Shadow Slave: Diaries of a Stranger in even Stranger Lands

Cassie opened her eyes and found herself sitting in some sort of seat surrounded by impenetrable darkness.

She would have panicked if not for such occurrences becoming somewhat of a routine these days.

She was in a vision.

How did she know that?

She was only able to see with her eyes inside visions.

It wasn't always a seat she found herself in. Sometimes, she would open her eyes and find herself in a run-down alley between old, rickety, wooden buildings.

Other times, she would be standing on some tall building and looking over a vast expanse of elaborate mansions and structures.

Yet, every time, the content of the vision was roughly the same.

As if on cue, blue spots appeared in the darkness as torches suddenly began lighting up in blue flames all around the area before her, revealing an expansive arena covered in its entirety by some sort of blackish-red sand. She doubted that this was the sand's original color once upon a time.

She tried her best to focus on the insignificant topic of sand color; thus, ignoring the main focus of the vision. She didn't want to witness again what she had already witnessed countless times.

Yet, her wretched heart betrayed her reason causing her to meekly glance at one of the figures standing in the red-soaked arena.

The figure wore a heart-achingly familiar armor that seemed to be made entirely out of bones. Covering the head and face was a helmet that looked more akin to a bare human skull than anything. His posture was tense, like a high-strung spring, ready to release its full power at a moment's notice. For many, his appearance would look like a veteran warrior - someone who fought on the battlefield all his life. Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that the one before her eyes looked more like a lost wounded wolf than a warrior.

Her ruminations came to a halt when she felt another presence - one that made a terrible chill run down her spine. She unconsciously rubbed the goosebumps on her arms as she slowly turned her attention toward the source of the terrifying presence.

On the opposite side of the arena was an opening that stretched into a long tunnel from which she assumed fighters would emerge in the past. From the darkness of that tunnel, the sound of steps resounded. Each one made the whole arena shake slightly.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Then... it revealed itself.

Whatever guess Cassie had regarding the thing that would emerge from the tunnel, it was all dashaway when a chalk-white leg, as thick as a large tree trunk emerged from the darkness followed quickly by the rest.

It looked... human - at least, more human than she had seen any nightmare cture look.

The thing that emerged from the tunnel was a muscular, four-meter-tall, humanoid figure, with an incredibly defined and exaggerated physique - like a caricature of what a bodybuilder looked like. Its skin was chalk white and stretched taut over the muscles, revealing networks of underlying tendon and sinew. With every step it took, she could see how the muscles contracted and relaxed under the thin layer of skin.

The figure's torso was bare, leaving little to the imagination when it came to its form with it having only two articles of clothing on itself. One of them was a piece of white cloth wrapped around its thick waist, which seemed to have seen better days. The other was a blindfold that was inexplicably wrapped around the monstrous figure's smooth bald head.

Apart from the inhuman physique, it looked mostly human; that is, as long as you ignored the wide, unsettling grin that was edged on its lipless mouth revealing a mass of sharp teeth and black gums.

(Image)

Its human likeness only seemed to increase the apprehension and fear gnawing at her heart. It was not something that could be born naturally. It was an abomination - a wretched stain.

The pale nightmare creature continued to walk towards the one with the bone armor, its grin never once faltering. It moved with surprising grace for its size. It was also calm, far too calm for a normal nightmare creature.

Then... it vanished.

She blinked.

Boom!

Crack!

In the time it required her to blink once, the nightmare creature reappeared where the armored figure was previously standing, a leg raised leisurely in a martial arts stance. On the other hand, her eyes moved until they landed on a cloud of dust that had formed on the far end of the arena where the armored figure was embedded into the stone that made up its walls. Their imposing armor was fractured - broken - by a single strike of the nightmare creature.

She witnessed it as the armor shattered a moment later and turned into whisps of light that faded almost instantly, revealing the person it was protecting.

A muscular pale body riddled with a few scars here and there.

She choked back a cry as the face of the one behind the armor was revealed to her for the first time since she started seeing him in visions. She always had her doubts about his identity considering the armor he was wearing... but now?

A handsome face, marred by a scar that stretched from his right cheek to his eyebrow. His white hair was long and shaggy as if it hadn't been tended to in months. Two cerulean irises glared hatefully at the nightmare creature before him despite the current condition of his body injuries.

From her position, she could see that one of his arms was twisted in a weird angle and a reddish color was spreading through his snow-white hair and trickling down his face.

