Arthur and the emperor stood in the middle of the room. The pillar that Arthur was chained too still standing tall.
"So. What kind of technique was that? It was pretty convincing."
The emperor hummed for a moment.
"A simple avatar. I needed to…antagonize myself. In a way."
Arthur raised an eyebrow. Still feeling fatigue in his muscles and core.
"And whys that? I thought the emperor is supposed to help."
The emperor scoffed.
"I'm no emperor. I have no empire, not anymore at least. This is just a simple kingdom. And I am just a king. A king who is hated by all the houses he has rule over."
"Hated?"
"Yes…yes, most of the houses are not fond of me. Except the pendragon and Zephyr house, though, I have no clue how my old friends think of me nowadays. I've simply been waiting. For you, but, thats not important right now. Also, just call me Julius."
Arthur nodded and watched Julius stride forward towards the pillar. His hand against the cold stone.
"Do you know why this labyrinth was built, Arthur Pendragon?"
Arthur didn't follow. Making sure to keep his distance from Julius.
"No."
"Hm. Well. It's not a maze for a reason. But, there's no exit. Other than up there. Thats because it's no maze, it's a prison. A maze would have an intended entrance and exit. This has none."
Arthur paused.
"A prison for what, exactly?"
Julius chuckled, resting his hand on the center of the pillar.
"Hopefully something that stays in there. Even I don't know what it is."
"So. Why are you even telling me this? You were sounding like a psychopath about 15 minutes ago."
"Well. To be honest, I don't have too much to say to you. But, I'd like to give you some well needed practice. So, I will help you become a master."
Arthur eyes widened a bit, he made it sound easy. Too good to be true.
'Could I really…'
"Whats the catch?"
"No catch."
Arthur hadn't recovered his mana. But he didn't need it. He quickly drew the moonlight blade and burst forward. Julius immediately created a sword in his hand and rotated it. He swung it at Arthur. Arthur focused on the tip of his blade, infusing his energy into his own. And then thrusting it forward. Focusing on that single point. He pierced through the blade as Julius quickly conjured another one. Arthur increased his speed. Empowering his muscles with his energy.
He quickly shattered the newly conjured blade. Taking another swing at Julius's body. Julius chuckled and quickly created a huge shield. Showing no sign of even bated breath. While Arthur was already sweating. Not only was his whole body aching, begging him to stop. His head hurt a lot a well. Mentally exhausted. He hadn't realized it, but the enhanced sight of the dragon eyes consumed lots of brain power, and they were the only reason he could keep up. The eyes of a dragon perceived the world in a different form, although they saw it as shapes, they could see the waves of those shapes, their formation. The way their core and body is composed.
And the only reason why his body was keeping up with him was because of the partially formed dragon body.
Julius spoke up once he noticed Arthur's bated breath.
"Your body lacks harmony. There's lot of different beings battling within it. If you don't control it, you'll fall apart. First your brain, then your body."
"And what do you suggest I do about it, then."
He slumped back onto the floor. Letting himself catch his breath.
"Don't be afraid. I know you've had a bad experience or two, almost killing your family. But if you're afraid. It will simply control you. And the longer you suppress it, the more it will retaliate. So let go."
Arthur wasn't exactly understanding. And then a small conjured shield slammed him in the noggin. When he woke up again he was in that vast endless library. The demon made of blue fire was standing right next to him. Some of the library was noticeably burnt into a crisp.
"Is this supposed to represent something?"
Arthur scoffed.
The calamity looked at him. Letting out a small sigh.
"My turn."
Suddenly the calamity vanished. And the library started to burn again. Julius looked forward. Watching as blue flames slowly consumed Arthur's body. And once again he stood up. The calamity cracked its neck and looked at him.
"Ah. I believe we've met before."
Julius laughed.
"Thats right. I'm sure I sealed you in that pups body."
"Well. You sure did sacrifice a lot. Like that wench."
Julius tensed up. Suddenly he felt himself growing quite angry.
"You don't get to speak of her. Not when you inhabit her child's body so recklessly."
"Ah, I knew I saw the resemblance…how sad she died for no reason."
The calamity quickly took a step to the right. As a spinning spear flew past it at quite the speed. The emperor dashed forward. Quickly closing the distance between the two.
Arthur sat in the library. He skimmed through the library. Searching for a book. His mind knew exactly where it was. He blew the dust off the thin book, revealing the title. Calamity. A simple one worded title. The calamity was born out of the last star's hatred. Forced to inflict suffering until the end of time. The book contained the history of its vessels. Surprisingly on the last page. He found his own name. Arthur pendragon. And above it Unknown, a vessel with no name.
