Chapter 27 Perished

In another world stood a man in medieval armor, he had a golden crown on his head that accented well with his longer brown hair. On his back was a red cape and a greatsword that felt as if it could tear through reality.

He stood on the ramparts of his city awaiting something, the air was stale and something made the air smell rotten.

Suddenly a man teleported out of nowhere beside the king. He had a well shaven brown beard and hair, his robes were a dark blue and hung tightly to his body. His aura was synonymous with wisdom and intelligence.

"Arthur, are you really going to stay?" Asked the wizard.

"I'm tired Merlin, I think it's time I retired from this long struggle. Plus what kind of ruler would I be if I left my people?." Arthur looked incredibly resigned, he had been fighting the wave of corrupted for decades now. His curve had held on the longest out of almost all the others, all of which were now gone without a trace.

"Agreed, that's why I've decided to invite that brat here." Merlin said in response.

As if sensing they were talking about him, above them a golden portal opened up and from it Lucifer appeared with Yog.

"Have you decided to take my deal yet? I can see that overly righteous chimp over there is on his last legs already." Lucifer laughed seeing the resigned look of Arthur.

"I've decided to accept on his behalf, what do you need from us?" Merlin said, trying to deflect Lucifer from teasing the already gone Arthur.

"Preferably I want you and that sword on his back. I'm assuming the other knights are gone already?" Lucifer asked.

"I won't be leaving, but I've already come up with something to pass on my knowledge. The sword I can give you since I'd rather it not fall into the hands of the corrupted like some of our other artifacts. Some lower level knights are still around, I believe only Lancelot remains but his whereabouts are unknown. Only Morgan and Mordred remain inside the castle, the rest have fallen throughout the curve." Merlin sounded apathetic towards the fallen.

"Fair enough, I need whatever relics you have left. If you have any added conditions let me know." Lucifer had dropped the jackass facade and went straight to business.

"Take Morgan and Mordred with you, whatever artifacts we have left will be left with you." Merlin said immediately, he knew what he had to do.

"Very well, you got anything to say, you depressed chimp?" Lucifer said to Arthur who was still gazing off into the distance.

"How's your herald doing?" He asked.

"Well enough, a little spoiled but someone's fixing it as we speak." Lucifer occasionally peeked at Dante's status, he wasn't overly impressed but the kid was doing what he could. Dante was coming up on the end of his training camp with Raiju and he looked like a completely different person now.

"That's good, at least someone still has faith in overcoming the corruption." Arthur sighed before removing Excalibur from his back.

"Make sure you don't screw up." Arthur gave a weak smile and returned back to his vigil after handing Lucifer his sword.

"So morbid, anyways, what's the thing you prepared Merlin? It better be good if it's going to replace you." Lucifer glazed over Arthur.

"Take this." Merlin handed over a small purple orb, it had etchings on it that were highly intricate.

"Are you serious?" Lucifer was stunned.

"I won't leave Arthur alone, we built this curve so we both will go down with the curve." Merlin slammed his staff down.

"I hate heroes, I really do. But your curve isn't my problem right now, thank you for the gift. Yog will pick up Mordred and Morgan before I leave, I can already feel a group of overlords on the way soooooo." Lucifer immediately fled from the scene.

"He's still as cheeky as ever." Arthur laughed seeing Lucifer run.

"Indeed, there's a reason his curve is still standing while ours is falling. I never thought the outcast of a curve would be one of the last standing." Merlin laughed thinking back to the beginning of the corrupted invasions.

"At least he still has hope, look at us." Arthur inwardly was disgusted with himself.

He was a warrior king known for his valor and righteousness, now he stood here like an empty husk awaiting his demise.

He had seen first hand how futile it was to fight back against the endless horde of corrupted, almost every god in his curve was either dead or corrupted now. But he was powerless to stop any of it, it hurt to watch your close friends and compatriots die a dog's death.

"They're here." Merlin's words broke Arthur out of his thoughts, in the distance you could see a purple and black wave.

Once again the image of millions of corrupted appeared on the horizon, the corrupted spared nobody. Their horde had beasts, humans, fairies, you name it. Towards the rear of the army were five beings slowly trailing behind, each had an aura that barely lost to Arthur and Merlin's.

"We found Lancelot." Merlin said as he gazed at a particular figure in the group of five.

"I knew he would defect, I should've ended him when I had a chance." Arthur loved his friends dearly, even if they betrayed him. It was his fatal flaw, a typical one that all heroes possessed.

"Who says he'll leave here alive?" Merlin said.

Merlin waved his staff in the air, what followed after looked incredible.

Thousands of magic circles appeared in the sky and ground. Golems began appearing from the ones on the ground, each one as tall as a regular human. They were all made of a deep blue metal and carried weapons of the same material, each golem had the power of a Blue Ranked warrior.

The metal they were made of was mithril, which was considered one of the best materials in the universe. Its mana conductivity was second to none and it was highly durable. Due to this Merlin could control them highly efficiently and make them war machines.

