After Merlin finished freshening up, he didn't have any clothes, so he simply summoned the cloak and with a thought, he changed its form into a regular hoodie and baggy pants, then he simply looked for one of Sunny's home slippers, and with a little adjustment of his foot size, it fit him just perfectly.
As he walked out of the room heading downstairs, he could hear voices below, obviously, the cohort had arrived while he was in the bathroom. As he walked down the stairs, the scent of the food Sunny had been preparing earlier entered his nose as he felt his stomach growl.
As he neared the end of the stairs, he listened in slightly on their conversation.
"So that means doofus is stronger than you… what do you think of that princess?" Effie's voice sounded teasingly.
"I don't think anything about it" Nephis answered calmly.
"I think in terms of pure output, Neph is superior, but in terms of versatility, Sunny has the upper hand" Kai sounded scholarly.
"Can we not have this discussion right now?" Sunny sighed helplessly.
"It's just… Why aren't you guys concerned about the first place position?" Cassie asked curiously.
"Who would want to compete with that monster for first place, he was already overpowered as a sleeper, now he's a master, I'll pass, thank you" Sunny retorted.
Merlin walked into the view as he clutched his half broken heart.
"Sunny really? Calling me a monster is just sad… and I'm not that overpowered, maybe I'm strong enough to kill a Saint, but the both of you are too, though only when you're paired, and wait…."
His eyes turned confused as he looked around.
"And why the hell are you guys eating without me, I thought it was about celebrating my safe return?"
"You took way too long pretty boy, any longer and you wouldn't even meet any food left" Effie grinned as she continued stuffing her mouth with food.
"Congratulations on making it back safely Merlin…" Cassie smiled.
He walked towards them, and sat down beside Ariel, he looked around and figured that the chairs were enough for everyone, except Sunny was sitting on a chair memory.
'Is that the legendary Noctis chair? The craftsmanship is exquisite…' he praised inwardly.
"Anyways let's eat first, then we'll move on to the questioning phase, then the planning phase…"
The cohort nodded and ate peacefully while making occasional chats and chatter, he was feeding Ariel while subtly keeping an eye on Silver, it seemed like she was enjoying the food, so he wasn't worried about her.
After they finished, Sunny cleared the dishes and they all sat together in the living room.
"Well let's get started…" he spoke up, then the next moment, Cassie summoned a memory that blocked all sound.
"Before I begin the long story, let me start with the proper introductions"
He gestured to Silver then continued "guys, this is Silver, she's currently one of the world's oldest Transcedent, I met her at the forest of Civilth, just out of the border of the forgotten shore, and well incase you haven't noticed, she's currently a Transcendent Demon, and she helped me throughout most of my journey navigating the forest"
"And this little one on the other hand, is Ariel, well one thing led to another in my second nightmare, and I got a younger sibling… and no Effie it's definitely not what you're thinking, well she somehow ended up as an echo, and after pulling some strings, I managed to get her to retain some of her original memories from the nightmare, so she's currently a half person half echo… I think, and also she's a Transcendent Terror"
Only the introduction left the cohort silent, until Effie tried to speak up.
"Are…"
"No Effie she's not my daughter, I mean how do you even expect that to work, she's clearly twelve and I'm just nineteen" He cut her off instantly.
"Hey weird things happen in nightmares you know? And what made you even think I was going to ask about that?" Effie countered back.
"It was written all over your face Effie, in bold capital letters, saying, 'I SUSPECT THERE IS MORE TO THIS SIBLING RELATIONSHIP…'." He retorted.
"Okay now that's just a blatant accusation…" Effie huffed as she turned away.
He sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Anyways, on to the next part of the introductions…"
"Silver, Ari, these are my friends, that's Sunny, Nephis, Cassie, Kai and the loud one over there is Effie"
"Hey! why am I the only one with a title?" Effie glared at him.
