Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,108
which you were meant to be, but I convinced him that you could be brought around.”
“Why create me?” Mordred asked. “Why bother?”
“I didn’t know that Arthur was alive until after you were born,” Merlin said. “He was more powerful; it was simple mathematics.”
“I was tortured for simple mathematics?” Mordred asked and started to laugh. “That’s both the most ridiculous and most evil thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I did what needed to be done. Can you say the same?” Merlin snapped.
Mordred drew Excalibur. “Yes,” he said softly. “I can. You want to know something? If you’d have just left me alone, I never would have been tortured, never would have come back and put Arthur in a coma. If you’d have just left me alone, you’d have probably achieved all of your goals centuries ago against a vastly underpowered me and Nate. We’d have been killed off or brought into the fold. You’d be in charge right now. All of this, all of the death and destruction on your doorstep—you brought this on yourself. You are responsible for your own demise. Good job, dumbass.”
Merlin stepped forward, and the ground beneath Mordred’s feet burst open. The rock snaked up, trying to grab hold of him, but Mordred had thrown himself aside, using ice to create a divide between him and the stone.
Mordred made his way toward Merlin, who continuously tore the ground apart, vines of stone trying to grab hold of Mordred and pull him underground. Mordred cut through those that got too close with Excalibur, and when there were too many to avoid, he activated the sword’s power, and they collapsed as if their strings had been cut.
Merlin snarled as his magic was made ineffective and used his matter magic as a magical force, blasting it toward Mordred, who again activated the sword’s power. The blast moved around him.
Merlin smiled.
Mordred knew that was probably a bad thing and sprinted to the side as huge chunks of the building behind him fell away, smashing into where he’d been standing only moments earlier. Unfortunately, that meant Mordred was no longer concentrating on Excalibur, and the power it held deactivated, leaving Mordred open for Merlin to close the gap between them and punch him with a matter-magic-enhanced fist.
Mordred spun in the air as he impacted with the partially crumbling building, Excalibur slipping through his fingers as more rubble fell around him. Mordred ignored the sword and kept moving, staying away from the pieces of stone that were now seemingly aiming themselves at him.
A shield of air stopped a large stone from crushing him, and another obliterated it. Mordred gathered up the tiny pieces of stone, spinning them faster and faster in a vortex of air and ice, and threw them back at Merlin, who quickly wrapped himself in his own shield of stone.
Mordred sprinted toward his father as the barrage of rock, air, and ice he’d created hit Merlin’s shield and obliterated it. It left Merlin open for Mordred to drive a sphere of light right into his father’s chest and detonate the magic immediately.
Merlin’s matter magic activated once again, protecting him from the worst of the power Mordred had unleashed, but he was still thrown back several feet, his leather armor all but destroyed despite the runes that had been placed on it.
Merlin and Mordred stood apart, staring at one another, each of them breathing hard.
“You’ve grown as powerful as I’d heard,” Merlin said.
“Go fuck yourself,” Mordred said.
Merlin smiled. “You can still join us,” he said.
“You know what, Darth, I’m good,” Mordred said, rolling his shoulders.
Merlin sighed.
Mordred was readying himself for another fight when he was hit in the back by a bolt of lightning that took him off his feet and dropped him on the ground, leaving him gasping for breath.
He turned to fight the newcomer and managed to block a blade of lightning to the back of his head, then drove a blade of ice up into the chest of the red-armored Horseman and twisted it. He removed the blade, only to have the ground open up beneath his feet and smash around him as he fell forward.
Mordred wrapped himself in air and ice, pushing it out as the earth continued to crush him, pulling him down until his legs and lower torso were completely buried. He felt his legs break from the pressure and cried out in pain as he tried to force the earth back with his own magic, light breaking through the cracks in the ground.