Despite Felicia’s words… “Ha!” Rintarou laughed. As though to perk his body back up, he waved his sword around. “Heh. I feel a little sluggish, but this isn’t that bad!” “Oh? As expected. You can still move, huh?” “Of course! If you’re slowing down, you just have to use Mana Acceleration to make up for it! If you think a debuff is gonna do anything to someone on par with the Round Table knights, then—,” he yelled bravely as he readied his sword again. “I—I feel heavy… I can’t move at all…” “Sir Kay…” He turned a pitying eye to Sir Kay, fallen flat on the ground. “Tch… Well, I see how it is. You planned on cutting off my powers with your Excalibur and fighting me… But do you really think this cheap trick is enough to compensate for your lack of ability?” Even under limited power, Rintarou grinned fully through it all. His expression indicated he still didn’t doubt his victory in the slightest. “That’s right. It’s true this light doesn’t really work well on people of greater strength… In the past, King Lot didn’t seem to even flinch in front of this light…but,” Felicia started. But she sharply looked over Rintarou and asserted, “This is a King’s order, Sir Gawain! Slay the rebel Rintarou Magami right here, right now!” “Understood!” It was in that moment that Sir Gawain launched himself at Rintarou, and he swung his sword at the boy, putting the momentum from his dash behind the blow. “Idiots always repeat their mistakes,” Rintarou spat, hoisting his right sword up. In an instant, blade violently met blade, battering the area with a ringing sound. This was how Rintarou had fended him off, time after time, but— “Wha—?!” It was the first time his sword lost to Sir Gawain’s blade, as it was sent flying back. And Rintarou found himself flung backward by the impact. In this matchup, the victor was Sir Gawain. “Wh-what? H-he suddenly got…?” Rintarou sputtered in bewilderment, and his eyes fluttered in confusion. He’d felt an incomparable power transmitted through Sir Gawain’s sword for the first time in this battle. “Now, Rintarou Magami. It’s my turn. HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” With no regard or remorse for the perplexed boy, Sir Gawain’s sword whistled as it came down. “GUUUH?!” Once again, swords met head-on as they fought and started to hit each other in a whirlwind. But this time, the fight progressed in exactly the opposite way it had before. Each blow Sir Gawain struck was terrifyingly fast, heavy, and sharp. With a single stroke, he sent Rintarou soaring through the air and tossed him around as though he were nothing, ultimately making Rintarou retreat. “R-Rintarou?! Why is this happening so suddenly?! What happened?!” asked Sir Kay, crawling onto the ground, still beaten down by the power of the Excalibur. But he didn’t even have a moment to reply as he held his opponent’s sword, brought down like a flash of lightning, at bay over his head by meeting it with his two swords. But he was unable to hold his position, and his knee unintentionally hit the ground. The knight’s sword came ricocheting down, narrowly missing Rintarou, who’d retreated farther back. In a flash, Sir Gawain pursued him with godly speed and thrust his weapon, which Rintarou tried to fend off with his right sword, but he was thrown back. The Jack pursued him even farther in his weakened state. “Dammit…!” Sir Gawain’s fierce attacks danced chaotically as he moved as freely as a bolt of lightning. And the Joker desperately stopped each one, continuing to fend them off. The attacks were becoming more violent and came in rapid succession. The sheer force of it all was creating a vortex around them. “Hah!” the knight shouted, and as though swinging a finishing blow, his sword blurred as it flashed. “HAAAAH!” Rintarou narrowly stopped it with the swords he’d managed to pull back toward him, but— “GUAAAAAAH?!” Unable to stand up against his opponent’s weight and impact, Rintarou was blown back and found himself rolling along the ground. He used the momentum to hop on his feet again. “Haaah…haaah…haaah…guh…” All signs of his previous easygoingness and boundless composure were gone… He started to pant. “What’s going on? I feel like my body is heavy, but it’s not just that…” He thought over his unexpected disadvantage and gritted his teeth in annoyance. “It’s not as though my power is weaker from that light so much as…Gawain suddenly seems more powerful… But why…?” He looked at the radiant sword and gasped, realizing something. “I see, so that’s what it is…” “Oh? So you noticed? Couldn’t expect less of you, Rintarou Magami.” “Yeah. That girl’s Excalibur… That light is the same as the morning sun, isn’t it?” “Exactly. In other words, as long as my King has her sword, I can invoke the Sun’s Blessing. With this, I can fight at three times my normal strength!” Sir Gawain pointed the tip of his sword at Rintarou. “You get it now, don’t you?! Just as you said, as a knight of the Round Table, I might have been mediocre! But when I’m with Felicia, I’m the strongest knight of them all!” Empowered by his words, Felicia also thrust out her chest. “It