"Welcome… Vessel Of God"
Those words alone sent shivers through Merlin's spine, a term he hadn't heard since his first nightmare.
'Fuuuck…'
Silver turned to him for the third time, her expression wasn't one of confusion, but one of shock.
She had read the books in their city libraries, whenever gods descended, they would send an avatar, and the avatar occupies the body of a vessel.
So in other words, Merlin could be Merlin one moment, and become the avatar of a god in the next.
"But strangely, I can't pinpoint which god's vessel you are…" the female Thorax spoke again.
"Most of them usually leave their mark, but you, you're different, your body can occupy any of the gods, a universal vessel…" she added.
'It's not really universal anymore judging from my abilities… fuck you Celestial Worthy'
The female Thorax (Dorax from now on…) sighed then added.
"If you were a vessel prepared for any god other than the great beast god, I would've killed you, but now, you might have some importance for when the beast god awakens for their slumber"
'I take back my words… thank you King of Space Time'
"I… understand, thank you for your generosity" Merlin said as sweat formed on his face.
'One wrong move and I might arrive at the shadow realm before Eurys
"From now on, you and your companion will stay in the castle…" Dorax waved her hand and immediately Merlin felt a stinging pain in his head, the spell immediately spoke to him.
[You have received an Attribute: Mark of Thorax.]
[You have received a memory: Dimension ring.]
Dorax then continued.
"The guards will take care of your needs, and your authority will be second only to mine"
'Nepotism is truly the best…'
Merlin nodded as the guards showed them out of the throne room.
"I know you have questions, I do too but for now I'll tell you that I had absolutely no idea that He? She?... They… that they would notice anything odd about me, I had already forgotten about it too" Merlin hurriedly explained to Silver.
"That's understandable, I didn't expect this either, this makes things… difficult" Silver sighed tiredly.
"Indeed, but we'll figure something out" Merlin also sighed.
After a minute of walking, they arrived at a large room, large enough for both Silver and Merlin to fit in comfortably, Merlin walked into the room, he checked around the place, after finding nothing suspicious, he sat on the bed.
"This place feels odd…" Merlin sighed.
"Yes, the castle and the city felt rather odd," Silver replied as she laid down beside the bed.
The room was rather good looking, there weren't any books, but there was a table, a chair, a bathroom and an empty book shelf.
"This place feels more like a castle than a citadel…" Merlin said softly.
"What is a citadel?" Silver looked at him and asked.
"Well a citadel is a building that helps a supreme establish their power in a certain area" Merlin explained.
Silver nodded then said.
"Then this place was once a citadel, but later my father remade it into a castle"
"Since it's still functioning as a citadel, there must be a gateway, do you know where it is? A gateway is the location in the castle where all the power is focused…" Merlin asked calmly.
"If it's that, then it would be at the top of the castle, the room just above the throne room" Silver answered again.
"This just complicates things… and guessing from the mark we got, I'm guessing he's probably able to track our every move" Merlin sighed and laid back on the bed.
"I will find a way to get us out of here soon" Silver spoke with determination.
"Don't worry about that, there'll be a chance in the future, I have a plan too" Merlin said as he summoned his runes.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Class: Titan
Soul Core: [7/7]
Soul Fragments: [1405/7000]
Memories: [Cloak of Mysteries], [Formless], [Fur Coat], [Poison bottle], [Stone Sword], [Sunlight Shard], [Messenger's Wings], [Chittin Armour], [Spectre Suit], [Dimension ring]...
Echoes: _____
Attributes: [Fated],[Mysteries],[Mark of Divinity], [Mark of Thorax]
Aspect: [Child Of God]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Innate Ability: [Connection]
Aspect Ability: [Magician]
Flaw: [Apathy]
Flaw Description: [The stronger you get the more of your humanity you shed until you become a being of only divinity.]
Then he focused on the attribute.
Attribute Description:
Mark of Thorax: [You bear the authority of Thorax, Your presence carries traces of his power and your connection is bound by the laws of the world.]
'Just as I guessed, there's an in-built tracking system in the attribute'
He then checked the memory, it was just as its name suggested, a ring with a dimension space in it, the ring also came with a few soul shards of fallen and transcendent rank.
