Merlin's Intelligence

The gap between us was this enormous...

With just one exchange, he could kill me...

The upper half of Lucius's body fell limply to the ground. Ignoring the clamor of the battlefield, Lucius could see nothing but the tall man who had turned around after swinging his sword.

The corner of his mouth twitched, but all he could manage was a hoarse rasp from his throat. He no longer had the strength to speak.

He had thought that even if he couldn't match his opponent in strength, he should at least be able to hold him off for a while. Besides, he had an army of twenty thousand... Once he activated the god and secret weapon, he could defeat this British lion.

Now it seemed he had still underestimated his opponent.

The light gradually faded from his eyes. Before darkness claimed him, Lucius could only think that his end had been utterly dull: dying on the battlefield after being casually defeated by the enemy.

"His Majesty! His Majesty has been killed!"

"Impossible! How could someone as powerful as His Majesty..."

"It's over! Our army has lost!"

The Roman soldiers around them watched helplessly as their emperor was cut in half. Some were incredulous, some seemed on the verge of madness, and others stared blankly.

The emperor whom the Romans believed no one could match had been cut down before their very eyes.

And he had been crushed and killed with such ease.

Every one of Lucius's subordinates, human and nonhuman alike, had the same thought when they saw this.

Rome was finished!

Seeing the enormous effect his beheading of the enemy commander had made, Leon knew the Roman legions' morale was on the verge of collapsing.

With Lucius dealt with, no one on the battlefield could rally the various armies or stand against him. Leon relaxed a little and connected to Merlin.

As he listened to Merlin's report, he split his attention and shouted to everyone on the battlefield, "Lucius is dead! Why haven't you surrendered? Those who surrender will be spared!"

His voice boomed across the battlefield, making every Roman falter.

The fairies flying overhead were stunned. Then they shouted down at the humans and giants, "Soldiers of our army, don't surrender! Think of what happened to the legions before us. Even if we surrender, we won't come to a good end."

The giants chimed in, too. "That's right! You all know what a vicious man our opponent is. How could he possibly let us live?"

When the nonhuman creatures spoke, someone on the ground muttered in reply, "But the Lion King didn't let the vanguard at the coast surrender... Now he's giving us a chance. If we don't take it, won't we only make him angrier? Wouldn't that put us in an even worse position?"

"Exactly. You fairies and giants say we shouldn't surrender because you've seen what the Lion King has been doing in Britain. You're afraid he'll threaten your survival by affecting the aether and the environment. We don't have those concerns."

A high-ranking officer in ornate armor agreed.

"His Majesty is dead. Surrendering won't tarnish our honor or reputation. But you foreign creatures have no honor at all. You're only refusing to surrender to save yourselves. Don't drag all of us down with you!"

If Lucius hadn't died, these soldiers beneath the emperor's command would never have surrendered, whether out of loyalty or honor. But His Majesty had been cut down by the enemy!

They had followed Lucius because they had been awed by his strength. Now they were facing a Lion King even more powerful than Lucius. No one would blame them for surrendering.

Besides, every Roman soldier here knew about the hostility between the Lion King, the mages, and the other fantastical beings such as fairies. Anyone with a clear head would see through these creatures' tricks.

They weren't stupid enough to risk their lives helping beings that weren't even human fight an unbeatable enemy.

If they lost their lives this way, they would consider their deaths a waste.

The fairies and giants were instantly enraged. "Even so, do you really think you'll be better off if you surrender?"

"But if we don't, we'll definitely be killed!"

Under the pressure of Leon's overwhelming power, and after he called on them to surrender, the entire Roman army split into two camps.

Humans and nonhumans, the forces that had only recently joined them and Lucius's longtime confidants... All the tensions and divisions that had been forcibly patched over by Lucius's strength and iron-fisted rule were easily brought to the surface by Leon after Lucius's sudden death.

Leon hadn't expected his call for surrender to work so well. He had only meant to undermine the Roman soldiers' morale.

Killing all twenty thousand would take too much effort.

He couldn't help thinking that although Lucius had risen quickly, he had also planted quite a few land mines within his own regime.

On second thought, the division between the Roman soldiers made sense, given human nature.

