Disclaimer any of the things that you think I may have copied or taken inspiration from belong to their original sources, publishers and authors so don't moan at me if you see something you recognise in this story I probably saw it and took inspiration from it.

Also this chapter won't be as big as the prologue as there was a lot of lore that needed to be explained in that one and this is just the story.

''=The guy at centre stage

""=Other characters

Chapter 2

The scene opens upon the man in the suit standing in the centre stage, 'well the stakes have certainly been raised haven't they. Anyway this chapter it can be in all honesty be describe of the breaking point of the magical side of this story. Anyway you know the drill behind this part of the story so enjoy this tale and all that.

The scene opens upon a room filled with a variety of people who were all looking at a wall of telescreens with a variety of people from all over the planet describing similar experiences. "He just called me unworthy and sent me back", "he summoned me to test me and I failed I'm sorry"," I'm pretty sure he stole my wallet", "that jackass stole my phone". We now move from those people on the screens to the other side of the room and those watching the interviews on screen. These men were wearing mostly military uniforms and other forms of military identification while the minority who weren't seem to be scientists due to they are noting down critical information and are otherwise researching this subject further. We now move towards the lead scientist a doctor Alex Williams who had been one of the first scientists brought into researching this phenomenon that had been happening over the planet. He was a man of average built, grey hair and was introduced into this project through his experience of having an almost non emotional response to investigating things previously unheard of but even this was visibly confusing him sighing he turned to his colleagues.

"Ok let's review what we know so far, so for the past six days satellites all over the planet have been picking up various spikes in some unknown form of energy and when we went to these sites to investigate and take samples we have always encountered at least one person who has had similar delusions". The word delusions had a mixed reactions amongst the various researchers as there was a varied argument between whether these people had had these experiences. "They claim that they were taken to an ancient fortress and met the actual merlin who has tested them in various ways and found them all unworthy". "And we are sure it's not some sort of online prank as some of these areas don't even have phones or running water let alone internet so CAN ANYONE EXPLAIN WHAT IT IS IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY HAPPENING?". His outburst only served to unnerve the researchers further as they were used to the man being calm and collected. 0000As such all but one didn't make any movement except for one man who raised his hand "and if anyone says they were abducted by aliens I'm punching them" them man lowered his hand and they all sighed it was going to be a long night.

Meanwhile back at the rock of eternity merlin was experimenting with this new device that he had "borrowed" from one of the potential successors and was exploring what the people of earth called the internet and what he discovered worried him. "No one believes in them anymore the Greek gods the, the Egyptian, the Norse not a single person believes in the old gods any more". As well as worry this posed an interesting question into merlin's mind which was simply the fact that while the gods may want everyone to believe they were born gods at the beginning they were just skilled human mages who'd gained a phenomenal boost in there magic alongside immortality from having countries worth of worshippers, if they returned to the world without worshippers what would happen to them. Would they simply be de powered, would they become mortal again, would they age to dust or would they just drop dead? However these were questions for another time, the question merlin had to ask himself right now was this "how can I make a champion with the power of the gods if nobody believes in them". Then like a lightning bolt it struck him "wait a minute not every god was always humans there's Loki and Ares who were just concepts that were made into physical beings". "Following that train of logic I bet I'll be able to use the magic that was banished to that realm to empower a champion with the powers of beings that he believes in even disregarding the fact they don't exist".

Then he stopped for a second "but to do that I'll have to channel all the power needed to do that through myself and channelling that much power before it could kill me". Then his features gained an unwavering grin "oh well I've live a good long life and as long as I'm able to pass the seal on to him my death will have been worth it". And so with his plan in mind he began to use magic to search the planet to the next potential candidate and after a few hours found him. "Okay Jonathan Black lives on a small island in the continent known as Europe call the United Kingdom….. Really kingdom it's an island not a kingdom I mean what is it with leaders and their egos first it was Alexander the great calling every city he conquered Alexandria and now this". After his brief moan about historical leaders he began to look at the candidate further and was pleasantly surprised when looking at his life "he has shown empathy, compassion and a willingness to help others, this would help him with the role of guardian". "But there's also the issue of what could be used to empower him, then again while he is taking the trial I can take a finer look at his life to see what being I could use to empower him". And so with a determined look Merlin began to recite an ancient chant that had been passed down to guardians, the spell to bring those who have the potential to become a guardian to the fortress to be tested known as the spell of succession.

