(A/N: Please remember that this is an A.U, and I am a brand new "author" as this is my first story.
I'm excited to present to you the Prologue rewrite! I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope that I did a better job than the original!
To preface this book, I would like to go over some things before we begin.
Artoria will have her identity hidden from everyone, except Godrick (mc), Mordred, Morgan, Merlin, and Viviane. To make it easy on myself, she will be wearing her "Lion king armor", and her helmet will distort her voice, that way keeping her identity hidden.
Another Major change that I'll be making is with Alaya, the Root, and Gaia.
Alaya will be the collective consciousness of humanity (which is canon). But, in my story she will have more of a personality and ego, and will be subject to corruption through human emotions like Greed, Envy, Pride, and things like that.
The Root will be a dormant consciousness meaning that it will be depicted as a female who runs the universe (kinda like toaa, or the presence from Marvel and DC) but is asleep for some unknown reason.
Gaia is the will of the planet, that will do anything to survive.
I know this might be contrary to Fate Canon, but I promise, it will work out! Please at least give it a chance!
Other than a couple things here and there, I think I've covered most of the things that I've changed.
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope that you enjoy my novel!
In this novel, we will be introduced to a new timeline. A new Artoria who is a mixture of her Goddess Rhongomyniad "form" and the normal Artoria. As well as a new Britain.
In this timeline, a new menace has risen to destroy the whole of Britain, and thus Artoria goes on a campaign of war to kill this new mysterious Warlord.
In doing so, she reunites with her estranged sister Morgan, who has had a change of heart seeing the land she owns raped, burned, and pillaged.
The two of them, though still cold towards each other, resolve their differences for the time being, though Morgan still seeks to usurp the Throne from Artoria for a while.
Morgan conceives Mordred, but instead of a homunculus she is born as a human.
The story begins when Artoria finds a strange young boy, having been chained to a large stone, and whipped by the Warlord. She takes the boy in, and raises him as her own alongside Mordred.
This is his story.
The story of Godrick, the Knight of Ruin.
===Unknown===
In a lake to the south of Camelot, lay two figures. One was a woman, laying atop the water's surface, while the other was a small baby boy, who couldn't have been more than a couple days old.
The woman lay breathing deeply, still recovering from the miracle that was childbirth.
After a few moments a third figure slowly approached her, and lay beside her. She shifted in her sleep, still keeping her baby nuzzled against her chest, but after a moment she finally stopped shifting.
The man who lay beside the woman silently apologized to her before deftly prying the child from her arms, making her tense up in the dream-filled sleep.
After a moment she finally went back to normal, unaware of her worst nightmare coming true.
The man stood, baby clenched in his arms before he suddenly started walking away, leaving the woman by herself.
As morning broke, she opened up her eyes, excited to greet another day with her newborn.
Only, she found nothing.
She quickly sat up, and began panicking as she looked around.
"Aegeus!?!" She called out her child's name in a panic, looking around herself before diving into the water to see if he had fallen into the water perhaps.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally surfaced, and let out a scream only a mother who had lost her child could.
==Artoria Pendragon four years later===
Footsteps rang through the long corridor as a messenger approached the massive double doors that led into the Throne room on Camelot's capital.
The guards on either side of the massive door all moved their position to stand at either side of it, before two of them pushed to open either side, letting the messenger inside the Throne room.
Marble pillars held up a vaulted ceiling, and a lavish red carpet ran down the center of the great hall.
On both sides of the room, large holes were cut out of the wall where each Noble family would sit when court was in session.
The messenger's footsteps rang through the great hall as he walked towards a figure seated on the Throne on a raised dais, who was covered in shadow.
Reaching the foot of the dais, the messenger knelt, his left hand going to the pommel of his sword to keep it from getting in his way as he knelt.
"My King," The messenger spoke.
"We have just received word from Sir Lancelot, and his spies. The Warlord and her troops are on the move south." The messenger stated.
The figure of the Throne hummed to themselves before a man who stood next to the Throne leaned it, and whispered something.
"Very well." The King's voice said, distorted and deep.
"The Lord Merlin has advised me of a village that holds something of some importance that he has gleaned. Prepare Llamrei!" The King commanded as they stood before gripping their sword by the scabbard, and strapping it to their waist before walking down the great hall.
