Excalibur, the Blade of Legends, was given to King Arthur himself by the Lady of the Lake within the Mythical Valley. It is said to be a sword that could slay immortals, kill the undead, and bring hope into the world.
Gods fear it, Spirits call it a myth, but mortals are a different story; they praise this almighty weapon—for it was the Holy Relic that saved all of Yggdrasil.
With the power to defy all odds in the face of despair, Arthur Pendragon once again returned to save the world.
"Aaaaaaaaaghhhhh!!"
Lilith screamed in horror.
Her essence, and the very foundation of evil crumbled from Grimhild's True Destruction.
Resisting was pointless, and so was fighting back.
There was nothing in the world that could overcome the Endpoint, until...
"Grimhild."
A voice.
A familiar voice—right behind her.
It was the same voice Grimhild heard all those years ago, by the man who changed her life, turning her into the woman she was today.
Grimhild, despite her mindless rage, turned around to meet him.
The King of Kings.
The Embodiment of Hope.
Arthur Pendragon.
Appearing here via Rulmedia, he wielded Excalibur in his hand.
It appeared to be a typical Western sword, however, it was that of a broadsword with a very wide blade. The cross-guard had a mystical ruby in the center, while the rain guard was adorned with jewels, that expressed its regality.
With many ancient symbols carved into the blade itself, he stepped forward, furrowing his brows.
"It's been many years, Grimhild, I thought you changed for the better."
Grimhild seemed shocked by his presence, but her rage further consumed her.
"You know nothing."
Arthur's expression became neutral mixed with pity.
"I know enough." He said. "After our last battle, you gave up your evil ways, that's why the world has been at peace for twenty years or more. So why now? Why are you destroying it all again?"
Grimhild scowled at his words before turning around to face the fearful Vrunemir who was on the verge of extinction.
"To make them suffer."
"For petty revenge?" Asked Arthur. "You would destroy everything, just to watch make Vrunemir suffer?"
"It isn't Vrunemir that I'm destroying, it is Lilith." Grimhild's voice was overlapped by multiple others, giving her a demonic tone.
"The Idea of Evil?" Arthur lifted his brows, facing Vrunemir in shame. "I see, so he's been possessed."
Grimhild's raging white eyes would face the King of Kings again, piercing deep into his soul.
"If you've come here to stop me, then you'll fail compared to last time."
Arthur lowered his head in disappointment.
"So there's no talking you out of this, is there?"
Grimhild didn't respond.
"Very well." Arthur wielded Excalibur with both hands. "If defeating you means saving the world, then I won't hesitate. People will die because of you."
"Let them die."
"That isn't you who's speaking, Grimhild! You know better than this!"
Grimhild swiped her arm to the side, creating a wall of dark and purple flames between her and Arthur.
"Destruction?"
Holding Excalibur above his head, it shone with a divine light.
"Hmmphh!" Slicing it forward, it cut through the Flames of Destruction before he dashed ahead, taking flight via Flonta.
Despite this spell being erased from history, and magical origins of the world, Arthur remained unaffected thanks to Excalibur.
He could still remember the spells Grimhild eradicated.
The moment Arthur soared through the air, cutting through the Flames of Destruction with Excalibur, Grimhild moved.
She vanished in the blink of an eye, appearing in the sky.
Up above, Grimhild launched a wave of destructive flames that consumed everything in its path.
Arthur barely raised his blade in time to parry her sudden attack from above.
The sheer weight of her strike drove him straight into the ground, rupturing the floor and sending fragments of stone soaring like shrapnel through the air.
"Hngh!" Arthur rolled out from the crater and leapt back, landing on one knee.
Grimhild stood above with her eyes hollow and white—staring down with apocalyptic stillness.
Her black cape fluttered behind her, and from her palms spilled tendrils of pure erasure.
"Every concept you rely on." She said with a voice layered with echoes, "Every idea you cherish, I will strip away, until nothing remains but your end."
Arthur clenched his jaw.
"Then I'll just cut through it like before, and save you again!"
He surged forward again as Excalibur blazed with divine brilliance, and slashed horizontally.
Grimhild countered by raising her arm; her very presence dissolving the laws of slashing.
The sword met her bare arm.
And stopped.
Time stilled.
Arthur's eyes widened.
Excalibur, the blade that felled gods and purified entire timelines, had halted against Grimhild's flesh; the very act of cutting had been removed from reality.
"All things will return to the final point." She whispered. "Including you, Arthur Pendragon. You may embody hope, but even that must perish one day."
A burst of destructive flames blasted Arthur backward, slamming him into a nearby wall.
He coughed blood, barely able to maintain his grip.
"Ghnnn!" He gritted his teeth. "This is… different from before. You're not even using Destruction Magic. You're using… something beyond it."
Grimhild raised her hand again.