doesn’t matter what kind of knight my Sir Gawain was before! He’s my Jack! He walks beside me as I rule and is my finest knight!” Then, next to Sir Gawain, she triumphantly poised her sword. “……” Rintarou was silent. His face was turned down, and he didn’t offer a response. “Wh-what…? Then that’s it—it’s over. I never dreamed I wouldn’t be able to keep up… This can’t be anything but power creep… Power creep right from the start of the competition…” Sir Kay groaned from the ground, where she still couldn’t raise a single finger. “Now, let’s settle this once and for all, Rintarou Magami! We’ll beat you…and make Luna drop out!” shouted Sir Gawain. “Yes. With this, we can devote ourselves to the succession battle without worry.” It seemed Felicia and her knight were sure of their victory. “Yes, absolutely. Luna’s always been meddlesome, even when we were young. She should know she can’t win this battle… She’d know if she gave it some thought.” Rintarou let their conversation wash over him. “In the first place…Luna doesn’t have the character to be a proper King.” For just a moment, Felicia thought she could see Rintarou’s shoulder twitch in response, but she continued anyway. “Luna always does everything out of her own self-interest. Doing whatever she pleases…and on top of all that, she even took a stranger as her ally in an attempt to win… Someone like her isn’t fit to hold King Arthur’s seat. If Luna becomes King, she’d put this world in chaos. No skills, no power… Luna is the archetype of a foolish ruler. Having her drop out is for her sake—and the world’s.” “Ha-ha-ha. First, we have to deal with this Rintarou Magami. But…don’t be careless, my liege. We don’t know what that boy’s true nature is.” “……” Rintarou was silent. Of course, he was silent. He was letting their rambling go in one ear and out the other. No one else in that place knew at that moment, but a certain phrase from Luna was ringing in his mind. “Rintarou, I believe in you!” “……” “Oh, what’s wrong, Mr. Magami? Do you always clam up the moment you’re at a disadvantage? Maybe you’re unexpectedly fragile?” “Let’s at least settle this fair and square as knights. Now, ready yourself, Rintarou Magami!” “……” He still didn’t make an effort to respond to their taunts. …That was until he started to laugh in a low voice. “Heh-heh-heh…” “Wh-what? Has he gone mad?” asked Sir Gawain suspiciously. “No, you know what…? This is actually hilarious!” Rintarou snapped his head up to face them. His expression overflowed with insuppressible delight, his eyes sparkling with the same excitement as a child’s, his hands on a fun, new plaything. “Huh…?” croaked Felicia, stunned in spite of herself, unable to comprehend how his expression was appearing—at that moment of all times. “Holy shit, this is great! This feeling is indescribable—when you realize you can’t wrangle something in without facing some resistance! That’s right! This is it! This! This feeling! I’ve been waiting for this for so long!” he professed with glee. “You know what somebody with souped-up powers thinks about all the time? Everything’s just too easy! My life up until now has been so boring!” He beamed. “So… This is a ton of fun… I’m glad I joined this battle.” A gruesome smile crept onto his face, with more than enough potential to send cold shivers down the spines of all those who saw it. “Y-you’re bluffing…” “You cannot be flustered, my liege! We have the edge in this battle! Rintarou Magami may be a strong opponent, but as long as we maintain the power of your Excalibur and engage in an honest combat, victory is ours!” Sir Gawain proclaimed, biting back his slight discomposure as he stood to defend Felicia. “Have the edge…victory is yours…huh?” Rintarou parroted back, his eyes locked on his target. “Well, I’m sure glad Luna isn’t here…” “What did you say?” “I told her I’d actually get a little serious,” he admitted, striking his right sword upright into the ground. Then with his empty hand, he grabbed the blade of his other sword—then dragged it over the sharp edge. “?!” It went without saying that blood flowed out of his gaping wound. He dragged his stained fingers on the back of his hands to draw strange eye-shaped patterns, then muttered a spell under his breath. In the next moment, the shapes burned bright crimson, glowing out of his skin. Thump. From inside his body, his mana ignited, restlessly restrained under his skin, kicking and writhing around. “Wh-what is this…?!” Thump, thump, thump… Shuddering, Felicia watched on as Rintarou’s mana started to beat against his corporeal shell faster and faster, and Rintarou grew, becoming larger and larger. ROAR! Whirling and whipping around him, a black Aura rose up from within, sending shock waves in all directions, rushing out to find release. Facedown on the ground, Sir Kay was instantly blasted away by its impact, and Felicia’s hair violently curled and lashed around under the hot air. “GUUUH—?!” As Felicia lowered her arm from her eyes, she witnessed something she couldn’t believe. “Wha…?” There, in front of her—Rintarou had made a peculiar transformation. His