"This is it huh…"
Merlin stood in front of the mirror, under his eyes were dark shades as he had been unable to sleep in the slightest.
Across the room, the entire forgotten shore was already preparing to depart, above the sky was still grey as the morning sun had yet to show itself.
Merlin stood in front of the mirror staring at his trembling hands, he clenched his fists tightly and turned back to the mirror… then he took a deep breath and stopped.
He stopped suppressing and leaned into his flaw, giving way to the cold comfort and rationality caused by divinity.
In the mirror, his reflection lost every semblance of emotion on its face, Merlin looked into the mirror and saw what he had become, a mask with an identical look as Merlin Hermes but nothing more, no hint of fear or compassion or empathy but strangely he could still feel those emotions deep down and he could easily escape his current state.
After confirming his state of mind, He turned around and headed out, on the way he walked past guards, handmaidens and sleepers that were making their way out but he paid them no heed.
Merlin walked through the castle halls and arrived outside the castle, right in front stood a thousand sleepers of the forgotten shore, all burning with purpose, in front of the army was Nephis and the cohort, Sunny stood by the side with the midnight shard, Nephis stood in front of the sleepers holding her long sword and the dawn shard, Effie held her spear, Kai stood with his bow and Cassie simply stood quiet with her hands resting on the hilt of 'Quiet Dancer'.
Merlin made his way through and walked to them, as he arrived Effie greeted him first.
"Hey there pretty boy, I thought you wouldn't come out~"
Merlin tilted his head slightly at her words and didn't reply at all, he turned to Nephis and asked.
"When are we moving out?"
The cohort noticed his strangeness but didn't pry, well most of them didn't.
"Hey Merlin… don't ignore me" Effie said as she walked to him.
"I'm… sorry Effie, just not now" Merlin said with a sigh then turned to Nephis.
Nephis stared at their brief interactions and replied.
"We'll head out in a few minutes"
"Alright… then everyone with a shard come closer" Merlin said as he summoned the sunlight shard, the others summoned theirs, and immediately the weapons glowed and seven lights shot out and entered each of them according to the number of shards they had.
"Well I got a memory, called the oath key… how about you guys?" Effie said as she alternated looks between them which they nodded to confirm her question.
"Transfer the memories to Sunless, he'll need it for his task" Merlin said as he unsummoned his memory.
They looked a little stunned as Merlin referred to Sunny but they shook it off attributing it to his earlier behavior, but they still nodded and transferred all of them to Sunny.
"So… what's my task?" Sunny asked Merlin but Nephis answered instead.
"You'll have to seal the dark sea and open the passage to the gateway"
"Great… just perfect" Sunny sighed as he shook his head.
Then he turned to Merlin and asked directly.
"You don't seem like yourself today, I know you enough to know it's not nervousness, so what is it?"
"Sigh… well it's my flaw, I stopped suppressing it and the result is making me rational… coldly rational" Merlin explained with a straight face.
They all nodded but didn't ask specific details about his flaw, his words were enough for them to put two and two together.
"Alright since that's done, let's head out" Nephis said as she turned to the sleepers to give instructions.
The sleepers then began their march to the Crimson Spire, the sun dawning its way to the sky as if witnessing the last day of the sleepers stay on the forgotten shore.
The sleepers marched with confidence, they followed the path marked by Merlin, his path was free from nightmare creatures, and the only few they encountered were unlucky as they were besieged by the sleepers.
They marched forward under the leadership of Nephis till they arrived at the outskirts of the Crimson Spire, standing atop the high hill the sleepers could see hordes of nightmare creatures of different ranks, all thralled and subjugated by the crimson terror.
The sheer sight drained the sleepers of their confidence, the nightmare creatures based on sight alone number above two thousand five hundred if not more, and they were less than half the number.
Merlin stared at the horde emotionless, deep down he felt fear but none of it surfaced
'Seems like I have to use it after all' he thought silently.
