#042.
『The Apocalypse, and Six Years Later』
The deepest reaches of Camelot Castle.
Saaaa—
A mystical space where particles of light scattered about like pollen.
Straight ahead, an ancient tree that had withstood thousands of years towered high, its branches and leaves stretching everywhere to canopy the sky.
Beneath that ancient tree lay a lake reflecting five-colored light.
“Finally….”
“We did it!”
The crowd surrounding the lake—they were in a dreadful state.
The armor that should have gleamed with luster was dented and torn in places, bright red blood seeping through.
They were the lucky ones.
Some merely clung to life, having lost arms or legs, or clutching their stomachs with entrails spilling out.
Only moments ago, they had fought a war worthy of being called a bloodbath and arrived here.
Thud.
The one who stepped forward.
Though his hair was damp with sweat, its lustrous golden sheen was striking.
“Captain!”
It was William, who had founded the powerful force known as the Baek-Ui during the Apocalypse, when countless factions appeared and vanished.
He couldn’t claim to be the best.
However, he could at least claim that his rapidly growing force over the past year ranked among the top ten.
No, he had just annihilated nearly two factions in the previous battle, so one could say they now ranked in the top five.
The sacrifices made by these people now were none other than the scars of that glory.
“Everyone, you’ve done well.”
His appearance as wretched as his subordinates’, he offered words of consolation.
“In this war, our family, our friends, and those precious to us have been sacrificed.”
Plop.
A single tear traced down his cheek.
It meant the words William spoke now were sincere, not false.
“Please, do not forget. Their sacrifice, and our goal.”
The Baek-Ui was an organization created to save as many survivors as possible in this hellish Apocalypse.
Of course, to do that they needed the strength to stand against those pressuring them from all sides, and this battle had been the process to obtain it.
“William. I think we need to hurry.”
The man guarding William’s side, Sin Yunchan, one of the Baek-Ui’s executives, spoke urgently.
Setting the mood was fine, but the war wasn’t over yet.
“Waaaah—”
A roar clearly audible to his enhanced ears, yet heard by no one else.
It meant enemies were charging toward the heart of Camelot.
Though they had won a crucial battle, it couldn’t yet be called victory in the war.
The reason this war had begun, and for complete victory, they needed to obtain the result.
“Right.”
Nodding at Yunchan’s words, William looked straight ahead and walked out.
Thud.
Where his steps stopped was before the lake.
“….”
Stopping there, he took out what he had been carrying on his back.
A scabbard old and rusted, hardly something one would keep so preciously.
But contrary to its appearance, it was a treasure he had barely managed to obtain through hints gathered while advancing through the Apocalypse.
“I offer this to the Lady of the Lake.”
William gazed at the scabbard for a moment, then threw it into the lake without hesitation.
Swoosh!
The scabbard traced a parabola, falling toward the lake.
It should have splashed down, sending up spray and sinking beneath the surface.
Swish!
But astonishingly, a snow-white hand shot out from the lake and snatched the flying scabbard.
And in that very moment.
Tuk.
The years clinging to the scabbard began to peel away.
Chink-chink!
As dust and rust vanished, its original form was finally revealed.
A scabbard of white and golden patterns in harmony—one that looked anything but ordinary no matter where one looked.
“…The treasure lost by the wicked magician, Caliburn, has finally returned to Avalon.”
A mysterious voice flowing from the lake echoed throughout the chamber.
It belonged to Vivian, the Lady of the Lake.
One of the two fairies who had taken the wounded King Arthur to Avalon after the final battle.
He had offered the scabbard Caliburn as a sacrifice to earn her goodwill.
But this was not the end.
“I offer this to the Witch of Good and Evil.”
What William carried on his back was not only Caliburn.
A sword emitting a faint golden light, one of pure white—it was Excalibur.
This treasure that had appeared along with an omen passed through many hands before finally reaching William’s.
Without a shred of regret, William threw that sword—one of the Mid-Grade Treasures he had cherished and used until now—into the lake.
Swish!
Just as before, a hand emerged.
But this time, it was not snow-white; it was a hand stained completely black.
“The king’s sword, once stuck in stone, has returned to Avalon!”
Unlike the rather comfortable voice from before, this one felt like it echoed in a cave, carrying a somehow damp and sinister air.
‘That’s two.’
He had offered sacrifices to Vivian and Morgan le Fay, the fairies who guarded Avalon.
But the ritual was not yet over.
To obtain the sleeping Treasure, the Sword of Victory, he had to undergo the final process.
“Yunchan.”
He called to Yunchan, who stood beside him.
At his call, Yunchan handed him a sword he had prepared.
An ordinary sword that could not compare to Caliburn or Excalibur.
Swish!
Taking it in hand, William cut his own palm.
Plop, splurt!
Blood trickling down his palm fell into the lake.
It was only a few drops.
But the change those few drops caused was anything but simple.
Sssss—
The five-colored, brilliant lake turned blood-red.
“For the blood of one who has inherited the king’s caliber has fallen….”
“…the path to the king who has fallen into eternal slumber shall open.”
Along with the voices of the fairy and the witch—two completely opposing beings.
Shhhhhhick!
Miraculously, the lake waters split in two.
William walked toward the parted path as if entranced.
At its end were the roots of the ancient tree.
And leaning against those roots lay a golden-haired handsome man.
