The knight stood at ease within the Barrier, her demonic sword in hand.
Without the Barrier concealing her, a powerhouse like Karna could still have easily discovered her whereabouts.
This was not because Artoria could not conceal her own battle aura. For an excellent warrior, such a skill was practically instinctive.
What would expose her whereabouts was the heavy, dark magical energy surrounding her, oppressive as a vengeful spirit.
She was a king with a dragon's heart. This outstanding Mana Furnace Core was also an essential condition that allowed her, a woman, to surpass so many heroes, but this trait had never manifested so clearly in her before.
Vast, pitch-black magical energy quietly swirled around Saber with each breath she took. At this moment, she felt less like a human and more like a slumbering dragon.
When she sensed the brilliant presence of magical energy flying toward her from afar, Artoria opened her cold eyes, an indescribable shade flickering through them.
Although the curse of the black mud often caused drastic changes in its victims' personalities, with extreme cases even losing their reason like Berserker and becoming puppets to be exploited, this was actually a misunderstanding.
The essence of the black mud was merely to invert one's personality, exposing the self its host did not want to face.
If an infected Servant was too holy, like Jeanne d'Arc, whose heart contained no dark side, they could not be inverted at all. Someone as strong-willed as Gilgamesh merely had the most arrogant aspect of his personality drawn out, without being corrupted himself.
The same held true for Saber. Having walked the path of the perfect king all her life without straying into evil even once, she could retain her reason even after being blackened.
As long as she won in the