Amid the intertwining of light and darkness, the birth of a new world was nurtured amid ruin.
It seemed like an instant, yet also an eternity.
In an unnamed place carpeted with lush green grass, life flourished. The clear sky was vast and azure, no longer the dusty grayish-yellow of deathly silence. Under the warm sunlight, a breeze carrying the fragrance of earth gently swept through, and the verdant grass and trees rose and fell like waves.
Rustle...
Accompanied by a soft sound from the grass, a petite figure with golden hair and green eyes stood still upon the meadow, chaos and confusion churning within her gaze.
The wind intensified. The Blonde Girl's blue bowler hat spun away, and her long hair, golden like wheat, spilled over her shoulders in breathtaking beauty.
As if in a trance, her pure emerald eyes were drawn toward a stone platform revealed by the wind-blown grass.
The platform was ancient, engraved with beautiful patterns.
Within the groove at its center, a dazzling pillar of light connecting heaven and earth shimmered beneath the sun.
And at some point, her blue-and-white travel clothes had turned into a neat white garment of coarse cloth.
An inexplicable sense of familiarity surged through her. The confusion gradually faded from the Blonde Girl's emerald eyes, clarity returning as a flood of disordered memories rushed into her mind.
Her name was Artoria Pendragon.
She was the Lion King and King of Knights who ruled this land.
Born bearing the hopes of her nation and people, she had drawn The Sword of Selection, defeated King Vutigen, driven out the Saxon invaders, won twelve dynastic wars, and founded Holy Capital Camelot. Yet because she had drawn too close to divinity, she had lost her human heart, ultimately becoming a monster who lived only