The pale monster moved again.

She tried to move, to intercept it, to shout out a warning - anything!

Alas, a force beyond her held her in her seat just as it did every time and forced her to merely watch as the nightmare creature reached next to William's body in a blur of speed. William tried to move, to get away from the creature's range. Unfortunately, the creature was far too fast for him to do so.

With a grip that would put an industrial clamp to shame, the pale monstrosity held onto one of the youth's legs and lifted him up as easily as an adult lifted a baby.

The grin on its face, grew wider until it stretched from one ear to the other, in a twisted smile of jagged teeth and black gums.

Then, it raised him up high into the air before slamming him down onto the arena's red ground with a sickening crack.

"C...."

After that, it did it again.

"Ca...."

And again.

"Cas...."

And again.

"Cass..."

And again.

"Cassi..."

And again.

"Cassie."

Until a grotesque ripping sound resounded in the silence of the arena and she witnessed William's broken body fly in a bloody arc and land with a crash a few inches away from her position.

She didn't dare turn and look at it. Her heart couldn't handle seeing the one so dear to her reduced to such a sorry state. She didn't want the memory of his bright smile etched in her mind to be replaced by what he looked like now.

The nightmare creature's grin faltered for a moment as it stared at the ripped leg in his hand in confusion akin to a child looking at a broken toy. The next second, it returned in full force and he threw the severed limb away like a piece of trash he picked on the ground.

"Cassie!"

She felt a sudden jolt as a familiar voice called out her name. The scene before her vanished instantly in a puff of smoke and was replaced by the sight of... her face.

She would've been confused if she hadn't gotten used to seeing from a third person's point of view by now.

Her blond hair was a mess and there were dark bags under her eyes, an indication of the many sleepless nights she had to endure recently due to the weird visions that she had been having. She could both see and feel the rivulets of tears trailing down her cheeks.

The view changed as the one whom her vision she was borrowing, Dust, turned her head and looked at the one who had woken her up.

Nephis was looking down at her with a tense expression.

"Cassie... you've been crying. Everything alright?" she asked, her voice still carrying the same neutral tone as the one she used when they first met months ago. However, Cassie knew the Legacy heiress well enough by now to know that she was genuinely worried about her. She was just not the best at showing her emotions.

"It's alright Neph, it was just a dream," she said, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand and giving the grey-eyed girl a small smile. Then, she reached towards her trusty crow and slid her hand down her glossy black feathers. Dust softly cawed under her ministrations.

She needed a moment to calm down after witnessing everything that happened in that vision.

"That's right... it was all just a dream," she knew that she was lying to herself but she preferred. That was anything but a dream. It was too vivid. Too life-like to be a simple figment of her imagination.

It was a vision - no doubt about it. It couldn't have been a vision of the future since... William had died right in front of her eyes. It made no sense as to why she would be seeing the future of a dead person.

With the future ruled out, that only left one avenue to explore. The visions that she had been seeing for a while now were undoubtedly of William's past; probably his first nightmare if the weird environment she found herself in every time was of any indication.

Yet, the question lingered as to why she was seeing all of this now of all times? What significance did these visions have? Why was her aspect tormenting her by showing her the suffering and pain of one so dear to her heart?

No matter how much she thought, no answer came to her inquiries.

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Nephis' POV

She watched as the blond oracle went silent while petting her crow. A small, inaudible sigh escaped her lips at the sorry sight of the girl. This was the seventh night that she had been found crying in her sleep. It was starting to worry her and the rest of the cohort - well, most of the cohort.

Her thoughts moved towards a certain recent addition to their cohort before she shook her head gently, "Try and get some sleep, alright? We have a long journey to go through for tomorrow."

An absent minded hum of what she hoped was acknowledgement came from the blind girl.

'I guess that's the best I can get out of her. Whatever she saw with her ability must have shaken her pretty hard.'

She wasn't curious about what the blind girl had seen since she was confident that Cassie would tell them if her vision held any importance to their cohort or journey. Plus, she wasn't the type to put her nose into other people's private matters.

Bidding the seer of their group a good night, she moved towards her previous spot and returned to performing her night watch duty.

She quickly checked over both Sunless and Nyx to check if the sound they made woke them up.

She nodded slightly when she confirmed both of them being asleep.

