Merlin climbed the ancient citadel at great speed, he jumped across stones and broken pavements, after about a minute of climbing he finally arrived.
The crimson terror, stood there like a mass of wriggling flesh covered in crimson corals, around the fallen terror stood golems of flesh and coral, the souls of the inhabitants of the forgotten shore remade and subjugated by the crimson terror.
However unlike the golems Sunny fought, these were regular mundane souls, but their numbers made up the difference, thousands of mundane golems stood between Merlin and his target.
"Ofcourse I knew you wouldn't make it easy" Merlin smiled as he summoned the gauntlet style formless, Cuthul's Gloves and stone sword.
"Let's hack some innocent people… hehehe… cough… that came out wrong" Merlin got into position and moved, the weight of a dormant terror behind his sword.
Merlin met with a thousand, he sliced and stabbed, golems fell to his sword.
One fell, then five, then ten. He was advancing, but he could tell, the terror was stalling for time, he clicked his tongue and jumped back, outside the citadel the fun still shone brightly killing the remaining nightmare creatures outside and collecting souls.
'That fucking bastard is buying time to collect enough souls to evolve… No way in hell I'm fighting a fucking corrupted terror, that's LO49 vibes here, winter beast vibes… who knows what shit this thing will pull up after advancing'
Merlin summoned his echo and commanded it to attack with him, then he moved again, not fighting to kill the golems, he was fighting to make a way through, to cut through a path of thousands.
'Let's see which of us will advance first…'
The terror's full attention was currently on the outside as the light that besieged the sleepers had completely dimmed.
Merlin slash and swung his way through, in the front his echo tore through bodies of mundane golems like paper, as such Merlin's movements became more free.
The crimson terror seemed to have noticed his strategy and ordered the golems to come at him together, as Merlin saw their movements he smirked slightly and flame jumped.
He reappeared far away from the crimson terror and its golems, but according to the order the crimson terror gave earlier the golems rushed towards him, even the ones that surrounded the fallen terror came forward, leaving the crimson terror behind.
Merlin unsummoned his echo then resummoned it, then waited, after the golems had run a small distance away from the terror, he immediately mounted his echo and flew directly to the crimson terror.
As the fallen beast noticed his approach, flesh tendrils rushed towards Merlin's echo, from above Merlin threw a paper that embedded itself on the ground right near the crimson terror and gave his echo a single command 'don't let the golems pass', he scattered a stack of paper near the terror and then he flame jumped directly in front of the fallen terror.
Immediately he arrived, flesh tendrils shot at him from different angles, Merlin flame jumped to the other side of the crimson terror, as he appeared he immediately slashed at the terror's main body, but the moment the slash was completed, multiple flesh tendrils shot out again forcing Merlin to retreat while defending.
'What a great AOE attack, but unlucky you, I have the counter right up my arsenal'
The Merlin who stood immediately dived into two, then into four, then into nine, He was using the
same attack pattern he used on Gunlaug, illusion, he wasn't sure it would be enough to deceive the crimson terror but he still had to try.
Fortunately, the terror fell for the attack as tendrils shot out to the illusion, as they were not real, Merlin made them completely able to avoid the tendrils, while he moved around trying to find an opening within the illusion.
'I think it'll realize soon that they are not attacking… I have to make my move'
He immediately unsummoned the stone sword, and the gauntlet flowed into the katana, then he flame jumped and slashed at the terror, before it could react, Merlin stole its thoughts, then used freeze on a part of the terror, then drove his sword right through the terror, then a tendril went right through him too as the terror regained itself.
Merlin immediately turned into paper figurine and appeared a safe distance away, the terror wailed from the stab earlier, and that gave Merlin his idea.
He immediately changed the Formless into a spear, he flame jumped to dodge a tendril, and hid with the black screen and threw the spear at the terror, for safety he stole the thoughts of the crimson terror so the spear hit it mark, that seemed to cause damage as the tendrils trashed wildly.
Merlin resummoned the spear and threw it again, however even with the thought of the terror stolen the thrashing tendrils didn't stop and one of them effectively intercepted the spear.
'Well that route's closed, what else do I have… Physical harm does so little, and it's not like I can burn corruption like Neph… but hey I can burn too'
Merlin reached into his pocket and brought out a sac, the familiar corrosive sack he once used on the ashen barrow to draw out squidward, he flame jumped and threw the sac on the terror, and as expected a tendril shot out to block it, the moment the flesh tendrils bursted the sac, the corrosive liquid poured over the tendril and it melted.
