"City of Order, Karlax?... You won't happen to have a brass book there would you?" Merlin gazed at Silver.
"No, but it would be best if we did, that city is hell, just with enough rules to make it seem like heaven from outside" Silver sighed lowly and resumed her work.
"Tell me about the city…" Merlin asked as he walked to meet her pace.
"It was built on the remnants of Civilth, built would be an overstatement, Thorax mimicked my abilities and built a city of cages for nightmare creatures, all divided into multiple camps according to their ranks, and he rules over them like a tyrant ruler" Silver explained calmly.
"So like the bright castle, just with corrupted and great monsters… I won't even call out fallen ones, they've pretty much lost their position in this forest" Merlin explained slowly.
"I don't know what the bright castle is, but I can assure you that this place is worse…" Silver shook her head.
'Looks like I won't be aura farming with another tyrant ruler… rip Gunlaug, you just lost your position as toughest tyrant ruler'
"The ruler of Karlax is a spawn of Thorax, A cursed nightmare creature too, he's the one that makes the rules and keeps the other creatures in check" She added.
'Oops my mistake… Gunlaug, the position was never yours to begin with'
"Can't we just… you know, not go?" Merlin asked as he weighed the options, options being, Merlin = 0.5 awakened, City = Corrupted/Great/Cursed… Merlin + City = Merlin dead.
'My paper figurines won't help much if I'm being willed to die by a bunch of great nightmare creatures… I should've just left the forgotten shore, that Caster's route is now looking pretty good… too bad'
"As long as you want to get through this forest, you have to carry the mark of Thorax, or your journey would be a rather unfortunate one…" Silver replied calmly.
"Mark? Do you have one?" He turned to Silver confused.
"No… I never needed one because I've never needed to avoid being hunted" She replied.
"Well that's encouraging, so why do we need one now?"
"You are not strong enough to survive this forest without it" Silver answered him, then he nodded, keeping quiet as they walked.
..
.
After a while of walking, Merlin finally asked.
"Hey, how exactly do we get the mark, do we just register ourselves and get one?"
"No… you'll have to prove yourself worthy" Silver answered with a sigh.
Merlin narrowed his eyes and said.
"I don't like the sound of that"
"You won't like the feeling either" She replied softly.
..
.
After a few more hours of walking , they finally arrived at Karlax. Compared to the name, the place could hardly be called a city, it looked more like a high end black market for transferring slaves.
The iron gates were wide open, not restricting entrance, and the view inside was horrific.
Nightmare creatures of different ranks walked all over the place, there were iron cages that some stayed inside, there was a large colossal ring that had bones of dead nightmare creatures, at the center of the city was a large metal castle, no nightmare creature neared that area and it was strangely clean compared to the entire forest itself.
"Oh hell no, no way I'm stepping into this city" Merlin turned to glare at Silver.
Silver had a melancholic look on her face, then he followed her line of sight and he saw it.
"A stone plate hanging by the side of a metal pole" Merlin looked at the words on it, and the spell automatically translated it.
The cracked plate held only the word 'Civilth', it turned out that the Karlax was built on the ashes of her home.
'Thorax… that bastard'
Merlin reigned in his anger and read the words from the stone tablet that hung below the sign, the contents of the large tablet read.
1. All power belongs to the supreme leader.
2. Fighting against the order personnel is prohibited, punishment is death.
3. All fights must take place in the blood ring, fighting outside is punishable by death.
4. Killing of lower rank by higher rank outside the blood ring is prohibited, punishment is death.
5. All those marked by the supreme leader cannot kill each other outside the blood ring, punishment is death.
6. Losing control and causing destruction is prohibited, punishment is death.
7. On the sound of the bell, Movements are prohibited till it sounds again, punishment is death.
"..."
"A rather wholesome set of orders, does he expect nightmare creatures to actually read this stuff, they can't exactly read tho" Merlin muttered as he walked back to Silver.
"They don't need to read the orders to understand it" She replied and started walking to the gate.
"How's that?"
"You'll understand soon… come, stay close to me" Silver answered softly.
Merlin ran and caught up and walked close to her legs.
