“Myrddin?” I asked. “As in the original name of the mythological Merlin?”

“One and the same?” he said.

“Are you saying you are the Merlin out of legend?”

“I am”

“Then I have to ask, what were you doing in China?”

“That’s a long story,” he said with a smile.

I waved around to the darkening sky and the building being erected behind us, “Well, it would see that we have the time,” I said.

“The first thing I need to do is figure out what you know and also I need to know more about you, do you mind if I scrutinize you with one of my abilities?” he asked.

“As long as you do not harm me, I don’t see a problem with it,” I said.

Merlin concentrated for a moment and his eyes flared to the golden yellow of the sun. I felt a level of magic wash over and ignore every defense I had that was of a power level that was downright indescribable. I felt as if my very soul have been run through a ringer and scrutinized, every nook and cranny. If I hadn’t given my permission, I’d have felt severely violated, “Holy Hell, what was that?”, I asked as I watched the glow fade from his eyes.

“That was an ability that is very similar to the True Sight spell you like to use. In this case, it sees the Truth of the being it is used on. Also, it must be consented to. There is a version that does not require consent but it leaves the subject, how shall we say, broken.”

“After what that felt like, I can imagine. So what did your ability tell you?”

“Everything about you. From the moment of your conception until now.”

“Everything?” I asked.

“Everything,” he confirmed.

“So what now?”

“Now that I know you, and what you’ve been through, I can let you know some of the things you do not know and give you a warning.”

I held my tongue as I conjured two comfortable chairs and a small table between them to put our drinks on.

“That use of chaos is more refined than any I have ever encountered. I know that for a time you thought that you had actually created physical objects smaller than would be possible. As you’ve come to realize, will and intent are primary drivers in determining the effects of most magics. Even so, that level of control is incredible.”

I nodded, “You are, of course, correct. I still find myself thinking about the chaos I use as chaotic nanites because it works for me and lets me fine-tune my control to get the desired outcome.”

“What if I were to tell you that, such fine tunned control of chaos has not been seen in a very long time?”

“How long?”

“Since before the creation of this Realm,” Merlin said.

“That is a very bold claim. How would you know?” I asked.

“Because we all come from somewhere.”

“Myrddin, if you are that old, and as powerful as I feel you must be, why are we talking? Could you not just take over this Realm and get things running the way you want?” I asked jovially.

Myrddin laughed, “Please, call me Merlin. I saw from your thoughts that you think of me thus, let’s keep this easy.”

“Okay, Merlin. Why did you allow the Chinese to capture you and force you to teach magic to them?” I asked.

“The simple explanation is often correct. I did not allow them to capture me, I was captured. I did not let them force me to teach them, they did force me to teach them.”

“How? I don’t understand how. I haven’t used Analyze on you yet because I haven’t asked your permission but from the moment you stepped through my portal I felt something was off about you.”

“That would be my ‘curse.’ A more appropriate word that would fit would be punishment.”

“Punishment?”

“And this is where I start as close to the beginning as I can. Before this Realm came into existence I was born into a Realm that the myths and legends of your world cannot imagine. As far as I know, it still exists. Unlike this realm, there were no level limits and mortals could and often did, transcend into something else. Very few chose to continue gaining levels in the mortal world because, at a certain point, that level of power was meaningless.”

“What do you mean meaningless?”

“I mean meaningless. The ‘Divines’ and ‘Gods’, I use those terms lightly, that you have encountered were created in a system that was throttled back because of a mistake one such True Devine made. That True Divine was me. I made the mistake when I caused this Cosmos to fracture every time a possible Cosmos-ending event or choice would take place. My mistake is what you just put an end to. If I forget to say this later, thank you for that by the way.”

“You’re welcome,” I said as he continued.

“Where I was from consisted of beings and creatures that are so far above mortals as to be on another level. You are a man of numbers so let me put this in numbers for you. You have discovered that there are Basic Souls and Advanced Souls and that within those two categories there are nine levels. Basic, Nascent, Fixed, Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Absolute, and Transcendent. I’m using the terms I pulled from your mind, not what we referred these levels to in my Realm.”

“Thanks for the clarification. Why is this important?” I asked.

“You have discovered the Rank Disparity trait. That is simply a measure of how much more powerful someone with that level of soul is compared to a normal mortal. In my Realm, there were no level limits but most mortals did not rise above level 300 or 400. It was much easier to rank your soul than gain experience to increase your level after a certain point. You see Johnathan, or do you prefer Adam?”

