After the winter break, Mordred began to have a bad premonition.
Having experienced that carefree and happy day with Eris was laughing and enjoying herself, where Rudeus and Sylphy also looked so happy with each other, and then having visited Zenith, he simply felt that something bad might happen next.
As if it was calm before the storm.
There was nothing that he could base it off. It was pure intuition, just a guess – a worry.
He might have just been over-worrying, but he didn't ignore it.
For the next several days, he hardly used any Magic, aiming to completely recover his Mana reserves to be in his peak state in preparation for any emergencies.
But just as his reserves nearly recovered, during morning swordsmanship training with Ghislaine and Eris, he suddenly felt a sudden sharp pain in his heart as if his heart was pierced by a sword.
"Aaaaah!"
Mordred grabbed his heart as his wooden sword left his grip, his face full of shock. It was so painful he thought he was having a heart attack!!!
The sword hit the ground, and Mordred almost fell as well.
"What?" Ghislaine's expression turned serious.
"Mordred?" Eris stared at him, both confused and worried.
Mordred forcefully maintained his calm as he gripped his left chest and quickly cast silent Healing Magic on himself.
But it did nothing.
'What the hell is this?!'
"Ahh!…" His expression was ugly and twisted out of pain. He nearly collapsed to the ground as the pain spread through his nerves like electricity. It felt as if he was having a heart-attack.
As he staggered on his feet, Ghislaine rushed in and supported him.
"What's wrong with Mordred?!" Eris shouted out.
After Healing Magic failed, Mordred cast Intermediate Detoxification Magic, thinking that perhaps it was some kind of contagious disease, so Healing Magic couldn't affect it.
But it also did nothing!
[Boss! Boss, are you okay?] Albion's voice drifted into his mind from somewhere, seeming that the dragon woke up after detecting something wrong with his master.
Mordred was focused on himself.
'What the… Was that a curse or something?'
He had no idea. Was he cursed at some point?
When?
And how?
Did he already fall into Hitogami's trap?! Was this why he had a bad premonition?
Was there anything that had bitten him recently? Anything weird he ate?
[Boss, your Magic Power is overflowing! Are you going to explode?]
'What?...'
He was stunned. It was at that moment that he noticed that his Mana was indeed overflowing.
It felt as if… perhaps his body could not hold so much Mana that he had built up over the years and it was tearing his body apart from the inside, starting from the heart.
Sensing that Magic Power gathered in his heart and seemed to be what was causing him this pain, Mordred immediately opened the floodgates and began to release his Mana in large quantities.
"Aaah!"
Feeling as if a burning blade had suddenly come out of his heart at that moment, he passed out.
…
It was red.
A completely red scenery was all around him.
He didn't see it with his eyes but could sense it with his mind. It felt like a dream.
That place was crimson red, a world of flowing red lava.
In the center of these burning flames was something like an egg.
Mordred could not see it, but he felt as if inside that egg was a lifeform. He subconsciously knew what it was – although it was still a fetus, it was in the form of a red dragon…
…
With strange images flashing across his mind, Mordred eventually woke up. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he was in a room, with a dim source of light.
[Boss…]
"Mordred!!!"
"Your Highness!"
Mordred forced a wry smile as he looked around. 'So I didn't die…'
He slightly propped his upper body up.
Visually, nothing seemed to be wrong. And he also felt fine.
However, he did feel that there was a change to his blood flow and Mana flow, which seemed to be strangely vigorous, as if he were highly stimulated. 'Maybe it's adrenaline.'
Eris looked at him with tears in her eyes, looking sleep-deprived. "Mordred, are you okay now?"
"Your Highness, how do you feel?" Hector also asked with a face of concern.
[Boss?]
Mordred smiled at them. "I'm fine."
In fact, he had never felt better. After waking up he was more full of energy than ever before.
Hector relaxed. "That's a relief… A priest was called in from the church, and we even used one of Grandmaster Sofia's Saint rank Healing Scrolls, but we weren't sure if it did anything."
"Ooh… I see."
It seemed that while he was unconscious, the people around him were quite concerned and tried to bring him back.
He was already back, so he focused his senses on his body.
[Boss, when you were asleep, Magic Power was gathering in your heart. It still is…]
Mordred closed his eyes and concentrated on the area around his heart in particular.
If there was a clear change…
Then it was in the efficiency of his body absorbing Mana from the atmosphere and transforming it into his Magic Power. Continuously, overflowing energy filled his body, making him feel energetic and vigorous.
Mordred pondered.
In the Fate series, Artoria Pendragon had a Magic Core inside her that was compared to the heart of a dragon, granting her the Magical Energy of a dragon. She was also the incarnation of the Red Dragon, whatever that meant.
All this gave her great magical reserves and especially extremely rapid Mana recovery during life. It was even said that she could never run out of Mana because she recovered whatever she spent in real-time.
But the aspect of a Red Dragon was only something that was put inside her after her birth.
Because Mordred was one of his favorite Servants, he knew that she did not inherit Artoria's 'Dragon Reactor Core' for this reason even though she carried nearly identical genes.
Despite that, in Fate Grand Order Saber Mordred still had the trait of a 'Dragon', causing her to receive double damage from all dragon-slaying weapons, so it seemed that she still inherited some dragon blood and a high level of similarity to a true dragon.
