After what felt like an endless time in the darkness, Merlin finally opened his eyes to welcome reality, but as they always say, reality always has a way of crushing the hopes of everyone.
He opened his eyes to find himself in a very uncomfortable position. While he expected that he wouldn't lose control and the people of the Song domain would later find him, he expected to at least be taken care of and wake up on a soft bed.
'but this… this is just pure evil'
He was on a very uncomfortable chair, his hands and legs were chained to the chair, and judging by the fact that his essence wasn't recovering, he could tell that the chains had enchantments that could block essence.
Thankfully, he wasn't losing control anymore, but his mental state hadn't recovered fully, he was still hearing endless whispers, but these whispers were now clearer as he could make out the words.
God Almighty…
Creator: Maker…
The Omnipotent and Omniscient…
Lord of the Astral World…
'I'm not exactly interested in your family tree…' Merlin murmured inwardly, but the voices didn't stop.
Mother Goddess of Depravity…
Origin of Evil…
Indestructible…
Brood Hive of Filth…
He gritted his teeth slightly and wanted to curse, when a voice pulled him out of his head.
"It seems you're awake…"
He looked forward and finally realized the state he was in, he still wore his blood stained white shirt, he was now in the Palace room, where Ki Song's true body was, and in front of him was the entire lineup of Song sisters.
He secretly heaved a sigh of relief seeing that none of them had gotten harmed while he was unconscious. He didn't know if Celestial Worthy had turned the entire Song domain into avatars or marionettes, but seeing them here, he was happy Celestial Worthy didn't do anything.
"How long have I been out?" He asked weakly as he tried to push the noise in his head to the background.
"An hour… how are you feeling?" Ki Song asked calmly.
He sighed tiredly.
Mother Tree of Desire…
The Father of Devils…
The Root of All Corruption and Curses…
Master of the Tenebrous World…
"I'm doing great, how about we take the chains off, I feel like I'm being interrogated"
Ki Song shook her head, "I can't do that when I'm not sure if you're in control…"
"I…" he started.
Son of Chaos
Ruler of Spacetime
The Mist of Uncertainty
"I'm fine, if anything these chains are seriously giving me bad vibes…" he shook his head as the voices kept ringing.
"Honestly, I was only asking for courtesy sake…"
The moment he said those words, almost everyone in the room tensed, except for Eubin, Hel and Ki Song.
Ki Song looked at him and sighed, "those chains are Supreme memories, you can't use your abilities, and you can't break them with brute force either"
He looked at her and chuckled, then spoke.
"You probably remember that I told you my body has a special constitution, it is simply the absolute vessel for any god…"
Circle of Inevitability…
Master of Destiny…
The Eternal Loop…
The Endless Cycle of Fate…
'I'm not interested in your extended family either…'
"What are you planning to do?" Ki Song looked at him warily, she was ready to summon her will to deter any actions of his.
"I'm simply about to tell you that although the chains are a Supreme memory, it doesn't change anything, in front of an [Apprentice], every lock is nothing"
The moment he finished talking, in his soul sea, Jayson who had entered earlier channeled his essence into Merlin's point of light, and then used the [Door Opening] ability of the Door pathway.
In the palace, the chain cuffs around Merlin's hand glowed slightly.
Clang!
They fell to the ground unlocked.
He stood up and rubbed his wrist, his essence was starting to return, "I told you I could escape from a Cursed nightmare creature and you seriously thought a Supreme memory could hold me down?"
Monarch of Decay…
The Inevitable Decay of All Things…
The Endpoint of the River of Time…
The Lord of Rot and Putrescence…
The Irreversible Entropy…
'Tsk…'
Contrary to the surprised Saints, Ki Song didn't seem all that bothered. He sat down back on the chair and crossed his legs, the chains had already been unsummoned so he wasn't bothered.
"How did you unlock the memory?" Ki Song asked calmly.
"It's a back up plan I have in my soul sea…" he answered truthfully.
"One that gives you essence?"
"No… one that uses my abilities and manipulates my surroundings using my body as an anchor"
"And that's only possible because of your special constitution?"
"Yes… that's pretty much it" he nodded.
Primordial Hunger…
The Devouring Maw…
The Ever-Hungering One…
Ki Song sighed then she asked.
"That title you chanted on stage, who does it belong to?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that… or more likely, telling you would be useless" he answered flatly.
"Tell me anyways" Ki Song insisted.
"'His' name is Celestial Worthy, and 'He's' what you may refer to as a Great Old One, this world has no information about 'Him' whatsoever, so no need to go searching for a trace… as for 'His' rank, well I'll just place it as 'a little above Divine'" Merlin explained.
The Song sisters around were speechless, staring at him in disbelief, while Ki Song asked.
"So… what's your relationship with Him?"
Supernova Dominator…
The Raging Light…
Ruler of the Motion of Stars…
Merlin used his palm to hit his head repeatedly as he cursed inwardly, then he sighed and replied.
"It's more or less that 'He' helped me in my First Nightmare… that's how I got the True Name 'Attendant Of Mysteries', while he's 'The Lord Of Mysteries'"
Ki Song stared at him for a while, then asked.
"So when you say you're a vessel…"
"That's right…" He nodded "I'm his vessel"
He wanted to joke, but when he saw Ki Song's look, he immediately added.
"But you don't have to worry about that… after all, he wouldn't take over my body till I get to the rank of Sacred"
And he was sure about it, seeing that his Supreme self was not yet Celestial Worthy.
"Do you really trust what you say?"
"Yes…. a hundred percent" he nodded.
High-Dimensional Overseer…
The Eye that Watches Over All Dimensions…
Observer of the Universe…
"I understand…" Ki Song nodded, "Now then, I'm interested in how you were able to use my ability to control puppets even when I didn't give you permission?"
