Betrayal

"My Lord~"

The sword of Shuten pierced Artorius's body.

"Have you finally accepted the love I have for you~"

The demonic voice resonated sensually in his ears.

"Kyahaha! Hahaha! Hahahaha!"

With joyful laughter, extremely, extremely, extremely joyful.

At this moment, Shuten felt a supreme joy.

"So delicious, so sweet, ahhh~ Perhaps second only to the joy of being 'favored' and 'embraced' by My Lord, fufufu..."

She said loudly with ecstasy as if she had gone mad.

Initially indifferent to everything in the world, as if nothing in the world mattered to her. Whether it was a smile, tears, or any other emotion, it all gave the impression of pretense. She had never thought that she could express her feelings so sincerely.

Though this feeling wasn't quite good—more accurately, she felt terribly bad.

*Thud!*

Of course, in the next moment, Shuten, having had her fill of laughter, was grabbed by the scruff of her neck by Artorius.

"This is your ace in the hole?"

The Dragon Emperor was undoubtedly immensely powerful. A mere betrayal from behind, a stab in the back, meant nothing to him. It only ignited anger and irritation within him.

After slamming Shuten hard onto the ground, Artorius turned his gaze towards Touko. He found the person had already collapsed on the ground, eyes devoid of color.

"A puppet."

That was not the true body of Aozaki Touko; it wasn't even known whether it carried her soul. If that's the case, from the very beginning, was the combination of Touko and Shuten an undercover spy?

When Touko just used a Command Spell, giving Shuten the order to 'join this battle with all your might', was it actually a ploy to turn Shuten against him?

The Dragon Emperor was infuriated by such behavior and yelled:

"Is this all you've got?!"

"Do you all think you can defeat me with just this?!"

"You're far from it!"

In the next moment, the sword of the Dragon Emperor once again descended.

The unparalleled frosty light fiercely struck the opposing Goddess of Demonic Beasts. Under Gorgon's astonished and incredulous gaze, the sword continued its unhindered descent, cleaving off her head.

*Swish!*

Rolling, rolling, and rolling.

Gorgon's head was severed.

In theory, for a Demonic Beast of her caliber, even having her head severed wouldn't be a fatal wound.

However, no matter how strong, vicious, and fearsome she might be, at her core, Gorgon was still a 'Servant', her story and legend depicting her life as a Servant. Hence, her cause of death during her life, having her head severed, became her greatest vulnerability.

"No, it can't be, I can't—"

The massive monster without a head extended her snake-like tendrils, trying to pick up her own head and reattach it. But before she could, Artorius had already grabbed her head.

She was no longer the appearance of a 'Goddess', entirely transformed into a grotesque beast's visage. No trace of romance or allure remained.

"Aahhh! Give my head back! Give my head back!"

Gorgon, driven mad, screamed. It seemed that even though her head was her weak point, after ascending to this level, she wouldn't instantly die; she just became very frail.

Stimulated, the horde of the Dead, as well as Vlad, rushed toward Artorius, attempting to seize Gorgon's head.

In the next moment, thirty-six Gae Bolg rained down from the sky, like magic-infused heavy bombs, bombarding the entire battlefield. Scathach backed up Artorius and held the line until he executed his plan.

In the blink of an eye, Artorius appeared next to Mash, startling her.

"Mash!"

"Ehh?!"

Before the poor girl could grasp what had happened, Artorius had taken her shield.

"Eh? Ehh?"

Completely clueless as to why her shield would obey Artorius, even more so than her own command, Mash was left bewildered. Then, in amazement, she watched as Artorius held her shield in one hand and Gorgon's head in the other, squeezing the two together.

"Senpai? Senpai, you can't—"

Mash wanted to say "you can't fit them in" but before she could finish, her words were met with action.

Artorius forcibly jammed Gorgon's head into the shield. Though Gorgon's head resisted throughout the process, emitting fragrant breath while attempting to bite his hand, it was all in vain.

Her entire head was pushed into the shield by Artorius. In doing so, he forcibly reenacted the myth of Gorgon's defeat.

"I'll curse you! I'll curse you forever! Even if I descend to the deepest depths of Tartarus, I will—"

The pitiable whimpers of the defeated dog ceased abruptly after another sword beam shot towards her body from Artorius, causing the already weakened Goddess of Demonic Beast to shatter.

Countless dark red and pitch-black chaotic energies flowed out, reeking with a foul stench.

"Here you go."

Artorius handed the shield back to Mash.

Mash: "..."

The girl appeared deeply conflicted.

Forcibly having a monster's head shoved into her shield like this, can this shield still be used? Does she still need this?

As Mash wrestled with her thoughts, the shield was forcefully placed into her arms.

At the same time, the somewhat weary Scathach returned to Artorius's side.

Just moments ago, she took advantage of the situation to heavily wound the Berserker Vlad. Though he was still alive, his magical energy and physical strength had been greatly diminished after Gorgon's defeat. So, there was no problem in not delivering a final blow to him.

As long as the effect of the 'Temple' from Gorgon subsided, he would be powerless.

"Have we, have we won?" Embracing the shield, Mash asked with a deeply puzzled tone.

The effect of the Pandemonium Cetus was indeed receding. The surrounding malice and blood-red hues were fading, gradually restoring the color of the sky—not the usual blue, but rather a black shrouded by vampire's magecraft.

Vlad, now without support, let out a wail, much like the Dead around him who had also lost their support. They burst like punctured balloons—one, two, three—they kept popping, turning into pools of blood and dark-red mud before vanishing from sight.

The once overwhelmingly powerful army of the Dead was wiped out in one fell swoop.

"We won right?"

Before Mash could even attempt to smile...

"Fool, don't raise a flag." Artorius scolded her.

"Ehh...?"

"The real enemy hasn't shown up yet." Scathach calmly remarked.

"But—"

*Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!*

Before Mash could voice her confusion, applause erupted.

The source of the applause was from Kirei, who appeared on the hotel's front entrance with a smile on his face.

"Truly splendid."

"No wonder you're dubbed as the Dragon Emperor, the great ruler who has reigned for fifteen hundred years."

"Absolutely magnificent."

"I originally thought that with Gorgon and Dracula's combination, along with enough cannon fodder of the Dead, it would be enough to defeat you. Not to mention the betrayal from Shuten-douji."

In the next instant, the empire's automated cannons fired at him. These cannons, equipped with the latest propellant, should have been capable of penetrating 200mm homogeneous steel plates. Or any standard magecraft barriers and defenses, for that matter.

However, they missed. It wasn't because the empire's armaments were faulty; it was simply due to Kirei's condition being abnormal.

"Projection, huh?"

Amidst the booming of the cannons, Kirei's body contorted as if he were suffering from signal interference.

Artorius immediately deduced his condition.

"That's right, indeed worthy of your title, Your Majesty."

Kirei sighed, his emotions seeming very sincere. It appeared that he was indeed an admirer of the Dragon Emperor.

But then again, this wasn't surprising, or rather, it was quite normal.