"Haaa…. Again…"
Merlin woke up to his nightmare again, the sun had not yet risen, meaning that the curfew hadn't been lifted yet.
'Sigh… it seems clearer now, but I still can't remember anything, it feels like it's right at the back of my mind, but when I try to recall it, it just disappears'
"Good morning Merlin" Silver greeted as she turned to him.
"Morning Silver… I won't be going out today, I want to awaken soon, I feel that we'll have an opportunity immediately as I awaken, so please be prepared" Merlin sighed as he sat crosslegged on the bed.
He had plans to contact the cohort and chat for a while, but he didn't expect that Dorax would shorten his awakening process, leaving him no time but to awaken soon.
He could delay the awakening process and stay for a while, but he wasn't in the mood to patronize Dorax's hospitality.
'Let's get this done…'
Merlin brought out the remaining soul shards and started absorbing them while fusing his cores, the process was still a slow arduous one, but from his previous experience, he had a base understanding on what should be done, and what shouldn't.
Merlin began his process for the better half of a week, and finally, after five days, he succeeded.
…
In an empty basement, a pod held a young looking awakened with black hair and pale skin, the basement was quiet except for the beeping sounds of the pods.
A few seconds later, the person in the pod stirred and the cover of the pod was flipped open and Sunny stepped out.
"The Chained Isles really does have a way to frustrate an awakened… don't you think so?" Sunny spoke to his shadow as he stretched.
The shadow in return simply shrugged, while the other shook its head.
"Well thanks for your not so helpful answer…"
Sunny sighed and walked out of the basement to the kitchen.
He opened his fridge and brought out the ingredients that he had bought. He entered the kitchen and made a light meal as he planned on heading to the dream tournament.
After the meal was done, he was eating quietly until he heard a sound.
Ding…
The sound came from his government issued communicator, as he checked the screen, it was a message he had received.
{Nephis: Sunny, we need your help. Come to the academy, it's about Merlin.}
Sunny stared at the message Nephis sent.
"Merlin… what happened to him, he didn't answer the last time we called"
Sunny immediately replied to the message.
{Sunless: I'm on my way.}
He put down the phone and ate quickly, as he finished, he freshened up, changed his clothes and immediately left the house.
..
.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the familiar academy gates, he walked in and was about to go straight to Merlin's room, but on the way, he met the cohort, the full cohort including Kai and Effie.
"Hey guys…" Sunny waved as he walked to them.
"Welcome Sunny" Cassie replied first.
"Hello" then Kai, Nephis nodded too.
But Effie…
"Hey there doofus… had a good day?" Effie said with her smile, she was still seated on her wheel chair that was pushed by Kai.
"Well if being almost eaten alive by a fallen monster counts as good, then I had a great day… there were two of them" Sunny replied honestly.
Kai sighed while the rest of the cohort simply accepted. Sunny turned to Nephis and asked.
"So… what happened with Merlin…" he paused, looked around then continued "... besides the constant monitoring"
Within the short time of his arrival, he had sensed multiple shadows watching them subtly, and there were obviously a few watching Merlin as well.
Nephis answered.
"It's Cassie, she called about a vision concerning Merlin"
"A vision about Merlin? Since when does Merlin show up in your visions?" Sunny turned to Cassie and asked confused.
Cassie answered calmly.
"It wasn't exactly a vision, it felt just like one, but all I saw was the academy and a dark curtain blurred over the vision… something like that has never happened before so I instantly thought of Merlin"
"Curtain and academy… sounds like Merlin alright" Sunny nodded I'm agreement.
"So what now, is Merlin going to wake up?" Kai asked.
"I don't know, that's why I called all of us, in case something goes out of line" Cassie replied.
"Alright… since we're all here, let's head inside" Sunny said as he walked through the doors of the academy.
..
.
A few moments later, the cohort was inside Merlin's room, the latter was simply laying silently in his pod, the beeping sounds were the only thing echoing in the room.
"So… what now? We wait patiently until pretty boy does something?" Effie broke the silence.
"I don't know… I'm not sure what…" the words died in Cassie's mouth as the beeping sounds changed.
The temperature in the room dropped by a certain degree, a silent but noticeable pressure immediately filled the room, the once soft beeping sounds were now ringing wildly like an alarm.
