Preperations

Waking up the next day, Merlin heard a knock from the door. Giving a grunt, Sebastian entered, carrying a tray of breakfast with him. Placing it down on a table in the room, he turned to Merlin with a bow.

"Master Merlin, good morning. I hope you have had sufficient sleep." Sebastian said, with his eyes closed.

Merlin yawned and hopped out of bed, still in his pyjamas that had patterns of his face over it, making various faces.

Taking a piece of bread, Merlin said to Sebastian, who was standing by the door to his room, "Are you ready for today?"

Sebastian stayed silent for a moment, then gave a slight nod, speaking in a grave tone. "I am, master Merlin."

Merlin gave a nod and didn't say anything else, nor did Sebastian. Finishing his breakfast, Merlin went to have a bath and prepared himself both physically and mentally for the battle ahead.

Leaving the bedroom, Merlin passed by some empty rooms and down the stairs to the living room, where Sebastian was standing ready. He dismissed the maids and cooks for the rest of the day, as per Merlin's requirements.

"Everything is ready, master Merlin," Sebastian said with a bow.

Merlin smiled and sat down on the couch, summoning the daily newspaper from the common area, and of course, leaving some change behind in compensation.

"We still have the whole day to prepare, so no need to be so anxious. I can see it on you." Merlin said, seeing how fidgety Sebastian was, compared to his usual stoic self.

Sebastian bowed and answered him, "Yes, Master Merlin." Taking a deep breath, he continued speaking, "The artefacts that you created have all been gathered in the lower basement."

Merlin nodded and said, "Good. Nothing can go wrong today. We'll begin after lunch, making sure that nobody disturbs us in the meantime as it can be detrimental to our fight."

Sebastian gave one last bow and left to make the last preparations. The door behind Merlin creaked open as he left Merlin alone.

Reaching into his robe he took out a small glass mirror. Biting his thumb, Merlin raised it above the mirror as blood dripped down upon it, getting absorbed into the mirror as the surface turned to a bloody colour.

Holding the mirror in his hand, Merlin suddenly crushed it in his fist, causing the glass shards to impale his hands, startling those that would have seen such an action, which was out of character for the usually easy going Merlin.

"Time for the first step, the curse," Merlin said, closing his eyes and plunging his awareness deep into his subconscious as the noise around him was drowned out as if he were underwater.

Inside of his subconsciousness was a large and bloody magical formation slowly rotating, with dark energy so nefarious that it would make most seasoned veterans pale from the horrid feeling that it was producing.

Since Merlin always had a layer of Mana skin activated at all times, he was unharmed from the otherworldly Mana that was leaking from the magical formation, the Curse that was placed on the Caliban family.

Concentrating his awareness, a replica of Merlin appeared as he assumed control over the Mana copy of himself. He then proceeded forward to the magical formation and drew a hexagon in midair with some dark magic after having experimented with it in the past, and finding out that it was particularly weak to this element.

A dark hexagon was then created and floated in mid-air. Manifesting his staff, Merlin flipped it upside down and used the end of it to inscribe the counter curse spell. Once completed, Merlin tapped the middle of the magical formation, sending a ripple throughout the space. A surge of dark Mana expanded outwards, causing the magical formation to shake.

"That should do it." With a nod, Merlin pushed the hexagon counter curse forward, causing it to expand in the process into a 4-dimensional shape instead of 2 dimensional, trapping the formation within it.

Raising his right hand, he bit his thumb, drawing blood, and flicked it forwards and through the hexagon, landing on the centre of the magical formation. Suddenly, a loud screech appeared which shook the magical formation rang out.

"YOU!!! What do you think you are trying to achieve, you damn Human?! Trying to rid yourself of my curse?! 'KNEEL' " A warped and demonic voice rang out, and the moment it uttered the word kneel, Merlin's body shook for a moment before it was negated due to his unique constitution.

"Y-You… How are you not affected?" The voice questioned, clearly puzzled.

