Three months later…
[You have slain a fallen terror, Cavern Crawler.]
[Your soul grows stronger…]
Merlin sighed as he removed his spear from the neck of the four armed nightmare creature he had just slain.
He turned his head to the view, he was currently standing at the tallest pillar in the entire rocky plain, he had been mapping the maze for months, he had also seen the way out, but the way was a very tricky one, it was the exact location that a corrupted monster had made its resting ground, but that wasn't the only problem, the monster also had scores of fallen nightmare creatures of different ranks as its underlings, it also had a strange ability that could detect any living thing from a distance, and when it does, the monster used some kind weird ability to induce vertigo that could leave any creature in a confused state where distance and direction feel like water.
Merlin had tried using the cloak to block for mental and soul attacks, but those didn't work, the sounds relayed by the monster had still achieved the same effect, even when he tried blocking his ears manually because the siren's bracelet was with Sunny, the monster used a strange gas to do it, even when he avoided breathing, the creature started to emit light in a series that had the same effect, it was like the creature spent all it power on making sure that one ability was unavoidable.
After giving up on fighting it head on, he tried to use the dark wing, the memory he had gotten from killing a spire messenger in the forgotten shore.
The memory was one that allowed him to move through the sky at a fixed height, the height being the exact height he jumped from, so if he used after jumping off a two meter height, he would glide freely two meters above the ground, and if he jumped from a high mountain he would move freely from that exact height, only being able to go lower and not higher.
Using this method, he had tried gliding across from different tall points, the results… well the beast titan would have competition in who's throwing is more accurate… minus 78 paper figurines.
Merlin now made the decision to attempt it from the highest point in the rocky plains, and so, after days of effort, he had climbed the steepest point.
"Well ten times the charm…" Merlin sighed as he summoned the dark wing, like a cape, the dark material with two parts arranged themselves at his back.
"Hopefully I can get past them this time, those guys really should sign up for super bowl"
Then he jumped, as he did, he glided forward through the air, he flew at a height that made the nightmare creatures on the ground look like little rats.
He flew through the air till he arrived at the border of the rocky plain, from above he could feel the gaze of the corrupted monster, and he knew what came next.
"Ah what a pain…" Merlin sighed as he entered phase two of his plan… survive.
He immediately summoned the formless, other times he had used it as a shield, but this time he changed his tactics, as he summoned it, changed it to a spear, then he immediately brought out a slip of paper with some gum on it from his suit and pinned it on it.
"I really hope the force of the wind doesn't peel this off…" He held the spear and threw it with all his might.
Merlin watched it fly and then turned to the incoming rocks.
"...now time to survive until it crosses over"
Merlin met the rocks head on, or rather the rocks met him head on, after multiple figurine substitutes and countless parrying with his sword, Merlin finally decided to flame jump to the location of the spear… and fuck lady luck, the paper had peeled off it and flew in an entirely wrong direction.
'bloody hell… how is escaping this damn place even more difficult than escaping Civilth'
As he reappeared, he immediately brought out another piece of paper, and threw it using his paper dagger ability, he then flame jumped to It's position avoiding the incoming rocks that followed after his position change, he repeated the process until he finally crossed over the rocky plains.
"Yes… freedom finally" Merlin laughed as he sat down on the soft dry sand.
He laid down on the sand as he stared at the blue sky above his head, after three months of walking and surviving he had finally left the rocky plains.
As he laid on the soft sand he smiled as he stretched his hand to the sky and said in a low and solemn voice.
"Silver… I finally made it, I'm finally one step closer to getting you out of there"
He sighed then stood up from the sand, immediately the surface trembled and his danger sense activated, on instinct he immediately dove out of his current position, the next moment, a hole opened there and a large nightmare creature emerged.
"What the hell… is that a sand worm, what is this, an isekai… oh wait it is but still" Merlin exclaimed as the head of the sand worm flared through the air.
The worm's head then stopped and turned to his position.
"Oh fuck…" Merlin bolted as the worm came crashing down, missing him by a few meters.
