“No!” Arthur screamed.

Guinevere twisted her sword, ripping it out and spinning around faster than the eye could follow. Her sword flashed out, slicing off Merlin’s hand, the ring he held dropping to the floor. She laid a hand on my head and my mana bindings dropped away instantly. I moved in a blur of my own scooping up the hand and the ring it contained. Black void arms sprouted all across my torso as I stepped in front of Guinevere, deflecting the hundreds of attacks launched at us by the surrounding nobility.

Merlin stumbled back, dragging his brother with his remaining hand. Scarlet lightning shot out but a shield dome appeared around them and it deflected off. Merlin enveloped Arthur and his father as they retreated from the throne room, opening up another portal and disappearing. Lancelot had already been whisked away to who knows where with Lionor and her baby.

None of them mattered; I had Guinevere now. The nobles here were a lot harder to slay than the champions I was normally faced with. They hadn’t prepared specifically to face me but every single one of them out ranked me and were decked out for war. I made the decision to leave. I had Guinevere and my army was still locked in combat.

As satisfying as it would be to kill each and every one of these men and women, their time would come and I would bring my entire army crashing down on them. My left hand drew a circle in the air and I opened a portal.

“Get in,” I said to Guinevere.

We dove through the portal appearing on the street outside the palace at Camelot. Guinevere looked at the burning city in shock.

“What happened?” she asked.

“They got in my way,” I replied.

I felt no guilt or regret for my actions. They had pushed me and this was the consequence of their actions.

“How many people are dead?” Guinevere asked.

“Does it matter?” I asked disinterestedly, turning away.

Her hand slapped me across the face startling me.

“Take control of your Shadow,” she said, her voice stern and commanding.

The slap didn’t hurt but it still stunned me. Looking inwards, I could feel the Shadow twisting through me. It was affecting my actions far more than I thought it had been. I pushed back on it and got a violent response in return.

Obey! With the mental command I pulled the Shadow out of my thoughts and pushed it back down.

Voidra, Ares and Karnen helped me to put it back in its bindings. It struggled and thrashed but against our collective will, its strength powered by primal rage couldn’t hold us back. The Shadow was bound inside me once again and I could view my actions more clearly.

I’d been unnecessarily destructive under the influence of the Shadow, but the worst part was, I still agreed with the actions I had taken. It had been brutal but I had done what I needed to send a message and fight my way through their streets. I had risen to their level of escalation but it wasn’t really an accuse.

65,536 Rank Points gained.

Blood and Souls (Repeatable): Kill 655,360 monsters or humanoids. Current Progress 94 out of 655,360. When you complete this quest, you will gain 65,536 Rank Points, and the next quest will require double the amount to be completed, but will award double the rank points.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The message came and showed me just how much death I’d caused. I wondered if Aisha was still alive. I’d told her to run but hadn’t thought about her since, and considering just how far my lightning had self-propagated, the chances didn't look that good.

“Mordred,” Guinevere said, and I could feel the sorrow in her voice. “Please, stop this.”

I closed my eyes reaching out to grab the lighnting in the city. It still belonged to me and I could extinguish it if I wanted too.

Don’t, a cold feminine voice spoke in my mind. You are the Warlord; this is your destiny.

The words of my goddess rocked my soul, almost sending me to my knees. I wasn’t sure what form of communication this was, but it was a lot harder to endure than our regular method of communication.

“You gave me free will to see my path done as I saw fit,” I snarled pushing back on the presence wearing down on me.

“What?” Guinevere asked, only hearing one side of the conversation.

Do not throw away this chance for power, Kalesa said. Your enemies are routed, now is not the time to show mercy. Strike while the iron is hot! You have seen their cities through that champion’s memories. Today you can teleport to each of them and with a single ability you can lay waste to them all. The power you can reap from them will give you enough rank points to advance yourself all the way to demigod without having to slowly acquire new abilities.

Her words tempted me more than I liked. It was her last words that decided it, though. I wasn’t trying to speed run this game of the gods, yes I might have the ability to do so, but something told me that even a god needed strong abilities and just sheer raw stats wouldn’t let me stand out.

Then there was Guinevere, her eyes were haunted, and I could only imagine what she was going through right now. She had gone through enough revelations, and I wouldn’t put her through more by becoming the monster everyone thought I was.

“No,” I answered the goddess, and I snuffed out every bolt of crimson lightning.

Everyone froze across the battlefield as the backdrop of lightning suddenly ended. I could see my army standing almost unopposed now. We’d been vastly outnumbered at the start and now we outnumbered them three to one.

“Let this day serve as a warning to you all,” I said, my voice rumbling out with Voice of the Chasm so all could hear me. “I tried to do things your way, play by your rules and customs, but your rulers chose not to honor them. Now we will do things the old way; the Law of Strength is at play. I can destroy you all as you have seen. If pressed I will do so again and again. Do not follow your prince or king. Let the champions fight among themselves and don’t involve yourselves. If you do… on your own head, be it.”

I opened nine portals, each wide enough for a dozen men to march through at once. They took nearly half my massive mana pool to create, but with a thought directed towards Ares, my entire army began marching through. In fifteen minutes only Guinevere and I remained behind.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Guinevere.

“Are you really?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I said. “I don’t regret my actions, but I do regret that they were necessary.”

Guinevere’s hand ran over the black and silver choker necklace she wore. “It’s my fault. I didn’t think this was an option, but the System had a way for me to break free of those oaths. I was too blinded by fear and loyalty to my fath… to Merlin, that I didn’t even look for another way out.”

“I’m sorry you had to find out about it like that,” I said.

“Better that I found out about it at all,” Guinevere said bitterly. “They would have pushed me into that twisted marriage knowing the truth.”

“I’m still sorry,” I said. “From personal experience I know trying to kill your father always leaves a mark on you, even if he wasn’t really a father to you at all.”

“Maybe I’ll feel guilty later,” Guinevere said. “But right now all I feel is anger. Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me for saving you,” I said shaking my head.

“No, thank you for stopping this,” Guinevere said gesturing out at the massacred city. “I realize you had to do this but you didn’t have to stop.”

“I did. If I didn’t listen to you and let you rein me in, I’d become something you and I hate. I still think about the vision we were shown in the tower, the god of blood and slaughter. When I see how easy it was to do what I did today, I realize how tempting a path that really is.”

“You don’t need me to rein you in,” Guinevere said leaning her head against my chest. “You just need to be reminded of who you are.”

I took her hand and opened another portal. The two of stepped through leaving a burning city of death behind us. I hoped it would be the last, but I knew it wouldn’t.