"So I've done my research on the Sovereigns as you said…" Sunny said to the empty space then he listed his findings.
"... but it's really strange that they conquered the fourth nightmare, and most people in the world don't know about it"
Then a voice resounded in his head.
"That's the way they made sure to keep it, under the shadow of great clans… Have you discussed it with Nephis?"
"No, not yet… I was waiting for your opinion on it" Sunny said.
"Well here's the thing… the Sovereigns were the ones responsible for the death of Broken Sword, Nephis' father, but they didn't stop with him… they extended the killing to the entire Immortal Flame Clan, even as a child Nephis there were many assassination attempts on Nephis, Caster was planning the same until I killed him" Merlin explained to Sunny.
"That explains a lot… but why did they kill Broken Sword?" Sunny asked.
Merlin leaned back in his soul sea and sighed.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that Sunny… not yet"
"Sigh… I get it, knowledge truly is heavy" Sunny sighed as he rested his back on the chair.
"Indeed it is"
"So about me talking to you, did you tell Cassie and Nephis about it?" Sunny asked.
"No… just you" Merlin replied.
"Should I tell them… Cassie's been feeling down since, she's blaming herself for you staying back" Sunny said as he looked up.
"Looks like you've gotten over the blaming yourself phase…" Merlin chuckled slightly.
"Well I definitely know that you would make the same choice over and over again, so why should I blame myself…even if I tried to stop you, which I did, you would still find a way to do whatever it is you want" Sunny smiled as he said to the empty room.
Merlin's voice came right after.
"Sure, you can tell them, but only members of our cohort, and please you guys shouldn't turn me into a living telephone"
Sunny was about to reply but he stopped, he thought for a few seconds then asked.
"If someone is in the dream realm, can you still hear them and reply?"
"Yes, I can" Merlin answered frankly.
"So if I'm in the dream realm and I tell you something, would you be able to tell it to someone else in the waking world as long as the person has said those phrases?" Sunny asked again, this time calmly.
Merlin shrugged in his chair and answered.
"It's called an honorific name, but yes… I can do that, wait… Sunny, I just said no human telephone"
"But if you look at it, you might be the best information network ever" Sunny said as he sat up in the empty room.
"I probably could" Merlin said, then added silently 'that is until saint Song of the Fallen enters the group chat'.
"But I'm not doing it, I might consider it if it's only our cohort, but anything aside that… is a no" Merlin completed.
"Alright… I'll tell them, well I have to go now Merlin, we'll talk later" Sunny stood up from his chair and stretched a few times before heading out.
"Catch you later Sunny" Merlin said as he disconnected and then left his soul sea.
As he opened his eyes, he was met with a wide valley, with hills and large trees. From the top of the mountain, he could already see the sun setting as the night came slowly. After two weeks of non-stop travel, Merlin had left the forgotten shore.
"Nothing is more beautiful than the sun…"
As the night settled in, he summoned his echo to keep watch as he went back to sleep, during his sleep, he was plagued with his familiar nightmare, but something else woke him up, a voice in his head, the voice of the spell.
[...Your echo has been destroyed.]
The words were like a sweet whisper in his ear, but its contents were what jolted him back into reality instantly.
Merlin opened his eyes to witness a terrifying scene, his echo's head that was currently disappearing into specks of light was separated from its body, in front of it stood a hunchbacked creature that stood on two legs, its face curved like a werewolf that stopped mid transformation and it's skin was grey with shades of red.
'How did I not sense it coming' Merlin thought, summoning the stone sword, Formless (gauntlet) and cuthul's gloves all while his eyes remained fixed on the seven inches long claws on its hand.
'Troublesome…'
He activated his spirit vision and saw four shining shards in its chest.
'A fallen devil huh… but still, how did danger sense not detect anything'
At that moment, the fallen devil locked eyes with him, Merlin immediately got into stance, but the next moment the fallen devil got erased out of existence.
'Servant of concealment huh… fuck my luck'
The devil was completely undetectable, not by spirit vision and even though it was clearly coming after him, his danger sense hadn't detected anything.
At the last moment, his senses activated, not less than a second later, the devil reappeared as the claws of the devil slashed off his head.