'With the size of creatures inside there, I won't be surprised if I accidentally get stomped to death, hell the rules probably won't record it as a crime…'
Immediately he stepped through the gates, he felt a stirring feeling, one from his intuition and the other from his innate ability.
'This… is a domain, so that means the castle at the center is a citadel, this is rather unfortunate, a citadel blocked by a cursed monster, I might as well just try my luck with the third nightmare instead… and that other feeling, it seems Thorax has the lineage of one of the gods, probably the beast god, hopefully he doesn't notice me'
After he deducted the feeling, he felt a slight stinging sensation in his head, immediately the rules he had read before seemed to engrave themselves in his mind.
'So this is what she meant by not needing to read it, plus this feeling of the domain will probably deliver punishment, for cursed nightmare creatures, I think he probably does the punishing himself, but they shouldn't be much of those here, just a stand off between two cursed creatures would probably flatline this contraption of a city'
Merlin looked around and saw that contrary to the looks and feeling from outside, the inside was rather orderly, if you just ignore the pressure that had been crushing him, and the fact that his danger sense had been reading like an alarm at the back of his head.
'I'm definitely going to have a lot to brag about once I leave the dream realm, no 1 most dangerous sleeper position here I come…'
"Uhm Silver, where are we walking to?" Merlin asked in a low voice, but the eyes of multiple nightmare creatures still turned to him.
In a second, the area that was filled with growling sounds of different creatures instantly quieted down and they all turned to him.
'Fuck my luck'
Merlin was a second away from flame jumping when Silver replied.
"We're going to meet one of the order personnel" Silver's voice was calm as she ignored the silence and gazes of the creature. What could they do, kill her, it was impossible, as long as she fought endlessly, there was hardly any creature here she wouldn't eventually beat.
'She may have forgotten that I'm not immortal like her'
Silver then added.
"You don't have to worry about them, the rule makes it that they can't kill you"
"That's rather great, I might die just from the will they're exuding tho" he replied as he felt the weight on his body increase.
"You won't…" Silver answered him confidently.
"How are you so sure?" He tilted his head confused.
"It's simple, the importance this city places on you is rather high…" Silver replied as she gestured towards a coming set of people.
"???"
Merlin was confused until he stared at the approaching people, they were humans, or rather they had the form of humans.
'Great monsters… just my luck, if I survive this I'll officially become the embodiment of cowardice next time'
Just the mere sight of the coming people sent shivers down Merlin's spine, one being because they all wore the same eerie smile, but that wasn't the worst part, they had the same face, like a bunch of fucking clone moving around.
'I'm starting to miss my echo… sigh'
"What exactly are those?" He asked Silver in a low voice.
"Thorax's weaker spawns" She answered calmly.
"Weaker… you call these weaker… back in my world these guys are generational menaces" Merlin muttered lowly.
At that moment, the group of Thoraxes stopped in front of the duo, and Merlin felt the weight on his shoulders ease a little, he turned around to see that the nightmare creatures that were watching him had already dispersed.
'Ofcourse you all leave me as the scape goat, what happened to citizen cooperations'
The order personnel stared at him for a few long seconds then they said in unison.
"We invite you to the castle, His Majesty would like to see you!"
???
Merlin had a lot of questions but also he couldn't just put them into words, he turned to Silver and saw a dumbfounded look on her face too.
'She didn't expect this? Then what the hell?'
Silver turned to look at him but he shook his head indicating that he didn't understand either, then she sighed and gestured for him to answer.
Merlin calmed his beating heart, he still had the match box he kept outside the city in case he ever needed to flame jump out of there, in his assassin suit, there were other papers and the like, he also had cuthul's gloves on hand and the Formless tied around his waist like a belt, he had made his preparations before coming to the city.
"Alright, lead the way" Merlin said calmly, but his heart was beating loudly.
'My intuition tells me that this won't end well, worst case and I'll use the supreme shard'
For some strange reason, Merlin had not summoned the cloak, and his intuition seemed to avoid reminding him to do so.
