A little earlier, as Scáthach led her soldiers in an assault on the main gate of the Round Table Fortress, Shiomi and the Lion King arrived atop a mountain overlooking the battlefield.
"Lancelot is defending the main gate... Agravain and Tristan are nowhere in sight." Shiomi crouched at the cliff's edge, enhancing his vision with Mana as he observed the battle. "Looks like they've seen through Master's feint."
"The fortress holds the terrain advantage. Even Scáthach won't be able to breach Sir Lancelot's defense." The Lion King spoke coldly. "With a limited number in the actual infiltration team to avoid suspicion, their slaughter is only a matter of time."
Shiomi glanced at the Lion King. "I told you, this is where we part ways."
"Even outside the Holy City, the Command Spells can still bind you." The Lion King raised her hand, and the remaining two Command Spells lit up.
"Command Spells? I'd say 'Geis' is a more fitting name." Shiomi slowly rose, looking at the Lion King only four or five meters away. "This is even more powerful and effective than the one Gráinne used to bind Diarmuid in the legends. As expected of a goddess."
"If you understand, then abandon your pointless resistance. You're not like the Knights of the Round Table. You have the right to follow me to the end," the Lion King said.
"They gave everything to carry out your plan, but not even a sliver of reward in return." Shiomi raised his hand, and Odin's spear materialized in his palm.
The Lion King had restricted his ability to summon weapons under normal circumstances, but "Gungnir" was clearly exempt—perhaps she simply couldn't stop him from wielding this particular spear.
"Very well. Then by Command Spell, I order my captive—my Master—not to defy me," the Lion King commanded, her voice devoid of emotion.
The vaguer the command, the weaker the effect of a Command Spell.
But that rule did not apply to the Lion King. As a divine being, her words carried absolute authority.
An invisible force wrapped around Shiomi's body. The space around him felt frozen in place—just moving a finger took hundreds of times more effort than usual.
"...But I can still speak..." Shiomi gathered all his strength, gripping Gungnir tightly. "This strike may not kill you... but let it mark the point where we part ways..."
"Gungnir" required no aim, no stance, no preparation. The moment its true name was spoken, the spear would fulfill the wielder's intent and strike its target.
Stronger even than Gáe Bolg—truly a spear of destiny.
But before Shiomi could utter its true name and unleash its power, death suddenly crept up from behind.
It wasn't killing intent, nor a chilling presence—it was the concept of "death" itself.
Soundless. Without warning.
—Presence Concealment?!
Realization struck him just as he barely shifted his gaze to the side. A cold blade swept from behind, slicing through his back as if cleaving him in two.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, Shiomi collapsed to his knees, then fell to the ground.
His body was unscathed. No blood. No wounds.
"What do you mean by this, Old Man of the Mountain?"
With a soft clang, the Lion King shifted her gaze from Shiomi to the tall figure standing at his feet, leaning on a sword like a staff, and questioned him.
Beneath the black cloak was a skull-covered face, and his eyes glowed faintly blue, like light from the depths of a valley.
"Nothing more than stepping out of the temple to give this man a push—just to break the cycle of fate that shackled him," said the one the Lion King called the Old Man of the Mountain.
She knew well—unlike the Hassan-i-Sabbah who guarded the eastern and western villages, the man before her was the original Hassan-i-Sabbah, a being who stood on the boundary between life and death.
"I'm already aware of that," the Lion King said as she looked at him. "With your blade, you could kill me outright. Why didn't you? Have you abandoned the humans your successors vowed to protect?"
"Lion King, your fate has yet to be severed. The duty of ending what you've set in motion is not mine. Even I have no right to kill you here," the Old Man of the Mountain replied calmly.
That was why he appeared here—not to take Shiomi's life, but to sever the contract binding him to the Lion King.
"So in other words, some things can only be done by people of this era, huh?" Shiomi rubbed his neck and slowly got to his feet. "Still, by doing this, you've helped me. I thought someone like you was truly neutral—forever standing above human history."
"You flatter me. Observing human history is the duty of a judge. I'm merely an assassin—one who slays those whose destinies have reached their end," the Old Man said, voice steady, carrying a power that seemed to see through all.
"You and I stand on different grounds, but we are not enemies. Those who have not yet exhausted the 'principle of life' must fulfill their mission—"
As his voice faded, his figure dissolved into the darkness like mist, vanishing without a trace. Only once he was completely gone did it truly feel like he had left.
"'The principle of life,' huh..." Shiomi spun Gungnir in his hand, its radiance lighting up the mountaintop shrouded in night. "From this moment on, our contract is broken. I'm no longer your prisoner."
The Lion King raised her hand. A storm coiled around her palm, and from within it emerged the silhouette of the Tower at the End—Rhongomyniad revealed its form.
"The battle inside that fortress is theirs to fight. You must remain here and return to Camelot with me."
"But I refuse!"
Shiomi gave a firm rejection to the Lion King's familiar command, leveled his spear, and charged toward the Round Table Fortress to assist Caren.
Naturally, the Lion King moved to block him. The massive spear, nearly as tall as a man, felt as light in her grip as a sword.
Her strength and speed were flawless.
The moment the two spears clashed atop the mountain, brilliant light flared across the peak—yet within the fortress, no one noticed.
Because at nearly the same moment, Sakura and her team, having circled from the foot of the mountain to the fortress's rear, launched a surprise assault.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shiomi saw Mordred driving back the Enforcement Knights. Relief swelled in his heart.
In the end, she had chosen the question of "who she was" over "whose child she was."
The fortress and the mountaintop each had their own battles. The clash of those two extraordinary spears caused the summit to crack and split. Finally, with one last collision between the Holy Lance and the Spear of the Gods, the narrow natural platform collapsed in an instant.
Shattered boulders tumbled down the mountainside into the abyss, and in the same moment, Shiomi activated his displacement Magecraft as he fell.