He stood up and walked around, he walked towards the back of the castle, he looked around the walls and everything, but apart from the stairs that signified his aspect legacy, he didn't see anything else.
He sighed and walked towards the front, he walked around, occasionally checking the walls and everything, but he didn't notice anything out of place, and that itself was suspicious.
He thought for a while, then he followed the door and walked out of the castle, he had tried this series of acts before as he walked through the clouds of gray fog as he walked further away from the castle, but whenever he turned around, it seemed like he wasn't making any progress.
'Seems like I can't leave… or rather this place doesn't want me to leave'
He thought calmly for a while, then he summoned the cloak and channeled his essence, achieving Sequence 1 status, that was when he felt it, the area around the castle had been grafted, using tampering and reassembly, making the end point and starting point the same position.
He stretched out his hand and tampered with the grafting, he changed it back, disconnecting the end point from the starting point, the next moment, the gray fog stirred slightly.
He unsummoned the cloak and started walking forward, about a few minutes later, he saw a place in the gray fog that felt different, he stared at it for a while, then he averted his eyes and continued walking forward, his eyes still locked in the distance, although that part in the fog gave him a different feeling, the one in the distance was practically pulling him forward, the pulling feeling made him think of a particular phrase he read.
'Convergence of beyonder characteristics…'
He could feel that whatever was in the distance was on the same level with the cloak, or even higher, and there was only one thing possibly higher than the Fool's uniqueness.
Sefirah Castle—
The original Sephirot of his pathway, he knew that going there was practically a death sentence, but he didn't care, ever since he arrived in this world, although he felt like he was controlling the actions of the cohort, in reality, he was also a puppet on a string, at first he didn't mind because he couldn't do anything to Celestial Worthy at his current time, but during his second nightmare when he had met his Supreme self, he was honestly offended, after risking himself to make sure Sunny avoided the fate of being controlled by Nephis and Cassie, he himself was still being controlled, and the worst part was that it was none other than himself.
If there was one thing he hated, it was bending over to the orders of those that didn't deserve or earn it, this was one of the major reasons he beat up many bullies in his school days, and also why he challenged Saint Cor.
He didn't like being controlled, and he didn't like controlling, except for whenever it was absolutely needed, just like on the Forgotten Shore, so, after learning that his actions were probably a result of his Supreme self interfering, he was offended.
And so he was going to find out something for himself, for one, he wanted to know the difference between him and Klein in the novel, in the LOTM novel, Celestial Worthy was dead, so 'He' needed Klein's body to resurrect, but from what he figured, in his situation, Celestial Worthy was still alive and kicking, evidence being that his body was being taken over whenever he was awakening.
But even if Celestial Worthy was dead, why not just resurrect completely in his body, why the on and off sequence, and if Celestial Worthy really wanted to completely take his body after the second nightmare, was it something his Supreme self could interfere with? That was a Sequence 2 grounded angel against a great old one, there was no way that would've worked.
And in the worst case, even if Celestial Worthy was dead and needed his body for resurrection, why was he even in Shadow Slave world? Wasn't he supposed to be in the LOTM world, at least that way, he would know that he had no chance of returning home and his goal would be to choose whether to save earth and risk himself, or just lay low and hope the Gods did something about it.
He reigned in his thoughts as he continued walking forward, then after a few more minutes, he finally arrived at the point, and saw what was pulling him, it was a giant wall of gray fog that stretched endlessly, like it was separating two different points.
'I guess this is where my Sefirah Castle ends, and yours begin'
He summoned the cloak again, and he channeled his essence into it, the next moment, he placed his hands on the wall of fog, and immediately used tampering to create a passage, the fog immediately trembled as his entire soul sea began to shake, he felt the pulling feeling getting stronger, but he didn't stop.
The next moment, he watched as the fog parted slightly, but contrary to his expectations, he didn't gain anything, but he instead lost something, a white ball of light immediately left his body, followed by a blue ball, then a golden one, and lastly, the cloak on him, all three immediately flew through the hole in the wall, and he was immediately ejected from his soul sea.
Merlin jolted up as he opened his eyes, he felt empty, he immediately recalled the last thing he saw in his soul sea, he hurriedly summoned his runes.
.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: _____
Rank: Ascended
Class: Tyrant
Soul Core: [5/7]
Soul Fragments: [3582/5000]
Memories: [Formless], [Fur Coat], [Poison bottle], [Stone Sword], [Sunlight Shard], [Messenger's Wings], [Chittin Armour], [Spectre Suit], [Dimension ring], [Chained Sickle]...
Echoes: [Pristine Soul]
Attributes: [Fated],[Mysteries],[Mark of Divinity]
Aspect: [Child Of God]
Aspect Rank: Divine
Innate Ability: [Connection]
Aspect Ability: [ ___ ], [ ___ ], [ ___ ]
Flaw: [Apathy]
Flaw Description: [The stronger you get the more of your humanity you shed until you become a being of only divinity.]
.
As he saw it, he immediately felt like laughing, but he restrained himself so as to not disturb the others.
It seemed that the convergence of beyonder characteristics was really strong, he remembered the three lights, the first was the Attendant Of Mysteries characteristics inside him, the one that he unlocked every time he ascended, the second was the Key of Stars characteristics that he unlocked with each step of his aspect legacy, the third was the attribute Hope gave him, 'Daemon's Desire', and the last was the Fool's uniqueness, and since half of it was his soul sea, he also lost access to his soul sea.
