Meanwhile in his soul sea after Merlin just left, the Supreme Merlin turned to face the Divine Merlin opposite him as he spoke.
"Are you trying to make him lose control? His mental state cannot handle the truth right now…"
"It was his choice to make…" the Divine Merlin replied, not changing his calm tone.
"Indeed…" Supreme Merlin sighed.
"So have you figured out a way to overcome your fate? Or are you going to accept it?" Divine Merlin asked.
Supreme Merlin turned to the Divine Merlin and shrugged calmly.
"I have no idea… by the time I was split off, the main body hadn't thought of anything, but that doesn't have anything to do with me, once my task here is finished, I will dissappear in this history permanently"
"I understand… my time is up" the Divine Merlin nodded and faded away.
Supreme Merlin looked down at his body that was turning illusory, then he stared at a particular figure that was hanging above the castle, he summoned the figure with a thought.
Opposite him stood the echo of Ariel, her eyes were hollow with no emotions, he sighed as he placed a hand on her hair and spoke calmly.
"My wish is for all memories of the nightmare to return to her current vessel"
Then he snapped his fingers granting his wish, causing the disappearance of his body to speed up slightly, in front of him, Ariel's hollow eyes immediately became lively as she stared up at his figure.
"Excuse me Mister… who are you, and why do you smell like big brother?" Ariel asked in a soft voice.
"Hey there Ari… it's me, I'm Merlin, but I just changed my face using magic like I did sometimes to trick you" Supreme Merlin spoke as a soft smile played on his face.
"Aahh… big brother" Ariel hugged his illusory body, then she looked around and asked "where are we?"
"Don't worry, here's just a place to keep you safe, and I'll be gone for a while, I'll bring you out soon, till then…" he snapped a finger as multiple toys appeared from thin air "just play with these okay"
"Okay, I'll wait for you big brother" Ariel replied as she looked around.
Supreme Merlin ruffled her hair and waved to her as his figure disappeared "Goodbye Ari…"
Ariel waved back, and went to look around while picking up some toys to play with, she sat down on all of the twenty two chairs, she climbed on the table and rolled around, she also used a long toy to poke at the five cores hanging above the head chair.
..
.
Meanwhile the news about Merlin's return had spread far and wide, the great clans had already begun making their arrangements, the government officials were preparing themselves and the sleepers from the forgotten shore had begun to gather all to welcome the return of the living legend.
…
Sunny sat down on a bed in the room closest to the room Merlin sat, by the side he summoned Nightmare, then he laid on the bed and waited as his shadow sent him into Merlin's dream.
As Nightmare began, Sunny's vision immediately spun as he found himself in what seemed to be a playing ground, the sun hung high in the sky and a gentle breeze blew through the grass.
Around the playground, children played with each other and the adults watched over them while making small discussions between themselves.
Sunny's eyes locked on to a familiar figure, Merlin sat on a bench calmly staring at the group of children with a soft smile on his face.
Sunny took a breath and walked towards Merlin, as he got close, Merlin's eyes turned to him and a look of realization flashed in his eyes, immediately Merlin offered a light smile as he waved.
Sunny waved back to Merlin and walked closer till he arrived at the bench and sat beside Merlin.
"I was waiting for you…" Merlin spoke up first.
"You knew I'd come?" Sunny asked as he looked around.
Merlin shook his head as he replied.
"I didn't know but I just had a guess, I hoped you would… that way you could help me relay my message to the others"
"Message? What message?" Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"I'll be staying here a little longer, there's something I need to do, but before that I have a question" Merlin said as he stood up and walked around the park.
"Why are you staying a little longer?" Sunny asked first.
Merlin sighed as he stared at the blue sky.
"My situation is a bit complicated you see… for one, the great clans won't let me be, and even if I try to resist, they might resort to forceful methods like using a saint, so I want to get stronger through my aspect legacy, then I can bring a helper"
"I see, so how long will that take?" Sunny nodded in understanding.
"I don't really know, best guess… maybe a day or two, but before then I won't leave the room, so take care of my body till then" Merlin answered.
Sunny nodded again then said.
"So your questions…"
"It's about your true name…" Merlin spoke calmly.
Sunny paused for a while, then he replied.
"Nephis said it… during the second nightmare"
Merlin sighed and asked.
"Judging by your reaction, it seems you expected it, did you discuss it beforehand?"
"Yes… Cassie explained the situation about the forgotten shore, and during the second nightmare, she told me that Mordret had figured it out through my fight with his mirror creation, so we decided on a few terms before Nephis said the name to protect me" Sunny calmly explained the minor details with a helpless smile.
"I see… that's good, we'll discuss more about your situation when I return, for now I need you to do something for me" Merlin said as he turned to Sunny.
"What's that?"
"Since Nightmare can manipulate dreams, let him use your memories to recreate the relevant events of your second nightmare" Merlin spoke as an illusory book appeared in his palm.
Sunny stared at the book that had strange symbols, then he nodded and commanded Nightmare with a thought.
Nightmare replayed most of what happened during their second nightmare, from Sunny's days of fighting in the colosseum to the meeting with Noctis, and the battle on the chain isles.
