A wind of change was blowing through Pictland.
Two kingdoms had been conquered, and a neighboring land had been conquered as well.
For the Picts, who had long been the masters of this land, it was an emergency.
Fortriu, said to be the strongest kingdom in all of Pictland.
Its king, Fortriu mac Cruithne, was a hero who had lived a hundred years, fought a hundred wars, and won every last one of them.
A strategist famed for his skill in close combat, known as the Iron-Blooded Monarch.
He had overwhelmed outstanding Roman generals and British commanders alike, both in tactics and in sheer might.
His fame was unmatched in Pictland, and even King Lot of Orkney regarded him as his greatest and most dangerous rival.
And yet he, and the Kingdom of Fortriu...
"Gehub!"
Were split in two by a single blow.
The King of Fortriu died in the most literal sense, cleaved cleanly in half.
For this was a holy sword that cut through all things, and a demonic sword that had split the heavens.
[Chrysaor] (the god-slaying lightning that split the sky).
With the release of its true name, Arthur's full-powered slash split the sky, split the earth, and cut the King of Fortriu, his soldiers, the walls, and the castle itself in half.
A sword of universal severance that had cut down the gods of the heavens and sliced apart the Titans.
The water god Ea had used a nameless sword that divided the world, cutting apart the primordial cosmos and separating heaven from earth.
That was a sword that split the world.
Then what was a sword that split the sky?
If the nameless sword split space itself, then this one split all things.
The difference between space and matter.
If the cosmos was the world, then the sky was its ceiling.
There was nothing the sword that split the heavens could not cut.
And its master, moreover, was the incarnation of the red dragon. The slash he unleashed with his full strength severed all things, and its range was absurd beyond belief.
It went beyond an Anti-Army Noble Phantasm and reached the level of an Anti-Country Noble Phantasm in sheer area of effect.
The greatest king of Pictland, the greatest king of the Picts, met death from a single slash.
Among the seven brother-kings, he had been the most outstanding and the strongest.
He knew he had no chance in a war, but he could not surrender, and so he chose to settle the matter in close combat.
At the very least, he believed that if it came to the kind of close-quarters battle he excelled in, he could defeat Arthur.
Arthur kept his word. It was close combat. He simply cut him down with a single slash delivered at full power, and he was so strong that he cut through things he had no need to cut as well.
The Kingdom of Fortriu was conquered with laughable ease.
Then what of the other kingdoms of Pictland, after witnessing the death of the third brother and the fall of the third kingdom?
"We surrender! We surrender unconditionally!"
They offered their surrender of their own accord.
Until now, they had still thought this was within the bounds of something they might somehow contend with. But then they saw it.
They saw Arthur split the sky and split the earth.
The Picts had shamans as well, and through their familiars, the four remaining kingdoms witnessed that reality and chose surrender.
Ordinarily, true to the nature of the Picts, even if they were going to die, they would have chosen to die fighting.
But no battle could even be established.
Fortriu had not even managed an honorable fight before dying a hollow death.
The first two had been the same, and the next would likely be no different.
It was a realm where battle itself could not even be成立. Against Arthur as he was now, the only rival in Britain was probably Vortigern.
Fib, Cait, Circinn, and Cé.
The four remaining kingdoms chose submission. More than simply wanting to live, they wanted to see it.
They wanted to see what kind of world would be created by the great founding king, by the being who had surpassed their father Cruithne.
"Very well. I accept."
Arthur was merciful to those who surrendered.
So he recognized them as vassal kings and allowed them to continue ruling the lands they had governed before.
Of course, many things, administration included, would have to be reformed in Arthur's way.
"That ended more easily than I expected."
It was good that it ended quickly. Of course, it was not truly over yet, and there would still be a few tribes here and there that had not chosen submission, so they would have to travel all across Pictland.
"To think you would conquer all of Pictland in less than a year. You are the male I chose, but even so, you are remarkable."
And the one who took the lead in that work more than anyone else was the Queen of Moidart.
After being defeated by Arthur, and after sharing his bed, she was the one who threw herself most eagerly into the conquest of Pictland.
They were her own kind in one sense, but true to the disposition of a people who had lived on an isolated island and defined themselves as a separate tribe, she did not seem particularly bothered.
She possessed strength on the level of a Heroic Spirit, and her loyalty was exceptional as well. She fought at the forefront as the new field leader of Arthur's army.
Though because of that, she often drew Ushiwakamaru's jealousy.
"However, this cannot be called a complete conquest yet. You may have conquered all the lands of the Picts, but what will you do about the lands of the humans?"
"Ah... yeah, that is a bit of a problem."
At Moidart's words, Arthur answered as if troubled.
And for good reason. The remaining human kingdoms were places even he found awkward to deal with.
"Yes. The two kingdoms left are places connected to us by blood."
Artoria scratched her cheek as well, clearly uncomfortable.
Compared even to the kingdoms of Britain, they might be the most difficult places for them to face.
Garlot and Orkney.
"So you really are quite concerned about those places. I understand. On top of that, there is little justification for conquering them."
Morgan spoke with a sigh. Even in her eyes, those lands were difficult in a different sense.
Moidart reacted as though she could not understand, so Stheno kindly explained it to her.
"Garlot is the country where Arthur's half-sister is queen."
"And what of it?"
"Arthur's father killed that half-sister's father, then raped her mother, and those two were born from that."
"Hm. I see. So?"
"By human standards, that makes for an incredibly awkward relationship."
Moidart, being a Pict, could not understand it, but by the standards of human society, it was an extremely difficult relationship.
They were siblings, but also the children of an enemy.
That was a fact no one in the world failed to know, and from Elaine's perspective, she would have every right to hate Arthur and Artoria bitterly.
Orkney was somewhat better by comparison.
The family tree was a tangled mess, which made things awkward, but they were not enemies.
From the Gawain siblings' point of view, their mother had remarried her younger brother, so their uncle had become their new father, making the genealogy a complete disaster, but still, they were not enemies, were they?
It was not a wrong they themselves had committed, but when Arthur and Artoria thought of the suffering their half-sister must have endured because of Uther, they could not help feeling deeply sorry.
And on top of that, the reason such a thing had happened in the first place was to bring the two of them, the heirs, into existence. Being born in that way, both of them felt guilty toward Elaine.
Of course, it was something Uther had done, so his children had no obligation to bear that burden, but the two of them loved their family deeply, and their consciences could not let it go.
"Well, human emotions are impressive, but weak at the same time."
"You're the reason for it!"
"Merlin was the one who suggested it first in the first place."
"Did you sell your conscience to Vortigern? I show you respect because you are my teacher, and now you don't know your limits."
"Dummy!"
Merlin shrugged and said that was simply a human weakness, and Arthur, Artoria, and Morgan all denounced her for it.
It was so bad that even Morgan, who after regaining her senses had at least been speaking to her with a measure of respect, immediately dropped into blunt speech to criticize her, while Mordred, nestled in someone's arms, pointed a finger as if following her parents and babbled with a laugh.
"No, but you were born thanks to that! So in the end, it all turned out fine, didn't it!?"
Merlin protested as though she were being unfairly treated, but Stheno, standing beside her, shook her head.
"This is what you call the Zeus-style mindset. Everyone, make sure you learn from this."
At her words, the Heroic Spirits nodded in agreement.
Even if she had gained a somewhat more human side, Merlin was still Merlin.
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