Buckingham Palace, Throne Room
"Your Majesty! The Knights of the Silver Wolf has come!", a butler informs Guinnevere as she tended for the wounded nobles.
It has not been long since Ashen had left with the Knights of the Ashen King, and thankfully she and the rest of the ones who were left in the throne room have yet to encounter another attack from the terrorists. They did however hear a loud beastly roar coming from somewhere not too far from the palace which made them anxious. Fortunately after that, there was no gigantic monster that appeared.
Unfortunately, Rosseweisse who is the Saint they should be guarding is outside accompanying Guinnevere's rather reckless and suicidal husband causing her to worry. Not that it would help even though it meant that the Saint is in great danger just standing near her husband.
"Let them in!", thinking that it was no use worrying about it any further, she commands the servants who were barricading the doors to the throne room to let the mentioned knights in.
The gilded doors were opened ever so slightly so as to allow only people to enter one by one. A moment later, knights in silver armor poured into the room carrying wounded knights and civilians. Their faces all grim and filled with sheer anxiety.
"Oi young man! Get your ass in here before them bloodthirsty midgets appear again!"
From the other side of the doors came a familiar voice which Guinnevere recognized from yesterday.
Dragging in a couple of wounded knights, the old man that had accompanied Ashen back in Lothargien, Jack, entered while frantically telling the servants by the doors to quickly close the doors.
"Quick! Them bloodthirsty midgets are coming! Someone give meself a sword or something!", he cried out.
"Mr. Jack!", Guinnevere calls out to him but Jack simply looked at her and said a short 'Hi!' before quickly returning his attention to the doors.
Judging from his reaction, he and the silver knights were probably being chased by something dangerous, and if by his words alone, it was easy to tell that whatever it was, it was not human.
'Bloodthirsty midgets? If what I can tell from the fact that wyverns and dragons that are well-known English lore appeared yesterday and today...if logic follows suit, then a bloodthirsty midget monster would be-'
"Captain Albert, secure all possible entries into the throne room.", she quickly issues a command to a bandaged Captain Albert who was the only Knight left in the throne room since all the other knights (the white armored ones) ran away.
"For what purpose your Majesty? Do I also include the vents and other small openings?"
"Yes. Include the vents and any opening that is at least a foot high and wide."
The injured captain made a knowing gasp and quickly asked one other knight to accompany him to check.
"I just hope that I am wrong...", she whispers such to herself as she moves on to help barricade the doors.
Her expression turns grim for good reason. Because she knows that the enemy that was chasing Jack and the Knights of the Silver Wolf was none other than-
"GRAAARRBBUUU!! GOOBARRR!!"
-a race most commonly known to have an incorrigible taste for manslaughter and a maniacal cackle; a goblin Redcap.
"I should have kept my mouth shut!"
Grumbling to herself as she recognizes the fiendish silhouettes she saw through the crack of the slowly closing doors, she moves to cast a spell;
"Sylphid, keep away our foes with your raging breath, Storm Gale!"
In an instant, a powerful gale shot out from her outstretched hand which then surged forward towards the Redcaps forcing them back long enough for the servants and knights to close the doors.
*Dong!*
The doors clang shut with a loud clang and almost immediately, the servants and knights collapsed to the floor completely exhausted.
"Phew! That was as close as meself could ever get to uncertain death!", Jack who also fell down to the ground in complete exhaustion muttered in awe of his apparent survival.
"You sure are hardy for an old man, Mr. Jack."
Guinnevere complimented him with a wry smile.
"Ei...meself can hardly call this bag of old bones hardy...", Jack shrugged.
"You say that, but you were able to come here dragging along 2 fully armored Knights. I believe you are worthy of such praise."
"Ei...welp..."
Guinnevere could only chuckle at the old man's reaction, however, something bugged her.
"On that note, Mr. Jack, how did you know we were holing ourselves up here along with the civilians?"
How Jack knew they were here despite being practically absent from the castle for almost an entire day.
"Eh? Oh that? Meself ran into some nobles out in town. They said that the Queen is a lost cause or what not so meself went, 'Oh damn! Really? Why is that?', and they were like, 'She has gone crazy and abandoned her people! She must die for the better of the world!' and meself was like, 'Oh damn! Really? Where is she?', and then they told me you were here. Something about hitting you with a large spell while you're here was also said so meself came here as fast as me could then I met them silver Knights on the way here and got ourselves chased by them bloodthirsty red-capped midgets."