The split body immediately turned into a paper figurine and Merlin appeared a few meters away.
'Two things… one it can mask its killing intent down to nothing, and two, it has to reappear before it attacks, I'm not really sure about the second, but if it's correct, that means I have a small window'
Merlin focused on the devil again and it disappeared, Merlin rushed forward and slashed at the location he predicted it to move, but he didn't hit anything, the devil reappeared in his location but Merlin flame jumped away before it could strike, precisely he flame jumped the moment his attack failed.
'That isn't camouflage, if it was I would've hit it… turns out it wasn't a servant of concealment but rather a wraith'
The devil disappeared again but Merlin didn't move, he stood still with his eyes closed, the moment his senses activated he immediately used cuthul's gloves, he opened his eyes to see the devil paused mid slash, on instinct, he immediately stabbed the chest with his sword, but the sword didn't pierce through, only an inch pierced into its skin when the devil disappeared again.
'That worked… now we rinse and repeat'
Merlin tried again, but this time he missed the timing and was slashed, forced to use figurine substitute.
Then he went again, he slashed at the devil, but coupled with its wraith abilities it also had tough skin, anytime an attack failed, Merlin would always flame jump away to get away.
'This isn't working as well as I hoped… he sighed and turned to face the devil a few meters away… should I just escape, but my echo…' the main reason Merlin had not left the fight was because of his echo that was killed, his thirst for revenge flared at the thought.
'Run… I won't run, not until I kill this devil''
Merlin immediately used an illusion to split himself into seven places and the formless formed a desert eagle then he used the black screen to hide his original position and watched the illusions.
The devil disappeared again and Merlin focused his senses. The moment it appeared, he was slow to react because his danger sense didn't react as strongly as when it was coming after him directly, but he still managed to steal its thoughts.
The moment it stopped…
Bang…
Bang…
Bang…
Bang…
Bang…
Merlin accurately hit it with five successive air bullets, all aimed at its head.
Four of the strikes hit its head leaving a slightly deep wound, while the last hit its right eye, blinding one of its eyes.
The devil disappeared again…
'Now we're talking… now I just need to find out it's attack pattern'
Merlin stood still waiting for the devil to reappear, seconds passed, then minutes…
'Has it run… that coward'
Merlin was about to remove the illusion but he stopped.
'Hold up, what if I try that'
He summoned the cloak that appeared as a black and gold cloak that covered his head down to his body, from the cloak he retrieved a fallen shard and used it with the cloak.
Immediately the spirit body threads of multiple creatures entered his vision, for the next ten seconds, he achieved the status of a Nimblewright Master, he filtered through the multiple threads and focused on one, a thread close to him, but it extended into nothing but an empty space by the side of the battlefield.
'That bastard…' Merlin cursed as he unsummoned the cloak, obviously the devil never left, but it was busy by the side waiting for him to move so it could ambush him.
'That's how you want to play huh… alright let's play'
Merlin made an illusion that looked like it walked out of a concealed space, he immediately dismissed the other illusions and followed behind the illusion that acted as his true body, in his hand he dismissed the stone sword and summoned the sunlight shard.
He didn't try to control the spirit body threads because he knew that at his stage, it would need more than ten seconds for him to succeed.
The illusion looked around the battlefield then it dismissed its weapons and walked carefully away from the battlefield, about a minute after walking in one direction, the patient devil immediately appeared behind the illusion, it slashed at it, but its claws went right through, then the devil's movements paused.
From behind, the moment the devil slashed the illusion, Merlin immediately used cuthul's gloves on it and he raised the sunlight shard.
Bang…
The hammer accurately smashed the head of the fallen devil, the force stunned the devil as it roared in pain, but Merlin didn't give it time to recover.
Bang…
Bang…
Bang…
Bang…
..
.
Merlin spammed air bullets on the head of the devil until the spell sounded in his ears.
[You have slain a fallen devil, Dread Spectre.]
[Your soul grows stronger…]
[You have received a memory…]
'Sigh… I have avenged you my echo' Merlin sighed as he dismissed the summoned memories.
Then he summoned the memory.
Name: Spectre Suit
Rank: Ascended
Tier: IV
Type: Armour
Description:[A hunter famed across the land of civilth, he hunted endlessly for the glory of his kindred, until he succumbed to corruption in exchange for power.]