Merlin merely cupped his chin and muttered, "Huh, magic that affects one's soul. Soul magic? An interesting property, however, quite nefarious in nature itself."

"You will pay for this insolence! Do not think that I will let you do as you wish, Heir of Caliban!" The voice rang out and said some unintelligible words before disappearing. The magical formation inside of the hexagon broke apart and disappeared as its Mana particles got sucked away to another dimension.

Following that, the surrounding subconscious area suddenly glowed with life, turning from the gloomy darkroom from before into a small hill that was slowly being constructed from the ground up. Grass then slowly appeared on the dirt hill, with flowers appearing decorating the ground. On the apex of the hill stood a single tree that sprouted from the ground and grew for hundreds of meters before stopping, its branching expanding outwards and covering the entire sky. Rainbow coloured leaves then spouted from the branches, as an artificial Sun manifested itself above the tree, causing the sunlight that reflected through the leaves to light up with all the colours of the spectrum.

Standing in the middle of the area, Merlin was surrounded by a wave of pure Mana that was populating the area, celebrating its freedom and rebirth. Smiling, Merlin approached the large tree in the centre of his subconscious atop of the hill.

Placing a hand on it, Merlin gave a light chuckle, before pulling his awareness back out.

"Master Merlin, I sensed a… a fluctuation within the manor," Sebastian said, opening the door slightly to see Merlin completely fine, and all traces of blood cleaned up already. His gaze landed on Merlin's body, and an indescribable feeling surged from within, "M-Master Merlin… Your presence… it feels… different, as though something inside of you changed. Was it a success?" Sebastian asked with anticipation.

Merlin nodded, getting up and manifesting his staff into his hand before erupting a large-scale illusion that covered the entire Caliban estate. Turning to Sebastian he answered, "Yes, the curse is now gone. This will draw the ire of the Devil, so he should be paying us a visit soon. Make sure to have the artefacts primed for his arrival, as I want to capture him first." Sebastian bowed once more before his figure slowly melted into the shadows.

Merlin then turned his head towards one of the tree's outside of the estate, to see it full of blackbirds staring at the illusion that he erected. "Hmph, she just doesn't give up on trying to spy on me."

Merlin then waved his hand, causing numerous cats to manifest underneath the tree, chasing all of the birds away or either catching some and playing with them until they reverted back to Mana.

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In a forest far away from the Kingdom of Clover, a woman was seated in front of a mirror with a frown on her face. "That boy, he thinks of defying me? If it weren't for the fact that I cannot foresee his future, I would have wanted nothing to do with you."

Standing up, she resummoned all of the birds that she sent out towards the Caliban Estate. "Sooner or later, I'll have my answers."

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Entering the basement of the estate, Merlin lit up the area with some simple light magic. He ran his hands along the dust-covered walls, going over a cobweb as a small spider climbed onto the back of his hand.

Smiling, Merlin brought his hand close to his face as he said, "So, you've been guarding the basement against insects? I must commend you then." The spider surprisingly lifted two of its front legs into the air as its body swerved left and right.

Merlin gave a small chuckle and placed it back onto its web as he continued down the dark hallway that led to a single door at the end. On the door, itself were numerous magical formations engraved into it that were constantly being modified by the different heads of House Caliban throughout multiple generations.

Approaching the door, Merlin rested a hand upon it, running down the length of the engravings as she whispered, "I thank thee, those who sacrificed themselves to keep House Caliban afloat while being wrought upon from the curse. You will all be forever remembered as the saviours of House Caliban, as I am merely the sword that will purge the devil from our family henceforth."

With a push, Merlin entered the darkroom that was lit up by simple candles as the formation from the door created a Mana nullification field inside of the room. However, now that Merlin, the head of House Caliban has entered the room, the nullification magic became useless as it was deactivated for the last time.

Sebastian walked out from behind the door and bowed to Merlin, saying, "Master Merlin, everything is ready. All that is needed is for your orders to begin." He then took out a bag that was filled with different coloured cubes and spheres that Merlin had created in preparation for this day, opening it up.