Thus, without further ado, she adopted her training stance and summoned her sword to her hand. Then, she began her night training/night watch session. If she was going to be wasting several hours staring into darkness, she might as well be productive during those hours. Moreover, training with her sword helped her clear her mind and think.

It had been a few weeks since they had encountered their newest cohort member, Nyx, at that dead, giant tree. She was a... weird addition to the group if she were being honest. She looked far too... bubbly for someone lost in an unexplored region of the Dream Realm. However, her ability proved an invaluable boon to their journey as it helped ease the pressure on them when encountering groups of nightmare creatures.

In addition, the brown-haired girl was no slouch with the sword despite it making her feel weird whenever she saw it in action. She didn't know what was the thing that bothered her about her swordsmanship...

If one asked her to describe it, it would be like watching a machine of sorts doing martial art moves. Sure, it could do it flawlessly, but there was no essence or rather soul behind it. No understanding of what each move signifies or why a certain move needed to follow the previous one. It felt all too... artificial. Yes, that was the word that fit her style best.

Yet, that was neither here or there. As long as she didn't become a liability, it was of no consequence to her whatever was going on with her swordsmanship.

Moving away from her opinion about others' swordsmanships, she focused on another glaring point in regards to their chocolate skinned cohort member: the fact that she seemed to be all too interested in the only male member of their cohort.

She thought that it was normal at first, considering the shared origin of their powers. Though, she liked to cling to him alot.

Well, as long as it didn't affect the cohesion of their group during battle, she didn't care what relationship the two are in. She has a clear goal, survive through all of this and get back to the waking world alive. Then, proceed to get revenge for the unjust death of her parents.

'Aster, Song, Vale,' her grip on her weapon tightened and she mentally intoned the names of the people responsible for her father's death. She took in a deep breath and released it softly, her grip loosening a bit. The owner of these names were also the ones responsible for the downfall of the Immortal Flame Clan along with the various assassinations aimed at her life since a young age.

Even here in the Forgotten Shore, she needed to be constantly vigilant against a knife suddenly plunging into her back.

Speaking of knives to the back...

She briefly side-eyed the slumbering form of the only male member of their cohort. A dangerous glint flashing in her eyes.

She hadn't given much thought to the short boy before. He claimed to be from the outskirts and had zero knowledge of how to actually wield a proper weapon. Sure, he received some basic training from their cohort's late... leader, of sorts, but that only turned his performance from abysmal to somewhat acceptable. Moreover, his abilities proved itself useful for scounting. That helped to slightly solidify his position as the main scout for their group.

She had thought of giving him a few pointers here and there on the correct way to maximize his survival chance in future encounters since it wouldn't be easy navigating the twisting paths of the Coral Labyrinth without their scout.

However, she put an abrupt stop to that notion not long after leaving behind the dead tree on the ashen mound as she noticed something strange.

He had... gotten better. His form, footwork, grip, and swordsmanship all seemed to have skyrocketed suddenly in only a few days. He tried to hide it from them by making the occasional deliberate mistake or error. However, she could see through it thanks to training and studying swordsmanship since she knew how to walk.

It was a weird phenomenon, she had to admit. Yet, something even weirder was the fact that he had started ever so carefully encroaching on her personal space. Asking for spars, training, or if something was bothering her. She had even caught him staring at her at times with a look that she couldn't really decipher.

It was weird. Very, very weird. Not only his skills in combat but also his personality made a 180 degree turn.

It was like he had been replaced by another person in the span of a single night. Or... maybe the him of before was just an act; a ruse to have them lower their guard around him.

Yet, the question lingered as to why he chose to drop off his mask right now when they were knee deep in...

It suddenly clicked. Everything fell into place smoothly like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Back during the beginning of their journey, they didn't face many nightmare creatures. So, it was easy for him to maintain his weak and unassuming act.

However, since the death of William, their encounters against nightmare creatures had risen significantly in quantity despite their best efforts to avoid them. This must have been the catalyst that forced him to reveal his hand.

A sliver of doubt wormed its way into her heart, could he be an assassin sent off to kill her by one of the Great Clans?

It sounded ridiculous at first - paranoid even. However, the more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her. In hindsight, it made his previous actions and recent changes make more sense.

His weak and clueless act at the beginning was merely a front to have her lower her guard around him. However, once things got more serious, he had been forced to show his real skills despite himself to survive. Then, he started attempting to get closer to her, another ruse to have her trust in him and make herself an easier target for the future. Plus, his particular skill set seemed all to convenient for assassinations for it to be a coincidence.