“…King Arthur.”
The immortal king of Camelot.
King Arthur, the King of Knights and the herald of victory.
A shiver!
Undeniably, it was a corpse.
Yet a ferocious momentum radiated from him, as though he might rise at any moment and grip his sword.
‘He’s strong.’
Having spent six years in the Apocalypse, he had faced countless powerful beings and monsters.
William had stood at the forefront of them all.
But nothing he had ever seen possessed a greater presence than the handsome man before him—King Arthur.
If the mere corpse of a lifeless body gave off such pressure, how tremendous must his dignity have been in life?
His thoughts on the great king did not last long.
Ziiing!
For the sword the king held in his embrace was resonating, reacting to William.
“This is….”
The sword held by the king.
That was precisely the result William and all of the Baek-Ui had sought, enduring tremendous sacrifice.
“…Excalibur!”
The Excalibur thrown into the lake moments ago had been a replica bearing only the name—a degraded copy, as one might say.
To obtain the true Sword of Victory, Excalibur, one needed the scabbard Caliburn, the degraded Excalibur hidden at the Round Table, and the blood of one who had inherited the king’s caliber.
Those three conditions having been met, William could approach the true Excalibur.
In that moment, William—his face slightly flushed with excitement—reached to grasp the Excalibur held by King Arthur.
“…No!”
The shout of his friend Yunchan burst out.
“What…?”
In the moment he turned around, feeling puzzled,
Stab!
he felt a searing pain bloom near his right chest.
“…Jacob…?”
It was Jacob, who had been William’s friend since before the Apocalypse.
No, it wasn’t just him.
Stab!
A sabre—that sharp sword—pierced his left chest.
“Kuhk!”
Struck twice through the chest, William could only fall to his knees.
“…Why…?”
But doubt surpassed pain.
Because she with the long, flowing red hair was Gemma, William’s lover.
“I’m sorry, William.”
“I’m sorry. Really, really sorry.”
The two who had stabbed his chest snatched Excalibur from the kneeling William and threw it behind them.
Clack!
Where the sword flew, it was caught by a man bearing a sinister smile—Choe Jinseong, one of the Baek-Ui’s executives.
“Choe Jinseong!”
The enraged Yunchan let out a roar and charged.
“Tsk, tsk. It’s already too late.”
Ordinarily, he would have been terrified by that momentum, but things were different now.
Hwooaaaah!
Excalibur, the sword that heralded victory, began to emit a brilliant golden radiance.
*
“That bastard.”
Choe Jinseong.
My teeth grind every time I think of him.
‘If that bastard hadn’t interfered, the future would have changed considerably.’
If he hadn’t been there, the Baek-Ui wouldn’t have split into the Heukseong, and Excalibur wouldn’t have ended up in William’s hands so late either.
That was only listing the major events; beyond those, there had been countless other incidents.
And Choe Jinseong was involved in every single one.
‘I thought that annoying bastard had disappeared, so why do these Black Moon bastards show up instead?’
That bastard, one of the Apocalypse’s greatest enemies, was dead.
But what do you know?
Once he disappeared, the ones called the Black Moon—more vicious than him—appeared.
They say nothing in this world is easy.
Maybe the world with Choe Jinseong in it was better.
Lost in such useless thoughts, I walked toward the entrance where light was visible.
Sssssk!
The surroundings changed rapidly.
In an instant, when all those changes ended, what spread before my eyes was a vast hall.
In the center of that place, where marble pillars stood, was a massive Round Table, and piercing through its center was an ancient tree.
The ceiling was made of the ancient tree that had burst through, its branches and leaves forming the ceiling.
There were 13 chairs prepared around the Round Table.
But the chairs had no masters.
Instead, various weapons that could be presumed to have been used by those masters lay upon them.
Weapons anyone could tell were no ordinary armaments, but at least Mid-Grade Treasures.
Drawn as if entranced, I approached the seat prepared in the north, at the center of the Round Table.
Sssss—
What emitted a faint golden radiance was:
『Excalibur (Altered)
Classification: Sword
Grade: Mid-Grade Treasure
Durability: 500/500
Unique Effect: Manifestation of the King of Victory’s Effect
Description: The promised sword of victory. When this sword radiates a brilliant golden light, that war is certain to end in victory.
-Touched by the hands of a great magician-』
Excalibur.
But through the eyes of an appraiser, the character “Altered” was displayed beside that name.
That was proof that what lay before me was a replica of weakened might—in other words, a degraded copy.
And the phrase “touched by the hands of a great magician” also…
‘It’s the work of that mad magician.’
Just like with Choe Jinseong, anger wells up automatically when I think of him.
A strange phenomenon occurred while I was lost in thoughts of him.
Zzzt!
Golden letters were being carved into the air.
『O thou who hast proven thy worth. A gift is given to thee. But be warned. Thou may take only one weapon from the Room of the Round Table. Shouldst thou give in to greed beyond that, harm shall befall thee.』
Thirteen weapons.
But the weapons that could be taken outside the Room of the Round Table numbered only one.
Should one break that rule, even the one weapon they could have taken would vanish, so one had no choice but to make a careful selection here.
Ninety-nine out of a hundred would probably choose Excalibur, the sole Mid-Grade Treasure.
However.
“Then, shall we begin?”
The only way to break the rules set by the mad magician.
I was about to begin that task now.