Immediately after the battle ended, the fatigue washed over Merlin as he slumped on the ground, his body filled with aches.
Although he had received an echo, he was too tired to check it out, his last minute plan had worked in his favour.
From the original work, Merlin knew of the arrival of the spire messenger, but the information came to his memory while he was sleeping, so the arrows and attacks were all last minute decisions.
"Are you alright, what was that?" Sunny asked as he approached him in the ground.
"Spire messenger a fallen beast, it came for the carcass, but I wasn't betting on it ignoring us, plus my danger sense warned me in advance" Merlin replied Sunny.
By then Nephis had fished out the two shards, and handed them over to Merlin.
"The noise may have attracted more creatures to the top, I'll keep watch with sunny, you rest" Nephis said.
"No need, I'll help too" Merlin replied calmly as he rose to his feet.
"Are we seriously ignoring the fact that we just killed a fallen monster as sleepers?" Sunny asked making them look at him.
"Yeah, why do I even bother, it's not like we're normal sleepers after all".
"Any armour?" Nephis asked Merlin which he shook his head.
"I just remembered, I got one from the centurion" Sunny said as he transferred the Starlight armour to Nephis.
She summoned the armour, tested it and went to show Cassie before she returned to them ready to purge abominations.
As they walked to the edge, Nephis was indeed right, a few scavengers were making their way up the steep cliff, Merlin and the rest just needed to trip them as they fell to their death, the spell resounding in his ear.
[You have slain a... ]
[You have slain a... ]
[You have slain... ]
[You have slain... ]
Merlin glanced at his runes which now read.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Soul Fragments: [972/1000]
He was just a few more fragments away from becoming a monster, and he would complete it with the shards in his possession.
The night went on with a problem, by morning Nephis and Sunny had left for their usual sword practice while Merlin stepped into his soul sea.
Inside the familiar gray castle, Merlin sat on the chair just below the gray globe, looking around the globe, he didn't notice his echo until he looked upwards and found the terrifying beast hanging upside down from the ceiling of the castle.
"Wow, a few more and I'll be feeling like Antigonus" Merlin chuckled to himself.
He decided to experiment a little, he summoned the messenger and looked at it, it stood there large and imposing.
After a few moments of testing from durability to flight ability, he finally dismissed it, letting it returned back to the ceiling.
Merlin then stood in front of the high back chair, following his intuition, he then activated the 'Cloak of Mysteries' enchantment in the castle, but the searing pain never came, instead a path opened, a door of light behind the chair.
Merlin walked to it and stood in front of it, on the other side of the door, he met one blurry step, as he stepped on it, his entire vision spun and reality changed.
When Merlin found himself, he was locked in a safe, except the opening sequence was on the inside of the safe, and the safe was at the bottom of the ocean, the ocean own he deducted was because of the constant groaning of the metal and the water seeping into the safe.
Merlin's survival instinct kicked in, he tried to use his strength, his abilities, but he was met with nothing, whatever his situation is, it had left him powerless.
Merlin immediately tried to unlock the safe, water was rising constantly, Merlin had not operated safes before, he tried combination after combination, after a few minutes, the water was already at his neck, the air reduced to a small space, but Merlin still hadn't unlocked the safe.
Moments later and he was completely submerged, holding his breath, his lungs burning, desperate for air, and the safe still wasn't budging, Merlin's breath gave, water flowed in through his nostrils and mouth, he groaning for air only to meet more water, he was drowning, several seconds of drowning and Merlin stopped struggling, he was dead.
Immediately he was forced out of his soul sea, his body curled as he held his chest, gasping for air, he was alive, drenched in sweat but alive, the sensation felt real, too real.
'Whatever the hell that was I'm never doing it again'.
Due to his outburst, Sunny and Nephis who had finished training walked closer in his direction.
"Hey Merlin I'd there a problem, one moment you're sitting quietly and the next you're breathing like you just ran a marathon" Sunny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Haa... Haa... It's nothing Sunny just some problem in my soul sea"
"Soul sea, do soul seas have problems?" Sunny asked tilting his head slightly.
"Turns out mine does" Merlin replied.
