Bab 231: C231
"Arthur, come out and fight me!" Vortigern's roaring voice echoed across the beast field. He held the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad and rode a magical beast, shouting amidst the tide of beasts.
Shirou stood on the wall, his expression indifferent as he surveyed the wilderness. He called out to Merlin and pointed to Vortigern, saying, "Give him a blast."
Merlin nodded, waving his staff. In an instant, a true Ether Cannon was fired towards Vortigern.
Vortigern waved his Holy Lance, shattering Merlin's True Ether Cannon with a fierce expression of anger on his face.
"Arthur, if you are truly the king, come out and fight me!" Vortigern bellowed.
"You're nothing but a coward! How can you call yourself a king?" he shouted, his voice echoing across the battlefield.
Shirou remained calm and chose to ignore Vortigern's taunts. However, the knights standing beside him were seething with anger.
He brushed off Vortigern's insults and calmly stated, "Let him shout. It's nothing but the powerless rage of a trapped beast."
After a brief pause, he continued, "Focus on defending the barrier. The counterattack will come soon."
The crowd acknowledged his orders with a resounding, "Yes!"
Shirou looked at the furious Vortigern with a contemptuous sneer.
He had been locked in battle with Vortigern for nearly two months, while Gawain, the kings, Gaheris, Altrouge, as well as King Ban and Bors, and other allied forces were busy conquering Scotland and Saxony.
As a result, Vortigern's attacks had grown increasingly weaker in recent days.
The most noticeable attack was the constant bombardment of the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad.
At the beginning of the onslaught, the barrier shook violently, causing Shirou to tremble with fear, fearing that the barrier would be breached. However, as time passed, the attacks posed less and less of a threat to the barrier.
Scathach had already made her way to Ireland, using her reputation to secure the ships of the Irish kings and launch an invasion on Camelot's rear.
Vortigern's defeat was inevitable; it was only a matter of time. However, the unrelenting attacks of the beasts were still fierce and causing significant casualties among Shirou's regular troops. The rapid depletion of supplies added to his distress.
Those resources were painstakingly accumulated, but they had to be spent in order to win the battle. There was no other choice.
As Shirou stood on the wall and looked out at the howling sea of beasts, he was filled with a resolute determination to emerge victorious. However, he couldn't help but let out a slight sigh.
"What are you sighing about, my king?" Merlin asked.
"It's the sheer number of beasts. If only we could replicate the tactics we used in Caerleon, we might be able to alleviate some of the pressure."
Two years ago, when Shirou defended Caerleon Castle, he faced a similar sea of beasts. However, his troops were much weaker at that time, with individual soldiers lacking in strength and supplies being far less abundant than they were now. If it weren't for Tristan's plan, they would have likely perished in Caerleon.
"Mount Barton... Unfortunately, most of the divine traces of the gods on the island of Britain have vanished. However, the divine fire of Mount Barton still burns, as its divine trace belongs to the Sun God," Merlin explained.
Barton Mountain is a dormant volcano that owes its existence to the Sun God Lugh, father of the Irish Child of Light, who defeated Balor the Evil Eye.
According to legend, Barton Mountain is said to be the corpse of Balor, and the dying fire atop the mountain is the divine fire of the Sun God Lugh. While the miracles of other gods have faded away, the fire of Barton Mountain still burns strong, and its flame has yet to be extinguished.
During the defense of Caerleon, Tristan had used the fire of Barton Mountain to incinerate nearly 30,000 beasts, which allowed the people of Caerleon to safely retreat. However, such a miracle could not be repeated. Even the Barton Mountain, left behind by the Sun God, was now under Vortigern's control.
Shirou was left with no choice but to confront Vortigern head-on and rely on the allied forces in the enemy's rear to ravage Vortigern's lands.
Just then, Artoria contacted Shirou.
"My king, something strange is happening in Caerleon," she reported.
"What's happening?"
"Most of the Saxons have retreated to Camelot, and now Caerleon is an abandoned city!"
"What?" he furrowed his brow. "Caerleon is completely deserted?"
"Yes, only a handful of beasts are wandering around."
Shirou's brow furrowed in confusion. What kind of trick was Vortigern playing? Caerleon was Vortigern's lifeline, so why would he abandon it?
As Camelot's frontline, Caerleon held strategic significance similar to Shirou's northern defensive line.
Vortigern's abrupt decision to abandon Caerleon and withdraw his forces back to Camelot left Shirou feeling perplexed. Had Vortigern somehow become aware of Scathach's movements? Was he planning to concentrate his forces to eliminate her first?
Regardless, Shirou couldn't understand why Vortigern would willingly give up such a strategic city like Caerleon. It made little sense.
"My king, should I occupy Caerleon?" she asked.
"Not yet," he replied. "There's something strange going on, so we shouldn't act rashly for now."
"Understood," she acknowledged.
He turned to Merlin and said, "Merlin, use your Clairvoyance to see what's happening in Camelot. I want to know what Vortigern is up to."
