Under the twilight, Souya's pale figure stood quietly on the battlefield.
At his feet was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, piled high with the remains of countless Celtic soldiers. Because he had killed so many, even the earth had been dyed crimson with blood.
"Mon... Monster!"
Seeing such a hellish scene, the remaining thousands of soldiers were finally overwhelmed by this intense fear and shock, forcefully breaking free from the illusion's control.
Consequently and simultaneously, they chose to follow the deep-seated terror in their hearts. They threw away their weapons one by one and ran far into the distance, crying out for their mothers and fathers.
Having witnessed such a scene, they would never pick up a weapon again in their lives.
And Souya merely watched their backs gradually fade away, showing no intention of stepping forward to slaughter them all.
He wasn't a bloodthirsty person. If possible, he didn't want to touch a single one of these tens of thousands of Celtic troops. After all, these were the foundation of the Age of Gods and Morgan's future subjects.
But similarly, he wasn't someone who would swallow his anger when stepped on. Every single corpse on the ground had slashed their weapons at Souya.
Whether they were bewitched by the illusion or not, as long as they exposed killing intent, what greeted them was the pitch-black sword gleam of the Reversed Dawn.
As for the Knights of the Round Table...
Souya looked down and scanned his surroundings. Around him, several broken blades and weapons were stuck in the ground.
Excalibur Galatine, Aroundight, Failnaught...
As the reverse of the Divine Construct 'Excalibur', the 'Sword of Reversed Dawn' (Excalibur Morgan)—apart from the darkness attribute opposite to light—possessed its greatest characteristic: 'Anti-artifact'.
In other words, it possessed a special attack multiplier against Holy Swords and divine artifacts.
And it was precisely by relying on this trait that Souya destroyed the weapons of the entire Knights of the Round Table in one fell swoop, even including the planetary-class Holy Sword, Galatine.
This was undoubtedly a feat worthy of being recorded in history, but similarly, he paid a price for it.
Crack.
Accompanied by a crisp sound, the black Holy Sword could finally hold on no longer and shattered, ultimately turning into a handful of dust that slipped from Souya's hands.
And fading away with it were the powers and characteristics of the White Dragon on Souya's body.
When this gift from the Vile King completely dissipated, Souya finally reverted back to that clear, water-like knight.
Only, some things were still slipping away.
Silently looking up behind him, in Souya's eyes, the high tower that had been constantly vibrating due to breaking through the earth's crust had stabilized.
An hour ago, the Goddess's consciousness, Rhongomyniad, resting upon the Holy Lance, had told him through their connection that the Holy Lance had successfully anchored. This nail, originally intended to pin the inner and outer layers of the world, had now—under the influence of various factors—become a rivet that rebelled against the world's rules to bring protection to Britain.
Calming down and standing on this land, Souya could distinctly feel a different kind of substance gradually emerging from deep underground, slowly filling every inch of the soil and air.
"I see... It seems I still underestimated the speed at which the Age of Gods feeds back..."
Souya's eyes burned bright. With his Fairy Eyes, he could clearly see countless wisps of milky-white True Ether spreading outward through the body of Rhongomyniad. Before long, centering on Londinium, the entirety of Britain would receive this era-defying miracle.
Undoubtedly, he had won this war between the old and new eras.
From now on, the environment of all of Britain would slowly revert to how it was before the end of the Age of Gods. The wheat fields would have golden ears of wheat, the rivers would have plump fish, mothers with newborn children wouldn't have to worry about a lack of milk, and the people living all over Britain wouldn't have to worry about inexplicable plagues sweeping over them.
Although this happiness was only temporary—as long as the island of Britain didn't detach from this world, the pruning tide of the World would strike again in the future.
However, that wouldn't be Souya's concern anymore. Because he was about to die.
Slowly withdrawing his gaze from Rhongomyniad, Souya didn't look at anything else this time, but focused on himself.
