It was as if a massive bell had suddenly rung inside his skull. Agravain staggered back several steps, blood spurting from his mouth. He barely managed to steady himself by clutching the edge of the barrier array.
Then he roared that name, his voice filled with fury and hatred:
"Lancelot! Damn you!"
The venom in his voice, the hatred in his eyes—even Melusine, standing not far away, froze in surprise.
Indeed, Agravain had considered the possibility of Lancelot's betrayal before. He had never trusted Lancelot fully—and he knew Lancelot did not trust him either.
But with the sudden appearance of Morgan from another world and her knights—and even his own father now fighting as his mother's knight—the situation had become dire. Under such circumstances, Agravain had been forced to set aside his prejudice toward Lancelot and cooperate with him in earnest. Over the past days of working together, a long-standing misunderstanding between them had been cleared up. Agravain had even sensed that Lancelot was truly repentant for his past sins and sincerely wished to fight to protect their king.
For a brief moment, Agravain had thought about trusting him again… but clearly, he had been terribly wrong.
Lancelot—Lancelot from birth—was never worthy of trust!
Meanwhile, Melusine frowned as she watched Agravain's aura rapidly deteriorate before her eyes.
To be honest, though she was delighted to see her enemy cough up blood from sheer rage, the sight of Agravain losing control unnerved her a little.
In theory, this Agravain shouldn't have been her match—not even with all his men combined. But earlier, under a barrage of strange, highly targeted buffs and the disciplined command of his maddened soldiers, the fight had gotten dangerously close. If not for Agravain's sudden distraction, she might've ended up seriously injured.
So now, seeing him in this state, Melusine was both wary and confused. She braced herself for another violent assault—only to see Agravain suddenly wave his hand. The shimmering barrier around the area vanished.
"...?"
Melusine blinked, puzzled.
What was he up to?
Then she heard his hoarse voice:
"Go. Go wherever you like. There's no need for us to keep fighting."
"...Huh?" Melusine blinked, bewildered.
"Keeping you here means nothing anymore. Thanks to that beast Lancelot, everything I planned has been ruined. I've lost—utterly, completely lost. Fighting you now is pointless."
Agravain lifted his head, his vacant eyes glancing toward her. Then, to Melusine's astonishment, he turned and walked away, his voice echoing through the hall—burning with fury:
"But Lancelot—that traitor—is a different story."
"Everyone else can live or die as they please. But that traitor… he must die."
"All of this happened because I trusted the wrong man... I will kill that traitor with my own hands."
At that same moment, the knight battling Sir Gawain suddenly shivered.
"What was that? Why do I feel a chill down my spine—ugh—!"
His brief distraction gave Gawain the opening he needed. The great knight's massive sword swung down in a powerful horizontal arc. Lancelot managed to raise his blade just in time, but the force of Gawain's strike sent him staggering backward several steps.
"Lancelot! How shameless can you be?!"
Gawain's furious voice thundered across the field.
"Where is your promise? Your dignity? Your loyalty? Your honor?! You would turn traitor in the middle of battle?!"
"I…" Lancelot faltered, guilt flickering in his eyes. He couldn't find the words to defend himself.
But Gawain already knew the reason for his betrayal—he'd witnessed Lancelot's earlier confrontation with Mash.
"All this… just because the enemy happens to carry the spirit of your son, Galahad? That's enough to make you betray us?"
Gawain cast a glance toward Mash, standing not far away with her shield raised defensively, and his fury grew.
"Who was it who said he'd show no mercy even to his own kin? My father, my mother, my sister—they all stand on the opposite side! Yet my loyalty to our King has never wavered! But you? Just because that strange girl called you 'father,' your loyalty is shaken?!"
"No! That's not it!" Lancelot finally snapped, raising his voice. He had to defend himself.
"I didn't betray the King because I couldn't bear to fight my daughter—I betrayed because she was right!"
His tone turned righteous, his eyes burning with conviction.
"Mash was right! The current King—the Lion King—is not the same Arthur we once served! The King I knew would never permit such slaughter! Even with slim odds, she would still lead us to save the world—not lock away the chosen as trophies in a tower while butchering everyone else! I will not acknowledge this Lion King as the Arthur we once swore to serve!"