The worm burrowed back into the sand, and while it was doing that, Merlin was able to gauge its length, safe to say it bordered a little on infinity.
'Damn that's long… It's body could probably wrap round a mountain base twice'
Merlin decided not to wait to see its new spawning point, earlier he had seen the cores of the worm, it was around some part in the middle of its body, and the long worm was a corrupted demon.
'heh… that's not my party fellas, wait till I ascended then I can come back'
Merlin ran away, well running was the only thing he could do, his chances of surviving that thing were straight up non-existent at this point.
As he was running, his danger sense warned him again, and he immediately dove out of the way and avoided being swallowed again.
He immediately brought out multiple papers and used them to flame jump away from the re-entering phase of the sand worm.
After running and dodging for a while, Merlin finally figured it out.
'It's using echolocation to track me through my movements on the sand'
Then he flame jumped again, but this time into the sky, he used the dark wing to stay above the ground, then he used the wraith and concealment enchantment to make himself unnoticeable as he glided above the sand.
After a few seconds of waiting and seeing that the sand worm hadn't emerged from the ground, he sighed and said.
"Guess I was right… now just to get away from this part of the sand"
As he moved just above the ground, he took his eyes away from the sand and looked around, then he saw it, right there a long distance away, was a massive tree, from his position he couldn't make out its details, but he knew exactly what it was.
"There lies my ticket back home…" Merlin smiled as he flew towards the tree, one down part about the dark wing was that it's speed couldn't increase, so Merlin couldn't just fly full speed ahead to the tree, so he continued to glide.
On the way, Merlin ate the last remaining fruits of the soul sea, after he had crossed the territory of the sand worm, he still remained airborne moving towards the tree, but then his danger sense triggered.
'Ah shit… here we go again'
Merlin threw a paper to the ground and ignited it, completing a flame jump, the moment he moved, multiple iron needles shot out from within the sand flying at full speed past his previous position.
Merlin saw the attack pattern and his eyes narrowed, a second later, the attacker emerged from the ground, it had fur like a porcupine, but only three legs, two fore legs and one large hind leg, it also had a snout like a beaver and sharp claws.
He turned to the nightmare creature that was a fallen devil, his hollow eyes turned cold as he said to it.
"That's Silver's move, use it once more and I'll guarantee you a rather slow death"
His voice was cold and emotionless, but to the nightmare creature, that didn't matter, the devil lunged at him with its speed boosted by the force of its hind leg, Merlin flame jumped to the side and he activated the scribe ability.
..
The nightmare creature seeing that its close range attack did not work immediately switched to its long range, it turned its body in Merlin's direction and spikes shot out.
The spikes pierced their target, but the next second, the target faded leaving only a paper figurine in its place.
The nightmare creature followed the sound and turned to the location where its target reappeared, then it heard the words.
"I really gave you a chance…" the voice was filled with undisguised killing intent.
..
Merlin then activated the recorded ability vertigo, he had been subjected to this attack so much that he had a whole chapter of recordings dedicated to it.
He saw as the fallen devil immediately moved in a confused manner, it looked up, right, left-back, it also fell over when it tried to move, Merlin knew what was wrong as he had encountered it before, in the rocky plains, and that one time he went on a drinking party with the boys.
As he approached the confused nightmare creatures, his danger sense activated, Merlin flame jumped a distance away, immediately after the fallen devil started shooting out spikes discriminately.
As it couldn't tell north from west, it decided to use itself as a center point, then use its spike as an AOE attack (Area of Effect… it's just like what a bomb does, affects the surrounding area.).
Merlin didn't rush, he didn't even move, he only substituted whenever he was hit by the spikes, then a few minutes later, the fallen devil had finally run out of spikes, Merlin summoned his cloak and took out a bow and arrow, he then hit the devil with another recorded vertigo.
He held the bow with an arrow and aimed at the devil, he fired one arrow, straight to its hind leg, the arrow pierced right through its target, then he dropped it, and retrieved a few playing cards, he threw them using the paper dagger ability to the body of the devil, each of them struck it squarely.
