The force of my blows sent him flying backwards. Although, for some reason he didn’t move. For a second I almost thought he was unconscious. Sadly, he was in fact still conscious. He let out a segment of laughter that was borderline insane. Before I could do anything else the mist around him completely dissipated as he continued laughing. Watching him warily, he sat up and his laughter turned into a light chuckle.

“You did good. You have beaten me. I surrender.” Oberon said with a smirk.

“Really?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes, you beat me fair and square at my maximum strength.” he said before getting up. The sound of him saying that made me collapse to my knees and let out a sigh of relief.

“I was starting to think that my legs would give out at any second.” I said as I took in every breath I could.

“Anyways, since you beat me then I guess I should tell you what Merlin has been planning. That said, I would like to do it somewhere else. This doesn’t exactly feel like a professional spot.” Oberon said as he brought my attention to the fact that we were rather deep in the forest.

“So where do you want to go? I’m not exactly the most knowledgeable about this place.” I replied.

“This way.” he said whilst walking away.

Getting up, I quickly followed him for a good while through the forest into a small clearing surrounded by a circle of mushrooms and well placed stones. In the center of the clearing was a large stone covered in vines. Oberon walked over to the rock and touched one of the vines. Suddenly all of the vines on the rock moved away like snakes slithering on the warm rock face revealing a narrow cave.

“In you go.” He said with a smile.

“I’ll be allowed to leave if I go in there correct?” I asked warily.

“I need you to kill Merlin so yes.” he replied as if I was stupid.

“Okay.” I said before walking through.

The cave itself was like a long passageway. The ceiling was too small to stand all the way up in and the walls were just close enough together to make it hard for me to squeeze through. Looking back I saw that Oberon had shrunk in size to the point that he was far more comfortable than I in here. After about two minutes of squeezing my way through the tight cave I ended up outside again. Though it was different.

Despite it being light out I couldn’t see the sun. trees much larger than that of the forest above stood everywhere and many Fae were using them as homes. Lakes surrounded many of the trees and all of the water was clear as could be yet still glistened unlike any I had ever seen. Fae roamed around without a care until they saw Oberon. Upon seeing him the bowed down in a pathway that led on for who knows how long.

“After you.” Oberon said with a proud smile. He could tell I was impressed.

“Thank you.” I said as I followed the path that the bowing Fae had made.

Despite its splendor I was still concerned. I kept thinking that maybe this was a new way for Oberon to trail me. If it was then I’m sure that it would kill me. Though I also felt as if everything would be fine. As if he was just going to sit me down at a table and tell me about how Merlin was trying to become powerful enough to rule the world or something.

“Please sit down.” Oberon said as we walked up to a table with roughly ten chairs.

The area around it was an eight meter wide, circular moss garden. Rose covered vines cover the cobblestone wall surrounding it. It was beautiful. So rather eagerly I sat down on one of the tree stump chairs lining the table. Oberon sat down at the far end like a creepy villain but he seemed a bit more calming.

“My wife will be joining us shortly. You should have the others join us.” Oberon said once he got comfortable.

“Okay, come on out!” I said to the pendent. Nothing happened for a good moment. Then one after the other they started coming out. For some reason though, Elysif and Lily were not out.

“Where’s Elysif and Lily?” I asked.

“Elysif is too low on blood from helping you out so much. She’s laying down and having Lily do stuff for her in order for her to replace the blood she’s lost faster.” Compton said with a snarky tone. As if I had done something wrong.

“Okay, I hope she gets better soon.” I said with a slightly solemn tone.

“Anyways, you were saying?” I said to Oberon as soon as everyone was seated.