She was quite familiar with this tactic. After all, it was not the first time that someone she thought cared about her had turned out to be nothing more than an assassin sent to kill her.

She mentally sighed at the thought, 'Why does it seem like I can't catch a break?'

Regardless, whether Sunless - if that was even his real name - was an assassin or not, she couldn't do anything about it while they were stuck in the middle of nightmare creature territory. Moreover, if she were to confront him about it right now, it could prove to be a disaster since she didn't really know just how much skill he kept hidden. Maybe she could use the spars he so incessantly requested to find out.

Her grey eyes moved towards Cassie who by now had returned to sleep while hugging Dust in her arms.

Plus, he could always use hostages to get to her.

Even though she had been training Cassie and the blind girl had been a very diligent student, she wasn't yet at the level where she could face against the new level of swordsmanship Sunless had been exhibiting.

She rubbed her forehead as a mild headache began to form. She probably needed to intensify Cassie's training to prepare her for the worst case scenario particularly now that their new member seemed awfully chummy with the suspected assassin.

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(Sunny's POV)

Sunny removed his Azure Blade from the already dead Carapace Scavenger with practiced ease. Azure blood gushed out and the voice of the spell rang in his ear but he gave it no mind as his thoughts were already preoccupied by much more important matters.

It hadn't taken long for him to come to terms with his... regression - of sorts. Although he would've preferred being regressed back to when he was still a street rat - to make certain connections early - but returning to when he was in the Forgotten Shore was still an acceptable compromise. After all, many thing happened at that time that determined much of his future.

Like any human, he had regrets. Regrets that he could now make sure never happen.

Yet, not everything had been sunshine and rainbows. For some reason or another, context of the time period he was in was very much different than the one he remembered.

The first and most important inconsistency was the fact that the Soul Devouring Tree was somehow dead. Something that shocked him to his core considering he was only steps away from becoming a willing slave to that tree. Luckily, the egg of the Vile Thieving Bird was still undisturbed so he was able to kill it and gain Weaver's Lineage again. Despite the consequences that this action of his would bring on later in the Tomb of Ariel, it was still an essential step for him to gain back his former power.

The abilities given by the Blood Weave had helped him more times than he could count. Plus, it was essential for him to gain back his ability to read the enchantments of memories and see within the being of other creatures and objects.

Then there was the second problem, with the Soul Devouring Tree dead, the Carapace Demon was nowhere to be found. This was particularly troubling as that nightmare creature held one of the seven keys required to seal back the Dark Sea.

After that was his third concundrum, he had absolutely no memories of the last few months in the Forgotten Shore. Sure, he had His memories but not the ones of his younger self that he replaced.

Normally, that would've have been much of a problem. However, there were certain discrepancies between his own memories and what he had been experiencing for the last three days.

For instance, for some reason, Cassie now had some sort of black crow as a pet of sorts. He first dismissed it as a mere echo that she may have unknownly acquired. However, using his Blood Weave's ability to look beyond the physical body, he understood just how wrong he was.

That crow, whatever the hell it was, was not something as mundane as an echo but rather a being created from a shard of Cassie's own soul which explained the thick bond existing between her soul and the creature.

He was fairly sure that the Cassie from his memories didn't have anything like that.

Moreover, Cassie was now able to fight nightmare creatures despite her flaw. Something that wouldn't have normally happened until she got her echo Quiet Dancer or after awakening her awakened and ascended abilities. Yet, he had observed the blind girl spar with Neph and move unlike someone who didn't have vision.

Yet, when he tried to ask privately her how she was doing that, a look of extreme grief covered her delicate features and she turned her back and walked away from him. It was then that he got assaulted by that black corvid.

It didn't take a genius to make out that Sunny hadn't actually returned back in time. Well, he did came back to the past but not 'His' past but the past of another timeline or something along those lines.

Something had happened in those two months. Something that the Sunny he took over knew but he didn't. Yet, he couldn't ask Neph or Cassie lest they think that something was wrong with him; Or worse, that he was crazy.

'Damnation!'

He felt like he was back inside Ariel's Tomb all over again.

What cemented that hypothesis for him was Nephis. Given that they were not the closest of people even in the early days of the Forgotten Shore, they still at least had some teacher - student connection between them. A connection that didn't appear to exist in this timeline for whatever reason.

