A streak of dark light flew across the sky, leaving the Mathers' estate. If one could see, they would see Beatrice and Artorius within the light.
Their destination? Arlam Village. For it was only there that they could find any traces of the one who cursed Rem.
"Hm?" Artorius noticed something off. The lights in the village were bright and open.
With a swift peak, they landed heavily on the ground, drawing the attention of the scrambling villagers. "Lord Artorius." One cried out.
"What is happening here?" Artorius questioned, looking around, seeing parents and elders crying and calling out the names of children.
"The kids! The kids have gone missing, Lord, all of them. We can't find a trace of them." The guard reported in panic.
"Beatrice?"
"That way." She pointed out. "The barrier there is damaged."
"I see." He squinted his eyes. He looked around before taking in a deep breath and- "Gather round!" His order reverberated throughout the village and beyond, bringing everyone's attention to him.
"Folks of Arlam Village!" He addressed them, loud and clear. "I know you are distressed by the absence of your children, but panic will not resolve this. I have an inkling of where your children may be, but to bring them back, I shall require your full cooperation!"
He paused, looking around to see that everyone had understood him. "Witchbeasts have taken your children." Gasps erupted throughout the audience. "But fear not, for I, Artorius Pendragon, promise to you. Your children will return to your side." Artorius put forth his hand, upon which it appeared with a golden, ethereal glow.
『Caliburn: Golden Sword of the Victorious』
The sword of selection cast awe in the crowd. Taking Beatrice in his arms, Artorius burst forth with speed, shaking the wind as the villagers closed their eyes to protect them from the dust.
***
"Um…" Within the dimly lit room, Rem slowly opened her eyes. She felt warmth and comfort with the object in her hands as she slowly turned to see her sister with teary eyes.
"Rem!" Ram cried out, drawing Emilia's attention. Who looked equally shocked.
"Sister… What happen-" Rem's question was interrupted by her sister squeezing her into a hug, snuggling and feeling her sister's body to check for any abnormalities.
Rem's attention then shifted from her sister's—in her perspective—rather abnormal behaviour, and then to the sacred sheath in her hands.
"What is this? What is happening?" Rem asked, confused.
"Rem, are you okay? Does anything hurt? Do you feel if anything is wrong?" Ram asked in rapid succession.
"Rem is fine, sister. So please, tell me. What's happening? Last I remembered, I was in the kitchen and then everything went dark."
Emilia stepped in to explain the situation to her, as Ram clearly wasn't, being more concerned with her sister's well-being. "You were cursed, Rem. The curse absorbed all of your mana and you almost died." She pointed to Excalibur and Avalon. "Artorius left them with you, saying that they would protect you from the curse and heal you."
"I see. Then, where is Lord Artorius now?" Rem asked, as she saw not a shadow of the man.
Emilia looked away. "He said he was going to hunt down the curse user and left."
"Without his weapons?"
"... Yes. But don't worry. I will go right away. You should stay here and rest. We will handle it." Emilia reassured her. Puck was asleep, but she was confident in herself at being able to handle things even without Puck.
"No… Rem must!" Rem jumped out of her bed, her legs still wobbly from the near-death experience.
Ram grabbed her sister by the hem of her sleepwear, clutching onto her tightly. "You can't, Rem!" She was beyond worried. Her sister had nearly died, as her sister, Ram, couldn't allow Rem to endanger herself again.
"No, I must! I can't be- Rem cannot be a burden to anyone anymore!" She ripped herself out of her sister's grip and ran off.
She soon stepped out of the mansion, sniffing the air for the foul witch's scent, most prominent from Artorius. However, her attempts were soon cut short as a pillar of light rose to the sky. What followed was a ground-shaking explosion. Forget tracking by smell, she knew exactly where he was.
"Rem! Wait!" Rem didn't wait for Emilia and Ram and ran off towards the explosion.
***
"There." Beatrice pointed out as Artorius followed the direction she provided. Soon enough, they located the children on a small mound. "The curse has activated." She reported checking on the children, she put forth her hand and used water mana to heal the damage that was being done.
Artorius looked at the children and then looked around. "Take them to the village using magic and heal them there."
Beatrice looked at him, seeing the serious look of frustration on his face, she complied. "Okay, I suppose." Summoning a door of mana, she used a limited version of her Door Crossing, similar to the one connecting the Forbidden Library to the doors of Roswaal's Mansion, to transport the children back to the village.
…
After Beatrice left, Artorius stood still with Caliburn in his hands.
'What am I doing?' He wondered absent-mindedly as Wolgrams appeared from the underbush.
Badump
'Had I not decided on how I'd live my life?' Enticed by the smell of delicious mana, the wolgrams swarmed him, only to be cut down by Caliburn's ornate edge.
Grabbing another, he crushed its head, spattering brain matter across his arm.
Another one punched so hard, its head caved in and sent flying to a tree, hitting it and spilling its guts out from its mouth.
The dirt from underneath him shifted as a mound of it rose to lift him into the air, a place with no supporting area for him to dodge the onslaught of the hounds. Several bit him with the intent to draw blood… only to have their teeth shattered beyond repair.
'Getting closer to Ram, Rem and Emilia, leaving the mansion, settling Zarestia's problem and making a contract with her using a loophole in my current contract with Beatrice and emotionally manipulating Beatrice herself…' Within this week alone, Artorius had managed to feel more disgusted than he ever had in his lifetime.
'Why!?' Brandishing Caliburn, he ignited his dragon core at full power, converging all of his magical energy into the sword of selection.
"Caliburn!" Releasing its true name, a pillar of light arose into the sky as a light of pure destruction swept the entire area, destroying a good chunk of the forest.