The series of events made him want to laugh and cry at the same time, he would've left things be if Celestial Worthy was generous enough to drop him in his world after taking almost everything back, but 'He' didn't, and he also didn't take everything, and the only thing he didn't take gave Merlin the solution to his entire problem, his eyes focused on a part of his runes.
.
Attributes: [Fated],[Mysteries],[Mark of Divinity]
.
The attribute 'Mysteries' was still here, and he was able to figure out how to get back what he lost, all he had to do was pray, in other words, he had to recite Celestial Worthy's honorific name.
'Heh… I guess this is the punishment for my curiosity'
He sighed and dismissed the runes, he was going to consider it tomorrow, if he really wanted to go down this road with Celestial Worthy.
…
The next morning, he woke up as usual, surprisingly he didn't have a hard time sleeping, he stood up and went to freshen up, before walking into the kitchen to prepare something for the others.
During the process of cooking, he thought about his situation from yesterday, he knew of a way to get new abilities without relying on Celestial Worthy, the first was to get a divine lineage, he could do so just like the people of night, or he could get a bestowment from Ki Song, and even if those don't work, he thought of another way, and that was challenging the third nightmare and having the spell give him a new set of abilities.
But there was a lot of downsides to those plans, obviously, although he could challenge the second nightmare, if he went in there with zero abilities, he would obviously have a hard time, but the key word was hard, it was hard not impossible, he had access to memories, and with Ariel's blessing, he could have a chance of surviving a third nightmare, but that was still a long time from now.
The other one was more feasible, but he knew that the only reason Song wanted him was because of his abilities, without those, he was useless in their eyes.
The situation forced him to make new rules for himself, and that was to bow your head and bid your time until you're strong enough to fight back without losing everything, and that was exactly what he was going to do.
As much as he hated the idea, he was going to go back to the hands of Celestial Worthy and he was going to bow his head and play along to 'His' scheme, until he had a chance of fighting back.
He sighed and focused his attention on the food he was preparing, but deep down he made up his mind, although he would bow his head, it was only to Celestial Worthy that had an edge over him, anyone else who tried to control him would end up getting the short end of the stick, including the Sovereigns, but honestly, he felt that if push came to shove, he would probably bow to Thorax, after all that guy was a Sacred Terror, he could practically rule the dream realm if he wanted, honestly he was surprised that Thorax hadn't left Civilth since then, after all he was no longer corrupted, and his mind was clear, but the problem now was that, what would that champion of the Beast God do if he ever decides to leave Civilth.
Just thinking about Thorax made his blood boil, he had already promised that he would kill him, and he was going to do it, whether Thorax was Sacred or not, he had to go.
By the time he finished cooking, everyone had already arrived and was waiting for him.
"Morning guys…" he greeted in a light tone.
"Morning"
"Big brother…"
"Good morning Merlin"
Sunny, Ariel and Silver greeted respectively, he nodded and served the food.
"You look different, did something happen?" Silver spoke up as she looked at him.
He offered a light smile and said.
"I'm tired… I'm just tired"
"I see…" Silver nodded and added "you can talk to me about it, maybe that'll help you out"
"I… understand" He nodded and continued eating.
After they finished eating, Sunny offered to clean up, and he accepted, then he went upstairs with Silver and Ariel.
As he got there, he laid down on the bed and stared blankly at the ceiling, although he knew what he had to do, that didn't make doing it any easier, if anything, it made the decision even harder for him, all he needed to say to go from currently the weakest ascended, to the strongest, was only a random string of words that would probably have made no sense if he said it back in his world.
"You're troubled…" Silver sat beside him on the bed as she placed her hand on his forehead.
"I am" he replied tiredly "I'm tired of living my life being dictated by others without my choice, I don't even know if the random choices I make are really random, or something that's already planned… I just, don't know what to do"
Silver looked at him with her calming eyes and replied.
"Merlin in this world, there will always be people who are above you, and without a doubt, those people will always have a way to control your actions, it may not even be directly, they might simply do something for themselves, and the ripples if their actions will change a decision if yours, so I want you to know that it is impossible to truly become free… that's what you want right? Freedom"
"Yes…" he muttered calmly.
"Freedom is a luxury no one is able to achieve" Silver shook her head then continued "Merlin let me ask you this, starting from my rank, who do you think can control my actions?"
"A supreme if possible…" he answered.
"And who can control the actions of a supreme?" She asked again.
"A Sacred…"
"And who could possibly control a Sacred?"
"A Divine Being" he answered again.
"A Divine Being, that's the highest rank anyone has heard of, now tell me, who can control the actions of a Divine Being?" Silver asked calmly.
Merlin sighed and answered.
"The Void…"
"So now, Merlin, who has controlled the actions of the Void" She asked again.
Merlin thought about it, then he answered.
"Divine Beings…" after all, they were the ones who sealed the Void.
"You understand now don't you, no matter how strong, there will always be those whose actions would dictate yours, and this is the same for everyone, freedom isn't so easy to achieve, as long as you exist, you are bound by the rules of existence, and so you cannot be free, if living is a prison, then you simply have to choose the one you're most comfortable with" Silver said as she ran her hands through his hair.
He sighed and sat up, then he hugged her.
"Thank you Silver, I know what I have to do now"
"That's good, I'll give you some space" She nodded, then took Ariel and left the room.
"Looks like I was being naive… haha, I'm lucky Silver knows how to give advices"
He sat down crossed legged on the bed, he reigned in his thoughts and with a calm voice he recited.
"King of Space-Time…"