"Let's leave this for later, Let's take care of these first" Merlin brought out the soul shards from their previous hunts, excluding the ones killed by pushing off the cliff.
Twenty from the scavengers, two from the centurion and one from the spire messenger.
The shards from the scavengers were split into five each, the centurion shards went to sunny and Nephis, while Merlin held on to the fallen. He didn't even consider bringing out the transcedent shards as those were his spoils.
Sunny's shards went to Nephis, Her and Cassie absorbed theirs while Merlin simply stored his, and his shards now totalled at eight awakened, one fallen and two transcendent.
'I'll have to become a monster before we get to the tree, ugh just thinking about it gives me a headache'.
"Merlin" Nephis called out his name.
"Yeah"
"I want to talk"
"Fine, come with me" Merlin stood up and guided Nephis away from the rest, knowing her character, if it wasn't anything important she would've just said it straight forward.
"So, I'm listening"
"Cassie's vision, do you have anything to do with it?" Nephis asked staring him in the face.
"No" He replied.
"But you know something about it, when Sunny asked, you didn't deny his words, but you didn't answer him either, what do you know about it"
"I know a lot about it, you'll figure it out too later, but right now I'll tell you this, if you're going to stick to treating human lives like toys for your survival, five, that's the number of attacks you'll get from me" Merlin turned around walking back to their previous location, while walking he spotted Sunny and Cassie talking, he waited for them to finish before he walked towards Sunny.
"What was that about?" He asked Sunny.
Sunny turned to him and shrugged.
"She asked me if I would protect Nephis"
Merlin's eyes visibly dimmed.
"And... What was your answer?"
"I said no, I can hardly even protect myself, and Nephis doesn't look like she needs protection"
Merlin sighed and shook his head as he walked towards Cassie.
'It seems I'll have to be a little more proactive, but not too much before they miss certain steps and the future spirals out of control'
"Hey Cassie"
"Merlin... Is there something you want?"
"Listen Cassie, I'll give you three chances before I decide to take matters into my hands permanently, if you keep judging the future from the present, don't blame anyone if the future you see unfolds differently." He said watching her shoulder tremble slightly.
"You... know, don't you... The vision you've figured it out, what am I supposed to do?, How am I supposed to choose?" Cassie asked as she looked up at him, her eyes slightly red.
"If I'm the one telling you what to do without it being your choice, then that makes me no better than you" Merlin said as he walked away from her towards the bonfire.
The group ate their meals for the day in silence and set out for the next visible highland.
...
Days passed, their speed was steady, fast even, during that period Merlin had become a monster solely relying on the fragments from kills, his shard possession was now twenty awakened, one fallen and two transcendent, when they asked about the pain from the forming of his second core, Merlin simply blamed it on his soul sea.
Speaking of his soul sea which now held two gray globes, Merlin had drowned a few more times in total, after finally unlocking the safe before his death, he was plunged into another place, a burning room with only one high class door and a pin in his hand to unlock it, he had burnt to death a lot and was still stuck there.
The quad had also killed one more centurion in the meantime, they also fought some large centipedes with corrosive and flamable liquids, Merlin had stored most of their galls where the liquid were stored, when the group asked, he simply replied 'It might be useful later'.
Now, they had arrived at the bone ridge, Merlin stared at the large bone that rivalled the hills they slept on, it was weird to know that something like that once existed.
Arriving at the bone ridge, They climbed up the spine, sent Sunny's shadow down to confirm it's state, and after finally deciding it was safe they went down.
Inside the ridge, there was a small lake where they washed up, they cooked the meat for the day and proceeded to sleep as the night drew near.
On watch duty, Sunny was staring into the distance, high above the sea was an island and at the center of the island was a large tree whose branches spread out towards the sky.
"Like what you see?" Merlin who had arriving behind Sunny said.
"If you're asking about the dark sea and it's inhabitants then I'll pass" Sunny answered without turning around, he had sensed Merlin coming through the shadow.
While they were watching, a silver light reflected briefly on the island before disappearing, but it caught their attention.
"What was that, did you see it?" Sunny turned to Merlin.