Faced with Leon's overwhelming strength, the Romans had initially thought they were doomed. But when he offered them a chance to surrender, they began to hope that they might survive.

At a moment like this, the will to survive that humans could summon was terrifying. Even comrades in the same trench wouldn't be spared if they stood in the way.

Besides, though they all served under Lucius, they were divided and hostile to one another in terms of race, interests, and power. How could they be true comrades who shared each other's fate?

By now, Merlin had told Leon about Lucius's trump card... Leon didn't have the time to slowly wear down the Roman soldiers.

"Your Majesty, am I interrupting you?"

Merlin could also see what was happening on the battlefield. He could already tell that Leon had won.

"It's fine. Go on."

As he listened to Merlin's report, Leon decided to give the Romans who wanted to surrender one more push.

He immediately shouted at them, "Those who surrender will be spared! Those who refuse will be shown no mercy!"

As he spoke, Leon gripped the Holy Spear. The muscles in his legs tensed, and with a sudden burst of strength, he leaped in front of a giant who was loudly proclaiming that he would never surrender.

The giant tried to raise his weapon to defend himself, but he was nowhere near fast enough to stop Leon. The Holy Spear in Leon's hand easily pierced the giant's skull.

The sound of bone and flesh tearing rang clearly across the noisy battlefield. Leon pulled his spear free, spraying blood and leaving himself even more soaked in gore.

Crash!

The giant's corpse crashed to the ground. Standing atop it, Leon faced the Roman soldiers with a feral grin, once again displaying his unmatched strength without restraint.

"I'll ask one last time. Surrender or not?"

"We surrender! We surrender!"

Facing Leon's murderous gaze, several Roman officers in ornate armor rushed forward first, half sliding and half crawling until they reached the giant's body.

Leon didn't care what the officers were thinking. He simply waved his hand.

"Deal with everyone who refuses to surrender."

As if they had received a divine decree, the officers immediately ordered their men to turn their swords on the fairies, giants, and the rest.

Whether they were taking this opportunity to eliminate political enemies and rivals didn't concern Leon.

He directed the prisoners as he listened to Merlin's report. By the time he finished, his brows were deeply furrowed and his face had turned completely dark.

A black spear shaft?

How could the spear shaft be black?

Leon knew what it was: one of the seven weapons in Atlas Academy capable of destroying the world. Made from the Fifth Imaginary Element, it could make the Fifth Imaginary Element self-destruct. People called this Conceptual Weapon "Heavenly Longevity."

How could the alchemists at Atlas Academy lend that thing out? Even a replica could cause irreversible damage to the world if something went wrong.

He had underestimated the mages on the continent. Even with a contract in place, anyone who could get a black spear from Atlas Academy was no ordinary person.

Besides, Leon noticed a strain in Merlin's voice that he hadn't heard before. He sounded much weaker than usual.

"Merlin, you sound injured. Are you?"

At his question, Merlin paused briefly before admitting it.

"...I got hurt. When I infiltrated the place, that god detected me. I wanted to see what trump cards it had, but I got grazed by an attack from the black spear shaft."

Merlin had gone to find the enemy's trump card, only to be caught off guard by it. His words genuinely startled Leon.

"The black spear's attack... Are you all right now?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Luckily, the one I sent was an illusion body. The damage only affected my real body a little."

Relieved, Leon let out a quiet breath. His tone remained calm. "Good. As long as you're all right."

Leon couldn't help being concerned. Merlin was immensely important to him now. Those eyes alone were an incomparable treasure.

Gilgamesh and Solomon might look down on them, but who were they? Merlin's Clairvoyance was among the very best. He could see everything in the present world. To Leon, it was like having a map-wide wallhack. How could he not value it?

What was more, Merlin had taken the risk for his sake. Leon still kept his guard up around him and remained wary of him, but his worry and concern were genuine.

"Wait. Didn't you say earlier that the one who came to the continent was your real body? How did it become an illusion body?" Leon noticed the inconsistency in Merlin's words and immediately asked.

The moment he asked, he heard Merlin make a sound as if spitting out blood, followed by a fit of violent coughing.

Merlin swallowed the blood rising in his throat and spoke through his injuries. "Cough, cough... My king, if you want to see me again, you'd better... admit that I'm an illusion body."

