After leaving his soul sea, Merlin (Jayson) returned to his room, he was already exhausted from the backlash he received from Celestial Worthy, so he decided to rest for a moment before doing anything else.
About an hour later, Merlin woke up feeling slightly refreshed, his essence had been recovered completely, the whispers had disappeared and he felt better than ever, however, just to confirm, he checked his runes to see if Celestial Worthy had taken or dropped anything unexpected.
.
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], [Poison Blades]...
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.]
Seeing his runes still relatively intact, he heaved a sigh of relief. He stood up and headed straight to the shower, since he went to his soul sea immediately after he woke up, he hadn't changed out of his bloodied clothes nor had he cleaned himself.
After showering and dressing, he was about to go back to bed when a knock on the door stopped him.
Knock!×6
Merlin sighed helplessly and walked to the door, he opened it and looked down, standing there was Ariel, sheepishly looking between a spot in his and the ground.
He opened the door wider to check the spot she was glancing at, and he saw a visible dent there, the product of Ariel's knocking.
'Sigh… doors like these really aren't built for Transcendent strength'
He turned to her and chuckled, "don't worry, I'll get a new door, but next time try to knock only twice okay?"
That was purely just comfort, after all who in the world changes a door for just a dent, he might be rich but he wasn't petty.
"Mm" Ariel nodded and looked up at him, "Sister Silver said you're taking me outing"
"Come on in, let's talk" he said as he made space for her to walk in.
Ariel walked into his room while looking around. Merlin had already cleaned up the blood stains that fell on the floor earlier, and he had already disposed of the clothes he wore earlier.
Merlin noticed that earlier, when Ariel conveyed Silver's request, she didn't sound too enthusiastic, so he decided to ask.
"Do you want to go?"
"No…" Ariel shook her head, "the city is too boring, I want somewhere else"
"Somewhere else huh…" he nodded, then thought of places he could send her, then he remembered that there was one place he could send her.
"Alright, how about this… I'll get your trusty bat friend, Silky, and drop you both off at the Chain Isles, is that good?"
"Where's the Chain Isles?" Ariel tilted her head.
"A place where you can fly freely and play all you want"
"Okay… I want to go" Ariel happily gave her answer, as long she could fly and play, she was fine with it.
Of course Merlin wasn't going to just leave her there, he was dropping her off with a babysitter, and one he could trust very much.
"I'll allow you to play, but I have three rules" he raised three fingers.
"First, you make sure you don't go fighting nightmare creatures… trust me, I'll know" he put down a finger.
"Second, don't jump into the sky below" he put down another finger.
Ariel's ears perked up as she asked curiously.
"What's the sky below?"
He ruffled her hair and explained.
"See, the Chain Isles are a group of floating islands, and under those islands is a place called the sky below, if you jump down, you'll keep falling for months, till you get roasted by the fire that's at the bottom"
"Ah… okay I won't jump," Ariel nodded.
'Heh… but he didn't say I couldn't fly down with Silky'
"Good, and three, I'll keep someone to you while you play, to make sure you won't run off too far" he folded his hands completely.
"You're not staying?"
"No… I have something I need to take care of out here" Merlin shook his head.
"Is it fun?" Ariel asked.
"I'm walking around the city…" he answered honestly.
That was his plan for today, to scout the city and leave marks for an experiment in his soul sea.
"Oh…" Ariel accepted his explanation.
"Alright… go tell Silvy about the change of plans while I get ready" he waved her off as Ariel nodded excitedly and darted out of his room.
After she left, Merlin took out his communicator and dialed Kai's number.
"Yo Kai…" he greeted.
"Merlin… how are you doing?" Kai replied from the other end of the line.
"I'm good, are you busy?"
"No… not really, do you need help with something?"
"Yeah, I need someone to watch over Ari, I'll be busy"
"Isn't Lady Silver there with you?"
"Ari's going for a playdate in the Chain Isles, and Silvy can't fly, so if Ari jumps into the sky below… well you get what I mean"
"Oh… I understand, I'll come over"
"Thanks…" with that, Merlin ended the call.
Knock!×3
As he put down the communicator, a knock sounded on his door.
"It's open…" he answered, already guessing it was Ariel, after all Silver would usually just call out his name if she was looking for him.
As he expected, Ariel walked in the next moment, but she was accompanied by Silver.
"Hey Silvy, what's up?" he greeted.
Silver looked around his room, then her eyes went back to him sitting on the bed.
"Ari said you're taking her to the Chain Isles?"Silver spoke in her regular calm voice as she sat down on a chair by the side. Ariel had already sat down on the bed as soon as she entered.
"Yes… the city isn't really that fun compared to the dream realm" he nodded.
"If that's the case, then I'll go with her," Silver decided.
Ariel's ears perked up.
"Sister Silver is coming with me?!"
"Mm" Silver hummed in agreement.
"Yay!" Ariel cheered.
Merlin looked between them and then spoke to Silver.
"The Chain Isles is being watched by another Saint"
"Is that a problem?" Silver asked.
"The thing is… that Saint is not a government Transcendent, while you are, so although there's co-operation between the the Great clans and the government, they might still misunderstand your intention, after all I don't think there's any Saint who spends their time lazy… cough… recuperating like you" he explained his concerns.
Silver stared at him silently for a while, then she asked.
"Do you have a solution?"
He thought for a while, then nodded. After all from what he read, Saint Tyris also known as Sky Tide was a very benevolent Saint, she had even helped the cohort kill a Transcendent when they were still mere Awakends.
All he had to do was have Nephis talk to Tyris about them, after all Nephis was technically a Princess of Valor. As for the subsequent investigation and spying that would come when Valor sees two unidentified Transcendents, that would be a problem for future Merlin.