"I saw, and although my danger sense has been permanently active because of the dark sea, whatever that was made it spike higher" Merlin replied with a light smile.
"Well then Sunny since I'm already here, I might as well relief you of your watch duty, you can go rest" I'll wait for Neph"
"Alright, stay safe" Sunny said as he stood up dusting his armour.
"I'm sorry I don't swing that way Sunny" Merlin joked.
"Fuck you" Sunny chuckled I response.
As Sunny left, Merlin dove into to his soul sea and arrived at the stairs again, placing his foot on it and he was immediately transferred to the burning room.
"Cough... Cough... I hope I'll get something out of these insane stunts I'm pulling, dying everytime is bad for one's mental health you know"
"Maybe it could be training for 'Return by Death' ability, let's hope for the best"
Merlin picked up his tools, slipping the pin into the key hole, he worked through the locks, constant trial and error had given him a learning experience, if not for the quality of the lock, Merlin would have been able to open seven regular doors with the little time he had.
Seconds bled into minutes, finally with a click, the lock was finally opened. Merlin rushed out the door coughing with tears in his eyes, his skin scorched from the heat.
"Cough... Cough... Haa... Finally, I'm out of that hell hole, let's get this over with, what else does here have to offer.
Immediately his vision spun, he was on a cross, hung upside down, descending slowly into a black liquid below, his hands and feet bound by cuffs, and in his right hand, a tiny iron looking thin needle.
"Fuck..."
Moments later and Merlin was ejected out of his soul sea, after getting used to the sensation, he could now control himself upon return.
'What the hell was that... I'm suspecting my soul sea is preparing me for some 'America's Got Talent' Show, this is gonna be fucked if I don't get 'Return by Death'.'
A few more hours passed with him still on watch.
"Hey" Nephis voice sounded from behind.
"Hey" He replied.
"Anything?" Nephis asked.
"Nothing here, but there's something on the hill in the distance, we'll check it out tomorrow"
"Alright" She replied and stood to watch while Merlin headed inside.
By dawn, Merlin and Sunny woke up, they prepared their food and headed out into the sea of ash, before leaving, Merlin absorbed the shards in his possession, all except the two transcendent, bringing his total fragments to.
Soul Core: Monster
Soul Fragments: [192/2000]
His advancement wasn't focused only on increase in strength, simply that, he could use flame jump more times than before, the distance also increased, and most of his other abilities were strengthened.
With all preparations in place, they finally left for the Ashen barrow.
Walking through the sea of ash was quiet, too quiet. Almost like nothing lived there, except for the occasional stumps which were the roots of the large tree.
A few hours of walking, and Merlin's danger sense was triggered, Sunny's voice came after.
"Stop, something's moving around here"
The team immediately stopped moving, they hid behind one of the roots and waited for Sunny's description of the danger.
After a few more minutes if listening to Sunny's breathe hitch and sometimes fall, the shadow boy then spoke up.
"It's bad, very bad, I saw a centurion offer several awakened soul shard to something near the tree, except that something was another creature just like the centurion, but about four times bigger, and it's shell it's probably metal, it looks like a silver mirror, it also has two pincers and scythes..."
He took a deep breath and continued.
"... The creature looked angry and with one swing it killed the centurion, then it took the shards and gave it to the tree in exchange for a fruit"
The silence was profound.
Even he had to admit, although they had killed the centurion too, it required a lot of planning, He knew they had to kill the Awakened Demon, he also had a plan, but that didn't make it easier.
"I vote we go back and actually make a full plan, a couple of full plans actually, that thing is probably a demon so we'll need more than luck and skill to fight it" Merlin voiced out.
"Are you crazy!?, You want to actually fight an awakened demon, you'll die" Sunny blurted out.
"We're heading west, it's west so we'll kill it" Nephis answered him, tone firm.
"Why do I even bother with you guys, we have already killed a fallen beast, what's an awakened demon" Sunny sighed in resignation.
They decided to head back to the bone ridge, after they stayed, Cassie had her vision about the Carapace Demon, and it was time to discuss the plan.
"Hope you guys are ready, tomorrow would probably be the worst night of your lives..."