Shadow Slave: Arcadius of the Forgotten

Back at the clearing where the trio had faced the Carapace Centurion's Echo, Sunny was standing with his eyes closed, as if focusing on something. And failing.

His face contorted in a grimace.

What the hell? I was just about to see them... Damn it all!

He gritted his teeth in frustration and called his shadow back. Then, he opened his eyes and looked at Nephis, who was some distance away, helping Cassie come out of where she had been hiding.

The two girls walked up to him.

"Well?" Nephis asked. "Did you find them?"

Sunny shook his head. "No," he said honestly. "I think I was going in the right direction, and I felt like I was about to catch a glimpse. But then... then, everything just went... black. Like completely dark."

"I thought you said you were able to see in the dark," Nephis replied after a short pause, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"I am, but this was different," Sunny said. "This wasn't the kind of darkness that arises as a result of the absence of light. No, it was something much more sinister... like something physical... if that makes sense."

No, but what the hell was that? And why did that seem so damn familiar? Where have I seen that before?

"True Darkness..." Cassie whispered. She had remained silent ever since emerging from her hiding spot. Both Sunny and Nephis turned to the blind girl.

She was looking at the ground, a deep frown creasing her features. She seemed to be thinking about something deeply.

"True Darkness?" Nephis inquired, looking at Cassie. "I have heard of it, but someone with an affinity to True Darkness is incredibly rare." She turned to Sunny. "Are you sure that's what you saw? Elemental Darkness?"

"I don't exactly know what that means but I think that's it," Sunny replied, massaging his forearm. The struggle with that monstrosity had been taxing. "I am able to see when there's no light, but that darkness turned me completely blind. My shadow was almost reluctant to go near it."

Something clicked in Sunny's mind at that moment. He remembered where he'd seen that darkness before. It was when he had been plunged into the Dark Sea on the night of the winter solstice. He hadn't been able to see anything inside that black water.

Don't tell me... is the Dark Sea really an ocean full of darkness? Or rather, True Darkness?

Nephis nodded at his statement and turned to look at the sky. After a pause, she turned to Sunny and said indifferently, "I don't think we'll be able to make it to the statue today. Let's retreat for now and come back tomorrow. We'll also discuss what to do about this unknown perpetrator."

Sunny didn't disagree. He was too exhausted to continue anyway. So, he simply nodded, and they started back towards the coral mound.

Upon reaching the base of the hill on which the coral pillar stood, Nephis and Cassie quickly moved to make their way to its top.

However, Sunny noticed something weird at the base of the hill. There were... remnants of ice and— is that snow? Sunny frowned slightly.

Nephis seemingly hadn't noticed the strange phenomenon. Some distance up the hill, she turned around and looked at Sunny.

"What's wrong? Is it danger?" she asked with a tiny bit of wariness.

"No," Sunny replied. "It doesn't look like danger. It's just... never mind."

He shook his head and walked to catch up to Changing Star. He didn't know where the snow had come from, but he wasn't in any condition to worry about a strange weather phenomenon. He was exhausted and the Dream Realm was a strange place. So, he decided not to worry about it.

After making their way up to the top of the coral mound, they made a fire, roasted some meat and rested for a bit.

While resting, Sunny's thoughts swirled. He remembered his second day in the Dream Realm, when he'd still been resting on top of the Knight's statue. He remembered seeing smoke— no, something thicker and blacker than smoke— in the labyrinth, far to the north.

Was that the same 'True Darkness' that Nephis was talking about? he thought. Is the attacker camping somewhere out there?

That night, during the storm, Sunny had also seen the light from this very coral mound. He had debated which of the two phenomena he should head towards. In the end, heading in the direction of the light had seemed like a better option.

If that really was the Darkness that Nephis mentioned, then there's no doubt that the attacker, or maybe even several of them are there. 

Sunny found himself relieved by the fact that he hadn't headed in the direction of the black mist. Some mindless lunatic or even several could have been there. And someone who'd set a murderous Echo on them? Sunny had no intention of meeting that kind of lunatic.

Should I tell her about it? he thought to himself. But I've got a bad feeling about this. If there's really a Citadel in the west, I don't want our journey to be delayed for even a second. 

He also guessed that Changing Star was not someone who would leave the attacker alone if she found out where they were staying. So, if he told her about the black fog, she'd definitely wanna go and check it out. 

