Typemoon: Starting Out as the Lion King's Personal Knight [283]

In that fleeting moment, silver and crimson intertwined endlessly, the light ringing of weapons transforming into the sharpest of blades. Doors and windows shattered wherever they clashed, countless scattered fragments reflecting the figures of the two combatants.

The instant they crossed weapons, Alaric immediately sensed the change in Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.

The amplification brought by abundant magical energy was immense, fully unleashing the brilliance of Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, a hero of the Age of Gods and a knight of the Fianna. His strength was truly worthy of being called heroic!

However!

Standing before this knight's radiance was the last of the Knights of the Round Table—one who was also... a Dragon!

A surging battle spirit drove Alaric's very soul, and in Diarmuid's gaze, that pitch-black aurora instantly transformed into crimson lightning!

For a brief moment, Diarmuid seemed to hear the roar of a demonic dragon.

Almost at the very instant, the crimson lightning flared, and an immense pressure bore down upon him.

Alaric's martial prowess was equal to his own—perhaps even greater. Diarmuid could sense the vast reserves of strength still held in check. He could scarcely imagine what kind of battlefield Alaric had endured to refine such an astonishing and beautiful style of combat.

That intuition, purer than even the Mind's Eye, was nearly prophetic in its foresight, allowing Alaric to completely evade the Gae Buidhe, the Cursed Yellow Rose, an attack that should have been inescapable.

Yes, Gae Buidhe, the Cursed Yellow Rose.

To engage Alaric in a battle of full strength, Diarmuid had, in mere seconds, unleashed both of his cursed spears, removing the seals and binding runes from their shafts and tips, revealing them in their fullest, most powerful forms.

Unlike Gae Dearg, the Crimson Rose of Exorcism, which specialized in negating magical defenses, Gae Buidhe was a short, golden spear imbued with a terrible curse—it inflicted wounds that could never heal.

Any injury caused by this spear would permanently reduce the victim's maximum health (HP), and not even healing magecraft or regeneration could undo the inflicted wound status.

The only way to lift the curse was to destroy the spear or kill its wielder, the Lancer.

This cursed spear had been a gift from Manannán mac Lir, the sea god, to Diarmuid Ua Duibhne.

Despite its dreadful nature, as its rightful master, Diarmuid could stand upon its very tip without suffering a single scratch.

And yet, even so, he was unable to land a single blow on Alaric.

Though he possessed the skill Knight's Strategy: B, which allowed him to grasp the flow of battle and induce his opponent's mistakes even when at a disadvantage, this ability failed against Alaric's near-future sight.

Not only was Alaric's intuition sharper than the Mind's Eye, but it also gave Diarmuid an eerie sense of déjà vu—the sensation of fighting Saber, the King of Knights.

It wasn't just the resemblance in appearance; it was that pure, honed instinct that made Diarmuid wary.

Even with unlimited magical energy fueling him, even at his absolute peak condition, he still could not gain the upper hand against Alaric.

Yet, beyond the challenge, what filled Diarmuid's heart was satisfaction.

To cross blades with such an opponent—this was why he had answered the summons.

As their battle raged on, the battlefield shifted ever inward.

Wherever they clashed, destruction followed.

The twenty-four-layered bounded field meticulously crafted by Lord El-Melloi Archibald Kayneth—a source of his great pride—was being shattered by the sheer force of their duel.

Even the malicious spirits Kayneth had deployed vanished into nothingness, failing to even register in the minds of either warrior.

If one were to compare Mystery, the concept of supernatural potency, Servants—who were degraded manifestations of Heroic Spirits—still possessed a high level of Mystery. Without powerful magical artifacts, it was nearly impossible for ordinary magus to even harm them.

Most evil spirits were entirely incapable of posing a threat to a Servant.

Step. Step.

Standing before Alaric, blocking his path to Kenneth, Diarmuid gripped his spears tightly.

Alaric grinned.

"This bounded field is annoying."

Kayneth's bounded field was undoubtedly exceptional.

As a genius renowned in the Clock Tower, one of the Twelve Lords, his mastery of magecraft was second to none.

But Alaric had grown tired of it.

Clang!

A gem-like glimmer flashed in Alaric's eyes.

With a single stroke of his blade, he killed the bounded field.

Not just the field—the entire floor itself was slain.

"What?!"

Diarmuid could do nothing but watch as the ground crumbled beneath them, the many layers of bounded fields disintegrating in an instant.

And that was just a minor issue.

The true problem was the chain reaction—

The collapse of the Hyatt Hotel.

Rumble—!!

Alaric possessed Mystic Eyes of Death Perception—an ultimate form of foresight that could see the death of all things and directly interact with Death itself.

This sudden turn of events shattered all expectations—Diarmuid's, Kayneth's, and Sola's alike.

The floor was collapsing.

Countless fragments of debris rained down.

Amidst the falling rubble, Alaric and Diarmuid moved at astonishing speed, navigating through the chaos.

And then—Alaric caught sight of a glimmer of silver.

Liquid-like mercury, wrapping around three figures, plummeting downward.

Immediately, Alaric sensed Kayneth's magical energy emanating from it.

Without a doubt—this was the supreme mystic code of the El-Melloi family.

Volumen Hydrargyrum, the Moon Spirit Liquid.

Within the collections of the Twelve Lords and other noble families, certain Mystic Codes were revered as symbolic treasures of their bloodlines.

Volumen Hydrargyrum was a masterpiece crafted by Kayneth himself before the age of twenty-five—a testament to his unparalleled talent.

It was Kayneth's strongest trump card and his most cherished mystic code.

A combat-type automaton, it combined defense, offense, and detection, responding to threats automatically through pre-programmed combat patterns encoded into its magical mercury.

Physically, it was Kayneth's most powerful weapon.

But that wasn't what caught Alaric's attention.

What truly drew his gaze was the presence beside Kayneth—

Infinite Magical Energy Circulation.

Amplification of Desire.

There was no doubt.

It was an existence equivalent to the Holy Grail.

"I'll take it!!"

Alaric's grin widened.

An overwhelming black aurora erupted from him—

A surge of desire so immense that even the Dragon within could not suppress it.

And in that twilight moment—

The stars began to shine.