Kai could only sigh and shake his head at Nimue's total meltdown—there was nothing he could do. Like he always said, the real person to blame was Uther, that absolute scoundrel. The king had spent the first half of his life ticking everyone off. Honestly, Kai often wondered how the old guy even managed to survive until today. Thinking about his list of enemies was enough to make Kai's head spin, yet here Uther was, living the good life.
Anyway, the drama with Nimue and the crystal from the Lady of the Lake was finally over. Now, they had to figure out how to save Arthur.
Merlin waited a good while to make sure Nimue was truly gone before stepping out from behind the rock.
"Sir, are you really just going to let that Nimue woman walk away like that?"
Merlin was kind, but he wasn't about to have a soft spot for a woman who wanted him dead. Plus, for some reason, he felt a shiver every time he saw her—like he was being stalked by a wild animal. If he had his way, he'd have been happy to see Kai deal with her permanently.
Kai looked at Merlin and shook his head.
"My relationship with her is... complicated. It's not something I can explain in a minute. All I can say is, when we get back, don't mention her to anyone, especially not to His Majesty, King Uther." Kai didn't want to get into the tangled history between Nimue and Camelot. These were deep, personal issues for King Uther. It was fine for Kai to know, but if anyone else found out, Kai wasn't sure how the King would react—though there was a high chance it would involve some serious cover-up, maybe even murder.
"Oh..." Merlin didn't press the issue. He wasn't stupid. What Nimue had said already revealed enough—there was definitely a deep secret at the heart of this. Since it involved King Uther, a little guy like Merlin knew he could be easily dragged down with the ship.
"So, what do we do now? What about Arthur?" Merlin trailed off because the solution was staring them in the face: they had no choice but to use the Chalice of Life.
The only remaining question was the price the Chalice would demand.
Kai said nothing, placing the Chalice in front of him. His expression was clouded as he thought things over. After about ten minutes, he finally made up his mind.
"This is the only way!"
Just as Kai raised the Chalice to take the next step, Merlin immediately figured out that Kai was actually going to use it! Though Merlin didn't know the exact ritual, based on Nimue's earlier comments, he could easily guess that using the Chalice would come with a huge sacrifice.
"Sir Kai! I think we should reconsider!" Merlin believed Kai was about to sacrifice himself, so he quickly stepped in to stop him.
"Reconsider what?"
"Maybe we have other options? What if Nimue was lying? We need to be calm. And if a sacrifice has to be made, it should be me! Compared to you, I'm the disposable one. You don't have to do this!" Merlin was a good kid, and he couldn't stand by and watch Kai sacrifice himself.
Hearing that, Kai smiled.
"Don't be ridiculous! Do we have time to look for other solutions? We can wait, but Arthur can't. Besides, Arthur is my brother. It's my duty to pay any price necessary to save him."
Merlin instantly panicked. He didn't know how to talk Kai out of it and just stood there frantically scratching his head, his face bright red with worry.
Seeing Merlin so worked up was both amusing and touching to Kai. He understood now why Arthur was so protective of his young friend. At the very least, Merlin's kindness was beyond question.
"Relax, there's no need to panic. I have a way to do this," Kai said, trying to calm Merlin down by revealing a bit of his secret.
"What way?" Merlin immediately asked.
Kai rolled his eyes—this kid was certainly demanding! But since he was genuinely concerned, Kai decided not to worry about it.
"My way is this!" Kai pulled out a small crystal bottle and shook it in front of Merlin. The bottle seemed to contain a liquid, but it was so transparent that as it swirled, only faint streaks of light gave it away. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't even realize the bottle held anything.
"What is that?" Merlin hadn't been involved in magic for very long and was intensely curious about all sorts of strange objects.
"This is the Water of Genesis. Remember how I once told you guys about my adventures in ancient Egypt? Their people had an incredibly advanced civilization. In their legends, the world was born from the Water of Genesis."
"You mean... this is it?" Merlin's eyes went wide, asking in disbelief.
"Of course not! Dream on! This bottle of the Water of Genesis was created by Ra, the supreme ruler—the Sun God—of ancient Egypt. While it can't create all things like the true Water of Genesis, it holds immense power. The Water of Genesis in this bottle was enchanted by a powerful ancient Egyptian goddess, and it can save me from a single, life-threatening situation."
Back when Kai was traveling through Asia Minor, he happened to run into a war between the ancient Egyptian gods and the Sumerians. Kai sided with the Sumerians. However, late in the war, the Egyptian gods fell into internal conflict. Set, the Egyptian God of War and Desert, rebelled, defeated the current Pharaoh, Osiris (the God of Fertility), and declared himself the second Pharaoh. He then launched a war of conquest against the other Egyptian gods. Eventually, Set even killed Ra, his and Osiris's father, taking full control of Egypt.
This God of War and Desert was even more brutal than the other Egyptian deities. After his rebellion, he didn't stop the war with the Sumerians; instead, he escalated it, causing the Sumerians terrible losses.
So, Gilgamesh, the King of the Sumerians at the time, decided to team up with Horus, Osiris's son, to overthrow Set's tyrannical rule. Kai was part of this effort. Finally, with the help of Horus and some other Egyptian gods who opposed Set, they managed to defeat Set and even resurrect the dead Sun God, Ra.
Because of this, the war between the Sumerians and the Egyptians ended peacefully. That bottle of the Water of Genesis was a gift from the Sun God Ra to Kai, and it had also been blessed by Isis, the Egyptian Goddess of Life, giving it the power to save his life once.
That's why Kai had the confidence to use the Chalice of Life.
Merlin stared wide-eyed at the sparkling crystal bottle, seemingly trying to figure out how it could possibly possess such incredible magic.