To become a king and a magician

Raising his hand to block the oncoming strong winds and dust storm, Natsukawa Tora felt the fluctuations of these three magical powers and sighed softly.

(That guy really is followed by a group of excellent knights... It's impossible for nothing to go wrong if he decisively uses the Holy Grail and injects magic power into his spirit origin.)

It's not that using the Holy Grail will cause problems. Normally, the Holy Grail's enhancement of Servants is real and won't cause any mistakes. However, if the Holy Grail is used incorrectly or overused, then problems will definitely arise.

Judging from the intensity of the magic power they can feel right now, all three of them have used the Holy Grail to strengthen themselves to the limit they can withstand. It's fine for a short while, but the problem is that Natsukawa Tora is not the kind of person who can be defeated in a short time—plus, he doesn't want to pretend either.

(That's the only way, I guess. It's my first time doing this too, and I won't be responsible if it causes them any internal injuries.)

"boom------!"

The dust storm stopped at that moment.

Amidst the storm, as if they had instantly undergone several Spirit Origin Ascensions, the three Knights of the Round Table, whose power had been amplified to its limit under the baptism of the Holy Grail, appeared before Natsukawa Torato.

(Magic power... if you add up all three, they could probably destroy three or four Demon God Pillars. They're really putting in a lot of effort.)

"It's about to start—"

Holding the blazing holy sword, Gawain was the first to charge.

But she couldn't take a single step.

chain.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of thick chains appeared in the previously empty space, completely sealing off every inch of room for movement around the three of them! They then tightly bound their limbs and bodies, suspending them in mid-air in a spread-eagle position!

"This is a chain barrier with a radius of fifty meters."

Standing outside the chains, Natsukawa Tora said in a deep voice, "Each chain weighs five hundred tons and will increase with your own strength. It can also block the flow of magic. I have no intention of trampling on your resolve to stop me, but I'm sorry, I don't want that guy to return to normal without a knight by his side to greet him."

"So, excuse me, please hand over the Holy Grail."

Arriving in front of the three people who were bound by chains, and seeing Gawain's embarrassed and angry expression, Natsukawa Tiger directly reached his hand into her chest!

"You—eh?"

Gawain, who was about to angrily denounce Natsukawa Torato's sudden and shameless behavior, was suddenly stunned for a moment—he did not feel that his body had been violated, but the Holy Grail inside him had a real feeling of being held.

Looking down, they saw a strange light gate made up of countless rhomboid light pieces where Xia Chuanhu and her chest had touched.

“This is a space displacement magic,” Natsukawa Tora explained. “I’m sorry, but this is the only way to retrieve the Holy Grail without harming the three of you. This is my first time, and it may cause you some discomfort. Please forgive me, Gao Wenqing.”

"Ugh... Ah... Uh..."

As if something was being forcibly pulled out of her body, Gawain couldn't help but let out muffled groans. And soon, a few seconds later, a golden Holy Grail was taken out of her body by Natsukawa Tiger.

At the same time, the powerful magic that filled Gawain's entire body receded like a tide, and as the chains binding her disappeared, she collapsed helplessly to the ground.

After putting the Holy Grail away, Natsukawa Tora looked at Lancelot and Tristan.

"Alright, it's your turn, please bear with us for a moment."

"Well--!"

"Well--!"

As Natsukawa Torato plunged his left and right hands into the chests of the two men, Lancelot and Tristan each let out a muffled groan of unclear meaning.

Watching this scene from a short distance away, Jeanne Alter suddenly sensed a mixture of dissatisfaction and helplessness emanating from Gray within her.

(What's wrong, little girl?)

It's nothing, just a strange sense of déjà vu... like I've gone back a few years ago to dealing with things outside with my brother.

23. The holy sword is the bond, strangling generation after generation.

The retrieval of the Holy Grail went smoothly.

Although it was Natsukawa Torajiro who used space displacement in this aspect, after seeing Angelica use it so much, he was able to imitate it quite well when he practiced it himself. The Holy Grail held by Gawain and the other two was now floating in his palm.

Before him, Gawain and his two companions, who had suddenly gained immense power only to have it taken away just as suddenly, were all incredibly weak and unable to muster any strength. They were all hanging in mid-air with their hands and feet bound by chains, panting heavily with pale faces.

