An endless argent-white snowfield.
Arthur had long since given up counting how much time had passed inside the barrier. In the outside world, only a few minutes would likely have gone by, but in this demonic realm, bone-grinding training that felt like eternity continued without end.
It had not even been a month yet, but with every day made up of nothing but training, meals, and rest, it was no easy thing. Thanks to Scathach's runes, he did not sleep, and in reality it was one uninterrupted stretch of discipline.
Thud!!
"Ghk...!"
Scathach's kick came flying through the blizzard and slammed into Arthur's abdomen.
Spitting blood as he rolled dozens of times across the snow, Arthur kicked off the ground like a beast, rose again, and clenched his fists.
It was a relentless chain of horrific pain, broken bones forcibly knit back together with mana, torn muscles sticking themselves back into place.
But Arthur was not merely taking the blows.
"Haaah!!"
Pretending to stagger, Arthur suddenly burst forth with an extremely compressed [Mana Burst] and in an instant slipped into Scathach's blind spot.
A straight punch wrapped in a storm shot toward the underside of her jaw.
"Ho."
Scathach tried to avoid the fist with a slight turn of her head, but the trajectory of Arthur's punch bent in a bizarre arc and fiercely grazed past her shoulder armor.
Smack!
It was very slight, but unmistakably the sound of impact. Scathach's body was pushed half a step backward.
"Haa... haa...."
Arthur dropped to one knee, breathing hard. Scathach brushed at the small scratch left on her shoulder armor and smiled in satisfaction.
"Excellent. That last strike was far more delicate in both the flow of force and the control of mana."
Saying he could rest a little now, Scathach lit a fire, and the two of them sat before it.
"In only a matter of days, you've achieved astonishing growth. How to handle mana efficiently without waste, how to conceal the trajectory of your power... things you could never learn under a half-baked teacher like Merlin."
At her words, Arthur asked in puzzlement,
"A half-baked teacher? Merlin?"
"Yes. That succubus is undoubtedly an exceptional kingmaker and a mage of the highest order. But as a teacher who raises heroes, she's no more than second-rate. She can place a weapon in someone's hand and set the board for them, but she cannot shatter a warrior's limits."
Staring into the blazing fire, Scathach continued.
"Throughout all of human history, there have been many teachers who instructed great men. But first-rate teachers like myself or Chiron of Greece, who can perfectly awaken a hero's latent abilities from the very foundation up, are rare enough to count on one hand."
"So the reason that great hero Heracles was absurdly strong in the first place was ultimately because of Chiron's teaching?"
"Obviously. Without Chiron's instruction and correction, Heracles would have remained nothing more than an uncontrollable beast with monstrous strength and would never have risen to the ranks of heroes."
Remembering that the Heracles of old had possessed a berserker temperament and plenty of defects in both character and disposition, Arthur nodded in understanding.
"What I am doing for you now is not granting you new power. I am only awakening the original power sleeping within you and correcting it so that you can control it perfectly. It was such a waste, after all. To have the heart of that red dragon and only be able to use its power like that."
Scathach stared steadily at Arthur and declared,
"The potential you possess surpasses even Cu Chulainn and Heracles."
"Me? Not just on a similar level?"
"Do you truly not know?"
Scathach narrowed her eyes.
"The heart of the red dragon you carry in your chest. What the source of that red dragon truly is."
When Arthur remained silent, Scathach spoke aloud a secret from the age of myth.
"The primordial life-form born before all gods. The strongest Phantasmal Species, the first dragon, Albion, whom even the chief gods could not treat lightly. From the corpse Albion left behind as it breathed its last, two dragons were born. The white dragon and the red dragon."
"I know that much."
"Those two transcendent beings, each inheriting half of Albion's power, possessed strength that even the gods feared, yet they desired a quiet life. But Vortigern, born from the will for Britain's destruction, sought out the white dragon and persuaded it. In the end, the white dragon gave Vortigern its power and met its death. And conversely, the red dragon accepted Merlin's persuasion and gave up its life and its power... and the result was you and your twin younger sister."
Scathach's voice sank heavily.
"Of course, even the red dragon's power was divided in half between you and your sister. But you were born hoarding one thing all for yourself. The mystery of Pendragon itself—in other words, the absolute mystery of Britain, the navel of the planet."
Arthur's eyes shook.
Originally, the mystery of the Pendragon bloodline should have ended with Uther's generation.
That mystery had continued on in Morgan, mistress of the island and reincarnation of a goddess, but Arthur, born as the irregular one among the twins, had also inherited that mystery of Britain in full.
"Unlike Artoria, you, who fused together Britain's dense mystery and the dragon factor at the same time... are not a divided existence, but the red dragon itself. Even if it is the power of a red dragon split in two, its pure rank does not fall short even when compared to most chief gods."
Scathach tapped Arthur's chest with a finger.
"If we speak of innate talent alone, you far surpass even me. That Cu Chulainn brat was talented as well, but because he was not a seeker who honed the ultimate limits of martial skill as I did, that talent rotted away. But you are different."
She read the unshakable obsession burning in Arthur's eyes.
"You have precious people you absolutely must protect, and a steadfast conviction that will never break. That is why you can become strong. But... as you are now, you are in a state where your true power cannot be properly drawn out at all. It is perfectly sealed."
"Sealed?"
"Yes. So that you siblings, who carry the heart of the red dragon, could preserve your reason and live as human beings, that succubus must have placed a safety device on you. But so long as you remain trapped in those shackles, you can never become, as I am, a being who is human and yet transcends humanity."
Arthur stroked his chin and sank into thought.
"Absolute power. I need overwhelming power, enough to stand at the summit of this age."
