Having stuffed themselves on sandwiches, the party moved into the massive cave where Maduan was said to be hiding, timing their advance to coincide with Mordred’s nap time.
The interior of the cave was far wider and deeper than it appeared from the outside.
Huge crystal pillars, irregularly embedded in the walls, emitted a gentle violet glow, lighting the way even without torches.
But the magical energy radiating from those crystals induced a nauseating dizziness, warping one’s sense of direction.
“Hey, Tonerico.”
Kay spoke casually over his shoulder to the girl leading the way.
“Yes, Lord Kay. What is it?”
She leaned on her staff and turned to face him.
“About that story you told earlier regarding Maduan. I get she fell in love with a human and wants to cultivate a garden, but why does she have to sacrifice someone else’s wife to win his love? Are fairies always that self-centered?”
A faint smile flickered at the corner of Tonerico’s lips, then momentarily faded.
“…Fairies are creatures that follow their emotions honestly. If fulfilling their purpose or nature demands it, they tend to disregard the sacrifices others make along the way. Of course, not every fairy behaves that way.”
“Sounds a lot like someone I know.”
Kay snorted.
“Just like that Night Mare or whatever. Not a fairy, but fundamentally the same deal.”
“…Perhaps you’re right.”
Tonerico pressed down the brim of her hat and answered ambiguously.
They chatted quietly as they pressed deeper into the cave.
Kugugugung!
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet quivered ominously, and the entire cave began to twist and writhe as if alive.
“What the—an earthquake?!”
Just as Kay tightened his hold on Mordred to steady himself, Kraang!!
The floor behind them, where Gareth and Fou had been walking, shot upward, and massive stone walls slammed down from the ceiling.
In less than a second, the cave walls had shifted on their own, perfectly sealing the party into two separate chambers.
“Gareth!! Fou!!”
Kay pounded the wall with his fist, shouting, but there was no sign of them on the other side.
“Move aside, brother! I’ll break it down!”
Artoria X braced her stance, channeling blue mana into her twin blades and cleaving the rock wall with a single crosscut.
Crash!
The thick stone barrier shattered into dozens of pieces, but the sight beyond left the party aghast.
The corridor where Gareth and Fou had stood was gone, replaced by the yawning abyss of an entirely alien cavern, grotesque stalactites hanging overhead.
“…What the hell happened? They just vanished without a trace!”
Kay spun around in panic. Tonerico tapped her staff calmly on the floor and explained.
“Don’t be alarmed. This cave is Maduan’s fairy domain, where spatial distortions occur. It wasn’t a physical wall that blocked you—space itself has been partitioned. Even if the barrier was destroyed, they’ve already been forcibly teleported to a completely different coordinate within this cave.”
“Damn it, so it wasn’t an illusion but a real spatial-leap trap! Then isn’t Gareth in danger?”
“You need not worry.”
Tonerico smiled reassuringly.
“Maduan may have kidnapped humans, but her aim isn’t slaughter—it’s cultivating her garden. Especially since you were personally guided here as her guests, even if you wander in her trap you shouldn’t face direct mortal danger. You might even rendezvous with King Clarice’s party lost in the fog.”
“Ugh… what a pain. When I get out of this, I’ll pluck every single one of that fairy’s wings.”
“Maduan doesn’t have wings, though.”
Kay clicked his tongue but trusted her words and resumed walking deeper.
Yet the fairy’s trap was far from over.
After several more minutes, the violet crystals began to pulse and flicker in unison.
Wiiiiing!
The very fabric of space warped unsettlingly.
“Brother!! This time it’s the floor!!”
Artoria X Alter cried, reaching for Kay’s sleeve.
But this time it wasn’t the ceiling—the ground under Artoria X and Artoria X Alter gave way, swallowing them into the cave wall as though into a giant mirror.
“Artoria X!! Artoria X Alter!!”
