"So tell me Eurys of the nine… Have you decided how to kill me yet?"
Eurys stared at the vessel that called himself Flugel, the vessel of a god not known to any of them, he sighed then replied.
"I don't have any reason to kill you anymore… to me you're better left alive"
It wasn't that he didn't want to kill him, but it was that he had already killed him, that was a few months ago.
…
Eurys sat at the base of the tree, in front of him a little distance away was the vessel Flugel, the latter was busy practicing meditation with all his might, in the distance away, Azarax, his fellow prisoner, was busy conquering the deathless in the eternal battlefield.
Eurys turned his eyes away from the battlefield and faced Flugel, he placed his hand on the sand beneath him, and it moved and hardened into a short glass blade.
He then stood up, erased his presence completely, a skill he had been teaching the vessel, then he walked forward, towards Flugel who was still engrossed in meditation.
He walked till he stood just behind Flugel, then with a quick movement of his hand, he slashed the vessel's neck open.
Flugel didn't even notice the attack, his body just became limp as he fell forward, but just before he was about to touch the ground, the pressure around the area changed, even Eurys was forced to take a step back.
The slumping body stopped midway and straightened itself, then floated upwards till it hovered just above the sand, Eurys stared with a grim look, he watched the vessel, or rather now the avatar.
It summoned a cloak that draped over its body, then from within, it brought out a crudely cut paper figurine, with a flick of its hand, the figurine divided into two and the slash wound on the neck of Flugel disappeared immediately.
The avatar then turned its focus to him, Eurys saw the eyes, unlike the bright eyes that Flugel held, this avatar had an expressionless gaze that made one feel like it was looking down on all beings, but that was true, after all the being before him was a god, nothing could be above it.
Eurys took involuntary steps back, at first he felt fear of death, but considering that was what he wanted, he had a hint of expectation within it.
The avatar stared at him for a few seconds, then an emotionless voice sounded from its lips.
"I have grafted your fate, from this moment forth, you shall not know death even at the hands of shadow"
At the sound of those words, the non-existent blood drained from Eurys' body, the avatar hadn't handed him death, but rather complete eternal life, one that even the god of death couldn't take away, at that moment, Eurys was filled with regret of all kinds, but he had no one to blame but himself.
To his surprise, the avatar didn't pay him any further attention, but turned its gaze to the battlefield, then the next moment, it disappeared from its position.
Eurys followed his feeling and turned to the battlefield, just in time to watch the figure pull out a monocle, then with a wave of its hand, a sacred shard appeared in it, stolen from one of the deathless, then the avatar returned and took on its meditating position before making the cloak disappear into thin air.
The next moment, Eurys heard a voice come from Flugel, a voice filled with confusion.
"Huh? What just happened?"
Eurys saw as his mysterious student looked around as his hand went to the neck Eurys had once slashed, then he muttered again.
"That's strange… Did I forget something?"
Eurys sighed calmly and returned to his position in the tree, from that moment, he banished any other thoughts he had towards the vessel Flugel.
…
Eurys watched Flugel as he turned to him in confusion.
"No reason to kill me? I thought you weren't doing it because Azarax was around"
Eurys scoffed and didn't reply, till now he still didn't understand how the deathless even after having its core taken didn't lose its rank or power. What Eurys didn't know was that with the Fooling effect, such a thing was not difficult to achieve.
…
..
.
Merlin heard Eurys scoff, but he didn't pay it any mind, he solidified the idea that the old fossil was planning to drop him in a nightmare that would make him regret a few life decisions.
He sighed and continued the journey.
'I know something's wrong… I just can't prove it'
The duo continued their journey, Eurys for one wasn't a good conversation partner, and the cohort were stuck somewhere within the nightmare.
Merlin was interested in the nightmare or rather Noctis the blessed of the moon, but there was nothing he could do about it, not until Sunny returned from the nightmare.
Merlin was rather bothered about another thing, Celestial Worthy.
This pillar had made it a habit of interfering whenever the nightmare spell was in the process of elevating his rank, so he wanted to find a way to warn the cohort about his ascension, if Celestial Worthy pulled up and made a marionette out of everyone in the academy, Merlin would have a lot of explaining to do once he took control of his body.
What worried him were the hollows in particular, Merlin would feel rather guilty if a hollow was turned into a marionette, after all it was one thing if your relative's or partner's soul is lost somewhere in the dream realm, but if the body started moving without the soul in it, that would be both distressing and horrifying.
These stray thoughts were one of the things that kept him sane in the journey with Eurys, and the other thing was his newly found way of figuring out his origins despite his thoughts being obstructed.
The method was rather straightforward, writing, whenever he had any thoughts about it, he would write it down, but sadly… that method didn't really work for long.
He once tried and he was able to make some guesses about the castle in his soul sea, he attributed it to the cloak he had, but what he didn't understand was why the cloak wasn't a soul bound memory.
When he tried to divine it… well he finally found out what Klein felt when he divined Eternal Blazing Sun. His head immediately exploded into bits and pieces, then the parts transformed into illusory worms that came back together to form his head.
From that brief near death encounter, he was able to glean a few useful and useless information, useful being that the spirit world actually existed in this world, but it was rather empty compared to the original, and the useless information being the complete potion formula for the seer pathway.
