Merlin stood before the portal as Aramid stepped through.

“Merlin, I trust you have my payment this time?” he asked.

Arthur looked to Merlin unhappily. “Are you sure about this?”

“We need his help,” Merlin said.

“He didn’t help last time,” Arthur said.

Aramid crossed his arms. “It was my job to incapacitate the Warlord so your two champions could beat him. It’s not my fault they couldn’t do the job. I still haven’t been paid for that service yet, by the way.”

Arthur ignored the champion of Extinction. “What was the Holocaust’s price?”

“A tier IV artifact,” Merlin said.

“Of which I have yet to receive,” Aramid added. “I’ll expect that upfront this time before I do anything for you again.”

Merlin nodded and a group of men pushed a wagon laden with crates over. They opened up a crate and inside it were massive sections of metal that would assemble a suit of Atlas armor. Aramid examined them then nodded.

“This will do. What do you need me for?” he asked.

“I need you to call down an asteroid,” Merlin said, handing a rune inscribed bronze circle to Aramid. “This was enchanted with blood gathered from the Warlord, it will hone in on his position for a single attack, no matter what obscurement effects or spells he tries to employ.”

“An asteroid?” Aramid asked. “Usually, I get asked to not employ those. What’s different now?”

“He’s underground,” Arthur said. “We can’t employ the numbers needed to take him down.”

“The Underlands? I thought they were System dead zones?” Aramid asked.

“The System is working down there,” Merlin said. “Guinevere mentioned in a report that she destroyed the device blocking the System, but I wasn’t sure to believe her until now.”

“If I call down an asteroid, it will wipe out all life in a seven-league radius,” Aramid said as he looked at the army arrayed around them.

“We’re already packing up to move out,” Arthur said. “Can your asteroid still hit him that far below ground?”

“Hit him? Not exactly, but it will burn its way through the earth to get to its mark,” Aramid said. “I’ll expect another tier IV artifact after this.” He looked at Merlin and Arthur sternly. “Whether or not the attack ends with his death, you’re paying for my services, not the result.”

“Very well,” Arthur agreed.

“It will take me half a day to call down the asteroid,” Aramid said turning the metal disk over in his fingers. “Make sure your people are out of the blast radius before then.”

Aramid sat down in a meditative pose, a strange energy surrounding him as he searched the heavens to form an asteroid out of bits of rock to call down to earth.

---

Guinevere stirred and shook in her sleep. My eyes snapped open as I looked down at her. I touched her shoulder, and she flinched, jerking awake.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

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“I…I had a vision,” Guinevere said. “When you gave me your Foresight ability, I saw that feature, but I’ve never experienced….”

“What did you see?” I asked.

“Everything was burning,” Guinevere said. “Everyone all around us were screaming and dying as the stone melted, and then the ceiling collapsed, and…”

“You died,” I finished as I recalled how all my visions typically ended.

“No, well maybe I didn’t get that far, I saw you die,” she said.

I found it strange that Guinevere would have visions of my death while all I foresaw was that dark emptiness and the mountain covered in silver trees.

“The future is not set in stone,” I said. “Think what was causing everything. How could we stop it?”

“I’m not sure,” Guinevere said steadying her breathing as she closed her eyes. “The ground was shaking; something was pushing down through the ground, its heat was so intense it was burning through the earth.”

I closed my own eyes as I focused, reaching out to Exar’kun.

Exar, what are they doing up there? Guinevere had a vision of some sort of attack coming our way and killing me and everyone else. My telepathic communication was increased greatly by my rank, but I wasn’t sure if he had even gotten the message until I got a reply a minute later.

They’re moved away. They’ve encamped about eight leagues from the castle and are burrowing down into bunkers in the ground, Exar’kun said. I assumed you counter attacked or something to make them this skittish.

No, we beat them in battle, but we didn’t do that much damage to them, I said, uneasy by this new information. Are they all gone?

There is a small group left behind, Exar’kun said. Most of them are champions but there are some… you need to move.

What is it? I asked.

I can sense something I’ve felt only once before, Exar’kun said. After I just learned to fly, a comet passed overhead and I felt a connection to it. I could feel it in my bones. They’re doing to you what they did to my mother.

I recalled the barren, poisoned, irradiated land he’d been hatched in. An asteroid was headed for me. I started feeling an itch at the back of my neck like something was watching me. I had anti-scrying active and not even gods could watch me, but this felt inescapable.

“Everyone, go find your families down the tunnels,” I commanded.

Jeriah looked at me confused. “But the battle…”

“You can’t fight what’s coming,” I said. “It’s a force of nature, not a person. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to fulfill my promise to you.”

Jeriah looked solemn and clasped my wrist. “You returned my ancestral lands to me, its not our fault we couldn’t hold them.”

Tobias stepped forwards and laid a hand on my shoulder. “I was wrong about you Mordred. You’ve been a good leader for us. You’ve never used us as shields or shied away from risking your own life to save ours.”

They rushed off, taking their men with them. The leaders of the Myrmidon clans stayed behind, coming up to me and clasping my arm.

“You have shown yourself to be a true Warlord,” Korsis, the leader of the Wolf Clan said. “I’m sorry you never decided to merge your bloodline with ours, but even if your abilities disappear, we will not forget you.”

“Nor will I,” Kas’tu, leader of the Ursine Clan said. “You have displayed the cunning of Ares, the ferocity of Marshesh, and the unbreakable will of Lorku.”

I didn’t recognize most of those names, but realized they must have been fallen Warlords from the past.

My vassals fled as I had commanded them to, and only Guinevere remained.

“You need to leave,” I said and placed a hand on her belly. “We can’t risk…”

“It’s not a risk,” Guinevere said, interrupting me. “If your child is here, I know you’ll find the strength to defy fate.”

“That’s not something…”

“Have you ever failed me?” Guinevere asked, interrupting me again.

“No,” I said deciding to just let her say her piece.

“When you make up your mind to do something, nothing can stand in your way,” Guinevere said wrapping her arms around me.

I slid my arms around her as I felt the prickling around my neck intensify.

---

Arthur looked up as the darkening sky was lit up as the asteroid entered the atmosphere. He stepped through the portal Merlin had prepared and entered into the bunker. Looking out through the viewport, he watched as a chunk of rock the size of a castle roared through the atmosphere, black smoke trailing behind it. Aramid hadn’t left, but he had ways of avoiding his own attacks.

The asteroid hit and everything was still for a moment. Then a roar exploded out from the impact point as fire, dust, and ash rolled out, the shockwave spreading for miles out. Arthur shut the viewport, ducking down as even leagues away, the ground shook. Trees which had grown for hundreds and thousands of years were burned to ash in an instant. The ground was torn up and leveled. The asteroid continued to shake and burn as it moved through the ground, powered with a force beyond physics.

It wouldn’t stop until it had reached its target, and heaven help whatever soul it had been unleashed against, for nothing in this world could stop it.