Chapter 35
Camelot had gone silent. One second earlier the dead were causing havoc all over the city, and now they were lying still on the ground. Mordred stopped the spell he was casting and looked next to him, where Kara was standing. She looked as confused as him. Around them, the soldiers started a cheering sound that spread all around the city. Above them, the five pointed star slowly disappeared, until the sky was clear once more. Mordred guessed that it had been Merlin's work. He gazed at the distant battle, and saw that it was still going on, which meant that the kings weren't dead. Not yet. Mordred was sure that Merlin would end up winning this, he was Emrys after all, but he was afraid of how many lives would be lost before he could do so.
He saw some knights carrying a few injured soldiers and moved towards them, Kara following closely behind. The man had a bad cut on his leg, but he would live. Mordred closed his eyes and casted a spell that would stop the bleeding and prevent most infections. In other situations he would have healed the wound completely, but there were too many injured, and he had to spend his energy in those who were in risk of dying. He told the soldiers to bring the man to the castle, where Gaius and the druids would do the rest. Before the soldiers could answer, Mordred stood up and moved to another group.
He saw as Gwen walked past him and gave him a small smile. Almost twenty soldiers were following her closely while she gave orders to the captains. Mordred knew that she must be worried sick about Arthur, but she didn't let it show. He had seen her during the battle, helping protecting the citizens and talking to the soldiers. Mordred didn't know what she told them, but when she left them the men had a renewed look of determination in their eyes. Mordred remembered that he had been shocked when he found out that Arthur Pendragon had married the daughter of a blacksmith, but now he understood. Camelot could not ask for a better queen.
Mordred healed another soldier and looked at the horizon. He was tempted to just march towards the enemy with the hope of helping Arthur and Merlin against the kings. He was sure many of the soldiers were thinking the same. Still, Arthur's orders had been very clear. Their first concern was to protect Camelot from any additional attacks the Saxons might send them. There was no point in defeating the Saxons if they lost the kingdom in the process. So, he would do as he said and stay behind making sure the city was safe; it fell on Merlin and the rest to take care of the kings.
He wondered how that was going.
.
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Merlin was still looking at Ilko. He hadn't liked the way that man had pronounced his name. Usually, when one of his enemies said his name —the other one— he could feel their hatred, their surprise, even their fear. This was different. The man sounded happy, excited. As if he had been waiting for this meeting his whole life. Merlin didn't like that one bit.
He thought about those back in Camelot. Merlin knew that Ilko had been forced to stop channeling the spell in order to block his attack, but he wasn't sure if that meant the dead had stopped attacking Camelot. He hoped so. Arthur had brought most of the army with him to fight against the Saxon army, and only a small detachment had stayed behind to protect Camelot. It wasn't ideal, but it provided them the best chance of getting to Ilko. With any luck, those in Camelot were already safe by now. Still, that didn't change anything. Ilko had to die.
He hated thinking like that, but he had learned a long time ago that not everyone can be saved. There were some people who lived only to destroy, and sometimes killing them was the only way to stop them from causing more harm. This was the price for a free Albion. Or so he hoped. One of his biggest fears was being wrong about this, and that he was just rationalizing killing others. That was the only good thing about Ilko; after everything he did, there was no way that killing him was a mistake. The question now was if he would be strong enough to defeat him.
Merlin had thrown the man enough fireballs to destroy a small town and he was standing there as if nothing had happened. Even worse, Merlin's powers were now back to normal and he was far too tired after fighting against two armies and a bunch of deadly tendrils. He was supposed to be the most powerful sorcerer who ever live. If that was true, then exactly what was this guy?
He looked at his side. At least he wasn't alone. Arthur and Morgana stood beside him, ready to attack. It was incredible how much had they been through together. Sometimes on the same side, other times not so much. Morgana looked at him and gave him a nod. Merlin couldn't help but thinking about the prophecy. What if he lost her here? How would he able to live after that? No. He couldn't think like that. He focused on Ilko once more. The man was standing still, looking at him with that big grin on his face.
"You are finally here!" Ilko exclaimed, breaking the silence. "And you've brought your friends." His gaze moved to Morgana. "Morgana Pendragon, High Priestess of the Old Religion," he said, making a bow. "Arthur Pendragon, the Once and Future King," he said, looking at Arthur. "And, of course, the great Emrys, the most powerful sorcerer who would ever live." Ilko let out a laugh. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it in time. Did you like my invitation?"
Merlin realized he was talking about the spell that raised the dead.
"Don't lie," Merlin said. "The only reason you did this was to weaken our army and force us to fight away from Camelot."
