Unknown Vision

Everything became black. A black that was familiar to me. Yet, I couldn't put my tongue on it. Just what is this?

A distorted voice called from the black void, "Vortigern, there is no avoiding your fate, death, has come for you."

The voice didn't seem as if it was directed toward me. Rather, it was talking to someone else entirely. I didn't know who it would be talking to since there is nothing in this dark void. Also, who is Vortigern?

My question seemed to have been answered as the dark void around me disappeared. In its place, was a battlefield filled with dead corpses.

The battlefield was ridden of any life other than the purplish ground that seemed to be lighting up little by little every few seconds. I saw six soldiers surrounding one knight, they wore armor that covered them head to toe.

The armor looked of high quality, and it seemed they were allies evidenced by the same symbol it had. It was branded on their armor's cloak, in the shape of a cross with wings on it. The symbol was majestic.

It allured me. I was brought out of my trance when one of the soldiers asked, "Any last words?"

I looked towards the knight that was being surrounded and was confused. Aren't they comrades? If that's the case, why are they fighting each other?

I noticed that the knight they were surrounding had different armor from them. The armor he wore from head to toe was black. His cloak started from his waist and ended at his ankles. On the cloak, however, was the same symbol the other knights surrounding him had. The symbol on his coat had extra markings around it.

"My brethren, why can you not see what I see? The ways of our king are incorrect, yet, we still act on his ways for they represent our people as one. Yet let me ask you, do they represent your beliefs? Not as a function, but as an individual?" he said, with calmness in his voice that was contradictory to the other knight's visible tension.

Another knight shouted, "Lier! You dare question the king's decision, Vortigern?"

Vortigern... I didn't know why but the name felt familiar to me. I didn't dwell on it for long as I saw the knight dash toward the knight they had surrounded. Breaking the formation the knights had on the knight with black armor.

"Don't engage Efen! Come back!" one of the other knights shouted, but it was too late.

The knight in black armor sidestepped, causing the knight's sword to miss. The knight in black put his palm on the knight's chest plate and blew a hole into the knight's chest.

The knight coughed and fell onto the ground. His body became limp and then soon, his body stopped moving. The other knights immediately pulled out their weapons and aimed them at the knight in black. Their hands trembled as they tried to get a proper grip on the sword.

"Efen!" One knight cried out with hoarseness, "You'll pay for this Vortigern!"

I was mesmerized. How is he so strong? I didn't even see him sidestep. The knight in black held out his hand and formed a black sphere of what I assume is mana. It went into the sky and shot black spikes through all of the knight's heads.

The cries of death from the knights were not there as they usually were. Instead, it was replaced by the sound of crunches from what I assumed were the knight's skulls. After that, everything soon became silent.

The other knights met the same fate as the first, Efen. Vortigern walked to one of the corpses and proceeded to search it. I assumed he was looking for valuables such as gold but was wrong. Instead, he pulled out a small silver container.

I assumed it had rations or something along those lines since he searched the other five corpses; only grabbing silver containers from corpses that had it and nothing else. He placed the four containers he obtained inside his ring.

When it happened, I was surprised. That ring he used exists in my previous world. It was known as a Mochiva. It allowed the user to store up to a hundred pounds worth of items in it. The number of pounds it could hold depended on the quality of the Mochiva. Being in the family that served the royal family of Lavin meant the highest quality of stuff for me.

Regardless, a Mochiva is still a Mochiva. If he's using it, then that means whatever I am seeing is from my previous world. But, what is this place? I don't remember a place like this existing unless it was on another continent.

I saw the Mochiva on the man's finger light up, and before I could see what was happening next, everything became black again. Only this time, the darkness didn't last long, I was quickly brought back, but I wasn't in my room.

I was in a hallway of what seemed like a temple. There were statues on each side of the walls around me wearing armor. I walked toward one and saw a plaque underneath the statue. I tried to read it but to no avail as it was written in an entirely different language.

It wasn't the language of Aloa nor the language in my previous life. I think it could pos-

"Ah, Finally! I'm back baby!" a voice said, causing an echo in the hallway. I looked around but said nothing. "Up here, Merlin."

I looked up and saw a moth the size of a human hand with black wings. I asked, "Hey, do you know where I am?"

"How the hell would I know? I just got out." the moth flew down and faced me. Its black beady eyes staring at me made me feel eerie.

I pushed my feelings aside and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know my name?"

The moth landed on my hand and I immediately pulled it back. The moth flew up and looked at me, confused, "Merlin. What's wrong with ya? It's me, Gabriel."

I choked. That's Gabriel!? What the hell happened!?

"Merlin, what's wrong? You look surprised. You should have known it was me. Who else do you know that's a talking raven."

"What's wrong with me? Me? Gabriel, look at yourself!" I yelled out while pointing at him.

Gabriel looked down at the ground. The ground was made from polished marble, so it allowed one to see their reflection. He soon realized what I meant and yelled at me, "What the hell's going on? I'm a bug"

"I don't know. I don't even know where we are." I pointed out to him as I turned back to the statue and studied the plaque.

Gabriel fell on to the ground and had a mental breakdown while I tried to look for anything understandable. To make sense of anything that was written on it. After a few minutes, I stopped trying and proceeded to move down the end of the hallway.

Gabriel called out from behind me, "Where are you going? We have stuff to deal with."

"I know, that's why you should follow me. There's nothing useful here, so I'm going to see what's at the end of the hallway." I told him, "Follow me."

I continued to walk and left the hallway into a shrine room. A shrine that was covered in moonlight given through a hole in the roof.

It gave me similar vibes from that vision awhile back that showed me the altar in Valken. The only difference was that the shrine had a statue in the middle. The statue was of a woman in royal attire with a black veil covering her face.

There was a plaque that was actually readable. It wasn't in Aloa's language but Lavin's. It read only six words. Six words that stated, "𝓟𝓻𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓣𝓱𝔂 𝓕𝓪𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓣𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓣𝓱𝔂 𝓕𝓮𝓪𝓻."

I was confused. What did it mean by that? Is this some sort of test?

"Merlin..." Gabriel said to me as I tried to make meaning of the statue's plaque. I told him, "Not now, give me a minute."

He softly said, "Merlin...I think you ne-"

I cut him off and asked him, "Please! For a few seconds, just be quiet."

Gabriel lightly cried, "Merlin..."

I turned around to see what he was bugging me about but my mind froze. In the hallway where me and Gabriel came from was a woman. A woman wearing the same attire as the statue. The only difference was that she was missing her black veil.

Under that black veil, was a dead-faced Morgan, looking at us. I didn't want to believe she was here, I really didn't. Her deadpan face felt devoid of anything. Not a single ounce of life was in her face.

Her eyes that met mine were opposite her expression. Her eyes were filled with malice and hate, malice and hate that were aimed at me. I couldn't meet her eyes and tried to focus my attention on something else on her, but I couldn't.

I was frozen in place while Gabriel did not speak. Though I wasn't ready, that state didn't apply to her. She started walking to me slowly, her heels making noise, and she made her way to me. Involuntarily, my body started to creep back until my back met with the statue.

I looked up to see the statue was in a different pose. Before it was sitting down with its hands covering its face as if it was crying. Now it was standing up looking down at me. Through the black veil, I could see eyes that expressed love and hate through them. Love was evident through the dry tears on the statue's cheeks, while her eyes looked at me with disdain.

I focused my attention back on Morgan to see she stopped moving. Gabriel turned to me and asked in an unknown, dark voice, "You just had to abandon us, didn't you? Abandon Lavin?"

Before I could ask him what he was talking about, a cold hand grabbed on my shoulder.