Chapter 21: Duel of Fates (486 AD)

Morgan's place, 486 AD

"Myrddin?"

"Hello Master…"

I look at my former student confident that I could handle this, my confidence however falters when I see the necklace around his neck. Inside, a green stone is shining brightly and is pulsing with power.

Well, shit. He has an infinity stone. Fuck, this is bad. I can do a lot of things with my runes but I don't have the raw power to fight against an infinity stone. I think only a celestial with my master of runes can actually fight a competent wielder head on. Unfortunately, Agamotto, the first sorcerer supreme made the eye so that any experienced sorcerer should be able to use the stone. However, they are restrained by the spells he created and cannot modify them like any other spell because Agamotto couldn't risk any sorcerer accidentally unraveling our reality when experimenting with the stone.

I don't think people realize how much of a genius Agamotto was. Even if he was a demi-god of an Elder God, when gods and demons still walked the earth. It was before I actually landed to Atlantis. From what I read when I was sorcerer supreme, there was a war between gods and demons, and unfortunately, Earth was the battleground. This war went for millennia and reality was on the verge of collapsing. As a desperate act, Agamotto performed a spell. It is to this day the most complicated and powerful spell ever recorded. It must have taken years to prepare and create. The scale of this spell was unprecedented. No one had ever done it before, and perhaps no one will be ever to do it again.

Powering the spell with the time stone, he was able to banish every living being with even a spark of divine or demonic energy, from our reality and into realms of their own. He also created a shield in the forms of three sanctums around the globe, to prevent them from returning. The sanctums were powered by the leylines and so could remain until the planet itself is destroyed. And to preserve the natural order, he created an order of sorcerers and taught them the mystic arts to protect the sanctums.

Okay, let's think this logically. My main objective is Mordred's safety. My secondary objective is getting out of this alive. In term of power, I'm beat. He's been sorcerer supreme for decades and so, knows how to properly use the eye of Agamotto. He's also a wand user and so cannot manipulate spells after they are cast. I must beat him through skill and deception. It's time like this that I wish I still had the soul stone for situations like this. Yes, I lost it for a good cause but it's still a shame there was no other way.

"It's been a while. The circle is now complete, when I left you, I was but a learner. Now I am the master."

"You're cute, kiddo. You got a long way to even think of comparing yourself to me."

"I have achieved all that I sought out to do. I have united the magical world under one banner, my banner. I shaped it in my image. I have destroyed all magic that can threatened the new order and now I am on the verge of uniting the magical world to the muggle one. I don't need you anymore. You're just some old woman that's too afraid to use her power."

While he's monologuing, I discreetly start healing Mordred. I can't do much to help her without it being obvious but her life isn't in danger anymore. Main objective complete. I need to find a way to send her away. Impossible to do it now without him noticing, I'll have to distract him somehow.

"Have you learnt nothing from our time together, Myrddin. Magic wasn't created by spells; spells are a way to channel magic. What was discovered in the past can be rediscovered in the future. You have created a community that relies entirely on you and your puppet king or should I say queen. It will not pass the test of time."

"I am no longer Myrddin the orphan boy, I am not Merlin, the sorcerer supreme and hero to all magicals in the worlds. I am no longer the boy who idolized you but a man that sees you for the abomination you are. How long have you been alive, and what manner of vile magic have you used to do so?"

"Now boy, you should never ask a woman her age. Why are you here, mighty Merlin?" I asked sarcastically.

"I am here to end a threat to the world. With my clairvoyance amplified by the time stone, the girl is a threat to Albion."

"How many times have I told you that the future is always in motion. The future is what we make of it. Every vision you see is but a possibility not a fact."

"I'm not prepared to take that chance. I have worked too hard and scarified too much for it to be undone by one girl."

"You would condemn an innocent child for crimes she hasn't done yet. Have you truly sunk that far?"

Myrddin didn't respond and suddenly whips out his wand and sends a spell towards Mordred. I move as fast as possible to stand in front of my daughter and intercept it with a wandless shield. It seems I am not the only one that wishes to defy fate.

I materialize my staff in my hand and point it towards my former apprentice. "I will not let you hurt my daughter."

He sneered and replied, "Then you will share the same fate."

He sends out a fireball at me that I intercept with a wall of air that returns it to him. After dodging my counter attack, he attacks me with a lightning whip that I'm forced to use a sorcerer shield to block since I can't dodge in fear of any attack hurting my daughter.

I conjure pikes of iron and send them at him. He turns them into dust by using the time stone to rewind their lifetimes. This will be annoying.

He creates a sword in his hand using dimensional energy and runs up to attack me with it, I block it with my staff. After a few parries, he tries to discreetly send a spell towards an unconscious Mordred that I intercept by wandlessly levitating furniture in the path of the spell. He didn't expect me to use my staff to hit him in the head at the same time that I was blocking the spell which stunned him for a second. Seeing that him being close makes him easier to attack my daughter I decide to put some distance between us. I send out a powerful telekinetic push that sends my opponent flying outside and far away from his target.

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I create a golem out of earth that takes the form of a humanoid giant that attempts to attack him but that's soon disintegrated by Myrddin's use of the time stone. I'm starting to hate that thing. I can't even take the damn necklace from his neck since Agamotto made sure no one could steal it from the wearers by warding it.

Shit, I can't use my full arsenal since it can endanger Mordred. Even now that we're away, I could easily accidentally kill her with a stray spell.

Myrddin exclaims, "That's enough. No more parlor tricks. I will show you why I am called the most powerful magic user that ever lived."

I snort, "You're cute kiddo, you're not even close."

He screams in fury, "Then let me show you, my power. FIENDFYRE!"

A dragon made of fire comes out of his wand. It reeks of malice and demonic energy. The dragon flies into the air, opens up his wings and attacks me. I do not remain idle as I summon water from the lake and form it into a large snake that I freeze.