Currently, as Mordred's human body had reached a certain amount of Mana that he gained from all his years of training from a young age, he experienced a transformation.
It didn't necessarily need to be because his body couldn't handle his volume of naturally grown Mana, but that situation of reaching a certain level over the norm perhaps awakened a dormant and undeveloped Magic Core in his body!
He might have gained a Dragon Reactor Core!
'This is amazing!'
If his assumption was true, then it was a great boon!
…
In the next days and weeks, Mordred discovered the wonders of possessing a Magic Core for his heart.
The first most noticeable one was absurdly fast Mana recovery.
He generated large amounts of Magic Power with each of his breaths, like a true dragon. It might not be wrong to say that each of his breaths was enough to power up an Elementary or Intermediate ranked spell.
Additionally, Mordred joyfully noticed that it had a compounding and magnifying effect on his total Mana reserves!
Because his recovery became so rapid, hundreds of times as fast as before, he would have to expand a lot more Mana each day, but with each bit he recovered, his Mana Pool would expand. As a result, the rate at which he was growing his Mana Pool had skyrocketed!
The bottleneck that he experienced in the past in his Mana growth was broken through thanks to the Dragon Reactor Core, and then his Mana Capacity began to grow at breakneck speed.
Mordred was overjoyed when he learned of this.
Originally it seemed that he might still end up with slightly smaller total Mana Reserves than Rudeus even though he began growing them 2 years earlier, but thanks to the aid of his Dragon Heart it might be the opposite instead!
While Rudeus had the Laplace Factor, he had the Red Dragon Factor. Which would be stronger? Mordred rooted for the True Dragon Factor, Dragon Reactor Core and his 2 additional years of training!
Furthermore, apart from rapid Mana recovery and Mana Pool growth, there were also other benefits.
Mordred quickly confirmed in delight that his predictive ability, his Instinct, has considerably improved after he awakened a Dragon Reactor Core in his body. It appeared as if the intensity of his Magic Power and Dragon Blood had increased.
His instincts went beyond simple intuition and vague danger prediction, but nearly approached the realm of predicting the future as he could sense an attack coming at him in advance!
It seemed that he had taken a step closer to having the specs of Artoria Pendragon. If his Instinct was B-rank before, then now it would have ranked up to A!
In addition, if his Magic Resistance was C or D, then it would have also ranked up slightly!
Simultaneously, his Mana Output and the strength of his Magic also began to increase over time at a quite ridiculous rate.
With these improvements, Mordred's comprehensive combat strength with no Magical aids had stepped into solid Emperor rank.
…
Eventually the winter ended and spring came.
As time passed, Mordred's Instinct and Magic Resistance became stronger and his total amount of Mana doubled after just a short few months. His recovery rate also continuously improved as his Dragon Reactor Core rapidly grew.
Fortunately, his previous premonition seemed to have turned out to be wrong. As a couple more weeks and months passed by, nothing bad happened.
It was ironic that it was probably Mordred himself who had caused himself the heart-attack like pain by recovering his Mana reserves, in preparation for that 'danger'.
It seemed it was just him over-worrying because things were going too smoothly. Not every bad premonition would end up being correct.
…
After spring, it was once again summer.
In this manner, Mordred spent nearly a full year in the Citadel of Roa.
He was nearly 9 years old.
During the last half a year, his Dragon Reactor Core grew out of control and his Mana Pool had tripled.
But what was even more frightening was his recovery rate – it was more than a thousand times faster than in the past. Currently, even if he abused Mana Burst during a fight or during flight, he simply couldn't run out of Mana.
Expelling his Mana a few times each day without overcapping actually began to require serious effort, but as he continued expelling and recovering ridiculous amounts of Mana each time, his Mana Pool and Dragon Reactor Core continued growing.
His Magic had become significantly stronger, and along with it his Mana Reinforcement and physical capabilities.
With the way he trained from morning until night in a systematic manner, that one year for Mordred was like several years of training for normal people.
With his new level of strength, and also his trump cards in terms of his Magic, he didn't even care much if Hitogami discovered him now.
Around this time, he began to plan his journey to the Asuran capital city – Ars.
According to what he learned from Ghislaine about the Sword God Style, there would be hardly anything the Sword God could teach him that she could not or that he couldn't grasp better by himself.
Aside from grasping the basics of fencing, Sword God Style was all about mastering the single technique of Longsword of Light through solo practice. The Sword God could only be a sparring partner closer to his level.
For this reason, Mordred wanted to meet the Water God instead to get a glimpse at the secret techniques of Water God style and Emperor ranked Water Magic.
He hoped to make the Water God his ally before she had a reason to turn on him, and make Isolte Cluel his friend.
***
***
***
Name: Mordred Kingdragon
Titles/nicknames: 16th Prince of Kingdragon, Miko, Youngest Sword Saint
Age: 9 (almost)
Strength: C*
Endurance: B
Agility: B* (B-)
Mana (output): 1.3 A | (A+ as a Servant)
Mana (capacity): EX (3x A)
…
<...>
Sword God Style: Sword Saint (officially), Emperor rank+ (actual in terms of Longsword of Light technique)
Water God Style: Water Saint
North God Style: Intermediate-Advanced rank
[Instinct A]
[Mana Burst A]
[Magic Resistance B]
[Dragon Reactor Core A+]
[Riding E++]