When the disobedient King Arthur descended upon Sardinia's port.
In Northern Europe, in a certain untouched forest.
A girl who appeared only twelve or thirteen years old, with princess-like beauty, was washing her feet in a spring at the forest's heart.
Satin-like golden hair clung smoothly to the delicate curves in front of her body. Spring dewdrops traced down her slender, pale legs before finally dripping into the spring water.
Chirping birds sounded—they showed no fear of the girl, some even jumping onto her shoulders.
Just looking at this scene, one might mistake it for an escaped Disney princess.
And indeed, the girl before them truly bore a princess's name.
Though she appeared to be just a child, she was simultaneously the queen of King Arthur in mythology, daughter of King Leodegrance, and the enchantress with the name of bringing ruin to nations—Divine Ancestor Guinevere.
Divine Ancestor, equal in rank to subordinate gods and divine beasts, was an existence formed when Earth Mother Goddesses lost their divine cores and reincarnated.
For Earth Mother Goddesses, pure spring water and life-filled forests contained rich earth essence, sufficient to replenish their magic power.
Just as her condition recovered to its peak, the clear spring beneath her feet suddenly reflected the image of a white knight.
"Uncle?"
Guinevere looked questioningly at the water surface without turning around.
Because this was a knight that currently existed only within the water's surface.
Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake, like King Arthur and Gawain, belonged to the Celtic divine group.
However, at this time he wasn't a Heretic God, but a divine shadow that hadn't fully manifested.
"My beloved child! I don't know if it's my imagination, but I seemed to sense some familiar divine core aura just now."
The knight in white armor spoke in an androgynous tone.
"Familiar divine core aura... Could it be my lord, the Last King?"
Guinevere was first stunned, then immediately showed a delighted expression.
The Last King—just hearing the name conveyed its ominous nature.
This was the ultimate hero bearing the covenant of all gods, responsible for purging Campiones. His mission was to annihilate every last Campione on earth without exception.
As a Divine Ancestor, Guinevere was his retainer, always awaiting the Last King's awakening.
"Speaking of which, I heard that Southern Europe already has a seventh Campione—an unprecedented situation. The King definitely won't allow so many Demon Lords to rampage in the world!"
Without even speaking, the girl had already imagined reasons and became even more excited.
"No, though it's not unrelated to the Last King, he probably isn't the Last King."
The knight shook his head, quickly denying the girl's speculation.
"If I didn't sense wrong, it should be one of the Round Table knights who descended... or even possibly King Arthur himself!"
"King Arthur himself..."
Hearing this name, Guinevere fell silent for a moment.
In the Campione world, King Arthur didn't originally exist. Even the Arthurian legend was personally spread by Guinevere over a thousand years ago.
At that time, to awaken the Last King, she wove the Last King's deeds into mythology, planning to use the Arthur persona to summon the Last King.
Unexpectedly, while King Arthur was indeed summoned, he was unrelated to the Last King—completely an independent deity.
Simply put, the persona had become self-aware.
Realizing this path was blocked, she never again thought of finding the Last King through King Arthur.
However, hearing this name again, she still felt unwilling.
A plan laid out for a thousand years—could it really be completely useless?
"My beloved child, shall we go take a look?"
Accurately judging the girl's thoughts, the white knight asked.
"Mm!"
After thinking for several seconds, Guinevere nodded.
"The aura Uncle sensed should be the new king's base. He only became a Campione yesterday—he shouldn't be too troublesome. We can just sneak over for a look."
"Heh!"
Hearing Guinevere's words, the white knight chuckled.
"My beloved child, don't underestimate Campiones. A Campione who could defeat the Sword King on just his second day is definitely not weak. If you're going, remember to bring the divine sword's remains."
"The Divine Sword of Salvation? Are you sure?"
Guinevere showed an astonished expression.
The Divine Sword of Salvation was the Last King's former sword, a blade capable of cleaving planets.
With Lancelot's strength, even veteran powerhouses like Marquis Voban might not warrant using this divine tool. Now, facing merely a newborn Campione, Lancelot was being so cautious?
"I don't know either, but my intuition tells me there will definitely be an exhilarating battle ahead!"
Saying this, War God Lancelot's tone revealed strong anticipation.
For Steel Hero Gods, only battle was sacred.
"Yes!"
In matters of battle, Guinevere chose to trust Lancelot's intuition.
She stood up, stepping barefoot on the earth.
The ground split open, revealing a golden grail over a meter tall and a long, double-edged sword.
"With the grail's assistance and fragments of the Divine Sword of Salvation, we absolutely cannot lose!"
After setting this flag, the girl rushed toward Southern Europe.
The war god's shadow in the water also dissipated.
Southern Europe, center of the Mediterranean, Sardinia.
After reaching an agreement with Pandora, Ryuga brought Artoria and little Sakura from the Netherworld back to the present world.
