"King of Space-Time, Beacon of Destiny
Embodiment of Sefirah Castle
Dominator of the Spirit World"
As his last words echoed, he immediately felt a rush in his body, as his vision was filled with gray fog, his heart pounded like it was about to rip out of his chest, and he felt his soul hurting, the next moment, a head splitting pain hammered against his skull, as he clutched his chest, before he could scream out in pain, he fell unconscious.
..
.
About an hour later, Merlin regained consciousness, his body was covered in sweat, and his skin felt like he was burning.
"I guess I learnt my lesson, do not pry into the mysteries of gods…" he muttered as he stood up from the bed.
He checked his body, and contrary to what he felt earlier, he was completely okay, no lingering pain whatsoever, infact, he felt stronger than before.
He summoned his runes to confirm.
.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Mysteries
Rank: Ascended
Class: Titan
Soul Core: [7/7]
Soul Fragments: [7000/7000]
Memories: [Cloak of Mysteries], [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: [Magician], [Faceless], [Marionettist]
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, few details registered in his mind, there was good news, better news, bad news and unknown news.
The good news was that his abilities had returned, the better news was that he was now a Titan as Celestial Worthy must have bestowed him a few cores, bad news was that 'Daemon's Desire' responsible for helping with his flaw was not returned, and the unknown news was that his True Name had been altered.
"Seriously… just 'Mysteries'... this doesn't feel good, no matter which angle you look at it, it's definitely suspicious" he muttered to himself.
"Well it's not like I can do anything about it, It's practically my fault anyways" he sighed.
He stood up and showered again, then he packed up Ariel's and Silver's things before heading downstairs, as he arrived, he saw Silver playing with Ariel, but he didn't see Sunny.
"Where's Sunny?" He asked as he looked around.
"He said he's heading to the dream realm…" Silver replied calmly "how are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling better, we should get going now, I've already prepared our place" He nodded and walked to them.
Silver stood up then she asked.
"Are you just going to leave them be?" Her eyes were fixed in a particular direction.
'Looks like you didn't escape her perception after all' he chuckled inwardly.
"No need, just let them be, I'm expecting them to come around soon"
"Alright…"
He placed his hands on their shoulders then he activated travel, his body disappeared from the room and entered the spirit world.
As he entered the spirit world, he stopped for a second then he looked up at the gray fog above, and he got a familiar feeling again, he ignored it and he immediately left the spirit world, this time, they were in the house he just bought.
"Woah… it's new" Ariel cheered as she moved around the house.
"Hey Silver… you know I've always been curious" he spoke cautiously "uhum… before I continue, please promise not to shoot me, or impale me or lock me with your abilities"
Silver's eye squinted for a second before she finally nodded.
He sighed then he thought about it and added.
"And if you're going to hit me, please not in the face…"
"Okay" she replied calmly.
"Alright" he nodded "now I've always been curious, do you maybe know how to cook?"
He stared at her, gauging her expression, but in reality, that was an illusion, the real him was a safe distance away.
"You do know that this illusion isn't fooling me right?" Silver's eyes turned to his main body.
"It didn't hurt to try at least" he sighed helplessly.
"I can, it's a necessary process for growing up in Civilth, but although the ingredients look and taste similar, there are a few I'm quite unfamiliar with, but to answer your question, yes I can cook" Silver explained as she sat down on the couch.
"I see… and you're not going to hit me?" He asked just to confirm.
"I've known that you've had this question on your mind ever since, I was curious as to when you would finally ask it" She explained.
"Huh? You knew?" He was honestly surprised.
Silver sighed then softly answered.
"Every time you are, you would always look in my direction, then you would make a face that you only did when you're thinking about something that would annoy me, then after a while, you would shake your head and return to your food"
Hearing her words, he suddenly thought about it, most times when they were eating, he always had that strange thought about Silver in the kitchen with an apron, and for some reason, the image didn't really fit together, so he usually just cleared the thoughts from his mind.
