A/N: Thank you GuestM, SnidgetHex, and PadrePedro for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed this AU!


Chapter 10

All of Camelot emptied into the fields outside the city, save for Gaius, the non Lightspinner children, and their mothers. Percival even carried Merlin, with Freya still holding onto his lifeless body, keeping the faint heart beating. Those without power carried weapons forged in light, though currently they were sheathed to hide their radiance in the hopes they survived the…trip. Arthur didn't really know what to call this mad plan to lure the demon back to literally consume them all.

Once gathered in the middle of the field, the Lightspinners began to spin cords of light around them all, like in the Veil, just in case their souls might get separated from their bodies in the same way. But in this case, they dimmed the cords down to as thin as possible in an effort to keep the demon from draining it first. When they were all ready, they sent a column of blazing light straight up into the sky. Then they waited.

Arthur's heart was hammering inside his chest. He reached out to take Gwen's hand. "I wish we had more time together," he said quietly.

She squeezed back and met his eye with that spark of courage he loved so much. "We will go out as partners."

His heart swelled with pride. "I love you."

"Look!" someone shouted.

Everyone turned their heads toward what appeared to be a mountain shaking in the distance. But as it grew larger, Arthur realized with sinking horror that it wasn't a mountain. It was the demon, the size of one. Fiery red eyes and veins of molten lava simmered in the surrounding darkness as it lumbered toward them. The ground beneath them began to tremble.

Gwen pressed close to Arthur with a gasp, and he wrapped his arms around her. Other cries of terror went through the group.

"Hold fast!" Arthur called. "We are making the last stand of not only this kingdom, but of the world and what's left of it. If we are to go out, we will do so shining with the full brightness of the courage and resilience of mankind. And I am proud to stand here with you, as your king, your friend, your fellow man. For Camelot!"

"For Camelot!" rang out behind him.

The demon entered the field, looming over them so large, they were mere ants in its eye. But ants that were glowing. It opened its cavernous maw, and the shadows inside began to swirl into a vortex. It went for the light flare first, as planned, then brought its entire head down to swallow it whole—along with every last person standing in the field. Arthur had one split moment of doubt before the darkness crashed upon him in a wave of suffocating shadow.

Everything was a dizzying eddy, but he could still feel Gwen's hand clutched tightly in his. When the vertigo ceased, he forced his eyes open and found himself in a fuzzy realm, almost like the Veil, but instead of a wasteland of death, this one was full of contorting shadows and rivers of lava flowing up, down, and all around. Someone screamed, and Arthur whirled toward a young Lightspinner who was on the ground near one of those veins. Light was pouring off him into the lava, which was flaring brighter in response.

Lancelot was closer and wobbled over to grab his shoulders and pull him away. They both fell to the ground. The light ropes around them all spritzed and fizzled, weakening just by being in this place, the belly of the beast. Arthur's head was muzzy and disoriented, but he managed to find his voice.

"Hold fast!" he yelled, his voice echoing strangely in this space. He struggled to pull the sheath off his light blade, but once he did so, the light was being sucked away too. Every single one of them were bowed over as waves of light wafted off them. This was suicide. They were just going to feed the demon until it was large enough to swallow the entire world. Just like when Arthur had sent the Lightspinners to scout the Rifts and they'd inadvertently provided it the power to escape. He was such a fool.

"Merlin!" Freya shouted desperately.

Percival grunted as he struggled to stay on one knee, Merlin in his arms. His lion managed to burst out and stood over them protectively. He and Freya gasped as the light being sucked out of them lessened and his animal spirit began taking the brunt. But it wasn't going to stop it.

Arthur pulled Gwen into his arms as she shuddered, her light magic being torn from her body, just as his soul had been in the Dochraid's cave. "I'm sorry," he cried, holding her tight.

"Merlin!" Freya screamed again.

"Oh gods, there!" Gwaine exclaimed.

Arthur lifted his head and peered through the hazy miasma. His heart jolted. There in a pool of lava lay Merlin's light dragon. It was weak and fading but very much intact.

Freya's bastet erupted and charged over to it, pawing and pulling to drag it from the fire. Lancelot's griffin joined it, the two flapping their wings to lift the dragon out. They dragged it over to Merlin, and Arthur watched in amazement as the light spirit melted back into him. In the next instant, Merlin's eyes blew open with a gasp.

"Merlin!" Freya cried.

He was alive.

Only to die a second time, Arthur thought grimly.

Freya finally released Merlin's hand and clasped his face. "I'm sorry," she cried. "I did it wrong."

Merlin blinked dazedly as he looked around at all of them. Then awareness flashed to life, and he turned to grab Freya's wrists. "It's not over yet," he gritted out, pulling himself up into a sitting position.

His entire body was shaking, but he stiffened his muscles and forced a look of intense concentration. Dragon wings of blazing light unfurled from his back.

"We can do this!" he proclaimed. "Hit it with everything you've got!"

And by gods, if Arthur didn't believe him.

He tore his arms away from Gwen and reached for his sword again, struggling to stand. "To me!" he bellowed. "Summon up every last speck of light you can muster!"

Multiple light animals burst forth in response. At first, it still seemed as though they were only feeding the beast, no matter how brightly they burned.

Arthur looked around; then, on a whim, lifted his sword and with a battle cry, plunged it down into the "soft tissue" of the demon's belly.

There was a massive shockwave that knocked everyone off their feet. Cracks split through the ground, blazing orange. Arthur blinked in bewilderment.

Leon and Gwaine immediately did the same, stabbing the "ground" with their blades sheathed in light. There was more cracking and shaking, and something deep and primal roared like thunder.