"Heh… guess" He sneered back, then stopped because Ariel was looking at him, he obviously did not want to set a bad example.
At that moment, Sunny spoke up.
"I understand the kid having a terror class obviously, but how did she get it, does she have a divine aspect too?"
"Um… she doesn't, but how do I explain this" he sighed "...you see, before we met, she was once corrupted, and during that period her class rose despite not having a divine aspect, but she managed to get rid of the corruption and returned as a Transcendent Demon"
"Is getting rid of corruption even possible?" Cassie asked.
"Technically it is, well I currently know of two ways, the first is getting thoroughly cleansed by Neph's flames, they have the ability to burn corruption, though the effect only works when the corruption process has not been completed…"
"...The other is rather simple really, it's simply death, that's the best possible method of getting rid of corruption" He explained briefly.
"I see, well that's not really much of a solution, so how did Lady Silver do it?" Kai asked.
He turned to Silver, and after receiving her nod, he spoke up.
"Well it's obviously the second… I mean she obviously didn't get Neph's help…"
Sunny looked between him and Silver, then he asked.
"But how?"
"Well that's simply because she can't die, it's her flaw…" he answered curtly.
"Oh…" Sunny nodded in understanding.
"Now then… let me begin my tale of traversing the worst parts of the dream realm…" he said in an exaggerated voice.
"You can skip out on the whole Civilth part, we've heard that one before, and also the rocky y, you told us that one too… and you also told us about the time with Azarax and Eurys too, technically the only part we're not informed of is your second nightmare…" Sunny practically washed off two-third of the story.
He huffed as his earlier energy dissipated.
"Fine… second nightmare it is"
"Well where do I begin, it all started when I woke up in a lab…"
Merlin proceeded to describe the entire sequence of his second nightmare, Ariel and Silver were also interested in it, but for some reason Ariel seemed a bit more excited, well she was like the star of the story, so why not, along the way, Ariel's innocence had borne its way into the hearts of the cohort as they looked at her fondly.
After a few more minutes of storytelling, he finally rounded up with it, and he also added the part about going to get Silver, as he finished, Sunny was the first to speak up.
"So you're saying that you fought a near immortal Corrupted Demon, and after it killed you, you became half-immortal because of little Ariel, and then you fought it till the death, then killed it, then killed her, then killed yourself… again"
He thought for a moment then nodded.
"Yeah… that's basically it, with a little more chopped off limbs and blood"
As he nodded, the cohort turned their eyes to Ariel who shyly burrowed her head in his arms, he ruffled her head and explained to them.
"It's her abilities, anyone she blesses, gains quasi-immortality, in other words as long as you have essence, you can't die, as for her herself, as long as anyone she blesses is still alive, she ultimately can't die even if she runs out of essence"
"That's… actually a nice ability if you ask me" Effie said as she nodded her head.
"Well that's the first part, as for the other part… anyone she blesses ultimately becomes her thrall and listens to her, as long as their rank is lower than hers"
He paused then continued.
"When she was still in the corrupted state, the thing she blessed became mad and destroyed everything in sight, as for me, due to the nature of my soul sea (protection from Sefirah Castle), I was able to handle the effects well, though I have a feeling my mental state wasn't really in the best mode, but I wasn't killing everything in sight… come to think of it, after it activated, I only saw two living beings, and I kinda killed both of them…"
"Well anyways, that's all for Ariel's magical powers"
Everyone looked at him shocked, even Ariel herself, he understood the little girl, after all she was probably just realizing her full abilities, but he simply just read them from her runes.
Nephis spoke up to break the silence.
"Since that's settled, we need to talk about our problem with Valor clan"
Her words brought everybody's attention back as they turned to Merlin. He sighed and thought about it, then he decided to follow the regular path prepared in the canon, since it had already diverted due to his meddling.
"Here's how it's going to be, Neph and Cassie will take the fire keepers and join Valor directly as a princess of the clan, Kai and Effie will join the government, me and Sunny will remain as before…" he explained calmly.