"I didn't realize that it was that noticeable…" he muttered softly.
"Big brother…" Ariel cheered as she returned from her exploration mission.
"Do you like it?" He asked hopefully.
"It's good, I like it" Ariel nodded in response.
"Okay…" he nodded in response.
..
.
After they had settled in, Merlin sighed and decided to test his theory, back when he entered the spirit world, he felt a familiar feeling, and it took his mind back to a location he felt was different before he arrived at the wall of fog.
He stood up and immediately entered the spirit world, he turned his eyes upwards to stare at the gray fog, then he calmly levitated upwards.
As he reached the top, he stretched out his hand, and immediately the fog parted open for him, he floated through the open path, as he moved, he could feel a gaze following his every action, he had a good guess about what it was, so he ignored the gaze, a few seconds later, the other side of the fog parted, revealing an open space with more gray fog.
He turned his head towards one point and started walking, in the open space, he could no longer levitate as he had left the spirit world, he walked for about a minute before he finally arrived at a familiar castle.
"Honestly, it's the first time I'm entering my soul sea with my true body" he muttered as he walked through the castle doors.
Inside was a very familiar scene, twenty two high back chairs, a long table and seven gray cores floating above.
"Cool, this place really does give off an eerie feeling…" he spoke to the empty space.
He looked up and focused on the thousand or so marionettes hanging above his soul sea.
"Since I'm here, I might as well just try this now…"
He summoned the cloak and he immediately felt the abilities of a Sequence 1, with his seven complete cores, he could now use the cloak for a minute and half, a very big improvement.
Without wasting time, he immediately retrieved a nightmare creature from his stash, the marionettes came down, and he finally got the feeling of being a Nimblewright Master, it felt like having an extra arm that you could control at will.
With a thought, he immediately split off a worm of spirit and the nightmare creature immediately gained his abilities, using faceless transformation of the angel level, the marionettes transformed into an identical version of him.
'Now here comes the hard part…'
Using the ability of a Miracle Invoker, he split off multiple worms of spirit that had full consciousness, and he grafted one of his cores to the marionette, essentially creating a new avatar of himself.
The series of actions drained his stamina and essence, as his body was not used to having worm of spirit in the first place, he watched as one of the gray cores above disappeared and reappeared without any obvious changes, then he unsummoned the cloak as he stared at the other Merlin.
…
Darkness…
That was what he was seeing, or not seeing rather, the last thing he remembered was splitting off multiple worms of spirit, then suddenly the world went black.
'At least I can still feel my body… wait, ah, I truly am an idiot'
Merlin was able to figure out the cause of the current darkness, his eyes were just closed. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and his eyes locked on to an absurd sight, another Merlin was standing right in front of him, looking at him with eyes filled with expectation.
"Huh… What's going on? Did I succeed? I don't remember completing the process, unless…" he turned to the other Merlin "I'm the avatar aren't I?"
"Yes you are, honestly I'm surprised it actually worked…" Merlin nodded.
"So… which of us will be heading to the Song domain?" The avatar asked.
"Hmmm, let's play rock, paper, scissors" Merlin suggested.
"That's… a strangely good idea" the avatar nodded in agreement.
"Alright, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" They said together.
Merlin played Rock, and the avatar played scissors.
"Looks like I won…" Merlin smiled.
"How the hell did I lose to myself in a game?" The avatar muttered as he shook his head, then he turned to Merlin "I think we should try that…"
"Huh? Oh that… let's do it, who'll go back?" Merlin asked.
"You should do it, I already lost the game, so you should at least suffer some stress" the avatar muttered.
Merlin nodded and walked out of the castle and started heading back the way he came, the avatar looked around, then inspected his body.
"It really does feel natural, however I feel like two is the maximum amount of avatars I can separate, anymore and the process would ultimately be terminated" he muttered as he looked around.
..
.
Meanwhile Merlin left his soul sea and returned to the spirit world, he thought for a while, then he returned to Sunny's house, from a quick look around, it seemed Sunny hadn't returned from the dream realm.