Maybe the Sunny of this timeline had been too prideful to ask the Legacy Heiress for help or something. It was something that he could have imagined himself doing. The utter fool.

However, that could prove to be an unexpected boon for him. With no prior connection having been built with the silver-haired girl, he could more easily form a more equal relationship with her than the one he had at this time in the past. The only question was how could he catch her interest.

Nephis during the Forgotten Shore had been particularly reticent and socially awkward with her mind solely focused on her revenge against the Supremes and her swordsmanship.

Wait... swordsmanship.

Nephis did genuinely admire his fighting style when he had shown her a video of himself as Mongrel in the past. The memory brought a small smile to his lips.

He didn't have Shadow Dance unlocked yet, something he was eager to correct as fast as possible, but he still retained the memories of how to perform the various types of fighting styles he had learned using it. Spell, he probably was more proficient in the Immortal Flame Swordsmanship style than the current Nephis.

If he could somehow leverage this and use it to attract her interest, then it would make for a perfect first step to rekindle what they had in his timeline. He had already done it once after she had her memories of him erased after exiting the Tomb of Ariel, it was simply a matter of doing it again. In addition, this time, he won't be making the mistakes that led him to becoming her slave again.

It was going to be different this time. So very different.

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(Nyx's POV)

The reincarnator watched with an unconcerned expression as her Shadow Carapace Centurion ripped through the group of Carapace Scavengers that had incercepted their group.

'Truly my ability is just the best,' she thought, a smug smile etched on her face. It was the best to let your minions do the hard work for you while you just stand back and reap the rewards. The Spell's voice rang in her ear constantly as her baby ripped and teared for her leisure.

'I would tone down the arrogance if I were you,' an overly familiar voice rang in her mind. A voice distinctly different from the Nightmare Spell. Nyx briefly looked towards her left side where a miniature heart-shaped, pink and white bed was floating in the air while an impossibly beautiful woman was languidly lounging on it with nothing hiding her devilish curved but a near transparent strips of silk that seemed to just make her look ravishing. Her long, silky pink hair draped down her head and onto the surface of the bed like a blanket.

She was Astrea, the Goddess of Love and Beauty; the same goddess that had reincarnated Nyx into the world of Shadow Slave.

What she was observing was a far call from the her regal appearance when she first met her.

'What are you doing here again?' she asked her mentally, since she didn't want to look like a crazy chick who talked to herself. "Don't you... I don't know... have some divine job or task to do?'

"You can't imagine how boring the Divine Plane actually is," Astrea spoke, thankfully, she was only perceptible to Nyx alone else there would be alot of question about why a miniature naked woman was laying on a floating bed next to her head. "Sure, the first ten millenia or twenty are nice and you get to meet all kinds of different gods and goddesses but it gets old fast. In the end, we resort to sending mortals to different realms and watching them do all sorts of things for entertainment."

'That's nice and all,' Nyx said, trying her best to sound civil and polite, no good would come from antagonizing the one whom had her soul in her grasp, 'but why are you staying with me? Don't you have other people whom you've sent to other worlds?'

Astrea glanced at her briefly before sliding a hand up her body in a sensual manner before playing with a lock of her pink hair, "Dear oh dear, what you are seeing is but the tiniest fraction of my being attached to your soul as it is to the souls of all the other mortals I've reincarnated. I'm watching over all of them simultaneously. However... most of them are busy doing typical things reincarnators do and the rank of the worlds they are in is too low for any consistent entertainment."

Then, a soft, sweet chuckle escaped her lips, "You, however, my dear, have chosen one of the highest ranked worlds in terms of danger. I'm sure it will provide me with ample entertainment."

Nyx shook her head, it was hard piecing together the intentions of a goddess so she just let it be. It was not like she could send her away even if she wanted to; plus, she didn't cause any problems for her - yet.

Instead, her eyes drifted from the slaughter administered by her shadow marionette to the sight of Sunny removing his sword from the corpse of a recently killed Carapace Scavenger.

A grin spread across her lips as she observed his face.

"Gods, he is much better looking than in the show," she muttered softly, a love-smitten expression on her face. Luckily, she was hidden behind the giant body of her marionette so no one could see it - no one except Astrea, that is.

The pink haired goddess glanced at the look on the caramel-skinned girl's face then looked at the protagonist of the world - in a sense - and let out a dismissive huff, "Getting so worked up over a twink. *Sigh* Really, I thought your standards would be a bit higher."