Arthur's eyes widened. They could still beat this.

The Lightspinners' animals turned to attack the boundaries of this realm, tearing into them with claws and teeth. Figures all around spun additional weapons they used to hack at the rivers, sending exploding lava up like spurts of blood. The fiery hell scape quickly shifted to blazing white. It was chaos and destruction, but they were the intentional instruments of it this time. In the brilliant illumination, Arthur could see the chambers of the demon's "organs" pulsing rapidly under the strain.

Gwen poured extra light into her horse spirit, growing it five times larger. A spiral horn extended from its forehead, and it reared up to puncture one of the organ sacs. The demon screamed, the ground shaking so violently that everyone was thrown down. But they kept fighting. Arthur hacked haphazardly at the surface all around him. The auras of the Lightspinners grew stronger and stronger, until everything was one massive, blazing supernova.

And then a beam pierced the space above, shooting straight through and out like a comet. More lanced through the inside of the demon. The ground lurched again, and Arthur fell into Gwen, their arms reflexively grasping at each other. Maybe they wouldn't survive this. Maybe they could destroy the demon, but themselves along with it. But they would go down together.

And then, with one last bellowing roar, everything exploded. Arthur felt himself falling before he abruptly landed on solid earth and grass, and he twisted his head around in shock. They were back in the field, everyone else sprawled out around him. And the demon was gone. Bits of shadow floated by like chaff, and Arthur stared in confusion. Was that it? Had they actually done it?

He looked up at the blazing nova still burning in the middle of the air. And far above in the dark clouds were a smattering of holes, as though the rods of light that had punched through the demon had shot all the way up into the heavens. …And beams of glittering golden light were now spilling through.

Arthur gaped in sheer stupefaction. The unending darkness that had held the sky hostage all his life began to thin and break apart, giving way to swathes of a shocking shade of blue. And high above, a blazing yellow orb.

"The sun," Gwen gasped, eyes watering.

Arthur couldn't even form words around the emotion choking his throat as daylight swept across the land. The blazing nova split apart, the light animals returning to their counterparts, but other shoots merely zinged off in multiple directions. Even at this distance, Arthur could see them lighting up along Rifts like forks of golden lightning.

He couldn't process it. Not only had they destroyed the demon, but they had ended the darkness that Uther had unleashed upon the world. Arthur had finally helped to right his father's wrong.

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere, followed by more. Others continued to stand there frozen in shock, while others broke into delirious dancing. Arthur's cheeks hurt, his grin was so wide. Then he saw Merlin walking up to him, and he burst out laughing.

"You idiot," he blurted fondly as he threw his arms around his friend.

Merlin chuckled as he hugged back.

The rest of their friends surrounded them, everyone embracing each other in relief and celebration.

Excited shouts sounded in the distance, and they turned to see Gaius coming out with the children and mothers who'd stayed behind. The youngest ones went running wild with excited screams, while the older ones didn't know what to make of this drastically changed world.

Gaius's eyes were full of tears as he walked up to Arthur and hugged him.

"Is this the world you remember?" Arthur asked.

Gaius pulled back with a watery smile. "It's even better."

They spent hours in the sun, soaking it all in. Arthur pulled his wife aside to kiss her passionately. His attention was distracted, though, when he heard Freya say,

"Merlin, will you marry me?"

The others must have heard it too because they immediately paused in their merriment to stare at her. Merlin's brows had shot up to his hairline in surprise. Freya looked like she was trying not to fidget self-consciously.

Merlin let out a delighted laugh and scooped her into his arms to spin her around. "Yes!"

A round of cheers went up, and Lancelot ducked in to hug his sister.

Arthur shook his head in amazement. Never in his wildest dreams could he have hoped for such a victory.


Of course, after the indulged elation, they had to put their lives back together. Repairs had to be made to the city; new defenses had to be put up. They didn't know what happened to the Wraiths, if the sunlight had destroyed them, if they'd retreated into the Veil, or if they were still lurking.

Once those tasks were well underway, Arthur took a group out to scout the Rifts. They were still there, still conduits to the realm of the dead. But to everyone's surprise, some were ringed in gray smoke and others in glistering gold. The gray ones looked in on the familiar barren landscape, but the iridescently lined ones opened up into a realm bathed in a soft blue hue.

"It looks like the combined light somehow found its way in permanently," Lancelot commented. "And transformed the Veil just like it did here."

Arthur could only nod mutely as they stopped to peer into one of the Rifts. It was a tranquil looking place—peaceful. He had thought the afterlife only held torment, but it seemed now that had changed. A brand new world had opened up for the dead as well.

Arthur startled when a little girl appeared on the other side of the shimmering Rift. Her dress was green, her skin pale, and her eyes like emeralds. But Arthur recognized the head of dark hair.

"Morgana?" he tentatively called, unsure if she could hear him.

But she gave a shy smile in response.

He let out a shuddery breath and stepped closer, only to catch himself. The Veil may have looked like a lush meadow, but it was still for the dead.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded. Her lips didn't move with attempted speech; everything she communicated was through those vibrant green eyes.

Arthur's eyes grew wet. He couldn't express the amount of joy he felt that she had been restored from that crazed spirit that had suffered so much. He slowly raised his hand toward the tear, but careful not to actually touch it and get sucked in.

Morgana mirrored him, their palms hovering inches from the other. They shared another smile, and then she turned away to disappear into the new afterlife.

"Be at peace," Arthur murmured.

He turned around and found his friends watching him, their expressions glad. Arthur grinned back.

There was a brand new world out there—and beyond. And he couldn't wait to start living in it.