"Oh, please," Ilko said, making a dismissive gesture. "I didn't have to go to all this trouble just to defeat what you call an army. I had many easier ways to accomplish that." He shook his head. "No. This... all this... was for you," he said, opening wide his arms. "I wanted for us to meet face to face."
"So you killed thousands of your own soldiers just for that?" Merlin asked, with a skeptical voice.
"Soldiers..." He repeated with a smile. "Soldiers are expendable. Besides, most of them were from your land. You should be thanking me I got rid of those traitors for you."
Even when Dragoon had told him about the man, Merlin still couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"And what about all the innocents you killed in the villages?" he asked.
"Oh, so you are one of those," Ilko said, looking disappointed. "I was expecting that the great Emrys would be able to see past those tiny things and just appreciate a spell of that magnitude. No one has casted a similar spell for at least a thousand years, you know? The villagers were part of it, yes, but I spent a long time tracking the other ingredients."
"Villagers aren't ingredients!" Merlin exclaimed.
"But they are!" Ilko exclaimed back, with conviction in his voice. "Lives are just tools for us to work with. You'll never reach your true potential if you don't realize that." He made a pause. "I could teach you if you wanted to. Just think what you could accomplish with my help. Together we would become masters of death itself!"
Merlin thought about Ilko's offer. What if he could help him save Morgana? Of course that Morgana wouldn't need saving if they hadn't invaded Camelot in the first place. Still, even if the prophecy didn't come true, Morgana would still grow old and eventually die, while he still wasn't sure what would happen to him. Ilko probably knew about more his so called immortality, and he might even be able to teach him how to stop Morgana from getting older...
Merlin made a sad smile. It was tempting, but he would never ally with someone like him. His decision had been made even before Ilko had finished talking. He was Merlin. He had faced the impossible and survived, more than once. He would find the way to fix things without losing himself.
That thought brought Morgana's words back to his mind. If what she had seen was true, seeing her die would make him lose control of his magic, which was bad enough that had scared Kilgharrah. Merlin was smart enough to be wary of anything that could scare a giant flying fire-breathing creature. Still, the way to prevent that was really easy. He just had to make sure that Morgana didn't die.
Coming back to reality, Merlin saw that Ilko was now addressing Morgana.
"I could give you the power to restore the Old Religion to its former glory," he had said. "You will have all the lands and manpower you need. Priestesses would walk in Albion once more. You, and only you, can prevent your order from falling into oblivion. Are you really prepared to let that happen just to save a kingdom that hates you?"
Morgana had thought about restoring her order, she wouldn't deny it, but she didn't need Ilko for that to happen. She knew that the Priestess of the Old Religion existed outside Albion, and it was only a matter of finding them. She was sure that Merlin would help her if she asked him, and for some reason she knew that Arthur would help too. Of course, for all that to be possible she had to survive the day first.
As for the kingdom hating her... She knew that many people in Camelot hadn't forgive her yet. She didn't expect them to. They had every reason to hate her. Sometimes she thought about all the pain she had brought them and wondered why she was still alive. Why she hadn't been killed by one of the relatives of the many people whose deaths she had been responsible for.
She had done all those things trying to make the world better for those with magic, but she had gotten lost somewhere in the way. All she wanted to do now was to redeem herself. Those who wanted to hate her could do it as much as they wanted to. She didn't care. Besides, many of those who hated her also liked Le Fey. That was a start.
"And Arthur Pendragon," Ilko said, looking at him. "You said you fight for peace, but peace it's not something that happens on its own, people are far too stupid for that. You have to enforce it. Do you really think that this alliance of yours will hold once this is over? I could give you an indestructible army that no one could stop. Your word will be the law in Albion."
Arthur had wondered about what would happen once this was over. Would the memory of fighting this battle side by side be enough for the kingdoms to remain together afterwards? What would happen to the lands of those who had allied with the enemy? Would that mean a new war between kingdoms?He only had to look behind him to know the answer.
No.
After today Albion would be united, and not because someone enforces it, but because they would have seen what they could accomplish if they stand together. His dream was coming true before his eyes, and all he had to do fulfill it was to defeat one more enemy.
Merlin looked first at Morgana and then at Arthur. He kind of wanted to know what they were thinking, but at the same time he knew he didn't have to. He had known them long enough to be sure that neither of them would ever consider taking Ilko's offer. He looked at the sorcerer. He had been tempted to blast Ilko the moment he stepped out of the dark sphere, but after all the fighting he was grateful for any rest he could get between battles, even if that meant hearing Ilko's rambling. He was sure the other two would agree too. However, he could feel that their rest would not last much longer.