"Wait what? Why am I in the government? And aren't we trying to stop the great clans? Why's she joining as a princess? And are the great clans just going to leave you be?" Effie asked questions after questions.
He sighed as he answered.
"You're joining the government to keep the great clans from scouting you too and avoiding any other situation like before, and we're going to stop the great clans, but first we need Neph and Cas to infiltrate their ranks, Cassie already knows what to do from there" he turned to her and she nodded.
"And as for me… I'll join clan song, or rather Merlin will join clan song, while I'll just be hanging around with Sunny, Silver and Ariel"
Effie looked confused, then she asked.
"You're talking like you and Merlin are two different people…"
"Heh… who says we can't be?" He only uttered that cryptic like and kept quiet.
"..." Effie was speechless.
"Merlin… I want to ask you something" Nephis spoke again, but this time was serious.
"What's up?" He asked.
Neph's eyes turned to Sunny slightly, then she turned to him as a slight flash of guilt crossed her eyes.
"Is there anything we can do about Sunny's… problem?" She asked in a low voice.
Sunny's breath hitched slightly, and Cassie shuddered a little. He sighed and answered.
"Well there's good news, bad news, worse news, and finally good news, I'll explain according to their order"
"That doesn't sound reassuring…" Sunny muttered from beside.
He cleared his throat and started.
"Good news is, there's a way, but that'll be during our third nightmare, bad news, Sunny will have to go half mad for the same cause, worse news, when the process is complete, everyone will forget everything about Sunny, and the good news is that, you guys will eventually get reunited again…"
"Wait a second…" Sunny spoke up as his thoughts processed what he heard.
"What do you mean everyone will forget me?"
"Well that's the price for being fateless… the world will no longer recognize Sunless as a part of it, and those who are connected to the world will not recognize you too, and trust me, it's a necessary process…" Merlin answered calmly then he spoke up again.
"Honestly you guys would've figured it out too, after all, it was Cassie's plan…"
"Huh?" Cassie's confused voice sounded out.
"What?" He asked curiously.
"Well it's just that, my visions led me to the breaking fate part in the third nightmare, but as for what happens after that, I haven't gotten there yet, I had no idea that he would be forgotten, I was going to bring it up with you before telling the rest of the cohort…" Cassie answered lowly.
"..." He was speechless, he had no idea her visions hadn't gotten to that part yet, if that part even existed in visions.
"Well… I guess that's that for Sunny's case" he spoke up.
"That's that?" Sunny's eyes twitched "I want to be free, but at the cost of being forgotten by everyone… I'm not really sure I even want to make that decision"
Merlin slumped back in his chair as he sighed.
"Well to be honest Sunny, although the journey would be rough, you guys will eventually get reunited again, plus, just know that losing your fate would save the world in the future"
"How does that even work?" Sunny asked, genuinely confused.
"I'm sorry Sunny, but I can't say it right now, all we have to do is follow Cassie's instructions and we'll eventually get it done" he said.
"Huh? Why Cassie's instructions, can't it be yours?" Effie asked.
"Honestly I can't explain why, but it just has to be Cassie, it's her fate to break fate, and it's Sunny's fate to become fateless" he answered calmly.
"It feels like we're just puppets in the hands of fate…" Sunny sighed helplessly.
"Cheer up Sunny, no matter the case, at least your fate is still better than mine, mine's in the hands of the greatest con artist to ever exist…" Merlin sounded encouraging and deprecating at the same time.
"Anyways now that's done, we need to start preparing for Antarctica…"
"Antarctica? Why?" Kai asked.
Before he could answer, Cassie spoke up.
"Because a chain of nightmares will begin there, just like the one in America…"
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Well obviously for the dreamscape identity names, I got a few recommendations, so please vote on the final choice.
1. Gherman Sparrow.
2. Amon
3. Mr Door
4. Jester (from me...)