Excalibur

The three ran in the opposite direction immediately.

But it seemed like fate was not on their side. Going deeper into the hole, they found out that it led them to a dead end.

Mary and Arthur’s faces showed that they were thunderstruck and desperate.

“Shit! It’s a dead end!” Arthur cursed uncontrollably.

“What are we going to do? There are too many of them following us. Arthur, I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” Mary cried out wretchedly.

Now they were stuck in a desperate situation; they could not fight these many goblins.

“I shouldn’t have come down.” Mary miserably wept.

Even though Arthur did not say a thing, his face was gloomy. Suddenly, he turned to Merlin and aggressively screamed.

“Merlin! You caused this; you are a jinx. You brought them to us!” At the lowest point, Arthur chose to blame everything on Merlin to ease his feelings.

BWAK!

Arthur heavily kicked Merlin. He was like a hopeless person who did not know what else to do. So, he chose to let things out on his servant.

Because of Arthur’s kick, Merlin was bumped sliding out on the floor. For a second, the boy’s eyes showed a glimpse of anger; but instantly, they turned back to being as innocent as usual.

Merlin still had enough patience. If it was not for his future, he must have surely torn Arthur’s body apart like those goblins.

The army of goblins was marching closer.

Out of a sudden, a strange thing happened: Merlin’s right eye flashed out a golden glow for a moment.

He covered his eye because of the pain.

Mary and Arthur did not seem to notice for there was something else catching their attention.

KRRR… KRRRR… KRRRR

Suddenly the wall in front of them was transforming. The pieces on there were moving and switching left and right, up and down.

The wall continued changing like an illusion.

It seemed like these moves corresponded to the torment in Merlin’s right eye.

Then, the changes slowed down. And there appeared in front of them, an open door.

Merlin’s pain immediately disappeared.

When everyone gained their senses back, the goblin’s footsteps were even closer. That sound was ripping their hearts out; so they were not slightly hesitant to jump into that door.

The three of them headed into the door right away.

As soon as their bodies passed through the door, it closed.

BANG!

The goblins were afraid to get near this door.

Inside, they found a bizarre space; this room was filled with old, archaic senses. And on the floor, there were circles piling up on one another. In the middle of those, they saw a sword stuck in.

This plain room was built from very strong stones. So how could this rusty sword be stuck in there?

Walking to the sword, Mary felt like it was not any typical sword. So, she decided to lift it up. However, no matter how hard she tried, the sword would not move. Her attempt was not successful.

Looking at what Mary was doing; Arthur was also interested in this sword.

After he saw that Mary had failed, he volunteered to pull it out.

“Let me try.”

Mary stepped back and made way for Arthur because she could not do anything else.

Before this, Merlin had looked around to explore the room; sadly, there was nothing special aside from those magical hoops on the floor with that sword in the center.

Arthur tried very hard to pull the sword out from the floor. But it seemed like his situation was no different than Mary’s. The sword did not move an inch.

After observing the magical hoops for a while, he walked into the innermost magical hoop.

Suddenly after Merlin stepped in, his right eye showed a strange sign again. It gave him severe torture; and then, the ground started to shake.

Right at that moment, Arthur was able to pull out the sword.

Successfully, the rusty sword was now in Arthur’s hand.

The earth was quaking severely, and it started to crack as if the ground in that area was collapsing. The crack on the ground started at where the sword was plucked in; now it emerged and began to expand.

“Let’s get out of here!” shouted Merlin.

But it seemed like that was too late. The cracked ground turned into a huge, deep hole sucking everything on the surface in.

The hole was still expanding. It was completely dark as if there was no bottom to this hole.

In a split second, Merlin decided to throw the two kids out of that area.

Mary and Arthur’s bodies were thrown to the wall.

And previously Merlin thought that he would use the levitation art to leap out. However, it did not go as planned; the hole was swallowing his body.

Merlin’s right eye was now responding to something. That hole had a massive gravitational force. Even being at level seven of Qi accumulation, Merlin could not resist it.

Suddenly, his body was quickly sucked into that peculiar hole. That shocked Arthur and Mary.

“NOO…MERLIN!!” Arthur shouted the loudest he could.