"I can offer the three of you what you want the most," Ilko said. His gaze shifted slowly between Merlin, Morgana and Arthur, as if giving them time to accept what he had offered them. No one said anything. Ilko waited a few seconds more and then let out a small laugh. "But alas, none of you will accept my offer," he said. "You are too proud for that, too naive, and honestly I would have probably killed you anyways." His wicked grin came back to his face. "So, what do you say if we get this over with?"
Even before Ilko finished his quesiton, Merlin was already raising his hands. Two branches came from the ground and grabbed Ilko's feet, while Morgana blinked behind him and Arthur attacked him from the front. Ilko waited until they were close enough and pressed his hands together creating a blast of air all around him that sent Arthur and Morgana flying backwards. He turned to Merlin and casted a bolt of darkness towards him. Merlin dodged it easily, but in doing so he gave Ilko the chance to get free the branches' embrace.
Merlin knew he couldn't afford to flinch. He stretched his hands and a lightning bolt shot towards his enemy. The bolt hit Ilko directly, but instead of damaging him, Ilko made the electricity travel from all over his body to his right hand and then he shot the bolt back to Merlin. He tried to dodge it, but the bolt hit him in the chest and sent him flying backwards.
Just before he was about to hit the ground, a gust of wind appeared below him and made him land softly. Morgana kneeled besides him and started healing him while Arthur was fighting the tendrils coming towards them.
"Come on!" Ilko exclaimed. "You are Emrys! Let me see what you are made of!"
"He's not the only one you are fighting!" Morgana exclaimed back. Her eyes glowed gold and a blast of light destroyed the tendrils, letting Arthur free to move towards Ilko.
"Yes, he is," Ilko said smiling, as a dark wall appeared to block Arthur's attack.
Merlin had already stood up and was moving towards Ilko. He stretched his hand and he casted another bolt of energy at his enemy.
"I thought you would have learned your lesson, Emrys," Ilko said, as he started redirecting the bolt.
"I have," Merlin replied. Just as the bolt was about to leave Ilko's body, Merlin's eyes glowed again and a ball of water appeared from nowhere, moving quickly towards the king. Both spells collided in mid-air, creating an electrified sphere of water that kept on heading towards Ilko.
Ilko didn't have time to think. He moved the wall of darkness that was blocking Arthur's attacks so it would stand in the way of the spell, and then he turned around to deal with Arthur himself. He was quick enough to blast him away before Arthur could hit him with his sword, but not fast enough to dodge Morgana's dagger. Ilko took two steps back and looked down. The dagger's hilt was sticking out of his stomach.
Merlin, Morgana and Arthur regrouped and looked at the man. Merlin wasn't sure of Ilko's skills, but he knew that that wound was deadly for most people, sorcerers included. Still, he thought it would be better to make sure. He was about to attack him when Ilko started laughing. Merlin saw as the man grabbed the hilt with one hand and pulled the dagger out. There was no blood. Instead, a small tendril of darkness came out of him and then moved back in, closing the wound in the process.
"I'm impressed," Ilko said, throwing the dagger to the ground. "It has been a long time since the last time anyone could cut me." He looked at Merlin and smiled. "I better stop playing then."
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Dragoon ducked and Roth's attack went right through a Saxon soldier that was standing behind him. Most of the other soldiers had already figured out that they had to stay clear of their fight, but some of them tried to play hero. That never ended well. Dragoon's eyes glowed and he tried to blast Roth away, but it was like trying to push a mountain. He really hadn't thought this would be this hard. He hoped Merlin and the rest were doing better.
He leaped backwards as Roth's other axe came down towards his head. He stumbled a bit, but he regained his balance before Roth could take advantage of it. He was getting tired and the berserker looked like if he could keep fighting for days. The look on his face hinted that he probably wanted to. Dragoon had tried everything he could think of. Confuse him, burn him, freeze him, throw a rock at him, but Roth acted as if he was just hitting him with a pillow. Dragoon looked at the berserker coming towards him. He had no other choice. He had to do it. Goddess... Why had it come to this?
He sheathed his swords and raise his hands to the air, creating a wall of ice around him. He knew that it would only buy him some time, but that was all Dragoon needed. He sit on the ground with his legs crossed, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the sound of the axes hitting the ice. He looked inside of him. He looked past the darkness of the mind and the memories. He looked at the place where his magic rested.