The dream was replayed mostly according to Sunny's point of view, so the state of the other members of the cohort was largely unknown until they met up with him.
During the process, the illusory book in Merlin's hand kept flipping repeatedly, and it was most frequent during the battle, but Sunny ignored it, the dream went on until when Sunny arrived at the top of the Ivory tower where Hope, the Daemon of Desire was chained.
As they arrived, what happened next shocked Sunny entirely, during his nightmare, when he met with the daemon, he had only asked one question to Hope, and her reply was 'Because we are their flaw', before his nightmare ended, but currently something else was happening right before his eyes.
"You're not supposed to be here" The indescribable figure of Hope spoke softly as her eyes locked with Merlin's figure.
Merlin looked shocked for a moment, but he regained himself and immediately answered.
"It's not exactly my doing… I never had a choice about it"
Hope kept quiet while scrutinizing his figure, then she eventually answered.
"That is simply what you think… Your presence is a paradox in fate, but maybe that might not be a bad thing in the end"
Merlin had no reply for her words, so he eventually sighed helplessly as he asked.
"So… Do you have any advice for me?"
"My advice might not matter to you, but since you insist, I will tell you this… the choice between your past and future lies within your present, you should give in to your desire and feel among now that you still can" Hope spoke softly as her figure glowed.
Merlin nodded calmly then asked again.
"Do you have anything that can help with my flaw?"
Hope paused then conjured a small orb of golden light that flew into his body.
"It may not be much, but this can help you reduce its effect to a considerable degree"
"Thank you…" Merlin offered a light now, then the dream made by Nightmare shattered like shards of a broken mirror.
As the scenery returned to the familiar park, Sunny turned to face Merlin who was staring at his body in a daze.
"What was that?" He asked directly.
Merlin turned to him, thought for a moment, then answered.
"Sunny, there are some beings that can sense interference even though time, so for those on their level, this kind of thing is still doable"
"..." Sunny was speechless, he understood the situation, but that didn't make it any less extraordinary.
'Does that mean these two just had a nice chat using my dream as a communicator?' Sunny's thoughts ran wild.
Merlin simply sighed as he turned back to the children playing in the distance, then he turned to Sunny.
"You've probably spent quite some time in here, go back and tell the cohort about my situation, I'll be out when I'm done"
Sunny nodded calmly then immediately left the dream with nightmare as his body faded into mist. Merlin stared at where Sunny just disappeared and sighed calmly, whatever Hope had given him had managed to reduce the effect of his flaw, but he guessed that as time went on, its effectiveness would reduce, so this was simply just a temporary method.
"Time for the hard part I guess…" Merlin muttered as he changed the location to his soul sea.
As he arrived, he was completely stunned, the chairs that were once arranged were now scattered, the things that he kept safely in his soul sea were spread out around the ground, the table and everywhere was littered with toys, but what shocked him the most was the culprit behind the damage.
Ariel, was sitting on his high back chair while tinkering with one of the many toys on the table, Merlin was shocked to see her like this, he was expecting more of a hollow echo, but seeing her just like he remembered left him completely speechless.
As he was about to question, information from the past few hours of his soul sea immediately filled his head as he saw what led to the current situation.
'I guess a thank you is in order' Merlin smiled as he walked towards Ariel.
As he neared, she immediately propped her head up and locked eyes with him.
"Big brother… you're back" Ariel jumped down from the chair and came to hug him.
Merlin held her in his arms as he smiled.
"Yeah I'm back… but I will be going to do some stuff and it might take a while, so just keep playing until then alright"
"Can I come along?" Ariel asked enthusiastically.
"No…" Merlin shook his head "just stay for a while alright… when I'm done, I'll take you to meet Sunny and a few of my friends too"
Ariel pouted but after hearing his words she smiled then nodded before walking back to her toys.
"Alright… wish me luck" Merlin waved as he walked towards the stairs that represented his aspect legacy.
"Bye bye big brother… good luck" Ariel waved back.
Merlin sighed as he thought back to the trial he was about to face, that was probably the traveller's advancement ritual from the book.
"Set up special navigation coordinates in four completely different spots deep in the Spirit World, spaced extremely far away from each other" Merlin muttered what he remembered.
'How exactly am I going to set up coordinates… I hope this trial comes with a way to solve this problem…'
He took a deep breath and immediately entered the fourth step as his vision changed, he arrived in an empty space, a few distance away was what seemed like a platform with multiple runes engraved on it, and standing between him and the platform was a monster he was familiar with, the Carapace Demon from the Ashen Barrow on the forgotten shore.
Immediately the requirements for the trail entered his mind, defeat the guardian and infuse essence and light up the runes to establish a coordinate.
The requirements were rather straightforward and simple, but Merlin suspected that there really was more to it, and he was right.
After completely no-diffing the awakened demon and leaving the coordinate, the next phase he arrived at was against the fallen terror of the crimson spire.
Just as he had guessed, with each stage, there would be an increase in rank, meaning after this would be a corrupted nightmare creature, then a great one, and worst of all, he was stuck with only the abilities given by the door pathway.
Merlin sighed as he stared at the fallen terror opposite him.
"Well then, let's get this party started…"