Merlin stood in front of the large collapsed citadel once known as the crimson spire, the entire forgotten shore was now pitch black, the sun that once lightened the sky was now gone, killed along with the crimson terror.
Merlin looked at the former battlefield, corpses of both humans and nightmare creatures laid dead scattered around the ground.
'Sigh…'
With a sigh he walked unhurriedly towards the battlefield, as he arrived he left the corpses of the humans and moved towards the nightmare creatures, he summoned his sword and immediately started fishing out the soul shards from them.
Two hours later, Merlin harvested the last shard, according to his total count, he had gotten a total of one thousand eight hundred awakened shards and seven hundred fallen shards, then he summoned the Chittin Armour, a dark inner body suit first clung to his body, then the armor began to form, the boots, the shin-guards, then the thigh-guards, then the gloves, followed by the arm-guards and lastly, the back and breast plate.
The body suit was a dark red color and the armour piece were black, as the memory came on his body, he first tested his flexibility and after confirming that he wasn't restricted, he turned his attention back to the battlefield, he summoned the cloak that had retreated into his soul sea, then one by one he sent the corpses to his soul sea, both human and monster alike.
"Rest in peace… your nightmare is over"
By the time he finished, a few more hours had passed, he sighed at the now empty battlefield and summoned his echo, he mounted it and then flew towards the bright castle, on the way, he couldn't help but recall his previous conversation with Sunny.
…
Merlin walked away from the crumbling citadel, his expression was complicated as he thought of his journey from here on, with those thoughts in mind he left the citadel, after about an hour of wandering aimlessly through the collapsed citadel, he began hearing murmurs in his ears.
Merlin, already guessing the reason, went into his soul sea and as he expected, a new point of light was glowing near his chair.
He sat on the high back chair and stretched his hand to the light, as his hand touched it, the light expanded and he could see clearly, the room seemed familiar to the one he stayed in back at the academy, from his vision he could see Sunny laying on a bed with a solemn look, then Merlin said.
"Yo Sunny…"
From the link, Merlin could see as Sunny visibly jolted as he looked around, then a few seconds later Sunny asked.
"Merlin… is that you?"
"Yeah" Merlin replied.
"How is… I can hear you in my head, how… Did you do this?" Sunny said to the empty room.
Merlin chuckled and answered.
"It's a little trick I learnt back when I was still hunting, it's convenient right… at least this way we'll be able to keep in touch"
"That's good, but Merlin… how are you… there?" Sunny asked, his voice visibly dimming at the last part.
"I'm alright… I guess, I'll be moving soon. I'll first restock and rest a little in the bright castle, then I'll head south, hopefully I'll find a new citadel…" Merlin explained to Sunny.
"That's good, be safe Merlin, I…" Sunny's words were cut off as Merlin said.
"It's alright Sunny, it was my choice, beside I have plans that I can only achieve here, you just focus on getting stronger"
"Alright…" Sunny said as he steeled his resolve, then he thought for moment and asked "...Hey Merlin, what's your plan B if you don't find a citadel"
Sunny noticed that when Merlin said he would find a new citadel, his voice wasn't optimistic, almost as if he wasn't interested in finding a citadel.
"Hahaha… you caught me Sunny" Merlin chuckled, in his soul sea he shook his head as the thought of Sunny analyzing his words made him feel slightly happy.
"I wasn't really betting on finding a citadel…"
"Then how…." Sunny tried to ask but Merlin cut him off as he replied.
"...I'm going to challenge a second nightmare and leave here as a master"
"..." Sunny stayed quiet for a few seconds, doubting if he had heard correctly.
'Challenging a second nightmare as a sleeper… such a thing has never happened before' his thoughts ran wild, but as he opened his mouth, the words that came out were.
"Are you crazy?!... That's not something you should consider!"
"I'm not crazy, I'll prepare thoroughly before even attempting it, don't worry about me" Merlin said calmly.
"Don't worry? How could I not… that's something that hasn't been attempted before, a sleeper challenging a second nightmare, alone at that is impossible, even for you!" Sunny said as he stood up from the bed.
"I'll have help, if it gets too ugly I'll simply use the second transcendent shard I have and turn the tide, plus I still have other plans I'll put in place" Merlin said as he leaned back on his chair as his plans briefly flashed through his mind.
'if everything goes well, I might just no-diff my second nightmare'
"Alright I trust you won't get yourself killed, but still tell me when you're about to go through it" Sunny said as he sat back down on the bed.
"Sure… I'll catch you later Sunny, and please keep an eye on Neph and Cassie, plus you should try to investigate the great clans, if you encounter any issues just repeat the words you said" Merlin expressed his help while pushing in the path to learn about the sovereigns, that way Sunny would know what Nephis was dealing with.
"Okay bye" Sunny said and laid down.
Merlin disconnected from the point of light and left his soul sea.
"Alright let's get going…"
…
As the echo landed in the desolate castle, Merlin dismissed it and walked towards the castle building, walking through the streets filled him with a very nostalgic feeling, a few months ago this place was filled with sleepers who had spent most of their years away from their family and friends in the waking world, and now everyone was busy making up for lost time with their loved ones, all except him.
Was he jealous? No.
His loved ones were a long way away from the waking world, he wasn't even sure he would ever see them again.
Was he sad? A little.
Loneliness was never something to be happy about, and now he has an entire country all to himself, so he wasn't really ecstatic.
Did he regret his actions? No.
In his view, the members of their cohort were all children, Sunny, Nephis and Cassie were not even up to eighteen, as someone who had lived more than two decades in his previous life, he wasn't going to leave a bunch of children in a hellhole just because they had the ability to survive, if he did that his conscience probably wouldn't let him sleep at night.
Was he scared? Yes… Very scared.
