Our group of intrepid heroes left Asterios's Hedge maze, wondering where their next destination would be. They had been to all of the structures in the area, but they couldn't think of a place where the final key could possibly be. Before things got too complicated, a shadow seemed to materialize in front of the group.
As if by instinct, each one of our heroes drew their weapons and prepared for a fight. But before any hands could be thrown, the shadow bowed as a sign of peace. "I was sent to give you information," the shadow spoke. The shadow appeared to be a young girl with purple hair and pitch-black skin. Her most defining characteristic was a bone-white mask that covered her face. "The king sent me to give you this letter." She then handed a note to Leonidas.
The note read as follows: 'Dear mental acquaintances, I hope this note finds you well. I have written it to make you aware of the location of the final key. Hopefully, Serenity has given it to you at the opportune time. In order to find the key, you must return to where the altar's journey began. Best wishes, King.' The group looked up from the letter to thank Serenity for delivering it, but she was gone.
"So we have to retrace our steps?" Mordred asked as she looked at her smarter friends for their input. "Not necessarily; it specifically says where the altar's journey began, meaning whichever one of us was the first to wake up is where we'll find the key," Izuku mumbled as he analyzed the note.
"Well, I was the first one Nana woke up, so the key has to be back at the castle!" Mordred said with a beaming smile. Nana nodded; that was the most likely place.
Quickly, the group made their way back to Camelot Castle, but they soon found that getting back into the castle was a lot harder than getting out. The drawbridge was up, and the two guards standing on top of the castle walls wouldn't even let Bob in after he asked. "They say they won't let us in, so what are we gonna do?" Bob asked.
Izuku looked around before pointing at Mordred. "Mordred, this is like your dream castle, right? Do you remember if there are any secret entrances you would've put into this place?"
Mordred nodded. "There's a secret entrance in the back of the castle. If I remember correctly, Lancelot put it in so he could sneak out to do reconnaissance work for the king.
The group quickly made their way over to the secret entrance. It wasn't like they had to sneak; the only one that the fragments could see was Bob, so stealth was kind of unnecessary. After arriving at the back end of the castle, the group found a secret lover that led into a passageway into the dungeon of the castle.
Inside the dungeon, there were wisps of guards everywhere, but every prison cell they passed was completely empty. When Bob inquired of the guards what they were guarding, they only replied with the cryptic title "The Platinum Faye." Feeling creeped out, the group quickly found the exit and skedaddled into the rest of the castle. From behind bars, bright blue eyes watched them go as a porcelain-white hand fixed a beautiful girl's platinum hair.
The group began to slowly and methodically comb through the castle, looking for a suspicious room, but nothing came up. Most rooms felt lifeless and empty, being cared for by faceless wisps. The places never went through anywhere, and there was only infinite cleaning.
Finally, the group found something, even if it wasn't what they were looking for. At the very top of the tallest tower in Camelot Castle, they discovered a blonde-haired girl brushing her hair. She was shorter than Izuku but taller than Stheno. Her green eyes opened wide in startled surprise as she quickly grabbed a staff leaning against the wall near the vanity she was sitting at. It was clearly a magical staff. Was this girl Merlin?
"Who are you?! How did you get in my room?!" the girl yelled as yellow lightning pulsed across her staff.
"Okay, young lady, calm down. We're not here to hurt you. We're just looking for a monster that might be wandering this castle," Nana said. But Mordred, seeing another lightning user, got a little territorial. "Yeah, back down, little girl! Like you could beat us in a fight anyway!"
The blonde-haired girl's green eyes twitched in annoyance before she angrily shouted at the top of her lungs, "Igris!"
A huge knight in red armor materialized behind her. To most people, it look like he teleported, but a few members of our hero group could barely make out his extremely fast movements as he ran into the room. This altar must have some kind of speed quirk."
Nana and the rest of the team gave Mordred a disappointed frown; she had clearly made these two new alters escalate their wariness.
Nana, raising her arms in a gesture of peace, calmly introduced herself and the group to the two new alters.
The blonde-haired girl studied Nana's face for any signs of deception or violent intentions before slowly introducing herself and her companion. "My name is Artoria Pendragon, and this is the Blood-Red Commander, Igris. We've lived in this castle for as long as we can remember. If anyone can find this monster and key, it would be us."
With that, the two joined our party of heroes for now. However, they still didn't completely trust our ragtag group of alters and Nana.
After some more searching, the group finally concluded that the only place the monster could possibly be was in the throne room. Why hadn't they gone there first? Initially, they thought the monster might be in the throne room, but they had deemed it too predictable. However, it was the only place left to check.
So, the group quickly made their way to the throne room. As they opened the door and slowly entered, they noticed the knights of the Round Table standing at attention along the walls. At the far end of the throne room sat King Arthur, but something was different from the last time Mordred and Nana had seen him. He was wearing a completely different crown. In fact, the more they looked at it, the more it resembled a jester's hat than a crown.
As they approached the king, the eight jewels embedded in the front of the crown blinked, and the king seemed to register their presence. He raised his hand as if gesturing for them to come closer.
Their movements were twitchy, as if the King Arthur wisp was a puppet or a robot. Unlike the wisps outside, this one was crude and lifeless, as if a monster were trying to imitate life. The eight jewels that served as eyes seemed to pierce into their souls as they stood motionless.
The king's armored hand formed a fist and slammed it down on his throne, as if insulted that the peasant alters before him did not heed his command. All the armored knights drew their weapons, daring them to disobey their lord, the king.
Yet again, the knights' movements were mechanical and off. As the group continued to stand still, it seemed that the king had lost his patience. His arm swung and pointed at them before drawing back and dragging a thumb across his neck. This was clearly the sign that sealed their fate; in the eyes of the king, today would be their demise.
== authors note
Yay chapter Finished I hope you enjoyed. We are drawing close to the end of this art I think maybe three more chapters four at most.
Which means we're at least five more chapters Away from the beginning of class 1A's First day of heroes school. I hope you're excited as I am. In fact, I hope you're more excited than I am.
Anyway, bye