Everything came to a standstill as if time had frozen. All eyes were on the figure that had just appeared out of nowhere.
Emery stopped the man's swing by grabbing his arm, as he was about to deliver the finishing blow to Arthur, stopping the attack halfway.
Maleagant quickly drew the dagger sheathed on his waist and proceeded to try to stab Emery with it. Alas, the man was not quick enough, as Emery easily grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the knife, restraining both of his arms from any sort of movement.
The golden knight was arguably the second strongest golden knight after Arthur. However, with the battle power Emery had right now, the man quickly discovered he couldn't free himself from the former's grasp. The man could only keep struggling, but to no avail.
Eventually, he realized his struggle was completely in vain. Feeling helpless with his current situation, he glared at Emery sharply as if he wanted to tear the latter apart.
"You...!! You are him, aren't you!!" He shouted. "Are you going to kill me like you killed my father!?"
Emery looked at the fiery man in a calm manner, because he knew exactly who he was. Maleagant was the son of Sir Badgemagus, the Lioness Kingdom's golden knight that died by his hand. He also remembered Arthur mentioning the men a few times as his strongest competitor for the Sword of Divine.
It didn't take a genius to guess the man had something to do with the invasion. Therefore, Emery decided to subdue him, instead of killing him.
He strengthened his grip, which was instantly followed by a pain-filled scream. The crisp sound of something cracking could faintly be heard amidst the loud, ear-piercing screams. Both of Maleagant's arms were broken by Emery with ease.
When Emery released his grip, Maleagant's arms helplessly fell out of limb.
At the same time, two golden knights rushed at Emery, trying to help Maleagant. Emery thought it was such a coincidence that the two weapons of Maleagant, the sword and dagger, were freed from their owner. The two must be meant for them, who were currently lunging at him with murderous intent.
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Emery quickly picked up the two weapons before they could hit the ground and launched them at the two approaching golden knights.
Emery did all of this with such speed the two golden knights didn't even realize their bodies had been pierced by the two weapons. Everyone at the scene could just watch as the two golden knights fell to the ground with a hole in their chests.
Afterwards, Emery punched Maleagant so hard that a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth. The man groaned as he was punched and fell to his knees from the excruciating pain he received. Emery continued with a powerful kick to the other party's stomach, causing the half-conscious man to growl in pain.
From the entrance of the room, a group of archers fired their arrows at Emery, intending to end his life. But Emery only had to make a gesture with his hand to avert this seemingly unstoppable barrage of arrows.
[Mudwall]
Following the hand gesture, a wall made of dirt rose from the floor and completely blocked all the incoming arrows. At this point, everyone was stunned speechless by Emery's actions.
He quickly returned the kind gesture by sending two [Enfeeble Blade] toward the archery line. The two familiar dark streaks shot through the air so fast the archer group couldn't even react properly. The blades successfully slashed half of the archery line's members in an instant; their formation completely ruined by the attack.
"Wizard!! He's a wizard!!"
Emery ignored the commotion caused by his actions and raised both of his arms. Suddenly, a swirl of mist materialized on his palm, before it transformed into a huge whirlpool of water. With a gesture of his hand, the whirlpool was flying around his body, within his complete control.
The spell Emery used was the tier 1 water element spell [Whip Splash], but the prowess it displayed right now was nothing like it used to be.
The whirlpool materializing on both Emery's palm swiftly turned into two ferocious waves, as he pushed his hands forward. The waves immediately pounded everything in their path, as they made their way toward the entrance of the hall, knocking down even the mighty golden knights, while thoroughly drowning the silver knights and archers guarding the hall.
With just one spell, Emery had sent all his opponents crashing to the floor. The silver knights who were hit by the waves were launched smashing to the wall, leaving the majority of them unconscious and wounded.
The golden knights, on the other hand, were capable enough to withstand the attack. The waves only left them with some minor injuries. They tried to stand on their feet again, because they knew Emery was still standing.
However, before they could even move a step, spiky roots emerged from the floor and started to creep on their legs, up to their body. Very quickly, the golden knights found that they were immobilized by them.