"I'll just have to call Neph to take care of it, plus the Saint's a really nice person, you two would probably get along just fine" Merlin smiled as he thought of what the meeting between Tyris and Silver would look like.
After all, from what he had read, the two really had similar characters.
"I'll leave it to you then…" Silver nodded, then stood up and left his room, followed by Ariel.
Merlin picked up his communicator and dialed Nephis' number, the communicator rang, but didn't connect, he tried it a second time, and it still didn't connect.
"Seems she's in the dream realm"
Merlin put down the communicator, and immediately entered his soul sea. He was about to send Nephis a quick message, but when he saw what she was doing, he decided to not disturb.
As he observed her point of light, he saw Nephis, she was currently in a heated duel with none other than Morgan.
However, looking at the scene, the ferocity of the spar made it look like they were out for each other's lives, and from his perspective, it looked like he had a front row seat to the entire battle.
Then came the dilemma, to aurafarm or not to aurafarm.
After careful and deliberate consideration, Merlin finally arrived at the decision, to aurafarm.
…
Morgan was currently experiencing one of the best spars she had fought ever since becoming a Master. Ever since she ascended, very few of her peers could even be called a competition, and battling a Saint would be too much for her.
Then came Changing Star, the adopted daughter of her father. Nephis was strong, although she had never seen her real strength, the few times they had sparred was enough for her to determine that Changing Star was probably equal or closer to her in both strength and skill.
And right now, they were in another of their regular sparring sessions.
Clang—
The swords clashed against each other as Morgan created distance between them.
Her eyes were still locked on Nephis' figure, their breaths were controlled as little beads of sweat formed on their foreheads.
Their spar had been on for a while, and neither had been able to overpower the other, and neither had been willing to yield. As Masters, they both had monstrous stamina, so they could keep going on and on, and that was exactly what they intended to do, fight till one side lost or gave up.
Morgan adjusted her grip and rushed forward again, her speed covered the distance in less than a second, but Nephis was already prepared.
Swish!
Nephis tilted to avoid the slash, and countered with her sword, but Morgan had already adjusted her stance, using the base of the sword to block the counter.
Clang—
This time, they didn't step back, Morgan swiftly changed her grip, and slashed from below, but Nephis had already made her move, she met the attack with her sword, and parried away the force.
Morgan pulled back, and stabbed towards Nephis' eye, but Neph tilted to the side, and slashed at Morgan.
Morgan couldn't counter in time, so she opted to dodging, she immediately jumped two steps back, creating enough distance for Nephis' attack to miss its mark.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she rushed forward again, her sword shot out to stab Nephis right through, but at that moment, something appeared in her front.
Clang—
Thud—
Morgan's eyes widened as she instinctively wanted to pull back, but she couldn't move her sword. In that brief moment, she looked up at the person who had appeared right in front of her, and her eyes widened.
It was someone she knew very well, after all her clan had spent efforts to watch and try and recruit him.
It was Merlin, the adopted Prince of Song.
…
Merlin stood right in the middle of Morgan and Nephis, his right hand that was in the gauntlet form of [Formless], held Morgan's sword by the blade, while his right hand that was wearing [Cuthul's Gloves] was holding on to the hilt of Neph's, just right over her hand.
At this point, he was just bleeding aura.
For this moment, Merlin even had to revert to his original appearance, that way he would be recognized, after all, if some random dude showed up in the middle of the Song domain looking for the princess, it would inevitably attract unnecessary attention.
"Pardon my intrusion" Merlin said with a smile as he released the two weapons.
"Merlin of Song… to what do I owe the pleasure" Morgan composed herself and spoke with her regal authority.
Merlin bowed slightly, "Lady Morgan… I don't have any business with you, I'm rather interested in the other princess of Valor"
At that moment, Nephis spoke up.
"Merlin… why are you here?"
"I might need your help in a little while" He answered calmly as he shifted his attention from Morgan to her.
Morgan was beautiful in every sense, the powerful boss lady type, but could that compare to the cool and composed aura of Silver, or the cute and innocent style of Cassie?
Compared to those cases, Morgan was just slightly above average in his eyes.
"My help?" Nephis tilted her head and glanced at Morgan with the side of her eyes.
"Yes, for two things, one isn't really comfortable to discuss here, but the other is that I want to teach you a new skill," he explained, ignoring whether Morgan was listening or not.
"A new skill?" Nephis sounded confused but also interested.
"Yes… in reality, you're the only one that can learn the skill I'm about to teach" he nodded.
"Which skill is that? And is it okay to do it here?" Nephis asked calmly.
Merlin chuckled lightly, the skill he was about to teach her was the very essence of her nickname in his former world, the origin of the Neph meme.
As the meme goes, if it's difficult to kill, nuke it.
If it doesn't die, nuke it again.
The enemies outnumber you? Doesn't matter, just nuke it.
No matter the problem, a core or three is all it takes.
"We can't do it here unfortunately, as for the skill, I'll explain when we get there"
"I understand…" Nephis nodded and turned around as she walked towards the towels and water she kept on the ground.
"Although I'm curious about the skill, I won't pry into your matters" Morgan spoke up from the side.
Merlin turned to look at her and waited, from the way she sounded, he knew that she hadn't finished what she was about to say.
"But, I'm very interested in how you appeared right here," Morgan said with a calm smile.
"Teleportation" Merlin answered curtly.
"An interesting ability indeed, do you apply it when you fight?" Morgan asked again, he could already see the direction she was heading, but he decided to keep answering.
"Yes, I naturally use it in battles, after all it's very convenient" he replied with a light smirk.
"I'd love to see that, how about we have a spar, after all you did just interrupt the one I was having" Morgan said with a smile.
He thought for a moment, then shrugged.
"Sure… whenever you're ready"