'That worked'
Merlin repeated the process, and as he predicted the terror would rather sacrifice the tendrils that let its main body get hit, the coral flesh tendrils melted as Merlin slowly ran out of sacs to throw.
As he ran out, he didn't panic at all because now most of the ground around the crimson terror was covered with the corrosive liquid, but the liquid wasn't just corrosive, it was also flameable, Merlin immediately used flame control to ignite a paper that was soaked in the liquid and then the ground went up in flames, the heat brushed against Merlin's face, but the crimson terror that was right in the middle of the flames wailed loudly, the flesh tendrils thrashed wildly, due to Merlin's timely intervention, he had stopped the crimson terror from evolving, the main reason that the process hadn't started was because less deaths happened on the battlefield because of Merlin, and now the fallen terror was suffering the full brunt of Merlin's brain at use.
The crimson terror thrashed and burned for about a minute until the flames naturally died down, as the smoke cleared, slightly, Merlin was about to make a move when a tendril shot at him with full speed forcing him to defend against the attack, as he blocked, more kept coming forcing his relentless blocking and dodging.
After a minute, Merlin flame jumped to create distance, by then the smoke had cleared and he saw the charred body of the weakened fallen terror, all the crimson corals around its body had been burned black, the crimson terror was on its last lifeline and was determined to make a last stand.
"Honestly I personally think you're too weak for the terror class, the beings who are terrors are all menaces to society, look at LO49, Nightmare, even the Vile Thieving Bird, those are what terrors should be not this… but it is to be expected, you were made into your position, you didn't earn it, I would rather fight you ten times over than fight that black knight alone once… You, the crimson terror of the forgotten shore are not worthy" Merlin laughed as he planted his feet into the ground. (Mc be ragebaiting… who did not give this guy the hunter potion).
"I'll honor your efforts though, I won't take one step from here, I won't substitute or flame jump either… come at me with everything you got"
…
Down below, Nephis and Sunny had led everyone out the portal, from their position they could feel the tremors caused by the battle above.
After finally convincing Cassie to leave through the gateway, Sunny turned to Nephis, she nodded and then they made their way to the top of the crimson spire.
As they got there the first thing that caught their eyes was the destruction, rubbles and craters were all around. It was a miracle that the floor was still standing. At the center of the storm were two figures, A beast made out of flesh and black corals and Merlin.
The two were in a deadlock with multiple flesh tendrils from the crimson terror slashing at Merlin, but the latter didn't flinch, didn't move. Merlin stood in place, his hands were a blur, they moved with precision as each tendril was deflected and sliced off cleanly, Merlin's eyes were locked on the fallen terror, he didn't even blink knowing that one slip up would be a costly mistake. (That's a bloody lie… MC be farming aura… Tanjiro vibes).
Sunny was about to join in and assist but Nephis stopped him, he wanted to question but he immediately figured why, Merlin's echo immediately descended upon the crimson terror, the spire messenger dug its beak into the flesh of the crimson terror, that gave Merlin the chance to rush forward as the flesh tendrils were now attacks the echo.
Merlin rushed forward and with a wide swing, he cleaved the crimson terror in two with the Formless which now took the shape of a battle axe, Sunny watched Merlin sigh of relief, then immediately fall to one knee clutching his chest.
As the battle was over, Sunny walked towards Merlin slowly, while his friend stood up and turned to them.
…
Merlin who just cleaved the Crimson Terror in half immediately felt the rush of the soul fragment, he clutched his chest that was burning and fell to a knee gritting his teeth, after a few seconds of pain, he finally got up, in front of his eyes read.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Titan
Soul Fragments: [12/7000]
He had become a titan, he sighed and turned to face Sunny and Nephis who were walking up to him, as they neared the two stopped a distance away from him.
Merlin smiled slightly and said.
"So it's come to this huh"
Nephis stared at him for a while then nodded, while Sunny spoke.
"I'm sorry Merlin, but you have to leave the forgotten shore"
Merlin shook his head and smiled.
"Cassie told you, didn't she?"
"She said she wasn't sure of your plan, but me and Neph deduced the rest" Sunny said as he summoned the midnight shard.