"But isn't he right here?" Merlin pointed to Vortigern, who was still provoking them from within the sea of beasts.
"Don't be ridiculous," he scolded. "Hurry up and take a look!"
"Okay," Merlin nodded, observing the scene for a moment before freezing in shock.
"What's wrong?"
"I can't see... my Clairvoyance is being blocked!"
"What do you mean?"
"There's something interfering with my vision, just like how I can't see through your 'Evil' with Clairvoyance. And now, in Camelot, there's a similar force that's blocking my Clairvoyance!" Merlin's forehead was covered in sweat.
Shirou's brow furrowed in concern, but his attention quickly shifted to Morgan as she clutched her chest in apparent agony.
"Morgan, are you okay?" He rushed over, gently helping her to her feet.
She gasped, her fingers digging into his hand. "Someone... someone is stealing my power!"
Suddenly, a loud bang reverberated in the distance as a blood-red pillar of light burst upwards, piercing through the sky.
When the blinding light faded, the remnants formed a sprawling, blood-red magic circle, painting the heavens with an unsettling and eerie crimson glow.
"I can't... can't breathe..."
"It's... it's taking me..."
A bitter wave of resentment emanated from the crimson glow, saturating the air with its putrid stench. Even from a distance, Shirou could smell its acrid odor.
"What on earth is that?"
The malevolent crimson glow and its foreboding arcane pattern sent chills down his spine. It filled him with a sense of unease, as if something dark and sinister was lurking just beyond his sight.
He was puzzled by Vortigern's actions. What could he be up to?
Little did he know that Vortigern, standing in the midst of the beast tide, had also been shocked by the appearance of the blood-red pillar of light.
"Meksis... Meksis... what have you done?" he muttered under his breath, a rare expression of panic overtaking his face.
Realizing he couldn't afford to keep taunting, Vortigern ordered the beasts to launch a fierce attack and rode off on one of the creatures, heading straight back to Camelot.
"Meksis, my friend... I won't allow you to do this!"
...
"Lord Meksis... Lord Meksis..." they wailed, their voices quivering, drenched in pain.
"Why..."
"Save me..."
Voices cried out in despair, their cries echoing through the blood-red ritual and massive magic circle that had emerged from Camelot's grounds. The price of its creation had been tens of thousands of lives.
An ominous aura permeated the air, heralding the arrival of something sinister.
"I'm sorry," Meksis murmured, his expression one of regret. He lowered his hood and stood at the center of the ritual, his attention focused on the task at hand.
"Uther's kingdom, the scales of the white dragon, the blood of the red dragon, and the hair that inherits the power of the island."
"The concept fusion is already sufficient for liberation."
"This will be the gods' final punishment," Meksis murmured, funneling all the components into the ritual.
As he turned his back on the countless lifeless bodies, he felt a wave of remorse wash over him, and tears welled up in his eyes.
"I'm sorry... I don't have the right to be forgiven by anyone," he whispered to himself, his voice choked with emotion. "So please, always hate me and curse me."
Taking a deep breath and letting out a heavy sigh, Meksis shifted his focus back to the ritual. He was determined to see it through to the bitter end, despite his heavy heart.
...
Scathach had infiltrated behind enemy lines, and as she looked at the red sky, she couldn't shake off the feeling of unease and oppression. However, she didn't let that stop her from leading her troops and charging forward.
She could sense that an evil and ominous ritual was taking place, though she wasn't sure what it was for. In the era when the gods were still active, she had become the Queen of the Land of Shadows and its master. However, she was not familiar with Britain, and had no knowledge of what lay on this island.
Her sole focus was to complete her mission as quickly as possible, and that was all that mattered.
As she faced the beasts that blocked her path, she wasted no time in opening the Gate of Skye and absorbing their vitality. She then drew rune symbols, attempting to kill the beasts in a large area.
However, before she could make her move, a pitch-black divine light shattered Scathach's runes with a loud "whoosh."
She was puzzled. Despite the vast difference in power, there was no mistaking that the pitch-black light was the power of the gods.
"Scathach... I'm not surprised that you were able to arrive here so quickly from Ireland," Meksis said, looking at her with a mixture of admiration and sadness. "But I never expected that the guardian of our death realm would become the blade of the human king."
Scathach was taken aback when she saw him. She couldn't believe her eyes, as she recalled that when she guarded the Land of Shadows, his subordinates were the ones who killed the most and were most eager to escape.
"Balor... the Evil Eye Balor... How is this possible?" she exclaimed in shock. "You should have been killed by the Sun God Lugh!"
Her surprise and confusion were palpable as she tried to make sense of the situation.
She never expected to come face to face with Balor, the king of the Fomorians, who had killed the Danaan Gods and tried to invade the world. She couldn't believe that in this era of the gods' decline, on the island of Britain, she would encounter such a powerful being.
"Please don't call me by that name," Meksis replied. "Although there is a connection, I am a fairy who has obtained humanity."
"Leave, Scathach. You're not my opponent..." he smiled and looked into the distance, "My beloved king has already arrived!"
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone