Alright guys, I'm back! The situation at work has gotten a little better, so I'll be able to write again, at least a chapter a week... maybe two chapters If I manage, but that would be a lucky week. I'll be releasing the chapters on the weekends.

Well this is the chapter due for last weekend, I had to go out of town and forgot my laptop at home, so here you have it!

Ps: Cliffhanger haters, you know I try my best not to make cliffhangers on the chapters, but it was inevitable on this one. I originally intended to release this chapter together with chapter 20, but it's been several weeks without any release and I would have felt guilty if I withheld this chapter until next weekend... so please, enjoy this chapter and endure it till next weekend!

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Chapter 19 – Grani (I)

Merlin was wondering what the magic circle might do, so he infused his mana on the circle to activate it. He would soon regret his decision. Shortly after, Merlin was transported to another cave, but he couldn’t see anything, only darkness…

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???’s POV:

This feeling… someone has activated the magic circle?! Good! It’s been many millennia since that last happened, let’s test him, whoever he is! Let’s see… a human cub? Are you telling me that after all this time waiting, the one to activate the magic circle was a human cub?! Well, little one, show me how you fare with a little pressure from me…

Merlin: “Kwagh! Cough! Cough!”

Ok, that’s enough! Just a little pressure and he already coughs two mouthfuls of blood?! Are you kidding me?! What are they thinking, sending someone so weak to obtain my power?! I think it’s time to show myself!

???: “Hello human cub. May you tell me why the kingdom has sent you to seek my power while being so weak?”

Merlin: “Who are you? No, wait, I know you are a dragon, but why are you here? And what kingdom are you talking about? I ended up here by accident.”

A human cub activated the magic circle and ended up in my cave, by accident?! I don’t buy it, there is something that doesn’t add up! Why would they bother to send a little human cub here if he isn’t seeking my power? What are those humans plotting now? With the idiotic face the cub is putting right now, I’m inclined to believe him, he doesn’t seem to seek my power, nor to know where he is… But if he has the ability to get here, how come he doesn’t know? This situation is really odd, I guess I’ll have to interrogate the boy!

???: “Little cub, my name is Grani. After the death of my dear friend Merlin Pendragon, I came here and was left to slumber until someone else worthy of wielding my power appeared. The kingdom of Avalon should have sent you to seek my power, how else would you have known were the entrance to this place was located?”

Merlin: “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the kingdom of Avalon is no more. It disappeared many millennia ago, after the Great Magic Era no one has ever heard about that kingdom!”

Got’cha human cub! You just contradicted your own words… although I’m curious of how you’re going to justify yourself when I point it out! Fufufu… I’ve always loved to mess with the humans who lied to me… It’s so fun seeing them trying to cover their lies with more lies… You give them enough rope and they end up hanging themselves… I’ve lost the count of the humans I’ve eaten as punishment for lying to me… You’re out of luck little human cub!

Grani: “Oh, that’s really interesting! Now tell me, little cub, if it is as you say and no one has ever heard about that kingdom after the Great Magic Era… how come you do know? I dislike liars! Well they’re actually quite tasty, but I think you understand what I mean…”

Merlin: “I didn’t lie! The kingdom of Avalon disappeared and was forgotten. But I’m Merlin Pendragon, one of the last descendants from the royal bloodline of the Avalon Kingdom, and named that way to honor my ancestor and founder of the said kingdom!”

Oh? I didn’t expect him to say that! If he really is who he says, and the kingdom of Avalon has disappeared and it’s been long forgotten, this might be an opportunity to prevail over them… If they have resurfaced because they think us gone, they’re in for a surprise, but this human cub is still too weak… I’m trapped in here, so I can’t teach him our ways… Well, maybe he’s already been instructed on them, otherwise, how would he be here? He wouldn’t have been able to use the magic circle which leads here if he hadn’t learnt our ways…

Grani: “Little cub, do you understand the meaning behind your family name, ‘Pendragon’?”

Merlin: “No, I don’t. Sorry.”

I’ll be damned! This is going to take a while… and quite a bit of magic!

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Merlin’s POV:

What is he asking now? Do I know the meaning behind my family name, ‘Pendragon’? If I recall correctly, back on Earth it meant something like “dragon’s head”, but I don’t know if it has the same meaning here… And even if it did, I don’t get what that has to do with anything…

Grani: “Tell me, little cub, what do you know about the history if your family?”

Merlin: “Aside that it was a royal bloodline once upon a time, not much.”

Grani: “Have you ever heard about the ‘Cult of Abaddollyon’'?”

Merlin: “Those child-murdering bastards? Yeah, I’ve not only heard about them, I’ve already killed some of them! They should be erased from this world!”

Grani: “Oh?! Little cub, you are a child yourself, but you almost sounded like an adult there! Anyway, this must be the work of Fate, you don’t know about the real history of your family, nor you have been educated in our ways, but you’ve already confronted the ‘Cult of Abaddollyon’ and wish to eradicate them… Truly a member of the Pendragon Royal bloodline and a worthy successor of Merlin Pendragon! Hahaha!”

