Chapter 65

“My Kiiiiing! No need to show your own sword to these weaklings!” boomed a loud admonishment. The knight to King Arthur’s right had strained his voice. Large, stern, rowdy. Two sizes larger than King Arthur in height and shoulder width. “Stay back, my King. Allow us to take care of these tough guys,” said the young knight on King Arthur’s left. Sharp eyes peeked out from his long, tousled golden-brown hair. His body was impossibly ripped and flexible, radiating something untamed that made him seem like a predator. He looked straight from a brutish group, but he bowed once to King Arthur and stepped forward to protect him. Recognizing them, Sir Kay opened her eyes wide. “No way…! King Pellinore and Sir Balin…?!” “…Who?” “Two cornerstones of the original Round Table. King Pellinore—father of Sir Lamorak and leading knight of the original Round Table…and Balin le Savage—first wielder of the sword of the most virtuous knight.” “Are they strong?” Luna asked. “…Like demons,” Sir Kay responded. “They held down the Round Table in a time of upheaval, when wars in Britain were at their worst… They might be stronger than the three mightiest knights of the later Round Table in times of peace… Sir Lancelot, Sir Lamorak, and Sir Tristan.” “…What?!” Luna flinched once, facing formidable opponents who she could not hold a candle to. “Hmph!” she said. “It doesn’t matter who appears at this point! If we don’t defeat them, the world will end!” She engaged her core, readying herself, and fixed her eyes on the three knights. “Sir Kay! Nayuki! Sir Galahad! Let’s do this! After me—” Luna vaulted off the ground and started running in order to charge them right when…she realized something. At some point, a blade had closed in on her own neck. Time seemed to slow for her. When she looked to the side…she saw that Sir Balin had managed to close the distance between them, coming at Luna’s neck like a flash of lightning. He—he’s fast …Too fast! I don’t have time to react! Luna’s thoughts seemed to freeze in place. This was all so abrupt. “Hraaaaaaaaah!” SRKK! An explosion of sparks. A grating noise. Sir Galahad had barely had time to step in between them, and he sent Sir Balin’s sword back. In that moment, the shock wave blasted a half-demolished building into pieces… “Hmm? So there’s a knight, sword dulled by peace, who can take my lightning-fast blade?” Sir Balin was unperturbed, however. Despite looking and acting like a berserker, he was calm to an extreme. He distanced himself from Sir Galahad…or rather, made them believe he was retreating. Sir Balin pounced on Sir Galahad with his two swords like a flash of light. Sir Galahad twirled her sword and spear to block him. “And you’re a dual wielder like me…huh.” “Luna! Run!” Sir Galahad urged. “Aaaaah!” Luna swung up her Excalibur, sprinting at King Arthur at full speed. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I’m not gonna let you pass!” King Pellinore—a muscular knight with a large physique like a boulder—stood in Luna’s way. “Take my swoooord—!” King Pellinore swung down. For some reason, he aimed for the ground. “…Huh?” Luna and King Pellinore. There was a distance of over ten yards between them. King Pellinore’s behavior seemed to disregard any normal sword-fighting techniques. Luna knit her eyebrows together, sprinting. “Diiiiie!” BWF! The earth split as his sword sank into the ground. VWOOOOOM! The island was rocked again like a super-quake of the highest magnitude. The surface split, overturning. Columns of dirt rose high into the sky. Along with the rubble she had been caught up in, Luna was thrust upward. “Gah?!” She almost lost consciousness from the sensation of zero gravity and the impact. “There’s more where that came from!” Eyes still on Luna, who was suspended midair, King Pellinore grabbed a fallen electrical pole in one hand. His hand was like a rock and dug right into it… He held up that ten-yard-long pole as though it were the stick of a willow tree. “Dieeee!” He attempted to hit her with that thing while she was airborne. There was something wrong with his head. Who would even imagine fighting like this? Sir Balin’s speed might have been off the charts, but King Pellinore’s physical strength was even more absurd. Luna could do nothing, groaning, trying to take on the approaching electrical pole… “Not happening! Lahat Chereb?!” Flames engulfed Luna as if to protect her, racing up the pole like a snake and burning it to a crisp. “What the—?!” “Hrah!” Nayuki’s frost blasted King Pellinore and instantly made him ice. King Pellinore had been enclosed in the block, but… “Ha-ha-ha! Ridiculous! You think that’s enough to stop me?!” King Pellinore flexed once, and the ice exploded like fragile glass. “You two! You have some fun tricks up your sleeve, but they’re not doing anything, you know!” “We know!” “We’re just slowing you down!” “What did you say?!” King Pellinore turned around. “Whaaaaat?!” Leaping from her position high up, Luna landed on Nayuki’s block of ice, flying over King Pellinore’s head—and touched down on the ground. She brandished her Excalibur and ran straight at King Arthur. When they saw Luna pressing in… “Awooooo…!” howled the Questing Beast from where it was waiting beside King Arthur. “…Tsk,” Sir