And above it was a name written in draconic runes. He couldn't interpret it, the draconic language was a kind of amalgamation. Nothing really had a consistent meaning. When he looked up from the book. Verita was staring down at him.
"You seemed like you had it under control. For a moment, at least."
"What does this say?"
Arthur held up the book to her. Verita took the book from his hands. And then paused.
"…I'm not sure."
Verita's tone seemed to have a slight inconsistency. Like she remembered something she didn't want to remember.
"Right well. Could you give me a little help here? It's not exactly easy to find harmony between that thing and I."
Verita sighed, placing the book back on the shelf.
"You have an incredibly strong will. If you didn't just sit down and let it take over you. You'd very much be able to overpower it. All you have to do is fight it. Close your eyes, Arthur Pendragon."
Arthur closed his eyes. And when he opened them again. He was standing in a dark puddle in a room of pitch black. A small ember of blue flame lingered in front of him. It lurched forward at him. But Arthur grabbed it.
'Caught you…'
Arthur crushed the flame in his palm. Letting the embers fly out and surround him. Then a screen showed up in front of him.
[Freedom is a wonderful thing, isn't it, Cole Smith?]
Arthur stared at it for a few moments.
"So now you decide to not be silent?"
[You didn't need me. Surprising. The other girl is quite reliant on me.]
"So. You gonna tell me something important now?"
[You've completed my 'tutorial' now, Cole Smith. You know enough about this world to thrive. Have a good life. And don't mess this one up, Arthur Pendragon.]
The screen faded. And Arthur just remained there confused.
'Well. That was…weird.'
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them he was back in the labyrinth. Julius was panting in front of him. Blue flames manifested into a cloak dragging down his sides.
"Perfect."
Julius grinned. Arthur felt something odd, like the cloak was an extension of himself. Julius threw another spear at Arthur and the cloak swiftly moved, one of its ends manifesting into a fist which caught the spear.
'Hm. Thats neat.'
Arthur summoned the moonlight blade, the blue glow illuminating the labyrinth around him. Julius chuckled.
"Good."
Julius threw several more spears at him. Arthur dashed to the side. But he noticed the spears were turning towards him.
'The hell…'
Arthur used the protection rune and projected it as a barrier. Layering it twice. The spears were destroyed by the barrier and shattered it as well. Arthur activated his augment and blitzed Julius from behind.
"Why are you randomly attacking me now, Julius?!"
Julius summoned a shield behind him and slammed it into Arthur, sending him stumbling back.
"I've given you the power to keep me a dead man. I sense the power of a master within you, so now you have to kill me. I've done my part. So do yours."
Arthur stopped himself from moving any further. Several conflicting thoughts flew through his mind, Arthur wasn't fond of the idea of killing human beings, especially ones he barely had a reason to kill. Things were going too fast. There was something odd about his vision that was disorienting him. Like he was seeing double, maybe triple of Julius, in different spots, different stances.
He grit his teeth. "Is that what you want, truly? To leave your kingdom? To leave your son?"
"My kingdom hates me. And I'm sure my son does too."
Julius charged forward with a great sword. Arthur noticed something about his vision, he could see the path of Julius's blade, though it was a bit inconsistent. Arthur moved to the side. And watched as the blade slashed into the floor where he was standing before. Arthur infused his blade with white flames and slashed Julius. Managing to land a small cut across his chest, which was burning. Julius winced.
"Nice trick…"
Julius surrounded Arthur in a cage of spears. All pointing at him. He reacted quickly, surrounding himself with an enhanced barrier. He layered the barrier 3 times as the spears shot at him. A few spears managed to get through all three layers. And pierced Arthur's body. Arthur grunted slightly and grew a bit wobbly. Yanking the spears out of him, he slowly started to regenerate. His regeneration factor was slowing down noticeably. He was focused on conserving mana for strong attacks. And passively healed with only a small portion of his overall mana pool.
Arthur dashed backwards and created a bow of white flames. Shooting 3 arrows towards Julius. Arthur's dragon eyes had noticed the curving motion in the spears, they were augmented by a certain type of magic. Now the rune of that magic was engraved in his brain, Arthur applied it to his arrows. One shot dead center at his chest. While the other two curved into his sides. The two aiming for his sides pierced through his ribs. But he deflected the one aiming for his center.
"Ha…you…how the hell did you do that?"
