Facing down Kay's relentless pursuit, Alfred had no choice but to fight with everything he had. He shoved Sophia out of the way, urging her to run, while he put himself between her and Kay.
"You won't hurt her!" Alfred yelled, slamming his staff into the ground. A huge shockwave immediately erupted, creating a barrier that stopped Kay dead in his tracks. Kay, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, couldn't risk using any overwhelming, obviously magical power. He had to rely solely on his physical strength to withstand the constant shockwaves, grinding his teeth as he advanced inch by painful inch toward Alfred.
Alfred was pouring every ounce of his energy into holding Kay back, leaving him no strength left to escape—not that he planned to. It was his act of killing his own people in Avalon that led to him and his daughter being cursed and banished, trapped in mortal bodies to live and die like regular humans. His daughter was an innocent casualty in all of this, which is why he originally planned to use Arthur as a sacrifice to send Sophia back to Avalon while he remained cursed until his death.
Now that the plan to sacrifice Arthur was totally ruined, he absolutely couldn't let Sophia get hurt, not even a little bit. If she could just get away, she would still have a chance. If not Arthur, maybe some other prince could be the key!
"Dad!" Sophia cried out, tears streaming down her face. She knew exactly what her father was doing, but how could she just abandon him like this?
"Go! I can't hold him much longer, hurry!"
Even though Kay was blocked, he was still closing the distance. It was clear Alfred was nearing his breaking point.
Sophia bit her lip, but finally turned and ran toward the main doors. She couldn't let her father's final plea be in vain.
"I said, she's not going anywhere!" Kay's voice was cold and hard.
The moment Kay finished speaking, a scream ripped through the air near the doors.
Alfred instantly spun around and saw Sophia scrambling back toward him, clutching her arm. Outside the door, a massive group of knights and soldiers had gathered, raising their crossbows and halberds as they slowly began to surround the area.
"Sophia!" Seeing his daughter injured, Alfred's fatherly instinct took over, and he momentarily lost focus.
That single moment of distraction sealed his fate!
Swoosh!
Two flashes of cold steel crossed at Alfred's neck. His expression froze, followed by a spray of hot blood, and Alfred's head tumbled to the floor.
"NO!!!" Witnessing her father's brutal end completely shattered Sophia's ability to think.
In that very moment, Kay started walking toward her.
The chaos quickly subsided. The two evil sorcerers were dead, both cleanly beheaded by Kay. The instant they died, their bodies turned to ash and vanished.
Despite this, King Uther was furious. Two attacks by evil magic users in just one month, on top of what Morgana had recently gone through, made Uther extremely disappointed in Camelot's security.
He couldn't fathom how their own kingdom couldn't even guarantee the safety of the royal family. Was this even his Camelot anymore? A lot of people got an earful from Uther that day.
Gaius woke Arthur up shortly after, though if Arthur had a choice, he probably would have preferred to stay unconscious.
It was just too embarrassing.
He had been completely played by a sorceress, who also happened to be his first love.
Interestingly, King Uther didn't totally lose it on Arthur this time. Uther's thinking was simple: nobody's first love ends well. A little setback is normal. If he yelled at Arthur over this, he might scare him off, and Uther was still counting on Arthur to carry on the family line!
It was really just Arthur's male pride that made him feel awkward about facing everyone else.
The hectic day finally passed. That evening, King Uther summoned Kay. He needed to talk, and the only subject was Morgana.
"...I just don't understand why Morgana can't grasp that I'm trying to protect her. Those sorcerers and Druids are enemies of Camelot! They'd rather plead for the enemy than try to understand their own father! Do they think I'm doing all this for my own selfish reasons? I'm protecting them! And what do I get?"
Uther was still deeply hurt by Morgana's cold shoulder, but he would never let that sadness show. The only emotion he ever displayed was anger, yet deep down, that anger was laced with profound grief. His own daughter was willing to turn on him for the sake of an enemy!
Uther took a hard drink of wine, pouring out his frustration and heartbreak to Kay. Of everyone, Kay was the person he trusted the most because they were so alike.
"Morgana still thinks I haven't seen through their little games. She and Arthur are working together to deceive me, to defy me... I'm their father!" If Uther could be fooled by such a simple ploy, he would have been assassinated long ago.
Looking at the grieving king, Kay felt a genuine pang of sympathy. From Kay's perspective, it was genuinely hard to say who was right or wrong. Or, perhaps, no one was truly wrong.
Uther's decades-long anti-magic policy meant he would always be an enemy to anyone connected with magic. Was his anxiety about magic invading Camelot really only about his own safety? He was even more terrified that the enemy would target his children.
Just look at what had happened recently!
He couldn't understand why Arthur and Morgana were so stubborn; they had already been harmed by magic! He was doing everything he could to keep them away from this danger. A Druid child? What child could possibly be more important than his own kids? To protect them, Uther wouldn't even flinch at the thought of killing every single Druid child.
Yet, Arthur and the others kept running right toward the danger, even choosing to defy him!
Were Arthur and Morgana wrong?
At least in Kay's view, not necessarily. Animals have an instinct to protect their young, and humans are no different; in fact, their emotions are much richer than simple instinct. Harming a child is, in the eyes of most people, fundamentally wrong.
Kay strongly agreed with this. Even if he were in Arthur's position, his choice would be the same—killing a child crossed Kay's ultimate moral line.
"He's just a kid, Uther. You're overreacting," Kay stated simply.
"Kay... even you..." Uther sounded genuinely deflated.
"Look, I get where you're coming from, but you're overlooking one crucial thing. You're forgetting that they are still kids, too!" This was something Kay had wanted to say for a long time. "You've protected them too well. You've given them everything good in the world, and you've made them so kind that sometimes they just aren't able to see the bad in the world."
Behind every spoiled kid, there are usually spoiled parents—that was Kay's takeaway from his past life. King Uther seemed strict with his children, but what was the reality?
Looking back at their history, the tyrant had never actually punished his children for anything—not Morgana, not Arthur, ever! His strictness was always just talk. More importantly, Uther had no patience; he'd say a couple of things and then immediately resort to pulling rank, which never helps.
Of course, Kay couldn't tell him the honest truth.
"You should be proud that you raised them to be so fundamentally decent."
That comment made Uther feel a little better.
"But now they've grown up. They're totally used to the kind of environment you created for them. If you suddenly expect them to be completely different from how they've always been, how can that even happen?"
It's kind of like parents in modern times who strictly forbid dating from grade school through college, and then the second the kid graduates, they start pressuring them to find a partner... You can't just flip a switch like that!
"Especially since you never tell them why you feel the way you do, they have no chance of understanding! You guys need to talk."
belamy20