A different kind of chill than usual.
It felt like something was pulling her in.
Morgana instinctively grabbed her sword in a rush.
At the same time—thud. A sound of someone collapsing was heard.
“N-Nimue!”
The person who had just moments ago come rushing in full of energy now collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Panicked, Morgana rushed over and grabbed Nimue’s limp shoulders.
“Nimue, are you alright? Can you hear my voice?”
She put all her strength into it until her face turned red, but no matter how thin she was, it was too much for her to lift an adult on her own.
‘Should I inject her with power?’
Grunting, she grabbed both her arms and half-dragged her to lean against the wall. She even tried channeling healing power into him, but he remained unconscious.
The stillness in the prayer room was so complete, not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
The hairs on Morgana’s body stood on end.
‘Is… is she dead?’
She was someone who had divine power.
Just like Morgana herself, Nimue had more than enough ability to heal on her own.
The fact that she wasn’t even breathing…
Morgana glanced at Excalibur lying on the marble floor of the prayer room.
The boastful voice that always bragged about itself was nowhere to be heard. When she looked back at the unconscious Nimue, Morgana’s mouth opened in shock.
‘Don’t tell me the scabbard of Excalibur…?’
She recalled the properties of the scabbard.
『1. Does it have healing power?
— : Yes
—Scabbard: Yes
- Is it in Merlin’s possession at the temple?
—Nimue: Yes
—Scabbard: Yes - Does Excalibur like it?
—Nimue: Yes
—Scabbard: ?』
‘So that’s why every time it saw Nimue, it kept saying how pretty she was…!’
She should’ve realized it when it started obsessively loving itself.
More than anything, the completely opposite personalities of Excalibur and Nimue made it impossible to guess.
Who could’ve imagined the scabbard had become a person?
‘Nimue looked like she was being forcibly held by Merlin.’
Merlin was a dark sorcerer. One with a demon at his side.
If it were her, she could very well have turned a scabbard into a person. Which meant the scabbard had been forcibly separated from Excalibur.
Morgana lightly shook Nimue’s shoulder.
Her decadently beautiful face hung limply, drained of strength, making her start to think of the worst. She had heard that the prayer room was a place Merlin had never entered.
But knowing Merlin’s personality, there was no way he wouldn’t have come to a place that even had a stone tablet.
‘That must mean Merlin can’t enter.’
The prayer room was where the holiest relics of the temple were kept.
It was a place that would naturally repel a dark sorcerer.
In other words, it would be the most comfortable place for the holy sword and Nimue.
That must explain why Excalibur, which never reacted even when they met before, suddenly sensed something unusual.
Stay calm, Morgana.
Rising to her feet, she stood once again before the relic. She slowly read the text etched tightly onto the stone tablet.
She skimmed over the usual ancient nonsense about things happening ‘before the Common Era.’
“Can you skip what the gods did at the beginning of time and get to the point…”
Her anxious heart made it difficult to concentrate, even on clearly written words. But she was someone who had survived her exam days in a country where even subways would stop running on test day.
“Reading nonfiction is basic stuff.”
Her eyes moved quickly, scanning the long inscriptions on the stone tablet.
Most of it explained why the goddess Coventina created the continent.
“…As life nurtured the tree, a lake was born. As time passed, flowers bloomed there. When the flowers bloomed, a black cat, a magpie, and a rabbit gathered. At the center, the goddess Coventina gave birth to a gift for the beautiful continent. A foundation was placed, so its beauty could be preserved at all times…”
Morgana traced back with her finger to the part she had skimmed over.
“This seems like it’s talking about Excalibur.”
Her eyes narrowed.
The Temple of Coventina, at its core, always had flowing water.
She remembered the explanation she had heard during her first visit—that the very first lake created in the temple became the foundation of the current Holy Nation.
Life is the lake. In other words, water.
“Right, I did receive a branch as a gift during the last festival too.”
So, it made sense that trees were being nurtured.
The problem was what came after that.
“Flowers…? What flowers? Were there even flowers in the temple?”
And what came after that made even less sense.
A cat, a magpie, and even a rabbit had gathered—what could be the ‘center’ they were referring to?
