The Lion King Right from the Start?

Where is this place?

Rovey also raised a question.

"I am one, and also all, and can also be considered your father."

"This is the canvas before creation, which has not yet been painted over; it is the true origin."

That was the voice's reply.

Are you the Holy Spirit?

"That's what humans call me, is that what you want?"

I want to leave here!

"Of course, do as you please. I only came here to see you once. As the successor, you are far from being qualified."

As the voice faded away, Rovey's thoughts drifted to distant places.

He could feel that he was about to leave the canvas, very soon, almost there...

At that moment, he heard a solemn yet familiar female voice. "Answer my call, knights!"

Artoria?

The voice was extremely familiar and comforting, and Rovey Wei instinctively began to explore in the direction of the voice.

Similarly, the voice behind him echoed in his ears again.

"Are you leaving already? I thought you'd chat with me longer."

"Well, since you want to leave, then go and walk through this world again. That guy was right—you are indeed a person with deep-seated obsessions, and it is difficult for you to attain enlightenment."

The voice continued, "But as long as you keep walking this path, you will arrive one day."

The sound faded.

Wait...

Before Rovey could ask a question or even answer one, the pale canvas was instantly swallowed up by endless colors.

That is the color of all things in the world, and the color of the soul.

They converged to form a huge vortex that swallowed the entire canvas, after which the colors returned to normal.

The world spun around me, and my five senses returned.

Five-colored light washed over his brain, even erasing the memory itself.

Rovey opened his eyes.

What appeared before him was an immense pressure, and an even darker and more oppressive stillness.

Chapter 165: The Lion King Appears Right at the Start?

In a desert region, in a collapsed city.

The sensation was as if my entire body was being burned by flames, so painful that I could hardly breathe and my body could barely move. There was no escape from the scalding heat and agony. It felt like being bitten by thousands of ants, or like being accidentally buried in sand and rubble.

"The human body is on top, the soil is below."

"Cough cough cough!!"

Soon, in the ruins of an ancient city that had collapsed, a hand suddenly emerged from the sand and rubble. Then, a black-haired youth burst out of the ground like a groundhog and took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Jewel Magician! Your teleportation technology is absolutely the best in the world! It's almost like you've thrown me right into the Earth's core!!"

Upon opening his eyes, Rovey found himself dozens of meters underground. It took him some effort to get out. He shook the sand out of his clothes, complaining about the Jewel Magician's self-proclaimed third-rate teleportation technology, before looking around at his surroundings.

My brain felt a slight throbbing, as if I had forgotten something, but upon careful thought, I remembered everything clearly, from Merry's instructions to the Jewel Magician's teleportation.

So in the end, it can only be attributed to the physical discomfort caused by climbing up from dozens of meters underground.

Turning around, Rovey surveyed his surroundings.

What I saw was a ruin, or rather, a destroyed city. Judging from the size of the city and the scattered ruins, it must have been a prosperous metropolis. It must have been ravaged by war to have become like this.

The magnificent buildings were reduced to piles of ruins, and the once bustling streets were now littered with corpses, limbs, and bright red blood. Amidst the ruins, a majestic cross collapsed with a deafening roar, raising a cloud of dust, seemingly signifying the city's demise.

The cross represents the Christianity...

And there's a cathedral here?! Is this Jerusalem?!

With a simple environmental analysis, Rovey immediately came up with the answer.

However, these are not the focus right now.

What really caught his attention was the knight who was looking at him.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that the figure was dressed in purple armor, had flowing purple hair, and was holding a silver-gold holy sword tightly in his left hand.

Rovey was very familiar with that armor and the style of the sword. After all, during the Fourth Holy Grail War, it was he who had treated Lancelot like a stray dog and schemed against him, and in the end, he had not allowed Lancelot to recognize Artoria as he wished. Therefore, Rovey was very familiar with this person's identity. Wasn't this Lancelot? Moreover, he was Lancelot the Sword, not the Berserker Lancelot.

The other party glanced at him and then looked away, paying no attention to the newly unearthed youth.

"Um?"

Meanwhile, the knight on the other side seemed to have noticed his unexpected appearance. He was a knight wearing pale silver armor, with short, golden hair, and a figure as radiant as the sun. Although he was broad-shouldered and burly, like a giant gorilla, his face was extremely handsome. He was the dream lover of every girl and the standard for a prince on a white horse.

Even without having seen him before, just by looking at the silver longsword in his hand, Rovey could recognize it as the Excalibur, so there was no need to say more; this gorilla knight was none other than Gawain.

Moreover, it wasn't just the two of them present. Numerous figures coalesced amidst the surrounding ruins, a sign of being summoned. With the continuous surge of magic, besides Gawain and Lancelot, the two most prominent Knights of the Round Table, several familiar faces appeared: Kay, Gareth, Agravaine, Tristan, and some other Knights of the Round Table he didn't recognize.

However, the most memorable one is undoubtedly the strange knight with a bull-head helmet and red and silver clothes—that's Mo Zai!

But what Rovey found even more incredible than them was the figure that had summoned them.

Wearing a silver lion helmet and clad in azure armor, he rode a white horse as handsome as an elf, wielding the Anchor of the Planet, Holy Lance Rhongomyniad, which he had longed for. He was like Lion King of the grasslands.

Artoria?

No, it's The Lion King.

Ah...

Jewel Magician, your teleportation is becoming increasingly unreliable!!

Although I said I was going to find Artoria, isn't it a mistake to teleport directly to the Lion King at the start?

Moreover, something is clearly not right.