Then Sunny felt it, a stirring from deep within, the same one he felt when Merlin did the miracle on the forgotten shore.
His 'Fated' attribute was reacting to Merlin again…
And then the figure within the pod stirred.
..
In a Jade castle that had most of its parts covered in ice, a certain queen dressed in a red regal gown sat quietly in her throne room, her pale figure still had ice clinging to it and a sword ran through her chest.
She looked like a dead beautiful queen.
Then after an unknown period of time, the queen's eyes twitched and opened slightly as the world came into view in her pupils, she stared in a particular direction for a while, then for the first time in a long time she spoke.
A very seductive but authoritative voice escaped the mouth of the queen.
"This feeling…"
Those words echoed through the quiet throne room, but the next second, the queen closed her eyes and returned to her previous state, but down below her puppets had already made their movements.
..
In a tall large castle, at the top floor, the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil echoed throughout the castle, then a moment later, it stopped abruptly.
Inside in front of the anvil, stood a man with a sharp beard and cold eyes, in his hand was a hammer and on the anvil was a sword, but the man in silver armour wasn't hammering at the sword, instead he was staring intently at an unknown direction, his eyes narrowed slightly then he turned his gaze.
He faced the sword and said.
"Another failure…"
He picked up the sword and tossed it away into a pile of other similar swords and picked up a new one to hammer.
..
On the cold surface of the moon, a lone figure in a tattered space suit sat resting on a rock, his eyes were fixed on the earth that glowed brightly far away from him.
The lone figure smiled through his broken visor then mouthed the words.
"Interesting…"
..
In the academy, Merlin's figure stirred through the alarms that rang out through the room and academy, the cohort inside the room had already risen from their chair and were on guard.
Merlin's figure inside the pod glowed golden and immediately, the surface of the pod shattered as he rose up into the air, his hair swaying lightly.
His glowing figure then stopped and straightened up as it descended to the ground slowly, it descended until its feet were just a few meters from the ground then stopped.
Merlin's cold eyes scanned the room, then looked upwards slightly doing nothing.
"Merlin…"
"Sunny wait…" Sunny was about to call out but Cassie stopped him.
She stared at the floating figure and said in a grave voice.
"That's not Merlin…"
The words kept everyone quiet as they watched, the being's eyes shifted from the roof towards them, it scanned them with its cold emotionless gaze until it locked on Cassie's figure.
Their breaths caught from the pressure of the gaze, Sunny stepped forward to cover Cassie, however the figure only muttered in a low voice.
"A seer… interesting"
The cohort frozen in place watched as the figure summoned a black and gold cloak that draped over its body, then an illusory book appeared in one hand, with its other hand, it reached into the empty space and pulled out a monocle.
The figure placed the monocle in its right eye then turned around and faced the shattered pod, then stretched out a palm.
Dong…
The sound of a distant bell sounded, and everything reversed… The broken pieces of the pod put themselves back to their regular position and returned to their previous state.
The figure laid down inside the pod and closed it as the cloak dissolved into sparks of light, and the figure closed its eyes returning to a state of calm.
..
.
After a few seconds of silence, Sunny spoke up.
"What the hell was that?"
Everyone had the same question in mind as they turned to face Cassie.
The latter simply shook her head and said.
"I don't know… I could just feel that it wasn't Merlin, it was something else, something more terrifying"
"Sigh… that almost gave me a heart attack" Sunny sighed as he sat down on his chair weakly.
"Sunny… we will have to deal with the people outside" Nephis said as she turned to the multiple nurses that had a completely frightened look on their face, they had arrived in time to witness what could be witnessed.
"Damnation… another set of interviews" Sunny cursed as he remembered the week he returned from the forgotten shore.
"Pretty boy's going to have a lot of explaining to do when he returns" Effie sighed.
"Cassie… what's the problem?" Kai asked Cassie, who had been staring at Merlin's sleeping figure.
Sunny turned to Cassiel then followed her gaze to stare at Merlin, then he saw it, Merlin had awakened.
Cassie's voice simply confirmed it.
"Merlin… has awakened, but for some reason he's still in the dream realm"
"How is that possible?" Kai asked in disbelief.
"I don't know" Cassie shook her head.
Then a voice sounded from outside the room.
