Chapter 43: Kingdom of Cameliard -5-

Word of the sudden reversal on the battlefield reached the command of the Nogales army at once.

"Commander-in-chief! The front has completely collapsed! Unknown enemies have appeared and are slaughtering the vanguard one-sidedly!"

At the urgent report from the messenger, Nero, commander of the army and younger brother to King Rience, snapped his baton in half, veins bulging in his face.

"What?! How does it make any sense that a force of five thousand is being pushed back by barely a dozen cavalrymen?!"

Unable to hide his alarm, he hurried at once to the tent of his elder brother, King Rience.

The king's quarters were adorned with splendid leather and bone.

There, reclining sideways on his throne, sat King Rience—the conqueror of Nogales, a giant of a man who called himself a descendant of Heracles—tearing into the hind leg of a freshly slaughtered cow and devouring it raw like a beast.

A braided beard hung from beneath his jaw all the way to his chest, and the blood dripping from the corners of his mouth laid bare his cruel nature.

"Brother! The front is being driven back! Monstrous bastards have appeared and are cutting down our giants and elite troops!"

Yet even at Nero's urgent report, Rience did not look flustered in the slightest. Instead, he flung the meat he had been gnawing on to the floor and opened his eyes wide with interest.

"Monsters? You're saying there are still monsters left in this land of Wales that can butcher my army? What country do they come from, and who are they?"

"That is... there is no enemy general's banner, but the one leading them declared his name to be Arthur Pendragon!"

"Pendragon...?"

A savage smile spread across Rience's lips.

"Ahahahaha! So Uther's heir has truly appeared! Now that is news to make my blood boil!"

He sprang to his feet and stretched out his enormous hand.

Thud!

From one corner of the tent, a massive greatsword embedded there flew heavily into his grasp—the holy sword Marmyadose, said to be the weapon of the legendary hero Heracles.

"At last, a worthy rival has appeared in this tedious war of conquest, one fit to cross blades with me."

Rience laughed cruelly and gave Nero's shoulder a rough pat.

"Nero. Take the remaining five thousand and charge the front. Use your specialty—strategy and command—to tie down that Pendragon brat."

"And what do you intend to do, brother?"

At Nero's question, Rience gave him a meaningful smile and strode out of the tent.

"I'll leave the strategy to you. I'm off to enjoy a very interesting hunt."

Meanwhile, on the outer front.

With Arthur and the Heroic Spirit legion entering the battle in overwhelming fashion, the hellish tide of war was overturned in an instant, and the soldiers of Cameliard, who had been drowning in despair, roared in celebration as their morale returned.

"Wooooah! The tide has turned! Push them back!"

But their cheers did not last long.

To the thunder of war drums that shook the earth, the five thousand troops held in reserve under Commander Nero began pouring onto the battlefield in a cloud of dust.

The moment the main force appeared—far more organized and better trained than the enemies they had been fighting until now—anxiety and despair once more fell across the faces of Cameliard's soldiers.

"Do not be afraid!"

At that moment, Arthur, mounted atop the black horse Llamrei with its white mane streaming, raised Caliburn high and roared from the center of the battlefield.

"There is no need for fear! Arthur Pendragon stands beside you! Follow me!!"

Arthur's shout tore through the air and struck the soldiers straight in the heart.

He dug his heels into Llamrei's flanks and charged head-on toward the newly advancing five thousand.

"Wind, rage. Full release!"

A massive vortex of storm wrapped around Arthur's entire body and Llamrei alike.

Like a gigantic drill, the spinning tempest charge tore straight through the enemy shield formation as though ripping apart paper.

Fwaaaash!!

At the instant the breach opened, the Caliburn Arthur held aloft flashed with a brilliant golden radiance, as though it had swallowed the sun.

A golden slash swept out together with blades of storm, cutting down enemies in every direction like leaves scattered before the autumn wind.

Behind him, Barghest swung her massive greatsword like a windmill, cleaving enemy waists in two, while overhead Ushiwakamaru leapt as if dancing through the air.

"One tale from [The Wandering Tales of Shana-oh]! [Six Paths, Five Eyes and Divine Sight]!!"

Light shone in Ushiwakamaru's clear eyes. Her genius for tactics manifested as a Noble Phantasm, distorting the space and causality of the battlefield itself.

"W-what?! Why is my body moving over here...?"

A bizarre phenomenon unfolded as hundreds of charging Nogales soldiers, without understanding why, found themselves densely gathered in a single straight line.

"Now then, the targets are all lined up, so let us sweep them away! Usumidori, release your true name!"

Ushiwakamaru swept the famed blade Usumidori horizontally.

"[Howeimaru Spiderweb]!!!"

Craaaang!

An invisible ultrasonic slash cut through the hundreds of soldiers gathered in a line in a single stroke, scattering a crimson mist into the air.

The difference in power was overwhelming.

The Heroic Spirits' exploits were so dazzling that the number ten thousand seemed meaningless.

But as Arthur cut down his enemies and swept across the battlefield, his brow furrowed ever so slightly.

'Something's wrong. I have a bad feeling about this.'

Arthur pulled on Llamrei's reins and scanned his surroundings.

'The one who looks like the enemy's overall commander is in the rear, barking orders with veins standing out in his neck... but the actual leader, King Rience, is nowhere to be seen. In a situation like this, the commander should have come out to face me by now...'

An ominous premonition flashed through his mind.

Arthur's instincts began screaming a fierce warning of danger.

"Damn it... the rear is exposed!"

Without a moment's hesitation, he wheeled his horse around and raced furiously toward Cameliard's rear command post.

