Chapter 34: Avalon

A flashback shows a very young Askeladd spooning food to his frail mother Lydia in a barn. He asks whether Avalon is a real place, and she describes a paradise far across the western sea, an island of endless spring where fairies dwell, untouched by age and death. There, she says, their ancestor Artorius mends his wounds and will one day return to rescue their people from suffering. As mice creep into the near-empty bowl, Lydia lifts a trembling hand to her son's face and charges him that when the warrior and true king comes back, Askeladd must serve him as both his wisdom and his sword.

In the present, Askeladd goes on cutting through his former men, driving two fingers into one attacker's eyes while telling himself to stay patient and wait for Thorkell's arrival to unleash the chaos he needs to slip away. An axe strikes his backplate and he loses his temper, cleaving the man in two and roaring that it hurt. The onlookers freeze, stunned that he split a helmeted foe with a mere sword. Askeladd sighs at himself for cracking after a single blow, apologizes for shouting, and beckons them on, but the men answer by readying their bows.

Askeladd calls out to Torgrim, warning that he too is mortal but that Bjorn and Thorfinn may still carve through the pursuers, so if the goal is the prince, the smarter play is to take Askeladd alive and trade him to Bjorn. Torgrim instead orders the archers to target his legs, and arrows bury themselves in his arm, legs, and thighs. Approaching, Torgrim marvels that this desperate figure is nothing like the Askeladd who once pulled them out of hopeless odds, and asks why he would risk his life for a craven prince. Bloodied, Askeladd hauls himself upright on his sword and answers that, out of time and out of patience, he could no longer wait for the true king to return from Avalon, a name that leaves the men baffled.

Torgrim turns to order the men behind him to bind Askeladd, but they topple forward, dead, arrows in their backs. Thorkell and his warriors have arrived. Waving cheerfully, Thorkell asks which of them is Askeladd, and the captain quips that he needs an appointment first. Nearby, Thorfinn reins in his horse, takes in the scene of a bloodied Askeladd crouched in the snow with Thorkell steps away, draws his father's shortsword, and charges with a scream.

A flashback establishes the legend of Artorius and Avalon that Lydia instilled in the young Askeladd. In the present, Askeladd loses control and cuts a helmeted attacker in half. Torgrim orders the archers to cripple his legs, and multiple arrows bring him down. Askeladd cryptically cites the true king of Avalon as his reason for holding on. Thorkell's warriors arrive and kill the traitors from behind, and Thorfinn charges into the scene sword drawn.

This Volume 5 chapter is adapted within Episode 17 and bears the Japanese title Avaron. Its flashback ties Askeladd's lineage to Lucius Artorius Castus, the Roman-era figure his mother frames as a messianic king, giving weight to his later actions and self-image. The Avalon legend, a deliberate echo of Arthurian myth, recurs as a touchstone for Askeladd's sense of purpose throughout the arc.