Merlin was about to transfer the shards to his soul sea, but he decided that he would do it later, a decision that was made by his intuition rather than active thought.
'Now for escaping this hell of a place, I'll have to get stronger, Thorax definitely won't be handing over the gateway, so only one choice left, I become a scribe through my aspect or I awaken naturally'
"Hey Silver, do you have a way for me to awaken naturally?" Merlin turned to Silver who was laying with her eyes closed.
Silver hearing his question opened her eyes and thought for a moment before answering.
"I don't know… if you were a regular human I would tell you the normal method, but you are in a state in-between, so I cannot give a definite answer"
Merlin sighed.
'Just as I expected… I already know the way to awaken naturally, but my state is rather different, Rain formed a core to awaken, I can't do that, I already have a core, seven at that…'
"It's alright Silver… I might have an idea"
He paused then continued.
"I'm about to say a few of my plans, so don't be surprised by the information…"
Merlin took a breath and started.
"As far as I know, to awaken, you have to gather enough essence to form a core, but I already have a core, although it's not an awakened core, it's still stopping me from following that method…"
Silver then spoke up with an idea.
"So if you find a way to force your core to achieve an awakened state, it might be possible, or if that doesn't work you can try from start to create an awakened core, then your current core would be absorbed into the new core…"
Merlin nodded, that was the original method he thought, just that…
"That method was something I thought of, but there's a rather odd problem, I don't have one core, just like you I have multiple cores"
Silver was shocked and asked.
"Multiple cores, I thought humans could only have one… wait, how many cores do you currently have?"
"..."
Merlin scratched his head guiltily and said slowly.
"Seven… I have seven cores"
"..." It was Silver's turn to become silent.
"So you mean you have seven cores inside you…" Silver asked, picking her words slowly.
"Yes" Merlin answered calmly.
"How?" She asked, genuinely confused.
"It probably has something to do with being a vessel of god or something…" Merlin answered the only answer he could think of, it's not like he could say that he had a divine aspect out loud, if Dorax heard him, he might actually become her right hand man.
"I see… that's going to make awakening a lot harder than normal" Silver sighed softly.
Merlin thought for a moment then said.
"I was considering, maybe I could forcefully fuse the cores together and maybe with a few more essence I can force the cores to become an awakened one"
"That's reckless, you are not even sure you'll survive the process" Silver shook her head.
"It's the only chance I have, plus I'm pretty confident that that one won't let me die" Merlin spoke confidently, he was betting his safety on a cursed terror's spawn, but then again he had no other choice.
"Wait a few days before trying, and if anything starts going wrong, I'll stop the process immediately" Silver said sharply, it was the first time Merlin had seen her so serious, she was the same person who came face to face with a cursed devil and didn't flinch at the sight.
Merlin smiled and replied.
"Thanks Silver… I'll be going to rest now"
"Alright child…"
With that Merlin laid down on the bed, but he didn't go to sleep, instead he dove down into his soul sea.
He came to the steps that represented his aspect legacy and he stared at the third step, he had a feeling that he would be getting the scribe ability if he completed the trials, at least that would give him a solid fighting chance, with multiple nightmare creatures and Silver by his side, the abilities he could record alone would make him strong enough to mid-diff half of the forgotten shore inhabitants.
'Sigh… Let's get this done'
Merlin placed his leg on the third step, then his vision changed.
…
"Oh what now?"
Merlin stared at the scene in front of him, suspecting if someone had invited him on a date, it was a rather picturesque view, sunset in the distance, a grand canyon in the center, the land on the left was a dead land with cracked dried up soil, while the land on the right was a grassy plain with green fields stretching indefinitely.
"What am I supposed to do here?"
Merlin sat down facing the unmoving sunset, he was currently standing on a hill right at the start of the canyon between the two distinct land patches.
The next moment, everywhere went dark.
Before Merlin could process what was happening, his view immediately changed, he was in an art gallery, or rather a room that looked like an art gallery, around him were different arts and murals, but right in front of him was a black paint board with the painting material ready for his use, on the paint board, there seemed to be a heading there written in a different language, not the ones he knew, not runes either, it was something entirely different, but for some strange reason, he understood the words perfectly.