While the golems were forming up ranks, the magic circles in the sky began raining thousands upon thousands of pure magic arrows. Not a single one would miss their shot, some exploded killing hundreds of corrupted while some pierced through hundreds without dissipating.

"Give me a minute." Arthur kneeled down and began condensing golden mana into his hands, as if trying to form something.

Merlin merely nodded before ramping up his onslaught, at this point the golems had formed shield walls at the castle gate. Behind Merlin and Arthur appeared the rest of the people who called this curve their home.

Each had basic plate armor with a dragon insignia on their shoulder, some were armed with halberds and other melee weapons while others had staves or ranged weapons.

"Form ranks!" Merlin yelled.

All the soldiers began to man the ballistae and prepare for the inevitable onslaught.

Slowly the arrows Merlin summoned disappeared, in the sky out sight was an even larger one.

From the magic circle a giant comet the size of a moon began to descend upon the army of corrupted, the heat around it was suffocating.

As it made its way down two of the figures at the back of the army charged forward to intercept it.

One figure had armor incredibly similar to the soldiers that were behind Merlin and wielded a heavier looking sword, while the other had all heavy black armor and wielded a greataxe that was twice the size of the wielder.

"THIS IS WHAT YOU GET MERLIN! Roared Lancelot as both figures went to slide the comet to prevent it from falling on their army.

Right before they could slice it though Arthur appeared as a golden blur and sliced Lancelot's arm off, then immediately punching his face and sending him spiraling back into the army of corrupted.

Before Arthur could do anything else the other figure with the greataxe charged forward and clashed with Arthur's sword that was made of pure mana.

"Who are you?!" Arthur knew of most powerhouses in his curve, but this one was a new face.

"Dead men tell no tales." He said before pushing off Arthur's sword and kicking him in the chest.

Arthur got sent flying towards the ground but managed to land on his feet, the ground buckled under him though leaving a giant crater under him.

"You're one of those gods who was born in the corruption I bet, no wonder I've never seen you before." Arthur let out a low growl before enhancing his body with light mana and charging forward to brawl with the unknown god.

Behind them was a gigantic explosion from the comet landing, it was akin to an atomic bomb blowing up. Millions of corrupted were instantly vaporized, not even a spec of them remained. Sadly this only put a dent into the already massive army, it seemed impossible to overcome these odds.

"I bid you soldiers farewell, I'll see you in the afterlife." Merlin waved off the soldiers he stood by and floated into the sky above the corrupted army who finally engaged the golem army.

Merlin raised both of his hands and began chanting something under his breath. You could see wrinkles start to form on his face, his entire figure began to age rapidly before he was only skin and bones.

"Ah, at least I got to go out on my terms." Merlin had a satisfied look on his face before he fell from the sky, before he hit the ground a soldier managed to grab him and take him back to the keep.

"RUN! NOW!" One of the last three figures at the back of the corrupted army roared. He knew exactly what Merlin had just done.

"Not allowed." Arthur kicked the corrupted god away and began to age rapidly also, as he did a gigantic net of light began to encompass the world they were on.

"Fuck…. You." Arthur flipped them off before getting cleaved in half by the god he was fighting earlier.

Suddenly the atmosphere began heating up, hot enough to even affect the gods.

"God dammit! That's why we should've focused on that damn wizard first!" Yelled the same god who told everyone to run earlier.

"What's happening?" Another god said worriedly.

"We're dead, that's what." He tossed his saber onto the ground before sitting down.

Giant cracks in the planet began to spread all over the world, earthquakes began to shake. Lava began to spew from crevices that were opening up all over the battlefield, but nobody could stop it. The corrupted army was getting decimated by all the natural disasters.

"Who would've thought he would sacrifice their home just to kill us five measly gods." The leader of the gods laughed.

Lancelot limped over to the gods, clearly he couldn't reattach or heal his arm.

"So it's over? Just like that!" He was incredibly angry, he even sided with them in hopes of getting revenge on Arthur and Merlin for kicking him out of Camelot.

"Maybe you should've been useful, you piece of shit." The leader said.

"Oh please, you didn't do anything." Lancelot was going to say more but suddenly another explosion went off.

BOOOOOOOOM

The explosion deafened everyone, quickly after the world began to turn to dust and fall apart. A shockwave spread across the planet that completely erased everyone on it.

Just like that the homeworld of Arthur and Merlin was completely disintegrated.

In the void outside of the atmosphere of the freshly destroyed planet stood Lucifer, Yog, Mordred and Morgan. Around them was a golden shield keeping them from being affected from the explosion and pull of space.

"Ready to head back?" Lucifer said. He felt slightly sad seeing what was left of the Arthurian curve. But this further solidified his resolve to prevent this from happening in his curve.

"One second." Morgan walked forward and let go of a flower, an iris flower in particular.

As the flower drifted into the void, behind it the entourage left.

That was the day the Arthurian Curve perished.