"Utter nonsense!" Gawain roared. "That aura, that Saint Graph—it's unmistakable! She is our King!"
"But her actions are wrong!" Lancelot argued fiercely. "Can one who has become so cruel still be called King Arthur? We, her trusted knights—when the King errs, we must stand up and stop her!"
"How dare you spout such self-righteous drivel?! She became this way for one reason only—our betrayal! It's our duty to atone for that sin!"
Gawain's roar shook the air as he swung his sword, Galatine, again and again, his strikes relentless. Empowered threefold, he easily overpowered the guilt-ridden Lancelot, who could only fall back under the onslaught.
Mash and Gareth wanted to intervene, but after Galahad's brief possession earlier, Mash was already drained. Facing an enraged Gawain alone was far beyond her strength.
Just as Lancelot's defenses were collapsing—
A new figure leapt onto the floating island. Without hesitation, she charged at Gawain, her massive sword cleaving down in a mighty arc.
Caught off guard, Gawain turned and barely managed to block the strike—but the sheer force behind it made his expression change instantly.
CLANG!
The deafening impact rang out like thunder. Underestimating his opponent's power, Gawain was blown back, sent crashing through a nearby building. The support pillars cracked, and the entire structure came tumbling down, burying him beneath the rubble.
Standing where he had just been was a woman clad in heavy armor—armor that closely resembled his own.
"Lady Barghest! You're alright?!" Mash's eyes lit up with relief. "What about the rest of the Second Unit? I saw your island break apart—what happened after that?"
"Yeah, that did happen." Barghest nodded. "The floating island we were on shattered completely. No one was seriously injured, thankfully, but with the other islands flying too high, getting back up here was... complicated."
She sighed.
"Luckily, Miss Da Vinci found us. To get me back up, she cobbled together a makeshift cannon—then literally shot me up here. Nokkneray couldn't handle the blast, so she stayed below."
"I see... what about Miss Koyanskaya?" Mash asked. "With her body, she should've been able to survive the launch, right?"
Barghest's face stiffened. The memory came flooding back—and she thought of that cannon, now completely filled with Koyanskaya herself, inside and out.
"Well… Miss Koyanskaya... she was… let's say… the gunpowder. Or maybe the power source."
"...Huh?" Mash blinked, confused.
"Never mind. You can ask her the details later." Barghest exhaled. "For now, you and the others should regroup with Guinevere and head for the final battleground. Leave this place to me."
Raising her sword once again, she pointed it toward the rubble that was already shifting.
From beneath the debris, Gawain rose once more.
"I've waited a long time for this moment—the chance to face you in single combat, Knight Gawain."
Barghest's eyes sharpened. She gripped her sword with both hands and said coldly:
"Come. Fight me."
"I cannot condone your blind loyalty to a tyrant. If you are truly a worthy knight, you should counsel your King and correct her mistakes."
"You know nothing," Gawain replied in a low, icy tone. "You don't know what we've endured, what our King has endured—or what our loyalty means."
"That's not loyalty," Barghest stepped forward, her sword cleaving through the air. "That's blind obedience."
Her strike forced Gawain to stop talking and block again. Sparks flew as their blades clashed.
"I heard many tales of your chivalry," Barghest continued, her voice cutting as sharp as her sword. "You were once the model knight I admired. But now that I've met you… all I see is a man blinded by devotion and numb to conscience."
"You—!" Gawain gritted his teeth but shook his head. "You're that fairy knight who bears my name, aren't you? Enough talk."
Their blades crossed again. This time, Gawain seized Barghest's sword mid-clash, holding it down as his free hand slammed into her face, sending her staggering back.
"We serve different masters," he barked. "Don't stand there and lecture me from some false moral high ground! If our roles were reversed—"
He didn't finish. Barghest suddenly swung her fist, smashing him square in the face and knocking him off balance.
"If Her Majesty Morgan ever ordered me to slaughter helpless civilians," she said, wiping blood from her lips, "and if they truly deserved it, I would obey."
"But if they didn't—then I would plead with Her Majesty to change her mind. And if she refused… if she insisted on such a command—then even if it meant betraying her, I would stop her!"
Her voice rose, resolute and clear.
"Because that is true loyalty—to the nation, and to its people!"