Location: The Holy City - Throne Room
Status: Divine Judgment
The air in the throne room was so dense with mana it felt like liquid mercury.
The Lion King stood atop her dais, the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad pulsing with a light that threatened to bleach the world white.
"You speak of 'saving' humanity," Raiden stepped forward, his boots clicking on the marble floor. "But all I see is a collector putting butterflies in a jar."
The Lion King's eyes, void of humanity, locked onto him.
"The Incineration of Humanity is inevitable. Solomon's Temple of Time stands outside of history. To save the essence of mankind, I must preserve the worthy in my Lance. Eternal. Unchanging."
Raiden cracked his neck.
"Unchanging means stale," Raiden growled. "I don't eat food that's been sitting in a freezer for eternity. It has no soul. It has no flavor."
He clenched his fists. The black scales of his Dragon Form rippled across his arms.
"And I hate stale food."
Scene 2: The Light of the End
The Lion King raised the Lance.
"Then perish with the rot."
"Rhongomyniad!"
She didn't unleash the full bombardment she used on the villages. She focused the power into a single, concentrated beam of divine judgment. A laser designed to erase a single target from existence.
It fired straight at Raiden.
Mash screamed. "Senpai! Shield!"
Bedivere drew his sword. "My King!"
Raiden didn't open his mouth. He didn't use Azathoth to swallow the light.
"I'm not eating that," Raiden stated. "It tastes like preservatives."
Instead, he crossed his arms.
[Armament Haki: Full Body]
[Dragon Scale: Absolute Defense]
[Bael Art: Fortification]
BOOM.
The beam hit Raiden. The throne room shook violently. The floor around him vaporized instantly, creating a crater.
But Raiden stood there.
Smoke hissed off his arms. His coat was gone (again), revealing the black dragon scales covering his torso.
He hadn't absorbed it. He had tanked it.
He swept his arms outward.
With a roar of physical exertion, he slapped the beam away. The light scattered, blasting holes in the walls of the Holy City.
"Is that it?" Raiden stood in the crater, smoke rising from his shoulders. "For a God, you hit like a mortal."
The Lion King frowned. For the first time, her divine composure cracked.
"You... rejected the light? You exist outside the logic of this planet."
Suddenly, the lights in the throne room flickered.
A deep, resonant bell tolled.
DONG.
DONG.
Feathers black as night fell from the ceiling. The temperature dropped to freezing.
A towering figure emerged from the shadows behind the Lion King.
A skull-masked assassin in heavy armor, wielding a greatsword.
"The evening bell has tolled for thy name."
King Hassan (The Old Man of the Mountain). Grand Assassin.
The Lion King spun around. "King Hassan. You dare strike a Goddess?"
"Goddess?" The Old Man spoke, his voice like grinding tombstones. "Nay. Thou art but a storm that has forgotten its end."
He raised his sword.
"Azrael."
He slashed.
He didn't cut the Lion King's flesh. He cut her concept.
He severed the connection between her Divinity and her Immortality. He forced the concept of "Death" onto a being that should have been eternal.
The Lion King stumbled, clutching her chest. "I... I can feel... mortality?"
Raiden watched, impressed.
"Nice knife work, Grandpa," Raiden nodded. "Clean cuts."
King Hassan looked at Raiden. The blue flames in his skull eyes flickered.
"Devourer. The path is open. The rest is for the Silver Arm."
He faded into the shadows as quickly as he appeared.
Raiden turned to Bedivere.
The silver-haired knight was trembling. His arm - Airgetlam - was glowing uncontrollably. It wasn't a Noble Phantasm. It was a dying soul burning itself out.
"Bedivere," Raiden said gently. "You're up. Finish your delivery."
Bedivere nodded, tears streaming down his face.
"Yes. Thank you, Raiden."
He walked toward the dais.
The Lion King, weakened by Hassan's strike but still powerful, raised her Lance again.
"Bedivere! Do not approach! Why... why have you not returned?"
"Because I failed you," Bedivere shouted, stepping onto the stairs. "I could not throw the sword! I could not let you die! And because of my sin... you became this!"
The Lion King unleashed a wave of mana.
