Miss Hebe is Slaughtering Her Way Out of the Lostbelt!

Final Merit: Avalon, the Ideal Land Awaiting There Forever (Achieved)

Current Lostbelt Progress: 97%

Hebe's body swayed slightly. She turned and walked toward London.

6. My Body Is About to Die (Please Bookmark, Please Support)

Clear, cool water flowed from the Court Mage's sleeves, trickling down without end.

Hebe estimated that in about fifteen minutes, her left arm would disappear completely.

Now that she thought about it, Morgan, the Bewitching Consort, had probably "advanced" her own achievement.

Twice, Morgan, the Bewitching Consort, had personally pushed Albion to the brink of destruction. She had been only one step away from truly achieving her merit.

In that state, she used the Fourth Seal: From the Limit to posit a version of herself that had "successfully destroyed Albion."

Under normal circumstances, such an attempt could not succeed.

But Morgan's merit had always been limited to the three islands of Albion—a certain future that might occur upon those islands.

Morgan, the Bewitching Consort, was the witch who had truly inherited the Royal Authority of the Island, and the authority she held permitted her willfulness.

Thus, The Ideal Land Unreachable was temporarily proven by Morgan in a hypothetical form.

If it had ended there, then the achievement Morgan had advanced would soon have been disproven.

Though Arthur was weakened, Albion still endured. Rejection from reality would swiftly destroy her "hypothesis"... but Morgan used the First Seal: Fairy Eye to anchor the future she had observed onto the Twin Kings.

—As long as either of the Twin Kings survived, they could severely shake Arthur's rule and cause Albion to decline beyond recovery. When Arthur's merit collapsed, Morgan's merit would truly be achieved.

It was like taking out a bank loan in advance to speculate on stocks. So long as Morgan could keep winning at the table before she was liquidated... everything would be fine!

She had mortgaged her Royal Authority of the Island in exchange for a pseudo-merit with greatly diminished effectiveness... and Arthur had already completely lost the ability to stop Morgan. The future that belonged to her was close at hand.

However, Hebe had appeared before her and told her that this was as far as she could go, that she could go no further.

"The number of Seals I possess is fewer than Royal Sister's, and I also lack offensive power... but illusions can make her attacks miss, even briefly twist them for my own use."

Hebe forced herself to think, distracting herself from the numbness and pain gradually spreading throughout her body.

"Precisely because I used Royal Sister's own attack to kill the Twin Kings in turn, the 'wedge' she used to anchor the future vanished... the cycle could no longer be maintained, and Royal Sister could no longer bear the weight of that 'merit.'"

The instant The Ideal Land Unreachable vanished, Morgan suffered irreparable damage. Even maintaining her own existence became extraordinarily difficult.

And in the moment Morgan went bankrupt and was liquidated, Hebe's merit was achieved instead.

This body can still hold on for a little while... Hebe thought.

The road beneath her feet silently sank inward. Clear water surged up from underground, gradually gathering into a river. Blue-violet pansies sprouted and bloomed along both banks, confining the water within a fixed channel.

The residents of London finally noticed the invisible change. From windowsills, alley corners, and roadsides, they watched in wonder at the cool, clear river and praised the blooming flowers.

Buckingham Palace, in the depths of the palace forever draped in heavy curtains.

Arthur suddenly awoke upon the Iron Throne tangled with countless tubes.

A hoarse sound burst from his chest. It was clearly nothing more than breathing, yet it was as heavy as the tolling of an ancient bell.

I had an unpleasant dream... Arthur thought.

He had dreamed of his last conversation with Royal Sister.

Arthur had once been immensely disappointed by Royal Sister's betrayal and immensely enraged by her choice.

Yet as time passed, his former subordinates no longer existed, and the trusted ministers at his side grew fewer by the day. Arthur had once possessed so many followers, but time had taken them all away, one by one.

In the end, the only familiar people left were Royal Sister and Merlin.

Arthur raised his head and looked out through the window on his left. Beyond the layers of curtains, his gaze fell upon the Tower of London, now empty of all people.

Two prisoners of different status, yet similar circumstances.

Compared to Merlin, who came and went without a trace and remained eternally young, Royal Sister, whose circumstances resembled his own, was the one Arthur understood more deeply.

In the end, hatred and anger had been blunted by time, becoming something like pearls.

Arthur even felt somewhat... pleased.

So much so that he began to anticipate the moment Royal Sister pushed open the palace doors: what expression would he use to face her then?

Merely imagining it seemed to ease the pain that had lasted for centuries.

The palace doors let out a heavy sound as they slowly opened.

Footsteps approached from afar, but the voice that reached Arthur's ears was not the one he had expected.

"I'm back," said the girl with Linen-Colored Long Hair.

"Why is it you... where is Royal Sister?" Arthur demanded wearily.

"Unable to maintain her form, she dissipated into lake water." Hebe hid the arm that had already completely turned into clear water behind her back, doing her utmost to keep her tone calm. "Just outside London."

"..."

The silence was as cold as iron.

Hebe paid no attention to Arthur's attitude and simply continued, "I dealt with the Red Dragon and the Lion, along with their armies. Not a single noble who accompanied them on campaign was left alive. The remaining nine Knights of the Round Table are all thoroughly dead as well. Over these past few decades, you..."

"Enough, Merlin."

Arthur's voice was strange and cold, as though she were suppressing her anger—and as though her heart had already turned to ashes.

"You've been like a ghost, appearing and disappearing, always doing things for me, but..."

"Enough." Arthur repeated herself. "I'm tired."

Yet the sage remained unmoved.