Kay reflexively reached out, only to touch cold, unyielding stone. With a snarl, he drew the golden axe from his back and struck the wall with a mighty blow.
Kraaaaang!
The cave wall collapsed under the immense magical force of his swing, but beyond it there was still no sign of the two sisters.
Instead, the lower chamber of the cave was revealed—a grotesque underworld where seething lava flowed.
“…Damn it. Spatial distortion confirmed.”
Kay set the axe down and sighed deeply.
“Yeah. These aren’t kids you can take lightly. Gotta keep my cool.”
In the vast, cold, and gloomy depths of the cave, only Mordred—still sleeping soundly in her sling on his chest—and Tonerico standing behind him remained.
Kay slowly turned and shot Tonerico a chilling glare.
“Hey, Tonerico.”
“Yes, Lord Kay.”
“You knew from the start that this cave would move like this, didn’t you?”
Tonerico neither denied nor confirmed, merely smiling faintly from beneath her hat’s brim.
“Cut the half-assed fairy act. You lured us deep into the cave under the guise of guidance so you could pick off my strongest companions one by one. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“…Hee hee.”
Her friendly facade twisted into a horrifying grin. Her shoulders trembled, and a spine-chilling laugh echoed through the cave.
“Ahahaha, ahahahaha!! Why didn’t I tell you? Because it was precisely what I was aiming for, Lord Kay.”
At her spine-tingling declaration, Kay’s body was seized by a dreadful change.
“…Ugh?!”
He was struck by excruciating pain as though his heart would burst, clutching his throat and staggering.
His vision spun, his legs gave way, and with a thud he sank to one knee on the cold cave floor.
His steel-honed body, trained in the magical realm, was collapsing from within with no physical blow landed.
“Hah… hah… is this… poison? Hydra’s venom—is that it…?”
Kay wheezed and groaned in agony. Tonerico approached and stood before him.
“Poison? No. Lord Kay, you’re a monster who can survive in a sea of the deadliest toxins. Ordinary poisons or drugs would never work on you.”
She bent down and stroked his cheek gently, yet chillingly.
“This isn’t poison. Quite the opposite. It’s an extremely concentrated essence of the purest New Age ether remaining in Britain’s soil—a supreme tonic for fairies.”
With a cruel smile, she whispered in his ear.
“But how about a human like you? Just as an ordinary person’s lungs would burst upon inhaling Avalon’s air… your physique has fully adapted to the tainted mana and poisons of the magical realm, but the moment you’re flooded with such pure, explosive true ether, your magical circuits reject it in shock and overload, burning out from within.”
“You… you bitch…!”
“By now the medicine has taken full effect. Your companions are trapped in the spatial maze… there is nothing left that can protect you.”
“Morgan… what do you want?”
“…Hee hee. Morgan le Fay, isn’t it?”
“Don’t play coy now… Fou told me. You’re Morgan le Fay.”
“Ah, Caspalug said so, did he? From a beast’s perspective, it’s all the same, I suppose.”
“Caspalug? Grrk… what the hell… Fou’s past life was some Kazusa or something…?”
Even unable to stand properly, Kay let out a humorless chuckle. Tonerico looked down at him, her lips curved in a thin smile.
“It’s an old story. From ancient times, before humans ruled these lands, there was a goddess who was Britain’s true master.”
“…You mean Morrian, the one said to have doomed Cú Chulainn…?”
“Morrian? Yes, that’s what they called her in the Celtic lands. But that’s wrong. In Britain her name was different. That name is Morgan.”
Kay seemed taken aback at the revelation that the goddess Morgan le Fay was the true sovereign of Britain.
“And the lake fairy loved by so many—her name was Nimue. Though in Brittany and the rest of Gaul she was also called Nimue.”
“…….”
“And finally… Uther Pendragon’s first child, the eldest among the sisters who inherited the Pendragon name.”
Tonerico circled Kay slowly, her footsteps echoing in the silent cave, her gaze cold and bright.