Julius was left caught off guard. Causing Arthur to lurch forward. Manifesting two hands from the end of his cloak. Reaching out and grasping Julius. Arthur had fallen into a state of absolute concentration, and his blade moved swift across the air, in an instant, he had slashed Julius 3 times, his speed had increased dramatically with his blade.
Julius burst of the grasp and quickly dashed back. Arthur did the same. Julius observed Arthur in this state. Arthur only stared at him. Waiting. Something about it was terrifying to Julius, a potential so infinite, a boy who could grow in battle to such a point. What would his limit be? Julius switched to his magic. Sending light beams at Arthur. Who responded with a barrier in front of his body. Arthur then dashed to the side and turned the floor beneath Julius into ice. And then covered the ice in white flames. Julius quickly jumped over the ice and landed. But when he landed, he was met with a deep cut to the chest. Arthur was already in front of him, gazing into him with those cold eyes. Julius smiled. He summoned a piece of paper, and placed it into Arthur's grasp.
"Show this to my advisors…boy…show us the path…"
Arthur shoved his blade into Julius. As the effects of absolute concentration wore off he just stared at Julius, who had already passed away. And slumped next to his body.
"Fuck."
He looked at the piece of paper rolled and sealed with the golden crest of light.
"Everything in this place is so confusing…"
He was sure that Julius had let him kill him. There were many opportunities where Julius had the chance to retaliate, but seemed to refuse. Julius was smart, if it was a true battle, Arthur surely would've been dead. Arthur picked up Julius's body and looked up.
'How the hell am I supposed to…'
Suddenly Arthur felt a recoil of pain within his body and vomited up a bunch of black guck.
'Uh…what the hell?'
He just stared at the puddle for a moment and felt quite repulsed at what had came out of his own mouth. He used his dragon eyes to peer inside the flow of his own body, along with the vision of a master, even at stage 1, he could see much clearer, his core had practically shriveled from overuse. The black gunk coming out of his mouth was mana from his core that had basically stopped working inside of his own body and he had to throw it up. Arthur looked around, only then had he noticed the absence of Thanatos.
'...where did he go off to? All of a sudden...'
He shrugged it off. The cloak was still around his back, despite the lack of mana. Which gave him an idea. He carried Julius's body in his arms and formed his cloak into wings, he jumped and created a large gust of wind beneath him, even with no mana, he had to get out of there somehow, he could already feel the gunk climbing back up, he flapped the wings and burst up and out of the cracks in the roof, and then taking a tumble on the broken floor of the palace. He retracted the wings and the cloak vanished, as he vomited another batch of black gunk. He heard the sound of a slight choke. And looked up to see Lancelot, whose boots were covered in a puddle of black vomit. But his look of repulsion changed when he saw the corpse of his father in Arthur's grasp. He took the body and sighed.
"Thank you, Arthur, though you've covered my boots in a vile substance, I'm happy you were able to retrieve my father's body." Lancelot tossed his boots to the side and walked back to the throne room. Uther, Morgus, and Revan were standing there as well. All of them eyeing him like he was weird. And when Arthur stumbled forward Revan moved to his side and kept him up. Uther and Morgus walked up to him. Uther's gaze was more stern.
"What happened down there, boy?"
Arthur's gaze landed on Uther at the sound of his voice.
"I had a thing or two to learn. Turns out..."
Its clear Uther wasn't satisfied with that answer, and when he was about to push further Morgus put a hand of his shoulder.
"Let the boy rest. He did a good job."
That night, Arthur found himself staring off the edge of a balcony in the main hallway to the throne room. He was still confused. That day, why had the skeleton knight helped Julius? Why did he even do it in the first place, and what in the world was imprisoned there? It was something he might never know, and he wasn't satisfied with that. He heard soft steps from behind them and saw Revan, who was wearing a rather thick nightgown for the cold weather, her long black hair falling down her sides. She came up next to him.
"I don't get you."
"Hm?"
"I thought we were in this together, Arthur, we're from the same world after all. But theres just...so much I don't know about you. And I feel like I never had the chance for you to tell me."
"Really? You're mad because you haven't got to know me better?"
"Don't act like you made it easy..." She ran a hand down her hair, curling it slightly in her finger. "...you swore to be my knight, and then you just ran away, without a word..."
"I had something important to do."
"Yet you never told me what. A knight should never be dishonest to his lady. Right?"
Revan smiled slightly, leaning her back against the balcony.
Arthur smiled as well, he shifted his gaze from the empty night towards her. "Fine. You wanna hear a story?"
End of Volume 2