Prologue 2

The glyphs on the mirror have expanded into large pools of abyssal darkness, and now only a few gaps of the reflective surface remains. Merlin stands nearby, organizing and gathering his equipment, stuffing his items into an extraplanar pouch.

Standing up, he rolls one of his bruised shoulders, still feeling a bit of pain from one of Dhog's wayward punches.

Salem watches from a nearby pedestal, gazing at the shifting borders of the mural above. "Merlin."

"Yo."

"I wish to ask, why was the plan to trick them into believing your death instead of simply... killing them?"

Merlin opens his revolver and removes the expended magic bullets, tucking the empty cartridges away into a pocket to re-enchant later. "We don't know the circumstances of the next Merging, so I'd rather keep them around in case they become useful. Plus, it's a lot harder to kill high-level adventurers than you might think."

The archmage gazes upon his reflection, the last visage of his golden eyes being swallowed up by the puddles of black ink. The two watch in silence, gazing into the abyss as it fills the mirror's surface.

"Time to pull out Ol' reliable."

Merlin pulls out a 10 foot wooden stick with an apple dangling from the tip. Salem curiously watches the long stick bend with the weight of the bobbing fruit. "I thought your trap detecting stick included a mouse."

"There used to be a mouse."

The wizard cautiously moves the point of the stick forward, quickly summoning an arcane shield to protect himself from any explosions. The apple disappears into the darkness, being held there for half a minute before being pulled back out unharmed.

After a quick visual inspection, Merlin takes the fruit into his hand, observing the texture of the skin and cutting open the apples core to inspect any changes.

"Anything?" Salem asks.

"The skin is a little colder than room temperature, but nothing else is out of the ordinary."

Slipping the fruit into his pouch along with the long stick, the wizard steps closer to the magical gate. Salem climbs up his robes to sit on the archmage's shoulders.

Both take a deep breath in preparation, unsure of what awaited on the other side. Merlin leans back before quickly throwing himself through the gate, spending as little time touching the portal as possible.

On the other side, a wave of freezing air immediately washes over the two, devoid of any moisture. A city of library shelves stretch off into an endless expanse, filled with the scent of aged paper and magical ink. In the far distance, the walls and shelves of the expansive library fall away into an incomprehensible mess.

Between the shelves, both Merlin and Salem are surprised to find small cat-shaped blobs of darkness dutifully ferrying tomes and store manuscripts through the ancient library, acting as library aides.

"Relatives of yours, Salem?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. I would like to speak with them."

"Sure."

The archmage crouches down and lets Salem hop down from his shoulder, who approaches a nearby cat and begins to communicate in cat language, a tongue foreign to the wizard. But Merlin had other plans.

Merlin continues to scan the rest of the building, his eyes eventually making their way to the sky. A glass ceiling is suspended past innumerable floors that spiral like a camera lens, spiraling towards a mass of darkness, with a single being staring back down at him. The Diviner.

The Diviner appears as an impossibly enormous eye with a keyhole-like pupil, like a moon that was pulled too close to the earth, with many more eyes dotting the infinite abyss in place of stars.

Merlin shudders at the sight of the alien god. He had seen glimpses of the Diviner in passing, in the corners of his eyes or as a subtle shape in the darkness of caves. The Diviner would always disappear when he looked closer, but now the being does not fade from his vision.

Suddenly, a bird's caw rings out from behind a floor of floating staircases and a fluttering shape flies over the railing. A small crow made of the same abyss as the vantacats quickly descends lands a few feet from the wizard, bowing their head in greeting.

WELCOME! KING MER- KKH!" The hoarse crow coughs and gargles, as if it had not spoken in a long time. After clearing his throat, the crow bows once more. "KING MERLIN! WELCOME! I AM CORVINUS! THE DIVINER HAS BEEN EXPECTING YOU!"

Merlin lowers his head to the crow in return. "Honored to meet you, Corvinus."

"HAVE YOU BROUGHT THE OFFERINGS?"

"Yes." Merlin responds, producing a book from his coat. The cover bore the same shade of black as Salem's fur and Corvinus' feathers. On the spine, a single eye blinks at its surroundings, its pupil colored a hazel hue.

Holding the book in front of himself, the archmage also removes his marble ring and places it on top of the tome.

"Here. Everything I could remember from the other world. Up until I got hit by a truck."

Corvinus, with a wave of his wing, telekinetically lifts the book from Merlin's hand and opens to the first page, reading the true name of the archmage. "THIS 'TRUCK' MUST HAVE BEEN A FEARSOME CREATURE, ZACHARIAS!"

"Oh yeah. Terrifying beast." The archmage responds, deciding against correcting the bird.

"THE DIVINER WILL BE PLEASED WITH THIS GLIMPSE OF THE COMING WORLD." Corvinus exclaims, baring a row of eerily human teeth. His voice is softer, but still coarse, wiping the tome away from view. "AND IN RETURN, YOU WILL HAVE YOUR ANSWERS."

