Many riots later, among all the chaos, Merlin, the only remaining ruler of the Frogsylvanian realms, appeared on his famous balcony of Volaranae tower, where he used to give his famous, sweet and accented speech. He had darker than usual circles around his eye from the many sleepless nights he spent coming up with his folution together with FUD, his good company.
The crowd was silent, Merlin was hesitant; the Archmage knew he had to make a tough decision because the disappearance of kings, despite their political view of Magic and of course each other, had brought chaos upon the amphibians of Frogsylvania.
Merlin glanced upon a sea of worried pop-eyed frogs, all wishing for an easy way to undo this chaos, unaware of what faith had in store for them… “Good citizens of Frogsylvania! These are dark and desperate hours…” He proceeded to address the Froglem after a brief apology for his error to which he found a “Folution”, one that was unlikely to be well received due to being outrageous and a little gory.
The “Folution” was to forge a Lab inside the largest cave in Mount Phundaemoniae where magic naturally flows. this was no ordinary lab though it was a merge lab. 10,000 Ordinary Frogs were to volunteer and walk into the lab, go through a ritual fueled by magic harvested from the Dome and science, sacrifice their lives to merge into a better, less ordinary frog and this has to go on and on until they merge into a frog king! It was a grotesque plan, it was complex magic and the odds of success were slim. Nevertheless, it was the only one they had that could actually work. Throughout his speech, he realized this could be a forced evolution, for a better life ahead. So he went on: “I’m still uncertain about a few details… I need 10,000 frogs to walk this path. I cannot join you, I have to moderate the Lab. but I assure you, all your feelings, your best traits, and your identity will move up this chain of improvement; I assure you, you’ll become a better version of yourselves.”
He expected yet another riot, more protests, tomatoes thrown, and insults flown; but instead, he faced the silence of the crowd. Wide-eyed frogs stared at him in horror and awe but then, slowly, really slowly, a few frogs started stepping forward. To his disbelief, there were far more than 10,000 frogs volunteering!
Archmage Merlin knew he had to bring his A-game to this Merge Lab. With a tear of joy and glee of appreciation, he shouted “Let this be a sacrifice to go down in history in concrete! Generations of Frogsylvanians to come will never forget this day. They will sing songs about it! You may walk into the merge lab as young, nameless frogs but you will emerge as KINGS!”
As Merlin walked into his merge lab, beneath the Phundaemoniae mountain in a dark greenish cave he thought of what he has done so far in his life. Of his achievements, his results, and most importantly the damage he caused to his land and people. Frogs were put in tanks, with all their traits, levels, love, hate, past and future. It was their destiny unfolding right in front of them; within this cave, inside this shimmering florescent fluid. Merlin desperately wanted to be inside one of them. He didn’t want to operate these machines, to press the red button and witness his folks merge into new frogs over and over again, but that was his reckoning. Frog after frog rolled into the cylinder-shaped behemoth of machine parts, and Merlin like a mad-frog kept chanting louder and louder. There it was: his forced evolution, the dawning of a new age.