irises glistened gold, and his hair grew as long and white as the South Asian spirit Yaksha. All down his arms, a red fishnet pattern spread out from the backs of his palms. As his Aura ebbed and flowed, it surged out from his whole body, clinging to him to form a black robe. And as if that wasn’t enough, he emanated an insurmountable, colossal presence before them—as someone who was not human. “Wha…? Wh-why does he look like that…?!” Felicia was captive to fear and withdrew by a step, then another. “You can’t be a Fomorian…?! Are you a descendant of…?!” the knight stammered, his eyes glued open in shock. With white hair and magical, golden eyes—there was no doubt he was a Fomorian. According to the Irish Lebor Gabála Érenn mythology, there were several divine families in existence. Among them were—the Fomorians. Until their eventual defeat at the hands of the Danann family, they’d been a wicked race, holding dominion over the world through their powers of darkness. “Rintarou Magami… What in the world are you…?!” “Time’s up… Sucks for you, but I’m gonna need to clean this up right away, all right?” Creak, creak… Menacingly, he stomped over to the King and her Jack, one intimidating, heavy step at a time. It was the march of a demon king. “GUUUUH—?!” So be it, Sir Gawain seemed to think as he darted toward Rintarou—no longer dashing at a seraphic pace but a hellish one. Now three times as strong, he was three times as fast, too. “AHHHHHHHHHH!” The sword he waved drew a terrific, silver whirlwind—and sliced through Rintarou’s head with unexpected ease as it flew off his body. “We did it—?!” he gushed in delight, colored by slight disappointment. “Well, congrats.” Someone patted his back. It was Rintarou, right behind Sir Gawain. “…Huh?!” The knight only realized it then…that his headless body—right in front of his very eyes until this exact moment—had disappeared. It was like a dream or an illusion. “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” But Rintarou didn’t give him time to understand the situation as he carelessly beat the knight’s broad back with his sword. “GUUUUUH?!” With great difficultly, he flipped back just in time to defend his body, but— “GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH?!” His body sliced through the air upon impact with Rintarou’s sword. This power wasn’t comparable to before. Had Sir Gawain’s sword not been the famous Galatine, it would’ve been hacked in half, along with his body. This raw, savage force was out of this dimension. “Guh— ‘Dance, dance, nymphs of the flowers, dance and scatter as you bloom flowers of flames!’” recited Felicia, casting the fairy spell Flower Fire Dance. As soon as she finished, Rintarou’s surroundings became a storm of crimson petals, blanketed by the eddy of flowers until he wasn’t visible any longer. Each one of the petals ignited, coiling around him to became one overwhelming hell of flames. “What a joke!” he barked, waving his left arm. Black volcanic flames erupted out of him, running amok and burning out Felicia’s flowers. “AHHHHH?!” she shrieked, flinching as she was hit with the backdraft from the clashing flames. “Was that the dark magic? Black Flame?!” She gulped, dumbfounded. “And…just now, did you just trick Sir Gawain with your dark magic, Silhouette?!” To explain: Within the many forms of magic, there was something called Family Magic, special spells for certain illusory families. Elven fairy magic manipulated the power of nature and the world. Fomorian dark magic used the power of darkness, curses, and destruction. Danann light magic controlled the power of light, blessings, and rebirth. The blood and souls of these families allowed them to invoke Family Magic, meaning practitioners were only able to use the type of magic particular to their family line. Going back, the reason Felicia could use fairy magic was because elven blood ran thick in her veins. In that case, the reason Rintarou could use dark magic was because… “This is the power of the Fomorians. I can temporarily call on my ancestors.” “Call on your ancestors…?! Mr. Magami! So you’re really a Fomorian…?!” she shouted, taking a good look at his white hair, golden eyes, the sinister pattern winding around his whole body, and the pitch-black Aura spurting out of him. It was far from human, repulsive to look at, grotesque. On top of that, his violent, overwhelming presence made it seem as though it could slaughter everything. “W-we can’t win…” Felicia sputtered in fear upon this realization. It didn’t matter whether she used her Excalibur at full force or if she used all the fairy magic she knew or even if Sir Gawain had the Sun’s Blessing. In front of her very eyes, this boy was on a whole other level. This was beyond her. It pained her soul to admit this to herself. “Now, it’s obvious I’ll win, no questions asked, if I’m in this mood… But before that, you guys had some pretty interesting things to say, didn’t ya?” Cutting to the chase, he eyed her threateningly. “You think Luna isn’t fit to be King? You think she’ll never be able to become King?”
Chapter 8
14 min read