"About the Merging, right?" Merlin asks, made a little wary by the uncanny teeth.

"OF COURSE! AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU MIGHT WANT!" Corvinus lifts the ring back towards Merlin. "ANYONE WHO IS BESTOWED A RING BY THE DIVINER IS ALLOWED TO OPEN A GATE TO HIS REALM, AND ANY WHO OFFER HIM WORTHY KNOWLEDGE IS ALLOWED FULL ACCESS TO THE LIBRARY.

"ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING THAT IS PERCIEVED, PRESENT, PAST, OR FUTURE, ALL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS!" The crow motions to the vast library behind him. "TELL ME, WHAT ANSWERS DO YOU SEEK?"

"I need to know the circumstances of the next Merging. And if there's anything that can prevent it."

"THEN PERHAPS THE REVENANTS WILL HOLD WHAT YOU SEEK." The crow turns, trotting down the length of the shelves in a purposeful manner.

However, a crow's legs and a human's legs had two very different speeds.

"TELL ME, WHAT HAS SENT YOU ON THIS JOURNEY?"

While he follows Corvinus one step at a time, Merlin's gaze wanders about the library, doing his best to avoid making eye contact with the Diviner.

"When I was reincarnated here, I was tasked with preventing a Merging by defeating the Dragon of Calamity. After that, I was supposed to be the only person from another world. But then I met another revenant."

"WELL, ACTUALLY!" The crow interrupts. "IF YOU WERE REINCARNATED AND BORN HERE, THEN YOU ARE TECHNICALLY A NATIVE TO THIS WORLD. BEING A REVENANT IMPLIES THAT SOMEONE ON THIS WORLD DIED AND YOUR SOUL TOOK OVER THEIR BODY."

"Potato, tomahto. Point is, I know another Merging is coming, so I sought out ways to prevent it. I came to make a deal for that knowledge."

The two turn a corner and step around a lazing vantacat, arriving at an aisle of empty shelves. Corvinus extends his wing, summoning Merlin's offering from layers of black feathers and sliding it snugly into its place.

Gradually, the cold air begins to shift into a slow breeze. The dust from the shelves kick into the air and surround ghostly apparitions, lending shape to something ethereal. These apparitions walk up and down the aisles, spawning tomes of differing hues and filling the shelves.

The archmage walks through the aisles in surprise,  studying the phenomenon as the tomes line themselves up in dedicated spots. A few remain pristine condition, while others seem to age before the archmage's eyes.

"YOU ARE FREE TO STUDY WHATEVER YOU'D LIKE FOR AS LONG AS YOU ARE HERE. THERE ARE DESKS AND ROOMS SHOULD YOU WISH FOR COMFORT. YOU CAN DRINK FROM THE NEARBY FOUNTAIN, BUT IF YOU MUST EAT SOMETHING, DO SO IN THE DEDICATED SPOT."

"Thank you, Corvinus."

The crow quickly bows, leaving Merlin to his own devices. The archmage gently brushes his fingers along the rows of books, the sound of his boots clicking against the floor. Each tome represented a person from his world stuffed into the body of someone else, suddenly thrust into an entirely new existence.

All of them are the symptoms of an impending Merging, two worlds forced to occupy the same space. Often with cataclysmic consequences.

Merlin quickly starts taking a few of the thicker tomes, conjuring a floating platform to stack them on, hoping to find an answer that would prevent such an event. While he scans the names of several books, he feels something small and soft bump against his ankle.

Looking down, Merlin discovers a small vantacat pawing at his pant leg. Unlike Salem's sleek and refined fur and demeanor, this cat seemed much more akin to a crumpled tissue.

At the cat's feet was a black tome, made from the same abyss as the vantacats' fur.

"Yes? Did you need something?"

"Mnyah!"

The vantacat puts a paw on the book and gazes up to the archmage, as if they were proudly presenting a dead mouse.

"... Thanks. I'll add it to my reading list."

Merlin bends down and picks up the tome, running his fingers along the spine before flipping it open to the first page. At the top of the page, a name is written in clean calligraphy, one familiar to the wizard.

"Damn. She's here too."

The corners of Merlin's mouth twitch concern, giving the vantacat a quick scratch behind the ear before heading towards an aforementioned reading room, a small alcove with a comfortable reclining chair. The gaze of the Diviner is hidden behind an overhang, but the wizard could still feel himself under its piercing vision.

Trying his best to ignore the ominous gaze, Merlin holds the pitch-black tome in his hand, rubbing its strangely silky cover in between his fingertips.

His dying act was saving a girl from a truck, an old friend with a long life ahead of her. And now he holds the record of her life as a revenant in his hands, her soul misplaced from its rightful reality.

The archmage gently flips open the hard cover, rereading the name of the person who's body she now inhabits: Kathryne Wyrm.