Title: Redemption
Category/Rating/Warnings: Gen/M/ Angst
Characters: Arthur, Gwaine

Summary: After Arthur died he found himself engulfed in the battle for humanities survival in a different plane of existance. His reward is returning to his life. But, has he changed enough to change his own destiny?

AN: Gift for Vaughntronic for all the Lancelot/Merlin love she has given to me. All she wanted was some Arthur with wings. While playing Diablo 3 with her I came up with this idea. It's a bit dark and sort of follows the plot of the game.

Word count is a bit shorter than normal for my multichapter fics. (like only 4k words) but I think it still works for the style.

Speaking of style... this one was quite different in other ways as well. I typically go for the omniscent narrative style and not focus just on one character in a scene. This is almost completely Arthur (with one chapter being an exception because I couldn't figure out how to work it otherwise).

It also kind of shifts back and forth between the Diablo 3 world of Sanctuary (after Arthur's death at Camlann) and Camelot before Camlann.

Most of the pieces from Hell (the diablo 3 version of this story) are meant to be more like flashbacks of the things Arthur experienced after he died. This piece takes place not long after he was returned to his life in Camelot. The events he witnessed and battles he fought in Sanctuary have changed his perspective on the final few months of his life.

Beta'ed by the wonderful Nance and flow help from IcarusLSU.

He could no longer feel his nose. His ears were so cold that he hadn't even acknowledged their existence, except to recognize the sounds of battle that continuously rang through them.

The storm beat down, assaulting him from all sides, but his focus was on the beast in front of him. He didn't know what it was called, even though the angel had told him before he had exited the stone tower. All he knew was that it reeked of pure evil.

The sword in his hand was not his own, but he continued to wield it with deadly precision. Under his armor, his clothing clung to him like a second skin from the build-up of perspiration. His hair was dark and matted. Were it not for the freezing temperatures, he was sure it would have dripped sweat into his eyes; stinging them and attempting to obscure his vision. As it was, the cold froze the strands.

The clash of steel against bone and flesh resounded through his arms. One foe fell and another was there to take its place as fire rained down from the sky. Men around him screamed in agony or were simply shredded before they knew what had happened.

He fought on, because he couldn't do anything else. More demons rose up around him, and winged creatures out of nightmares dropped from the clouds to snatch up an unsuspecting victim. He shouldn't think that. They all expected to be crushed under the claws of these monsters. But, no matter how much they understood of their situation, when the end came it was still unexpected.

Twisting his sword in his hand,he braced himself for yet another wave of creatures.

Needless to say, this was not where he thought he would end up after he had died.