“Adam, if you don’t mind,” I said.

“You see Adam, for just about every other being in existence once a soul reaches copper rank that being stops leveling. They can of course, but normally they devote their time and energy to increasing their soul level.”

“Why would they do that?” I asked.

“Because one day they will die and no one truly knows what will happen.”

“How can beings so powerful die? I feel downright indestructible right now.” I said

“Yes, but look where you are. On a planet with humans whose highest level is at most 20, not including your family and friends in your soul space of course.”

I’m still not seeing how,” I said.

“You think there are only nine soul categories? There are fifteen. That Arch Demon you fought was two ranks above Transcendent. His rank disparity could not overcome your insanely high levels and attributes though. That rank disparity is effectively a multiply. For instance, let’s say a level 1 human had a strength of 10 and that human fought a level 1 Arch Demon with a strength of 10. The human would hit with a strength of 10, the Arch Demon would hit with a strength of 100,000,000,000. The rank disparity is a multiplier. There are two more ranks above what the Arch Demon was. The highest mortal Rank Disparity is 1.0E+12”

He paused while I mulled that over for a moment, then said, “So when I fought that level 5,000 demon as a Transcendent soul he had two levels of Rank Disparity than me, and even with that multiplier added to its attributes, it was still far lower than my current attributes based on levels.?” I asked.

“I saw the true combat logs when I reviewed your soul. Your strength was 2.03E+16. The demon’s strength was 3.63E+13. It wasn’t even a contest with that much difference,” Merlin said.

“Okay, I can see where having a level as high as mine gives me a superior advantage against anything limited to a maximum of level 5,000. They just wouldn’t have the attributes to compete. The way you’re talking, however, means that I must be missing something.”

“You’re sharp, I’ll give you that,” he said as a paused and took a sip of his apple juice before continuing, “There are at least three levels of Divine after the rank of Saint. Oh yes, above the soul rank of Transcendent are the Sage, Seer, Prophet, and Saint soul ranks. A being with the soul rank of Saint has a rank disparity of 1.0E+12.”

“Even a Saint at level 5,000 doesn’t seem like they would give me a run for my money,” I said

Merlin smiled knowingly, “Let me remind you that your level advantage is unique to this Realm. Other Realms, including the Labyrinth Realm you visited contain monsters and creatures that are above level 5,000. The Labyrinth was never restricted and does have the ability to defend herself if she wishes. Though, she must adhere to certain rules as well. If the subject ever comes up, I’m sure she’ll explain her limitations if you ask. Back to what I was going to say. There are three, possibly four soul ranks above the Rank of Saint. The three known levels have the titles, Neophyte, Demi-God, and God. They had other names, but the first beings to hold those ranks found that the titles I just gave fit and continue to use them, as far as I know.

“Let me guess, their rank disparity is 1.E+13, 14, and 15?” I asked.

“No. A Neophyte has a rank Disparity of 1.0E+100 to a mortal. That means that even at level 1, a Neophyte would be 1.0E+86 times stronger than you are.”

I coughed and cleared my throat, “That can’t be right”

“I know that it is, you see, I was once a Neophyte”

“But, how?” I asked questioningly”

“A Demi-God has a rank disparity of 1.0E+1,000 and a God has a Rank Disparity of 1.0E+10,000. If you become one with such power as I once had, there are still others you must answer to.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“As you know, patterns repeat and multiple realms existed. I watched as countless Realms formed and were then destroyed by those within because they could not take care of their “house” for lack of a better term. Suffice it to say, beings within those realms would take actions that would utterly annihilate all life within a Cosmos or dimension. I was from one of the Realms that was lucky enough to never have that issue. We watched and recorded. Now I’m going to skip the dull parts about how I became a Neophyte. I will simply say that on the day that I did, I thought of myself as an unstoppable force with unlimited power and I altered a newly formed Realm so that it could never self-destruct.

“How?” I whispered as I thought about the level of power that would take.

“Neophytes and above are given Realm-level access. Simply, I tweaked the rules of this realm so that time would automatically create a copy of the cosmos at any time the Cosmos was about to go off course and probability would allow for two choices. After 14 billion years, you were born into the result of that tampering,” Merlin said.

“What happened to you?”

