Last Divinity: The Advent Of Dreams-Chapter 51: New Ally

They sat down to talk. Merlin looked directly at Khali sitting opposite him. " Quite an interesting thing you've built here boy."

He complimented Khali who raised an eyebrow, " How do you know it's me? It could be anybody here."

Merlin started laughing, " I've lived a long time child, much longer than a youngling like you could imagine."

Khali almost laughed at that, Merlin continued. " Of everybody here, you are the only one who is a mystery.

Every since I've got here I've casting a spell to see through all of you." Khali of course knew that.

No magic could be used in his presence without him knowing. Plus, magic was highly ineffective against him.

" I've seen through all them and to my surprise, I learnt my little demon is an acolyte and a knight, a warlock I've only read about."

Khali listened without interfering, he wanted to see what the old mage learnt about him though he already had an idea.

" Yet when it comes to you, I saw nothing at all, it was as if you are an endless pit that devoured all of my magic."

Everybody turned and looked at Khali who still sat there quietly with a terrifying smile, of course that was not his intention.

" It's strange, I can't even tell if...could you please stop smiling, it's very unsettling." Khaki stopped smiling.

He was hurt that even an old ghost like this was unsettled by his smile. Merlin continued.

" As I was saying, I can't even tell if you're human or not, how old you or your affinity. It's a very strange occurrence.

It's either you're much stronger than I am which I doubt or you're something else entirely."

Merlin's face turned serious and a dangerous aura blasted out of him shaking the entire room.

" I don't know who or what you are, I don't know what you've done or plan to do to these people but if you threaten my empire, I'll kill you."

The table was quiet, everybody turned to look at Khali who was still looking at Merlin with a blank look.

Then he smiled making him look like a villain plotting something evil. " Would you like tea or coffee?"

The room grew so quite one could hear crickets. They had not expected that question and neither did Merlin.

" What's tea or coffee? Are those your torture methods? I can assure you vile creature, I'm trained to resist torture."

" By the Red Sun what is this, what in the endless deserts is this?" Merlin shouted while sipping from two cups.

" Choose, you want me to choose, you choose your feet, I'm taking both. More give me more."

He shouted then took a bite of the cape placed Infront of him. He froze and tears started streaming down his face.

" Vain, I've lived my life in vain, I've finally been fulfilled, my old bones can die now." He spread out his arms as if welcoming death.

" Gladly." Viona shouted and plunged a burning sword to his neck. Of course the sword bounced off.

Even though Merlin was a warrior he had weaker bodies, he was still a great mage, he was physically stronger than any knight.

Only Paladins could match him in terms of physical strength. Plus Viona didn't go all out.

He looked even more hurt, " To think my sweet little demon who used to ask me for desert king lizard meat would want to kill me.

Vain, I've lived my life in vain, kill me now." He shouted dramatically. Everybody's expression changed.

' What a strange old man.' they all thought. He looked around the table with a suspicious gaze.

" You'll thinking something rude aren't you?" They all shook their heads. He looked like he didn't believe them.

Sebastian coughed drawing everybody's attention back to the pressing issue. Khali looked into Merlin's eyes.

" You're a curious man, you're probably wondering how we created all of this, how we created such delicious food.

Do you want to know?" He asked with a smile. Merlin almost retreated.

" Why does it feel like I'm a making a deal with a demon?" Everybody looked away too embarrassed.

" Not a demon no no no, something much greater. A GOD." he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Merlin sat there quietly stunned, then started laughing. He laughed so hard he started crying.

" God? Don't be ridiculous boy, Gods are long dead and you claim to be one." He continued laughing even harder.

Khali wanted to demonstrate but convincing somebody this powerful would take too many divine points.

He was close to 50 thousand due to the new believers, using those points would just take him back months.

So he got to the point, " What we want from you is protection and assurance against the empire."

He was ready to negotiate and lay down some heavy deals. " Okay." Merlin answered catching him off guard.

" Okay? Just like that?" He asked, he couldn't believe that the old man would just agree like that.

There must be something else he was planning Khali figured. Merlin continued sipping his tea and coffee and eating cookies.

When both cups were half he mixed them, Khali ignored that abomination and asked the question.

Merlin stopped eating and looked at him with a serious face. " I'm not joking boy," he turned his eyes to Viona.

" You took care of the little demon, probably more than I ever could. More importantly, you have such delicious food and these wonderful things."

Khali nodded, he doesn't know what he was worried, scholar type mages were quite straight forward people.

At least most of them were, the old man would naturally take interest in what they've built as he has predicted initially.

" Okay great, Sebastian will take you to somebody who will show you around, when you're done.

You can come back and we'll talk logistics." Merlin nodded, looking excited like a child. Sebastian did just that.

A beautiful woman came and took Merlin away, everybody went to their jobs. Merlin came back a few hours looking even more excited than when he first got here.

" Amazing, truly amazing, is it true that winged machine is meant to fly?"Khaki nodded.

Merlin was obviously talking about the eagle jet, a military plane. It was also the foundation for his next project.

" What's the end goal, these amazing things you've built, are you planning on fighting against the empire?" Merlin asked

" To leave this dying world." Then he stopped what he was doing and faced Merlin.

" And I'll fight anybody to achieve that goal."

Merlin stood there frozen, he did not expect what he had just heard. What these children had created was incredible but he did not think they could leave this world.

" How long?" Merlin asked, Khali stopped and looked at him.

" What?"

" How long would it take you to leave this world?"

Khali thought about it, " I don't know, probably about 30 to 40 years, less if we have more manpower."

Merlin smiled, " Good, how many people can you bring with you?"

Khaki shrugged, " It would depend on the number and size of the spaceships."

That seemed to give Merlin hope, " Tell me everything you need, "

Khali grinned, ' Got you.' he thought to himself. Then told Merlin everything, he had other plans though.

He planned to convert the people into his religion, starting with the old man. " I'm sorry sir Merlin but it's time for prayer."

It was not, but he was betting on Merlin's curiosity. As expected, Merlin brushed his long beard.

" Would it be okay if I join you?" Khali grinned inside.

" But of course, the great God Khaladrel accept all who comes to him." He called everybody for a prayer. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

They were confused by hearing it was about prayer, they all gathered in the main cave enthusiastically.

Around 500 people gathered together, the cave was large enough to fit all of them. They knelt and closed their eyes.

Merlin watched everything with interest especially the large statue they claimed was of the God.

He froze when he looked closely at it, he had seen this depiction before in one of the old books found from ruins.

He wondered how these people were able to create such an accurate description of the God of Dreams.

He wondered if they were telling the truth about the God being alive. Then he noticed the statue looked ancient.

He almost laughed at himself, these people probably found the statue here. He watched them kneel and pray.

To him their actions looked foolish, he knew that Gods are long gone, they would never receive an answer.

However he chose to entertain them and join in their prayers. He spread out his senses and watched everybody.

It seemed they knelt by ranking, at the front was the mysterious boy named Khali, a strange name if you asked Merlin.

Behind him was the genius girl called Lucy and his little demon Viona. He recognised those behind them as well.

What confused him was that the girl called Samantha was sitting near the back but he was certain she was one of the leaders here.

He decided to ask the woman Infront of him, " Lady Samantha have a high position in the settlement due to her leadership skills.

However the rankings in the church is determined by ones beliefs in the great lord. Lady Samantha is new and yet to gain much favour from the God."

He nodded, these people kept talking as if the god was real. He accepted that they were crazy.

Suddenly they all stopped cheering and he saw some of them weeping. He wondered what was happening when he felt something inside him.

Merlin jumped up surprised, " How is this possible"