Merlin's words were abruptly cut short as he felt himself falling, He was unable to see anything due to the excessive darkness, seconds later and he crashed into a body of water.
'Gods please no, there's only one sea in this godforsaken place' Merlin held his breath despite being terrified and disoriented, he desperately tried to swim towards what felt like up.
After a few seconds of following his intuition, Merlin emerged from a black raging sea and was gasping for air.
He opened his eyes but still couldn't see anything, immediately his danger sense screamed at him, but before he could react, he was thrown into the air again by a large black tentacle, just like swatting a fly away.
Merlin screamed at the top of his voice, but just a second later he stopped as salty water filled his mouth, he immediately swam to the surface again, but this time, with his intuition he was able to find a hard surface floating on the black sea, he held on to it with all his might, his danger sense had still been pricking him ever since he landed.
Merlin held on to the platform, praying and wishing no abomination would attack him, coupled by his lack of sight, he was utterly helpless just drifting across the sea.
To his luck, his prayers were answered and the tentacle monster that reigned the sea didn't seem interested in his beyonder characteristics, apart from the occasional waves that hit and threatened the platform, his safety was secured, although his danger sense still hadn't quieted down, Merlin just assumed that it was because the sea itself was a nightmare creature.
After a few hours of floating aimlessly, Merlin's eyes had adapted a bit to the darkness, looking up at the sky, he could see the darkness becoming a gray like color, that's when he felt it.
The entire sea rippled like someone had dropped a stone in a calm lake, immediately he felt the sky getting farther and farther away, the sea was receding at an alarming rate.
Merlin had been perched on one of the red corals while the rest of the sea receded welcoming the new day.
"For the first time in a long time, I am happy to see the night end" Merlin said as he made his way down from the coral after his danger sense had quieted down.
He stood in the labyrinth and the with the first breeze that blew past, his legs gave out as he fell to the ground, clutching his chest as he drew in deep breaths, the calm of the labyrinth had sent all the fatigue over the night back to him.
Merlin stayed on the ground for a few minutes before he finally recovered, immediately he did, he was assaulted by a cold that made his bones scream in protest of his wild movements.
He immediately looked down at himself and realized.
'Damn, I'm buck ass naked'
After thinking about it for a while, he decided to once again summon the'Cloak of Mysteries'.
With the shimmering lights, the black and gold cloak immediately draped over his head, this time, he was not going to even try to activate it's enchantments as he just curled himself and used it to generate heat.
An hour later and Merlin finally warm enough, decided to find his way to the giant knight statue he saw in the distance.
'Sigh, no paper figurines, no match sticks, no paper daggers, that's like seventy five percent of my chances of survival gone, the spell really is cruel' Merlin muttered silently as he scavenged for a stick and anything inflammable.
A few minutes later and he had managed to gather a bit of grass and two sticks, one made out of bone and the other made out of wood.
"Alright, let's do this, it's just like camping, yeah camping in a world more dangerous than jurassic park movies".
Merlin crouched low and used the grass, sticks and a few stones to try to start a fire, he had already learnt how to start one during his wilderness survival class, so it didn't take too long before a light flame was ignited.
Using flame control, Merlin made the flame grow until it was now burning at the top of the wooden stick he brought earlier.
Seeing his initial plan succeeded, he decided to move on to the next phase, he picked up the bone stick, closed his eyes and in his mind he muttered.
'Fastest way to the knight statue'.
The bone stick immediately flared up, pointing in a direction, Merlin who had used dowsing seeking rod to find the fastest way, snapped his fingers and he was immediately consumed by fire, reappearing a considerable distance in the direction that the bone stick was pointing.
The main reason he had went out of his way to start a fire was because it secured one of his escape abilities, Merlin made his way through the labyrinth using this method while relying on his danger sense to avoid traps, during his journey, he took rests in between as using the flame jump put a strain on his stamina, leaving him with a total of seven jumps and half an hour of rest.
"Man a magician's abilities are indeed useful in a lot of situations" After navigating through the labyrinth for about six hours, with the constant drain of his stamina, Merlin was now feeling hungry, too hungry infact as he was almost tempted to pick some strange things on the ground to eat, but in the end he restrained himself.
A few more minutes if following the direction of the bone stick, Merlin was about to make a turn when his danger sense immediately activated.
"Swish... Swish..."
"Crack....."
"Chitting..."
"Snap... Snap..."
Coming from the direction ahead he could hear countless noises, Bone grinding against teeth, flesh being torn apart, pincers snapping wildly and all other sort of sounds.
Resisting the urge to run away, he poked his head out in the direction of the sound and he nearly screamed.
Hundreds, if not more, of giant crabs with steel like bodies, two large pincers and scythe like legs feasting on what seemed like the abomination from Meg 2.
'Hell nah, it's against this kind of things that Nephis said 'If it's our will, who can stop us', Trust me, I see a lot that can stop me here'.
'Come to think of it why did the dowsing rod just try to lead me to my death?'
Merlin pondered for a few seconds while taking catious steps away from there, after a while he figured it out.
'Damned flaw I might end up killing myself if I'm not careful enough'
The reason being that with the influence of his flaw, instead of divining the safest path to the statue, he went with the fastest, completely ignoring the consequences and almost ending up in a makeshift version of the Krusty Krabs.
Merlin then went with the safest path, and after enduring a few more hours of hunger and pain in his legs, he could finally see the bottom of the knight statue in the distance. Immediately, the sky began to darken as the sun was setting.
"Shit"
The makeshift torch had already gone out hours ago so Merlin couldn't just flame jump his way there, so he decided on the only way that he could, he ran like someone in an olympic sport match, coupled with his current fragments, he was faster than most, but most didn't include the black sea tho.