'What the hell do you know h-,' Nyx, instinctively bit back but stopped as she felt her spine freeze.

"Care to continue that thought," Astrea said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

'I-I-I was going to say h-herald of beauty and c-compassion, really,' she tried to quickly do some damage control. Her big mouth was just about to land her into deep shit.

Astrea's kaleidoscope irises gazed at her intently, their colors ever changing, before she let out a huff and returned to her languid appearance.

"That's what I thought."

Nyx let out a sigh of relieve now noticing that her back had been drenched in a film of cold sweat. In an attempt to divert her mind from the fact that she was seconds from being erased from existence, she began thinking of the things that she had found strange ever since she got to the Forgotten Shore.

Firstly, she clearly remembered that the giant ass tree was supposed to be a very powerful and very important part of Sunny's journey in the Forgotten Shore in the first season of the show. Yet, she had found the tree as dead as it could be with its house-sized defender being nowhere near.

She initially thought that she got the wrong tree but realistically, how many giant trees were there in these desolate lands. So, with that option out of the window, she thought that the director of the show had taken creative liberties to edit parts of the original story to have more episodes for the first season. Well, if they did, she wouldn't know. She had only watched the show as the novel itself was too long and no one got time for boring shit like reading. Plus, the show was critically acclaimed by fans and had won several awards so it had to be somewhat accurate, no?

Nyx's oak-brown irises moves towards where a blond, delicate looking girl was fighting against a massive monster that looked like an unholy combination between a human and a crab.

The girl gracefully danced around the nightmare creature and drew blood with her Azure colored rapier whenever the opportunity was given. Then, if the girl was in any danger of being harmed, a black blur would descend from the sky and peck and claw at the nightmare creature's eye, diverting its attention.

The way the girl moved and fought, one wouldn't have thought that said girl was fully blind thanks to her flaw.

A sense of unease filled Nyx's heart, 'She shouldn't be fighting this soon into the plot. And what the fuck is with that stupid bird? It never appeared in even the later seasons of the show! Is it another thing that the script writers removed to make Cassie look more vulnerable?'

Nyx started cursing at the money hungry capitalists with all her heart, 'Why the fuck can't they do anything right?'

Astrea giggled at her struggle, amused by the mortal's turmoil.

"Fuck it, we ball," she muttered, a sigh escaping her, "it's not like there is anything I can do about it."

At least, it would be easy to get into the blind girl's good graces. Hell, even that autistic social pariah was able to make the girl utterly loyal to her much like a golden retriever.

Speaking of bitches, Nyx's eyes scanned the battlefield around her and soon found her target. A silver haired girl, wearing similarly colored armor and sword, facing against two Carapace Scavengers. She dextrously moved between the attacks of the nightmare creatures and skillfully attacked their weakpoints. Soon enough, two burning corpses lay where the two monstrosities previously stood.

'Crazy bitch,' she spoke the title that she had given Nephis. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to hate her - much - since she was going to be her key to ensnare Sunny and have him all to herself.

She had planned it all from the moment she woke up in her new body. Once Sunny became the monochrome bitch's slave, she would swoop in and promise to help him gain back his freedom and in the process make him ultimately fall for her. Hell, even if things started to turn out against her will due to some change like the ones from before, she could still ensure that the particular scenario she wanted would play out perfectly.

Then, with Sunny ensnared, she could go and get Kai, Mordret, and all the other hot hunks she wanted. After all, she was a reincarnator with a Divine Aspect.

She was the main character of this story.

"My, my, such a bad girl I reincarnated... No wonder your karma was so low," Astrea yawned and gave her off-handed snide remark. However, Nyx didn't give a shit. She was going to live the high life by hook... or by crook.

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A.N: And this chapter is done, nearly 5.7k words excluding this author's note. You guys wanted the new chapter bad so I didn't have much time to pass it through grammarly (particularly after they went and fucked up their programs user interface) so there may be a few grammatical errors here and there. Be good sports and notify me if you find any.

Also, I hope I gave each character their due and was accurate enough in showing their personalities and inner thoughts. I know the original Shadow Slave doesn't do much of changes in POV's but I like to give each important character their due in this fanfic.

Welp, until we meet each other again, I hope you stay in good physical and mental health.

Sincerely,

John_Doe_777