In Ummy's rabbit hole, Rob was flipping through a collection of fairy tales left behind by Merlin. It told the story of an ugly duckling that turned into a white swan. However, the ending was changed by Merlin. After the ugly duckling turned into a white swan, it was caught and made into a goose feast. Thus, all the ugly ducklings no longer wanted to turn into white swans.
When Luo Bu finished reading the story, he happened to hear footsteps coming from the tunnel.
The footsteps were a little messy. Merlin was half-crawling and half-walking. He dragged his weak body and panted heavily. When he saw Rob, he was shocked. "You're not at the ninth-stage?"
Then, he frowned. "No, you're already at the ninth-stage. It's just that you've hidden your aura very well. It seems that you've mastered the three powers very well. You're only one step away from fusing them together."
"You're a little later than the agreed time." Rob put down the fairy tales in his hands and stood up.
A strange look flashed in Merlin's eyes. "Aren't you afraid? If I don't come back within a magic hour, your apotheosis ceremony won't be able to proceed. In the end, both your soul and body will be destroyed."
Rob did not answer this question. Instead, he asked, "Then why did you come back?"
"Who knows? Maybe there's still a trace of humanity left in this body." Merlin grinned and revealed a self-deprecating smile. "I don't really like this world, but I don't want to see it destroyed either. You, on the other hand, the last sentence of the fairy's prophecy was to warn you against me. Why did you choose to believe me?"
Rob raised his eyebrows. "There's no fairy's prophecy at all, is there?"
"Oh?"
"How long have you been planning this? Ten years? Fifty years? Or a few hundred years? You've obtained half of the Soul Flower and discovered the secret of the destruction of the Four-Eyed Man's civilization. You're the only one among the humans who could predict all of this in advance, so it's impossible that you didn't make any preparations. Assuming that you've been planning this since nine hundred years ago, where exactly is this chess piece?
"I've thought about it carefully. The Fairy Prophecy became famous on the eve of the First Magic War, very close to the time when you obtained the Flower of Souls. The death of the Fourth Elven King was more like a trick, as it was too long ago to be verified. After that, the rise of the Reinhardt Family once again verified the accuracy of the Fairy Prophecy, and it also completely made the Fairy Prophecy famous.
Rob paused. "I don't know what you think of the concept of fate. I'm more used to seeing it as a collection of all possibilities. I don't really believe that there's anyone or any way to predict a person's fate in advance. As far as I know, you have a close relationship with those fairies."
"Did you know that fairies are the most unique race in the entire Dawn Continent? I first met them underground. They're fragile, cowardly, and greedy. No one knows how long they've lived there, and no one even knows of their existence. They're so inconspicuous that even those bastards above us don't know that there's such a small race living in the Dawn Continent," Merlin said leisurely.
His thoughts seemed to have returned to a faraway place. "At that time, although I already had eternal life, I hadn't lost my human emotions. Ever since I learned about what happened to those four-eyed 'people', I began to think about how to face everything that would eventually come.
"At that time, magic had just begun. Although Roland had built a system for it, it was just like consolidating the soil and planting the seeds. Humans still had to wait for it to blossom and bear fruit. I assumed that a few years later, a person who was more outstanding than Roland would appear, full of talent and surprises, so powerful that once you succeeded in apotheosizing, you could shake the existence of the holy kingdom. Humans would then have a trump card in the truest sense.
"But that alone isn't enough. Only gods can defeat gods, and they won't allow you to succeed in apotheosizing. In the end, we still have to face the biggest problem — there's no Flower of Souls in the world for you to complete the apotheosizing ritual. " Merlin blinked. "So, when I met those gremlins, I had a preliminary idea in my mind.
"It's not easy to sell the concept of destiny to others, especially the gods. I spent some time teaching those gremlins how to speak, created their own language, and wrote down their racial background. It's that 'absolute neutrality' and 'worldview tester' rhetoric. I have to admit that now that I think about it, it's a bit of a chuunibyou. I even built a city of gremlins on the sea for them."
Rob said. "So, the gremlins' prophecy was just a lie from beginning to end?"
Merlin picked his ear. "Yes, that's right. I wanted everyone to believe in the veracity of the gremlins' prophecy, especially those fellows above us. But in fact, the so-called prophecy was just the most likely scenario that I deduced through my powerful intelligence network, and I used their mouths to say it … Of course, I would also intervene in the dark when necessary. In short, I had to ensure that things went according to the prophecy."
"You've been planning this since a long time ago. That means that it wasn't the first time we met here?"
"Yes," Merlin admitted. "I've been paying attention to you since you were still in the Royal College of Magic and Magic. I have to admit that you're more outstanding than I imagined."
Rob seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed. "Then, was the meeting between Lolo and me in Ryan also arranged by you?"
Merlin shook his head. "Whether it's you or me, we're standing here now, trying our best to deny the existence of destiny. But the interesting thing is that sometimes it really exists. I know what happened to her father and mother, and I also know that you escaped from your own Magic Tower, but I didn't expect that you would meet in Ryan. If there really is destiny in this world, then this is destiny — the destiny of you and her, and the destiny of the entire human world. "
Rob was silent for a moment. "Now that you've lied to everyone, what's next?"
Merlin smiled, reached out, and inserted his hand directly into his chest. He pulled out a small blood-colored flower, and then panted. "Soul Flower, the last step that's missing in your apotheosis ritual. The rest is up to you."
After saying this, he began to age rapidly. In just a few minutes, his jet-black hair turned white, his muscles sagged, and his cheeks were covered with wrinkles. Time left its mark on his body at an incredible speed.
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