He sighed then shrugged, "I never needed permission in the first place, my ability is called [Scribe], it can record anything I see and allows me to use it once"
At that moment, Eubin spoke up.
"Wait everything you see? So that means, every ability you've ever witnessed in the Song domain…" her voice trailed off.
He didn't reply as he smiled and activated the [Scribe] ability and used one of the abilities he recorded earlier.
From a dark corner of the room, [True Darkness] flowed out towards him, then shaped itself into a black suit on his body.
"Yes… exactly as you guessed, I recorded them all"
"That's my…" Revel stared at him in shock.
Ki Song smiled, then continued.
"So… apart from this, is there anything else you're hiding from us, like your previous suit jacket that was actually a memory that raised your rank to a Transcendent"
He sighed, "that thing is a Divine Memory, a very unique one at that… and it's ability isn't restricted to just raising my rank, but I'm obviously not explaining that part…"
"So is that all your questions, because I'm seriously exhausted and I have to sleep"
"What was your purpose for doing what you did?" Ki Song asked.
"So people could know of the Lord Of Mysteries…"
"Why?"
"It's for the same reason gods were worshipped…"
"Will it cause harm to the Song domain?"
"I think I've suffered everything that could be suffered… 'He' obviously wasn't interested in the people around"
"I've decided to trust you, but I'll keep you on watch for a little while longer," Ki Song said softly.
"Thanks…" he nodded and immediately blinked to his room.
He didn't even change his clothes as he plopped down on the bed tiredly. He laid face down as he sighed tiredly, then the next moment, he went into his soul sea.
The moment he arrived, the castle stirred slightly and the numerous voices in his head subsided, finally giving him a sense of relief.
"Wasn't as bad as we expected" Jayson's voice sounded from the head chair.
Merlin raised his head staring at Jayson on the other side, Jayson looked weaker and paler than usual, but he could already guess he was in a similar state.
"Honestly, I'm just happy I'm not the only one who suffered the endless voices" Merlin chuckled as he leaned into the chair.
"Ha ha, very funny" Jayson replied flatly.
He had already been forced to nearly run mad, and immediately after he woke up, he had to rush into his soul sea to save the avatar from whatever fate he would suffer at the hands of Ki Song.
But to his surprise, the avatar and Ki Song seemed to get along well, he was so shocked that he repeatedly rechecked the avatar's soul body to confirm he wasn't under some kind of mind control.
Merlin sat up and asked seriously, "so, did it work?"
Jayson smiled and gestured to the castle, "see for yourself"
Merlin lifted his head and looked around the castle, the stone walls, hundreds of marionettes, and grey fog everywhere. He raised his fingers and snapped, then the fog thinned, revealing what they hid.
Points of Light—
Thousands of points of light were scattered around the castle, in those multitudes, one particular one stood out. It was blood red, and had multiple smaller clusters of lights around it stained with the same color.
He made the cluster of lights draw closer, as it appeared, he peered into it, and saw a beautiful lady in a regal red dress, sitting on a throne sculpted from stone and ice, with a silver sword lodged right through her chest.
Ki Song—
Merlin looked at the point of light with interest, then his gaze shifted to the little points of lights, and as he expected, they were all her puppets, stretched far and wide across the entire Song domain.
He smiled as he felt a sense of accomplishment, his experiment had been a success. He had wanted the Awakeneds from the Forgotten Shore to have a point of light in his soul sea, so he would be able to pull them in for the plan of his own organization, but he couldn't just ask them to recite his honorific name, so he chose another way.
He used a method he had learnt from LOTM, 'it is easier to be corrupted, the more you know', this was a nature synonymous to all Great Old Ones… and Adam.
Sure they didn't really highlight it the book, but that didn't mean Sefirah Castle didn't have the ability to corrupt those who knew of it.
And that was exactly what he hoped on when he had spoken Celestial Worthy's honorific name, that combined with the Fool's uniqueness, and his soul sea, it was enough to trigger a state of corruption inside of everyone who heard it, and as a result, everyone at the party had gotten a point of light in his soul sea.
What made him first think of this idea, was the fact that whenever Celestial Worthy appeared in his body, anyone who witnessed him would automatically gain a point of light, proving that the corruption aspect of a Great Old One was still active.
But, something was odd.
Merlin looked around and noticed something wrong, the people in the party would all number up to three hundred at best, but the points of lights in his soul sea numbered tens of thousands or even more.
"You've noticed it too, right?" Jayson spoke up from his seat.
"Yeah… the number's off," Merlin nodded.
"I thought so too, then I did some thinking and was able to figure it out" Jayson sat up.
"The only logical explanation I have is that as Ki Song was corrupted, the points we got were not just her puppets, but her entire domain… I checked almost all of them, and it confirmed my theory, some of the lights show people who aren't in the dream realm, but are connected to the Song domain"
"That explains it, that makes the suffering feel a little worth it… I really need to find a way to corrupt Anvil too…" Merlin nodded as he started to think of a suitable plan for Valor.
"I'm not in charge of the planning stuff, so I'll leave that to you…"
"That's business for later, I'm already tired enough right now…" Merlin sighed tiredly as he exited his soul sea.
Jayson looked at where the avatar had just left, and just shook his head, he was regretting not being able to get a third body to split his work, even with two, he was still shorthanded, after all now that the points of light were available, someone would have to watch through them all to find people with limited loyalty to Clan Song, then recruit them into the his soon to be formed organization.
In the end, all he could conclude was that starting an organization from scratch was not as easy as it sounded on paper, and to make a secret one required even more work.
'I wonder how Sunny managed to form the Shadow clan with his character…'
He decided to keep those thoughts at the back of his mind and focus on what he could do, as for the future, he still had time to prepare.