The fear of loneliness, the fear of isolation, the fear of slowly running mad in this hell of a place, and most importantly, the fear of death. His fears were numerous, but he didn't let them keep him down, he made his decision and he would walk down that path to the end.
Lost in his thoughts, Merlin made his way to the castle, he walked down the familiar hall and made his way to his room. As he entered he saw his room, everything was the way he left them, the books stacked in the corner were still sitting there quietly.
He walked straight to his bed and laid face down and closed his eyes, his previous injuries had already healed, the only odd things that clung to his body was the dirt and dried blood from the battle, but he didn't let any of that bother him as he fell asleep.
…
A few hours later Merlin woke up due to the same recurring nightmare, the words in the nightmare were not getting any clearer.
"Sigh" Merlin stood up from the bed and looked at the window "I can't even tell what time it is".
The entire forgotten shore was now a land of pitch black, with the absence of the sun he couldn't be sure if it was night or day, but he didn't really let it get to him, he freshened up then turned to the books, he spent a few hours cutting them into paper figurines.
After exhausting the books in his room, he made his way to the gambling house, he took all the playing cards there, then went around looting the rest of the bright castle, he guessed that the time he spent in the bright castle would probably be about two days, but he had no way of confirming his guess.
When he was finally done, he mounted his echo and flew south like he had told Sunny.
…
In a large castle that had exquisite looks and was laced with jade, a young sleeper was on one knee, by her side was a sister of hers, now a saint, one of the strongest fighters in the dream realm. The young sleeper, Seishan, kept her kneel down, but her eyes were fixed on the figure on the throne.
A beautiful looking lady in a regal red dress who sat peacefully on the throne, she displayed a picture perfect look except for a few decrepancies, her figure was still, completely still not even giving the breath of life, parts of her body were frozen with ice coating her delicate skin and the most noticeable of all was the silver sword that went right through her chest, completely pinning her to the throne.
Below the beautiful queen stood two figures, human, not breathing, but unlike the queen, they moved. One of them spoke up, the girl.
"So what you're saying Seishan dear… is that… Merlin, the rumoured Attendant Of Mysteries accepted your offer to join our domain?"
The voice of the girl sounded light, but still carried firm authority.
"Yes Mother, a day before the siege, I asked him directly and he gave a positive answer, so I would like to go to the waking world to bring him over," Seishan said, still kneeling.
"Oh~ Is our little Shan interested in a man? That's interesting~" The saint behind her, Eubin or rather Beastmaster teased slightly, however Seishan ignored her, her eyes still focused on the puppet that was talking.
The quiet puppet then spoke up.
"Shan, if it's that sleeper you're talking about, I hope you realize that he is currently the most famous sleeper ever… his deeds, which I heard and you confirmed are simply bordering on impossibilities, for this reason, not only us, even Valor and the government would be out for him…" the female puppet kept quiet while the male on the other side continued.
"And if they can't get him, they'll at least silence him so his abilities won't be a threat to them…"
At the puppet's words, Seishan who was kneeling immediately stood up impatiently and said.
"Since that's the case, I think I should go now that it's still early, so we can keep him safe"
Eubin frowned slightly, she too had heard of Merlin's achievements, it was simply impossible to not hear it when everyone was simply hell bent on making sure he was known, but Seishan's impatience was something a little more than scouting potential.
'Could it be that she was entranced by his strength… Merlin huh, a very interesting boy'
The puppet also had similar thoughts, she obviously didn't expect the reaction, she had already gathered information about the sleeper called Merlin, so she knew that he didn't leave the forgotten shore, but Seishan didn't know that, she had only woken up two days ago.
"Although I would like to send you to the waking world, it won't change the current situation" the male puppet said.
"What… Do you mean?" Seishan asked, completely confused.
"It's rather simple, Merlin hasn't woken from the dream realm yet… He's still alive, but he hasn't left the forgotten shore" the female puppet answered.
"Hasn't… awakened…" Seishan murmured to herself, her expression changed to one of confusion as she considered different possibilities.
'Did he not make it to the gateway, last thing I heard was that he was going to challenge the crimson terror, a fallen terror that reigned in the citadel. A fallen terror was considered as highly dangerous even for regular awakened soldiers.
She was sure Merlin would win, she simply felt that after the terror was dead, he couldn't make it before the gateway fell apart.
"I understand Mother" Seishan bowed slightly and left the throne room, the puppets then turned their heads to Beastmaster.
"Eubin… keep an eye on Seishan for now, and send people to constantly monitor his status…" the puppet said.
"Yes Mother" Eubin bowed too, then left the throne room and with that, the room became deathly silent again.
…
Before Merlin started his journey, he decided to make one little stop, The soul devouring tree.
As he arrived, the once peaceful tree immediately began to rustle, the leaves rustled loudly like a wind was upon them, he ignored the movements of the tree and walked forward.
"Sorry, but I'm going on a long journey, and sometimes I may not feel like eating meat, so you're my other option…"
The tree ignored his nice words as multiple nightmare creatures began to sprout from the ground, the tree was making its last stand.
..
.
"That's about three hundred and seventy, " Merlin said as he put the last fruit into his soul sea.
"I'll leave the dead nightmare creatures here so they'll attract others that you can enthral, I won't be the one to kill you…" Merlin said as he hopped down from the tree to the ground that was packed with dead nightmare creatures.
"Ah… after all my efforts I'm still stained with blood, good thing I took a surplus of water from the bright castle"
Merlin then turned in a certain direction, he summoned his echo and flew off, his journey was about to begin.
.
.
.
.
A/N: Well I thought about it, and felt… well fuck the first nightmare, I'm obviously interested in the rest of the journey… so if I have time I'll change the nightmare, till then, we continue with the journey.
~Certified Yamori.