Balin said, meeting swords with Sir Galahad. “What?! No! Biggest mistake I’ve ever made!” King Pellinore didn’t seem to care about the others. The two knights and the beast started to move closer to protect King Arthur… “Oh, it’s fine. As you were.” King Arthur put up a hand to make them stand down. Using her chance, Luna leaped at King Arthur, landing within sword-fighting distance. “Hiiiii-yaaaaaah!” Luna put her entire soul and body into delivering her blows. King Arthur remained calm and collected… “Fine. I’ll show you.” He readied his sword. “This is…the difference between you and me as kings.” Luna and King Arthur swung their swords at nearly the same time, passing by each other, locking together fiercely. Metal shrieked against metal. A flash of white sparks exploded. “…” “…” And then there was silence. Luna and King Arthur stood with their backs to each other, having swung through their weapons. Everyone held their breaths. Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh… Something cut through the air, coming down over their heads. KSHNK! It stabbed into the ground, twanging a slight distance from Luna and King Arthur. The blade of a sword. “N-no way…! That’s…?!” Felicia gasped, all too familiar with it. “That…couldn’t be…” “B-but…?!” Sir Kay and Nayuki turned pale, instantly understanding its implications. “…?!” Luna couldn’t hide her fear this time. She was sweating as she stared at her own Excalibur, hand shaking. The blade was gone—severed. Luna’s Excalibur had been broken in two. Luna couldn’t tear her eyes away from the broken end. It just seemed so cruel. “What did you expect? Did you forget the inscription of my sword?” King Arthur asked without even turning back to her. In his hand…he held Excalibur. “It’s the Slashing Sword… Your replica could never win against the real thing.” Luna looked down, remaining silent. King Arthur quietly sheathed his sword, ignoring her. “I usually have my sword in my immortal sheath, but…my older sister—Morgan—stole it and threw it away…” King Arthur signaled to King Pellinore and Sir Balin with his hand. “Don’t you get it? This is what makes me a king. And I’m the true one. A king stands alone at the highest summit of everything that exists… You little knaves might try, but you could never get to my level.” He turned around, passing by Luna’s side as she stood still. He started to leave. “I’ll say I applaud your heroism. On my name, I overlook your crime of turning a sword on the king.” The beast waiting beside him seemed to slowly melt away into nothingness… King Pellinore and Sir Balin also stopped fighting and followed King Arthur. “This habit of yours… Are you sure about this, my King? Shouldn’t we deal with them here?” Sir Balin seemed to disapprove. “It’s fine. Just leave it. We’ve already settled things. I’ve shown my dominance to those girls.” King Arthur smiled. “Even though we’re generations apart, those are my dear descendants. I don’t want to rough them up.” “Understood.” Sir Balin stepped back. Then, King Arthur left… Just like that. No one could say anything to him. “Stop right there.” Except one of them… Luna. “I see… So maybe we’re aspiring for something out of our reach… So maybe it was disrespectful to even try… But…!” Luna glared at his back. “But I don’t see you as a king!” “…But I already showed you. Your opinion of me is irrelevant.” King Arthur stopped, whirling around, and looked at Luna. “Your sword is broken. That should tell you all there is to know.” “Hmph! So what?!” “!” King Arthur’s eyes widened slightly. “Forefather! I refuse to acknowledge someone like you! For I seek to rule in my own way! For I want to be myself! I swear I’ll beat you! You’re not fit to be king as you are now!” “You cretin. You dare mock my master?” Sir Balin seemed to radiate murder, icy cold like a blizzard. His hand reached for the hilt of his sword. “It’s fine; I don’t mind.” King Arthur held him back, stopping him from blowing his fuse. “I’ve already decided to pardon her. With my dignity as king on the line, I cannot kill her here.” King Arthur turned to face Luna directly. “…You. What’s your name?” “Luna… Luna Artur.” “Artur…? Oh, you’re part of Borre’s line… I thought they were impossibly frail—the weakest ones of all…” King Arthur turned his back to her. “Luna Artur. I’ll announce this here. When the clock strikes midnight, I’ll lead the Wild Hunt and tear through the sky.” “?!” “I’ve already stated my reasons for it. As the current version of myself, I’m a king of ruin, destined to bring the downfall of humanity. I wish for it from my very heart. I’ll trigger the Catastrophe through the Wild Hunt and reign over the world as its demon lord… That’s why I exist. And that’s how I’ll rule.” “But that would…!” “If you wish to defy my ways and go about your own…you must defeat me.” King Arthur pointed—toward the magnificent form of Dark Castle Camelot. “I’ll be waiting there. The place where everything started…and where I’ll wait for you.” With the knights and the monsters in tow, King Arthur then retreated. “…” Left behind, Luna stared at her own broken sword for a while. Eventually, she looked up straight at the castle, eyes blazing. “…Rintarou,” she muttered. It was carried off by the wind that seemed to hint at twilight.