Thunder was consumed by fire.
Meteors were devoured by flames.
As the Noble Phantasms collided, the earth trembled violently. Lightning and fire intertwined, and the sheer magical energy shook all of Orkney to its core. The endless roar sounded like the wails of the world itself.
But before that boundless inferno, all was crushed. Every technique the fairy Lancelot had unleashed with all her might became nothing more than a death throe. She herself became merely another mark of glory in the history of the Heavenly Fire.
Before the Heavenly Fire, all beings are equal.
Flames wrapped around Guinevere's body, charring his skin into pitch-black cinders. Crimson lines flowed between the cracks like molten lava.
At that moment, he stood with an awe-inspiring presence, like a god of destruction descending upon the world—unstoppable, invincible.
The ruins of the city were swallowed by flames, blown apart by explosions and shockwaves. As Guinevere lowered his sword, only a small portion of Orkney remained—as if a god had swept a brush across the map, erasing all that lay in its path.
Originally, using the Heavenly Fire meant that the searing flames would consume all of his life force. But to the current Guinevere, that didn't matter anymore.
He was already in the state of "Return to Life." In other words, he was already dead. Why care about the loss of life force?
No matter how serious the wounds, the "Return to Life" guaranteed that he could continue fighting in peak condition.
However, at this point, he needed to change his strategy.
Because he had felt it—the sudden shift in magical nature coming from his opponent.
Flames began to rise from ahead, gradually setting the city ablaze.
...
—Defeated.
Utterly defeated.
The thing Melusine had feared most all along had finally come true.
When she failed to extinguish Guinevere's potential in the earliest moments, it took only three months for him to reach a height she could no longer grasp.
Even though she used all her means, he still defeated her—and in a fair, one-on-one duel.
Worse yet, she knew the gap between them would only continue to grow.
Despair.
She had never let her guard down. She had gone all out from the beginning. She had tried to strangle every bit of growth from him. She had never held back—striking again and again with lethal force.
But it was useless. All of it.
She couldn't kill him. No matter what, she couldn't kill him.
If someone had saved him every time by coincidence, she could blame it on bad luck... but that wasn't it. He had survived through his own strength, wit, and coordination with his allies.
Melusine was filled with despair.
She knew she could never outpace his growth. If this dragged on, within a year—maybe even half a year—he would surpass her. So she had to rely on her overwhelming head start to try to kill him at the peak of her advantage... but she still couldn't.
In fact, her relentless pursuit only caused him to grow faster than ever. In three months, he surpassed her.
So what now?
What could she do?
She had given everything, done everything she could—but it wasn't enough.
What would it take to kill him?
Could she really watch him sweep across Britain again, unleashing another massacre?
No. No. No.
She must stop him here.
She had to kill him here—otherwise, she couldn't protect him.
For that, she was willing to give up everything.
Even the power she had received from Yser, even her fairy identity, her right to love or hate, even the chance to embrace that person again—she would abandon it all to destroy this demon.
...
"So... she really did it."
Staring at the expanding fire that swept across the land, Guinevere murmured.
Just one look was enough to tell—it wasn't fire caused by Heavenly Flame.
Within the system screen, the static of an old television returned, like moldy parchment. Then a black diamond silhouette appeared, etched with a dragon emblem and words foretelling calamity:
\["Scourge of Flame" Descends]
Then, flames burst from the dragon's center, incinerating everything around it.
\[—Albion]
Britain's terminal device had been activated again.
"—In that case, I should be ready too."
Looking at the massive black figure soaring from the ruins ahead, Guinevere murmured.
He suddenly turned and ran toward a spot he had previously avoided—toward the rear of the mist gate, where the Rain Clan's Bone Bell of Orkney lay.
But this time, he wasn't there to ring the prophecy bell before the massive ice crystal.
This time, his target was the gatekeeper guarding the bell.
As King Yser's shadow stepped through the water mirror and appeared before him, Guinevere didn't hesitate. He stretched out his hand and activated the rune he once thought he'd never use.
\[Rune: Unity]
\[A rune named after a god from the boundless cosmos, a forbidden power that can only be used by those with deep connection to their other self beyond the gate.]
\[With this rune, you can merge multiple entities into one. The merged entity will retain the traits of all prior components. Only things of the same origin can be merged.]
\[This rune is one-time use and disappears after activation.]
—If this Yser, once praised by Grim as the strongest two thousand years ago, was truly a future or past version of himself... then what could be more of a same-origin entity?
...
Acceleration, traversal, full-speed advance.
With crackling, ominous sounds, fire and lightning turned the clouds golden-red.
It streaked through the sky, shattering clouds with supersonic shockwaves. The flames on its body spread through the air like a burning canvas.
Now, both red and golden lightning converged at its core.
After becoming a dragon, its Noble Phantasm "Thunder Blade of Lannsanks" and Divine Armament "Thunder Claw: Heaven Severer" finally reached their full potential—both were originally meant for a true dragon.
But now, having abandoned all human thought and reason, whether it could even comprehend this was questionable.
Still, it didn't matter.
As a tool for Britain's destruction, it didn't need to understand—only to destroy according to instinct.
"Zzzzt—"
Simple bio-electric currents flickered in its brain. The girl's final obsession became its final command.
"Reason: Unknown."
"Objective: Annihilate target lifeform."
"Target: Hostile ground units."
It soared through the dusk sky, wind howling in its wake.
No roar of a beast or dragon—only mechanical behavior remained, that of a catastrophe device.
It had always been a machine. Becoming "her" was an accident of fate. And now, because of that same fate, she abandoned everything she'd gained over millennia, returning to her original form—to protect/destroy one person.
But perhaps cruelly, what she now did in full devotion led to a result utterly opposite of her original intention.
In the tide of fate, all gentle illusions are eventually torn away, revealing the truth beneath.
Cruel destiny bares its fangs, turning everyone's future into the opposite of what they desire.
Yet she no longer perceived this.
Even when she saw the familiar figure cross the mist gate, she couldn't recognize him.
Because her brain/core no longer had that function.
Only when her target merged with a familiar shadow did chaotic electric signals flood her mind.
"Error, unknown."
"Error, multiple."
"Reason: Unknown."
"Received command: Cease annihilation. Repeat: Cease annihilation."
"Received command: Shift operational protocol. Adjusted: Begin protection of target."
Lost in the surge of commands, she began circling aimlessly in the sky.
"Error. Error. New command conflicts with core directive."
"Recalibrating. Eliminating error codes."
"Follow original directive: Annihilate target."
"Action: Eliminate."
"Action: Erase."
"Priority: Maximum."
"Commencing annihilation."
Using the final command from the girl before she lost herself, the system took 52 seconds to eliminate 1,358 error signals and resumed action.
But before it could attack, a blinding crimson lightning bolt tore through the air and struck its abdomen, cracking its heavy armor.
The nature of that crimson lightning once again caused chaotic electric signals to surge:
"Subjected to enemy strike."
"Analyzing attack origin."
"Confirmed same-origin weapon detected."
"Query: Enemy shares same origin with this unit."
Meanwhile, Guinevere, still in the posture of having just thrown his spear, exhaled deeply, a gleam in his eye.
"As I thought... merging with another me was definitely the right call."
"This time's skill... really is unbeatable."
\[Confirmed fusion with a same-origin unit. As the other unit lacks sentience, personality and memory remain unaffected.]
\[Skill: "Rune Transformation of the Tarnished: EX" upgraded.]
\[New Skill Acquired: "Elden Lord: EX"]