From now on, little Sakura would regularly go to the Netherworld to study magic, while her daily meals and activities would still take place in the present world.
"So, can my friend release me now?"
On the divine summoning ritual's magic circle, seeing Ryuga's group return, Doni made this request.
"Of course not."
Ryuga immediately shook his head.
"The real summoning ritual is just beginning now."
"Huh?"
Doni was completely dumbfounded.
What did he mean "just beginning now"? Were the previous two Heretic Gods fake?
Ryuga didn't continue dealing with Doni, instead focusing his attention on the summoning ritual.
In the TYPE-MOON world, when the world faced major crises, Alaya would descend seven heroes as a salvation measure—this technique was the Grand Battle Technique for Primates.
The Holy Grail War's Heroic Spirit summoning ritual was a simplified version of the Grand Battle Technique for Primates.
Precisely because the world inherently had mechanisms for Heroic Spirits to descend, summoning Servants became possible.
This principle was the same in the Campione world.
Precisely because gods originally had mechanisms to descend to the world, summoning deities could be achieved.
After confirming this point was fine, the key problem to solve was: why would gods descend?
In the TYPE-MOON world, Matou Zouken used the temptation of a wish-granting device to make Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes willingly descend.
But in the Campione world, this approach was useless.
Not to mention there was no wish-granting device that gods could use, even if there were, the capricious gods might not care.
Those residing in the Realm of Immortality rarely had wishes that required specifically descending to fulfill.
Therefore, Ryuga improved the original technique.
Compared to wishes, the gods of the Campione world seemed to value karma more.
Without sufficient karma, even irritable gods like Mekar might abandon battle and return to mythology on their own.
Conversely, with sufficient karma, even in other worlds, Heretic Gods might chase after you.
Given this, to summon gods, one had to use things the gods cared about.
This could be divine tools, territories.
Of course, it could also be—Campiones.
"Weak gods defeated by my hand, I, Salvatore Doni, the Sword King, once again issue challenges to you all in my name. If any wish to rebuild their martial achievements, come down! If there are cowards who avoid battle, I will have all people mock your names!"
With Doni's expression of utter shock, Ryuga directly issued battle declarations to all Heretic Gods who had karma with him, using Doni's name.
For ordinary people, these words wouldn't have much effect, unable to touch their interests.
But for gods, such slighting was the greatest insult.
Moreover, besides simple provocation, commanding all subordinate people to mock divine names was somewhat excessive.
If such things gained wide, lasting circulation, they could actually rewrite mythology!
No god could sit by and let such things happen.
Thus—
"Hum~" "Hum~" "Hum~"...
The spiritual energy between heaven and earth violently trembled one after another.
The essence of sky, earth, and sea all gathered together.
Gods broke away from the Realm of Immortality, formed divine core templates in the Netherworld, manifested complete divine cores in the present world, and finally used divine power as the core to construct energy life forms as material foundations.
Under Ryuga's provocation, gods successively manifested as disobedient beings.
"Merely obtaining this king's Authority through luck, yet daring to challenge this king."
The Silver-Armed God King Nuada stepped onto the beach, casting murderous eyes at Doni.
"We meet again, heretical evil god, dragon-slaying hero, and this cunning son of fools!"
Saint George greeted the Silver-Armed God King and another Heretic God he'd fought before, then looked toward Ryuga.
Clearly, he saw that Ryuga was the mastermind.
"Hello."
Dragon-slaying hero Siegfried very politely returned Saint George's greeting.
He was the provider of Doni's [Steel Protection] Authority.
"Hmph!"
The earth tore open cracks, and along with magma erupting forth came Vulcan from Roman mythology.
Several Heretic Gods gathered together—such a grand spectacle probably hadn't appeared in thousands of years.
Looking at these familiar Heretic Gods before him, Doni was first shocked to numbness, then suddenly felt something was wrong.
After counting several times, he finally said in a daze:
"Why does it feel like someone's missing?"
"Hahaha! How could such a lively scene lack me and my banquet?"
As if hearing Doni's words, a wine fragrance suddenly spread across the sea—clearly grape wine.
Then, holding a wine cup in one hand and a grape vine staff in the other, half-naked, drinking while traveling, a Heretic God quickly arrived nearby.
Dionysus shook his head, then complained:
"It's all your fault for monopolizing the earth's essence, making me descend from far away to get here."
"Speaking of which, this probably doesn't count as deserting, right?"
Seeing the divine lords chatting and laughing, even Erica was becoming nervous.
Celtic God King Silver-Armed Nuada, Christian Saint George, Norse dragon-slaying hero Siegfried, Roman fire god Vulcan, Greek wine god Dionysus.
A full five Heretic Gods appearing together on this island.
Just their manifestation alone nearly completely drained the nearby spiritual veins.
Even without counting the two previously defeated Heretic Gods, this was completely world-ending scale!
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