"I Came, I Saw, I Record"
After reading the words, Merlin sighed.
"Of course it was never that simple, I came, more like I dragged to the middle of nowhere, I saw, I witnessed a very nice view, I record, now I just have to recreate the view…"
Merlin pinched his temples as he tried to remember the landscape he witnessed earlier.
"I just hope they'll be satisfied with what I manage to draw, after all, recorded abilities are like at 80% of their original capacity at best"
Merlin picked up the painting materials and began to paint the scene, unbeknownst to him, the word 80% he mentioned had been recorded earlier, now a counter appeared by the side, it read.
[5% / 80%]
The counter read those numbers due to the sun that Merlin had painted on the board.
A few hours later, Merlin was done painting, painting was one of the things he knew how to do, but painting from an entirely different perspective was rather difficult as he wasn't prepared and didn't take in details of the landscape earlier.
As he finished, he glanced up and then he finally noticed the counter, it now read.
[65% / 80%]
"Huh… what's that?"
He stared at the count, then at his picture, he immediately added a few touches to the grass and canyon, the counter then changed.
[69% / 80%]
"So the count represents my painting compared to the original, but why isn't it over hundred?"
As he said those, the counter flickered out and then came back, but the numbers had changed.
[69% / ___?]
"Huh? Why did the original count suddenly disappear, was a hundred a little too high, they don't expect me to replicate that much?"
"Then how about returning it to 80"
The number flickered again then returned to…
[69% / 80%]
"That's better… wait, what if I reduce it to 70?"
[69% / 70%]
The numbers adjusted accordingly.
Merlin immediately smiled and added a few more touches to the deserted land, the counter immediately read.
[70% / 70%]
'Yes… finally a good trial'
[Proceed?]
Merlin was about to say yes when a thought entered his mind, the number 80 sounded rather familiar, his mind backtracked, then he remembered.
"Hey this won't affect the amount of power recorded would it? If so I prefer the power recorded to be at the strongest it can be…"
As he finished talking, the counter immediately flickered, then the numbers adjusted themselves.
[70% / 90%]
"..."
Merlin sighed and shook his head.
"I almost got played, as expected, this trial is never easy… I've already stayed here too long, I will retry the challenge tomorrow"
Merlin immediately left the trials and appeared in his soul sea, as he did, he remembered that he hadn't summoned his cloak since arrival, even though most of his things were inside.
"That's odd, I'm not the type to forget stuff like that, even moving those bunch of shards from the dimension ring, I completely ignored the suggestion…"
He thought for a moment, then he immediately figured it out.
"That bastard Thorax was able to figure out I was a vessel of god just by me entering his domain, now that I have the attribute, what would happen if I summoned a divine memory… I'm definitely sure it'll be treated as a relic of god, and that's more trouble for me"
"Merlin pinched his temple at the forming headache, as he said.
"I still don't understand how Dorax gave me a memory, can will even accomplish something like that, she doesn't have the nightmare spell, so how… hah… I give up, I'll figure it out as I go"
Merlin then opened his eyes, everywhere had already become calm as the sun had begun to set, the next moment, a loud bell sound echoed through the city.
Merlin immediately thought of one of the death rules that had been put in place.
"Curfew huh…"
He called them death rules basically because the death in them was rather more than the rules actually did, no other punishment apart from death was given.
"You get a justicar's ability and you play judge, jury and executioner… what a bland city this is" Merlin said with a resonating sigh.
"Child you should go back to sleep, I will keep watch for you" Silver spoke from beside the bed.
"Thanks Silver…" Merlin said as he moved closer to the edge of the bed and rested half of his body on her body that was higher than the bed even when she had laid down completely.
"Is it just me or is your fur getting rather pricky?" Merlin asked with a chuckle.
"You must be imagining it" Silver replied, her voice lighter than normal.
"Haven't we had this dance, I don't mind turning to a kebab, I won't leave" he smiled as he closed his eyes, and on cue, Silver's fur gradually became soft again.
'Tomorrow's going to be a rather long day…' With those thoughts, Merlin gradually fell asleep.