The red energy constricted around me ripping into my flesh and soul before extinguishing my existence.
My eyes snapped open and I sighed at yet another failed vision. I’d been going through dozens of combat scenarios against Arthur with my prophecy and foresight. It put a tax on my mind and spirit to direct it rather than receiving the random visions I got but I needed to be tactical about how I handled my next battle with Arthur.
I could feel it in my spirit, a nameless dread and certainty that the next time he and I fought would be the last. Taking a breath to center myself I closed my eyes again falling into the meditative trance as I cast my mind into the future to choose an alternate path.
My sandals struck the deck of Arthur’s ship and I charged him. Clarent and Excalibur screamed as they clashed and sparks flew as we struggled against the other. Entropy demons flowed up from below decks and joined the fray. At first they were nothing to deal with only adding to my strength with Shadow of Judgement but they just didn’t stop coming and every hit they did filled me with that red poison. My body withered and weakened and I could barely hold back Excalibur from cleaving into my body.
Arthur eventually stepped back and the Demons flowed over me like a tidal wave draining me of color, life and energy until I was a dilapidated husk.
Gritting my teeth, I opened my eyes again. Another failed vision but another lesson, I could not face Arthur and his Demons alone. I closed my eyes again and let my mind drift as my foresight took in another possible future.
A war of attrition against Arthur took place I holed up within the Void and only occasionally sallied out to fight him using my power over the Void to block his reentry into it. Years passed and we were both at god rank now but our battle was never over. Finally, Arthur driven to complete insanity took his ship into the depths of space. I watched from the Void as he turned his ship around and it blurred speeding up until not even my Perception could track it as it entered light speed. The ship struck the planet and there was an explosion unlike anything I had ever seen before. Only dust and hole of red energy was left of Talba the planet utterly annihilated.
Opening my eyes again I considered this new information. Arthur was not a problem I could ignore. While I felt no loyalty to Talba and the people I cared about would be safe I had created the monster that was Arthur, it was my responsibility to destroy him. If I ignored the problem the planet’s destruction would be as much my responsibility as anyone else’s. I had to fight there was not other real choice for me.
I flooded reality with Void energy directed by my will as I laced it with Ethereal. It surged over Arthur like a tidal wave as I sought to drown him in it. Arthur responded with his Entropy energy. The three energies reacted with eachother feeding, growing and expanding in a devastating chain reaction that grew beyond anyone’s control. The energies expanded and fought into the Void and across the universe in a war of energy that no one controlled and no one could stop.
Another failure, another lesson. The power of the Void and Entropy was not the answer only utter destruction for all life laid down that path.
I allowed Arthur into the Void. I was prepared for him again and wasn’t interrupted by another god’s attack but the fight was no less hard. The entropy demons had only grown in number and swarmed against the city walls and up onto the battlements. Arthur and I fought and my generals joined in.
Many died before Arthur was at last slain. We had won and those most important to me, Guinevere and Aurora were still alive but it was a pyrrhic victory. We had not been decimated, that would have been an acceptable loss. Less than twenty percent of my followers had survived the battle and the city of Avalon was a ruin. It could be repaired with but a thought from me but the lives and souls of those who had died in her defense could not be brought back.
I let out a heavy sigh again but marked the lesson. Despite the advantages of my home turf and the power the Void granted me I would not let Arthur back to my home. These people were mine to protect. I thought often what it meant to be the god of Sacrifice and Heroes, what that symbolized about me. Despite the power of the Forest of Sacrifice I was not some Aztec or Mesopotamian god that had his own people sacrificed in his name. It was not my followers that were the sacrifice but me and I would not throw their lives away to destroy Arthur. That was the mistake he had made and I saw where that road had led him. I adjusted my position recentering myself and closing my eyes.
I ambushed Arthur after fleeing from him. Arthur walked into the trap his body was immolated by Exar’kun’s fire. Vone brought down a hail of light on him and Mira’s arrows exploded against his body. Outnumbered by champions just as he done to me many times Arthur stood his ground but Clarent’s roar melted his armor to slag.
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A twisting of the air that made my head ache and Arthur stood whole again. Reality was twisted around him as he reasserted his own existence twisting the very fabric of time to deny death. He started cutting through the other heroes slaying Mira, Vone and….
