To become a king and a magician

(Erosion!? This is... Morse's curse!?)

Realizing the true nature of the dark substance, Melishin quickly abandoned her weapon and returned to Natsukawa Tora's side.

Using the swarm of insects to twirl his two swords, which had turned completely black, Vortigern laughed and said, "You run pretty fast. In a little while, I might be able to turn you into Morse too. I'm actually quite good at curses, after all, I've lived with Cornunos for six thousand years and even gave birth to something like the King of Morse."

Ultimate magic resistance, a constitution that ignores the Holy Sword, and a corrosive curse.

The power that Vortigern displayed far exceeded the expectations of everyone present. Some even began to wonder if Natsukawa Tora, who was still the Natsukawa Tora with infinite magic power, would also be unable to deal with Vortigern.

And at that very moment—

"Crack crack crack crack crack!"

A sound like something being crushed or ground up reached everyone's ears from afar, and along with this sound, the throne began to crumble, and even the entire city of Camelot and the earth itself began to crumble.

The influence of the Naraku Insects has already extended to this area. In about several tens of minutes, it will probably devour the entire territory of Britain.

Gritting his teeth, Natsukawa Tora simply waved his hand—

"Whoosh—!"

A dazzling white light suddenly shone from the ground, engulfing everyone inside. After the white light disappeared, the entire throne room was suddenly empty!

Vortigern frowned: "A spatial displacement magic? To use this move to send everyone away when the space is completely disordered, I can only say that he is a Pokémon that can grasp the surrounding situation at any time. It seems that he was not affected at all."

"So, are you staying behind to die?"

Vortigern spoke his last words to the only person in front of him.

Natsukawa Torama used spatial displacement to send everyone away to the southernmost tip of this British island, perhaps the last place where they would be devoured by the Naraku Insects.

But he himself did not leave.

"It will be less than ten minutes before the Naraku Insects completely devour this island. Sending them all away will be futile. Although it's only a matter of time, you will all die here together."

"You won't die..."

Xia Chuanhu gripped the holy sword tightly.

“I have witnessed their death once, witnessed the passing of all of them, and at that time I was powerless to intervene, so I watched them die. But this time is different, I am standing here in person, so I will not let them die.”

"Ten minutes—this final time is enough to kill you."

Boom!

As soon as the words were spoken, the Naraku Insects swallowed the entire city of Camelot.

61. Hope in the hands of others

Within the abyss lies infinity.

It is an endless void.

What is swallowed will fall here forever, never reaching the end or any other place, falling until it loses its consciousness and even its life.

Natsukawa Tora was in this state after being devoured by the Naraku Insects.

However, it does not mean they cannot stand.

"Boom!"

He drew magic from himself and used it to form the ground beneath his feet.

After feeling as if time had dropped for several tens of seconds, Natsukawa Tora regained his footing in the empty darkness.

Similarly, the person who was swallowed into Naraku along with him also stood in front of him.

"I can't stand it..."

Dragged along by the swarm of insects, Vortigern looked at the man he had wanted to kill for six thousand years.

"You think you can defeat me in ten minutes? Is your brain filled with nothing but Aurora? You should be well aware of the power gap between us, right? Perhaps there are indeed people in the world who can defeat me, but that person is definitely not you, Holy Sword Wielder."

"Your holy sword and your magic are ineffective against me. Your ability to materialize illusions, which you excel at as an elf, has now been completely sealed away. After all, this is the interior of the Naraku Insect, not a [world] that you can rewrite and create at will."

"And naturally, you can't get any support from the planet either. There's no way to contact the outside world. All you can use is your own magic. There's no way to replenish it. Once your magic runs out, you're completely finished."

Vortigern mocked.

"Oh, no, I misspoke. I should say that you were doomed the moment you were swallowed by the Naraku Insect. You can't escape from here. This place is infinite. The moment you fell in, you lost both the exit and the entrance. You can never leave here."

"What a pity, truly a pity. At the last moment, you sent all your lovers away to prolong their deaths, wanting to stay and be the hero. But in reality, you're just a useless coward. And even so, they'll soon join you, falling with you into this endless abyss—"

"Bang--------!"

Xia Chuanhu slammed his fist on the magical ground beneath his feet, forcefully interrupting Vortigern's passionate speech and sarcasm, which was filled with strong personal emotions.

"So annoying."

A deep voice reached Vortigern's ears.

Straightening up to look at her, Xia Chuanhu waved his hand: "You talk too much nonsense. Have you not spoken to anyone for six thousand years and are you feeling lonely, little girl?"

"Aha?"

"Besides, it's all nonsense. I don't know if you're talking gibberish or if you're out of your mind. You've already pushed me to this point, so why do you say things that sound like someone who knows nothing about me would say? I must be hearing things, right?"

As he spoke, Natsukawa Tiger picked at his ear.

