44 Merlin (2)

Before he could say anything further I was by the platform with the book in my hand."You mean this book." I say while looking at the red book with golden edges and a golden round mark in the middle of the cover.

In the golden mark, I could see the imprinted face of what looked like a demon from Hell.

Merlin turns towards me shocked at my speed," No, keep it back, you do not know what that book is, it is evil, pure evil." He says reaching out his hand towards me.

"You know old man if you really want to stop me, you will have to come out of your secret dimension and break your suspended animation, as your astral projection can't do a thing." I say waving my mace in front of him, "Well even if your real body arrives without this Book of Eternity, you won't be much of a challenge."

Merlin's face became serious all of a sudden," How do you know all this, mortal? Did Morgaine send you here for this book?"

"I work for no one. Let's just say that I need this book for something."

Hearing that he seemed relieved, "Use it? Do you want to learn the spells written inside? That book is full of chaos and demonic spells. I had this book for a long time, still, I could not decipher and learn all of it. So I tell you it's futile, just keep it back and search for something else.", Merlin explained to me patiently in a sage voice.

"I do not need to learn them. Would you agree with me that an artifact's master would know it's every secret?", He looks at me puzzled at my abrupt question.

I take out a rock from my storage, "Do you know what this stone is?"

"Philosopher's stone!", Merlin exclaimed seeing the rock. "That rock is very impressive, but it won't help you with the book.", He gets back his composure while still looking at that rock probably remembering the days of his past.

I keep the mace back in my storage, "We will see", I manipulate my aura and use my heat vision on my right palm to create a deep enough gash so it doesn't heal fast.

Merlin just stares at me wide-eyed seeing me shoot lasers out of my eyes, "You are not human, are you?"

I ignored him, I felt a bit of pain but I could also feel an itch in my palm. Knowing that the wound has started to heal itself, I keep my bloody palm upon the golden mark on the book's cover.

I start reading a chant in an ancient tongue.

"Blood magic.", Merlin says while caressing his beard again while waiting for the spell to fail.

As the chant ends, I place the philosopher's stone on the book too.

"Dnib eht ytinrete koob ot em."

The book starts to shine with my blood being absorbed in the golden mark and then it hovers mid-air. Merlin watches by the side stunned with this development.

The book opens automatically and the pages start turning, while it gets enveloped in a red aura. As the last page comes and the book closes the red aura gets absorbed within and the book flies towards me, disappearing as it touches my right palm.

"Impossible! Did you become the Eternity book's master? … But the current owner is still alive, how did you do it?", Merlin asks still not believing what he just saw.

I could feel the connection with the book, it fed a lot of information in my brain too, but I did not have the time right now to understand it.

With a thought the book appears in my right hand, it's the same overall just it shows my face in the golden mark on the book.

"It's because you do not know the origins of the Philosopher's stone, old man.", I tell him while keeping the stone back in the storage and making the book disappear again.

Merlin thinks about something deeply but then just shakes his head, "Do you know why I kept that Scimitar here with this book? so that only a pure-hearted person can remove it and get the book with it too. As the book will corrupt its user, It will feed on your every dark impulse, every dark thought, and make you act on it." Merlin tells me gravely.

"The only way to get rid of that is to keep a very powerful mental barrier and shield your thoughts from the book. I had to leave the book here as it had started to corrupt my mind too. But you are it's master now unless you give the book to someone else, you will always stay connected to it. " Merlin looks at me with sympathy.

"I have my own ways", I wave my hand at him, "Until we meet again, Gandalf"

Seeing me go above ground he starts disappearing too, "It's Merlin, not Gandalf."

I go back to the Fortress and meditate. While trying to follow Torquasm-Vo's teachings, I also start to arrange the new knowledge inside my head.

After half a day, I had browsed through all the knowledge of the book and had found what I was looking for.

I check and see that the sunstone will still need a day to completely absorb the radiation from the rock.

Feeling a bit impatient, I go for the target in Africa early.