He had been doing this for so long that he could even do it with his eyes open, but that was the easy part. Now he looked besides it, trying to find something else. A magic that wasn't his, but that was inside him none the less. A magic that once belonged to a dragon, and which now gave him his immortality. The magic of Ouroboros.
He knew he didn't have much time, but this was something he couldn't rush. Trying to find a foreign magic inside you was almost impossible; as far as he knew he was the only one who had been able to do it. Of course, not many people had been in the position to try. Suddenly he saw it, just floating around. Once found, its location became obvious until you opened your eyes, as if you had been missing a giant mountain that was standing right in front of you.
In his mind, Dragoon grabbed his magic with one hand and Ouroboros' magic with the other. He looked at them for a second, as if gathering courage, and did something he had done only once before and had promised himself not to do again. He merged them together.
Dragoon moved just as Roth finished breaking the ice that surrounded him. He had to use all his will not to scream. The first moments were the worst. He could see everything. He could feel everything. He could remember everything. A knight of Camelot gasped for air when a sword stuck into his chest. He woke up and saw his wife, who just saved him from dying. No, she wasn't his wife at that time. A soldier hit a tree and thirty seven leaves came loose. Roth started to turn, getting ready to attack again. Morgana was crying because she was afraid of Emrys. Now she was kissing him. Now Dragoon was kissing his wife and his daughter goodbye. He had to go away. He had to fix things. For them. Roth had started swinging his axe. A Saxon raised his hands trying to stop the sword coming towards him. He was dead. They were dead. Dragoon could see them, lying still in what used to be their home. He was next to the king. He could feel his hatred. He could unleash it and the world would burn. Why not? His family was dead, what had he had to lose? Merlin's face showed up. They had died long ago. He had already unleashed his hatred. He had already made that mistake. He was trying to fix things. Again. He was helping Merlin protect Camelot. This time he had to succeed. He had to defeat Roth.
A second passed.
Still with his eyes closed, he moved back just far enough to dodge Roth's attack. He could feel the axe cutting the wind just next to his face. He could feel Roth raising his weapons once again. He could feel his feet stomping the ground. He could feel his heart beating faster and faster as he launched his attack. He moved to the side and the axe hit the ground. It was time. He faced Roth and opened his eyes.
Something about Dragoon made the berserker halt and take a step back. His eyes. It was his eyes. He hadn't had those eyes before. They were red as fire, and had two vertical slits that were dark as night. Roth could feel as those eyes focused on him. Those weren't human eyes. They belonged to a reptile. To a dragon.
"Have you ever wondered why they call me Dragoon?" he asked Roth. "Well, it has nothing to do with this," he added, pointing at his own face.
Before Roth could say a word, Dragoon blinked. Those new eyes didn't change anything; he knew exactly where Dragoon would show up. He turned around and saw as Dragoon appeared and sheathed his weapons. He was confused by this. He was almost sure that Dragoon's weapons had been already sheathed. He looked below and he saw two cuts in his right arm. How was that possible?
Dragoon blinked. His swords made a cut in Roth's right leg. Blink. A slash on his back. Blink. A deep cut in his left arm. Blink. Two cuts in his left leg. Blink. A letter 'D' in Roth's chest. Blink. Attacking people while blinking was theoretically possible, but human senses couldn't react well at that speed. Well... right now he wasn't exactly human. The world was moving around him at an incredible speed. He unsheathed his sword and slashed Roth just below the arm. He sheathed the swords back just as he finished the blink.
Dragoon saw Roth clenching his fists with rage. He saw the muscles in the berserker's leg tensing as he started to charge towards him. He felt time the same time as before, but his every sense was impossible enhanced. Roth axes were almost on him, but he didn't move. He could see Roth's intentions in every fiber of his body. He was counting on him dodging, and for that reason he wasn't aiming to where he stood. It was a good plan, but it was pointless against him. He stood still as the berserker hit the empty ground next to him.
Now it was just a matter to end this. The berserker's skin was too thick to rely simply on brute force, and he couldn't keep counting on Roth not being able to hit him back. He wondered where would be the best place to attack him, and all he knew about the human body appeared in his mind. It wasn't much, most of it he had read it while searching for the spell to travel back in time, but it would suffice. He looked at Roth and could identify every vein, every artery, every place where his swords had the most chance of pierce through his skin. He unsheathed his swords and he blinked.
He slashed. He blinked. He slashed. He blinked. He slashed. He blinked. Slash. Blink. Slash. Blink... Blink... Blink... Blink... Blink... Blink...
Blink.