I opened my eyes frustration filling me. Arthur couldn’t be killed that knowledge was useful to know but I wished I had discovered it earlier. Were any of the victories I had perceived even real or had I just not watched long enough to see Arthur come back negating every sacrifice to kill him? If I were to kill him I would have to somehow instantaneously extinguish his physical form and soul in one attack or make it so his warping of time was impossible. Closed my eyes once more opening my minds eye again.
Guinevere and I rushed Arthur from both sides, his ship lay broken on the earth and we pincered him. His armor moved with a serpent’s grace, and I was forced to admit that he was my equal in combat as he blocked both of our attacks backhanding Guinevere with the force of an avalanche. Guinevere was knocked away and he and I faced each other. The red energy suffused Arthur as he moved about me our blades and abilities hammering at the other.
The duel continued on as we blocked and parried dozens of attacks in the span of a single heartbeat. Guinevere rushed back in and we pressured Arthur together. His armor dented and broken began to dissolve as I used my ethereal energy to counteract his Entropy energy and dissolve his form bit by bit. The focus it took to do that was immense and it left me able to do little else but focus on survival. Arthur took advantage of this turning his full focus onto Guinevere.
Excalibur slashed at her from all directions and he drove her into the ground. Raising his sword his arm was a golden blur, I moved to intercept his sword with Clarent but the golden wings on Arthur’s back hit me blasting me back with a burst of radiance as Arthur empowered them with Entropy. Excalibur cut through Guinevere’s neck and she withered away a red Entropy Demon rising from where she had fallen.
A roar of pure rage filled the land. Ethereal surged up in me as I gripped Arthur with Force of Will and dissolved his armor away to nothing. He was gone….
My eyes snapped open again and I breathed heavily looking about in panic before I saw Guinevere rocking Aurora and calmed myself. It had been a vision but right there and then I resolved that I would not let Guinevere face Arthur ever again.
I stood up and began pacing as I ran over all my many visions. I knew more about Arthur than he likely thought I did and it was possible I knew more about his capabilities than he though I did. I was strong now at the cusp of god rank as I had continued to rank up my abilities while also finally making the connection with Guinevere’s soul and giving her the power necessary to rank up her abilities past twenty. I had more tools now, much more than Arthur would have access to but what ever battle I chose there would be sacrifices some that I was not willing to make.
Clarent fitted into my hand as I looked down at the red crystal jutting out of it. Perhaps I needed to adjust my thinking, perhaps death and battle was not the answer. I needed to defeat Arthur but there were other ways I could do so. I remembered what Andelar had told me about the System and its controls I doubted the System was capable of just letting me try and set it free. Even if it desired such a thing it was doubtless instructed to try and prevent it.
I took out my stylus and a piece of parchment. I drove the stylus into my skin drawing blood as I began writing.
---
Arthur felt a disturbance behind him as something from the Void stepped through. He whirled around Excalibur already in hand swinging. The figure of black energy stepped back but did not counter attack.
“Hello King,” the figure said. “I am Ares, Herald of Mordred I have been sent here to bring you a message.”
Arthur cut through the figure turning them to black mist.
Ares reappeared again. “Please put aside your blade, my soul exists elsewhere you can destroy this avatar as many times as you desire and it shall do nothing.”
“What do you want?” Arthur growled.
“It is not I that wants anything,” Ares said a peace of parchment appeared in his hands and he laid it out before Arthur. “Mordred wishes to make a deal.”
“There is nothing he can say to make me spare him,” Arthur spat.
“That is not the terms,” Ares said. “Read for yourself.”
Arthur looked down and read over the document.
“This is a blood pact?” he asked surprised.
“You can feel the power yourself,” Ares answered.
Arthur, you and I will forever be enemies, nemeses to our bitter end. To spare the casualties that will result in whatever battles you and I fight in I propose we agree to simple terms. We finish what we should have in the arena, you and me, none of our vessels in the battle, no outside interference of any kind divine or mortal. If you agree to this pact we will meet in three days from now at noon, Camelot time, at the Stone Table, a divine realm you will be able to locate via the stone attached to this document. We will prepare no traps at the location for the other, we will meet alone, fight alone and neither of us will flee the fight for any reason and will continue until either one of us surrenders and the other accepts, until one of suffers final death or until incapacitation.
“I accept,” Arthur said touching the parchment his own energy entering the parchment and sealing the blood pact. “Tell your master to prepare for his death.”