"Fine, fine. I remembered wrong. The one who came this time was your illusion body, Merlin. Your real body stayed in Britain."

As soon as Leon said this, Merlin's injuries visibly began to heal.

Once he could breathe normally again, Merlin lightly brushed a finger over himself, clearing away the blood, and let out a breath.

"Phew. My king, thank you for understanding."

Merlin still sounded weak, but he was much better than before. Leon understood now: Merlin had used Magecraft to deceive the world and lessen the damage to himself.

At the same time, Leon felt a little taken aback. Merlin had actually told him about this!

He could have kept quiet. It wouldn't have mattered, and he could have avoided suffering a second injury. By telling Leon, Merlin was risking the possibility that Leon might have ulterior motives. Even if Merlin didn't die, he could still end up gravely injured if he survived.

But he had told him anyway...

Leon fell silent for a moment, then visibly relaxed. His face wasn't so tightly drawn, and his pursed lips loosened. "Good. As long as you're all right."

He didn't pursue the matter further. Instead, Leon turned his attention to another question. "Have you figured out what that so-called god is, Merlin? What exactly is it like? What can it do?"

"That, I saw very clearly."

Merlin's tone grew much brighter, full of confidence.

After all, he hadn't taken such a serious injury for nothing. His trip had yielded some useful information.

"Most of that god's body is made from the remains of Greek gods. Its thought circuits probably contain part of the great god Zeus's algorithms. The rest consists of a small portion of material from Norse Valkyries and fragments of the vanguards from long ago."

"For power, the mages installed a near-infinite energy crystal in its chest. Its detection system is extremely precise and has a wide range. As for the black spear shaft... it's in the palm of its right hand."

"The mages on the continent spent more than half their savings to assemble this Artificial God."

The great god Zeus?

Leon instantly thought of the enormous mechanical head from the Lostbelt and couldn't help asking, "Didn't those gods return to the Inner Sea of the Planet? How could any of their remains have been left on the surface? And what about Zeus's thought circuits?"

Merlin wasn't surprised that Leon didn't find the existence of those gods strange. He simply continued explaining. "The Greek gods were mechanical beings that descended from outer space onto the planet. But when they arrived, they were worshipped as gods, so they decided to live on as the planet's gods."

"Later, when the Age of Gods came to an end, those gods wanted to earn the right to return to the Inner Sea of the Planet. So they used materials from the planet to make some of their body parts, replacing the components that had come from outer space. It was a bit like the Ship of Theseus. Those replaced components were the remains of the gods."

Leon nodded. He understood completely. In other words, this Artificial God was entirely a mechanical creation from outer space, pieced together by the mages on the continent.

He unconsciously lowered his head to look at the hilt of the Holy Sword of the Stars, tracing Rune Script over and over in the air above its guard with one hand.

A mere god was nothing to worry about.

"Where is that god now? How long will it take to get here?"

"It's finished its test phase and has set out from Rome." Merlin compared the distance between them and estimated the time. "It should reach the battlefield you're on in about half an hour."

"Good. We still have plenty of time."

Leon looked at the Holy Sword in his hand. He would have to go and meet it on the way.

"Merlin, keep an eye on Britain for me. And deal with Morgan's moves while you're at it."

"Yes, my king."

Merlin's voice faded, and the call disconnected.

Leon immediately gave an order to the group of prisoner officers kneeling beside him. "I don't have time to deal with you right now. Keep things as they are until I return. I'll make other arrangements then."

"Understood, Your Majesty!"

Ignoring their eager responses, Leon took up the spear and gripped the sword, then ran in the direction Merlin had pointed out.

He was going to destroy that so-called Artificial God!

A little over ten minutes later, Leon looked up at the sky ahead, dark with clouds and flashing with lightning. The air was heavy with the feeling of an approaching storm.

Far away, the lightning let Leon make out the enormous shape moving through the sky.

"Hah, so this is a god?"

Leon tightened his grip on the Holy Sword. He was just about to leap over and hit it with a powerful attack.

At that moment, Merlin contacted him again.

After listening to Merlin, Leon looked bewildered.

"Merlin, what do you mean when you say Britain stood up?"