He also received a lot of other information, starting with the fact that his soul sea wasn't a soul sea at all, just a rather crude representation of Sefirah Castle, well not exactly crude representation, the case was his soul sea was more like active use of a boon granted by Sefirah Castle, it was exactly the door of light and illusory worms that he saw that made him explode in a flashy manner.
But the most surprising part was that the boon wasn't the castle itself, but merely the fog outside it, the chairs and table was simply him using the powers of the fog to create it.
The castle itself was something else, and it came in pair with the cloak, Merlin was surprised at the shocking information he gleamed, he was so shocked that he counted that terrifying death experience as a good deal done.
The true identity of the castle was simply part of the Fool's uniqueness that was split in two, one being the cloak, and the other being the castle, Merlin speculated that he would have to reach supreme before the two would fuse to form the uniqueness, and he would have to reach sacred before he could attempt to use it or accommodate it.
The feeling left him ecstatic until post clarity hit him, the gains were a little much, a little too much in fact, Merlin had a feeling that Celestial Worthy won't even give him the chance to reach sacred before he began his resurrection plan, after all klein had only Sefirah Castle, but he, he had Sefirah Castle cut out, and the Fool's uniqueness in hand, that was like an open road to Celestial, plus with the way the pillar was simply popping up during his awakening process, he guessed that upon reaching supreme he would be hearing things like 'You have received another true name'... 'Your true name is Lord Of The Mysteries'
Merlin immediately felt that maybe staying a saint wasn't a really bad idea, he would still be able to beat a few supremes as a saint, and if a cursed something showed up, he would boot his way to the historical void, plus with the traveller's ability it would be impossible to trap him.
The reveal was so good and so bad that Merlin suspected that Celestial Worthy had shown it to him just to spite him.
After that moment, well any divinations Merlin tried to do were useless, and any out of reach thoughts were instantly stolen, even the thoughts of writing it down were not spared either, the complete interruptions left him frustrated,but what could he do, end his life, hehe he would die, and Celestial Worthy would probably just pluck out another soul from his stash, he doubted his portion of Sefirah Castle had the resurrection ability, even if it did, him coming back to life after commiting suicide to escape control of Celestial Worthy would be rather unfortunate, so anyhow the story is viewed, he was on the losing side.
But deep down he still had his concerns, why didn't Celestial worthy just take his body upon awakening, why give him the uniqueness in the first place, and did the pillar actually know that he read about him in a novel, it would be rather odd for Celestial Worthy to go through his memories only to find out that his existence was just simply some Chinese guy cooking one of the greatest masterpieces in history, if Celestial Worthy knew that, would he laugh or cry, he really wanted to know, but there was no way find out.
Another thing he was curious about was why did he also get the door ability, it was like Celestial Worthy wanted enough of his remnant psyche available when he would come for his body.
If Celestial Worthy had read his memories and used this method to give him zero chance to resist, that would be one brilliant move, plus when you couple it with his flaw, the only thing that took away the humanity he would use to fight back in future, it sounded like a brilliant plan.
When Merlin placed all the obvious together, he then understood why everyone feared this pillar, what meticulous planning, it wasn't enough to force the people of LOTM world to create a Lord of Mysteries by sealing the western continent, he also went far and beyond to not make the same mistake he did with Klein in his case.
Merlin sighed at his inescapable fate, he was really fucked, after all his world didn't have evernight to put him to sleep, he could only rely on Cassie to help him stimulate his memories, but for some reason, he felt that Celestial Worthy also covered that route, that's why Cassie's ability never worked on him.
Merlin dwelled on these thoughts all through the journey, at some point he just wanted to go home, to just be Austin again and let Shadow Slave and LOTM be books he just read to escape from reality, but he knew that his hopeful wishes couldn't be granted even with a Miracle Invoker abilities, he would probably have to be a great old one, but that path was currently out of reach, plus this wasn't the Lord Of Mysteries world where he could just switch pathway and go mad, he was stuck with Sefirah Castle and Sefirah Castle was stuck with Celestial Worthy, and Celestial Worthy was breathing down his neck like a very old friend.
Merlin sighed as he returned his gaze to the road, they were about to pass by another ruins that had been destroyed until he heard Eurys voice.
"Looks like we're here, this one should fit your rank…"
Merlin turned and was about to ask, but then he felt it, deep within, his soul was responding to a very faint call from far away, the only reason he didn't feel it was because the distance was far and because he already carried a chunk of corruption from Sefirah Castle in his soul.
Merlin turned to Eurys and smiled.
"Thanks a lot, I'll put in a good word for you when I meet shadow's heir"
Eurys kept quiet and stared at him for a while before replying.
"If you're that grateful, at least try to kill me yourself first"
Merlin was confused, but he still replied.
"Sure when I become strong enough…"
Eurys heaved a slight sigh of relief then he turned around and started walking away.
"Don't die Flugel…"
Merlin didn't reply and just smiled and waved, then he turned, and walked into the ruins, it was a rather broken and destroyed city, as he walked forward, something caught his eyes, a necklace with a black pendant, he walked towards it and picked it up, he stared at it, despite the ruins everywhere, it still felt new and his intuition told him that it was something important.
He placed it into the dimension ring, then he sat down at the center of the city where the call was the strongest, then he slowly closed his eyes and reduced his will, accepting the call.
The spell immediately sounded in his ears.
[One brave one! Welcome to the nightmare…]
.
.
.
Here we go Second Nightmare…🎉
Please give me time to write this one I'll try my best 🎉