FATE: The Man with Divine Keys

After leaving Karl's blacksmith shop, Arkhan chose to take a longer route home.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take the shortcut; it was just that recently, with the day of the king selection approaching, a large group of knights from out of the town had come to Tintagel.

These guys were as energetic as rutting bulls, with nothing much to do around here, so they spent their days looking for sparring partners.

With his black hair and eyes, Arkhan attracted quite a bit of attention. Every time he showed up, a bunch of them would jump out, shouting about wanting to have a fight to prove their knightly honor.

He was getting annoyed by all the attention and had to step in to deal with the most persistent ones.

He had thought that would deter the others, but those guys just got even more enthusiastic.

He was genuinely scared of those guys and ended up hiding at home for a month.

Today, he had only come out because Karl had brought news that the farm tools he had ordered were ready.

But even so, he didn't dare to appear on Tintagel's main streets.

According to the information he got from Kay, the number of knights gathering in Tintagel had been increasing recently.

'Why bother? The king's position is already set, all of you are just wasting your time.'

Arkhan shook his head and sighed as he walked along a sparsely populated forest path. It was a bit longer, but the scenery along the way was pleasant, with a clear stream running beside it, so he didn't find it boring at all.

Suddenly, a strange sound reached his ears.

Arkhan stopped in his tracks, furrowing his brow. He concentrated and faintly heard the sound of water flowing and something else...

"Help... help me..."

Someone was drowning!

Arkhan's gaze sharpened, and like an arrow released from a bowstring, he swiftly headed in the direction of the voice.

About five hundred meters later, he finally reached the scene of the accident.

In the middle of the river, a woman in a black and blue dress with long, pale golden hair was tightly hugging a rock. She was weakly calling for help and seemed like she was on the brink of exhaustion.

"Don't worry, I'm coming!"

Arkhan channeled his magical energy and drew a mysterious symbol in the air.

[Rune - Element]

Invisible waves of magical energy rippled, and the swift current suddenly calmed as if a pair of giant hands had smoothed it out.

Arkhan then drew another symbol.

[Rune - Hand]

An illusionary pair of large hands materialized out of thin air and reached out toward the woman with pale golden hair.

*Thud!*

A light green barrier suddenly appeared around the woman, blocking Arkhan's Rune from reaching her.

'Rune?' Arkhan's brow furrowed slightly. It was clearly an autonomously triggered Rune.

In this era, someone who could control Runes was definitely not ordinary.

But now wasn't the time to think about these things; saving the woman came first.

He pressed his fingers together and lightly cut his palm, a few drops of blood oozing out. In the air, he began sketching even more intricate Runes with the blood.

[Primordial Rune - Hand]

The Primordial Rune, the power Odin gained after drinking from the Fountain of Wisdom, was on an entirely different level than the later Rune introduced for the convenience of the masses.

In terms of power, they were worlds apart.

However, in response, the complexity of the Primordial Rune was hundreds of times greater than that of ordinary Rune, and the consumption of magical energy was astronomical.

But an accidental practice session made Arkhan discover that he could actually use his blood instead of magical energy to construct Primordial Rune.

He was puzzled by this and had even sought his mother's guidance, but she hadn't told him anything.

His instincts told him that his mother must know something, but unfortunately, even when he left the Land of Shadows, he hadn't received a definite answer.

In an instant, the Primordial Rune was constructed, and a pair of powerful and muscular arms materialized from the void. They effortlessly shattered the light green barrier and pulled the woman back to the shore.

"T-Thank you..."

The woman lay on the ground, coughing up water, her soaked black gown clinging tightly to her, outlining her curvaceous figure.

A faint glow passed, and all the water stains on the woman disappeared instantly, leaving her looking clean and refreshed, with no sign of just being rescued from the water.

"Are you a mage?" Arkhan raised an eyebrow.

"Eh? O-Oh, no, I'm not a mage. These markings are all things my sister left on me." The woman was initially puzzled but quickly explained.

Arkhan nodded slightly. If this woman were a mage, there was no way she would have nearly drowned.

Just then, the woman raised her head, allowing Arkhan to see her face clearly.

He widened his eyes in amazement.

'Lily?!'

He almost blurted out that word.

He even thought he might be mistaken, rubbing his eyes to be sure it wasn't his eyesight playing tricks on him.

The woman in front of him bore a striking resemblance to Artoria, practically an adult version of her.

However, there were some subtle differences. Artoria had eyes as clear as a lake, a deep azure, while the woman before him had eyes the same shade as her pale golden hair.

Their auras were quite different too.

Artoria had a resolute gaze, radiating strong valor; sometimes, it was easy to forget her real gender. On the other hand, the woman before him appeared timid, like a canary raised in a cage, beautiful and fragile, evoking feelings of tenderness.

How could they look so alike? Could Artoria have an unknown twin sister?

'Wait! Lily indeed has a sister!'

A look of caution appeared in Arkhan's eyes.

In both the real legends and the setting of Nasuverse, King Arthur indeed had a sister named Morgan le Fay, a powerful and cruel witch.

But Morgan was the true successor of the 'Power of the Island', and there was no way she would end up almost drowning.

Moreover, this woman's demeanor was nothing like Morgan's in the legends at all.

To be safe, Arkhan decided to proceed with caution.

"Madam, could you please tell me your name?" While speaking, he discreetly traced a mysterious rune in the air behind him.

[Rune - Truth]

If she dared to lie, Arkhan would immediately sense it!

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I forgot to introduce myself."

The woman stood up somewhat flustered and bowed to Arkhan.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Guinevere."