At the same time, at the temporary command post behind the front lines.

There, Medea and Morgan were using healing Magecraft on Cameliard's wounded soldiers, while Merlin leaned on her staff, concealing the area with illusions and raising a protective barrier.

Stheno as well was calming the terrified soldiers, radiating the divine charm and serene aura unique to a goddess.

Kay stood with his sword drawn, watching the surroundings for any possible surprise attack, while Artoria stayed close at Princess Guinevere's side, guarding her with absolute vigilance.

"Thanks to Prince Arthur and the knights, we can finally breathe easier. The battle has completely turned in our favor."

Guinevere let out a sigh of relief and gave Artoria a grateful smile.

But that peaceful mood did not last long.

"......!"

Artoria's eyes narrowed to the extreme, as if she had sensed something. Her dragon factor was warning her of an instinctive threat of death.

"Watch out!! Get back, Princess!"

The very instant Artoria roughly shoved Guinevere away and sent her sprawling—

a corner of empty space rippled, and an invisible, dreadful sword strike came flying in.

"Khk...!!"

Kay, who had rushed toward the sound, had his breastplate sliced open with a hideous tearing noise. It was a blow that ripped through steel armor as though slicing tofu.

Thanks to the reinforcement enchantments placed on it by Merlin and Medea, he suffered no wound, but armor as tough as a Noble Phantasm had been destroyed in a single strike, and Kay was hurled several meters backward.

"Brother Kay!!"

Artoria cried out, raising her sword and barely managing to block the invisible follow-up attacks that came one after another.

Clang!!

The sheer force behind the slash drove Artoria's feet backward.

"W-What is this?! My clairvoyance showed me nothing!"

Merlin cried out in shock, lifting her staff.

Then the space that had been rippling grotesquely, like skin being peeled away from thin air, stabilized—and the figure of a gigantic man emerged.

A giant of a man carrying Heracles' greatsword, Marmyadose, on his shoulder.

It was King Rience.

At his appearance, Morgan's eyes went to the strange transparent cloak draped over him.

"That cloak... don't tell me that's the fairy treasure, the invisible cloak Gwenn?!"

Morgan shouted in utter disbelief.

"How do you possess a fairy treasure said to deceive clairvoyance, fairy eyes, even the eyes of gods themselves?! What did you do to the fairies of the Rain Clan?!"

King Rience stroked his beard with a vile, murderous smile.

"What did I do? I plundered them. Fairies are lumps of mystery in and of themselves, after all. Flaying their skins and boiling their bones for Magecraft materials proved quite useful."

At that horrific atrocity, something in Morgan's reason snapped.

"You vermin dare defile the fairies!!"

She swung her spear-sharp staff and unleashed a murderous wave of black mana.

"Haha! For a witch's desperate struggle, that stings rather nicely!"

Rience casually swung Marmyadose and knocked away Morgan's magical energy, then leapt with terrifying speed and drove a massive kick into her stomach.

"Kuhk...!"

Even with a fairy's body, the brute strength of a descendant of Heracles was deadly. Morgan coughed up blood and rolled across the ground.

"Morgan!"

Medea hurriedly began chanting High-Speed Divine Words, deploying dozens of magic circles in an attempt to bind Rience.

But a red light flashed from the invisible cloak Gwenn draped over him.

That cloak bore the beards of the eleven kings he had slain, and the combined spiritual authority of those kings formed a powerful anti-magic barrier.

Crash!

The instant Medea's binding Magecraft touched the barrier of the cloak, it shattered like glass.

"Damn...!"

Medea tried to retreat in alarm, but Rience's enormous shadow had already fallen over her head.

"The first sacrifice will be you, witch!"

Rience laughed cruelly as he brought Marmyadose crashing down toward the crown of Medea's head.

'Ah... so this is death. Maybe because it's his sword, and because his face oddly resembles Heracles, this feels even more bitter. Still, in life... he was a man who treated me fairly well, in his own way.'

Faced with an inescapable trajectory of death, Medea squeezed her eyes shut.

Kaaaaang!!!

A metallic crash rang out, as though the world itself were breaking apart.

But Medea felt no pain at all. Instead, she felt the warmth of a strong arm wrapped tightly around her slender waist.

When Medea slowly opened her eyes, before her was a dazzling golden flash of a blade, perfectly knocking aside Rience's massive greatsword.

The one who had leapt down from the panting Llamrei, holding Medea in his arms while blocking Rience's sword—

was Arthur.

"......"

Arthur's blond hair swayed in the chill wind. All trace of his usual playfulness had vanished from his emerald eyes, replaced by a cold, ferocious fury like that of a starving dragon.

"How dare you lay a hand on my woman."

At Arthur's low, murderous warning, Medea's heart, held within his embrace, began pounding wildly, beyond all control.

"Kuhahahahaha! So you're Arthur Pendragon, blood of Uther!"

King Rience adjusted his rebounding greatsword in his grip and slowly stepped toward Arthur with a bold laugh.

"You've come at just the right time! The twelfth and final beard to complete my cloak shall be taken together with your head!"

"I'm eternally fifteen, so I don't grow a beard. We may share the same ancestor, but you're dying today."

"Oh? You'll kill me? Me? You claim you'll kill this body, descendant of the great hero Heracles? Young Pendragon!"

Boom!

Arthur released his mana and stepped forward, and the ground shattered and split beneath that single stomp.

The mystery of Pendragon and the mana of the red dragon pouring from him set the life of the forest trembling.

"Heracles was certainly great. But you're not Heracles, are you?"

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