"I didn't think you would dabble in demonic magic, Myrddin."

Both elemental creatures attack each other, fire and ice battle furiously, seemingly in a stalemate until the snake made of ice opens his maw and starts to absorb the dragon's essence.

The snake starts glowing and opens his maw releasing a torrent of cursed flames towards Merlin, dissipating in its final attack. This forced my opponent to create a wall of earth to hide behind.

Ash covered what used to be my garden and I take a breather and ready a runic spell to help me and my daughter escape. Before I finish, I hear a scream.

"Fulmen"

A bolt of lightning races towards me and I quickly conjure a lightning rod instead of shielding against it. The fire has finally died down and I can recognize a silhouette of a man that suddenly turned into multiple clones of Myrddin, surrounding me. I recognize the spell; these are solid clones, each with a sliver of magic to cast a few simple spells but can dispel after one hit. Before they could attack me, I create a circular blade of air surrounding me, catching them unprepared and dispelling them. The original screamed out in pain with a noticeable gash of blood on his chest. While he's distracted, I finish the runic spell I have been creating during the fight.

As I finish it, I hear, "Avada Kedavra".

A green light moves towards me, and I ready my runic soul shield. I notice that Merlin's face showed a victorious smirk. A smirk that disappeared seconds after the spell splashes harmlessly on my golden shield.

Horrible spell that Avada Kedavra, it uses the energy liberated from a fracture of the soul to create an attack that kills every living thing that touches it. It's one of the reasons you need hatred to power the spell. You must hate your enemy enough to fracture a piece of your soul, your very being, just to kill him.

"Honey, you have no idea what's possible."

Suddenly, a raven made of shadows emerges from the ashes and dives towards Merlin that screams "AGIS", the mage shield spell. One of the most impressive magical shields that has never been breached before. Until today that is when the raven tears the shield apart without any effort and disappears in Myrddin's chest. Suddenly, Myrddin collapses, exhausted.

"What have you done."

"It's a spell I create, makes the victim magically exhausted immediately. Like it?"

What I don't tell him is that it also curses the victim by slowly destroying the victim's magical core. The more he use’s it, the more his reserves suffer. This will keep happening until he runs out of magic and dies. A fitting punishment for daring to hurt my daughter.

Before he regains his energy, I summon roots out of the ground to bind him and conjure and enchant chains into binding his arms and chest. These chains prevent the use of any type of mystical energy, dimensional or not. I look at the kneeling man, that's glaring at me in hatred, before me and sigh in disappointment. He had so much potential, I even had to constantly maintain a runic time spell to prevent him from using his clairvoyance during the fight. Even then, it's been a while since I had a workout. He's an interesting opponent for this time, he could properly fight some of the weaker gods in ancient Greece. It's too bad he limits himself to using a wand. All in all, not a bad fight but not a duel for the ages.

I need to find a way to remove the necklace from his neck. I can't kill him since the stone will be lost forever due to Agamotto's enchantment which would disrupt the timeline and threaten reality. It's one of the reasons I held back so much against him. I had to protect Mordred but I couldn't risk killing him. I also cannot let him go since he would try to kill Mordred at a later time.

Before I could decide what to do with my prisoner, Mordred runs and attacks her bound attacker with Anduril screaming, "You dare attack Mother!"

"NO!", I screamed, trying to stop her.

The blade does pierce into Myrddin abdomen but it's not even a mortal wound. Unfortunately, the blade cut through the chains biding Merlin making him able to move his hands. With a movement of his hand, he opens the eye of Agamotto and uses the time stone to make a pulse of energy that pushes both me and my daughter away from him.

Suddenly, a great beam of light is moving towards my daughter. It's a killing curse, it's something far more powerful. That attack harnesses the power of the time stone to revert the time of the victim. So far that it erases them from existence. No afterlife or anything after that. Not even their soul survives. I cannot use a portal or anything to redirect the attack. Time and space are closely related after all.

I teleport in front of Mordred and bellow, "RHO AIAS". I manipulate the layers of the shield to purely protect from temporal attacks. Immediately the first two layers of my shield. In attempt to save my daughter, I ready the runic spell I have been preparing. It's a teleportation spell that works for a single person but it is completely untraceable. Normally, teleportation spells always leave a trace leading to the destination. This spell is a true masterpiece of space magic, one that I would be proud to have created in such a short notice if the situation wasn't so dire.

I take a look at Mordred and I see the fear in her eyes. She doesn't think we will survive this. I smile sadly at her, "I love you, Mordred. Always remember that." Before she could respond, I cast the spell and send her through the portal without Myrddin noticing. All that mattered was that Mordred was safe, she knows that her shield was wavering now. She smirks when she notices that Myrddin is using his magic constantly during the attack to keep powering it up, he must have used the stone to fill up his reserve. With the amount of magic he's using, he will probably be a shell of his former self after the fight is over. Before the last layer of my shield is destroyed, I add a rune to the shield in a Hail Mary. The shield shatters and all I can see is darkness.

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AN:

For those that will no doubt complain about nerfing the MC, I kinda had to do it to be able to make this somewhat interesting. But even logically, you have to understand that she not only has to make sure Merlin doesn't die so that the time stone isn't lost (Agamotto's dead man spell, check out infinity war during the battle in NY), she also has to make sure to protect Mordred from any attack including her own and passively heal her injuries at the same time. Add in the whole fact that the universe itself is fighting against her, it's Mordred's fate to die at Camlann and the universe is making it so that it happens by manipulating the probabilities of any event that lead to that. It's a fight against fate too not just against Merlin.

There is also a psychological issue involved that will be explained in the next chapter, trust me she's not gonna be holding back in the next chapter.