Enchantment: [Wraith], [Concealment], [Enchanted]
Enchantment Description:
[Wraith: The user can enter a wraith-like state and move freely through physical objects.]
[Concealment: A passive state that makes the user completely invisible to the creatures around.]
[Enchanted: The user has all physical abilities enhanced by half its original power.]
Merlin read the runes and was satisfied with them, then he summoned the memory.
The spectre suit replaced the chitin armour, the new memory was less like a battle armour, but more like an assassin's wear. The attire was grey in color, it even had a hood that could cover his face with shadows, the fit was flexible and he could feel his power being boosted by the attire.
'Heh… I'm sure I definitely look like that guy from assassin's creed… maybe a little low budget one, but who cares'
Merlin flexed his arms and legs and then fished out the soul shards from the devil before sending it to his soul sea.
"Now that's rounded up… let's head out"
Merlin then sighed again because his journey would be excessively slower without the echo to help him.
"I really didn't want to cross this journey on foot" he sighed and started walking down the hill he fought in.
…
"So Sunny, you wanted to tell us something…" Nephis said as she sat down on a chair in Sunny's house, by her side was Cassie who followed her inside.
Sunny sighed and laid back on his couch.
"Yes, it's about Merlin… He wants to challenge a second nightmare"
Nephis hesitated for a moment then said.
"He wants to challenge the second nightmare… as a sleeper?"
"Yes… that's what he said, but he said he would search for a citadel first" Sunny nodded.
"When did he tell you this?" Cassie asked.
"After we returned from the forgotten shore" Sunny sighed then continued "if he said it earlier I would have chosen to stay with him so we could challenge it together, at least two is better than one".
Nephis then asked.
"If we had returned from the forgotten shore, how did he tell you?"
"He spoke to me… but that's what I'm getting to, before I left the forgotten shore, he gave me a paper that had a set of strange phrases, an honorific name was what he called it…" Before Sunny could continue Cassie interrupted him.
"...A what?" She asked, confused.
Sunny sighed and continued.
"An honorific name is what he said it was, back at the academy when I returned to the room, I said the phrases, then Merlin's voice sounded in my head, he could hear what I was saying and he could reply"
"So you mean… for the past two weeks you've been talking with Merlin who is in the dream realm?" Cassie asked.
"Yes" Sunny nodded.
"And the information we discussed yesterday, about the sovereigns, Merlin put you up to it?" Nephis asked.
"Yes"
Then the room fell into silence for a few seconds until Cassie asked.
"Since Merlin had a way for us to keep in touch, why didn't he tell us about it?" Her voice sounded solemn.
"Sigh… I don't know Cas, but you can ask him yourself" Sunny said then handed them a paper he had written earlier.
"But Merlin said that we should only share it to members of our cohort"
Nephis read the paper and said it to Cassie.
"So what now?" Nephis asked.
"Now Cassie says it out and we wait" Sunny replied as he turned to Cassie.
"Alright then…" Cassie nodded and recited the words she heard from Nephis.
After reciting they waited for a few seconds, Sunny thought that Merlin would talk in their heads, but the next moment, his vision blurred, and he found himself in a large building, the walls were gray in color and there were seven gray cores floating above the floor.
By his side, Nephis and Cassie stood confused until they saw it, under the seven cores was a high back chair, and sitting on the high back chair was their friend, the one who sacrificed himself for them.
"Merlin?!" Cassie's voice sounded out.
Sunny wanted to talk but he froze.
'How did she know…' but the thought died in his mind as he saw it, Cassie's once vacant eyes were fixed on Merlin's figure, with tears in her eyes.
'She can see…' the thought struck him like a hammer, Cassi could see, wherever Merlin had brought them had removed Cassie' blindness.
'Wait… could it be'
"I'm not Sunless" Sunny muttered quietly and waited, the familiar pain in his chest never came.
'This place removes our flaws'
Sunny was ecstatic, his flaw had always haunted him but here, he didn't have to deal with that nightmare, he was about to test more things, But then Merlin stood up and smiled.
"Yo, guys… Welcome to Sefirah Castle"