Chapter Eighty-Six: Gu Yi's Resolute Decision

In quick succession, the sanctuaries in Hong Kong and New York suffered calamities. On the mystic network, it appeared as though two of the four nodes had gone dim at once, leaving only the nodes on the Himalayas and in London still shining.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad."

The London sanctuary was heavy with gloom. Anyone with even a little sense knew they were next.

And the enemy was no longer bothering to hide. They stood brazenly outside the door, and their posture could be summed up in a single sentence: you may as well come out and surrender.

"Why has Lady Gu not appeared yet? It's already come to this! How are we supposed to protect the Earth now? She isn't fit to be the Supreme Sorceress!"

"Yes, she isn't fit. You are. Go on, then—take out the one at the door. I've already looked into her for you. She's King Arthur, who has lived for more than two thousand years."

"Damn it! It's outrageous. Why would the king of the ancient Celts stand up for modern Britain?"

"Perhaps, in that King Arthur's eyes, everyone on this land is her people. You don't need to think so much about it. Just bring her down, and everything will be solved."

"Enough! Stop arguing!" bellowed the London chief, slamming the table. "Think of a way out. We can't just surrender like this!"

"I think surrendering is fine. Didn't the older generation surrender to Lady Gu back then, too? Besides, the Arthur outside isn't some invader from another dimension. She's the oldest ruler of Britain. Surrendering to her wouldn't be humiliating... probably..."

Before the sorcerer who favored surrender could finish, he noticed every other mage staring at him fixedly. He shrank his neck and swallowed the rest of his words.

Outside the sanctuary, Artoria rested the tip of her sword on the ground and waited with her eyes closed for the decision from within.

Avalon had already been unleashed, enveloping the entire sanctuary. It had pinned down the space around it, making teleportation gates impossible to open. Still, Artoria had left them a way to breathe, so they were not completely cut off from the mystic network.

"When do you think they'll come out?" Ivan Vanko muttered, idly poking at the ground with one finger. He was bored to death.

When he first arrived, Ivan Vanko had been rather tense. After all, these were mages—a kind of existence that carried an imposing aura in every novel and game. But the situation now disappointed him. The gate was blocked; even if they could not win, someone should at least come out and state their position.

"Hey, do you think they'll just come out and surrender?" he asked when Jin Bradley did not respond.

"They probably won't... They're coming out. Get ready!"

With that, Jin Bradley vanished in a flash and reappeared at the other side of the sanctuary with his longsword in hand.

He and Ivan Vanko were responsible for guarding the flanks and rear of the London sanctuary. Artoria did not want a single mage escaping this area without her permission.

Ivan Vanko's expression turned serious as well. He pressed both hands to the earth, and dozens of alchemical arrays that had already been drawn around them lit up. Brilliant radiance flooded the sanctuary, and in that same light, the white flag in the hands of those who emerged was also illuminated.

Wait... a white flag?

Ivan Vanko blinked. He suspected something was wrong with his eyes, but however many times he blinked, the white flag remained unmistakably real.

Jin Bradley was equally stunned. Could these mages be any less spineless?

Artoria was even more disappointed. As a knight, she despised such conduct above all else.

As the distance between the two sides narrowed a little, the white flag suddenly exploded, and weapons were conjured from the mages' hands.

A fake surrender?

Artoria suddenly smiled. Though such behavior still did not conform to a knight's code, it was at least better than surrendering without a fight.

She let go of the sword in her hand and rushed forward bare-handed.

Having lived for more than two thousand years, Artoria's combat skill had been honed to the point of perfection. In her eyes, these mages were little more than children.

She charged in like a tiger among sheep, and in the space of a few breaths, she had knocked down a whole swath of them.

Meanwhile, the mages who tried to break out in other directions were intercepted by Jin Bradley and Ivan Vanko, both empowered by Avalon.

By the time no one remained standing nearby, Artoria clapped her hands. Her verdict on these people was simple: weak.

Much weaker than the mages of that era. Their combat ability was practically regressing.

If the mages of Kamar-Taj had once possessed only this level of strength, then even if she had been held back by Lady Gu, Artoria estimated that her Knights of the Round Table could have dealt with them all.

Then none of what came after would ever have happened.

This was not merely because Yang Qiu had added a little something to the old mages of Kamar-Taj in Artoria's characterization; reality had been much the same.

Back then, competition and pressure among mages had been intense. That pressure came from other mages as well as from dimensional invaders.

But after Lady Gu unified the entire mystic order, later generations of mages no longer had to face dimensional invaders directly—or rather, those who could do so had gone with her to the Himalayas.

The rest of the mages shifted from direct competition to indirect competition, and the role strength played in determining status began to diminish.

On top of that, Lady Gu placed all the dark spellbooks under strict control, cutting them off from borrowing power at a terrible cost, while the corresponding education failed to keep up. In the end, each generation of mages became weaker than the last.

It could be said that Lady Gu's contributions were immense in every other respect, but in the matter of magical education, she had been profoundly incompetent.

"Your schooling is over. How many of them wake up now depends on themselves." Yang Qiu was somewhat speechless. In his view, the performance of the mages from the three sanctuaries was terribly disappointing.

Lady Gu smiled faintly. Observing the timeline was far easier and more convenient for her than it was for Yang Qiu, so this had not really exceeded her expectations.

"No, it's not enough," she said softly.

"What?"

"Your next step in the plan is to have the mystic side formally reveal itself to ordinary people, isn't it?" With hands behind her back, Lady Gu looked at the last fallen sanctuary, London.

"That's right. Part of the blame was originally prepared for these sanctuary mages, but since it wasn't used, I'll keep all of it for the next stage." Yang Qiu nodded.

"Then let this performance begin with the end of Kamar-Taj," Lady Gu said slowly.

Yang Qiu looked at her in astonishment. She was going to completely and decisively dissolve the Kamar-Taj Sorcerers' Order.

He admitted that he had once entertained that thought. The mages of Kamar-Taj were already hindering the progress of his script, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Lady Gu had treated him well enough; he could not go too far. It would be inappropriate to tear down five hundred years of their foundation.

Keeping the Kamar-Taj mages around would only be a minor inconvenience, after all. Losing a little time and taking a few detours could count as repayment for Lady Gu's help.

Lady Gu nodded at the astonished Yang Qiu, pulled up her hood, and passed through the portal to leave, leaving him with a single sentence:

"Give me some time. The right turning point will come. I hope it will be the one I most want to see."