He was really shocked by what had just happened: Merlin grabbed and tossed Mary and him out there.

“How could that kid have so much strength? And why did he do such a crazy thing to help me and let himself die?” Arthur said in a confused voice; his eyes were shaking.

The last thing he saw was Merlin falling; the conscience was really eating him up; now he was truly sad. He had never thought that Merlin would sacrifice himself for him. To help him, Merlin sacrificed himself!

“Damn it! What an awful master I am! That kid is younger and even weaker than me. Why wasn’t I able to protect my person? Instead, he protected me. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Arthur yelled out in his head.

And all of a sudden, he lost all senses and was acting like he was going to jump in to rescue Merlin.

Luckily, Mary stopped him just in time.

Bitterly, the tears were falling down his cheeks.

After Merlin’s body fell down, the purging stopped right away.

Now there appeared only a hole that nobody knew how deep it was. But they could guarantee that people who fell down would never make it out alive.

Arthur clutched his sword tightly; his eyes were sorrowful. Although Merlin was just a servant, for these past few years, he had become more like a friend who had always been by his side.

Arthur felt like it was his fault. If he had not pulled out the sword, Merlin would not have died like this.

Grief crept into his heart. His eyes showed that everything was extremely hard to take in right now.

……………….

After a while, Mary’s voice trying to console him took him back.

Now there was still one more person for him to protect. He could not stay sad like this.

Now he still could not figure the way out because this room had only one exit, and it was closed. Also, even if they could get out of this room, the pack of goblins outside was still another unsolvable problem.

Staring at the sword in his hand, at first, he thought it was a magical item. But after taking it out, he realized that it was only a rubbish sword, and even worse, it was a disaster taking his fellow’s life.

Arthur clenched it tightly. This sword was old and damaged; there were rust stains all over it. When he clutched it too tightly, the rust cut his palm.

His blood was running down to the sword.

Immediately, a strange voice sounded in his head.

It was sacred, and archaic as if it was that of a great individual from the past.

/// O, royal-descended one – Aragon’s blood is a bold person – friendship – bravery – and hope – now I have accepted you – human – call out my name ///

***** EXCALIBUR *****

Arthur was truly stunned and dumbfounded.

This was…! This sword was a “Spiritual Weapon.”

It was a weapon beyond human’s imagination; a weapon with a strong will; a weapon with a spirit residing in it. Its power was exalted and mighty. These weapons were the highest of all weapons.

It was rare that someone would find them. But now it was in Arthur’s hand.

In Spiritual Weapons lived dignified spirits that would choose their own masters. They would show their exalted powers when someone said their name.

Other than the masters that they accepted, no one else would be able to use them unless the masters died and left them for the next generations. Nevertheless, it still depended on whether the spirits would accept the new masters or not.

After he was accepted, Arthur burst out the words in his head without knowing.

“Reveal yourself, Excalibur!”

A white light beamed out of the rusty sword, showering the whole room. Tons of holy auras cried out; an invisible power mightily spread.

Right after that white light died, there appeared in Arthur’s hand, the real form of Excalibur.

It was shining out a golden gleam almost all the time. Golden particles appeared, showering its master with a warm aura. Robust power poured out, strengthening the holder.

Arthur could feel that his power tremendously increased as soon as he possessed the Excalibur’s real gift. His power was immediately at the highest point of the magic-practitioner level. Only a step away and he would be ready to drill the sorcerer level.

With an excessive power now, Arthur grabbed his Excalibur sword and used it to slash the stone door.

BANG!

The door violently exploded into pieces.

The door of the secret room opened with Arthur’s doing.

As soon as the door was destroyed, an army of a hundred goblins appeared in front of him.

“Are you ready Mary?” Arthur spoke with a resolute voice; his eyes showed confidence.

Mary nodded; she was also ready now. She was ready to fight side by side with Arthur.

“I believe in you, Arthur.” Having said that, she immediately cast a supporting spell and shot out magical power to commence the combat.

BOOOOM!

Arthur transferred his magical power to the Excalibur while dashing ahead to fight the goblin army.

“Merlin, I will not let you down. I’m not going to let you die in vain.” Internally, Arthur roared.