As Rovey thought to himself, he noticed that although the other Knights of the Round Table were somewhat curious about him, who had just crawled out of the ground, they only glanced at him and then stopped paying attention, their attitude remaining indifferent.

It's normal that he wasn't familiar with the Knights of the Round Table.

However, the cold gaze that Artoria could feel even through the helmet was clearly wrong. If it were the Artoria she knew, she wouldn't be behaving this way at this moment.

More importantly, her Avalon, which she carried with her, didn't react to her at all.

At this point, Rovey roughly understood some things, just as he had thought. Artoria had indeed not become the Lion King. The Lion King of the Sixth Singularity was something else entirely, merely an equivalent entity from another parallel world. Therefore, Avalon in this world did not react strongly to him.

So much so that even the mighty King Arthur did not react at all when facing his own Avalon.

It's obvious this isn't the Saber King I'm looking for.

After thinking it through, Rovey decided to wait and see, and did not make a sound to attract their attention.

Bang!

However, at that moment, accompanied by the black-clad Iron Knight, Agravaine knelt on one knee before the Lion King and cried out, "Knight, Agravaine, pays homage to my king!"

The other knights also realized what was happening, and they all knelt down on one knee before the Lion King, bowing and shouting in worship.

"Knight Lancelot pays his respects to the King!"

"Knight Gawain, pays homage to the King!"

"Knight Tristan, pays homage to my king!"

"Knight Mordred pays homage to my king!"

As the Knights of the Round Table knelt down one after another and announced their names, just as always.

Soon, Rovey, who had always stood out from the crowd, became incredibly conspicuous.

Then the Lion King's gaze naturally fell on this strange Magus who did not kneel, and he couldn't help but wonder: Is this also Servant that he summoned?

The other knights also looked at Rovey at this moment, their expressions somewhat strange.

There was no other way; after all, it was too conspicuous for him to be standing alone.

It could be said that there was a traitor among them!

"Hey, who are you anyway?" Mordred stood up first and asked him directly, "How did you get in with us?"

"Um... actually, I don't know how I got here, do you believe me?"

"You're playing me!"

Mordred drew his magic sword and was about to strike.

"No, I do have some connection with King Arthur, and that's probably why I'm here."

Rovey shook his head and quickly offered an explanation.

Thanks to the special magic that covered him when he traveled to the parallel world, the Knights of the Round Table didn't recognize him as human and not Servant for a moment, otherwise things would have become much more complicated.

Moreover, he wasn't lying; he did indeed have a connection with King Arthur.

"I see. You are Magus from another land. Were you summoned by a chain this time?" This time, it was Gareth spoke.

As for why it was determined he wasn't a knight...

Because of Rovey's physique and his traditional alchemical attire, which seemed completely out of place for a knight, and the fact that he carried no sword or gun, his only weapon was a very ordinary-looking ceremonial short sword, he looked frail and weak.

"Huh? So you're the lucky kid who was summoned by Chain Summoning. In that case, let's not waste any more words. Since you're also Servant summoned by my father, then hurry up and come over to pay your respects to my father." Mordred curled her lip and then spoke.

Upon hearing this, Rovey raised an eyebrow, really wanting to say to her: Are you serious?

It's important to know that he currently possesses some of the attributes of the Holy Son, and he's still in Jerusalem. It's uncertain whether his kneeling today will have any negative impact on the Lion King.

Rovey looked at the Lion King, who seemed to sense that Rovey's kneeling might lead to something bad, so he didn't insist and just nodded silently.

"But..."

Mordred was about to say something more when Agravaine, who was already kneeling to the side, shouted, "Shut up, you rebellious knight!"

"Cut!"

Upon seeing the Lion King, Mordred didn't press the matter, but he turned his head away unhappily and made a disdainful sound.

With tacit approval, Rovey casually found a relatively intact section of the ruined wall and sat down, watching the knights' next move.

"Your Majesty, what is the purpose of your summons?"

In the end, Gawain got straight to the point and asked a question.

Then all the knights' eyes were focused on the Lion King.

"..."

Instead of answering directly, Artoria reached into her armor and pulled out a golden cup.

Upon seeing this, Rovey raised an eyebrow. After all, he was very familiar with this thing; the Holy Grail, he had it before.

However, what she holds is likely a cup that Goetia projected into various timelines to create Singularity; it belongs to the Art graph, not a true miracle: the Holy Grail.

"I have summoned you all here because I have something to announce to you."

Then, as expected, Artoria spoke coldly, "At this moment, the Magic King has instigated the Humanity Incineration, and Human Order has been destroyed. Humanity has lost its future. I have decided to hold the Holy Selection Ritual, selecting 300,000 people as specimens to be eternally placed in Rhongomyniad, thus preserving the last embers of human civilization. This will allow future aliens who may visit this planet to refer to the life and culture that once existed here, as proof that Human Order once existed."

Upon hearing this, the knights looked at each other in disbelief.

Artoria's meaning is simple: faced with the Humanity Incineration caused by King Solomon, she chooses not to resist but to submit, and takes in humanity in the form of a specimen, entrusting the future to the uncertain visitors.

This action left the knights present dizzy; they never expected the king to make such a decision.

That brave and selfless king actually chose to abandon humanity...

"Your Majesty, do you... do you really mean it this way?"

When Kai, known for his straightforward personality, heard the decision, his eyes widened, and his tone was filled with disbelief.

After all, this action was a betrayal of himself as a knight and, more importantly, as a human being. It could be described as not resisting destruction, but rather escaping or surrendering to it.