With his spirit force upgraded, Emery easily created and controll a dozen roots at once, while using the [Entangle] spell. For the same reason, there was no way these people would be able to break free from their shackles.
In just a minute, Emery was able to bring down all the hostiles and even disable them from any actions.
This was definitely the result of his new dual spirit core. With his nature elements didn't need to go through the dark core anymore, he could feel each of his nature spells to be multiple times stronger than before. Even his tier 1 spells were so powerful.
Arthur, who had witnessed everything from the start, was in a semi-conscious state as he said, "Well done, Merlin... As expected, you're amazing."
"Don't move and don't talk." Emery said, as he approached Arthur who was covered in his own blood.
He then quickly shouted to the surviving Logress' golden knight, beckoning them to watch over Arthur. Next, he quickly casted [Spatial Gate] and disappeared into it.
Within seconds, he reappeared with Gaious who he had brought to treat Arthur's wounds.
Emery decided to quickly check around the room, while Gaious was busy treating Arthur. He saw dead bodies lying about, many of them golden knights. In fact, only five of the attacked golden knights survived the assault. This meant there were only fifteen golden knights left in the room, including the nine traitors and Maleagant who were captured.
Emery stopped in his tracks when he saw someone he knew among the dead bodies. The previous king of the Logress Kingdom, Uther Pendragon. A deep stab wound could be seen on his chest, the cause of his death.
It wasn't that he cared about their lives, but he couldn't help to think that if only he came sooner, then most of these people would still be alive.
Emery couldn't help but weigh the consequences of his choice, apparently, his hesitation to be involved in the battle had cost the lives of most golden knights.
Returning to Arthur's side, Emery watched as Gaious tried his best to treat the wounds. Sweat rolled down Gaious' face, but the man paid no heed to it, as he completely focused on the task at hand.
A few minutes later, Gaious was finally done and heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed he was able to save Arthur's life. The latter was still pale and in pain, proof he had just barely escaped death.
When Arthur regained consciousness, Emery saw him immediately looking for his father. Sadness was clearly visible on his face when he saw his late father's lifeless body.
He was about to console Arthur, when he noticed that Maleagant's seemed to had woken up from his unconscious state.
"Hahahaha!!" Maleagant laughed madly as he looked at Arthur. "I might have failed to kill you two, but I have successfully brought down the Order! Hahahaha!"
Arthur was in pain, but it wasn't his wounds that hurt the most. It was the indescribable sadness he currently felt. How could he not, when within just an hour, so many golden knights died killing each other.
Maleagant laughed even harder when he saw the face Arthur had. "Hahaha!! Now that you lost the golden knights, you have lost the war! Brittania will fall into chaos, none will survive the invasion!"
Emery could see Arthur getting emotional, as he grabbed the sword lying on the ground and used it to pierce the man-body with it.
Before meeting his end the man looked at Emery and said "My... my master will continue the deed... She will... See all… Seven kingdom burn… urgghh."
The man finally stops breathing with eyes wide open and a wicked smile.
His last words certainly worried him. Not many people were stronger than a golden knight, Emery turned to fear with the thought that behind the invasion there was the witch Meave.
Emery quickly snapped back from his deep thoughts hearing Arthur threw up blood and causing Gaious to hurriedly approach and treat him again.
Gasping for breath, Arthur looked at the dead Maleagant and muttered, "...I shouldn't have done that, huh?"
He then turned to Emery and said, "Merlin… The wedding… I'm worried they are planning something at the wedding.,. Gwen... is waiting…"
It was at this moment that Gaius stopped him and said, "Your wound will open again if you move…"
Arthur appeared troubled. He then looked at Emery and said.. "Merlin… you… you must go to the wedding… for me."
"You're crazy, Arthur! The wedding was the last thing you should worry about!"
"You.. you don't understand…"
Emery himself actually agreed the enemy probably had something prepared for the wedding. Hence, he was prepared to quickly rush to the wedding, but what Arthur was asking him to do was definitely unexpected.
Hearing his reason, Emery took a deep breath and nodded his head - affirmation to the former's words. He activated his [Shapeshifting] ability as his figure changed to that of a familiar one.
Arthur Pendragon