[You and your adoptive brother, Kay, stand before Vortigern's army.]
[Although you stunned the enemy army with a single swing, after a few seconds, the Saxon soldiers seem to snap out of it and charge toward you on horseback.]
[Relying on the frequency of sound and vibrations in the air, as well as your own inner feelings, you easily dodge the thrusts of several cavalrymen and, in the same motion, swing the longsword in your hand to begin your attack.]
[Your Durandal has slain an enemy.]
[Your Durandal has slain an enemy.]
[Your Durandal has slain...]
[You swing the longsword in your hand as if tireless. The sensation of cutting transmitted from the blade is completely unimpeded.]
[You understand that with every swing, you take an enemy's life. But this is a battle for survival, and you have long been prepared for the reality that "one who kills will one day be killed." Your heart feels no unusual emotions, remaining as still as water.]
[However, you have not lost your reverence for life. In your eyes, this is also a battle where both sides are betting something important, and you would never choose to back down.]
[Of course, in this battle, you are not the only one with such resolve. Although your brother Kay struggled to withstand the charge of several cavalrymen at once in the beginning, under your cover, he gradually adapted to the rhythm of the battle.]
[Just then, perhaps realizing how troublesome you are, several mages hidden behind the cavalry ranks disregard the soldiers currently engaged with you and unleash a volley of magic bullets and flame arrows, engulfing you in an ocean of magical light.]
[But what these mages did not expect was that the scenario they envisioned—of you being heavily injured and collapsing—did not occur.]
[All the magical attacks, at the very moment they were about to touch your body, seemed to be repelled by some kind of invisible barrier, sending them blasting back into the cavalry ranks with several times the power.]
[You have used the skill 'Full Counter (A)'.]
[Finally, at this moment, these men realize just how dangerous you are.]
[But it is already too late.]
[You move as if through an empty realm, weaving back and forth among the enemy soldiers. All anyone can catch is a flash of your sword light before their chests are pierced through.]
[You alone have killed 130 cavalrymen in less than three minutes.]
[All the enemies are stunned by your skill and martial prowess, which far exceed your age. Looking at you, standing on the blood-soaked ground yet unstained by a single drop of blood, no one dares to advance further.]
[Until Vortigern himself rides forward on his horse.]
"Impressive. When I was your age, I couldn't even hold a sword steady."
Mounted on a strong black horse that clearly had demonic beast blood, Vortigern looked at the boy standing straight as a pine tree on the crimson snow. He wore a smile, seemingly feeling no pain or anger for the loss of so many of his men, his eyes filled with intense appreciation.
Beside the boy, Kay was panting heavily, watching his surroundings with vigilance.
Although his face only showed a look of readiness, his inner shock was no less than that of the terrified cavalrymen around them.
He had known for a long time that his adoptive brother was ridiculously strong, but this was simply too outrageous. The scene before them alone was enough to make any apprentice knight with a weak will give up their dreams and never recover.
As for himself, even with the reinforcement magic Merlin had cast on him before leaving, in those few minutes, he had only managed to take down about twenty enemies with great effort and was already out of breath.
In contrast, the boy's breathing, even now, was astonishingly long and steady.
Aozaki Rin did not respond to the old man's words, merely raising his sword in silence.
He understood that these cavalrymen were not the real enemy. Among everyone present, only the old man made him feel a sense of weight.
Not angered by the boy's lack of response, Vortigern dismounted decisively. Holding his own sword, he walked up to the boy and said with a self-deprecating tone.
"In the past, I desperately wanted to hold the sword in my hand steady. But now, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to put it down."
"...You remind me a little of my past self. Of course, you and I are not alike at all."
Staring at the boy before him, a trace of memory flashed in Vortigern's pale green eyes, but it instantly turned cold and hard.
"Continuing like this will only waste more time."
"Next, you will receive one strike from my sword."
"If you can take it, I will let you go."
He didn't say what would happen if he couldn't take it, because that consequence was already self-evident.
Aozaki Rin nodded and replied.
"Okay."
The moment the word left his lips, a sharp edge, as if wanting to shred the very atmosphere, came cutting straight for his neck!
Aozaki Rin's body moved before his mind could think, raising his sword to block!
—CLANG!
Snow flew, and a shockwave radiated outwards.
Blade met blade, and though it was just an ordinary swing, it roiled the air as if it were a release of magical energy.
Aozaki Rin's body sank slightly, and he subconsciously gripped the hilt with both hands.
He could feel that the webbing of his hand had probably been torn open, because the old man's sword was far heavier than he had imagined.
But at this moment, he did not retreat a single step. An unknown hot current was flowing out from somewhere within him, rapidly spreading through his body along a set path, giving him an extra sense of strength.
[You have awakened the talent 'Return to the Age of Gods': Quality (?), Quantity (?), Composition (?).]
—DANG!
The blocking blade pushed back with a jolt, knocking the old man's sword away.
Aozaki Rin stood his ground, his feet sunk deep into the snow. The vast expanse of snow behind him had already been blown away by the shockwave from their clash.
And now, looking at his own sword, which had been knocked back, Vortigern was truly surprised.
But he quickly seemed to notice something. He stared intently at the boy and began to laugh.
"As I thought, you and I are the same..."
Soon, however, the old man stopped speaking. He looked at the sword in his hand, sheathed it, and turned around.
"I am a man of my word. Gather the equipment. We're returning to the city!"
Giving the order to the surrounding cavalry, Vortigern remounted his black horse and, just as he said, left without any further delay.
"He's actually leaving...?"
Kay watched the retreating figures of the cavalry squadrons in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that the tyrannical Usurper King had actually let them go and kept his promise.
But in the next second, his thoughts were on the boy, because he had clearly seen his adoptive brother take that one strike from Vortigern head-on.
"En, are you okay?!"
"I'm fine, just the webbing of my hand is torn. We should go find Sister and the others first, Sir Kay."
Aozaki Rin shook his head to signal that his brother needn't worry. A shock injury like this would be fully healed in a day at most.
However, right now, he felt no relief at having escaped, nor any excitement at having successfully blocked the old man's attack. Instead, his heart was filled with confusion.
He was confused by the last words the old man had said before leaving.
What did that mean...?
Unable to immediately grasp if there was any special meaning behind the other's words, Aozaki Rin didn't dwell on it. He sheathed Durandal and, together with Kay, hurried toward their pre-arranged rendezvous point.
[You successfully held off Vortigern's army in less than ten minutes, making Merlin's backup preparations unnecessary.]
[However, you and your brother Kay do not let down your guard. To prevent any further incidents, you quicken your pace and soon arrive at the agreed-upon meeting place.]
[But upon reaching the rendezvous point, you discover that your sister, Artoria, has already broken free from Merlin's spell and has woken up.]