Then he walked to the front of the trembling sleepers, the sun already held high in the sky, he turned to Nephis and she nodded to him as if reading his intentions.
He turned to face the sleepers and used an illusion to make his voice sound loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Sleepers!!, under the banner Changing Star, I Attendant Of Mysteries, Merlin Hermes, stand here to challenge and defy the fate of all sleeper here on this Forgotten Shore!!"
"Listen!!...
Everything that you thought had meaning, every hope, dream, or moment of happiness.
None of it matters as you rush out on the battlefield.
None of it changes what a nightmare creature does to a body, we all die.
But does that mean our lives are meaningless? Does that mean that there was no point in our being here?
Would you say that of your comrades?
What about their lives?
Are they meaningless?...
They are not!
Their courage serves as an example to us all!
The courageous sleepers!
The determined sleepers!
Their lives have meaning because we are prepared to fight with them!
And as we ride to certain glory, we trust in our victory!
Because we sleepers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world!
We sleepers push forward!
We sleepers scream out!
We sleepers RAAAAAGE!"
The sleepers erupted with morale.
He immediately put his hands into his pocket and brought out two items, a single page of paper and a transcendent soul shard.
He threw the paper with his ability, and it soared through the air, the paper flew till it was directly above the horde of abominations, immediately he snapped his fingers and flame jumped right to the the location of the paper and started falling, immediately he activated the Cloak of Mysteries using the transcendent shards in his hand.
Immediately a rush of information flooded his head.
Ten seconds of use…
Sequence 3 Scholare of Yore…
Immediately his descent stopped.
One second…
The nightmare creatures moved forward.
Two seconds…
500 abominations slowed.
Three seconds…
They stopped moving entirely.
Four seasons…
They became marionettes.
Five seconds…
Hell broke loose, abominations devoured each other.
Six seconds…
500 marionettes against an army.
Seven seconds…
Nightmare creatures fell to marionettes, marionettes fell to nightmare creatures.
Eight seconds…
The battlefield became a bloody mess as different abominations devoured each other, most broken free from the crimson terror's subjugation.
Nine seconds…
Air canons rained from above devastating the remaining nightmare creatures.
Ten seconds…
More than half of the nightmare creatures laid dead, all 500 marionettes fell dead, Merlin fell from the sky, face bloodied.
As he fell, he immediately snapped his fingers and reappeared in front of the sleepers, he raised his sword and shouted loudly.
"Fight!!"
The sleepers responded in kind and rushed towards the battlefield.
…
"We sleepers RAAAAAGE!"
Effie stood by the side as she listened, the speech Merlin gave triggered something in her, but it was what came after that left her baffled.
Merlin disappeared in flames and appeared above the horde of nightmare creatures.
'Is he insane… he said he'll wipe out half but this is just suicide'
Effie's thoughts were in a panic until she witnessed it, the nightmare creatures slowed, then froze, then they went crazy devouring each other like their natural instincts.
But everyone here knew, it wasn't instinct but the doing of one sleepers, Merlin who floated above the nightmare creatures overlooking everything like a divine being
"This… being strong doesn't even explain this"
Then the impossible happened again, devastating invisible attack destroyed nightmare creatures like it was raining bombs.
Ten seconds is all it took, a single sleeper changed the outcome of a war in ten seconds.
"Fight!!"
With that signal she rushed forward, diving head first into the bloody abominations.
…
"We sleepers RAAAAAGE!"
Kai clenched the bow in his hand, his fighting spirit burning with a vigor to fly into the battlefield, but the arrangements were for the archers to focus on the sky against the messengers that were yet to appear.
Then right in his eyes Merlin did the unthinkable, he appeared right above the abominations.
Kai resisted the urge to fly right in to catch him before he fell to the claws of the nightmare creatures, but he held back, he trusted Merlin enough to believe whatever he was doing was part of his plan.
'Merlin, please be careful…'
Then it happened, with his eyes Kai witnessed the change in the battlefield, the abominations turned on each other, chaos erupted on the battlefield field and the cause just floated above them staring down at the carnage.
