OPTC Chapter 205 Excalibur
Artoria closed her eyes. Her hair and clothes fluttered in the wind as she slowly raised the holy sword above her head. The blade shone with a dazzling golden light.
From the ground around her, countless specks of golden radiance began to rise, gathering together and converging onto the sword. The light around the blade grew larger, brighter, and more blinding.
"What is this?" Ye Yan felt a gentle warmth from that light.
"It's not heat from combustion, nor radiation. Yet it still glows like that…" Shark Chili frowned, sensing something beyond science in the brilliance.
Tom stared at the floating motes of light around him. He reached with his left hand—empty. He tried with his right—nothing. Then he pounced forward, closed one eye, carefully raised his paw, and still caught nothing. He tilted his head back, gazing at the shimmering spectacle, more beautiful than a sky filled with fireflies. He didn't know what was happening, but he felt a playful energy in it.
"It is said that the shining holy sword carries the sorrow and noble dreams of all warriors who have fallen in battle, from past to present to future. At the moment of their death, this was the vision in their hearts. Artoria takes pride in this will, carrying its faith to the end. And now, the King of Ever-Victory shall call forth its true name—"
Zhang Da Ye, stirred with excitement, recited these words like a practiced line from a play. To him, the sword Artoria held wasn't just the hope of warriors—it was also the fiery spark of his own chuunibyou soul.
The nearby zombies, though not weak to light, instinctively tried to flee. Faced with such brilliance, they would rather bury themselves underground than remain exposed.
"Oars! Forget that beast! Stop the swordswoman—quickly!" Moria's panic grew. This swordswoman was more dangerous than he expected. That technique… cold sweat dripped down his forehead. His confidence in Oars was faltering.
"Light? What is that?" Oars muttered, still pounding at the Chaos Beast, but Moria's command was absolute. He raised his stone pillar and swung it down at Artoria.
At that moment, Artoria opened her eyes and shouted:
"Ex—calibur!"
She swung the sword down with force. A brilliant golden light burst forth like a massive blade of radiance, cutting through the dense fog as it cleaved toward Oars.
The stone pillar in Oars's hands was sliced apart instantly, shattered into nothing within the golden flood.
Then his enormous body was split in half from the middle. But before anyone could clearly see the wound, the blazing light engulfed him completely.
Everything in the dozens of meters between Artoria and Oars was obliterated. Stones and dirt flew as the earth split into a deep trench.
Where Oars once stood, a massive golden cross-shaped star of light flared. Within that brilliance, his body rapidly crumbled and dissolved.
Even Rui Meng Meng and Brook, far away at the island's edge, noticed the explosion of golden light.
"Feels like something big just happened," Brook muttered, calmly sipping his tea.
"That golden light… it must be Artoria's sword." Rui Meng Meng sighed in regret. "She must have used a powerful technique. If only I could see it in person… what a pity."
Lu Da Shan and Ma Lao Wu exchanged a glance, then nodded in silent agreement. Both had confirmed the same thought: neither of these women was someone to mess with.
When the light finally faded, the fog overhead rolled back together. On the ground remained only a deep crater and fragments of bone, proof that a giant zombie had once stood there.
But it wasn't over. That strike had gone too far. The main mast, already damaged by Oars earlier, now shook violently, threatening to collapse at any moment.
Zhang Da Ye surveyed the wreckage, mumbling to himself, "They always say battles between heroic spirits won't damage even a single extra brick… so this must be what happens when a gas explosion goes out of control, huh?"
"I did my best to restrain it," Artoria replied. Since coming to this world, her strength seemed to have grown even greater, though her control clearly needed more training.
Ye Yan recalled the Chaos Beast, glancing at the ruined corpse of the giant zombie. "What about Moria? Is he gone too?"
"With an attack like that, he should be dead, right?" Shark Chili said. Judging the power of that strike, he wasn't even sure if he himself would have any pieces left if he took the hit.
Tom mimicked Artoria's stance, swinging his own little sword. When nothing happened, he padded over to her, poked at her glowing blade with a curious paw, and tilted his head. He had never noticed it before, but now he realized just how amazing this sword was. He wanted to try it himself.
"When the battle is over, I'll let you have a look," Artoria said kindly, patting his head. "But for now, the one controlling the zombies is still alive."
Crash! The sound of plates breaking rang out. Everyone turned, expecting Moria—but it was Cindolly instead.
She stood among piles of shattered porcelain, plucking out a single intact plate and flinging it aside. "All the plates in the world should disappear."
Just how deep did her hatred for plates go? Zhang Da Ye was speechless. But what happened next left him even more dumbfounded.
Tom suddenly leapt forward, diving to catch the plate with both paws. He twisted midair, making sure his back would hit the ground first. Perfect landing. Except… after hitting the ground, he couldn't stop. He slid forward and slammed straight into the castle wall—right into the main mast.
The impact was light. So light that Tom didn't even deform or cry out. But the effect was catastrophic. The already unstable mast lost its balance, cracking at Oars's earlier damage point and beginning to collapse.
"No way…" Zhang Da Ye had always braced himself for Tom's chaos, but this method of disaster was beyond imagination. The mast towered taller than any skyscraper he had seen before he transmigrated, and now it was falling. And its angle… didn't look good.
"Run, Da Ye!" Artoria grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. Truthfully, she didn't even know what else to say. Tom was a being even her intuition couldn't reliably predict.
The four of them scrambled clear of the collapse zone, staring at Tom with exasperation.
Tom spread his paws with an innocent look. Unfortunately, he was still holding the plate when he made that gesture. Crack! The porcelain shattered into pieces at his feet.
After all the chaos—bringing down a castle and the massive mast—the plate Tom had fought to save ended up broken anyway.
At the castle gates, Cindolly stood with a sweet smile, awaiting the fate of being buried beneath the wreckage.
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