Five days. That was how long they estimated it to take for the combined forces of Norgales, Cantiaci, the Brigantes tribe of the north and the Danes to all arrive at Camelot, the heart of Britannia.
This would be one decisive battle that would define the future of the land.
As of this moment, the king of Logress could only wait and hope that a lot would come to join his army, at least enough for them to persist. Even so, even if a lot of people were to join them, they still would not have enough to win the battle.
Arthur had always been an optimistic person, but Emery could tell the king of Logress was anxious. He would not say it, but he fully understood that, in order to win this battle, or even just to survive it, Britannia would need a miracle.
Not wasting any more time, Emery decided to return to the Fey village. He believed this was a good time to consult with the high priestess. After all, she did mention Gaia had plans for Arthur. Even if he did not know anything about Her plan for him, he was sure the destruction of Logress was not part of it.
With that in mind, without a second thought, Emery used his [Spatial Gate] to return to the forbidden forest.
Looking around, he remembered it had been nine months since he last left. When he arrived at the forest, as usual, he was greeted by the four fey sisters.
"Brother Emery, you're back!"
"Brother Emery is here!"
With just a slight glance, Emery could tell the four fey sisters had gotten stronger since he last saw them.
Glita, the youngest of the four sisters, wished Emery could spend some time with them, telling them stories of his travels. Unfortunately, with the current situation in Camelot, Emery did not have any time to waste. He did not even dare think of briefly relaxing right now, much less telling stories. He politely refused and quickly went to see the high priestess.
When he entered the shrine, he walked toward the huge tree of Gaia once again.
As he approached the tree, dozens of glowing dew flew around the tree, forming into the figure of the high priestess. Seeing this, Emery bowed to show his respect.
With deep respect in his voice, he said to the appearing figure, "Priestess, I have returned."
It surprised him to see the figure of the high priestess showing a faint smile. But, before he could say anything, the dew spread out and circled his body. Soon after, the dew returned to the high priestess' form; he could hear her voice speak to him with a hint of relief.
"Congratulations, Emery, the spirit seed has bloomed… It appears my sacrifice was not in vain."
"Yes, High Priestess, I have succeeded," Emery expressed his gratitude toward the high priestess once more.
The high priestess simply stood still without a word, but after a moment, she once again spoke into his mind.
"I see you have a lot of questions you wish to ask me, Emery."
The high priestess could see into his mind. In the short time she was silent, she saw the experience he had gone through in the last nine months, especially his experience with the sacred tree of Gaia in Gaya.
She was right. Emery had a lot of questions he wanted to ask her, like the differences between the tree of Gaia in this place and the tree in Gaya and many more. Even so, Emery knew, at the moment, they had much more important matters to discuss. But, just as he was about to ask her, the high priestess spoke first.
"Emery, you wish to ask for guidance for the battle in Camelot, but what you are truly worried about are my sister Meave and Morgana, am I right?"
Emery took a deep breath. It appeared the high priestess could still see through him.
Noticing his reaction, the high priestess simply said, "To understand what is going on with my sister and Morgana, you will need to know what Gaia really is."
Following that, the high priestess asked Emery to touch the sacred tree once again. Emery soon entered into another dream-like vision.
It started with the same vision of a wisp entering the earth. Emery was unsure of what the high priestess wanted to show him, as he had seen this vision before, but the scenes that came after this surprised him. On the surface, Emery could see beasts crawling from the earth itself. Most of these huge beasts were beasts he had never seen before. Not only that, but apparently those monstrous beasts were like the children of Gaia Herself.
At that moment, it felt as if the vision had stopped, when it actually had not.
The second vision was that of Gaia finding a particular black wolf-like beast that was not her own creation. Having taken a liking to this beast, Gaia decided to turn it Hers. The wolf slowly changed into something else, within the wolf's eyes he saw an image of himself.
The vision stopped there. Unlike what he expected, instead of a definite answer, Emery returned from the vision with even more questions. With his return, the seemingly all-knowing high priestess appeared in front of him. She slowly hovered toward the huge bear-like beast Artio before speaking to his mind again.
"Do you understand now, Emery? Gaia was the mother of Earth and life itself. Artio here is one of Gaia's last surviving children. The reason she chose us fey as her guardian is because of our fey blood."
Emery always knew Gaia was the mother of nature, this was the first time he heard Gaia also had such an identity.
As if recollecting, the high priestess briefly stopped speaking before continuing,
"Without doubt, Gaia is our creator. But my sister has always been fascinated with the darkness part of our bloodline, the one that has a strong desire for blood. Ever since she received the strange power of darkness from that black wisp that came with you, she has managed to stir her original bloodline to a level that has become threatening even for you."
Emery was quickly reminded of the story Fjolrin told him: the story about how Gaia subdued the people afflicted with the wolf curse. Added with the vision of how Gaia had the power to control and dominate beasts, he connected the dots together and came to a realization.
The fey wolf was not the original bloodline, there was most likely another wolf bloodline on earth, the bloodline brought by the Asgardians, the Fenrir bloodline.
Unfortunately, as much as he wanted to learn more, this was probably something that he could only learn about back in the academy.
Coming closer to the answer to his question, he quickly took out the vial of silver liquid he got from the three claw island, [Corrupted Lycanthrope], and showed it to the high priestess.
After a glance at the vial, the high priestess said without delay, "Yes, Emery, I believe this is related to the original bloodline. The more my sister consumes such essence, the more she will transform into something that is not a fey wolf. Emery, that is what you will face in your upcoming battle. I hope this answers your question and helps you deal with my sister."
Emery knew if he really wished to fight with all his strength, being the rank 8 acolyte he was, he would be able to make an impact in the battle against the ten thousand barbarians. However, he understood the main battle he would have to fight was against Meave. He needed to defeat Meave if he wanted to help Arthur save Britannia. Not only that, but there was also this little voice in his head telling him that Morgana would be in the center of all this as well.
Knowing he would have to face Meave again in the battle, Emery knew he had to prepare as much as he could. He definitely had to beat her this time. Even though he had grown stronger since they last fought each other, who knew how much stronger she had grown since then.
They were running out of time. Emery only had five days and, at the moment, there was only one way he would be able to boost his strength in such a short time.
The Khaos Space.
He knew full well the dragon Killgaragh would be mad at him for leaving him dry for nine entire months, but the situation was too crucial for him not to ask for Killgaragh's help. Not if he wanted to protect the people of Britannia and the people he cared about, at least.
Without much more thinking, Emery went to the stone formation and entered the Khaos space.
"Killgaragh, I have returned."
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,