As merlin chanted within one of the fortresses many courtyards and orb of light began to form, while small at first it grew rapidly until it filled the entire courtyard then it began to receded smaller and smaller until it was gone and the only indication that it was ever here was the young man in the courtyard. He was an above average height Caucasian male wearing the initiation robes that all those summoned by the spell of succession wore upon their arrival. Unfortunately for this man's dignity Merlin while the Guardian of earth he wasn't the master of timing, as such this boy had been summoned while asleep and as a result was face down on the ground snoring.

The scene cuts to black and the man in the suit walks to centre stage and looks at the audience 'You probably think I'm here to end this chapter well you would be wrong'. 'I'm just here to introduce you to your main character who is this hero you ask he is my younger self, that's right the way I entered into this crazy story was face down in the dirt and snoring, so that's everything back to the story'.

Our newly discovered protagonist starts to awaken and stare around at his surroundings while trying to understand where he is, before untimely getting it wrong. 'Huh weird I usually don't even remember my dreams let alone experience them, then again maybe I do and I forgot. The hero begins to head towards the exit of the courtyard and begins to make his way through the castle until he finds himself facing a set of large doors. 'Since this is a dream there's probably a boss battle through there awesome' he proclaims pushing both doors open. Unfortunately for our protagonist what he faced wasn't a boss but an old man who smiled at him. "Welcome child to the realm of eternity I am merlin and I will be testing you to see in you are worthy of such a great power as what I am offering, bear in mind there are other candidates so you only have one shot due you want to test yourself or not".

The hero smiles 'absolutely' merlin smiles in response and a huge mystical seal forms on the floor of the hall and a huge creature with claws and horns begins to rise from it and Merlin smiles to the hero "the rules are this you can summon only one thing at a time to face this creature be it weapons or a champion to fight for you either fictional or real and if you are put in a situation where there's an absolute chance you will die I will stop this match you lose and also BEGIN". The hero faces the creature' I SUMMON A WAR HAMMER' and picks up the summoned weapon and runs to the creature and hits it to no avail. The creature then lashes out with its claws knocking the hero back and shocking him I'm in pain and I'm bleeding this is supposed to be a dream you don't feel pain in a dream. 'That means THIS IS REAL I THOUGHT THIS WAS A DREAM, okay focus man you can do this just think and CLAW'. After miraculously avoiding the claws with minimal damage the hero remembers what this Merlin said about being able to summon fictional beings to fight for him.

Merlin watches in shock as the boy yells with a smile on his face 'I SUMMON ONE PUNCH MAN' and a new seal begins to form on the floor and a bald man clothed in a yellow jumpsuit wearing red gloves and a white cloak appears. This man looks at the creature a pulls back his arm and with ONE PUNCH he kills the creature before looking at his still smoking hand as he begins to fade away. Merlin then faces the boy "well you've won even if your method of victory was unorthodox" the boy stares and asks 'what does that mean'. Merlin looks at the boy who out of the hundreds he's tested actually won against the beast "well mostly when initiates summon fictional beings it's more like robin hood or something similar not the bizarre being you summoned". "No matter you have succeeded in this test and as such you are ready to learn about why you have been summoned here and the role that you are needed to play in certain events". The boy simply responds with a question 'ok explain to me what exactly is going on here'.

The screen cuts to black and the man in the suit is once again at the centre stage 'Well it looks like things are beginning to truly take shape and events are beginning to occur for our protagonist aka my younger self'.' Well what happens next I hear you ask well every guardian has what is essentially their 'pantheon' of beings that lend their powers to the beings of this line this is where I meet mine.