Juno had fought through more battles than she would have ever thought possible. Regardless of the fact that her homeland had been embroiled in a war for thousands of years, the constant combat was unbelievable.

And yet ever since she had joined Zodiac, she had spilt more blood with her axe, either againt foes in the beaches of her homeland, the sea and even upon the shores of Norsydayn. And now she found herself applying the trade of death and madness in some universe were myth and story were made flesh.

She grasped ahold of Garnash, her axe made from the bone of an ancient dragon and with a wet thud she pulled it out of the skull of her recent foe.

Looking down at the bloody remains of the knight, she wondered when she become numb to such extreme brutality that she had taken his right arm just before slamming her battleaxe into his skull.

"This is war, girl. It is not pretty." her sister's words reverberated through her mind and she sighed as she looked around to the carnage and madness around her.

Another Camelot burned this day, it's defenders bodies littering the ground in the thousands as Zodiac's air carriers bloated out the sun. Over the sounds of the groaning dead as the defenders last stand finally ended was the wailing of those that they had given their lives to defend.

They were led away from the burning remains of their homes and upon the blood soaked ground in chains to the transport carriers. Some tried to resist and the guards were not mercifull with them.

And this was all from outside the city, she wondered just what type of hell had befallen this cities interiors. Sometimes she puffed up her chest in indignation when her older sister, Ulfihild, used her authority as Leo to keep her outside of the walls of these battles, but looking at all this, she was glad not to witness it.

"Gar-Freya... come in." her helmets communication systems flared up dragging her out of the melodic trance this tragedy held over her.

"This is Gar-Freya." she responded.

"Get to the inner city, the Lady demands the presence of all her attendants." the communications officer responded.

"She sighed and began her trek into the skeleton of the once prosperous city. Everywhere she looked there were corpses of a hundred defenders of Camelot against ten Lunar Empire warriors who had died in this mad melee.

A few last defenders came through whatever bunkers that they had created to defend themselves. Their doomed last runs were cut short by the Zodiac troops who used their firearms which tore through them.

Juno didn't even need to use her axe against the suicidal fools crawling out of the woodworks. She moved through the twisted husk of the city and to the heart of the city where the castle or at least it's burnt husk remained.

Around it were piles of bodies, intermixed between the warriors of Zodiac and Camelot in greater amounts than she had witnessed across the entire city.

"The fighting must have been at its strongest here." she thought as she climbed over the bodies and into the dead castle which was only occupied by alive Zodiac warriors.

"Gar-Freya!" she heard her sister shout and looking at the Zodiac of Leo, Juno was taken aback.

Her sister's armour was cracked and dented in areas with a splattering of blood which Juno suspected was a mixer between her own and those victims who had stained her great sword crimson red.

"Var-Leo, I have received a communication that our lady needs my services." she stated respectfully.

"Is that so," Ulfihild responded with a sigh as she took off her helmet to reveal a face covered in sweat and wincing in pain.

"They were strong." Juno stated as she remembered just how many times she had almost been killed in the battle outside.

"Stronger than most other Camelots we have taken down." Ulfihild replied whilst unstrapping her right wrist guard and Juno could see that her blue Fae flesh had taken a darker shade, a clear sign of bruising.

Ulfihild continued speaking, "Their Knights of the round table packed one hell of a punch. I think their Gawain broke my damn wrist."

"I would have helped stop that if I was in here with you."

Even while wincing in pain, Ulfihild sent that familiar glare which had shut Juno up from as long as she was mentally cognitive enough to realize that her older sister was upset and it was time for her to shut up.

"Gar-Freya, we shall not have this discussion any longer." Ulfihild... no, the Leo of Zodiac ordered her without any room of arguments. "Now, let us go and meet the lady."

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Fortunately the throne room was close by, unfortunately it was filled with both Zodiac and Night Terrors. She could see those foul things crawling across the floors and walls of the shattered remains of the throneroom.

Some had already given to their base instincts and they had already began tearing into the flesh of the dead defenders of Camelot. Thankfully they avoided those dead Zodiacs, probably because Lady Nimue with the Zodiacs and the remaining attendants stood within the room with the last surviving warriors of Camelot on their knees.

"Ah, the great Leo, you have finally decided to join us," Malath the Dullahan mockingly declared as they stepped into the room. "Right after picking up her little sister from the safety of the edge of battle."

Juno felt her body heat up as anger began boiling like a torrent within. "Watch your tongue creature. I was in the thick of it fighting just like you were."

"Has the young pup deluded herself into thinking that she has fangs." the headless creature responded with a mocking mixture of a snarl and a smile.

"Then let this pup show you her fangs." she took a step forward with her axe ready to start swinging should it come to that and she really wanted it to come to that.

"Gar-Freya, Malath, please behave," Nimue lazily called from the king's throne upon which she sat.

"Run along to your Lady, little girl." the headless creature whispered before walking away and she was tempted to hack her axe into his back.

"Do not let him get to you, go to the Lady." Ulfihild whispered to her and with much hesitation she was forced to walk towards the thrones and take her place as attendant behind the lady.

She looked at the bound and kneeling last Knights of this Camelot. Even bloodied and beaten, they still looked every bit defiant and Juno would have been impressed were it not for the fact that many of her countrymen had died to this pointless defiance.

"Out of all the Arthurs I have fought and slaughtered and trust me, I have crushed thousands upon thousands of you," Nimue spoke with a chuckle that was intermixed with a smoldering rage. "Very few have ever given me a run for my money, but that is not as good for you as you might imagine."

