44: Chapter 44 Bedivere
The battle began.
The Lion King held the Holy Lance, like a dazzling meteor impossible to look at directly, stepping into the tactical grid with a slow but absolutely oppressive pace.
"Jeanne dArc Alter! Burn her to pieces for me!"
PD did not hesitate, exhausting all of Zhuge Liang's skills to instantly fill Jeanne dArc Alter's ultimate gauge.
"[Roar! My Wrath!]"
Pitch-black flames of vengeance erupted from the ground, transforming into a roaring black dragon that fiercely swallowed the Lion King's figure.
However, when the flames dispersed, a scene appeared that made all the Blue Star players' jaws drop.
The Lion King stood in place, completely unharmed. Surrounding her body was a visible, absolute barrier constructed from pure, golden Divine Authority laws.
Jeanne dArc's earth-shattering strike hit the barrier, and the damage number that popped up was an eye-piercing: [0]!
"What the hell?!"
PD widened his eyes, refusing to believe it, and issued another command, "Gilgamesh! Sword of Rupture!"
A red-gold storm swept across the field; the power of the Star of Creation that splits heaven and earth tore through space and slammed fiercely into the Lion King.
[0]!
Cu Chulainn's Gae Bolg struck out.
[0]!
Regardless of whether players used physical or magical attacks, or how many layers of armor penetration and damage-boosting buffs they stacked, all attacks were forcibly reduced to zero by the system the moment they touched the Lion King!
The system's cold and ruthless announcement completely declared the inviolability of the god:
[Divine Authority characteristic unlocked: The Lion King is in a 'Divine-level Absolute Defense' state!]
[Attacks from mortal bodies cannot cause any substantial damage to it!]
"We can't hit her... we simply can't hit her!"
A-Dai was sweating profusely in the stream room. "This is a freaking invincibility hack! We can't even scrape off a layer of her health bar, how are we supposed to play this?!"
At this moment, players across the entire network deeply felt the despair and powerlessness of mortals facing a true god.
Their max-level five-star units, which they were so proud of, and their meticulously calculated tactical combos, became a ridiculous zero under the crushing rules of "Divine Authority."
The Lion King slowly raised the Holy Lance, pointing the tip toward the player positions, who had already exhausted all their trump cards.
"The farce should end now."
Dazzling light gathered at the tip of the lance; it was a destructive strike capable of instantly wiping out the entire grand hall.
Seeing that the defensive line was about to be completely crushed and all efforts were about to come to nothing.
Just in this desperate situation with no hope of survival...
A figure, not tall, even somewhat staggering, slowly walked out from behind the Master.
It was a knight wearing a tattered cloak, with long silver hair.
He was panting heavily, his body covered in bone-deep scars left from forcibly breaking into the Holy City.
He ignored the light of the Holy Lance about to descend from the sky, simply staring fixedly at the Lion King before the throne with eyes that had seen endless storms yet remained clear.
He slowly raised his silver right arm, which emitted a metallic luster but was constantly cracking and bleeding due to severe overdraft.
"Master, please issue the final order."
The wandering knight Bedivere's voice was hoarse, yet it carried a determination that spanned a thousand years.
"Only this arm, only I..."
"Can shatter the King's confusion."
...
Inside the grand hall, there was a deathly silence.
In the Shark Stream Room, PD stared at the thin back on the screen, stunned.
"Bedivere? What did he just say... He can shatter that invincible shield?"
Not only PD, but the story-focused streamer A-Dai, and tens of millions of players across the network were also full of astonishment.
In previous plot points, although Bedivere had blocked Mordred's light cannon with that silver prosthetic limb, every time he used it, he would roll on the ground in pain, as if overdrawing his life.
What could he use to confront the Lion King, who sat on the throne and possessed the authority of a god?
Just then, Dr. Roman's panicked voice, which had changed pitch, suddenly came through the VR vision communication channel:
"Wait! This is impossible! Are the observation data wrong?!"
"Master, quickly make Bedivere step back! His magic wavelength is completely wrong!"
In the image, Dr. Roman's holographic projection flickered violently, his hands typing rapidly on the keyboard, pulling up rows of glaring red warning data.
"He is not a Heroic Spirit! He is not recorded on the Throne of Heroes at all! He is just a... living human?!"
Boom!
This sentence exploded like a thunderclap in everyone's minds.
"Human?!"
A-Dai widened her eyes, looking in disbelief at the knight's back in front.
"How is that possible! How could an ordinary human have lived until now, and still possess such powerful strength?"
Dr. Roman's voice carried uncontrollable trembling:
"His physical body collapsed long ago! His soul is also riddled with holes! The reason he has been able to live until now, and even release that level of power, is entirely due to his right arm—known as the 'Silver Arm'—forcibly sustaining his life!"
"The true nature of that arm is not some magical craft, that is... that is the legendary sword of King Arthur—Excalibur!"
The truth, at this moment, unfolded before all the Blue Star players like a heavy scroll stained with blood.
With the cut-in of the story CG, a tragic history sealed for fifteen hundred years finally surfaced.
It turned out that, at the end of the Battle of Camlann, seeing the dying King Arthur, Bedivere, as a royal guard knight, could not accept the King's passing and once again defied the King's order.
He did not throw the holy sword into the lake to return it to the faeries, but instead ran away with the sword.
It was precisely because the holy sword was not returned that King Arthur could not truly die, eventually holding the Holy Lance and turning into a monster that had lost human emotions and only retained the reason of a god—the Lion King.
"Everything is my fault..."
In the center of the grand hall, Bedivere gazed at the cold goddess on the throne.
"If I had been able to steel my heart back then, the King would not have become like this, and there would not have been this cruel Holy Selection."
"To make up for this sin, to personally end the King's suffering."
"I have carried this unreturned sword, wandering the human world for a full fifteen hundred years..."
Fifteen hundred years.
For an ordinary human without magic power, this was how long, how desperate a torture!
When the body decayed, he stitched it back together with magic; when his soul was about to dissipate, he hung on by the last thread thanks to the radiance of the holy sword.
Day after day, he trekked through the wilderness. Even if he lost his right arm, even if every use of the holy sword's power tore his soul apart, he never stopped his steps.
Only to walk before the King he loved most, and say sorry in person.