(Is this guy... insane?)

Vortigern looked at Xia Chuanhu with some confusion, his face showing no sign of tension whatsoever. She had already explained his situation so clearly and had helped him sort out his desperate predicament. Shouldn't he feel desperate?

The despair from which there is no escape, the despair of being unable to defeat her, the despair of all hope shattered over the past two thousand four hundred years...

He should be in despair, right?

But why does he look like this now? He's not just in despair, he looks completely confident of victory.

Where does his confidence come from? Or is he just bluffing? Is he actually panicking right now?

"Let me correct your mistake first, or rather, reveal the truth. Everything you just said is completely wrong."

(I was wrong?)

"You say my holy sword is ineffective against you, and my magic is ineffective against you—that's not true, is it? It's not that it's ineffective against you, nor is it an ability granted to you by the Holy Grail; rather, it's an enhancement that the Holy Grail has given you."

"An enhancement to your [Devour] ability."

Swallow.

Since Vortigern is the Naraku Insect, she must possess this ability. Vortigern's devouring ability was originally powerful enough to swallow all the light of the Holy Sword. After being strengthened by the Holy Grail, it was even able to devour the combined attack of Natsukawa Tora, Artoria, and Arthur's Holy Swords.

This was something we already knew about in the Sixth Singularity.

The essence of the [Sacred Sword Nullification] ability is this: Vortigern simply absorbs all attacks from the Sacred Sword, and the same goes for her resistance to magic. The Holy Grail further enhanced her absorption ability, specializing in the absorption of magic.

The same is true of the power of erosion.

"As long as it's not truly ineffective, it doesn't matter. For Vortigern, the light of the Holy Sword is both food and poison. As long as it truly strikes your core, you will still suffer a fatal wound."

Vortigern frowned, then burst into laughter: "Hahahaha... I thought you were going to say something? With your current magic and faint light, you think you can satisfy me? You wouldn't even be enough to fill my teeth."

"Perhaps, but you have to try everything. If it really doesn't work—then I'll beat you to death with these fists and these legs. I hope you haven't forgotten that Arcueid and I are both elves, and in terms of physical ability, we've always been evenly matched."

As he spoke, Natsukawa Tora conjured a holy sword in his hand.

"Then... regarding your point about not being able to leave here, that's also a misconception. Perhaps I really can't leave now, even if I kill you, it won't make a difference, but that doesn't mean someone won't drag me out. Do you think I sent them away just to protect them?"

Vortigern: "You believe they will come to save you? Do you really think they can fight against the Naraku Insects? Or... do you still place your hopes on Albion?"

The roar of the Albion Dragon can tear apart the body of the Naraku Insect, creating an exit with a definite distance in infinite space.

But doing so would require Melsin to regain her true form as the Dragon of Albion, transforming from that child into the Boundary Dragon soaring through the skies—and after that, she might never be able to change back.

"Who knows? At least in my opinion, there are several other people besides Melusin who can tear open the insect's body."

Xia Chuanhu smiled.

"I believe they will break through the outer shell of the Naraku Insect, so I'm not worried about what's going on outside. Right now, I only have one thought in my mind, which is to defeat and destroy you."

The holy sword was pointed at the dragon's body.

"Let's settle this once and for all, Voodoo!"

"The six thousand years you have waited, the two thousand four hundred years I have waited, today is the time to end it all—to put an end to everything."

62. The possibility of saving everything

The exterior of the Naraku Insect.

The southernmost part of Britain, which has already collapsed and broken.

"Buzz—!"

In a flash of white light, Aozaki Aoko and her group, along with Morgan and his group, instantly appeared here.

After quickly glancing around, Aozaki Aoko curled her lip and said, "Tsk, another spatial displacement? Where did Torato send us?"

"It should be the southernmost part of Britain, near Lentinion."

Morgan gazed into the distance and said that in her field of vision, a city was gradually collapsing.

She remembered it was Lentinion.

"What is Father thinking, sending us all this way? And where is he?" Mordred searched the surroundings several times, but couldn't find Xia Chuanhu anywhere.

All that could be seen was the gradually collapsing earth falling toward the Naraku Insects, and the Naraku Insects devouring the shattered earth.

Judging from the distance, the Naraku Insects will arrive in about ten minutes.

[I'm afraid Tiger is currently inside the Naraku Insects.]

Mary's voice reached everyone's ears.

[In that situation, he probably only had time to send all of you away, but he himself couldn't escape the Naraku Insects' devouring range in time and entered Naraku. He's probably fighting Vortigern now, right?]

"Then we have to go help the minister—"

No, not necessary.

Merry stopped Fujimaru Ritsuka from doing that.

[I'm afraid even if we go, we won't be of any help to him, and might even make things worse. Let him handle things there for now—he'll be fine.]