Bedivere raised his silver arm.
"Switch On! Airgetlam!"
He smashed through the mana wave. His soul was burning away to fuel the strike.
Raiden watched. Melusine stood beside him.
"He is dying," Melusine whispered. "He is using his own existence as fuel."
"He's cooking himself," Raiden noted solemnly. "But it's a dish served with loyalty. We don't interfere."
Bedivere reached the top of the stairs.
His arm armor shattered.
Underneath, it wasn't a prosthetic.
It was a sword.
Excalibur. The Holy Sword of the Planet.
He had carried it for 1,500 years, keeping himself alive through sheer willpower, just to return it.
"King Artoria!" Bedivere cried out. "I return this to you!"
The Lion King froze. The sight of the sword shattered her divine persona. The Goddess Rhongomyniad faded, and Artoria Pendragon surfaced.
"Bedivere..." she whispered, her eyes turning human again. "You fool... You wandered for so long..."
Bedivere smiled, his body beginning to dissolve into particles of light.
"My King. My journey... is finally over."
He placed the sword in her hands.
And then, he vanished. The Silver Knight was gone, his duty fulfilled.
Silence filled the room.
Artoria held Excalibur. The Rhongomyniad tower began to crumble. The Singularity was correcting itself.
She looked down at Raiden.
"Foreigner," Artoria said, her voice filled with a regal sadness. "You and that Knight... you stopped my judgment."
Raiden walked up the stairs.
He stood face to face with the King.
"He stopped you with loyalty," Raiden said. "I just punched your laser."
Artoria let out a small, tired laugh.
"You are a strange creature. You possess the hunger of a Beast, yet you fight alongside humanity."
"I told you," Raiden smirked. "I like food. And humanity makes the best burgers. If you preserve them in a jar, they can't cook for me."
Artoria closed her eyes.
"The Holy City will fall. My time here is done. Go, Raiden. The final evil awaits in the Time Temple."
She began to fade into light.
"And... take care of my Knights. Especially the idiot Lancelot."
"I grounded him," Raiden said. "Don't worry."
Location: Chaldea - Cafeteria
Time: Post-Singularity 6
The mood was bittersweet. They had saved history, but Bedivere was gone.
Mash sat at a table, looking at her shield (which was now fully upgraded to Lord Camelot).
"He was amazing," Mash whispered. "Sir Bedivere."
Raiden placed a massive plate of Spicy Mapo Tofu in front of her.
"Eat," Raiden ordered. "Moping burns calories. You need to refill."
Lancelot (Saber) sat in the corner, wearing a sign that said 'I AM A BAD DAD'.
Melusine stood over him with a ruler. "Posture! If you are to carry my name, you must sit straight!"
Lancelot wept. "Yes, ma'am."
Gawain and Tristan were also there (summoned back to Chaldea thanks to the connection).
Gawain was eating mashed potatoes.
"These are... acceptable," Gawain chewed. "But they lack the sun's warmth."
Raiden sat down with his harem.
Ishtar was counting the golden cups she looted from Ozymandias's temple.
Jalter was arguing with Nightingale about whether fire sterilizes wounds (Jalter said yes, Nightingale said yes but only if the patient survives).
Romani (Hologram) appeared.
"Okay, team. Take a breather. Because the next one... the last one... is a nightmare."
"Singularity 7," Da Vinci said grimly. "Mesopotamia. BC 2655. The Age of Gods."
Raiden stopped eating.
"Mesopotamia."
He looked at Ishtar.
"That's your house, isn't it?"
Ishtar flinched. "Well... yes. But it's also his house."
"His?"
"The Golden King," Ishtar grimaced. "Gilgamesh. And not the Archer jerk. The Caster jerk. The wise one."
Raiden grinned.
"Gilgamesh. I remember him from Fuyuki. He called me a mongrel."
He stood up.
"I wonder if the King of Heroes tastes like gold leaf."
Nyx: [Alert. High-Level Threat Detected in Singularity 7. Beast II. Tiamat.]
Raiden's smile widened.
"Tiamat. The Mother of Genesis."
"Now that sounds like a family-sized meal."