“Within moments of my first act as what I thought myself to be, a God, I found myself sitting before someone I cannot name, and have not seen since. He only said three words to me, ‘So Be It.’ Then I was stripped of my access to the Realm Interface, reduced in soul level to Copper, without access to my Soul Space, and reduced to level 1. Then I found myself on this barren planet with an ambient magic level that was negligible. As you know, when the ambient level of magic is too low, casting spells is next to impossible.

“When did you appear on Earth?” I asked

“Before the dinosaurs, not sure when. My memories of those times are hazy at best. I didn’t start remembering myself until after humanity started to learn to speak. You see, not only could I not level as normal, because I am locked to the level I currently am, I could not die. Though to say I could not die is incorrect. I did die, then found myself alive again somewhere else on the planet. I have a soul space after all. Unlike you, my reincarnation is random. When there were no humans for me to be born to, I reincarnated into a fully functional adult with full memory. Once humans appeared on the planet, if I died, I was usually born again and only regained my memories once I hit eighteen. Only in the last 100 years have I been able to live longer than 30 to 40 years before I was killed by some catastrophe or circumstance I couldn’t control”

“So when you felt the Cosmos recombine you knew something was up and tried to let the world know?”

“Yes, then the British picked me up and sent me to China. When the Chinese got hold of me I had to either show them something useful or they’d lock me away or just kill me again. I didn’t want to die again so I played ball and taught them.”

“Which brings me to the question of me, how did you know about me?”

“One of my friends from long ago took pity on me back at the turn of the century and informed me that things were about to change and that I should be on the lookout for a Johnathan Bennard. Of course, I checked on you when you were born but the Johnathan Bennard born into this Cosmos was unexceptional. After, the recombing, I knew that I needed to watch for you. When I looked at you with one of my few remaining abilities, I knew I was right.”

“Why tell me this now? Why give me all this information?”

“Because I believe your presence unbalances the lock that was placed on this Realm and the system will correct itself. As it seems that your level, and the ability to gain more levels, is hard locked and can’t be changed the system will most likely unlock the level restriction on everyone else in this Realm, all the Realms in this Layer, and all the Layers attached to it.”

“Wait a minute, are you from outside all of the layers of this Reality”

“The Simple answer is yes,” though I’ve been here long enough to now consider this Realm my home,” Merlin said.

“Merlin, that’s a lot to take in,” I said as I checked the status of my construction project behind me. It looked like the nanites were just about done. “Would you like to stay with me as my guest tonight? I have a lot to mull over while I find out why a nuke was used against a Demon in a populated area. That shouldn’t have been possible unless it was sub-launched. Of course, it was on a sub,” I said as my self-analysis revealed a lot of things I still needed to do.

“I would be delighted to accept your hospitality. One question before you go if you don’t mind?”

“Ask away?” I said.

“You did understand what I was trying to convey?”

“Yes, Merlin, I did. I am not all-powerful and I need to tread lightly, or else I might run into a real God that doesn’t know how to use words. That about sum it up?” I asked.

Merlin laughed, “That about sums it up. As you now know, no matter how powerful you think you are, there is always someone else stronger,” Merlin said.

I nodded then stood, “If you’d come with me,” I said as I started walking towards my estate door and led him to the elevator to the subterranean complex. “Everything you just told me implies that you are familiar with current technology. Feel free to explore the place and have a look around. Thor 2 is in charge of this area so if you need anything just ask for it out loud and he’ll get it for you,” I said as I rode the elevator down with him to the residence level, “This is your stop. Enjoy the rest, I’m sure I‘ll have more questions later.”

“Thank you for your generosity, another question if you don’t mind, I’m not a prisoner, am I?

“Heaven’s no Merlin. If some of the probabilities that are coursing through my mind come to pass, making you an enemy would be very bad for my health. You are my guest. If you wish to leave you may. I would ask that you wait for at least a week, maybe two before venturing out. If you have my memories then you know what I’m trying to set up here. It’s going to take at least two weeks to be able to monitor the whole planet and open a portal anywhere you’d like to go and also open a portal should you wish to return.”

“I can wait two weeks, and thank you?”

“As a caveat, Thor 2 has access to all my memories, which means he has access to all the texts I’ve ever come across, if there’s anything from my memories you’d like to review, let him know and my nanites will create a copy for you. Of course, magical texts won’t be magical though if you wish for a copy of something like that I can make those easily enough.”

“Again thank you for the hospitality. I’ll leave you to the business of saving the world,” Merlin said.

I let the elevator doors close and then took it deeper until I reached the Base of Operations. I had a lot of work to do.