Dragoon stopped and turned around. His hands were empty. Both his swords were stuck into Roth's body. The berserker was covered in his own blood. Dragoon saw, instant to instant, how Roth realized what had happened to him, how he tried to fight it and how he realized he couldn't. He fell to his knees, looked at him, and he smiled. That way he remained until the life left his body.
Dragoon didn't understand that smile, but he didn't understand berserkers, so that made sense. He was about to go looking for Merlin, when he felt something happening inside Roth's body. It was feint, but it was there. It was a familiar feeling, but he couldn't quite place it, everything felt different when he was merged with Ouroboros. He tried to recall what it was and an answer appeared immediately in his mind. A deadly curse. Yes, of course, that was it. He couldn't believe he didn't re— A deadly curse! He could already feel its hunger, ready to jump towards him. He moved his hand to his pocket and grabbed a pair of twin gems. It was the last he had, but he didn't care. As hard as they were to come by, his life was more valuable. He quickly threw one above him while he placed the other one over his hearth. The cursed jumped from Roth's corpse to Dragoon, moving straight to the place he held the twin gem. When the curse hit the gem he was holding, both gems glowed black and the twin gem that was flying upwards exploded into a hundred pieces.
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. That had been too close. Who the hell was crazy enough to actually cast one of those things!? The answer was Ilko, of course, but still... It was said that those who used that magic tainted their own souls forever. Granted, they were a really good way to avenge your death by cursing the one who killed you. They were almost undetectable and even if you knew about it there very few ways to protect yourself from them. If it hadn't been for his heightened senses and the twin gems— Dragoon open wide his eyes. If Roth had a deadly curse on him, then there was a very good chance that Ilko had one too. He had to hurry. He had to find Merlin. He tried to use his new powers to learn his location but nothing happened; his link with Ouroboros had been broken by the effort of redirecting the curse. He would have to do this the old way.
Dragoon pulled his swords from Roth's body and started running.
.
.
Arthur felt useless. Every time he tried to attack Ilko, he was pushed back by an invisible force before he was even close to him. Besides, in the off chance that he actually managed to cut him with his sword, he would just regenerate like she did after being impaled by Morgana's dagger. Why couldn't he just have faced Roth? Steel against steel, that was a real fight, not this. He stood up and got ready to try again. Even if he all he did was just distracting the sorcerer for a second, Merlin and Morgana could use that second to attack him with some of their magic, not that they were doing much better than him...
Merlin felt useless. He moved to the side to dodge the dark tendril coming towards him. Ilko was now controlling six of those things at the same time, which made it very hard to dodge them all, and even harder to actually attack him. He casted a fireball towards Ilko, but he knew what was going to happen. A dark shield appeared in between and the fireball exploded without even charring Ilko. This was probably the tenth fireball to suffered that same fate, but he had to try something. If he at least got a second to think before he had to dodge another of those damn things...
Morgana felt useless. She was trying to keep the tendrils in check, but there were just too many of them and Ilko was just too powerful. What the hell had she gotten into? She knew that Merlin needed time to cast his spells if he was ever going to defeat Ilko, and she wanted to give him that time, but it was like trying to catch every drop of rain with just one small glass. Only that the drops of rains were actually deadly black tendrils. And they wanted to kill you. She was never good with analogies. She would keep trying for as long as she could, but she was afraid of how long could that actually be...
"We can't keep doing this forever," Morgana said into Merlin's mind. Even telepathically Merlin could sense her exhaustion.
"I agree," Merlin said, just as he dodged another one of the tendrils coming towards him. "I need to access all my magic, we don't have a chance otherwise, but no matter how much I try I can't reach it."
Morgana looked at him. She still remembered the first time he had done that, the day he had saved her and Aithusa from Sarrum's grasp. The day she found out that he was Emrys. The day they had had their first kiss. That had probably been one of the most strange days she had ever had. Since then, Merlin had tried to control that magic, but he still had trouble summoning it at will.
"Alright," she said into Merlin's mind. She made her shield to explode in a blast of light, destroying the tendrils that were attacking her but leaving her defenseless.
"What are you doing!?" Merlin asked aloud.
"Come on, Merlin. Haven't you realized it yet?" she asked, making a small smile and raising her eyebrows.
A new set of tendrils came out of Ilko and started moving quickly towards her. She took a deep breath and she closed her eyes.
"That was a really bad plan," Merlin said from right in front of her, just a few seconds later.
Morgana opened her eyes. Merlin was looking back at her with his eyes full of gold.
"It wasn't bad. It worked," Morgana pointed out.
