Chapter 258: Ch 258 : The illusion of Love

Merlin stood in the center of the Emperor’s throne room, his breath not able to leave his throat.He had activated his Instant Teleportation Card as that was his only option left, expecting to be flung into somewhere where no one resided, as the multiverse was too big. Instead, he had teleported here.

The room was vast, where the ceiling seemed to be the night sky itself. The floor was polished star-metal, reflecting the swirling galaxies above.

And sitting upon a throne was a being whose very presence screamed Divinity.

’Are Gods so common nowadays that you can just trip over one if you teleport blindly?’ Merlin thought, a bitter taste filling his mouth.

He hated the New Gods of his multiverse. In the ancient texts he had recovered from the ruins, the Old Gods were depicted as beings of wisdom and law.

But the new ones? They were thugs. Mortals who had stumbled upon powerful formulas, hoarded resources, and ascended through greed rather than enlightenment.

They were arrogant and petty tyrants who shattered families and purged populations just to purify their territory.

And now, he stood before another one.

’Am I truly that unlucky?’ he wondered, his shoulders slumping. ’Did I escape the wolf only to land in the dragon’s maw?’

He was shocked, yes, but Merlin was not a newborn. He had survived traps that had claimed armies. He had deciphered runes that drove scholars to madness.

He forced his trembling legs to lock, straightening his spine. If he was to die, he would die standing.

"Your bad luck has ended..."

The voice from the throne finally registered in his mind. Merlin blinked, the words echoing in the vast hall.

"What... what are you talking about?" he managed to rasp.

Then, a colder, darker thought gripped him. ’Bad luck ended? Does that mean... I’m dead?’

His face fell, the color draining from his cheeks. Dying was the ultimate bad luck.

For two thousand years, ever since he had met Calley in the ruins of the Fire Dragon, he had feared death.

He had become cautious and protective. He never ventured into a ruin or any dangerous place alone.

He checked every corner for traps. Not because he feared pain, but because he feared leaving her alone.

But now? The fear was different. He wasn’t afraid of leaving her. He was afraid of dying before he could make her pay.

The realization of the last hour crashed over him again. The betrayal. The sword at his throat. The cold, indifferent look in the eyes he had adored for two millennia.

It was all a lie. The chanced meeting in the ruins. The partnership. The love. She had been playing the long game, a 2000 year long game to get her hands on the Dragon Bone.

She hadn’t joined the God of White Flame out of fear. She had joined him because she was sent by him, he knew the formula for becoming a God and Merlin possessed the core ingredient.

"You seem to have realized the basics" Sunny’s voice cut through Merlin’s spiraling thoughts.

The Emperor leaned forward, his chin resting on his hand. He was fighting the urge to laugh.

It was a laugh and frustration of an audience member watching a drama where the protagonist misses the obvious clues.

"But there are a few... critical details... you have still missed."

"What?" Merlin asked, his guard going back up. "What could I have missed? She betrayed me. It is simple."

"Is it?" Sunny asked. He gestured vaguely with a hand. "Tell me, Card Master. Do you not find it strange? Two demigods. Two thousand years. A bond that was the envy of your world. And yet... no children?"

Merlin froze. The question hit him like a physical blow, derailing his train of thought entirely.

He forgot to ask how this stranger knew such intimate details. He forgot to ask where he was.

His mind raced back. He and Calley had tried. Or at least, he thought they had.

But for demigods, conception was difficult. It required a massive amount of energy, perfect timing, and luck. He had always assumed it was just another unlucky thing in his life.

But Sunny’s voice continued, dissecting his entire life "Two thousand years is a long time, Merlin. Even for the unlucky. The reason you have no heir is simple. You never slept with her."

"That’s absurd!" Merlin shouted, his face flushing. "We shared a bed for centuries! I felt her touch, I smelled her hair, I..."

"yes yes," Sunny interrupted, his voice dropping to a whisper. "You felt her. You smelled her. But did you ever truly connect? Or was it... perfect? Too perfect?"

Sunny tapped his own temple. "My eyes see the truth, Merlin. That woman? She wasn’t an Ice User. She was an Illusionist."

The world stopped spinning for Merlin. He stood there, his mouth agape. Illusion?

"She tricked you," Sunny explained, his tone almost sympathetic now. "Every touch. Every night. Every moment of intimacy. It was an illusion. She never let you touch her real body. Not once. You fell in love with a mirage, card master."

Sunny had seen it in the memories. The subtle weaving of an unknown energy.

"But..." Merlin stammered, his mind trying to find a foothold in his crumbling reality. "If she was an illusionist... if she could fool my senses so perfectly... why didn’t she just steal my storage cards? Why the drama? Why the betrayal at the end? She could have taken the Dragon Bone while I slept and vanished!"

"You are forgetting where you got your main storage card from," Sunny chuckled. "You treat it like standard equipment, but it is not."

He pointed at the pouch on Merlin’s waist. "That card. It has a Soul-Locking Mechanism. It is an SSS-Grade artifact you picked up in the same ruins as the bone. You bound it to yourself without even realizing what it was. No one other than you can open it. Not even a God."

Sunny shook his head, amused. "That is your Unlucky Luck at work. You found an impenetrable vault, bound it to your soul, and then forgot about it"

"Calley couldn’t steal it. She tried. she tried a thousand times. That is why she had to wait. She had to wait until the demigod of white flame finally became a God"

Merlin looked down at the storage card pouch. He touched it with trembling fingers.

He looked up at Sunny, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. "You... you know everything. My past. My secrets. The things I didn’t even know myself."

He took a step back. "Did I... did I really die? Are you the God of the Afterlife? Is this my judgment?"

It was the only logical explanation. Only a Death God would have access to the entire life.

"Don’t worry," Sunny said, waving a hand dismissively. "You aren’t dead. And I am not the Demigod or God of the Afterlife, though I do employ him. Your instant teleportation card was... randomized. It led you here. I suppose you were lucky."

"Here?" Merlin asked, looking around the alien architecture. "Where is here?"

"A different multiverse," Sunny dropped the bombshell casually, "don’t worry though, I will help your return to your multiverse"

Merlin’s knees finally gave out. He collapsed to the floor. A different multiverse. He was stranded, Alone and Powerless.

"Why?" Merlin whispered, his voice cracking. "Why are you telling me this? Why help me? I am just an ordinary demigod. I have nothing to offer a being like you."

Sunny smiled. It wasn’t the warm smile of a savior. It was a hungry smile of a God who wanted to increase his strength with a mixture of a merchant who had just found a rare commodity.

"I am not interested in you, Merlin," Sunny admitted. "But your world... your multiverse of Arcana..."

He stood up, his cosmic robe swirling. Thea had finished her analysis. She had cross-referenced the materials Merlin used for his cards with the resources of Sunny’s multiverse and the Realm of Advancement.

The result was disappointing, The materials from that multiverse were unique, they had properties that no materials possessed in both multiverses.

The herbs, the ores, the monster cores needed to craft the powerful Cards... none of them existed in Sunny’s multiverse.

The laws of the multiverse were different. To use the Card system, one needed the materials of the Card Universe.