But what if they attack again? Nephis's ability seems pretty strong but what if they ambush us again, and this time we don't get lucky?

He scratched his head in frustration. Damnation! Why couldn't those bastards just leave us alone? Now, I either have to tell her and attack them myself or I have to wait to be attacked!

This was a very difficult situation. He obviously didn't want to face other humans in battle. His struggle with the Echo today had proven that he was clearly lacking in combat prowess, despite the training that Cade had put him through. 

That bastard... I can't believe I'm actually missing those lessons. If not for that running mouth of his, that bastard was actually useful.

There was also the problem that the mysterious attacker, or at least one of them, possessed affinity to Darkness. And Sunny had concluded that Darkness was the most natural enemy of shadows, seeing as how his shadow was reluctant to go near it.

To face an enemy that had an Ability which directly countered his own? And an intelligent human on top of that? Maybe even several of them? 

He definitely did not want to find himself in such a confrontation. But still, what if they attacked again? 

Arghh... Curse it!! 

Finally, he decided to hear Nephis's own take on the situation. He would make his decision after hearing Changing Star out.

It was time to address their newest problem, the mysterious attacker.

"So, what do you think, huh?" Sunny asked as the sun was about to set.

Nephis remained silent for a while. After the pause, she looked in his direction and said, "I am not sure. Awakened with affinity to True Darkness are very rare. I tried to recall how many I know but I could only think of one: Saint Revel, the Lightslayer of Great Clan Song."

"A Saint?" Sunny said, his eyes widening in surprise. "It must be a pretty strong ability, then. If an actual Saint has it."

"Not just any Saint. Lightslayer is the oldest of Ki Song's adopted daughters. And also, one of the strongest Saints in existence," Nephis replied after a short pause. Her face seemed to grimace when she said Ki Song's name.

Sunny was awestruck. He didn't say anything for a while. Saints were basically demigods. Each of them was a singular existence capable of wielding enormous power, even the weaker ones. And an actual Saint possessed Darkness as their ability. Not to mention an especially strong one.

Curses... Curse it all!

It was becoming less and less tempting to tell Nephis of the mysterious attackers' alleged camp.

After the pause, he sighed and said, "What business does a Sleeper have possessing such a terrifying ability? Or do you think it was an Awakened who attacked us?"

After remaining silent for a couple of seconds, Nephis shook her head. "No, I don't think it was an Awakened. Firstly, because if there were Awakened here in the labyrinth, there wouldn't be so many Scavengers around. And we'd have found a Citadel already. Secondly, because if an Awakened wanted to attack us, they wouldn't have used an Echo. They would have taken care of us themselves."

"Makes sense, I guess... but then, who could it be?" Sunny asked. "Another group of Sleepers?" 

Nephis considered his question for several moments before replying. "No. Not a group. If it were a group of hostile Sleepers, they would have set up a bigger ambush, using their Aspects on top of the Echo. No, this was someone else. Someone who doesn't want to be discovered."

Well, that makes two of us... Sunny thought bitterly. I don't wanna discover such a bastard either.

"That was the Echo of an Awakened Monster, I think," Sunny said. "And it looked disturbingly similar to the Carapace Scavengers. Which means that the attacker probably got the Echo here. You really think a single Sleeper could kill an Awakened Monster?"

Nephis remained silent for longer this time. After what seemed like an entire minute, she replied, "Apart from myself, I would only expect two other Sleepers from our batch to be able to kill an Awakened Monster by themselves. First is Caster of the Han Li Clan. But I know that his Aspect has nothing to do with True Darkness. That only leaves one other. Your friend, Arcadius, the Shroudkeeper."

Sunny's eyes widened slightly. Cade? But why would that guy attack us? 

He remained silent for a while. Come to think of it, that bastard never did tell me anything about his Aspect. He was already strong enough with that Attribute of his, so, I never thought to ask. But this? True Darkness? 

He scratched his head lightly. The sun was almost completely gone, so thankfully, Nephis couldn't see his internal strife. That still doesn't explain why he attacked us, though! Curse it! Just when I thought things were looking a little good. Why can't anything go the way I want it to?! Damnation! 

He looked at Nephis and said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "Who, Cade? That guy? He wouldn't attack us. Why the hell would he attack us?"

