Shadow Slave: Arcadius of the Forgotten

Cade's heart hammered in his chest as he ran. He ran with all his might. He couldn't afford to stop. If he stopped right now, not only would the trio discover him, but they would also consider him their enemy.

Well... in complete honesty, he couldn't really blame them. After all, he had set a murderous Carapace Centurion on them. 

Still, that didn't mean he'd let himself be discovered so easily... 

Fuck! I'm such an idiot! What the hell was I thinking?!

Sunny's shadow was gaining. Gloomy was fast, very fast. Cade could feel the shadows around him stir. Gloomy was just moments away from laying its eyes— or whatever it had instead of eyes— on Cade. 

But Cade was desperate. He absolutely could not allow himself to be discovered. So, he did the only thing that came to mind. He reached within for the Darkness resting within his soul and breathed out.

After all, Sunny could not see through True Darkness. True Darkness was the natural enemy of shadows. So, even Gloomy would be forced to retreat. 

But Cade had been reluctant to do this. Because he knew all too well that summoning the Darkness was not free of cost. 

The moment the Darkness enveloped him and his surroundings, Cade staggered. A familiar and unwelcome heat ignited within his chest, spreading outward like wildfire.

His armored hands clenched into trembling fists. His breathing became shallow and erratic. The rage struck harder this time, much harder, crashing over him like a storm surge. 

In his state of panic, Cade had breathed out a little too much of the blinding black fog. This time, the fury wasn't the dull ember that he'd learned to suppress. It was a roaring inferno, clawing at his mind with savage intent. 

Turn back. 

The thought whispered first, soft and insidious, before swelling into an unrelenting command. 

Turn back!

Finish it.

Finish them.  

Cade gritted his teeth, grinding them audibly as he pressed his palms against his temples. "No..." he hissed, his voice barely audible. His body was shaking as he tried his best to resist the fury clawing at the edges of his mind. 

The Darkness around him pulsed, as if it could feel his inner turmoil. Its once calm and mindless nature was different now. It seemed alive with restless energy. It begged for violence; it echoed his own burning desire for carnage. Cade could almost hear voices coming from within the Darkness, faint and distorted, urging him to give in to his Flaw. 

His knees buckled, and he dropped to the ground. His fingers clawed at the rocky surface as he fought for control. Sweat beaded on his forehead. It began dripping down the sides of his face. His breaths were uneven, shallow gasps that filled the suffocating Darkness around him. 

It's just my Flaw. I don't need to kill them. I don't need to hurt them. It's just the Darkness. It's not me, he repeated to himself, over and over again like a mantra— trying to anchor his crumbling resolve.

But the words felt hollow against the tidal wave of anger. 

His body acted on its own. The rage ignited every muscle into action. He pushed himself up onto his feet, and turned back towards the direction he had fled from. His mind screamed to stop, but his legs moved anyway. He began stepping closer to the edge of the black fog where Sunny's shadow writhed. 

"I won't..." Cade muttered. His voice cracked as his hands trembled to his sides. His fingers flexed and the Voidfang materialized into his hand. 

His vision blurred. A haze of red creeped into the edges of his sight. It was almost as if the Darkness was feeding into his hunger.

This wasn't normal.

Even during his desperate swim through the Dark Sea on his first night in the Dream Realm, when he'd gone all out, the rage hadn't been this bad.

He'd been able to control it, somehow. 

But right now, when he had only called upon slightly more of his Darkness than usual, the fury was indescribable. It was unreal. His body was being forced to move towards the three Sleepers. Every fiber of his being was screaming for him to hunt them down. To kill them. To... to punish them. 

Cade squeezed his eyes shut. He clutched his hair with his free hand, and pulled hard, as if trying to physically tear the thoughts from his mind.

"I said... NO!" he growled. The sound was rough and guttural. He did not care about the fact that the Sleepers might hear him anymore. No... right now, he only wanted to retain his sanity. 

His voice startled even him. Its tone carried an edge of feral rage that barely felt like his own. 

Cade forced himself to focus. He drew on every ounce of discipline he had left. He thought of the three Sleepers. They were good people. All three of them.

Nephis, with her flawed perception of pride and justice.

Sunny, with his weird obsession for gaining freedom.

And Cassie... Cassie, the girl he had come to care about so deeply.

No, he would not kill them. He would not hurt them. He would not give in to this rage— this rage that wasn't even his.