I really don’t get this dragon! He keeps on saying “our ways” and talking about the history of my family and Fate… If only he knew how much the Fate from this universe messed up my life back on Earth… And what puzzles me the most is that he has talked about the ‘Cult of Abaddollyon’ as if it had some sort of relationship with my family! As if! He better explains himself, or I’ll go back without hearing him out… Oh, yeah, I forgot that I don’t know the fucking way out of here! Damn, I’ll have to wait until he stops blabbering to ask for the way out… My day keeps on getting better and better… Just my luck!

Merlin: “So, to keep a long story short, my family seemed to have some sort of feud with the ‘Cult of Abaddollyon’ in the past, and you think that by telling me, I gonna become you tool to fight them… You’re out of luck, buddy, I don’t like being played, so look for someone else!”

Grani: “It seems that you have misinterpreted my words… I wasn’t trying to manipulate you into doing anything, I was just hoping that you continued your family’s legacy… but you don’t seem to understand the current situation, so I better explain to you the origins of this world, your bloodline, and the ‘Cult of Abaddollyon’!”

Well, let’s see if this goes somewhere, or it’s just the delusions of an old dragon who’s making me lose my time here!

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Merlin didn’t actually believe the dragon, he thought Grani was just feeding him some bullshit to trick him into setting him free, but contrary to his expectations, the dragon started telling him about the history of Klantea.

[Contrary to what is written in history books and to what the different cults say, when this world was created, the gods didn’t create the five races, as a matter of fact, at that point in time, the gods didn’t even exist… Actually, along with the creation of this world, a very powerful being was also created. That entity had the power and the ability to manipulate everything in this world at its will. The entity, after many millennia of solitude, decided to try and leave this world to find another one in which he wouldn’t be alone, but much to its surprise and anger, the entity discovered that it was actually bounded to this world and couldn’t abandon it.

When its anger dissipated and it managed to think with clarity, the entity took a decision: if it couldn’t go find other beings of its kind, then it just had to create them itself! It then proceeded to divide its consciousness and power into 23 different parts, each of them completely independent the others, failing to notice that in doing so, its own consciousness and identity would disappear. The 23 new beings had two different genres, 10 of them were male and the other 13 were female, those are the beings known as the gods of this world…]

At his point, Merlin couldn’t help himself and interrupted the dragon’s speech again to ask his question.

Merlin: “Sorry for interrupting you again, but, did you say there are 23 gods?! I thought there were only 11…

Grani: “Little cub, I know you have questions but I’d really appreciate if you would wait until the end before asking them! That way most of them will be answered before the end of the lesson! Now, answering your question… yes, there are only 11 gods in the current pantheon, but it wasn’t like that in the beginning… And before you ask me again, you’ll get to know what happened to the rest of them if you let me continue…“

Merlin didn’t dare to continue asking, and listened again to the story the dragon was telling him…

[… but a new problem arised! The gods and goddesses got bored of chatting among themselves and started to do little changes to the world, just to kill their boredom. Those changes started piling up and ended up resulting in the breaking of the sole continent this world had, dividing it into 5 pieces: Kenton, Klasten, Kaltena, Klatera and Klasnia, the lost continent. Realizing that they had reached the limit, and couldn’t alleviate their boredom with that method anymore, the gods decided to create new lifeforms in the world, sentient beings which would amuse them with their actions and their daily lives. Thus, the five main races were created: elves, dwarves, beastmen, devils and humans.

After observing these lesser creatures for a while, and watching them name themselves and their offspring, the gods became self-aware that they didn’t possess names, so they decided to name themselves. Some of them took a name after the element they governed: Ignis, Unda, Aer, Terra, Lux, Erebos, Inanis, Fulgetra, Mana... or some other random name according to their personalities: Obitus, Ortus, Nex, Debellum, Bellum, Fames, Cruciatus, Pestis, Natura, Minutorars, Fera, Asmodea, Bastheth and Lokiseth.

Time passed and some gods chose a race, to become its patron god. Natura became the patron goddess of the elves, Minutorars became the patron god of the dwarves, Fera became the patron goddess of the beastmen, and Lokiseth became the patron god of the humans. As for the devils, they didn’t have a patron god, they had six: Nex, Bellum, Fames, Debellum, Cruciatus and Pestis, they all gave their power and protection to the devils. Actually, Asmodea too wanted to give her support to the devils, but she refrained from doing so because there were six gods already supporting them.

What those six gods didn’t realize at the time was that their support to the devils was disrupting the balance of power too much, and the devils were attaining a power akin to a demigod’s. That resulted in the devils, drunk in power, warring, conquering and enslaving the other races. The situation forced the other gods to intervene, and the war reached a stalemate.

The gods thought that was it, never would they have thought the hexad who supported the devils would betray them by giving even more power to the devils! Seeing that their beloved world was in danger of being destroyed by the overpowered devils, the gods other than the hexad decided they had to take drastic measures, and banish the vile creatures from their world, for all eternity! The price for taking this action, however, it wasn’t something they wanted to willingly pay, for it was truly too much! Unfortunately, they didn’t actually have any other choice…]

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