"That I do not know," Nephis replied almost immediately. "Did he ever tell you about his Aspect?"

Sunny shook his head, but remembered that Nephis couldn't see in the dark. "No, we never really talked about that. I was too busy getting all beat up every time I saw him."

"I thought as much," Nephis said, looking away from him and turning in Cassie's direction. "Cassie?"

The blind girl had remained silent throughout their conversation. She seemingly wasn't in any mood to talk. But after hearing her name, she looked up.

"Yes?" she said, her voice quivering slightly.

"You seemed close to him. Shroudkeeper, I mean," Nephis said. "Did he ever tell you about his Aspect?"

Cassie didn't answer immediately. She, of course, knew that Cade's Aspect was connected with True Darkness. But he had trusted her with the information. And she had promised not to betray him.

"Um... no," she lied. "No, he didn't say anything about his Aspect." 

Nephis seemed to believe her. After a while, she asked, "What about his Attributes? You must have seen his Attributes."

Cassie again remained silent for a while. Then, she said, "Well, he had four Attributes. And no. None of them had anything to do with this True Darkness, either."

Nephis didn't press her further. She probably thought Cassie was too shook from their confrontation with the Centurion. Cassie didn't really mind. She wasn't in any mood to answer questions right now.

After some time, Sunny said, "I think you're grasping at straws here, Neph. There's no good reason as to why that guy would attack us. He went to so much trouble to teach me how to fight. Why the hell would he want to kill me now?"

"I didn't say anything about him wanting to kill us," Nephis said after a short pause. "I noticed while fighting the Echo that it wasn't exactly trying to kill us. It could have delivered a killing blow to me immediately after I hit the coral. But it didn't. Also, it didn't immediately go after the obvious weakness in our formation, Cassie, either."

She paused before continuing, "No, it was not trying to kill us. Instead, it looked like it was trying to stall us, waste our time. But the question is... why?"

Sunny thought for a while and trying to lighten the mood, he said, "Maybe he was trying to protect us from some scary monster up ahead?"

Nephis looked unconvinced. She nodded and said after a while, "It could also be some other Sleeper who wasn't at the Academy. Anyway, I also do not think it was Shroudkeeper— at least not completely. He did not seem like a bad person."

At that moment, both Cassie and Sunny realized that Nephis... was a terrible liar. They could tell with ease that she was almost completely convinced that it was Arcadius. However, neither of them decided to confront her about it.

Sunny rubbed his temples and said, "I don't know him well enough to vouch for him. But I also feel like he isn't the type of person who'd wanna ambush and hurt the three of us. So, maybe you're right and it was someone else."

Nephis nodded. "We will have to be careful. If it really is an enemy, then they're not going to be easy to take down. Your shadow scouts ahead but we take our immediate surroundings for granted. We will have to remain more vigilant."

Sunny agreed, nodding lightly. In the end, he chose not to divulge the information about the attacker's camp, if it even was that. Hopefully, after seeing them take down the Echo of the Monster, the attacker would leave them alone.

If they didn't... well, then, he'd have no choice but to tell Nephis about the black mist he had seen to the north.

Also, there was something else gnawing at his curiosity. But he didn't really know how to address it.

After a long while, he said hesitantly, "By the way, I thought you said your Aspect Ability could be used to heal."

Nephis looked in his direction. Her face didn't betray any emotions, but Sunny could tell that she was slightly embarrassed to be caught hiding the truth. "It can be used to heal... among other things."

Sunny looked at her, a sad expression on his face. "It causes you pain, doesn't it? Using your Ability? It's your Flaw." He remembered how Changing Star had screamed in agony when she had summoned her flames.

"Yes," Nephis said simply.

"How does it feel?" Sunny asked.

"Like burning alive," Nephis replied after a short pause.

Sunny remained silent for a while, seemingly at a loss for words. After a few seconds, he said, "I'm sorry."

Nephis simply shrugged. "It's just pain."

Sunny let out a breathless chuckle. Just pain. Those might very well be the saddest words he'd ever heard.

Cassie stirred a little and moved towards Nephis. She held her hand in her own and rested her head on Nephis's shoulder. Nephis smiled lightly.

After that, they went over their plans for tomorrow's journey west. All of them were worried about the mysterious Sleeper who had attacked them.

Well, all of them except for Cassie. A singular thought was going through her head... he's here!