Finally... he felt the rage receding. And he relaxed a little...

Only for it to flare once more and come back twice as strong. Twice as insidious.

Because his resolve meant nothing. His discipline was meaningless.

His body simply refused to listen. It took another step forward, heedless of his own will. Cade felt his mind go completely blank. He felt as if he were no longer in control, as if he were a mere passenger trapped within his own flesh.

Another step. His fingers clenched tightly around the hilt of the Voidfang. His thoughts blurred, unraveling into something dark and unrecognizable. A smirk curled his lips— vicious, hungry— as the bloodlust swallowed him whole.

Good.

This is good...

He took another step forward, and lifted his foot for another. He was about to step out of the bubble of Darkness, and come face to face with Sunny's shadow.

However, at that moment, something strange... and unexpected happened.

Just as he was about to step out of the Darkness, something struck the Ebonveil Plate near his chest. His gaze snapped downward. He couldn't see in the Darkness, but he could sense the shape of the object that had hit him.

It was a dagger.

Cade bent down and picked the blade up, his mind crumbling under the weight of unspent fury. But the moment he tightened his grip, the dagger... vanished.

A Memory! His entire being seethed with unfathomable rage. Who dares?

Suddenly, he forgot all about the Sleepers he was about to hunt, and turned sharply, moving toward the source of the throw.

He needed to find the person who had dared hurl a weapon at him. He needed to make them pay. He needed to rip them to shreds.

The Darkness moved with him. Cade's gaze darted frantically. His focus sharpened on his connection to the black fog.

Where was the attacker?

But he sensed nothing. There was no presence, no movement.

Slowly, it became clear— there was no one there.

His teeth clenched as frustration burned through him. With a sharp growl, he drove the Voidfang's blade into one of the jagged coral trees jutting from the ground. His jaw tightened, grinding audibly.

Who had dared to throw a blade at him? Why couldn't he find them? Why couldn't he kill them?

With sheer force of will, he dismissed the Voidfang. His mind felt like it was fracturing and splintering under the weight of this unnatural fury. He wanted— no, he needed to keep searching.

But it was also getting late. The Dark Sea could return at any moment.

So, as his survival instinct kicked in, he resisted. Somehow. Barely.

He didn't know where he was anymore, only that his body kept moving. He was trembling with the effort to resist the urge to hunt.

Every step was agony. His muscles twitched, poised to betray him at any moment. His vision blurred, his mind felt like it was shattering— but still, he pressed on.

The Darkness around him began to settle. It seemed to respond to the ebb of his rage. It clung to him, and moved with him. It was like a shroud of black which insulated him from the world beyond. He wandered without any sense of direction until, at last, he recalled the black mist back into his soul.

He guessed that he had put enough distance between himself and the trio.

After a while, he stopped. His knees hit the ground. His breath came ragged and uneven. His hands trembled as he pressed them against the ground. His head hung low.

For a long moment, Cade remained where he was. His body was trembling from the aftershocks of his mental struggle. The rage had subsided, but its echo lingered— a haunting reminder of the fine line he had just walked.

What the hell was that? He had never felt anything like it. That wasn't just rage. That was pure madness. I completely lost control.

He wiped his forehead against the vambrace on his forearm. Gods, I almost went back and killed them.

But did he? If not, then why not?

He had blacked out there, when he was close to the edge of the Darkness. The rage had just been too damn intense.

Cade pushed himself to his feet. The sun was very close to setting. He exhaled sharply, and steeled himself for the journey back to the coral branch.

Well, whatever happened, I'm thankful for it. Thank the Gods I didn't kill them.

He couldn't be entirely sure— he had blacked out near the edge of the Darkness— but it was a safe assumption.

As deadly as he was, Nephis was no pushover. She would have fought back, maybe even killed him before he got the chance. Her Aspect Ability could devour his Darkness in an instant.

And since he was still standing, largely unscathed, with no signs of battle on his armor, it seemed that he hadn't attacked them after all.

His gaze flicked downward. A faint graze marked the glossy black plating near his chest. He frowned.

Where'd that come from? He kept walking, shaking the thought aside. Either way, I was right to avoid them. If I'd lost control with them that close, either I or the three of them would be dead.

He walked a little farther before summoning the Voidfang. There would be Scavengers on the way back. And he no longer had the Echo to do the killing for him.