===
Mounting Llamrei, Artoria pulled herself into the saddle, and motioned her troops forward with her arm.
"Forward!"
All at once, the army moved forward like a well oiled machine, quickly riding through the city towards the gate.
Men, women, and children lined the cobblestone road as they cheered their King and loved one that made up the army.
Roses were thrown onto the road as the Knights passed by, and they waved to loved ones as they called their names.
Finally leaving the gate, Llamrei picked up speed, and the army followed, galloping across into the lands of Camelot.
Their journey took them a full day before they reached their first destination.
Smoke rose to the sky as they neared the village, and the smell of burnt corpses hit their noses.
"Your Majesty!" A voice from the trees drew Artoria's eyes to beyond the treeline, and focused on the Knight approaching from the trees.
"Sir Lancelot. What news do you bring?" Her distorted voice said.
Lancelot reached Llamrei's side, and he looked up to his King before looking towards the smoke that drifted over the trees.
"We watched them burn the village after slaughtering the inhabitants. Every man, woman, and child. One of the mages walked around with some sort of orb, pulling what looked like white smoke from the bodies. We didn't engage per your orders." He said, looking up at his King once more.
"Good," The King's distorted voice said.
"You didn't have enough men to take them all on. I'm glad you took heed of my warnings."
"Always my Lord." Lancelot said, bowing his head.
Motioning the army forward once more, they left the protection of the treeline, and trotted to the burning village.
"My God. Such savagery." One of the Knights said as he surveyed the scene in front of them all.
"Spread out and search for anyone who might have survived!" Artoria called to the regiment closest to her. They all saluted, and went about their grizzly work.
She discounted Llamrei, and went to the horse's head before patting it's muscular jaw with a gauntleted hand.
Walking away from the horse, Artoria walked past the burnt bodies of her people.
Houses creaked before collapsing in on themselves as the King of Knights walked by, but she only spared them a quick glance.
Fire raged around her as she walked, but she didn't see anyone around, let alone anyone from the Warlords army.
The fire continued to crackle before one of the house doors that were still standing burst open, revealing a man who ran at Artoria with a woodcutter's ax.
The man was tall and burly, but his face was filled with fear as he ran at Artoria.
He gave a shout to invigorate himself as he swung the Ax, only for it to be caught by the king, stopping it dead with her left hand.
Her right came up and grabbed the man by the throat before hoisting him into the air, letting his feet dangle beneath him.
The King then threw the man to the ground before standing over him.
"Tell me, what happened here?" Artoria demanded.
The man was coughing as his left hand rubbed his throat before looking up at the armor clad King, fear filling his face.
"They came into the village, and slaughtered everyone!" The man said in a raspy voice.
"Who did?" Artoria asked.
The man just shook his head in fear before the King bent over and grabbed the man by his shirt before vigorously shaking him, screaming his question one more.
"A K- Knight in b- black armor!" The man said in a hurry, stuttering over his words.
"They rode into the village and began slaughtering everyone they could. They killed my wife, and took my children!" He said, tears rolling down his face.
Artoria stood back up and looked around him at the burning village. It was definitely the Warlords doing.
"I- I couldn't do anything to stop them! I hid under some floorboards in my home until they were gone like a coward!" The man said through his sobs.
The King didn't say anything to him after hearing his words, and started walking away.
The man wailed and clawed at his soot covered face before turning back towards his house, crawling back into it before it collapsed on top of him. His screams filled the air before finally going quiet, a recompense for his cowardice.
Artoria continued to walk through the village, listening for any sounds of survivors.
Soon she came upon the village center, where the massacre was the worst.
Men, older women, and crippled children lay in the dirt and mud made by blood.
Bodies lay in disheveled states, having been ransacked after being tortured or murdered.
In the center of it all lay a large stone with a child chained to it. His back was a mess of blood and hanging flesh, having been whipped to the bone.
Worst of all was the giant brand that covered his back after having been whipped.
It was the Dragon of Camelot, Artoria's very own crest.
She clenched her fist, and shook slightly at the sight before her knights joined her, all coming to a stop as they took in the grizzly work before them.
"By the Gods." Sir Percival said, coming to stand by his king.
"Such evil. This is definitely the work of the Warlord." Artoria said.
Something in the scene before them moved, and it drew everyone's attention.