The eerie group of great monsters led them through the city, and to be honest, it was a rather vip treatment, all other creatures avoided eye contact with their group and just went on with their business, rather strange business, some laid still, some looked like they were communicating with each other, some were taking care of their spawns, and some were busy rubbing each other.
'That's something I probably can't unsee…' Merlin watched with a strange interest, his interest being that they couldn't do anything to his open observation.
"Such research materials… Teacher Julius would go crazy if he witnessed this scene" Merlin murmured to himself but they all heard him.
"By your order, we can retrieve your teacher to witness it" the order personnel all said again.
???
Merlin was confused again, one being that they were polite, eerily polite, for someone they didn't know and could crush with a wave of their hand, it was a rather strange behavior.
'This just means more trouble for me…'
He turned and saw Silver staring at him confused again, he shrugged indicating he had absolutely no idea.
'In just a few minutes I've seen more expressions on Silver's face than I've seen since we met'
Merlin turned to the order personnel, adopting the honourable stance from Mr Fool, said to them in a calm tone.
"That won't be necessary, if I have time I will paint the scene, it would add to my collection of memories of this forest"
They nodded together, and immediately one of them separated, he immediately walked in a different direction.
'Thank the gods that worked out, if a great monster or two drop by NQSC to pick up an academy teacher because of me, my popularity would definitely sky rocket, probably so much that they would send me to the moon to live with a certain fraud'
The order personnel led them towards the castle, mid way Merlin asked Silver.
"When you said the city would place importance on me, you didn't think it would be this much did you?"
"No, I just thought that because you're human like him that things would be different…" She replied calmly.
"Two things… one, he is not human, not in the slightest… two, things are getting a little too different don't you think"
"Don't worry, but if it ever comes to that…" She left the rest unsaid but Merlin understood it clearly, she was willing to take responsibility even if it meant fighting the city.
'Alright, let's simply go with the flow, if you can't avoid it, then use it sufficiently'
"We have arrived!" The order personnel sounded again, then they dispersed, in front of the castle doors stood another Thorax.
'A great demon this time… what a day, I wish I can just no-diff out of reality, I would rather end up in the backrooms than stay in this place' Merlin sighed inwardly.
'Also what's with Thorax being everyone, you sure you don't have the error uniqueness hidden somewhere on you?'
The castle guard Thorax was also polite, he directed them through the large castle, the castle was large enough to fit Silver's form without any problems. As Merlin he saw that although the outside was coated with metal, the inside of the castle was made of regular stone.
'This would be a rather interesting place if not for the Cursed something living inside it'
As they walked, they met with more Thoraxes, cleaner Thorax, maid Thorax, butler Thorax and also other guards Thorax.
'I kinda fear for whoever will want to conquer this citadel, good riddance…'
Merlin said this because none of the Thoraxes inside the castle were below great rank, they simply went from devil to beast.
"How is he able to have this many spawns, it feels a little much doesn't it?" Merlin asked Silver.
"He mimicked the ability of another beast, one that specialized in separating new life by absorbing the cores of other beasts and creating a new beast according to the rank of the core" Silver explained to him.
Merlin nodded as he thought.
'And Thorax, who has almost unlimited access to soul shards, will definitely not hesitate to split off a few… my chances of escaping are getting slimmer by the second'
The castle guard Thorax led them to the front of the throne room, from his position, Merlin could feel the monstrous aura coming from behind the door.
'The moment of truth has arrived' (Cliffhanger incoming…)
As the door opened, Merlin's knees nearly buckled under the immense pressure, he gritted his teeth as his heart pounded against his chest.
The moment he walked in, he was dumbfounded, all the pressure he felt was ignored as he stared in utter shock at the scene in front of him.
'What the absolute fuck?"
In front of him, sitting on the throne, exuding the pressure of a Cursed devil, was a fourteen year old looking child, but that wasn't the confusing part, Merlin could tell that it was still Thorax's spawn, the resemblance was still evident, but, it was female.
'A lady Thorax? Does being corrupted blur the boundary between social death and embarrassment?... Another thing I can't unsee'
The lady Thorax stared at him and immediately smiled and a soft voice escaped her lips.
"Welcome… Vessel Of God"