The next day...
Gabriel slammed his hands on the round table, making the whole of the levitating device shake with the sheer weight of his utter rage. The other knights present in the Moot wisely kept their mouths shut - few wanted to involve themselves when Gabriel Dulac was on the war path. "People are dead! Our people, who we swore to protect in our oaths as knights, and we know who is responsible!"
Michael's image quaked a bit due to the sheer force involved, and he responded in kind, "I will not countenance such a move! We have created our Empire, and there is no cause to yet again move beyond the borders. Monsters and Demons are existent, but there is NO proof that such a creature spawned from the actions of the Angel of the Abyss!"
Jerome tried to put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder to calm him down, but Gabriel shook him off. He was not going to let this stand.
Gabriel gripped the side of the rotating Round Table, stating, "The messenger came here, and the monster appeared in short order...you CANNOT tell me you don't see this! It fought both me and Sir Jerome to a near stand still, and we are two of the strongest knights present! I will not see this monster harm any more---"
Michael interjected, very evidently tired and aggrieved by the continuation of this issue, "Fine then, Gabriel, you can have the border defense team, and if you can find ironclad, unfalsifiable proof..." The King seemed to say while glancing in Sir Larg's direction, "...then I will accept the reality of the Angel of the Abyss breaking free well before the anointed hour. But bear in mind, if for all your bluster you cannot find proof, there will be consequences for you whence you return in disgrace."
Gabriel let go of the table and let it continue rotating.
He then let his arms fall down by his side and he glanced up one more time, "...very well. I'll make sure that such proof finds its way to you, my King."
Michael then gestured with one arm, "You may go - this Moot is over."
------
Gabriel decided to go for a walk to deal with his anger instead of returning to his room and pulverizing it further. He took an oath to protect the weak and serve the common good, not to selectively ignore the suffering of unfortunate and downtrodden people just to keep to a policy of isolation! This would not be what Jaime would have done, Gabriel tried to tell himself.
Just thinking of the old king, though, brought to mind what happened in the midst of the Reclamation War, the state the body was in, and the uneasy transition into King Michael's reign.
Yet Gabriel had stuck by the new King, and fought with all effort for him. And now...
It all just frustrated him the more he thought about it!
Gabriel kicked one of the rocks in the road hard enough to send it flying. Against all expectations, he wound up hitting something just above one of the houses near the road.
He was baffled by the sound, having clearly expected to just send the rock flying and out of sight - leaping up to the top of the house and seeing what looked like a red armored little creature knocked out cold, and a quivering small humanoid with wings laying down, clearly shocked by what happened.
Gabriel had never seen a fairy before, but he knew his occult matters well enough to know this was one of them. "Little fairy, what are you doing out here?"
The fairy immediately rushed over to Gabriel and hugged his leg, sniffling and crying profusely, "Oh thank you Sir Knight! That monster would've been the death of me..."
Gabriel let the little guy get his tears out, and then move backward. The Knight then asked the little person, "What is going on that a fairy would be flying around in New Camelot?"
That nearly enticed another crying fit from the little guy, though he held it back this time, "I-It's terrible Mr. Knight! The Fairies have been attacked in our forest by the Old God Pales, who wants to harvest our souls and energy to return him to prominence!"
Gabriel was not the sort to ignore injustice - and even with the present threat looming, he was not going to say no to vanquishing an Old God for someone obviously in trouble. After last night's battle, he would never overlook the problems of people in trouble, not while so many proved willing to look the other way.
"Can you bring me to this forest of yours? I'd like to help you fight off Pales!" Gabriel said with a smile.
The fairy took great heart of this, and motioned in front of him, creating a larger than normal gateway, "A long time ago, we brought our sacred forest into another dimension, for safe keeping! Please don't tell anyone here about it..."
Gabriel remembered what had just happened around an hour or two ago, and replied, "You have my word, my lips are sealed."
The fairy danced about in the air, and said, "Ohh thank you so much Mr. Knight! You are so much nicer than other humans these days! Tamerin is going to be sooo happy!"
With that both the fairy and Gabriel went into the dimensional doorway, which closed off behind them.
---------
In the Fairy Forest, Gabriel was immediately assaulted by the smell of burning wood. Numerous large humanoid creatures were carrying around torches, the trees here burning, but never quite ending up totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
Gabriel did not even listen to the cries of the fairy to be careful, splitting one of these vile marauders in two in one swing of Arondight.
Two others closed in, only to be cut through with almost casual ease by the sword Arondight, one after the other.
Each foe seemed to dissolve into dust upon being vanquished, and Gabriel eventually turned to look at the fairy after he was sure the fighting was halted for now. "What...are those things? I don't think they're humans..."