A few meters away from the statue and he could already hear the water flowing in his direction, moments later, he was struggling to climb the statue as the sea had already started rising, pushing his limits, accompanied by the adrenaline, he was barely faster than the sea that was rising steadily.
A few minutes later and Merlin had finally arrived at the top of the statue, too weak to even sense the presence of the other person, he immediately passed out.
...
Sunny on the other hand had just retrieved his shadow from exploring the labyrinth as the black sea had already started it's approach.
A few minutes later and it was night again, the sea crashing wildly against the statue, in a distance away he saw an orange light that seemed to be on another hill, it burned for a while before being extinguished, just then he was alerted by his shadow that something was coming up the statue.
Sunny froze remembering the monster from yesterday that easily tore apart another giant one, after a few seconds a hand held up the flat ground, and without much delay, it was followed by a human body.
'Wait human, is it another sleeper?'
Sunny sent his shadow towards the sleeper and shared the shadow's vision, there he saw a young boy with a black and gold colored material wrapped around his chest, covering his body, his hair was dark brown in color, and his face...
'Merlin... What is he doing here, was he also sent here for his solstice?'
Sunny ignored the questions he had and he walked warily to the boy who seemed unconscious, he studied him for a while, then wrapped his shadow around his body and moved Merlin towards the center of the open space.
"If he wakes up or makes any sudden movements, wake me immediately".
Sunny had learned one thing from the outskirts and his first nightmare and that was don't trust your back to anyone, so he definitely wasn't going to stop now.
...
Merlin woke up feeling weak and sore all over his body, the last thing he remembered was getting to the top before he passed out, as he opened his eyes, it was already day and the sea had retreated, turning his head, he saw Sunny who was a distance away staring at him warily.
Merlin saw his gauged stance, it was the exact same one He taught him in the academy during their practice sessions, he chuckled a bit and said.
"Hey Sunny, seeing that your face is the first thing I'm seeing this beautiful morning, you definitely owe me compensation, but considering you saved me, let's call it even" Merlin saw Sunny breath a sigh of relief and he replied.
"Is my face really the first thing you had to talk about, you could've at least said thank you" Sunny scoffed.
"Thanks Sunny" Merlin smiled a little.
"By the way, how long was I out" He turned to sunny and asked.
"It's probably been a few hours since the sun came up, also yesterday I saw a light on that hill over there, do you think it's other sleepers?"
"Probably, but we can't exactly go find them in this state can we?" Merlin said, gauging what remaining energy he had left.
"Do you know where this is, in all the books we read in class I never saw anywhere with this description" Sunny asked, looking towards the labyrinth below them.
"Nope I never heard of this place" Merlin lied as naturally as he breathed, then he added.
"But my best guess is that this is some unexplored area of the dream realm."
"I see" Sunny replied.
"Hey Sunny, I don't know about you but I'm a little hungry, and if we're going to survive this place we'll have to find something to eat first" Merlin said to sunny who stared at him like he someone who had ran mad.
"Are you crazy, do you know what kind of monsters are down there?"
"Crabs, by the way we'll just look for isolated ones and sneak up on them, with enough preparation, we should be able to kill one, I even have a weapon if you need" Merlin said summoning the Black Orb.
"You call that a weapon, that's a ball" Sunny said pointing at the black orb in his hand.
A moment later, Merlin willed it to take the shape of a longsword, and soon enough there was a black longsword in his hand.
"Now it's a weapon, now come let's discuss the plan" Merlin gestured to sunny who was staring at the sword in his hand.
"Wait plan?, which plan?, I never agreed to anything"
...
A few hours later, and Sunny was holding a bone stick in his hand, and infront him was an injured crab like monster with one broken pincer an multiple cracks on its shell, in sunny's other hand was a burning stick that Merlin had made.
As the monster spotted him, it immediately dashed towards him, according to the plan, sunny threw the fire towards the nightmare creature and immediately dived out of the way as the pincer hit the position he had been standing making a small crater.
'Crazy, this is crazy, why did I even agree to this' Sunny thought as he kept his eyes on the creature, from the dying flame that he threw, an enormous amount of flames rose, revealing a person, Merlin who held a black longsword in his hand.
Due to sunny's throw, Merlin emerged directly above the shell of the crablike monster, and stabbed it through one of the gaps in it's she'll, the monster wailed in pain as he immediately shook his body rapidly forcing Merlin to fall off.
Merlin was now on the ground staring at the creature, immediately he turned and ran towards sunny who still held the bone like stick, the creature was not chasing after them because Merlin had put it in an illusion changing his location in it's eyes.
"Are you ready" He turned to sunny who nodded slightly.
Immediately Merlin rushed up to the monster, the monster had already started trashing wildly having figured out the illusion, so Merlin disabled the illusion and immediately using his clown balance and danger sense, he was able to keep up and add a few more wounds on the leg of the nightmare creature.
After seeing the disadvantage in fighting Merlin, the monster rushed past him towards sunny, using it's pincer to hit sunny who used the bone stick to cushion the attack thereby breaking it.
After the attack the crablike monster picked sunny up with his pincer, trying to snap him in two, but to no avail as sunny's armour had been enhanced by his shadow, seeing that it was not working, the monster tried to bite him in two directly, but it failed to notice the black orb that had appeared in sunny's hand sometime during their squabble
As his head neared the Creature's mouth, sunny immediately transformed the orb into a long black spear and stabbed the creature's eye, the creature wailed and shook for a few seconds before sunny finally felt it's grip release him.
Immediately he heard the spell whisper in his ears.
[You have slain an awakened beast, Carapace Scavenger. ]
[You have received a Memory: Azure Blade. ]
[... Your shadow grows stronger. ]