Chapter 10 – Aftermath of the Void of Demise

Knuckles

"Why do you need me to stay here Nimue?" asked Knuckles as Bedwyr left in search of Sonic. The area around the Shrouded Forest and Misty Lake had become as dark as the twilight of approaching night, even though it was only the middle of the day. "Holy crap! What the hell is that?" Knuckles pointed towards a variety of dark sword, shield, and lance wielding knights that slowly approached the Misty Lake.

"Those are the Knights of the Underworld, a dark army that is only summoned by an equally Dark power of our world. Sir Sonic's reckless use of the Dark-Surge caused them to appear, but it appears to only be a few hundred give or take a hundred instead of thousands…"

"Did you say hundreds instead of thousands? Oh boy, I guess now's the perfect time to get back in shape!" exclaimed Knuckles as he rushed into battle with Galatine in his two hands.

"Wait, let me help you…" weakly said Tails as he struggled to stand from the stone bench.

"Squire Tails, you mustn't force yourself," said Nimue, "You still need to rest…"

As Tails sighed and sat back down he thought, "Lately it seems that all I do is just sit on the sidelines and give advice that half of the time people already know… What happened to the old days where I would actually be right behind Sonic and help him directly in battles? As soon as I get well enough I'll be sure to help in actual combat better, besides, it seemed that Sonic was getting mad because of my recklessness…"

Bedwyr

"Are… these the Knights of the Underworld that Sonic fought off long ago?" asked Bedwyr as he slashed through a Lance-wielding Knight in Cavalier-Form.

"It appears so," answered Aquarion, "Perhaps Sir Sonic's Darkness consumed him…"

"You don't think he'll become another Black Knight do you Aquarion?"

"Sir Sonic? Impossible! He's the true King Arthur after all! Anyways, let's hurry to his location immediately!"

Bedwyr rushed through the trees and clearings of the Shrouded Forest as he slashed through any Knights of the Underworld with Aquarion. As he approached the tunnel in the giant tree he found a wide but shallow crater surrounded by a small legion of Underworld Knights. "Get away from there monsters! Aqua-Cannon!" With a high pressured Aqua-Cannon, followed by a series of Cavalier-style slashes, he cleared the crater of enemies. As he looked inside he found the Blue Hedgehog bruised and knocked out with Caliburn fractured in several parts of his hilt and blade. "Sonic? Caliburn? Oh no… Are we too late Aquarion?"

"Don't be a knave at a time like this Bedwyr! They're still alive, but they do appear to be on the brink of death… Let's get them to the Lady of the Lake immediately! Only she can cure them now," responded Aquarion with haste. Then in a lower tone he added, "Just like the Bedwyr before us, we'll return the holy sword to the Lady of the Lake while King Arthur is mortally wounded…"

"That's true… But this time we need King Arthur to stay to complete the task at hand… Let's go Aquarion; to the Misty Lake once more!"

"Whoa, what got into me back there…" thought Sonic as he was knocked out, "Was that the Dark power?"

"Indeed," replied the illusion of the Black Knight as he appeared before Sonic, "you released the Dark power when you felt the sorrow of your brother heavily injured. Although that emotion means nothing to me, it appeared to have triggered the Darkness for you… Anyways, did you feel empowered by the Darkness?"

"It felt like I wanted to continue destroying everything around me to get revenge for Tails… Did I?"

"You swiftly overkilled 5 Metal replicas of the Knights of the Round; I believe you did Knave…"

"Then why am I knocked out?"

"Did you not listen imbecile? I said OVER-kill. You exhausted all of your energy when you performed the Void of Demise. Furthermore, you were reckless to release my former army of the Knights of the Underworld when you performed the Dark-Surge…"

"What?"

"The Void of Demise. It's a forbidden move known as a Dark-Surge that has a great amount of power but can have dangerous results. I attempted to so one once, but I suppose the power was far beyond my control since I was just an illusion of you… Anyways with you knocked out, you better hope one of your allies comes to retrieve you…"

"Crap… I'm probably going to have a lot of explaining to do to everyone. Heh…"

After Bedwyr fought his way back to the Misty Lake, Nimue instantly put Sonic & Caliburn on her Misty Table and got to work on healing him with a variety of magical mists and potions. By evening the healing was finished, but Sonic was still knocked out as he rested on a cloud-bed. "Sir Sonic and Caliburn will heal, but they'll need to rest probably till noon tomorrow…" said Nimue as she cleaned up her Table and gathered the others to it.

"We don't have that kind of time," said Tails with a sense of urgency.

"I know that… Since time is pressing on Sir Sonic's world, I'll allow an exception to the quest…"

"Really? What is it?"

"Sir Bedwyr may go in the place of Sir Sonic to claim Laevatein since he is the next heir to the throne, but you must return by the time Sir Sonic awakens at noon."

"So be it Lady Nimue," said Aquarion as Bedwyr started to stand and get ready to head out immediately.

"Wait!" called out Tails.

"What is it Tails?" asked Bedwyr as he was about to head out.

"I want to go too!"

"But squire, you're still injured from the last battle!" remarked Aquarion.

"I'm ok now. Besides, I don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore."

"Hm, he seems determined to join us on our quest. What do you have to say Bedwyr?"

"If he's well enough then how can I deny such chivalry and dedication to his brother?"

"True… Very well Squire, I mean Knave, Tails!"

"Sir Bedwyr!" called out Nimue, "There's still one more thing that I have to tell you that pertains to Aquarion and this exception!"

"Oh? What is it?"

While Nimue was explaining the important issue to Bedwyr in private, Knuckles went up to Tails and asked, "You sure you're up for this? I could go help him instead if that's what's bugging you…"

"That's not it Knuckles. I may not know a lot about this place, but I want to go so I can make it up to Sonic by obtaining the last Sacred Sword!"

"I suppose…"

"Besides, you already have your '15 minutes of fame' when you got Galatine."

As Bedwyr returned and gestured to Tails to get going Knuckles added, "Well someone's got to defeat the remaining Underworld Knights and it might as well be me. Be sure to come back in one piece or Sonic will go Dark on us again!"

"Leave it to me Knuckles!" shouted Tails as he started running alongside Bedwyr in the direction of the Cauldron. "Leave it to me as well Sonic, hope you get well soon brother…"

Author's Note: Another day, another chapter! Sonic is knocked out... Again. However, Tails appears well enough to go with Bedwyr to make it up to Sonic. Keep reading to find out what will happen to them as they search for Laevatein. I hope you enjoyed and be sure to give your appreciated input!