossal black holy lance.
It was Artoria Lancer Alter.
“Tsk. I rushed here specifically to show my brother the power of my holy lance, but it seems I’m a step too late. How disappointing.”
Lancer Alter brought her black steed to a halt and flashed a seductive smile at Kay, who stood atop a mountain of corpses.
“Good work, brother. You still fight in such a crude manner.”
“Looks like you bolted the moment you got the message. Did you even eat?”
“Hehe, do you really think a proper meal would go down my throat while you weren't here?”
Lancer Alter whispered seductively, using her thumb to wipe a smudge of blood from Kay’s cheek.
Watching this, Alter’s brow furrowed sharply, but she suppressed her anger, telling herself she could tolerate it since she had arrived first.
Kay, who had ground the Picts into dust with overwhelming force, and the newly arrived Lancer Alter.
It seemed another storm was about to descend upon North Wales.
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