The old king grinned at the complement, showing off his bloodied teeth which were missing a few of their number. The other five men and women around him besides did not seem in as good spirits as this Arthur.

"I always aim to impress, Nimue. You treacherous she devil!" he snapped at her letting out a mixture of spit and blood.

"I wonder if having an entire layer of reality dedicated to yourselves is what inspires this level of sheer ego in all you Arthurs. I can't fathom how any of my counterparts in these sections put up with for so long." Nimue rose from her throne and a wide grin was plastered on her face.

"Shall we take them away for harvesting?" Gemini asked her.

"Not yet, I believe that a lesson needs to be taught to our dear Arthur and his table of ignorant stooges," Lady Nimue spoke with an almost deranged chuckle. "Which one of you happens to have ties to my counterpart."

"I Lancelot D'lake was raised by the Lady and you witch are a poor imitation of..." the bound man on the right never got to finish as a dark purple blur collided with his body sending blood and entrails splattering across the floor.

"Never had a Lancelot, but you lot talk too much," Nimue whispered to the shocked and dying man as she pulled her hand out of his stomach, with its contents following afterwards.

The arm in question was now purple with black pulsating veins that ran across her body. Her mouth was stuck mid transition into fangs and upon her face was a cruel smile.

Juno could see the similar looks of shock upon the faces of everyone else as they looked at the twisted monster wearing their Lady's face infront of them. Juno shivered both from the unnatural cold which rolled through the room and from the sight of her Lady savagely tearing apart the Arthur's companions with a beastial sadism.

After she had finished ripping the limbs off the last Camelot warrior, the gore covered Nimue turned to face the Arthur who sat in a shocked silence. Juno shared it with him, this was something that she had never imagined that she would see Nimue do.

"Look at me, Arthur." she said with a grin as she wrapped her hands around his head and she began clamping down.

The Arthur screamed in pain as his skull began caving from the pressure that Nimue applied from both sides of his head.

"Where is that defiance!" Nimue mockingly demanded as she crushed the Arthur's head and it finally caved into a violent splattering of blood, brain, flesh and bone.

"Be sure to plunder this place, we might leave with Arthur, but their enchanted tools will be useful." She declared before walking out of room, leaving them all in silence.

XXXXXXX

The next hour, Juno was search through the lower levels of the palace through a mixture of water, soot and the crumbled up sections of the dungeon.

She had joined the other attendants in searching for whatever magical trinkets the court of Camelot had buried down here. So far she found nothing more than a spear which always had a trickle of blood running down its speartip.

After handing it over to one of the other attendant, she went deeper and deeper into the underbelly of the palace alone. Trying her best to ignore what had just happened in the throneroom above.

And yet no matter what she did, the image of Lady Nimue, her physical visage altered forever and her form caked in blood kept returning to her mind. She had never seen such a clear sign of madness from the always calm and collected Nimue.

" It is those Night Terrors doing, they are the reason that she is acting out of character." she thought as she traged through knee high waters.

"Be silent!" she heard someone shout and she paused.

Crouching low, she drew her bone axe and she slowly stalked through the darkness, looking for the voice. Once again she heard another voice filter through the air and she followed it to a wall that was damaged with holes through it.

Juno slowly placed her eye against one of the holes and she looked into a room in which she saw her sister, Gemini, Virgo and Libra.

"Do you even comprehend what you are suggesting!" Virgo snapped at Gemini.

The Zodiac of beauty was only half right in that title. She now wore her cold iron mask only on the right side of her face, because while Juno had not seen the aftermath, she knew that the Avalonian crown princess Alpha-Spell had burnt some parts of her body.

"I am fully aware of the situation which I have found myself in, Virgo. I want to know if I can say the same about you."

"I am aware that you are talking about potentially committing treason against the Lady."

"As if this is a first time," Ulfihild sarcastically whispered.

"And you two," Virgo angrily pointed at Ulfihild and Libra. "Why are you two even entertaining this stupidity."

"Virgo, you saw exactly why we are doing this. I have had my doubts since we began taking extreme actions for project Apotheosis." Libra spoke in his usual calm voice. "But after what we saw above, how can you not see that preventative measures have to be taken to not just protect Zodiac, but also our Lady from herself."

"She has a little dark energy within her, which might I add she is going to purge out of herself and here you three are acting as if she is going to join those things in eating corpses." Virgo slammed her fist in the nearest wall during her impassioned defence of their Lady.

"And if we continue down the path of what happened today we will no different from the Night Terrors in no time." Ulfihild spoke and Juno could not believe what she was hearing. "As hard as it is to believe, we might need to keep a potential back channel to the Empire before things get out of hand."

Virgo scoffed, "Things are perfectly fine."

"Don't delude yourself, Virgo. I might not like you but you are not a fool." Gemini sharply responded. "You might not have heard yet, but Scorpio is dead."

"Excuse me?"

"Our comrades little rampage up north ended and according to the word that I am recieving, it was by the Avalonian prince." as Gemini spoke, Juno's scar began to burn at the sound of Avalonian prince. "So not only has Avalon found us here, but we have lost one of our rank, our largest aircraf carrier and as far as I have been updated, we have lost over eight thousand troops and rising. We are at the tipping edge and any slight thing will send us over into failure."

Virgo did not immediately attempt to defend the lady like Juno expected her to do. The Zodiac of beauty remained silent in deep contemplation before responding. "Even If we are right, what do you suggest we do?"

Juno gasped as she heard the continued conversation of treachery continued on until the four traitors left. And yet try as she might to turn and run back to Lady Nimue and report what she heard, she was stopped by the thought. "Are they right?"