The dragon's harem

Chapter 2141: The Abominable Chimera

Mana is the neutral state, Divine is the positive, and Cursed is the negative. Eldritch magic is the same; the raw energy itself doesn’t have names, but it follows the same principle with positive and negative states of energy.

Arad could easily use all three stats of eldritch mana, but other people cannot do the same. Even Nyar can’t use all three of them without restricting himself a lot. To use the eldritch magic, several rules had to be followed strictly, especially with the confines of the universe that rejects such power like the plague.

First, a caster cannot use eldritch magic alone without a higher authority speaking up for them. That higher authority is what prevents the universe from immediately shutting down the caster’s attempts. To Merlin, that higher authority is Arad himself, so since she is pulling eldritch mana from him, the universe cannot reject her.

The second thing is the body itself, as a mere body born and raised in the universe, divine or not, cannot handle eldritch mana due to the lack of specific organs and basic functions of biology. So, to be able to use eldritch magic, you need a body that is malleable enough to let the magic itself shape you.

Merlin had spent years modifying her own body with both surgical methods and magic, so when she tried to use eldritch magic and her body needed to be changed, the eldritch magic itself had managed to shape her without killing her.

Her body grew larger; it shed the last drops of her humanity and then got drenched in Arad’s black blood, his endless well of eldritch mana. But then there was the last and third problem. How to use it. Eldritch magic cannot be used to cast spells like regular magic, as it works on a whole different set of rules.

Floating up to the Mech Angel, Merlin realized one important thing. Just like Beatrice, she was now struggling with a power she didn’t understand but had to use to survive. She couldn’t talk but still could understand and hear the Mech’s voice, the crackle of the soul existing within it.

Beatrice had died, and her soul, instead of passing away, had merged with the mech and brought it to life, resulting in this divine horror. A cruel angel, who is both harsh on herself and others. Putting her to rest should be mercy, and letting her live and destroy everything and herself is what shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

Merlin’s titanic body moved, and her four arms extended open as she screamed, and from her eyes, a flood of black tar rushed forward like tentacles, trying to grasp the bleeding Mech Angel. Unlike magic, which allowed the casters to manipulate the laws of the universe to cast spells and fireballs, eldritch magic didn’t allow that but had something else instead.

Eldritch magic allowed the caster to reach beyond the limits of the universe and act from outside it. When those black tentacles extended forward, Merlin’s mind was already outside the fabric of causality. Time and space meant nothing to her, and the Mech Angel was restrained before it could understand what happened.

[Separate the WAS from the IS] This wasn’t a spell, just Merlin trying to apply what she felt was the proper use of Eldritch magic, and at that moment, one of her tentacles pierced the Mech’s chest. The metal groaned, the growing bones shattered, and the entire thing wailed in pain.

She IS a Mech Angel now, but WAS a female orc called Beatrice before. Merlin could separate those two stats, and the laws of the universe should destroy one to let the other exist. She has control over the first, but not the second.

When she separates them, who will survive and who will die? Will Beatrice come back, and will the Mech Angel be erased? Or would the Mech Angel’s existence persist, erasing Beatrice alongside its past? Thinking about this was far more than anything Merlin had ever done or faced before, but she had to move quickly, since she had no idea what would happen to her now that she had become an abomination.

Pulling Beatrice and Mech Angel apart as her tentacles burned from the flowing divine magic, Merlin could feel her power growing stronger and stronger. It will take her years to fully understand Eldritch magic and optimize it, but this power is indeed far above anything that Yog allowed through regular magic, and it made sense to ban it.

But as the two pulled further from each other, resistance started showing up. The laws of fate and nature refused to separate the two. Beatrice and the Mech Angel are one and the same, versions of the same existence that shouldn’t exist at the same time. Even if she were Arad’s wife, even if she used his power, Merlin couldn’t break the laws of fate with her own power.

Her titanic abominable body bled, it cracked, and the two existences started getting close to each other. Merlin was failing, and the Mech Angel would be whole again. It was like trying to pull two magnets apart while they pulled on each other with increasing force.

As this nightmarish scene kept going for a few more seconds, Merlin finally felt a change, and it didn’t have anything to do with her clash with the Mech Angel. On top of her head, she could feel someone standing there. It wasn’t Arad; it wasn’t a god, not even an angel. But she was the one who was always by their side, quietly spitting on the face of the laws of fate.

Doma, the Queen of Curses, had come as Arad’s human soul crumbled, and she was here to make sure this ends well. "Aren’t you ugly, Merlin?" Doma giggled and let her thoughts spill into Merlin’s head. All she could hear back was clicks, grunts, and disjointed emotions and instinctive impulses.

"I know this power is too much for you to control. So how about I curse you?" Doma lifted both of her hands. "You shall never be able to use any magic besides your labyrinth creation in the universe, but inside those labyrinths and outside the universe, you can use everything."

As Doma’s curse flashed down at Merlin’s titanic body, she could feel all of her eldritch magic fading away as a blindingly golden labyrinth swallowed half the Arctic, and when the light stabilized, it had turned into a magnificent golden pillar that reached the heavens.

Doma took a step in the endless silver plane, and in the distance, she could see the bleeding Mech Angel tied to a stone pillar. From behind her, a naked Merlin walked in her humanoid form, glowing like a blue moon.

"If I’m the Queen of Curses, should we call you the Eldritch Witch?" Doma crossed her arms with a grin, and Merlin stared at her for a second. "Where did you come from?"

"I’m always linked to Arad, so when his human soul got injured, I flew right in through his stomach to reach this place. I made it in time." She looked toward the Mech Angel. "When was the last time a mortal managed to become such a thing?"

"Like I know... I only heard of such things in folktales and children’s horror stories about evil people turning into monsters." Merlin took a few steps forward and stood beside Doma. "No, I’m wrong. The last time this thing happened was with Lydia; she became an Archon using Amaterasu’s magic."

"You’re wrong." Doma slapped Merlin on the butt. "Lydia didn’t become an archon with Amaterasu’s power; that was never the case. The gods don’t grant mortals’ power; the mortals are what give the gods their power. That’s what faith is." She walked and pointed at the Mech Angel. "This is what will be born when a mortal that has so much power doesn’t have a god to vent that energy into. Remember, if enough people believe in a god of shit, that shit would become divine."

She leaned on Merlin’s shoulder. "Have you never asked why Amaterasu, who is a Nymph and not a goddess, could use divine magic? She is a mortal, but her faith in herself and the universe itself is titanic. She is the same as that thing, but under control."