She continued rambling on about things Arthur no longer wanted to hear at all.

"Enough!"

The monarch upon the Iron Throne spoke for the third time. Her pupils resembled molten gold, and her voice was strange and terrifying. The shadow reflected between the curtains twisted like an ancient dragon crouching within a cave.

The sage's voice was drowned out by the king's roar.

"Who do you think you're making decisions for, Merlin? Who do you think gave you your current position?!"

"You're nothing but an idiot who understands nothing..."

Arthur looked at the sage in disappointment, feeling betrayed once again.

"I never needed you to do anything for me." The monarch smiled mockingly. "Why don't you guess what I had originally intended to do?"

The sage said nothing, seemingly intimidated.

"I'm already tired of sitting on the throne. The ideal kingdom remains impossibly distant, and it can never be achieved." Arthur said, "In that case, why not use it to accomplish Royal Sister's great work... Heh, completely destroy this Albion that has already grown tiresome to me, then rebuild it atop the ruins!"

"All this time, you seem to have misunderstood your own place, Merlin."

"I once did have unrealistic dreams... but you appeared less and less often." Arthur's disappointment was undisguised. "Since that is the case, what is wrong with investing Royal Sister?"

She had been tormented upon the Iron Throne for far too long. She no longer wanted to be a prisoner.

Amid that prolonged suffering, Arthur had finally begun to understand Morgan.

History had already stagnated, with no future to speak of. Only they, bound by blood, could support and understand one another. There was no other solution.

Albion would be destroyed and rebuilt again and again. War was the engine that kept the world running.

With vengeful delight, Arthur looked down at the sage, waiting for her answer.

"So that's what you think." The girl with dark green eyes raised her head and met the furious monarch's gaze. "Then I'm relieved."

The sage's expression remained unchanged, yet her tone faintly carried an irrepressible lift.

Arthur frowned. Hebe's reaction was completely unexpected.

The monarch carefully scrutinized the cheerful-sounding Hebe and realized that, ever since entering the palace, she had been standing sideways toward her.

"What are you hiding, Merlin?" Arthur suddenly felt a trace of unease. "Why won't you face me?"

Splash.

Arthur's answer was a pool of turquoise water flowing from the Court Mage's sleeve, pouring unhindered onto the floor.

Hebe's left shoulder hung limply. Other than clear water, there was nothing left inside that sleeve.

Sunlight shone upon the water covering the floor, its reflection painfully dazzling.

The turquoise color gradually spread upward from Hebe's neck, forming snake-like patterns across the girl's delicate cheeks. She looked both bewitching and despairing.

"As you can see, Your Majesty." Hebe suppressed the joy in her heart and replied calmly, "I'm about to die."

Current Lostbelt Progress: 98.5%.

Madwoman

Die? What kind of joke was that?

For an instant, Arthur thought Hebe was playing another prank on her.

But Arthur quickly realized that this time, it was not some childish trick.

Two-thirds of the body beneath that Court Mage robe had already turned into clear water, and as time passed, it became increasingly difficult to contain.

Of course. How could she possibly defeat Royal Sister, who possessed such great achievements, without paying any price?

Arthur's breathing grew heavy. She suddenly realized what she had just done.

Guilt, grief, and anguish flooded the monarch's mind like a tide. She nearly fainted, but her Dusk-tier mental strength kept her terrifyingly lucid.

It shouldn't have been like this. It shouldn't have come to this. Something must be wrong somewhere.

Yet Arthur revealed nothing. She continued to maintain the majesty of Albion's king, looking down upon Hebe from on high.

"I understand."

Beg me! As long as you use the Sword in the Stone... there is still time to save everything, Arthur thought.

But the monarch's expression remained as hard as iron.

Yet this was precisely the answer Hebe wanted. At last, she could leave this Lostbelt without worry.

Hebe calmly extended her hand and parted the drifting curtains. The movement caused several of her fingers to fall off, splashing into a puddle of clear water.

She stepped closer to Arthur, while the king stared back at her with wide-eyed fury.

—Just a little closer. Just a little more, and she would be able to use the Sword in the Stone to "anoint" her...

Hebe stopped two steps away from Arthur and extended her final finger, pressing it against the center of her brow.

Arthur was both shocked and furious.

"Though I never cared in the slightest about being a Court Mage or a sage, I still played a part in Albion's founding and prosperity."

Hebe's voice sounded by Arthur's ear, carrying a hint of cheerfulness and a trace of laughter.

"So this is my revenge on you."

Illusory pansies bloomed in wild profusion, swiftly covering the walls, the floor, the windowsills, and everything within sight. They replaced the ceiling threaded with pipes and fuel conduits, layer upon layer, letting in brilliant, dreamlike daylight.

Everything seemed weightless, constantly rising upward.

The pansies could no longer maintain their forms, surging fervently toward the higher sky.

A spiraling tower of pure white rose from the earth.

The afterglow of dusk shimmered at the edge of the horizon, while countless flowers, blazing like flames, bloomed and flew into the sky.

Arthur sat upon the Iron Throne, watching Hebe's actions with cold eyes. The petals drifting upward passed through the king's body without affecting him in the slightest.

Whether it was the pure white tower, the sea of flowers, or the dreamlike daylight, all of it existed in another dimension, clearly separate from reality.

"An illusion, without power... Can something like this really be called an achievement?" Arthur said.

"No, it is a blueprint." Hebe smiled faintly. "A key to unlocking the possibilities of the future. With it, every mistake can be undone."

"What comes next will be a long and lonely journey, so please endure it."

"But I promise you, Artoria."