“She was the greatest of the lake fairies, representing the Fae of the Isle of Avalon. Called the Ash–Willow Fairy, she bore a child—Uther’s firstborn. And Uther was disappointed.”
She stopped before him and smiled.
“Why? Because she was too fairy. He wanted a half-blood child, but she was too Fae, so he cast her aside. She protested, angry at his cruelty, and in the end she died.”
“!”
“To be precise, she was killed by human hands. As a great king beloved by the Britons, it was easier to brand an innocent woman a witch than to slay a single Saxon. The fairy died at the hands of those she loved—the people of Britain. Such was Uther’s treatment of his consorts. You know well the fate of their mother, Igraine.”
Arthuria’s mother, Igraine—after giving birth she was paid off and banished, never to hold her children in her arms. Her original husband was slain by Uther, and despite being raped by him, she was expelled to Pictland.
With that money she built a small keep and lived out her days alone, and that is all that remains of her story.
“Before she died, the lady gave her child a name—a human name, not a princess’s title. That name was… Tonerico. She gave her child her own name.”
“…….”
“Goddess Morgan. Fairy Nimue. Human Tonerico.”
She stood before Kay and smiled.
“All of these point to one woman. That name is—”
With a swirl of violet mist, Tonerico’s form vanished, revealing her past self, the day she was Merlin’s disciple, and the time she was toyed with and discarded by him.
“Morgan le Fay.”
The woman who severed ties with her past and was betrayed by all became a witch.
“That is my true identity, Kay.”
“—Morgan.”
“I despise the humans of Britain. What I desire is this land, not its people. I care nothing for the loathsome Britons. Whoever sits the throne matters not—if I can claim Britain itself, I will. The people matter not. Human goodness is a lie.”
“…What have you seen, then?”
“…Humanity. I have seen humans, Kay.”
“Is that so… I’ve seen a Night Mare, though.”
Kay looked up at Morgan with a hollow smile. Somehow, he saw himself reflected in her, and yet also Artoria.
“Kay, I like you. Become mine.”
“I’m already a taken man…”
“Pfft. I would grant you anything you desire. You’d only have to unseat those sisters from their thrones, and I would grant you peace with them, vengeance on Merlin, any ingredient you crave, or even my body. I could make you a king of the North, a vassal prince. Or would you prefer Rome? I could eliminate the Emperor and hand you the Empire. My goal is nothing but Britain itself.”
“This is madness… what if I refuse?”
“You have no choice. Today you will become my thrall. But worry not—even a slave receives his rewards when he proves useful…”
She flashed a triumphant smile.
Kay lowered his head and let out a short laugh.
He already knew what she planned to do. It was meant for Merlin, but it seemed Morgan would be the first to test it.
“Very well, let us perform the ritual.”
Morgan immediately began the binding magic of forced contract—a curse-laced spell. With Kay incapacitated, the moment was ripe.
A magic circle appeared beneath Kay. He cradled Mordred and bent at the waist.
As Morgan’s forced contract swirled around him, ready to turn him into her slave—
Pzzzt, crackle!
“What!? Guh, aaaaahhh!!!”
The spell was reflected back onto Morgan instead of Kay.
“Rainbow Reflection, you bitch! I asked Tamamo, Caster, Jeanne, even Queen Gloriana to prepare a talisman that would reflect any binding spell back at its caster!”
“You… damn it!!!”
“You know those plots where overnight the whole world hates you, or you get brainwashed? I had one made for me and my sisters against exactly that. Lucky it isn’t single-use.”
“Guh, aaaaaah!”
Morgan stared down at the demon-seal forming below her navel, clutching her abdomen where the binding tattoo had imprinted.
“A uterine tattoo—trying to brand it onto a man’s belly? You lewd witch.”
“Guh…”
Morgan broke into a cold sweat as she looked up at Kay. In an instant, the tables had turned.
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