Their second meeting

It was probably nighttime by then, and the "sun" in the sky no longer shed her warmth.

The light receptors outside switched from receiving sunlight to receiving moonlight, turning the "sun" into a pure white glowing sphere that continued to illuminate Avalon for its fairies and phantasmal species.

Merlin's magecraft lesson with Sovell had ended at sunset.

After having dinner with Merlin, Sovell left the wooden cottage. Watching the sea of flowers ripple in the breeze, he lay down on the ground.

"Phew... haa..."

The faint fragrance of flowers came and went, bringing a profound sense of peace.

Sovell's memories drifted in the breeze, and he recalled his childhood at Vortigern's court.

Ever since he was little, he had heard others tell stories of his royal father's stand in an isolated city in Southern England.

Decades ago, the false king Vortigern had ceded the lands of southwestern Britain-present-day England-to the Saxons in a bid to survive.

His young father had organized an army in Southern Britain and rallied the people to resist the foreign invaders. With half the soldiers and civilians giving their lives for their country, they had held out until reinforcements arrived, then driven out the invaders together.

When he could not sleep at night, he would seek out his father in the great hall, where his father would soothe him to sleep while reviewing documents.

It had also been with his father's encouragement that he had mustered all his strength and picked up a sword for the first time.

But those beautiful memories would always end up submerged beneath the river of blood in that valley.

"Father, I'll prove you wrong. I'll become stronger than you. I'll protect all of Britain and her people."

Sovell spoke to himself beneath Avalon's sky. Before long, his eyes drifted shut, and he entered Merlin's dream.

"Sovell, unleash your magical energy at full strength to reinforce yourself, and try using magecraft to support your fighting.

"Lia, the same goes for you. Don't hold back. Give it everything you have."

Merlin addressed the two of them.

"Understood."

"All right."

The moment Artoria finished speaking, her presence sharpened.

In Sovell's eyes, the girl before him transformed from a delicate lily into a red dragon whose mere presence commanded awe.

Seeing her like this, Sovell remembered how she had defeated him in just three moves the day before. He dared not underestimate her.

Dragon scales emerged across his body, gleaming silver in the sunlight.

Every breath he exhaled burned as hot as molten steel, his presence matching Artoria's.

"I've reinforced these two wooden swords. They won't break, no matter how you fight."

The two accepted the wooden swords Merlin had reinforced and took their positions ten meters apart.

"Three-

"Two-

"One...

"Begin!"

Both charged toward the other at the same instant. An ancient country in the east had an apt saying: "Seize the initiative!"

With a thunderous crash, both were knocked back. Artoria recovered her footing first and slashed at Sovell.

"Wind, become chains!"

"What?!"

Sovell unleashed wind magecraft, anchoring it to the atmosphere to form a chain of wind out of thin air and bind Artoria's wrist.

Bang!

Whoosh-

Artoria forced a burst of magical energy from her wrist, wrenching herself free of the Wind Lock.

Taking advantage of the instant the Wind Lock held her still, Sovell delivered a diagonal downward slash at her.

The girl immediately turned her blade and swept it upward, blocking the boy's attack.

In that instant, attack and defense reversed!

Blades clashed and footwork shifted. After more than a dozen exchanges, the boy's swordplay grew increasingly disordered, while the girl's attacks became faster and fiercer.

Again and again, the chains of wind briefly halted her movements, only to be shattered by her tremendous strength.

Sovell barely managed to deflect one of her powerful, heavy strikes. Her centerline seemed exposed, and he gathered all his strength into an upward slash!

Little did he know that this was exactly the moment she had been waiting for. She stepped back, followed the line of his blade, and forcefully brushed his all-out strike aside.

Then, following that momentum, she traced a semicircle above her forehead and slashed toward the boy's head.

Sovell's stance had already broken down, and it was too late to pull his wooden sword back.

In the end, her sword stopped an inch from Sovell's neck. The outcome was decided.

They withdrew their swords, laid them flat on the ground, and released their magical reinforcement.

"Sovell, your swordsmanship has improved a great deal, and you used the Wind Lock magecraft I taught you quite well. The chains just weren't strong enough.

"You know how to seize an opening, but you'll need to be more cautious in the future. Be sure to recognize whether your opponent has laid a trap.

"Lia, your swordsmanship is impeccable, and you used precisely the right amount of strength, but don't underestimate your opponent in the future."

Merlin smiled as he offered his assessment of them both.

"There are still more than two hours before we finish. Lia's lessons will be suspended for today. The remaining time is yours."

As Merlin spoke, his figure dissolved into drifting petals. He had presumably left the dream.

Silence.

An uncanny silence.

The atmosphere between them grew awkward, and Sovell was the first to break the silence.

As expected of a wind Magus, he easily accomplished what the red dragon girl could not!

"Hey, Lia? Can I call you that? Your full name is a little long, after all, and a bit of a mouthful."

"Ah, of course. What is it?" the lily-like girl replied to the white dragon boy.

"I want to ask you a few questions... What's your ideal?

"Uh, no, I know your ideal is to save this country. What I mean is, how do you think you'll save it?"

The lily-like girl considered for a moment before answering.

"Merlin said that when I turn fifteen, he'll place a sword embedded in a stone on the training grounds of the town nearest to the lands of my foster father, Sir Ector. The sword will bear the words:

"'Whosoever draws this sword from the stone is the rightful king of Britain by birth.'

"Merlin has placed a curse on this sword. Only someone with the red dragon's bloodline can draw it.

"In other words, in all of Britain, only I can draw Caliburn, the 'Golden Sword of Certain Victory.'

"After that, I'll have ten years to prepare to become king. Ten years from then, I should face Vortigern in our final battle."

"No, Lia. That's not the kind of answer I'm looking for.

"You must know too, right? The Age of Gods is about to vanish completely. Britain's mystery is fading. In recent years, magical beasts have been running rampant, and harvests have been declining.

"Even if you ultimately triumph over the other kings and unite all of Britain.

"Even if you truly defeat my father and drive out the foreign invaders.

"How will you deal with those problems?"

"How... would I deal with those problems?

"If magical beasts are running rampant, we can just hunt them down, can't we?

"As for the declining harvests, ultimately, the magical energy contained in the land is gradually dissipating, and the crops can't adapt quickly enough to keep up with the land's deterioration.

"Then there are only two options...

"Either we replenish the magical energy in Britain's soil directly, but even setting aside how we would do that, finding such an enormous source of magical energy would be a problem.

"So there's only one viable method..."