A/N: Thank you everyone who is still reading this! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter. If you have a minute, please leave a review. I don't own "Merlin".

Merlin was too late. He wasn't able to do anything, but to watch the Once and Future King get swallowed by the bloodthirsty abyss...

The Prince of Aria was too distracted to notice that Gryrefáh was right behind him. While the knights were doing everything they could to prevent the monster from killing innocent warriors, the young warlock was thrown to the other side of the path, which just a few minutes before that, was blocked by the creature. Merlin decided to take advantage of the situation and look at whatever it was that Gryrefáh was hiding, but the moment he turned his head in that direction, he felt that something started strangling him. Merlin wanted to cry for help, but something unexpected happened.

'Arthur!' Merlin heard himself shouting. And to his surprise he heard Arthur calling his name a few seconds later... Something was wrong. Arthur fell into the abyss. He was supposed to be dead... Unless...

Merlin closed his eyes and concentrated on keeping all the thoughts out of his mind. Then taking a deep breath and tried to find his magic within his body. He felt that his whole body relaxed and in no time the young warlock was ready to resume the battle. But this time he knew what to do, because now he understood what was going on. The power, which was holding him a few moments ago, couldn't do anything to hurt him.

Emrys stood up. He felt his magic in his blood. He was magic himself. And nothing could stop him. Morgana wants to play? So be it. Only this time they will be playing by his rules. He raised his hand and cast a spell. The warlock's voice was loud and clear.

'áscínan bréosthord!'

After everyone stopped and tried to understand what was happening, Merlin spoke up.

'Gryrefáh is playing with our minds. It knows our fears and does everything in his power for those fears to come true. But they come true only in our heads. It hypnotises us and we start to believe that everything going on in our minds is happening in reality. The only thing that is real here is that abyss. Don't let your own fears lead you there. My spell will protect you for some time, but not for long. Try to clear your mind and not to think about anything. That way Gryrefáh won't have any power over you.'

'But how should we defeat it? Even if Gryrefáh stays away from us, we don't have anything against him.' said Arthur, who was a bit scared, but all in all alive and healthy.

'I believe that Morgana held a special ritual here. This whole place exists because of it. To kill Gryrefáh, we need to destroy the heart of the ritual.'

'The heart?' asked Percival, confused.

'It can be anything. A cloak, a pot or a piece of jewellery.' answered Sir Bran.

'But it's something on which the main spell was laid. But, Merlin, it could be hidden anywhere. And we don't have much time left.'

'It has to be somewhere near, in this cave.' said Merlin. 'This place wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the magic of the ritual. So the heart has to be hidden here. The creature doesn't allow us to get to the other side of the path, so I think the heart should be somewhere there.'

That second they heard the sound of the hooves and the cries of the souls.

'The knights of horror!' exclaimed Culhwch. 'We can't allow them to get into the repository!'

Before panic raised, Arthur took control over the situation.

'We need to use our forces wisely. Leon, Lancelot and Gwaine, you are coming with me and Merlin.'

'Muiris, Bran, please join us.' said Merlin.

'Culhwch, can you and your knights take care of the knights of horror?' asked Arthur.

'Yes, Arthur.' replied Culhwch. He gathered some of his knights to come with him and to others ordered to stay with the knights of Camelot and Airia.

After the warriors were divided into three parties, Merlin once more said that they should keep all the thoughts out of the mind.

'And one more thing.' said the Prince of Airia. 'Once we find and destroy the heart of the ritual, we have only a few minutes to leave this place, so be careful.'

A few moments later, the power of Merlin's spell faded and the magical shield, which was protecting the knights from Gryrefáh's energy, was gone.

Merlin blocked his thoughts and concentrated on his magic. He needed to distract Gryrefáh, in order to get to the other side of the path. The knights were trying to provide that distraction, by drawing Gryrefáh's attention to themselves. And, fortunately, it worked. The second Gryrefáh got away from the road, Arthur, Merlin and their knights got to the road.

Before their eyes was a huge labyrinth with a few entrances and thousands of meandering passages.

'I hope it wasn't my fear of labyrinths that caused this.' said Gwaine, pointing at one of the entrances.

Seven knights looked at each other and headed to one of the entrances. Inside the labyrinth it was dark, but Merlin created some light to guide them.

Meanwhile, Culhwch and his knights were fighting with the knights of horror. Culhwch, being a great swordsman, was having trouble holding the immortal knights. Despite his young age, Culhwch was in many battles. His father taught him to use a sword at a very early age and since then, Culhwch considered sword as an extension of his own hand. Culhwch and Arthur weren't very close, even though they were related. But even if they didn't know that, they were very alike. Culhwch trained each of his knights himself and knew that if needed, they would die for him. But Arthur's knights weren't only loyal warriors to him. They were his friends. Culhwch thought of his men like good swordsmen and great warriors, nothing more. That was the only difference between the cousins.

At the same time as Culhwch was doing everything in his power to stop the knights of horror, Guarin and Elyan led the knights of three kingdoms to the battle with Gryrefáh. They tried to buy some time for others to find the heart of the ritual. Not thinking about anything and distracting the creature was hard, especially when the monster's eyes were looking straight into your soul...

Back in the labyrinth, the knights were deciding what to do. The labyrinth itself wasn't a big problem, but there wasn't enough time. One wrong step and a chance to save the souls is gone. Then Sir Muiris made a few steps forward and stopped.

'I think we rely not on our eyes, but on our ears to guide us.' said the old warrior. 'There are two ways. When I go in that direction,' he pointed to the left passage, 'the sounds of my steps are clear, and they don't meet any obstacles on the way. That means the passage is clear. But when I go in the opposite direction, the sounds of my steps are stopped. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I don't see any other option.' concluded the knight.

'It's worth a try.' replied Merlin. 'I can make all the noises louder, so it will be easier to hear. Geþun!'

The second Merlin cast the spell, all the noises became louder and more clear. They slowly made their way, carefully listening to every single sound.

Soon they went out of the labyrinth. In front of them was a massive table, made of stone. On the table was a wooden box, covered in ancient symbols and ornaments. To their surprise, nothing was guarding the box. Arthur opened it and looked inside.

'It's a human's heart!' he exclaimed, turning to the other knights.

'It's low even for Morgana.' said Merlin quietly.

That moment they heard people shouting and felt the wind blowing. Only that wasn't the wind, it was Gryrefáh. The knights couldn't hold him any longer and it was coming through the labyrinth.

'Arthur! We need to destroy the heart! Just pierce it with your sword!' cried Merlin.

He barely had enough time to say that phrase, when Gryrefáh appeared. Everything was happening too quickly, and the second the King of Camelot raised his sword, Gryrefáh would have knocked him down, if it wasn't for Sir Muiris, who jumped in the way, closing Arthur with his own body...

A few more seconds and the heart of the ritual was destroyed. The walls started shaking and the walls of the labyrinth began falling down stone by stone. Abyss appeared in the places where the floor has collapsed. It began to engulf Gryrefáh's energy.

Merlin rushed to Muiris, hoping that there was still a chance to save him. But his soul left the body. Gryrefáh took it with him... Merlin looked at the lifeless body of his friend and teacher, tears were forming in his eyes.

'Merlin, we need to get out of here!' said Leon, helping the prince to get up.

'I'm not leaving Muiris here!' said Merlin.

Bran and Lancelot helped him to get the body and made their way out of the horrible place. Souls were flying away and the box, where children's souls were, was now broken and empty.

The knights went out just in time to see the cave completely destroyed.