"It was terrible," Merlin corrected. "Don't ever do that again," he said with concern in his voice.
Morgana replied with a smile.
"So, that glow means you are accessing your true powers?" Ilko asked, sounding truly interested. "I will have to study that," he added.
"You have far too much confidence in yourself," Merlin replied.
He raised his hand and several tendrils made out of vines came out from the ground and moved towards Ilko. The man smiled and he moved his tendrils to intercept Merlin's attack. Both types of tendrils clashed in the air and started fighting against each other. They coiled around its enemy, tried to cut it, to dodge it. It looked like an impasse, but Merlin wasn't alone. Arthur and Morgana started attacking the enemy tendrils, letting Merlin's attack move forward. Little by little they closed in on Ilko until Merlin's tendrils were close enough to trap him. They wrapped around him like a snake, until Ilko was fully covered by them and then they started squeezing, harder and harder.
"Move back," Merlin ordered the other two. He moved his hand and a new set of tendrils appeared from the ground. In a swift move they dashed towards where Ilko was trapped and impaled him in all directions. Next, Merlin moved his hand again and he threw a fireball against the tendrils. Once it had reach them, it became a whirlwind of fire that was focused where Ilko stood and that grew more powerful by the second. He kept fueling the fire, more and more. He couldn't be too sure. Not with all that was in stake.
"I think that's enough," Morgana told him, placing her hand on his shoulder.
Merlin gave her a stern look that lasted only until he realized who was saying those words and why. He looked at the fire. He didn't know how long he had been casting that spell, but everything around it was scorched to the ground. He made a slow nod and stopped the spell. The whirlwind started to slow down until if finally disappeared, leaving nothing but ashes behind.
"We have to find Dragoon," Merlin told Morgana, trying not to think in what he had just done. "He might need—"
"EMRYS!" a dark voice yelled, filling the air. It came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
Now, that was the tone Merlin was accustomed to. He could feel the hatred that voice harbored towards him. He saw as black dust started to move against the wind, gathering where Ilko had been standing a few seconds before. As it reached that place, it merged together, slowly creating a shape. A man. A few seconds later, Ilko was standing right ahead, looking at him with madness in his eyes. Somehow, Merlin knew that he was finally seeing Ilko's true self.
"You will pay for that," Ilko said. He didn't sound amused anymore. Without another word, his eyes glowed and a blast of darkness spread outwards from him, knocking Arthur, Merlin and Morgana away.
.
.
Arthur opened his eyes and took his hand to his head to ensure he wasn't bleeding. This was pointless. He should just go back and fight along the soldiers. How could people like this exist? They weren't sorcerers, they were practically gods. How was that fair for the rest of the mortals? How could he face something like that? He wanted to help, he needed to help, but it was just impossible.
Merlin and Morgana had already stood up and were facing Ilko once more, or whatever that thing was. They didn't know how to quit; that was yet another thing the two of them had in common. It was still weird for Arthur to think of them as a couple, but the more he thought about it the more sense it made. For some strange and incompressible reason, the two of them were made for each other. And now they were risking their lives side by side to protect all of Albion... He had to help them... but how?
He looked around. His sword lay just out of his reach. He thought about moving to grab it, but he didn't. He knew what would happen. He would march towards that thing and then he would be blasted away before he could come even close to harming it. He might even become a liability and put Merlin or Morgana in danger. There was nothing he could do...
"Arthur Pendragon, get up."
Arthur got startled and looked around quickly, but he was alone. He didn't know how, but he knew that voice. At first he thought about Merlin or Morgana and some telepathic trick, but that voice wasn't theirs, and as far as he knew, they only could do that with other magic users. He looked around one more time, but he was alone. He must have imagined it.
"No, you didn't imagine it. I'm actually talking to you."
That voice again. It was strange. He knew that voice, but he couldn't even tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. How was that possible?
"Where are you?" Arthur asked, looking around one more time.
"Down here," the voice replied.
Arthur looked where the voice had told him, but there was nothing there besides his sword. Maybe the voice came from something really small, like a tiny insect or maybe an invisible leprecon. They existed, right?
"Yes, they exist, but they are not invisible and I'm not one of them. You are looking at me right now."
Alright, he had gone mad. This whole fight with the Saxons had obviously been too much for him. The voice was telling him that he was seeing it, but the only thing he could actually see was his sword, and it wasn't like... An idea popped into his head, but it was just ridiculous.
"It's not ridiculous. It's me."
"Do you really expect me to believe that I'm talking to my sword?" asked Arthur in an incredulous tone, but looking right at his sword.
