Shadow Slave: The Holy Emperor

WARNING spoilers for chp 2172(Kinda)

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Anvil's steps echoed across the ancient citadel. The echoes trembled in his presence, the countless memories twisted as if bowing to the man who walked by. At the helm of the upside-down citadel, stood a Saint.

"My King." The man was a giant covered completely in armor. A descendant of a dragon, yet he shook like a dog under the older man's gaze.

"May I ask why you are here?" The Saint's eyes flashed towards the decaying lantern, fear for a life he once knew flashed in his eyes.

"My king is that..." Anvil answered with merely a nod as he walked towards the inner sanctum.

"I'm here for my son." Anvil's eyes landed on Saint Cormic for a moment before peeling off. 'Just how much have you been here child? For them to care this much for you? Just why do you care more for my son than I do?'

"How good are his chances my King?" Anvil was surprised. Cormic's previous fear of him disappeared as soon as the boy came into conversation.

"Minimal." No matter how much the Saint hid it, Anvil could tell he was not at all happy with such information.

"My lord, may I be allowed to search the Dream Realm for him?" Desperation seeped into the Saint's voice.

"No, you are to do the job you have been." Anvil did not speak again until they reached a covered mirror in the center of the citadel.

"If I can not find him, then you have no hope." As Anvil spoke those words the world around him shook covering the world in a silver shine. A world where only two existed.

The titanic mirror tainted the very world around it. The essence of an ancient demon corrupted the very air within the mirrored temple. 

If Anvil was anything less than a Supreme, he would have long fallen to the corruption. But even a Supreme can not resist the will of the ancient demon forever.

The cracked chains strained against an invisible force within the mirror, yet the straining chains came to a halt as Anvil spoke.

"Mordret." A ghastly hand encroached from inside the mirror. A faint mist seeped from the mirror, drowning the life out of the world around them.

"FaTheRr" The maddened voice came from all sides, reflecting off every surface in the room.

"I need your help Mordret." The rest of the ghastly figure emerged in the mirror, laughing.

"HeLp? HELP! yoU wANt mY hElp?! WHeN YoU won'T eVeN CaLl mE yOuR soN!" The world shook and chains cracked as the creature expressed its rage.

Anvil made no move to the thing in the mirror, only after the chains stopped cracking did he speck. "Keter needs your help."

The being in the mirror shook. "What?"

Anvil spoke once more. "Keter needs your help."

The world went silent, the chains no longer needing to restrain the being. 

"What happened to Keter?" The previously broken voice no longer cracked and elongated at the strangest of times.

Anvil held up the decaying lantern. When the voice spoke once more Anvil barely kept his surprise hidden.

"Oh Keter, oh Keter. The trouble you've gotten yourself into." Worry.... Anvil didn't know why but that shook him to the core.

"He is being corrupted. Someone is corrupting him." The being thought for a little while longer, the decaying lantern seemed to reflect countless images which Anvil couldn't begin to decipher.

"A Supreme.... no a Sacred?" Suspicion filled the creature's voice.

"What!" Anvil lost control of his emotions for only a split second, and yet it was enough.

The being looked at him with malice, the chains cracked. The being acted as if Anvil had woken him up from a good dream.

"You heard me." Venom seeped from the creature's voice.

Anvil crushed the vestiges of emotions as he questioned the creature. "Can you reach him?"

"No. Not when he is beyond the Hollow Mountains. You know as well as I do that even with the lanterns my authority can not reach past them." The creature seemed happy as it once again stared at the lantern.

"Can you do anything, to help him?" Unknown to Anvil his desperation to see the boy once more showed.

The creature thought and then reached for the lantern, and as it finally grasped it some of the corruption fell like shards of glass.

"I can buy him time."