"Hey there Sunny..." Merlin said with a smile as he walked into the class.
"I was wondering who it would be at this hour, turns out it was just you"
"What do you want Merlin?" Sunny asked as Merlin walked closer. Merlin held his gaze for a few seconds, then smiled.
"Hey, you finally said my name, turns out we are friends after all"
"Whatever"
"Anyway, that's not why I'm here, I want us to fight" Merlin went straight to the matter, he wasn't particularly hoping to beat the young protagonist.
'Nope not hoping at all, maybe just a little'.
"What do you mean by that?" Sunny had taken an unintentional step back, his eyes completely focused on Merlin.
Merlin already knew Sunny was wary of him, but he wasn't really bothered, he already knew about sunny's endless suspicion against whoever he doesn't fully trust, and when backed up by his flaw, Merlin just ignored his attitude.
"I don't mean anything sunny, let's just have a friendly sparring match, that way you can learn a little about fighting from me and I also get a training partner (target practice), it's obviously a win-win, or you don't want to?" Merlin said as he walked towards an open space in the distance, with sunny's character, he knew the kid would calculate the ups and downs of the deal but since he needed the training he would eventually agree to the deal.
A few seconds later and sunny's answer came.
"Yes I want to, I agree"
"Okay, let's get started" Merlin smiled as Sunny walked to him.
A few seconds later and sunny was sprawled on the floor, Merlin looked down at him, in his mind Sunny had absolutely no idea of what to do in a fight, although he had tried using some moves Nephis used on him earlier today, with the zero balance and practice, sunny had no hope of replicating it.
Thinking for a few seconds, Merlin had an idea.
"Hey Sunny, why don't you try copying me".
"Huh.." Sunny still with his back on the ground immediately sat up and turned to face him.
Merlin streched out his hand to help sunny stand which sunny took.
"What I mean is you should try to copy my attack pattern, then from there you would be able to block, avoid or even predict my movements, that way you can actually learn something" Merlin took an idea out of sunny's shadow dance and handed it back to him with a smile.
'Man charity sure does feel nice'
"Hmm it's possible, but I doubt I can do that when you would just throw me to the ground in a few seconds" Sunny scowled remembering the hand flip Merlin had given him after his first punch.
"How about this, I'll just do a few skills against the air a few times while you watch from the side and learn, then we continue our fight"
"Okay then"
Merlin did as he explained, although it was hard fighting against nothing, he still put his best into it, he noticed that sunny did not move his shadow to join his but he just guessed that sunny was not willing to expose his aspect.
A few minutes later and Merlin stopped and turned to sunny.
"Well they're a few that are impossible to do against nothing, and some of the steps can change according to the opponent's reaction but I think I've shown you the overall summary of steps, so step up and show me what you learnt my student".
Merlin watched as Sunny took on a similar stance to his, Merlin adjusted his balance and then took the initiative to attack.
First he lasted a minute, then two, then five, Merlin was watching sunny adapt in real time, it was slow but the progress was there, in about an hour or two, sunny could now last ten minutes against him.
"Huff.. You've definitely improve, as expected of my first friend" Merlin sighed as he took a break.
"I still couldn't win tho, and who said we're friends"
"Minor details sunny, minor details, but in just two hours you can now keep up with me, by the end of the week you would probably be handing my ass to me" Merlin chuckled as he layed down on the ground.
"Hey you don't have water there do you" Merlin turned to sunny who was layed down on the ground with him.
"No, I only came to test my strength why would I need water, you that came to train why didn't you bring any" sunny turned to look at him.
"Well I forgot, plus I didn't expect to fight you this long, I was expecting to beat you up so you go back to your room crying hahaha" Merlin joked as Sunny glared at him but didn't say anything.
A moment later and someone into the room, as Merlin turned his head, he saw Nephis there standing looking at them.
Merlin and sunny got up and turned to her as she walked forward stopping in front of Merlin.
"Fight me"
"Huh?"
"Fight me"
'What..' Merlin was looking at Nephis as she wore her classical straight face. From the side of his eye, he could almost see the words 'visible confusion' written on sunny's face, Merlin just decided to take a deep breath and answered her.
"Why do you want me to fight you"
"I want to see your skills" Nephis replied him with the only thing moving on her face was the mouth.
"If you insist I'll fight you, but if I agree then we'll do this everyday same time until the solstice, do you agree?" Merlin shameless hitched a ride on the Immortal Flame training routine.
"Yes" Nephis said as she walked to the stands and took two wooden longswords.
Two minutes later and Merlin was on the ground, his body riddled with bruises, by the side, sunny was holding himself back from bursting into laughter.
Merlin had been beaten without even having a chance to land a hit, compared to hand to hand combat Nephis was deadly efficient with the sword, 'I could swear that my danger sense was operating at one hundred and twenty percent that's why I lasted that long'.
"You got something you want to say sunny?" Merlin's eyes twitched.
"Yeah, atleast now you know how it feels to be on the receiving end hahaha" sunny bursted out laughing, while Merlin stood up and flexed his wrist.
"You don't know how to use a sword" Nephis said looking at him.
"Yeah, I'm sorry my lady but the outskirts have nothing to do with swords so...." He left the rest unsaid.
"Well I'm completely tired, and look at the time, we can continue this tomorrow, we'll start by eight in the evening".
Merlin and sunny left the hall and walked to their dorms casually chatting about their new routine.
The rest of the month flew by in a flash, everyday Merlin stuck to his routine of exercising early in the morning, heading to the cafeteria with sunny, then to therapy, and then wilderness survival, then back to the cafeteria, then combat class and finally training with Sunny and Nephis. Whenever he had free time he would practice his ability, creating combinations for attack and escape, mostly for escape though, with his training and preparations in place, Merlin was now prepared to brave the horrors of the dream realm.
