A crack and crackle were the sounds Merlin heard as his steps made a tapping sound while going up the stone stairs.

He went out of the recently battle-worn ruins of the abandoned temple. The ritual was complete. A cyan planet looked down upon him as if he were a lesser being like the others here.

‘I’ll make you see. You sloth-filled degenerate.’ Zothozeft declared. He would prove his ‘ambitions’ true and torture IT for millennia.

The cyan planet soon slowed down as it crashed down on Kelios. Dhyr merged with Kelios.

He now had thirty seconds before it awakened and twenty seconds less than that before his hand-made soldiers warped to his location.

***

Zothozeft walked… Taking one-tenth of a planet in each stride. The ritual was having effects on him. His body wasn’t a human, and he wasn’t a spirit. He was in the process of becoming more.

Four seconds. There was a cliff akin to the cliff of madness that brought him back. Down there was enlightenment. And so, He went.

Ten seconds. The soldiers of the great spirit were there. He didn’t bother. They couldn’t come close to the celestial tree. It was their master’s slumbering den. They wouldn’t dare risk waking the master.

Zothozeft only needed the leaves. No branches or roots. It wouldn’t wake him up.

The planet was gone as soon as he plucked one, two, three, four leaves. The merging ritual ended. With the inheritance ritual causing him to change in form, he went through the sky of Kelios. He’d die in the spiritual sense if he didn’t have a stable form during the ending of the inheritance ritual. He dropped the giant celestial leaves. He trusted Hyftri to not hesitate. He knew she’d do it quickly.

A cut-off portion of the leaves dropped over the battle-worn forest. Hyftri took it and with it, there was only her blood left to complete the ritual.

It ended as quickly as it began. Except… Zothozeft wasn’t here anymore.

The great spirit of the Stars. He was there now. It would have all been ok until he noticed a blinking light right next to where his consciousness would be.

It was a soul. Not a soul of this place. He erased the soul in his consciousness.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Loop: 31, seven more times Zothozeft became the great spirit.

I have seen that great power. It’s the answer. With eight times more power than a normal great spirit would have, I have a sizable amount of power in my consciousness. It’d be enough to deal with whoever tries to control me, I reckon. It’s been easier with the added power to block off memories about the loop. It was much harder to do when I first thought of this plan.

***

I felt a ticking behind my brain. It was Zothozeft. I couldn’t kill him now. Hyftri would know. If he stays trapped in my mind without a way to get out, she’ll never figure it out… Well, not until I ask her to enter my mind.

There’s no risk. Zothozeft is a weak spirit currently, and Hyftri is still a lesser spirit. With even one great spirit's consciousness, she won’t be able to retaliate.

There’s still Solteq. He’s more of a physical one. I could use the spirit energy of Zothozeft and Hyftri to combat him. If only my body wasn’t of a lesser being. I can’t believe I was human once, with a weakness like this… I’d kill myself. I guess I wouldn’t be able to since I’m stuck in a loop.

“Is that you? The seal is gone… How?” Hyftri asked.

“Solteq seemed to have placed a Jolt on this body before I found it. It might have damaged the seal and caused my memories to seep out. I still don’t have all my memories since there’s a second layer. I’d prefer some help with this.” I explained.

“I guess that Fickle-Minded one wanted to be safe than sorry. I think I know what’d break the second layer. Let me enter your mind and I’ll look at it to make sure it’s the one I’m thinking about.”

I felt a tingling sensation as she tried to enter my mind. I allowed her. She was soon erased after that along with Zothozeft. It was a bit easy. The only problem would be Solteq and then… Either finding my way back home or gaining the memories of my home world back.

I tried checking with the great spirit’s consciousness but there wasn’t anything. I was sure I had memories of that place. I’d believe I lost them other than the alternative which is I never had them in the first place.

I could try and gain the consciousness of the elder spirit of Memories. He’s dead but that doesn’t mean I can’t use a ritual to siphon his corpse’s lingering power. It won’t be much, but it might be enough to look at all the memories of one person, me.

I just need to find him. Hyftri’s memories only knew what elder spirits were out there, not their location. I could do a merging ritual, but I did not have the power to deal with the inhabitants of whatever was there on the corpse of that elder spirit. If the great spirits never tried to explore that place, I definitely wouldn’t without preparing.

With that out of the way, I looked around me and saw a paradox. Both dull and vibrant colors. The colors I was used to were vibrant, but there were new colors as well. Those were weirdly dull. I dismissed the observation and decided to meditate to gain even more spirit energy before I dealt with Solteq and his followers.

I knelt at the exact same spot where I first began to bang my head against a stone rock. It was also the same spot where Solteq controlled me and where Solteq and Zothozeft first fought during the merger ritual. And there I sat, gaining spirit energy and mana to further advance the Jolt just so my body could handle more spirit energy. This would take some time.