"You are free to believe whatever you want, that doesn't change the fact that you are talking to me. I've been trying to get you to hear me for a long time now."
Arthur thought for a bit. A talking sword wasn't the strangest thing he had seen in his life, but it was damn close. He didn't buy it. An enemy was probably playing with his mind. He looked around once more, trying to find where he was hiding.
"There is no hidden enemy, Arthur Pendragon, and we have no time for this. You have to listen to me."
Arthur looked at the sword and then at Merlin and Morgana. They were still fighting against Ilko, and they were losing ground. What if this wasn't a lie? What if there was a chance he could help them? He had to try. He owed them that much.
"You can help them, but first you need to do two things."
"What things?" Arthur asked, looking at it.
"The first one will be the hard for you, and it's probably not fair of me to ask this of you today, but there is no other choice. You have to accept me."
"Accept you? How do I do that?"
"I'm magic. Accept magic and you'll accept me."
"But, I've already done that," Arthur pointed out. "I lifted the ban on magic."
"You allowed magic, Arthur Pendragon, you haven't accepted it. It was a step in the right direction, and this is why I can now talk to you, but you need to accept it."
"How?" Arthur asked.
It was some time before the sword answered him.
"It's hard to explain. Most of my bearers had already done this before they got their hands on me. You have to see magic for what it truly is. You have to understand it. And then you have to look past it and forget about it."
"What? That's not very helpful."
"I'm sorry, Arthur Pendragon. I don't know how to make it more clear."
Arthur realized that he wasn't going to get more help from the sword on this. Accept magic? He believed he had already done that, but if he really thought about it maybe the sword was right. He had just seen a man raise thousand of dead people to attack his kingdom, how could he not think that the world would be better without magic after seeing that? It only took one crazy man with powers to kill hundredths, if not thousands of normal people. Non-magical people.
Merlin and him had talked about this several times. Merlin always reminded him about the other uses of magic. How could it save lives, make crops grow faster, make buildings stronger, basically, make people's lives better. Arthur knew this was true, but he had seen the other side of the coin far more often. The deceits, the curses, the murders. He had grown up alongside them. Fearing them. Stopping them. It wasn't easy for him not to get blinded by them.
There was one thing Merlin had told him that still rang in his mind. He had said that having magic was no different that holding a sword. That in the end it was the bearer the one who decided how to use it. How different would this attack on Albion have been if there were no magic in the world? The Saxons would have still outnumbered their men, he would have still needed help from the other kingdoms, and this battle would have taken place in a similar fashion. True, Ilko wouldn't have been able to use his trick to resurrect the undead, but there were countless other tactics he could have used to force them to engage his army away from Camelot's defenses. All he had to do was keep attacking villages and Arthur would have had no choice but to stop him. It was a vile tactic, but Ilko had already proved he had no problem with those.
Actually, if he really thought about it, the only reason why they had a real chance of winning this battle was because of the magic; that was why killing the kings meant winning the battle. If this were any other army, losing their leaders might only enrage the soldiers, but for the Saxons, their kings weren't just their leaders, but also their gods. They feared them. They feared their powers. They wouldn't dare to fight against anyone powerful enough to defeat them. Or at least that was what Arthur hoped.
This would mean that if they somehow managed that, they would win not because they had the most soldiers, or the best trained ones, but because they had the most powerful sorcerers. Just a few men, deciding the fate of entire kingdoms. Was that fair? Arthur didn't think so, but was the difference between that and what kings did? How many times had a civilization rose or fell because a decision that its leader took?
In the end magic just was, and he had to live with it. Wishing it didn't exist was like wishing it wouldn't rain.
A scream called his attention forward. Merlin and Morgana had trapped Ilko in a magical shield, but Arthur could see it wouldn't hold much longer. Morgana had dropped to her knees, but she was still channeling the spell, while Ilko kept hitting the shield with those black tendrils of him. Merlin was telling her something, but Arthur couldn't hear him.
Seeing that scene Arthur could only think one thing: he had to save them. He had to save his sister. He had to save his best friend. He had to defeat the bad guy. How many times before had he done this? He lost count. Why then, would this be any different?
"Very good, Arthur Pendragon," the voice in his head said. "Now all you have to do is say my name."
For a second Arthur didn't understand what it was talking about, but then he realized he had done what it had asked. He had accepted the existence of magic, and then he had looked past it. Now all he had to do was say a name and he would be able to help them. He couldn't believe it was that easy.
"Alright, what is your name?" he asked impatiently.
"No, it doesn't work like that. My name is our bond. You have to know it."
