Weak.
That was the first thought that crossed Melusine's mind when her eyes first landed on him.
For all she knew, her senses told her that the man before her was weak, not worthy of her attention at all. She could hardly feel any Magical Energy or see any trace of strength or skill from his body language.
He could be an ant in her eyes, it would hardly change anything for her because she is the strongest and all beings are weaker than her.
And yet, here he was, fighting against her on equal ground with his sword that glittered like a starry night, a feat she couldn't understand despite it happening before her eyes.
Her fighting skills, which she felt were unnecessary, were easily matched as he easily fought with skills on par with hers, if not better. And her speed which she prided as her greatest asset, whether it was her combat reflexes or her movement speed, wasn't enough to defeat him as his eyes never lost sight of her and managed to parry all of her attacks so far, despite her immense superiority in that field.
Everything she saw and felt about this human was wrong. He was an anomaly.
Something so bizarre that he seemed so ordinary and yet otherworldly at the same time.
The more she continued to look at him, the more uncomfortable his mere presence made her.
"You... What are you?"
And so, despite her instinct telling her that he was no threat, she decided to treat him otherwise as she crouched down, ready to rush at her opponent at any moment.
"Me? Just your run-of-the-mill knight, what else."
When she heard his answer, Melusine's eyebrow twitched before she immediately charged at the young man, upset at the obvious lie that came out of his lips.
"There's no way that's true, Innocence Arondight!" She shouted as she quickly neared Kay, her fists outstretched towards him as two blades came out from her sheaths which also acted as gauntlets.
But despite her fast speed, Kay easily dodged her attempt to screw his body by jumping to the side before he blocked an attack from Melusine who attempted to slice him as she passed by him, causing her to click her tongue.
Then, without wasting any time, she maneuvered her body in the middle of her run so she could charge once more at Kay without losing any speed before she unleashed this time a flurry of punches at him while releasing bursts of magic, amplifying her strikes.
But, much to her dismay, none of her blows hit their target as Kay narrowly dodged them all, slipping through them like a fly.
"Stop dodging!" She screamed as she jumped in the air, infusing her Magical Energy into her fist which she quickly brought down in an attempt to crush Kay's skull. However, he swiftly stepped back from his former spot, causing Melusine to hit nothing but the ground which caused an explosion to happen, wrecking the entire hallway.
"Guh!" She groaned in annoyance as she looked at her surroundings which were full of cloudy dust, a result of the previous explosion.
She couldn't believe that she was struggling against a living human, an inconceivable fact for she was the strongest among all dragons.
Then, she gasped when she suddenly saw a blue blade approaching her neck from the corner of her eyes. And, for the tiniest of moments, she felt her neck being pulled towards the blade, making her shiver as she quickly fought back the attraction and immediately crouched, narrowly dodging Kay's attack, with only a few strands of hair being cut off from it.
'What was that just now? Was he... cutting through space?' She thought as she glanced at Kay from her position, seeing a katana in his right hand instead of a sword, before she blinked when she suddenly saw a gun barrel pointed between her eyes through her visor.
"It's harmless, it won't be fatal." Her instinct told her so, but she gritted her teeth as she fought back against it, having learned that the bizarre being before her could fool them through unknown means.
Despite her awkward posture, she managed to backhand Kay's arm, making him wince in pain as his arm was thrown to the side, his aim completely deflected just before he could pull the trigger, a massive beam laser being fired at the moment he did.
Seeing this, she felt relieved that she didn't listen to her instinct as such an attack would have wounded her... only a bit though. Her pride in being the strongest would be at odds with any other outcome.
Then, with the same momentum, she swiftly went back on her feet and tried to lend an uppercut on Kay who, in turn, narrowly dodged the punch enough to only be grazed by it, a small cut appearing on his chin because of the sheer speed behind it.
Clicking her tongue at her failed attempt to harm him, she then quickly distanced herself from Kay when she noticed a punch, covered with blue claws, coming straight to her head and slicing through nothing but air.
"Tch!"
With her enhanced senses, she heard Kay also click his tongue before they stared at each other from a distance. And as they stood afar from each other, Melusine let out a breath as she observed Kay with caution.
'A sword. A katana. A gun and a glove... How many types of weapons does he have in his possession...'
She wondered as she saw his claws and katana disappear from his side, having dissipated into stardust.
The unknown information about Kay's arsenal kept her on alert as a small moment of inattention or carelessness could prove to be fatal to her, the human in front of her being an enemy she couldn't take lightly.
"Ah, damn it…" But then, she blinked when she saw Kay let out a long sigh, all while scratching his head..
"I suppose this is as far as I can go without holding back, huh..."
Melusine couldn't help but frown when she heard him speak, acting nonchalantly as if he seemingly possessed no sense of caution or danger towards her.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked, feeling a bit insulted that he didn't go all out in their fight which hurted her pride but a part of her also felt excited at the prospect of a greater battle.
"It means that I took you for granted, thought that I could defeat you without destroying this fortress and risking the lives and safety of others... but it seems I was wrong." Kay said as he slowly stretched his arms behind his back, no weapons in sight but she knew from their confrontation that he could summon them in his hands anytime.
"So, you decided to take that risk?"
"No, I'll just have to take our fight elsewhere, in a place where we won't be able to hurt anybody."
"Where?" She asked, out of curiosity, before she frowned and took a stance when she saw Kay take a deep breath, small blue sparks appearing near his body.And then, her eyes widened in shock as she saw Kay transform, his hair and eyes now a blue reminiscent of the azure sky.