He sat down on the chair, and immediately entered his soul sea, but this time, his body was still in the waking world.
As he appeared on the high back chair, he looked to the side and saw the avatar sitting down on the chair on the other end of the room.
"Good afternoon Mr Fool" the avatar did an exaggerated bow.
Merlin's face curled up in disgust as he spoke up.
"How high is your mental fortitude that you were able to pull something that cringe, I can feel my toes curling back in my original body"
"Hahaha… I was seriously messing with you, but we really need to up our mental fortitude, can't have us feeling cringy when we're discussing with each other, after all we're supposed to be two different people" the avatar replied as he stood up and walked closer.
"I'll definitely have to adapt, even Saint Sunny could do it, I shouldn't be any different" Merlin nodded his head.
"Hey, do you think we should try it?" The avatar suddenly asked.
"Try what?" Merlin asked, confused, he couldn't tell what exactly the avatar was thinking.
"If I was in your shoes, and you were in mine, what would you be thinking right now?" The avatar asked.
'What would I be thinking?, Ah that would be if I can feel physical pain in my soul form…. wait a minute' Merlin's eyes widened.
"It seems you've figured it out" the avatar smiled slyly.
"Hold up, let's talk about this…" Merlin raised his hand.
"Don't worry, I won't hit too hard…"
Bang!
The sound of the punch echoed through the castle, clutching his face Merlin glared daggers at the avatar.
"That wasn't 'too hard'?"
The avatar simply shrugged in response, Merlin sighed and stood up.
"Alright your turn…"
"Huh?" The avatar looked confused.
"I want to see if I can deal physical damage ofcourse" Merlin smiled "I won't hit too hard either…"
Bang!
Another punch echoed as the avatar glared at Merlin, Merlin nodded and answered.
"Seems like whether it's physical or soul form, in here, the damage is the same"
"That's a rather uninteresting discovery" the avatar muttered calmly "Sigh… so that means I'll be Merlin to the world, and you'll be?"
"Jayson…" Merlin completed "I'll be Jayson, the brother of Silver and Ariel"
The avatar shrugged and started walking away as he added "Don't do anything stupid while I'm in the Song domain, in fact, don't do anything I wouldn't do…" he waved his hand.
Merlin watched him leave the castle and muttered to himself.
"I think the worst part about having an avatar is the fact that you can't ever give a comeback to an insult without feeling insulted…"
He sighed and then left his soul sea, as he returned, he looked around and saw Sunny coming out of his room.
"You're back…" he greeted.
"Yeah… just went out on some scouting… are you guys gone?" Sunny answered as he checked around with his shadow sense and found the house empty.
"Yeah, but I have to walk to my place to keep the eyes off your house…" He replied.
"Alright… I'll have to tell the others so we'll celebrate your new home" Sunny said as he stretched.
He chuckled and asked.
"Let me guess, it was Effie's idea?"
"Yes"
"Haha… guess I'll be needing more food" Merlin laughed as he headed for the door "Alright you know my place, drop by sometime so we can talk about the government problem, I'll also drop by to see Rain"
"Okay sure… huh? Why Rain?" Sunny nodded then tilted his head confused.
"Why else, I'm going to help her awaken naturally of course, hopefully we can do it before Antarctica, and… wait no, that won't work" He stopped, then thought for a while and continued.
"If she's not able to complete it before the third nightmare and you decide to break fate, then we'll have an issue, but if you change your mind, then we could easily start the process after you're a Saint… that way is better, after all you need to do it yourself" He muttered to himself.
"Anyways… forget what I just said, I'll simply train Rain in some swordsmanship and other weapons, till whenever you're ready for her to awaken naturally"
"I see, okay if that's what you say…" Sunny shrugged.
"Well then, see you later Sunny" He waved then stepped outside, then the smile disappeared from his face as he muttered.
"Well now, let's see how long you'll keep watching…"