"Gods… this is…" Kai couldn't even finish his words as a range of invisible attacks flattened nightmare creatures.
It was like divine punishment and it all came from one sleeper.
Ten seconds was all it took for the odds to be flipped in their favor.
"Fight!!"
As Merlin's voice sounded Kai ordered.
"Archers standby"
…
"We sleepers RAAAAAGE!"
Seishan stood in front of the handmaidens, from behind her cheers and shouts erupted from the army.
A single speech turned fear into courage.
'He's got a talent for this… mother would like him'
But what she witnessed after broke all logic she ever knew, the scene played itself as she watched it.
Merlin floating above a horde of abominations, seconds later and a large number of them turn feral.
A few more seconds and destruction began, nightmare creatures met nightmare creatures, and they were both flattened by seemingly nothing.
"This isn't… possible… not from a sleeper"
'it's a good thing I got him on our side, the moment he leaves the forgotten shore the world will be out for him'
"Fight!!"
The signal sounded and Seishan along with her handmaidens stepped into the battlefield.
…
Nephis stood beside Merlin, her expression filled with pride as his speech resounded in her ears.
Every word, every sentence filled with authority, a speech meant to defy fate, to take back the authority and choice that the forgotten shore had taken from them.
The next moment, Merlin who stood beside her vanished in flames, and she saw his figure reappear above the countless nightmare creatures.
Her mind involuntarily went back to his declaration of wiping out half of the abominations in their path.
"This must be it"
She kept her eyes focused on the battlefield, her curiosity reached its threshold as watched closely, she had many speculations about Merlin and how he knew what he knew but she would wait till he was ready to tell them, for now she waited to see the trump card that he had under his sleeves.
Then it happened.
She stared unbelievable for the whole ten seconds, her brain calculating how such a feat was even possible for a sleeper, in that short period of time, the nightmare creatures had been reduced to less than half.
'He's strong… if only I had that kind of power, whatever it is'
She clenched her sword tighter as Merlin reappeared beside her, he raised his sword and shouted.
"Fight!!"
But from the side she could see it, his body was trembling, and he was bleeding from all orifices on his face.
'It's time to play my part' Nephis thought as she led the sleepers into battle.
…
"We sleepers RAAAAAGE!"
Sunny stood at a corner away from the army of sleepers, his task still remained unchanged.
[Oath key (7)]
The memory still laid quietly in his soul sea, Sunny stood still preparing for his lone mission.
Then it happened, Merlin, his trusted friend appeared directly above the countless nightmare creatures, then he felt it, from deep within, the same pull that directed him to the key and to the mask.
Currently, that same feeling, The [Fated] attribute was pulling him towards Merlin, but he wasn't the only person feeling something, the nightmare creatures below too were feeling something, but it wasn't a pull, it was hell on earth… or dream realm rather.
Nightmare creatures of different ranks fought like crazed animals, Merlin, the first person he met on the forgotten shore, and the one who had pulled the cohort this far, every plan, every action, every decision made had turned out for their good, and for the first time in a long time, as much as he hated to admit it, he had come to trust a person.
A second after his thoughts ended sounds like thunder impacts sounded on the battlefield, the same invisible attack Merlin usually used to disable nightmare creatures during their hunt in the dark city was now used on the battlefield, but this scale was on an entirely different level.
Then the feeling came to an end and Merlin reappeared on the battlefield.
"Fight!!"
"That's my cue" Sunny said as he walked to Merlin, as he arrived he saw Merlin's bloody face, a look he hadn't seen since their time in the labyrinth.
'if I remember correctly, he said it was caused by his memory, so that's a divine memory…'
"Merlin, I'm ready" Sunny said.
Immediately sparks of light appeared as Merlin summoned his echo, the spire messenger, Sunny mounted the echo and it took to the sky flying towards the crimson spire.
The battle for the Crimson Spire had begun…