The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

The tinkle of broken glass sounded in the void. Noble tried to locate it, only to be blinded by the light of a quickly rising sun. 

The world stretched out before her, more vast than even her Ascended mind could comprehend. 

A shimmering ocean along the southern border glittered like diamonds. It was fed by dozens of glorious roaring rivers. To the north, a chain of jagged mountains obscured the horizon. To the west and east, there was land covered in grassy plains and robust forests. Lakes dotted the landscape like tiny mirrors of the sky. 

But that is not what caught Noble's attention. Despite the undeniable beauty, there was something very wrong about the place. The land was deeply scarred and felt on the verge of breaking.

Trying to focus on any of the scars gave Noble an intense headache and a feeling of dread--As if looking at them too long would cause her to fall into them and be swallowed whole. 

In a blink, time began to reverse, bringing Noble to her senses. Ignoring the blots on the landscape, she searched for the one thing that mattered most. 

Bastion. 

Panic arose in her chest.

'Where is it?' 

If she couldn't find it before the reversal was complete, that would mean one of a few things. And Noble didn't like any of those choices. 

'There!' She pointed to the fortress, covering it with her finger. 

The proud palace stood in almost the center of her view like a beacon of hope. It was a little strange that she hadn't seen it immediately. But now that she had, her nerves calmed. 

The world became more beautiful and less forbidding now that she had her meeting point. Everything would be fine. She just needed to find the others and conquer this Nightmare. 

Having found her goal, Noble tried to study as many of the markers as she could. Unfortunately, she had never been this high above Lord Anvil's Domain, and the peaks on the maps she had studied did not seem to correspond with the mountains in her view. 

The sun's and moon's paths across the sky slowed. The reversal was coming to an end. 

'It's showtime.'

Noble gripped her Zenith with both hands and prepared to descend. The sun paused high in the sky. It was midday. 

'Time to ....whoa!' 

Just as the Spell took hold of her body to guide it toward the ground, a supernatural gust of sheer wind hit her from the side. The two forces sent Noble into a tailspin. By the time she righted herself, the ground was barely three meters away. 

Unable to stop, she gritted her teeth.

The impact brought a fresh set of pain and lacerations to her soul. 

'Seriously?!' Noble wanted to scream. 

And she did scream, just not any intelligible words. 

When the dust settled around the human-sized crater, Noble dismissed her helmet and rose from the earth. Her mind was reeling. 

'What in the Spell! Why does it toss me into the ground like that when it knows I cannot handle the contact? Is it trying to kill me? Well, it has another thing coming!' 

Noble rubbed her eyes, trying to clear her vision. The combination of spinning and pain had blinded her temporarily. 

Using her second sight, she searched for her sword. When she could not immediately locate it, the floating warrior dismissed and resummoned her trusty weapon. 

She needed to be ready for anything. 

Fortunately, nothing seemed like it would immediately attack. Perhaps things had been scared off by her cometlike landing. If they were, that was a relief. It would give her time to recover. 

Beside her, a lovely purple creature materialized with a sympathetic purr. 

"Don't let me float off," she commanded him. 

While Noble didn't think she would pass out, it was still good to have someone watch her back while she dove into her Soul Sea. 

As she expected, the incandescent sun overhead was covered in hairline cracks and scratches. The water of the sea was disquieted as well. 

'I hate my flaw...'

She could almost hear the strangely familiar voice laughing at her. If she had liked it, would it really be considered a flaw? 

However, her flaw seemed extra brutal compared to others. 

'No use complaining. I need to heal.' 

While Noble would heal passively simply because she was an Awakened, she could expedite the process by circulating her essence. Crossing her legs, the Master floated over the colorful water and meditated. 

At last, the throbbing in her head abated. She could think more clearly. 

'I've wasted enough time.' 

Opening her eyes, Noble stopped their swirling and returned them to their violet hue. She began to survey her surroundings with more intent. 

'Where am I?' 

The Spell and its antics had turned her around so much that she had no idea where in the landscape she had landed. Was she near the ocean or the mountain range? Or maybe it had dumped her far east or west beyond the bounds that she had been able to see. 

That would be unfortunate. 

Since the crater was devoid of any reasonable place to hide, Noble backed up into the tree line. If needed, she could float up and hide among the branches. 

The forest was thick, with strange colored trees unlike any she had seen. Some bore leaves with relatively typical shades of green, red, and yellow. 

Others had trunks with orange stripes, chartreuse zigzags, or colorful patterns with hues that Noble couldn't name. The world around her looked more like a funhouse than a forest.

It was like an artist had painted the world using a color palette selected by a child–Strangely intricate and also sublimely simple. 

'How curious.' 

She hadn't run into any forest like this while traveling through the lands belonging to Valor, but that wasn't too surprising. What trees she had seen had succumbed to corruption, and other than their unique coloring, these seemed completely normal.

Almost too normal to be in the Dream Realm. The fruit overhead was ripe and redder than any apple she had ever seen.

'It looks delicious, but looks could be deceiving.'

Beside her, Helios's ears twitched as he let out a low growl. Noble took her eyes from the luscious fruit and furrowed her brow.

"Good boy. I will take it from here." She patted the echo gently before dismissing him. 

She looked down at the bracelets on her wrist. With them and without the huge purple Symncus, the floating Master should be able to avoid whatever trouble might be coming her way. 

And right now, avoiding trouble sounded much better than facing whatever was coming in battle. 

Ducking behind a coniferous tree with jagged purple leaves and stripped bark, Noble squinted to see into the distance. She could use her second sight or emotional detection to locate the source of Helios's concern, but she didn't want to slow down her healing. 

A thunderous crack filled the air like a coming storm. A tree from the dappled forest tumbled over.

Noble held her breath.

What kind of creature could bend and break something so massive?

A few more trees went down, and Noble saw a blur of motion along the ground. She summoned her helmet. Even if she wasn't discovered, a tree falling on her head would be unpleasant. 

Another tree fell, and a moment later, Noble could hear the swishing sound of it being dragged along the forest floor. 

That's when the source of the destruction finally came into view. 

Noble blinked. She paled. She felt her blood run cold. 

She stood in stunned silence. Fear gripped her soul. 

'Not again!'