Arriving beside Natsukawa Torama, and looking at the three bound figures and the Holy Grail in Natsukawa Torama's hand, Artoria asked, "As expected of your Master, your strength is as formidable as ever, managing to defeat the three Knights of the Round Table so quickly."

"It's just a foul based on his own abilities; a real fight wouldn't be so easy."

Ultimately, it's because the ability to materialize fantasy is too overpowered.

“A win is a win, regardless of the methods you used.” Jeanne Alter said, glancing at the city wall not far away. “Now, all that’s left is to open the city gates, right?”

"Well, but before that, there are a few things I'd like to know, since one of the reasons I came to the main gate is for this."

If the goal is simply to enter the city and defeat Arthur, it would be very easy. Xia Chuanhu wouldn't even need to enter the city; he could just stand on a distant mountain and throw moons at the White Dragon Kingdom like crazy. Hundreds or thousands of moons would rain down on it, and see if it could withstand it. They would smash it thousands of meters underground.

However, if that were the case, many things would remain unclear. There were simply too many anomalies within this singularity. Intuition told Natsukawa that if he rushed to resolve everything without clarifying all the doubts in his mind, it would likely lead to a very serious situation.

and so--

"Could you three please answer some questions for me? Lord Gao Wenqing, Lord Tristan, Lord Lancelot," Xia Chuanhu asked, looking at the three men. "Although we just fought, I don't consider us enemies. For the sake of Arthur's safety, could you please tell me what you know?"

"What exactly is the Dragon Disaster? And what was that pillar of light from six months ago...? I hope you can tell me these things."

The cause of everything within this singularity is undoubtedly the pillar of light from six months ago.

The three Knights of the Round Table remained silent for a while. After exchanging glances, as if exchanging their opinions, Gawain sighed softly: "I understand. Since I have been easily defeated by you twice and am now your prisoner, I will not put up any resistance. Moreover, you are the heir recognized by our king... Let us place our trust in you this once."

"We will explain everything you wish to know, but before that, could you please remove our restraints? This position is somewhat indecent..."

At this point, a slight blush appeared on Gawain's cheeks, and Tristan and Lancelot were in similar situations. Having their hands and feet bound and stretched out in a "V" shape was quite a challenge for any woman to endure.

In every sense of the word.

"Okay, I'll untie you now. I'm sorry, I was thinking about subduing you as quickly as possible, so I didn't think too much about the method of restraint and just used the most convenient one."

As Xia Chuanhu spoke, he snapped his fingers, and the chains binding Gao Wen and the other two disappeared instantly, causing them to fall to the ground on their bottoms.

After rubbing his buttocks and supporting himself as he stood up, Gawain stretched his limbs slightly. "Phew... Thank you for your understanding. Please come over here. It's not appropriate to talk here. Let's go to my tent over there. We will explain everything you wish to know."

——————————————————————————————————

Inside Gawain's stronghold, not far from the city gate.

Removing his armor as if freed from some constraint, Gawain breathed a sigh of relief and turned to sit on the edge of his bed: "So, what you want to know is about the events of the past six months?"

"Ah... um... almost..."

Natsukawa Tora answered with a wandering gaze.

(Gao Wenqing, far away at the stronghold, I think I can understand how you feel now. You really don't know where to look...)

Seeing Xia Chuanhu's wandering gaze, Tristan and Lancelot, who were already used to this situation, chuckled. It seems that even the elven holy swordsman is no different from ordinary people in this respect.

Jeanne Alter and Artoria were petrified when Gawain removed his armor.

The enormous class difference threw both of them into a state of mental turmoil.

As for Gao Wen herself... she seemed completely unaware of the strange situation she had caused, and began to explain very seriously.

"The truth about what happened six months ago is actually quite simple. In reality, that beam of light was caused by our battle with the enemy within this singularity who attempted to destroy human order and tamper with history."

"No, it's not accurate to say that it was caused by our battle. In fact, it was caused by the enemy. We were also affected by that beam of light. Not only us, but the singularity was affected as well."