"Did that boy just move?" Lancelot asked, coming to a stop beside Arthur.
Their King was the first to move, slowly walking through the mountains of corpses as she deftly made her way to the child.
As she got closer, she could see the fresh stream of tears rolling down the child's face, running down the rock after rolling from his cheeks.
The child couldn't have been more than three or four years old, and when Artoria saw the child open his eyes she quickly turned around and motioned his knights forward.
She knelt down next to the boy, taking in his unfortunate state. The child began to weep as he gently tugged on the chains holding him bound.
"It hurts" The child whispered, his eyes finding the kings.
Artoria snapped the chains with one of her hands before the child let out a whimper, having been stuck in the same position for who knows how long.
Fresh blood started to leak from the boy's back as the scabs tore, causing him to cry harder.
"It hurts, make it stop!" The child said innocently, not understanding why the Knight in front of him wasn't doing anything.
"It hurts-" The child before Artoria kept repeating.
"Help is on the way, come here." Artoria said, picking the boy up as gently as she could. The boy whimpered as more of the scabs on his back tore open as she picked him up, but he mostly tried to stay silent.
He wrapped his arms around the King's neck, and wept silently into her neck as the King brought him back with her, the knights parting for her as she walked back.
Artoria turned to the rest of them and ordered them to keep searching for survivors as she brought the child to one of her mages who was proficient in healing magic.
"Come here child." One of the women said to the boy, holding her hands out to him.
The boy didn't budge from the King, tightening his hold on Artoria's neck.
"Come now, little one, she will help you." The King said in her distorted voice.
The child kept clinging to her neck, so she looked at the woman before her and asked her to proceed as she held the little boy.
She complied, and began to do what she could to heal the boys back before a frown came to her face.
She shook her head for a moment before beginning again, but after a couple moments she stopped.
"I- I'm sorry my lord, I can't heal him for some reason." She said before taking a knife from her waist. She gently cut her finger before wiping the knife on her robe and sheathing it. She then used her now free hand to perform the healing spell, which immediately took effect.
"I don't understand." She said, confused.
"My magic is working fine, but on him, it doesn't." She finished.
Artoria thought for a moment before asking for a chair to be brought to her. She sat down once it had, and commanded that they use the old ways of cleaning and healing the wounds on the boy's back.
"Hold tight to me." Artoria said into the boy's ear, and felt his little arms tighten around his neck.
Artoria gave the woman a nod, and she began to go about her gruesome work.
The child in her arms flinched and started whimpering as the medic cut away the hanging flesh, and used clean water to flush the blood from his back.
The boy had put Artoria in a position where she was forced to hold him, as he wouldn't let go of her neck. She resigned herself to her fate, and let the diluted blood pour onto her lap, unable to do anything about it.
At one point the child almost broke her neck with his own strength when the healer cut off a particularly painful piece of flesh before he eased up a small bit.
She breathed a sigh of relief as he did, and after about an hour the woman tending to the boy's back stood up, and told her she had done all she could. Even going as far as to heal the child after his wounds had been cleaned and dressed to see if it would work that time, but it didn't.
"There's nothing more that I can do." She said as she stood back.
'Maybe Morgan could take a look at him when we get back.' Artoria thought to herself as she thought about her sister.
The two had had a rocky relationship ever since Mordred was born, but the threat of the Warlord had forced them to reconcile for the time while they dealt with the threat She posed.
Artoria stood from her chair with the boy still clinging to her chest as she thanked the woman before she turned to her knights of the round table.
"Come here boy." Agravain said, stepping towards his King to remove the boy from her chest.
The child wouldn't move, and as Agravain tried harder, Artoria stopped him.
"It's fine Agravain. Leave the child be." She said in her distorted voice.
The Knight bowed his head before stepping back into line, and waiting for his King to give her next order.
Artoria walked over to her horse, and hoisted herself and the boy into the saddle before looking across her knights.
"Move out!" She commanded.
She pulled the reins to the left before Llamrei started to trot out of the village.
"I noticed your absence in all of this." She said to the rider who pulled up beside her.
Merlin was devoid of his usual smile as he looked at the boy clinging to Artoria's neck, but made no comment on him.
"Just surveying the area my King, nothing more." He answered.
Artoria just grunted, deciding to drop the matter, as she didn't want to get into it with him at the moment