Under the pupils of a fairy, he could see his body gradually becoming illusory. Although it looked like it would take some time before he completely disappeared, this was already enough to explain things.
Souya, or rather the final afterglow of the Age of Gods, the Knight of Radiance Lamorak—now that the Age of Gods was about to continue, he too must return this radiance to this era.
From now on, his flesh would become nutrients to nourish the earth and produce food, his blood would turn into streams flowing everywhere to bring vitality, his breath would turn into wind, his tears into rain. All the grace he had received would be sprinkled in repayment across this land belonging to his beloved.
A warrior born responding to the expectations of the Age of Gods naturally had to return everything to this era in the end.
This was the resolve Vortigern had spoken of to Souya at the time.
That old man who bore all sins and evil never worried that the two of them would fail, because they inherently had nothing left to lose, so naturally, they didn't fear failure.
What he worried about was merely that such an ending was too unfair for a young man with love in his heart.
That young man had friends, dreams, a lover, and at the same time, should have had the right to survive.
So he asked him if he had the resolve to sacrifice everything.
The young knight answered yes. He wanted to lay a solid foundation for his King, his love, and her ideal.
Thus, he became the Vile King's ally, the traitor of the Round Table, Britain's second White Dragon, drove away the biggest obstacle Merlin, and destroyed the weapons of the Knights of the Round Table.
Thus, apart from that young girl whom he felt guilty toward and couldn't part with, Souya had done everything he could for Morgan before his death.
The price of all this was merely the life of a bastard knight.
Waving his hand to summon the black-blue 'Queen's Fortress' to cover his somewhat transparent body, Souya didn't stand on ceremony. He casually piled the unconscious Kay and Gawain together, then leaned against them.
Suddenly, a mechanical electronic voice he hadn't heard in a long time rang in his ear.
[Host, is everything you've done worth it?]
Hearing this long-absent system voice, Souya was stunned. He didn't know since when he hadn't heard the trash system speak in his mind, and at the time he seemed too preoccupied with many things to pay attention to it.
As a result, before he knew it, it was time for everything to end.
Thinking of this, Souya instinctively asked the system:
"Trash system? Where have you been these past few days? Why haven't you been talking?"
Hearing this, the system fell silent for a moment before slowly saying:
[Because Wattpad has recently undergone another Great Silence, and no one is allowed to comment or speak.]
Souya: ?
After a long while, a massive question mark popped up on Souya's small head.
You admitted it! You just admitted you're a Wattpad system!
Motherfucker, before you stubbornly refused to admit you were from Wattpad, insisting you ran out from Webnovel. In the end, not only did it take twenty damn years to open a Baidu search, but after coming in, you were timid and useless, frequently going offline for half a year at a time.
Even for Wattpad, this level of uselessness is top-tier trash.
"You should just go die, useless thing."
In an instant, Souya's mood to chat with the system vanished.
After all, there was really nothing to say to this kind of trash, especially such a scrub among scrubs.
Hmm, speaking of which, I seem to have one unused deduction opportunity, right?
Souya thought carefully, but still felt that with things having developed to this point, using or not using the deduction was meaningless.
After all, the essence of the deduction was based on Souya's choices. The premise for all this was that he could survive to make choices. If he was going to die soon, then even if he deduced it, all he would see was when he would completely disappear.
That would be too boring.
Rather than spending his meager remaining energy to look at such meaningless things, why not take the opportunity while he hadn't completely returned to the earth to do some things he wanted to do?
For example, returning to the pure white Camelot, promised by the Queen to never fall, to secretly take one last look at the person he loved.
Or, waiting for the return of that young girl, bringing a perfect end to his story with her.
[...Actually Host, you didn't have to do this.]
Seemingly sensing Souya's thoughts, the system uncharacteristically didn't act up, and after a moment of silence, spoke:
[You seem to be, well, too invested?]
[Everything you are experiencing now, the life of this knight named Lamorak, shouldn't it be more like a game to you?]