"To the sky."
She heard, the last thing she saw being a hand nearing her face.
Morgan le Fay gritted her teeth in frustration as she glared at Artoria who kept fighting with her Servant counterpart, her previous injuries having miraculously healed.
'It wasn't supposed to be like this...'
The Artoria she remembered would have faltered after having her secret being revealed to the world, despairing about how she had failed the duties she was entrusted and lived for since her birth. But there she was, standing proudly as she fought, wearing her new white dress that did all but hid her true gender.
Never in her life had she wanted to bash her staff against Artoria's skull when she had the gall to say that she had no interest in becoming Britain's ruler, prefering to be a traveler instead.
Then, for what reasons did she spend several years behind the scenes planning to overthrow Artoria and reclaim her rightful position as ruler of Britain if she was willing to just step aside to fulfill her own desires?
It was so absurd that she couldn't help but feel utter anger towards the young girl who seemed rather joyful, as if she had freed herself from the chains that had confined her for years.
But while she wanted to hunt down Artoria, someone else seemed to express the same feeling as her but with herself as the target of their ire.
"You...!" Morgan growled under her breath as she looked at Vivian with a frown, the fairy glaring at her with the same intensity she did towards Merlin when he earned her fury, resulting in him getting sealed in Avalon.
"I have spent nearly a decade carefully preparing everything for her future coronation... But you... you just had to ruin everything in the span of a minute... I don't care if you're supposed to be Morgan, but I will never forgive you!" Vivian yelled, a myriad of magic circles appearing behind her back while she quickly did the same on her side.
"Don't you dare get cocky on me, Vivian… when you're not any better than me, manipulating anybody at your disposal so mankind can live on!"
When Ritsuka and Mash reached the hall, hoping to help Artoria and Vivian in their respective battles, they didn't expect to see the piece being half frozen and half flooded with water, ice spears and blasts of water flying in all directions.
"Wow, we only took a single minute to reach this place and they sure made a mess in such a short time. They must have been quite pented-up." Merlin said as she had a bright smile on her face, being comfortable on her floating staff.
"This isn't the time to be that relaxed!" Mash yelled at her, seemingly annoyed by her carefree demeanor, while Ritsuka looked around, not seeing any traces of Artoria or the King of Knights.
"Where did they go...?!"
She then looked up when she heard the sound of steel clashing, only to see the girls standing at the top of a broken pillar, their swords interlocked with each other.
"Kuh!" Artoria Alter groaned as she glared at her living counterpart.
'The more we fight, the more disadvantaged I am as she keeps growing stronger and more skilled. It won't be long before she surpasses me in terms of skills… I better end this fight quickly.'
Making up her mind, Artoria Alter infused her Magical Energy into her feet before she stomped hard on the broken pillar, destroying their footing which surprised Artoria, momentarily destabilizing her.
Taking advantage of that moment, after infusing her sword with her Magical Energy, Artoria Alter swung Excalibur down at her living counterpart who managed to block the blow with her own sword, however, the lack of footing along with the power behind it caused her to fly and crash onto the frozen floor.
Then, as soon as she landed on the floor, she muttered as she raised her sword which was once again engulfed with a black aura above her head.
"Vortigern, Hammer of the Vile King..."
Ritsuka and Mash widened in fear as they recognized her stance, having seen it during their first confrontation at the beginning of their adventure in Singularity F.
"That stance...!"
"She's planning to use her No-"
"Die!"
"Eh?!" Ritsuka and Mash were astonished to see Artoria charging at the Servant, closing the distance between them in an instant, interrupting her in the middle of her chant.
"You...!" Artoria Alter growled as she glared at her counterpart who let out a proud smirk, her body barely showing any sign of injuries.
"Brother taught me to never let anybody speak freely in the middle of a fight!"
"Why don't you try saying something not related to Kay for once...?!" Artoria Alter said, letting out a snort, before she widened her eyes when she felt a suffocating presence coming from the other side of the fortress, a feeling shared by a majority of the people present in the hall.
"What was that..." Morgan le Fay mumbled under her breath, a trail of sweat slowly falling down her face as she glanced behind her, her relentless attacks coming to an end with her concentration broken with the same happening with Vivian.
"Do... Doctor, what was that just now?"
[I don't know... Just for an instant, we detected the presence of a divine spirit, one with more power than Yggdrasil, not that far where Kay and that small Servant were fighting.]
"Then, does that mean Kay summoned another divine being?" Ritsuka muttered before she turned to Yggdrasil who looked back at her, sensing her gaze.
"Hey, Yggdrasil, can Kay summon a god other than you?" She asked the divine spirit who simply gave her a smile, much to her confusion.
'Is that supposed to be a yes?'
And just as she was thinking, she was surprised when she heard something falling apart at a distance just before Romani gave them a warning.
[Be careful, something comin-]
And interrupting his words was the loud noise of something crashing through a wall, and much to Ritsuka and Mash's shock, it was the young Servant they left behind whose face was grabbed by none other by Kay himself who, for some reasons unknown to nearly all, had azure hair and coated in an aura of the same color.
And before they could understand or say anything, Kay continued his course, his hand viciously gripping the Servant's face, before crashing into the opposite wall faster than their eyes could follow, leaving a group of people silent in the face of this unexplained event.
"What... happened just now?" Vivian muttered out loud the thought that crossed the mind of most people in the room.