All that was left was dust, ash and a broken Caliburn in his hands.
'What am I wrong?'
He quickly turned around to grab the lower and upper jaws of a Guiltylowe, an ambush predator. But instead of dodging or throwing it away, Artorius decided to climb inside its mouth and slowly open its maws wider and wider and wider.
The Guiltylowe twisted around, using its paws to hit him off and shaking its head violently, but Artorius kept opening its jaws until its skull collapsed, its eyes bulging out, ending it in the most brutal way possible.
He, however, wasn't given a moment of rest as misfortune birds flew straight at him, crashing into his armour and leaving a bloody pulp. Black-winged mice flew straight at his face, clawing at his eyes to blind him.
To finish it, a rock pig—a hippo-looking creature with rock-like skin—charged at him, swallowing him whole. The fight seemed over until the witchbeast convulsed, its legs giving out as a hand emerged from its side and slid down, making way for Artorius, now covered in digestive fluids.
The birds and mice crashed into his face again as he raised both of his fists.
『Strike Air: Hammer of the Wind King』
The forces of wind threw everything off, and the birds and mice temporarily became unable to manoeuvre in the air as the strong winds carried them along.
Badump Badump Badump
With several dozen consecutive mana bursts, Artorius moved around the entire area and within less than a second, killed nearly four hundred witchbeats that had been attracted to the scent of his large mana pool and sent into a feeding frenzy with his armoured fists.
"Hah! Hah!" Breathing heavily, Artorius fell to his knees, clutching his chest. The overuse of mana was making his muscles cramp. There were several questions he had asked himself in the span of his short stay at the mansion.
The most prominent of which was his, or rather, his body's age.
He hypothesised that the most logical answer was that he had reincarnated in the body of Arthur by its peak and because of his dragon factor, the older he got, the stronger he got, especially if Arthur's body lay in Avalon the entire time. He would've died either when Arthur's wish was complete or when the planet died.
Three beats.
Just three beats were all it took to overload his injured human body with magical energy enough to power a fighter jet. Since Arthur's body lay unconscious on the reverse side of the world for so long, the body hadn't handled such magical energy is a long time, creating his current symptoms.
"Now what!?" He stood up, looking in the direction from which came a slithering sound.
He froze as he saw it. A black liquid moving on its own.
The Black Serpent's venom.
It lunged at him, swallowing him whole. Artorius tried to free himself by launching Strike Air, but it didn't work, and neither did Mana Burst.
The poison slowly engulfed him, devouring him whole.
***
Georg-August University of Göttingen.
…
"If you were to redo life again, how different would it be?" asked a man. He had unkempt, dark, ear-length hair, high cheekbones, and a clean face. His eyes were a shade of grey that swirled into his irises. He wore black suit pants and a similarly coloured vest with a charcoal dress shirt underneath it, though the golden patterns across it drowned out the dark colour.
"Not much different," replied the man sitting across from him. "I have already decided on how I will live my life, no matter where or how I am. I will live it just as I am right now."
…
"Well, now that didn't work out, did it?" the man with dark hair asked. "I thought you had decided to live how you wanted. So what is this?" He inquired of Artorius.
They both sat in wooden chair, opposite to each other with only a lavish desk filled with papers and materials between them.
"Why the hell are you here, Master?" Artorius questioned.
"Of course, it is to give you character development. Isn't that the role of a teacher?" the man answered. "So, now then, tell me. What's the deal with you?"
"..." Artorius paused for a while, checking his surroundings, his now still bleeding torso, and his appearance. "I thought I had it all figured out. Who I was. What I wanted to be. What to do. Yet, I'm lost. I don't know what to do. I even doubt my own identity, if I am even real or not."
"I will tell you who you are. You're a scavenger. A survivor. A worm that crawls in the mud to survive," his teacher said without reservation. "But the worm has now become a dragon. You're now at the top of the food chain as an apex predator, and yet you're still crawling around in the mud instead of spreading your wings."
"... So? What should I do now." Artorius asked, seeking the wisdom of his mentor from his past life.
"Bah!" The man threw his arms up in frustration, as though he were a math teacher who had discovered the backbenchers making art instead of taking derivatives.
"You're my most troublesome student, you know that? Admittedly, you have a great memory, capable of remembering everything perfectly to the finest detail, but you always fail to put it into practice." He leaned back on his chair, getting comfortable. "Do you remember my first lesson?"
"... Das Leben ist schwierig und wird es immer sein. Nehmen Sie es also mit Vorsicht."
"Life is difficult and always will be, so take it with a grain of salt." The man rose from his seat, prompting Artorius to do the same. "And if it's going to be difficult anyway, why push it further?" The man brought his fist to Artorius' skull before flicking his head with a finger.
Everything went dark as Artorius felt his senses shut off. He felt as though he had been stripped bare and thrown into dark, murky water.
He couldn't resist. All he could do was close his eyes and drown.
But a flickering light caught his eye. A hand pokeout from the surface of the void with a dim crystalline star within it.
He reached out for it but fell short as he kept sinking lower and lower without being able to even feel his own limbs.
Amidst all of this, the voice of his master grew louder and louder and louder until…
"FUCK YOU!!!!!"
He shot through the void and clasped the hand.
Memories flowed into his mind.
***
(A/N: For those of you who are asking for an update schedule. I upload like every three days, so take it or leave it. So, Victor, I appreciate the constructive cristism but damn stay constructive man. Like, I am catching strays from everybody saying this is a copy fic, or they have read this before, or that this is the tenth fic written with this premise. I chose to write this fic because I found it genuinely interesting, and the Authors of the other ones never completed theirs. If you want something original, write it yourself, lazy ahh bums.)