Chapter 7: The end of an era

King Mufasa's miraculous recovery was like a miracle to the Crusaders, but for Arthur, he is none too pleased to hear the news but still he must keep up his apparent loyalty to Mufasa. Once again the Crusaders march to Jerusalem, but when they reach the fortress that stands before them and the city, Mufasa knows that they have fight through this one. Inside the fortress, Beleram and his army have readied the catapults with oil projectiles. The men were also issued with small oil grenades to throw at the enemies, the newly formed Naffatun were steeling themselves for the worst to come at them. "Our Naffatuns are ready mighty Sultan. As soon as the Crusaders come we will give them hell." Issa excitedly reported to the sultan. "Very well then, let us hope that this is the decisive victory that we've been waiting for." the Crusaders soon make their move upon the fortress. They advanced behind the protection of their siege towers, their archers rain down hails of arrows on the defenders inside the fortress, their catapults began to bombard the fortress's walls and towers. "Fire!" Beleram screeched out and his men began to let loose their fire bombs, from the hand throwing bombs to the mighty canon balls of the catapults. The Crusaders soon came under unrelenting fire and their siege towers were being burned to smithereens. "M'lord our siege towers are being destroyed!" Zazu's observation was right on the money, the siege towers were being burned to the ground and to make matters worst, the battering ram was also burned, huge chunks of flaming woods fell down on top of the Crusaders causing their formation to broke. "Reform you cowards! Get back here and take Jerusalem!" Arthur shouted to his men, but when he notices a shadow that was cast over him, he realized that a siege tower was falling down on him, without a moment to let reality sink in to him, the siege tower buried him under a huge pile of burning logs.

Mufasa was none too please to see his men defeated he was forced to call a retreat and led his men back to a safe place to camp. At night the battered Crusaders all felt the dread of being on enemy's land and unable to defend themselves from the inevitable attack, Fiona was tending to the wounded of the battle, when she saw a corpse that was being thrown into a pit for a cremation. She can made out the skunk features on the corpse and eventually she realized that it was Arthur, dead before he can see glory. She races to Mufasa's tent and when she arrives she collapsed to her knees and inform the Lionheart of the death Arthur. "Your majesty, Arthur is dead, his corpse has been identified. He was truly the traitor that we've been hunting for." So, your trusted ally Arthur betrayed you for the glory promised to him by my brother. This campaign was nothing more but a method to get rid of me by Scar. Mufasa deduced every single details that was left unanswered, he was gloomy and felt shattered when everything has come to the light that all that he had done was a scheme to get himself kill by his own brother. Back in the sultan's palace the generals were planning to launch another attack to finish off the Crusaders and drive them out of the Holy Land for good. "I say we attack now and teach them a lesson for invading us." Armenel said, Issa was also eager to agree with Armenel for once. "What say you mighty sultan? Shall we strike the finishing blow on our enemies?" Beleram wasn't in the mood for fighting at the moment, in fact he wasn't wearing his armor and helmet. Instead of fighting he gave them an order they did not expect. "We shall not fight tonight. We will pray, tell our Christian brothers and the inhabitants of the city to have a merry Christmas." The generals were excited to hear that they will have a rare chance to celebrate their respective holidays.

Soon the mosques were chanting "Allahu Akbar", the churches were full of Christian faithfuls attending their Christmas sermon, the choir were singing "O come all ye faithful". The snow was falling from the sky, on that very evening, and at Mufasa's camp, every soldiers can hear the sounds of the choir, the voice of angels calling for peace among men, they all laid down their arms, they came to their knees and pray for god to forgive their sins for they have learn to be humble and to let go of their misguided hatred. Mufasa walks alone to Jerusalem, he saw at his feet, were countless corpses of the Muslim and Crusaders who all die for Jerusalem, now they have no differences between them. When the two kings have come to met each other in the sultan's palace in Jerusalem, "My sultan, I know that there has been misunderstanding between us, there have been conflicts but we must come to the conclusion that all wise men would come to. On my way here I saw countless corpses, I can't tell which one is Muslim or Crusaders. This campaign no longer has any meaning.", Beleram offers Mufasa a cup of tea before he impart his knowledge. "It doesn't take a Lionheart to go to war and win victory. I fear that you might fallen to the Mufasa that fight for vanity and glory. But I thank you for being the Mufasa that I imagine, honorable, noble and chivalrous. A Mufasa who sacrifice his dignity for the sake of his men." Mufasa took a deep breath, letting his defeat sinks in before he let out a question to Beleram. "Do you have any victory condition victorious sultan Beleram?" Beleram did not exact a crushing condition or two on Mufasa but he kept his calm and tell Mufasa his victory condition. "I ask for no condition. I only want you to withdraw your men from the Holy Land. For this is our land. But you are always welcome back here as a faithful pilgrim. Go tell your people of your conquest, tell them around the camp fire of your struggle. So that a thousand generations will still remember your deeds."

And so it was in that night, that two titans of two world made peace with each other, their soldiers rejoice for the end of their war, soldiers go back to be farmers, the knights retired to their castles and keeps, the horses return to their staples. For Beleram the bloodshed and losses he went through were terrible things that no man can take for granted, neither he nor Mufasa enjoys each other's miseries. He can only hope that the future generations learn from the mistakes that the two made in the Third Crusade so that the same conflict will never come forth again. For Mufasa, it was neither victory nor defeat, for the two agree with each other that Mufasa would leave Holy Land but Jerusalem would open its doors to all pilgrims and the Muslim promised that they will protect all pilgrims who come across the land. For Issa, his love for Fiona proves strong, at long last, they are reunited in Jerusalem after Mufasa left the city, their love prove to be union of two worlds.