"Don't make this difficult Merlin" Nephis spoke up with a solemn voice.
Merlin didn't reply as he dismissed his echo and looked up at the ceiling, after a second, he turned to them and said.
"I'm a titan, I just became one as I killed the crimson terror… I'm sorry but I'm not going anywhere"
Nephis sighed and dismissed the dawn shard to summon her longsword, the dawn shard empowered every memory in a certain distance and they both knew that Merlin was stacked with them.
"So be it then" Nephis gave those words and immediately lunged at Merlin with her sword, following her, Sunny rushed in right behind her.
Merlin moved too, he blocked Neph's swing and tilted to avoid Sunny's follow up, then he kicked Nephis in the shin while he slashed at Sunny, forcing the former to block and the latter to dodge.
They separated and stopped, the earlier exchange had been to gauge strength and reaction, now they were prepared to battle it to the end.
Titan vs Demon x Monster_
Attendant Of Mysteries vs Changing Star x Lost From Light_
They moved again, Merlin blocked an attack from Sunny and jumped back to avoid a slash from Nephis, as he landed the duo were already on him again, Sunny went first, Nephis followed up, when Nephis blocked Sunny would retaliate with an attack, the two fought like two sides of a coin.
The Star and her Shadow.
'Damn so this is why Saint Direwolf lost… these two are on another level of strong'
Merlin was constantly being out on the defense, any attack he made was blocked by one, and the other would deliver a follow up attack causing him to defend again.
He thought of a tactic while fighting, and after a while he finally found one, so he deliberately let Nephis slash him, he immediately turned into a paper figurine and appeared a distance away.
As he appeared he changed the Formless back into its gauntlet but this time he wore it on his left hand, then he summoned the Stone Sword on his right.
"Alright guys, round two"
As he said that he rushed at the two, Nephis moved first and met his sword, as Sunny moved, Merlin side stepped his attack and used his sword to party Sunny's attack, that gave Nephis another chance to attack, but as her sword came down, Merlin stopped it.
Precisely he caught the sword with his gauntlet hand and delivered a kick to Nephis pushing her away, then he turned his focus to Sunny, the latter rushed forward but his attacks were blocked and parried by Merlin.
After four exchanges between the two, Nephis reentered the fray, Merlin blocked with both his gauntlet and attacked with his sword, they fought at a deadlock for a few minutes then the top floor began to rumble.
The pillars collapsed and the ground began to crack under their feet, the rumbling put their fight on a pause as they separated, immediately the floor broke open as the three began to fall, Nephis summoned the memory she got from Cassie to slow her descent, Sunny summoned the dark wing while Merlin didn't summon anything, he had a memory similar to theirs, he had gotten on from killing a spire messenger during the war but he didn't use it, where's the aura in that…
Merlin plummeted along with debris, before he could hit the ground he snapped his fingers and flame jumped back into the air, when the floor collapsed the papers he placed around during the fight with the crimson terror fell too, but due to their weight they fell rather slowly.
He flame jumped between papers till he finally reached the ground safely, behind him was the gateway and in front was Sunny and Nephis who had landed.
"Round three then"
Merlin lunged at them again, this time he increased the weight of his attacks, after all if you lost an arm or leg in the dream realm you would still have it back when you return to your body.
The three fought again, this time more desperate than before, Merlin noticed that Nephis was using his dodges to direct him closer to the gateway.
'Clever girl'
He continued the fight, they battled on another minute until Merlin's danger sense activated, as he dodged a slash from Sunny, he found that he was dangerously close to the gateway, then Nephis slashed at him, he blocked with his sword, but Sunny's follow up didn't come, instead the shadow boy dismissed his sword and pushed Merlin forward with his body.
Merlin was about to balance himself but he tripped, as he was falling he looked down and saw an illusory line that had been pulled right near the gateway, the line was a memory, Prowling Thorn.
'Sunny you cunning bastard…'
Merlin's body became illusory as he went through the gateway.
Sunny sighed and dismissed the Prowling Thorn, then he turned to face Nephis and said.
"I don't think you'll leave here if I ask nicely will you?"
"No" Nephis' reply came instantly.
Sunny sighed and summoned his sword and a memory.
"So be it then…"
Sunny quoted Nephis then the next second he attacked.
The Star and Shadow began their battle on the crimson spire.