"When we fought all those years ago, you merely fought a sealed version of me."
Grimhild hovered in the sky above him, akin to a god.
"That's why I said this time will be different."
A storm of concepts unraveled—Justice, Bravery, Healing, Fire, Swordsmanship—all peeled away like skin, stripped from the air itself.
"Haaaaaahhh!!" Arthur roared as Excalibur violently gathered energy into its blade.
The jewels in its hilt glowed with an unknown power—the power of the Hope itself.
"Excalibur, hear my call! Give me the power needed to save this world, once more!"
A divine sigil burst from beneath Arthur's feet with golden spirals swirling upward, engulfing his body.
His armor had also gained that same divine glow, reforged by the will of the Pendragon bloodline.
Grimhild narrowed her eyes, feeling the surge in conceptual pressure.
Her destruction, for the first time, was being matched, despite its origins.
"I will not fall! For the sake of this world, I'll restore its order and save everyone!"
Arthur blurred forward as his blade met a wall of destruction.
The collision shattered the remaining structures of the castle around them—
BOOOOOOOM!!
A shockwave ripped outward, visible from miles away.
The sky above split into fractures, and Yggdrasil itself wept.
Trees were ripped from their roots, rivers lifted into the air, and Kingdoms tumbled from the war between Hope and the End.
Grimhild narrowed her eyes and blasted a dark wave of annihilation.
The meaning of Hope was erased. Arthur stumbled, but in a flash, he reversed it, rewriting Hope through Excalibur's authority and slashing upward.
"Graaaaagh!"
The blade grazed Grimhild's arm as she widened her eyes.
For the first time as the endpoint, she bled.
A thin line of crimson leaked down her pale skin, and her eyes narrowed before she gained distance.
"You can wound me, even as I am now?" She whispered, in disbelief.
She couldn't even heal.
"I can do more than that."
Grimhild's white hair darkened at the edges.
Her emotionless expression cracked, showing something akin to sorrow.
But it was only for a second.
"I'll save you again, and bring the light back into your eyes, Grimhild Yorgana!"
Excalibur was passively restoring the forgotten laws, origins, and concepts of the world from nothing more than Arthur Pendragon's Willpower fueling its source.
It was a blade forged to sever and even destroy the Atamon, but in Arthur Pendragon's hand, it became something more.
It became a blade that would always remain victorious at the end of battle.
Excalibur's mere power caused Grimhild and her Destructive Flames to slowly corrode away from its divine, hopeful light.
Even Grimhild's body, soul, and even nucleus were being eaten by its radiance.
This was Arthur Pendragon's resolve.
For the first time in eons, Grimhild in her true form was being pulled back—
Back into the light.
Back into the warmth of memory.
Back into who she once was.
But the Endpoint resisted.
"I… will not break." She whispered with a distorted voice. "You think hope can survive the End? You think your sword, your ideals… your heart can change what I've become?"
Arthur stepped forward, one hand on Excalibur as the other pressed over his chest.
"I don't think, Grimhild. I believe!"
Grimhild screamed.
A shriek that didn't sound human, nor divine.
It didn't sound like anything born from a world that should exist.
Yggdrasil trembled, and the skies split apart, opening multiple gateways into various other realms. Oblivion, Penumbra, Ol'trinian, and countless others were being unshackled by order and balance fading away.
And with an explosion of dark violet light, Grimhild soared back into the sky—eclipsing the sun itself with her silhouette.
Around her, the sky began to peel.
Reality, like pages from a burning book, began to slough away.
The stars behind her warped and reversed across Midgard, and the moon itself began to fade.
And yet Arthur stood tall.
Excalibur was glowing brighter—so bright it blinded all who looked, and would even purify
evil.
"Grimhild…" He called again." "You were the only one who changed after our battle. You ran away and sought a new life. Tell me I'm wrong!"
She froze.
For just a moment.
"You may be right, but don't speak of the past. That Grimhild is gone."
Arthur stepped forward, dragging Excalibur through the air as it carved a golden spiral that rewrote time itself.
"No… she's still in there. I can feel her!"
He raised the blade again.
"I will cut through the End… and bring her back."
"Pendragon! YOU DARE!!"
The voice from Grimhild wasn't hers; it was something behind her, or perhaps inside her.
The source of the Endpoint.
The True Destruction she embodied.
Suddenly, a colossal rune burst across the sky, larger than any city, formed from threads of absence; Power of the End, written in the language of uncreation.
The End itself had become self-aware.
And now it fought.
Massive spears of anti-reality formed, shooting toward Arthur from all angles.
But Excalibur gathered holy energy again, and Arthur swung it with the force of hope crystallized.
"Haaaaghhhhh!!"
Each slash released waves of holy light that cleaved through the spears, cutting the world back into place.
"You may be the End of all things, but even the End can change!! I'll prove it right here and now!"