Of course it wasn't going to be that easy. Arthur was going to protest but then he suddenly stopped... He knew its name! How the hell did he knew its name? This didn't make any sense, but he didn't care. He knew it!
"Now you are ready, Arthur Pendragon," the sword said into his mind. Arthur could swear it sounded happy. "Take me up! Cast me away!"
Somehow, Arthur knew exactly what he had to do. He stood up, grabbed his sword and started running towards where the fight was taking place. Ilko was still trapped by Merlin and Morgana, but Arthur could see that he was about to break free. Using his momentum, he halted and with all the strength he had left he flung his sword forward. It spun in the air, heading directly towards Ilko.
"I name you..."
Ilko had just blasted away Merlin and Morgana. He looked at the sword coming towards him and made a mocking smile. He rose his hand and his eyes glowed gold, creating a wall of darkness in its way.
"EXCALIBUR!" Arthur finished.
The sword disappeared. It just vanished. One second was moving towards Ilko and the next there was nothing there. Arthur couldn't understand what was going on. Had the man destroyed it with a spell? For some reason he knew he hadn't. He could still feel it. A crack appeared in Ilko's black wall and spread until it shattered to pieces, revealing Ilko behind it. He was looking at Arthur with his eyes wide open. Behind him, Arthur could see Excalibur. It was stuck in the ground and it was burning with a golden fire.
"How...?" Ilko asked, still looking at him. Before he could say another word, a sword wound appeared in his chest just over his heart. Blood, real blood, came out of it and a second later Ilko collapsed to the ground.
.
.
Morgana couldn't move her eyes away from Arthur's sword. It was stuck in the ground and it was glowing, exactly like on her vision. Excalibur, he had called it. For some reason that name sounded familiar. She didn't like the fact that part of her vision was coming true, but Ilko was finally dead. They had won, and that was all that mattered. She started walking towards Arthur; he had plenty of questions to answer.
She was almost there when something inside Ilko's corpse called her attention. It was some kind of dark energy. At first she thought it was the last remnants of the spells he had been casting, but instead of fading away the dark energy was growing more and more powerful. She remembered reading about something like this in a book when she was with Morgause, but she couldn't quite place what. Still, coming from someone like Ilko it couldn't be anything good.
Suddenly the energy grew a lot and she could feel a hunger. Arthur. Whatever that was, it wanted Arthur. She hadn't any time to lose. She moved between Arthur and Ilko's corpse and started casting a wall of light to block whatever it was coming to get him. She could swear she heard someone yelling in the distance, but she had to concentrate. The wall formed just as the darkness jumped, but it didn't matter. Whatever that was went right through her wall and hit Morgana directly on her chest.
She could feel it inside. Darkness. Hatred. Death. Spreading to her every cell. She finally remembered. A deadly curse. One of the few spells Morgause had told her never to cast, no matter what. She should have remembered sooner. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Merlin asked her what was going on, but she couldn't answer. Her legs became numb and she fell to the ground. She felt like her life was being sucked right out of her; even keeping her eyes opened was turning into a challenge.
Merlin rushed towards her, his face filled with worry. His eyes were back to normal and Morgana was thankful for that. Thankful that he could see his blue eyes one more time. He kneeled next to her and started speaking. Based on the words he was saying Morgana guessed that he was using the spell the Great Dragon had given him.
"You'll be fine Morgana, I promise you, you'll be fine," he said, between spells. "Please don't leave me, please," he added, in a voice that sounded like he was trying hard not to cry.
Morgana wanted to answer him, but she was tired... so tired... She hated to do as the prophecy said, but she knew that those were the only words worth saying right now. With all her strength she managed to say that which she had seen herself saying so many times before. "Goodbye, my love."
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A/N: I hope you liked it!
Alright, I should just stop saying when I'm gonna upload these things because it's became obvious by now that I will not stick to that xD.
Real final chapter tomorrow! (wait, did you read what you just wrote, why would you—?)
I split this in two to give it a bit more of cliffhangery felling and so I can finish polishing the other part a bit :p.
Thanks Assassin of Syria, mersan123, ForIHaveTakenOverTheWorld, Freya13, Guest, OechsnerC, Lady Flurryous and Meri Ley for the reviews =D
Freya13: As for writing battle scenes don't feel bad, it takes me a LOT to write those. I even try to read a few fencing websites and such to read names of attacks and movements. As for the other part, we'll see :p.
Lady Flurryous: Necromancers really need to invest more in improving their public image xD. At least Morgana is a kind-of-good kind-of-necromancer (?).