"What the hell happened here Sunny"
Sunny turned around to see the owner of the voice, it was someone he was very familiar with.
"Master Jet?"
…
A few minutes ago in the City of Order Karlax…
Merlin was in the last stages of fusing his core, as the last of his dormant fused with the awakened, he heard the soft fading voice of the spell
[Congratulations… You….]
He never heard the rest as his vision changed, the next moment he was in his soul sea, the newly formed awakened core shone brightly above his head, but that wasn't his main focus.
His eyes were fixed on the figure right in front of him, it was an exact replica of himself, except this replica had a cold and emotionless face with an air of authority.
"Who are you?" Merlin asked directly.
An identical but emotionless voice sounded out from the replica.
"I am your flaw"
"My flaw… that's impossible" Merlin doubted immediately.
"That is simply what I am" the replica answered again.
A flaw can't be humanized, unless it was like that from the start, and my flaw…" Merlin spoke calmly but the replica interrupted.
"What is your flaw?" The replica asked.
"Apathy.. my flaw is Apathy, you can't be that, unless…" Merlin thought for a moment then said with confidence.
"You're not apathy, you're a manifestation of divinity, the position my flaw will lead me in the end"
"Indeed… that's what I am" the replica nodded expressionlessly.
"So that means if I continue on the path to divinity, I will eventually end up like you…" Merlin said, less of a question, more of a statement.
"That is correct…" the replica answered.
"And what about my body?" Merlin asked.
"It is currently in use, but this state cannot last long, so you will regain control soon" the replica said then disappeared.
Left alone, Merlin simply sat on the high back chair and gazed up to the castle, he had tried repeatedly during the conversation, but he couldn't return to his body.
"I just hope Silver's safe"
…
Meanwhile in the castle just after Merlin awakened.
As the core immediately formed, Merlin's figure slumped down on the bed, then the next second it rose again, but his eyes were now cold and emotionless.
"You've succeeded Merlin?" Silver asked as she stared at Merlin.
But he simply stood up and immediately summoned the cloak that draped over his body and he turned to stare at her figure.
Somewhere in the castle, Dorax stirred as a look of confusion showed on her face.
"My mark… dissappeared?"
She then stared into the open space with a smile.
..
At the top of the arcane mountain, Thorax, his original body, was sitting crosslegged on the ground with his eyes closed as the wind swayed his hair, then after a while he opened his eyes and turned towards the castle.
A calm voice sounded as he spoke.
"A divine relic… interesting"
With those words, he simply stared for a few seconds then closed his eyes again.
..
In a distant desert, two figures nailed to a tree turned immediately in the same direction.
"A god's descent?" The first one said.
"That's impossible, the gods haven't descended in thousands of years…" the second replied.
"But this case is something similar too… what is happening?" The second added then fell silent.
"Interesting…" the first muttered to himself, then the tree returned to its previous calm.
…
As Merlin's figure turned to Silver, the latter rose up on instinct, but before she could do anything, an illusory book appeared in his hand, then Merlin's figure and hers disappeared from the room.
Merlin appeared again in the castle, floating above the ground in the middle of the throne room… his emotionless eyes were fixed on Dorax who sat on the throne.
From the dimension ring, he retrieved the last supreme shard and then he turned to face a certain direction, the top of the arcane mountain.
"This is… a descent, but it's odd, I don't recognize your aura among the gods, a daemon perhaps?" Dorax spoke with interest as she stared at Merlin.
He didn't even acknowledge her presence, as the next moment, he vanished along with Silver.
The next place they appeared was in the middle of the forest, Merlin then turned to Silver and said in a calm voice.
"My wish is that all effects of corruption become undone…"
With a snap, the supreme shard dissolved into essence and disappeared, then Silver's figure changed.
She glowed brightly as her transcendent form became undone, leaving behind her human form with her ash colored hair, white skin and golden eyes and her armor.
As she looked at her new transformed self, she turned to Merlin's floating figure and bowed slightly and said.
"Thank you"
Merlin nodded and replied.
"Take care of this body…"
Then immediately the cloak disappeared and he floated down softly, immediately his feet touched the ground, he fell down unconscious.
Leaving behind a baffled cohort in the waking world, and a worried Silver in the dream realm, accompanied with a few new enemies.