It was quite a convoluted explanation but it seems Guinnevere can at least understand the gist of it. Probably.
"So you met one of the nobles, then you went here to warn us in short?"
"Ye."
Guinnevere then fell into contemplation.
It is no longer possible to deny that the United Kingdom was in the middle of a civil war. She already knew the dissatisfaction of many of the nobles ever since the end of the End-of-the-Century war and most of them has voiced their opinions that their country must adopt a new form of government. Something that was quite unthinkable for Guinnevere.
Of course it was not because Guinnevere wanted to remain in her status as Queen Regent, but because she knows for a fact that in these rather confusing age where mankind has yet to fully recover from the aftereffects of the war, it would put a strain to her people to adjust to another form of government at this moment.
'Our country has no time to indulge the nobles in their pursuit of capitalism. Europe hasn't even recovered even a third of their former strength...and now they try and force their greed on us via treason? How unreasonable can they get?'
Guinnevere could only grimace at the thought as she looked around her.
The air was heavy and felt with a different sense of tension compared to a battlefield where everyone around her is prepared for death. This time however, she felt like she would choke from the pressure of having to secure the lives of many non-combatants who are obviously not ready for death.
'But at least, not all of the nobles were like that and some of them stayed here. For nobles who are loyal to the crown, the fact that they were brave enough to at least try and protect the Royal Family before succumbing to panic is admirable.'
She thought while looking at the wounded and bandaged people being treated around her;
Men and women lie either in shock or injury. With most of the injured being the men.
Thankfully, the children who were in attendance weren't hurt, only frightened by the suddenness of it all.
'With only me in tip-top shape, Kallen will be hard-pressed to focus on defending Mother than the less-protected civilians...', she looks at Kallen who is tending to their mother, 'If I push myself to my limits here...I can probably protect them all. But they'll have to incur a few injuries...'
But such an outcome wasn't a desirable one. She would rather prevent more of them from being injured. All of these, because she neglected keeping the other nobles in-check which further vexes her.
'I cannot leave the people here to die nor can I go and help save my daughter...just how messed up can this situation get?'
"Your Majesty! Enemy forces approaching from the River Thames! The Hunters from the Saint's Guard indicate them to be a massive force from abroad!", a butler came running to her and informs her of the new threat.
'Ugh...give me a break...', Guinnevere makes a mental shrug but soon recomposes herself and addresses the newly arrived Knights;
"Acknowledged! All Knights who are still able! Take up your arms and prepare for a siege! We will defend this place till our dying breath!"
She issues a command and soon the silver-armored knights shouted a battle-cry in assent and at that moment, the sound of something exploding echoed from outside the windows.
"Wha-?"
Guinnevere could not believe her eyes when she sees some kind of object come into view in a way that seemed like a veil being slowly removed.
Somewhere in the part of the city on the opposite side of the Lambeth Bridge, a large structure better described to be a large tower in the shape of a staff with a large crystal on its peak.
"What is that?!"
Everyone else who saw it was in shock. Not because of the rather ominous likeness of it to a mage's staff nor is it because it looked like it was getting ready to unleash an attack of unimaginable magnitude, but because of the large figure that was hovering around the top breathing blue flames upon something presumably running about on top of the tower.
"An Elder Dragon?!"
"No way!"
Everyone was surprised.
Sure, England is a land rife with legends and myths about dragons, but this was the first time in almost a millennia that they see an actual Elder Dragon, the oldest and most powerful kind of dragon in English Mythology.
None dispute their legend nor their strength and most would rather not be on the bad side of one considering that lesser forms of dragons are more than even Guinnevere the Brynhildr could handle alone.
"This is not good. If that thing comes here, we are finished!"
"Eeek!"
People started to panic but then...Guinnevere thought otherwise.
"Your Majesty?", Captain Albert who was done with his job returned and asked why Guinnevere was not as troubled as the rest of them are.
"Hm? Oh nothing...it's just that-"
*SHIIIIIIING!!!"
A burst of bright white light surged from the top of the tower.
"-it seems like the Knight King is on top of things. Literally."
She chuckles in delight as she faced her people, reassured of the fact that her husband would do something about this rather hopeless situation despite his hatred for humanity,
"We need not fear the dragon nor the tower. What we must ready for is the coming siege. All Knights, to arms!"
And so she rallies her knights for the coming battle as the sun begins its descent towards the other side of the horizon.
The Battle for London has yet to end.