The world of Britain and the Celts ultimately ran on the logic of strength. The reason the Knights of the Round Table had split apart and the knights had rebelled was that insane reason that their king had been a perfect human being.
If he was perfect, they were uncomfortable because he was perfect; if he had flaws, they were uncomfortable because he had flaws. That sort of touchy, discontented temperament that made them band together with their own kind and rise up was the nature of the Britons.
The reason King Arthur had fallen was that he had not been an overwhelming calamity capable of crushing them with fear.
Just as Qin Shi Huang had suppressed all under heaven with absolute authority, and Iskandar had crushed rebellion beneath the overwhelming army of a conquering king.
To rule over madmen who preached chivalry while stabbing you in the back, what was needed was not mercy, but overwhelming fear.
Boundless mercy for the people, and terror so suffocating that traitors could not even breathe.
That was the kingly path Arthur had concluded was fitting for a capable and just tyrant.
"What happens if that restriction is completely released?"
At Arthur's question, Scathach smiled coldly.
"If the red dragon's power is perfectly unleashed, you will cast off the limits of humanity, but conversely, your sense of self may be devoured by that vast mana and power, and you may become a monster. But if you can perfectly master that power... you might even defeat Lugh, the Celtic god of light, and usurp his divine seat. Though now that this is no longer the Age of Gods, that would be meaningless."
She rose to her feet, looked down at Arthur, and declared,
"If that happens, you will become the one and only warrior in this age capable of killing me. In exchange, you will never again be able to live as an ordinary human. Like me, your humanity may grow faint, and you may have to bear eternal loneliness."
"I've already prepared myself for that."
Arthur answered without the slightest wavering.
To begin with, from the moment he drew Caliburn, he had become ageless and immortal, so he had already accepted it.
"If I can protect my precious family and save Britain, then I don't care if I become a monster or cease to be human. And I won't become lonely."
"Oh? On what grounds?"
"Because the power of love is great."
Arthur grinned boldly.
"Because I'll have a great many family members at my side, people I love and who love me. So long as my conviction and heart to protect them never change, I'm confident I will never become drunk on power or be swallowed by the red dragon's savagery."
Scathach stared for a long while into Arthur's straightforward gaze, then nodded as if satisfied.
"Very well. I shall personally test just how far that arrogant conviction of yours can carry you."
"So just how do you remove that restriction? Are you going to open my meridians or perform some secret ritual or something?"
At that moment.
Moving at a speed invisible to the eye, Scathach shoved Arthur's shoulder and laid him flat on the snow, then lightly climbed on top of him, spread her legs, and tightly pinned his waist beneath her.
"Uh... huh?"
Arthur blinked in confusion, suddenly finding himself lying in the snow with Scathach straddling him. Even through her tight full-body suit, the sensual warmth of her body came through clearly.
"It's simple. Through mana transfer, I force my mana deep into your body and twist open the suppressed meridians and Magic Circuits by force."
"No, I know that's what mana transfer is, but... do we really have to do it in this position?! Wait, this is a bit...!"
When Arthur flusteredly tried to struggle, Scathach seized both his wrists, twisted them, and pinned them hard into the snow. Because of the absolute difference in strength, Arthur could not even squirm.
"To be honest, this treatment is filled to the brim with my own selfish desires."
Scathach confessed, sensually licking her lips.
"That brat Setanta rejected my seduction with the stale excuse that I was older and his teacher... and yet in the end, he used force to rape my younger sister and even got her pregnant with his child. Frankly, as a teacher and as a woman, it wounded my pride terribly and disappointed me."
Her crimson eyes glistened as they fixed on Arthur's lips.
"But you were different. Even though you have tendencies similar to his, you rejected me on the pure conviction that you wanted no relationship without love. That stirred my fighting spirit and my desire to conquer you like mad."
"No, why are you interpreting someone's convictions like that?! Mmgh!"
Scathach brought her face right up to Arthur's. Her sweet yet chilly breath tickled his cheek.
"Boy, do you know the common law shared by Celtic and Greek myth?"
"I-I don't...!"
"Either you fuck, or you get fucked. In the Age of Gods, where power rules, it is only natural law that the victor ravages the loser. When Setanta raped my younger sister, I was furious enough to grind my teeth... but now that I am the one trying to pin you down with strength and rape you, I can hardly contain this thrilling sense of depravity."
"Can you even do this?! I-Is rape really supposed to be fine?!"
"Shut your mouth. To begin with, wasn't the very process by which you were born rooted in Uther raping Igraine?"
"Is this woman insane? Are you seriously making a crack about my parents right now?!"
Arthur shouted in outrage, utterly dumbfounded.
But Scathach merely laughed without caring in the slightest.
"It's fine. Myth has always been this much of a mud pit. The fools of later ages even made up and spread a bizarre tale that Setanta broke the fingers of an imaginary daughter of mine I never even bore, tore her fiance to pieces, and raped her as well. In the age of myth, a teacher devouring her student is hardly a blemish worth mentioning."
She buried her nose against the nape of Arthur's neck and inhaled deeply. The hot scent of the red dragon made her lower belly churn.
"If you resent it, then become stronger than me. I have no intention of withering away in this eternal demonic realm as some old-maid ghost... so today, I will thoroughly crush and devour that insolent pride of yours inside my mouth."
"Wait! Scathach! Master!! Spare me—mmph!!"
Arthur desperately twisted his waist and resisted, but before the overwhelming physical might of the queen who had slain gods, it was no more than the flailing of a newborn puppy.
In the abyss of the Land of Shadows, where argent-white snowstorms scattered through the air, Britain's young king was hunted down in the most literal sense by the starving immortal queen, without even managing a proper struggle.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register