Did Arthur lead the Knights of the Round Table in a battle against the enemy within this singularity, and then, due to the beam of light caused by the enemy, the singularity ended up in its current state?

Upon hearing Gao Wen's words, Xia Chuanhu withdrew his restless gaze, looked directly at her, and asked, "Who was the person you were fighting?"

"It is a calamity that we once eradicated."

After a moment of silence, Gawain spoke in a very heavy tone: "As you probably know, in the past, in order to bring peace to war-torn Britain, our King led us Knights of the Round Table in countless battles."

"And in those countless battles, there was only one time when our army was nearly wiped out, countless comrades fell, and the accompanying knights were defeated one after another. In the end, only my king and I reached the final enemy."

Natsukawa Torato probably knew who Gawain was referring to as the enemy.

"—【Vottigan】."

"Like our king, the white dragon represents the island of Britain and once attempted to destroy the British demons."

"This is the enemy we fought against six months ago."

24. Wait and believe in the future.

It all started six months ago when the human reason was burned down.

At that time, Goetia sent the seven Holy Grails to different eras, creating seven singularities to disrupt human order. These Grails ended up in the hands of different people within each singularity, thus causing different situations.

For example, Gilles de Rais used the Holy Grail to create Jeanne d'Arc Alter, and then had Jeanne d'Arc Alter summon Servants and dragons, turning the entire land of France into a kingdom of evil dragons.

Within this sixth singularity, the situation is as described by Vottigan.

"We don't know how Vortigern came to be. It's just that half a year ago, when we were chain-summoned to the Singularity because of the King's appearance, this Singularity was already on the verge of being completely destroyed by Vortigern."

Gao Wen explained.

Six months ago, shortly after Vortigern appeared in this singularity, Arthur, who should have been in a permanent slumber in Avalon, was awakened. Since the one who destroys humanity is Vortigern, who represents the White Dragon of Britain, the most reliable force to defeat him is naturally King Arthur, who once destroyed him and represents the Red Dragon of Britain.

Therefore, Arthur was awakened, and because of Arthur's appearance, the Knights of the Round Table, who were under his command, also appeared in the world. In the end, in this singularity, the Knights of the Round Table, led by King Arthur, appeared at their peak.

Lancelot, Gawain, Tristan, Percival, Kay, Bedivere, Gareth, Gahoris, Agravuren, Palamedes, King Perinoa, Bose, and Mordred, who for some reason appears in the world in female form.

Apart from Galahad, who did not respond to the summons, the fourteen individuals, including Arthur, challenged Vortigern in order to resolve this singularity.

The battle lasted for half a day, and the result was extremely tragic.

Apart from Gawain, Tristan, and Lancelot who are currently standing here, and Mordred who is not here, all the other Knights of the Round Table have perished. Vortigern, who obtained the Holy Grail, is far more powerful than he was in life. Even Arthur and Gawain are almost powerless against Vortigern, and the release of the Holy Sword has been interrupted countless times.

The painful past of being wiped out by the Holy Sword made Voodoo extremely wary of this, and he would rather endure multiple Noble Phantasm releases head-on than interrupt this attack.

Therefore, Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table failed to defeat Vortigern. Even with the lives of many of their comrades at their cost, they could only drag the situation into a near-mutually devastating state in the face of Vortigern, who possessed the Holy Grail.

"Our king was already so badly injured that he could not unleash the Holy Sword. The situation of the remaining members of our group was similar. It is truly shameful that we were still unable to destroy that demon after sacrificing so many friends."

As she spoke, Gawain clenched her fists tightly, her face and eyes visibly filled with grief and indignation. For her, witnessing the death of her friend again was something she could not easily accept.

"After that, thanks to the power of the Holy Grail, Vortigern's body recovered rapidly, while we had all lost the strength to continue fighting... Just when we thought everything was over, Lord Merlin suddenly appeared."

"Merlin?!" Natsukawa Tora frowned. "She... appeared here?"

Lancelot nodded: "Lord Merlin has proposed a plan. That is, our King will seal himself as a living embodiment, and then we will destroy our King along with Vortigern."

"Living seal... Annihilation..."

The familiar situation made Xia Chuanhu frown even more deeply.