The fairy answered, "Pales brought those things with him. He called them Lesser Titans - he ordered them to burn the forest...I've...I've never seen anyone handle them as well as you did."
Gabriel confidently nodded, those monsters while dangerous were nothing in comparison to that damned Apollyon the other day.
There was a sound of blades clashing, and Gabriel immediately ran off to the sounds of fighting, seeing a young boy fending off easily five of the Lesser Titans, these ones wielding blades instead of mere torches.
The boy was covered with shallow wounds, including one on his cheek, having dark hair and blue eyes, clothed in a large jacket with a hood and slacks. What caught Gabriel's attention about him was the presence of a floating spear / sword hybrid. The sword spear had a large blade with a long handle.
The floating blade whirred through the air and countered each strike extremely quickly, the young boy coordinating the blade with his hands.
When one of the Lesser Titans slipped through, Gabriel acted, quick as lightning - sending a bolt straight from his sword at the Lesser Titan, frying the monster on contact. Moving through the new opening, the boy and Gabriel put their backs up against one another, and Gabriel asked, "Mind telling me how you do that trick with the spear?"
The boy ruminated aloud, "...don't think you're one of the fairies, guess Miru brought a Knight in. How about I tell you after we fight off these clunkers?"
Gabriel simply nodded and fended off a swing from one of the Titans, followed by the sword spear flying in and slicing through the Lesser Titan.
The floating weapon then deflected an attack aimed at the boy, which Gabriel took advantage of to blast the Lesser Titan into a nearby lake.
The spear then glowed and turned into about eighty flying miniature versions of itself that ripped through one of the Lesser Titans mid-attempt at a sneak attack, reassembling into the main form.
Gabriel then finished off the last one with a skewering attack that was followed up by slashing up and out the shoulder area. He then turned and looked at the boy. He was dressed like someone from...before the Reclamation War. While Gabriel had no idea what happened with the United States, he guessed this guy might've come from there.
The spear then produced what looked like a droplet of odd golden water, which the boy applied to his hand. The shallow wounds by and large healed, leaving Gabriel marveling at a truly multi-purpose arsenal in one weapon.
The boy promptly brought his weapon over to him, and stated, "Well, fighting those things off proves you're not one of Pales' goons. Little Miru probably mentioned me - I'm Tamerin, the current Fairy King."
Gabriel looked the younger man up and down - he barely looked fourteen, and a small bemused look came to his face, "...Pretty short for a King..."
Tamerin glowered at him, "I could still hit my growth spurt! Don't laugh!...haah...dammit." He then sighed, and looked around, "...much as I'd like to settle that matter, we have to focus on defeating Pales."
Gabriel nodded - for a little guy, he could definitely respect Tamerin's tenacity and dedication to his people. "...then let's continue, Tam. Speaking of names, my name's Gabriel Dulac."
Tamerin shrugged, thinking that was an acceptable nickname, and both kept on the path. But what he didn't shrug at was the mention of that name. What Fairy didn't know about the Lady of the Lake after all...
Gabriel struck down another of the pillaging torch wielding Lesser Titans, pondering how and why an Old God like Pales, who he sort of recalled being of a Roman Pantheon would employ these creatures. The armor on the Lesser Titans looked vaguely Greek, and an old fashioned Greek at that. Could this be some sort of a collaboration effort with another deity or something?
Before long it looked like they found the camp Pales was using, guarded by far more of the Lesser Titans than prior.
Gabriel looked over at Tam confidently, and at the number of the Lesser Titans involved, "I'll take the ten on the left."
Tam bantered back at him, "Aww, and I thought the ten on the left looked pretty good...I guess I'll take the ten on the right then."
The two then charged in as the Lesser Titans rushed at them.
Gabriel accentuated his movement with lightning, slashing and crashing through the numerous Lesser Titans, his sword at every impact setting loose the crash of thunder. He let loose a tremendous hammer of lightning down on a whole group of the Lesser Titans, constantly moving out of their reach just moments before an attack would connect.
Tam had a few more problems with them - he needed to keep them off of him, owing to the fact he did not have such armor or abilities. He cursed under his breath and sliced through two of the Lesser Titans, followed by skewering one coming for him from behind right through the spinal column.
Turning his spear into its eighty darts form let him form what amounted to a flying swarm of blades, cutting down more of the Lesser Titans, but this had its obvious downsides. He needed to call it back together to defend him from another sword swing from a Lesser Titan.
Finally though, he cut through the last few on his end, and noted it seemed Gabriel got done a bit faster.
All that remained now, it seemed...was Pales, in one of the clearings just past that little encampment.