On the day of the winter solstice, Merlin layed down on his bed, staring into the familiar yet unfamiliar ceiling.
'so it's finally here huh' he could already feel the deep sleep tugging at his consciousness, he thought of his journey so far, from being a regular college student with good grades, loving parents and a few friends.
He had always avoided thinking about them ever since he reincarnated, he had read alot of those types of stories, and we'll no one really ended with the reincarnator returning home, though he never showed it in his actions, he hoped that he would find a way back.
He cried for a while, then stood up from the bed and headed into the shower, after taking his shower he headed straight to the cafeteria, arriving there Merlin could almost taste the tension that filled the room, the usual group of friends and gossip partners all kept to themselves.
'This might be a good time to give the 'Wake up to reality speech by Madara Uchiha' but I feel like that'll just make them feel worse, Captain Erwin's speech sounds more like a suicide cry out so not that either, meh I'll probably think of something'
After collecting his food, he spotted Sunny and Cassie sitting in their regular position, Merlin had sat with the duo most times during the past three weeks but he hadn't really interacted with the blind seer, well let's just say first impression matter a lot.
He walked towards the table and sat down then he turned to sunny with a smile and said
"Hey there Sunny, Happy birthday" After seeing Sunny looking between him and Cassie he added.
"I saw your file when Master Jet was given us the briefing".
Merlin had indeed caught a glimpse of the file, and in recent days he had used dream divination to recall the contents of the file, from there he was able to find out his age and birthday date, the former being seventeen while the latter being the first of August.
Seeing the mood was bad, Merlin wanted to chat a bit with sunny about the dream realm, but he after a second thought he knew that if he started that talk Cassie might just breakdown due to fear, he never liked her but that didn't mean he would actively do anything to harm her.
'Atleast if the future changes I'll be aware through her, and if she tries to manipulate me I'll turn her into a marionette' .
The three of them ate in silence, as there were no classes today, when Merlin was done eating, he stood up and decided to go for a walk through the academy.
Merlin once again made his way through the academy, he visited a few of his previous instructors to bid them farewell, he first visited his therapist, she was a regular human, but she still had a great sense of self, Merlin chatted for a while then bid her goodbye as he moved on to continue his walk, after a while of walking through the academy, he then went to visit Teacher Julius, well although Teacher Julius told him that he was prepared, he could still see a little doubt on the old man face, Merlin just smiled and told him that he would definitely come back and recommend more students to his class.
After a whole day of sightseeing, Merlin once again returned to the spacious hall that once held the sleepers on their first day here. He looked around and now he was definitely sure he could taste the tension.
Immediately after Instructor Rock entered the hall and led the sleepers outside, after arriving outside, he led them towards the medical center, into a room at the very edge of the medical center.
There, they saw rows and rows of wheelchairs. In each wheelchair, there was a person with a blank, strangely peaceful expression on their face. All these people were completely silent, motionless, and still.
The sight sent a chill down Merlin's spine.
'These are hollows, how terrifying'
Instructor Rock looked at the empty people with solemn eyes.
"There is a reason I brought you all here. Look well and remember. Some of you may know who these people are… for those of you who don't, they are called Hollow. "
He held the gaze of the students then continued.
"Each one of them was once either a Sleeper or an Awakened. Some of them were weak, some of them were strong. Some were even incredibly powerful. All of them have perished in the Dream Realm. "
"If you're lucky, once your spirit is destroyed, your body dies with it. But if not, you'll become just like them. Hollow. "
He then cast his gaze once more on the students and said in a firm tone.
"So don't die out there"
...
Night had fallen and the sleepers were all preparing to go to the dream realm.
In one of the rooms, the blind seer, Cassie, was helplessly trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar space, touching the walls and strange pieces of machinery with her hands. Tears were streaming down her beautiful, doll-like face.
In the other room, proud Legacy Caster was staring listlessly at the floor. His lips were moving, repeating one strange phrase over and over again. He was trembling.
Somewhere else, Changing Star Nephis, the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, was looking down at her hands. Underneath her skin, soft white radiance was slowly growing brighter and brighter. Her face was contorted in a grimace of harrowing agony.
In another, Lost from light sunless was having a talk with his shadow and preparing to enter the pod.
And then there was Merlin, he had already layed down in his pod, his pockets were filled with handmade paper figurines and a box of matchsticks, as he closed his eyes surrendering to the darkness, in the last minute a thought crossed his mind.
'Only memories can be taken into the dream realm'
"Oh fu__"
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Merlin Hermes!]
A/N: I was wondering, should I make it possible to bring marionettes into a nightmare.
What about those who were turned to marionettes, should they still keep their aspects, I feel like they should, because in LOTM they still could, however I'm thinking once they're turned, they lose their connection to the Nightmare spell so they can't challenge a new nightmare.
Spoiler: Please don't read if you don't want to, but if you do I would love your cooperation
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I'm thinking of making him and sunless challenge the second nightmare twice, well my reason it that one will be on a deathzone that they'll challenge as sleepers, and the other is the normal Noctis nightmare, well to be clear I won't give them any additional abilities I'll only strengthen the originals. The reason for the second nightmare is number one Nightmare the dream horse, number two the Shadow chair, number three I need my scholar of yore Merlin to be able to pull Noctis for a fight, and also sunny needs bone weave in the sky below, so once he gets it, they go up to ivory tower, live the life with Noctis so sunny can learn weaving, and we get back on track.
I believe we all make illogical decisions for logical reasons.