[Since the purpose of this game is to simulate and then obtain the power of Heroic Spirits, you don't need to invest so much emotion. As an invincible player, you just need to find the strongest and most suitable diverging path through deduction. Why invest so much emotion?]
[Do you know, Host? From a bystander's perspective, I find that you now seem to no longer be yourself.]
[Rather than saying you are Kotomine Souya now, it's more accurate to say you are Lamorak.]
[Isn't this too exhausting, Host?]
It was rare for the trash system to say so much in one breath.
Although it was still that mechanical electronic voice devoid of emotion, Souya could hear its concern for him.
After all, not just it, even Souya felt a bit tired.
But that was all.
"You know, system, I never felt that what I'm experiencing is just a game, a simulation."
As if recalling something, a trace of a smile inexplicably rose on Souya's lips.
He thought of Morgan when they first met; that aloof and powerful princess could actually show the appearance of a little girl lacking love because of her father's difficulties and disapproval.
He thought of Artoria; the little girl who, because of his words, chose not to follow the trajectory of destiny to become that isolated King who didn't understand the human heart, but chose to become a human first before doing anything else.
And Kay, Gawain, even Merlin.
How could these emotionally rich, living people—whether they evoked fondness or disgust—be treated as a regular game?
"So system, you are right. The current me indeed doesn't look like Kotomine Souya, but more like Lamorak."
"But this doesn't mean anything. Lamorak is me, and Kotomine Souya is also me. They can be two different people, or they can be one person."
"Lamorak can be the Kotomine Souya of the Middle Ages, and Kotomine Souya can also be the Lamorak of the future Holy Church."
"All of this is interchangeable, because they are all 'Me'."
I am me, and I am not me.
The first step on the path to becoming a Saint is to recognize the self.
"So rest assured, system. I won't be like other protagonists who get lost in the simulation and can't figure out their true selves."
Seemingly sensing something, Souya stood up and looked in a certain direction.
That place was originally covered by a magical boundary field, but now that boundary field was trembling.
"The past me might have been confused, but the current me will no longer be limited by confusion."
"Whether it's a simulation or destiny, I just need to do what I must do."
Watching that young girl wearing the King's armor and holding the Holy Sword of the Planet walk out from the shattered boundary field, a smile tugged at the corners of Souya's mouth.
"Now, I am going to have a final knight's conversation with my girl."
"Come, Lamorak, let us have a knight's duel."
Sweeping her gaze over the surrounding mountain of corpses and sea of blood, the young girl showed no shock or any other emotion. She merely focused her attention entirely on Souya, who had reverted back to human form, and said this.
Her tone remained as calm and certain as ever, just like when the young girl challenged the knight to a duel back then.
Only, through those emerald, lake-like eyes, Souya could feel the ferocious emotions the young girl hid beneath her calm.
"Since that is the case, then come, Lily."
Souya returned a gentle smile just like back then.
"So this time, do you still want to show me your growth? Lily."
"No, Lamorak. This time I am not doing this to show you anything."
"If I do that, I will only ever be in your eyes, not in your heart. So now, I will defeat you, conquer you, and then snatch you away forever."
Because I love you.
The young girl said so. In her hands, the Holy Sword of the Planet bloomed with the light of conviction.
Hearing the young girl's words, a smile couldn't help but surface on Souya's lips.
Great. The one who returned is not King Arthur, but the girl Artoria.
Thinking this, Souya gently reached out his hand.
In the distance, a flash of white light shone on the towering tower that pierced the sky and earth. A streak of platinum light leaped over, falling into Souya's hand and transforming into a brilliant long spear.
The Goddess Rhongomyniad had always been watching Souya, so the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad would always answer his call.
Without the slightest hesitation or preparation, the young girl and the young man took a step forward simultaneously.
The next moment, the light of the Holy Sword and the Holy Lance shone at the same time.
"Holy Sword, Unleashed!"
"Holy Lance, Anchor Released!"