The troubling part was that it all sounded vaguely familiar. She was almost remembering something, and that made it even more frustrating.
“If Kellive were here right now, he’d have already mirrored the whole thing from Britannia and explained it…”
As she stomped her feet in frustration—
“Britannia…?”
Suddenly, an old memory resurfaced.
A memory from before the possession—Morgana’s original memory.
Igraine came into their shabby home looking like she had just returned from a prayer at the temple.
Morgana, holding a shovel and tending to the plants, greeted her.
‘Praying again? That stupid god never answers, so what’s the point of going all the way there to pray?’
At her sharp tone, Igraine smiled gently. She stroked Morgana’s roughly tied-up hair and looked at her warmly.
‘Still, I prayed that our Morgana can live happily and do whatever she wants.’
‘If that worked, I would’ve already gotten rich from herbs. It’s all nonsense. I don’t believe in any god.’
‘Well, it’s not just about belief. Sometimes it helps you clear your thoughts while looking around.’
‘What’s there to see in a temple? Annoyingly fake-friendly priests?’
‘Oh, come on. The temple building is actually really beautiful. There are even sculptures of rabbits and cats. They’re quite cute.’
‘Huh? That’s a surprisingly modest choice of animals for a temple that never shuts up.’
Sculptures on the temple building.
Suddenly struck with realization, Morgana raised her head and grabbed Excalibur. She dashed out of the prayer room in a hurry.
💫
Merlin gazed from a distance through the window at the building where the prayer room was located.
Though he currently held the position of High Priestess on the surface as he awaited the inquisition, he couldn’t exercise full authority.
All he could do was watch from afar like this.
And for that reason, he was pleased. Though, as a half-human, half-demon, the prayer room was a place he could never enter in his lifetime, this time, he didn’t mind.
“I didn’t expect the holy sword to be such a nuisance.”
A hundred years ago, in search of the Holy Grail, he came to seek the holy sword.
They said he couldn’t touch the sword because he was pure evil.
The ironic reason he kept Merlin by his side—despite his constant scorn—was because of the human blood she possessed.
It was said that the scabbard knew the location of the Holy Grail.
But simply holding the sword did nothing.
‘Who would’ve thought the sword could talk.’
At that time, Merlin couldn’t hear its voice. He didn’t even know it could speak at all.
So, to make it speak, he turned the scabbard into a person.
The sword was placed at the center of a black magic circle.
The moment it turned into a human, Excalibur, which had been radiating a brilliant light, absorbed a deep crimson glow.
It absorbed, and absorbed again.
Excalibur trembled as if shaking violently, then finally—boom—it broke through the barrier, shooting up into the sky with a pillar of white light.
On the continent, this light was called the birth of a divine representative.
And that day, a sword embedded in a stone appeared in the lake.
Merlin anxiously bit his thumbnail as he stared at the prayer room.
‘Why is nothing happening? By now, something should’ve happened.’
He had succeeded in turning the scabbard into a person. But Nimue was only a half-success.
If the scabbard was the body, then the soul belonged to Excalibur.
The body lacked will and couldn’t interpret the ancient language perfectly.
The only fortunate thing was that the incomplete Nimue couldn’t escape him. She was bound to the one who created her body—him.
‘Since he entered the prayer room, where the divine power’s wavelength is closest, he should have reclaimed his soul by now.’
But what bothered her was the Excalibur that was with Morgana.
So, she decided to take it back.
Once the soul was transferred into Nimue’s body, the empty sword would no longer be a holy sword.
‘And with the addition of the fake ancient text, it’ll be perfect.’
How long had he been waiting?
As he kept watch for some time, holy knights suddenly came rushing out of the building where the prayer room was located.
‘It’s happening.’
Not long after, the commotion carried on the wind reached Merlin’s ears.
“Lord Nimue has collapsed!”
“Priest! High Priest!”
“Heavens, oh Goddess Coventina…”
Priests and clerics scattered through the water-filled garden in confusion.
Some even collapsed to their knees in despair.
It seemed it was now his time to act. Merlin slowly rose from his seat.
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