Shadow Slave: Arcadius of the Forgotten

After getting back to his branch of coral, Cade was too exhausted to check on the Echo or his Darkness reserves. He simply climbed the coral pillar, sprawled on the familiar spot which he had covered in black seaweed the day before, and went straight to sleep. 

He had a good night's sleep with no strange events taking place whatsoever. It seemed like Fate had decided that he'd had enough drama for a single day. 

Cade woke up with a groan the next day. He sat up and stretched for a bit. His muscles were still a bit sore from his ordeal the other day, and he also had a slight headache, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. 

He glanced down at his body which was clad in the Ebonveil Plate and tilted his head. That's weird, he thought, frowning slightly. I clearly remember getting bruised and wounded in the fight against the Centurion but... I don't feel like I have any injuries.

His frown deepened and he dismissed his armor. Now naked, he inspected his body, especially his shoulder and his side where the scythe slayer had hit him. 

He was right.

Well, partially right.

There were no wounds there. But there was something else. The skin there was darker, and it seemed to be covered in dried blood. He poked a finger at his shoulder. It didn't hurt all that much. In fact, it was like he hadn't been hurt at all. 

Summoning his armor back on, Cade came to a conclusion.

It seemed that he didn't understand his Dormant Ability nearly as much as he thought he did. As it turned out, while clad in the Darkness, his wounds automatically healed. He felt kind of foolish that he hadn't realized this earlier. 

Every time he had used his Darkness before, he'd been facing off against an overwhelming enemy and he'd never once sustained any serious injuries.

When the tentacle had gripped him in the Dark Sea, it must have caused a few fractures at the very least. Also, when he'd fought the five Scavengers in that clearing, he was hit several times. Even if the Plate had not let him sustain any direct injuries, there would still have to have been a few minor strains and bruises.

But he hadn't felt too bad on either of the two occasions. At least, not physically.

That could only be attributed to the fact that the Darkness had been healing him. He just hadn't noticed it, because he'd always been in a fit of rage while fighting inside the black fog. 

However, yesterday had been different. He had deliberately limited his usage of True Darkness.

Firstly, because he didn't want to waste too much of it and secondly because he'd felt like he would need to retain at least some of his wits while facing a slightly intelligent enemy like the Carapace Centurion.

He had felt the rage regardless, but it hadn't been as debilitating as the times when he'd gone all out. So, he had managed to retain some of his sanity while fighting the armored scythe slayer. That's why he remembered getting injured during that fight.

An automatic healing ability was nothing short of amazing. He had always feared that he'd need to reveal himself to the trio if he were to ever injure himself too severely but now, that problem was solved.

All he would need to do in such a situation was surround himself with some True Darkness and let it work its magic. Cade found himself smiling widely.

I guess I should've figured it out sooner. After all, the Spell did call it a precious gift...

It didn't seem like his Darkness would be able to heal anyone else though, like Nephis could with her soul flames, but that was alright. He wasn't planning on working with anyone else in the near future, anyway. His only companion would be himself and as long as the Darkness healed him, he was good.

This was a pleasant surprise. 

Divine Aspect for the win I guess, he thought, grinning stupidly. 

Now, he had other matters to attend to. Namely, to check out his new Echo. So, without further ado, he dove into his Soul Sea. 

Cade wasn't used to visiting his Soul Sea too often. There was no particular reason for that; he just hadn't had a good enough excuse to do it these past couple of weeks.

After all, his Soul Sea wasn't like Sunny's; it didn't house an army of creatures he'd killed so far. It was a normal Soul Sea. Well, as normal as the Soul Sea of a Divine Aspect wielder could get... 

Cade's Soul Sea stretched into an infinite void— a vast, silent expanse of ethereal darkness. From Sunny's description of a 'normal Soul Sea', Cade remembered that this void should've been populated by an endless pattern of stars, but in his case, it was utterly black and dark. 

Cade had come to terms with this just after his First Nightmare, because he'd already known that the Soul Seas of each of the Divine Aspect holders were unique in their own right.

So, this much was only natural. Also, in complete honesty, he didn't much care for the appearance. After all, it was not like he'd be having any visitors here.

Well, not unless the Prince of Nothing himself decides to pay me a visit, he mused. He wasn't eager for that confrontation one bit. 

Apart from the starless void, a silent and calm sea full of True Darkness surrounded him, illuminated only by a lonely white sun. His soul core wasn't burning with bright light as Sunny had said it was supposed to.

Instead, it was simply a white sphere casting a warm white glow that didn't seem to bother the Darkness of his Soul Sea at all.

His soul core looked eerily fragile and unnervingly transient, as if it could break apart at any second. Cade could've even sworn that he'd seen an almost invisible crack appear on his soul core, but it was really hard to make out any details.

Cade didn't know if the fragile nature of his soul core was normal or not, because he didn't have anything to compare it to. So, he simply pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind.

Also, his delicate soul core wasn't exactly radiating light; no, it was exuding... some kind of energy which produced a faint sensation of vision in the dark depths of Cade's soul. 

Cade turned his gaze to the surroundings of his soul core and noticed the familiar spheres of faint light orbiting it. Their light seemed almost suppressed by the True Darkness inhabiting his Soul Sea. In fact, the soul core itself seemed to be struggling under the oppressive force of Darkness that permeated Cade's soul.

There were six small spheres revolving closer to the soul core; these represented the Memories Cade possessed— apart from the Arcane Keystone, of course, which was nowhere to be found. A much larger sphere was hovering further away from the soul core; this one represented the Echo he'd just gotten. 

As Cade commanded the Echo sphere to descend, it floated down and touched the sea of True Darkness before fading into nothingness and revealing the Monster contained within. 

A hulking and terrifying Carapace Centurion stood in front of him with a strange calmness that didn't quite match its menacing appearance. Cade inspected the creature for a moment and then, slowly extended his right hand forward.

Maybe... 

Cade had not been so eager to visit his Soul Sea for the mere task of staring at the horrifying Monster. He could have done that by simply summoning the Echo into the material world.

No, what Cade had wanted to do was to confirm a suspicion. 

Cade distinctly remembered when Sunny had gotten his first Echo. It had been a Carapace Scavenger. And Cade also remembered what had happened when Sunny had touched the Echo in his Soul Sea without even knowing what he was doing. The moment Sunny's fingers had touched the Scavenger's carapace, a new string of runes had appeared: 

[Transform Echo into a Shadow?] 

That had been an extension of Sunny's Divine Aspect.

However, not every Divine Aspect holder could do something other with their Echoes. Nephis had shown no signs of possessing an ability to alter Echoes. Mordret had not been able to use Echoes but rather his own soul cores to form Reflections.

And so, Cade wasn't too hopeful for anything strange happening. However, he had decided to give it a try anyway. Who knew? Maybe his Aspect could do something with Echoes too... 

And as soon as Cade's hand touched one of the spikes jutting out of the Centurion's carapace, a wide smile broke out on his face. For a new set of runes did appear and they read: 

[Infuse Echo?]