Merlin summoned the formless and turned it into a desert eagle, then he fired three consecutive shots, one aimed at the creature's eye, one aimed at its head, and the last aimed at its ear.
The first two struck accurately, but the last one missed as the creature began thrashing around, Merlin was genuinely surprised, as the second air bullet had almost killed the devil, but it only left a deep bleeding gash.
"Thank the gods you didn't die…"
Merlin held off on testing the rest of his abilities on the fallen devil, instead he walked up to it, as he was walking closer, he summoned the sunlight shard, he felt the weight of the familiar hammer as he dragged it across the sand making a line.
He stopped in front of the fallen devil that had fallen to the ground, almost unconscious out of pain, he used the freeze ability to lock its limbs in place, and then he also used the recorded petrification on the legs, then with a swing of his hammer, he shattered them.
Those movements jolted the devil awake as it wailed and tried to run, but it's limbs and been destroyed, Merlin then walked to it, he swung the hammer again with controlled force, as it hit the ribs of the creature breaking a few bones, then he used damage transfer to move it to another part of its body.
He repeated the process until every bone in the body of the fallen devil had been shattered, anytime it fell unconscious due to the pain, he would use the shock ability to jolt it awake, as it continued its suffering, after finishing with its bones, Merlin took out its remaining eye and left it alive.
He walked to the front of the creature, he stared at it coldly and he turned around and started walking, then he said.
"In this cruel world, you're either a predator or prey, you've lived your life as a predator, now you'll die alive as a helpless prey without the ability to resist"
He then walked away from the scene, as the cold look left his eyes, then he sighed inwardly.
'You really shouldn't have imitated Silver'
..
.
Merlin walked for a while, until he found an empty cave, the cave was perfect to hide from the scorching sun, a little too perfect to be precise, then he activated his spirit vision, and saw that the body of the cave itself gave off signs of life.
"The oldest trick in the book, I mean who would fall for something like that… technically most people except Sunny would actually fall… heh not me tho"
Merlin walked to the body of the nightmare creature, he hadn't seen its cores that were hidden in the rest of its buried body, so he couldn't identify its rank, but he had another plan in mind.
He walked to the cave, and it was perfect. He tried punching and hitting the walls, but the nightmare creature didn't budge at all.
'heh… oscar level performance you got here'
Merlin then placed his hand on it and activated petrification, he used it a total of nine times, the thing about the petrification ability, is that it isn't easy to sense, once a limb is petrified, it can still be felt as usual, but when you try to move it, you'll find the action impossible.
So for this nightmare creature that's rather a sitting duck, Merlin didn't even have to put effort, it wouldn't sense anything until it died, and Merlin wasn't even releasing the slightest of killing intent, for him it felt more like getting a new home and just changing the texture of the walls, from nightmare creature to stone nightmare creature, the upgrade even provided extra protection.
Almost a minute later, the spell finally whispered in his ear.
[You have slain a fallen demon, Dune Eater.]
[Your soul grows stronger…]
Merlin sighed and with full confidence, he walked into his new home, then he used the last remaining ability he recorded from Silver, he had recorded two, the one she used to encase him, and the one she used to block them from Thorax's sight.
That was what he was using this time, he rose them as steel bars that arranged themselves like a thick strong gate that blocked the entrance of the cave, there was still enough space for visibility and ventilation, then Merlin summoned the cloak, he pulled out the useless set of supplies that he had collected from the bright castle, there was a bed, a chair, plates, utensils, a lot of books, also cooking things, and many other things that could be used to decorate an apartment.
He also used the freeze ability to create a layer of ice on the roof to cool down his new home, where he would be resting here for a while.
As he laid down on the bed, he then entered his soul sea and turned to the points of the cohort… he was finally prepared to host the next meeting.
.
.
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For the delay, I will be releasing another chapter later today, possibly two depending on my schedule… and sorry for the delay, my sister just returned from a long travel, so I spent the last two days doing tourism of my own town… trust me when she's involved, you'll find that a day can be both long and short at the same time.
P.S if you've seen one of em flying spheres leave a comment here, the invasion has begun. Too bad I couldn't take a picture, but at least I saw one.