A Shadow Slave fanfic - Flame of DIvinity

Story inspired by Prometheus's tale (stealing fire from the gods of Olympus)

Name: Vulcan McKinley

Aspect: [Morning Light.]

Aspect Rank: [Supreme.]

 Aspect Description: [You are a creature that was given light and freedom by the gods. Both cherished and forgotten, you are left wandering wherever the wind may take you.]

Aspect Ability: [Soul Flame] -> [As a creature that was given light, you are able to perceive the flame that burns inside of each person.]

Attribute: [Titan's flame]

Attribute description: [You are a forgotten human who has been bestowed a flame by the Sun God]

Flaw: [People's hero].

Flaw Description: [You cannot let someone suffer]

True Name: …

Memories:

[Karak's Lover]

Rank [Ascended] Tier [3]

Memory type [Weapon]

Description [A ruler that knew nothing, but the blade watched his kingdom fall with joy. As his people died left and right, he locked himself in his castle to practice his blade over and over until his last breath]

Memory enchantments: [Lonely lover], [Aura of mastery], [Resolve]

[Lonely lover] – When no one else is around you, your strength increasers several folds over.

[Aura of mastery] – While using the blade, gain insight or the opponent's fighting style.

[Resolve] – While focusing on the blade, gain mental resistance from external attacks.

[Shinfok'us commander's armor]

Rank [Awakend] Tier [4]

Memory type [Armor]

Description [A captain of the Gargenian army, known for their ruthlessness, they were feared as ruthless killers who could even kill with the metal of their armor]

Memory enchantments: [Siege] [Commandment] [Warrior's Blood]

[Siege] – When attacking defense mechanism's, increase strength.

[Commandment] – When leading an attack, increase strength and agility.

[Warrior's Blood] – When you kill an enemy in a near death fight, absorb a part of their strength.

[Shinfok'us shield]

Rank [Awakend] Tier [2]

Memory type [Armor/Weapon]

Description [A regular soldier of the Gargenian army, once known for their group strategies, often they would huddle in small groups, using their shields to cover one another]

Memory enchantment: [Radiant]

[Radiant] – Made in Idrich's forge, it is resilient and durable face to stronger opponents.

[Soaring Ratatoskr]

Rank [Awakend] Tier [3]

Memory type [Armor/Utility]

Description [Men once sought to fly like birds and failed, so they looked to squirrels to fly… and they succeeded!!!]

 __

Flame of Divinity

[Four brave ones… welcome to the Nightmare!]

The world around Vulcan went dark…

Looking from the horizon, afar could be seen a storm, one of unimaginable size and strength. Even from thousands of kilometers away the raw power of each lightning bolt that struck down could be felt.

Down bellow, a singular orange light could be seen, slowly being eaten away by the darkness that surrounded it. It was but a matter of time until it would be suffocated, extinguished and finally devoured…

Vulcan was pulled straight down, accelerating quickly towards the light. Sadly, for him, before he could even reach the light, it disappeared and everything went dark.

Nothing was happening, the world around him wasn't moving, everything seemed to happen so quickly and yet, it was peaceful now, without even the softest of sounds. 

He didn't dare to move without getting a bit more of a grasp on what was going on. He knew all too well how perilous the situation he was in was. The call of nightmare was something that no one had yet come back from. And yet, he and his cohort went and accepted it, hoping to gain some more power to defend people back on Earth from nightmare creatures.

And to some capacity it seemed like he had been correct, the nightmare spell welcomed them and up to now the situation seemed similar to his first one. Well, to some extent of course, in his first one he wasn't left to fend for himself in total darkness.

As he still stood still Vulcan decided to circulate his essence around, in his first nightmare he had found himself in someone else's body and so he suspected the same was likely to happen again.

Looking at his body, the proportions felt about right, his soul core was still at the same place and yet, something felt wrong…

It had now been 5 minutes and finally his eyes had adapted to the amount of light in the area.

Although the light was very faint, he could tell that there was a small source of light far on the other side of what seemed like a destroyed town.

The houses looked like small cabins made of wood, each log seemed to have been piled one above another, only holding together with some flimsy vines. The craftmanship was amateurish at best, it looked like it was made with whatever they could find and left to pray that it did indeed work. And yet, as much as he looked around there seemed to be no vegetation of any sort. It was a barren land, empty.

Vulcan finally moved and started to walk around while activating [Soul Flame], his aspect ability. Among a few things let him detect from afar living beings. He could see they're flame of life, their emotions.

Looking around one last time, he decided it was safe enough to start moving. He didn't have any specific objectives as of yet. Clearly his friends hadn't arrived at the same place as him, which wasn't the biggest of surprises as it was something that they had suspected, for the same reason that they suspected not ending up in their own bodies.

For now, he decided to head towards the light.

The town was empty, the light made it hard to see. Up to now, nothing seemed to be out of ordinary, the houses all resembled one another, same structure, same wall, same roof, same everything.

The ground was made of stone, because of that the houses seemed to have no real support which explained why so many houses had caved in on themselves.

Still… there was one thing that stood out. Around each house and road, a series of broken statues were left there. The beautiful craftsmanship on each was clear to be seen even if they had broken arms or legs. It was a bit confusing to see such a different contrast between quality of the houses and the quality of the statue. Still Vulcan didn't find it suspicious, so he moved on, leaving a mental note to come back to investigate.

Slowly, he went across the town, not letting his guard down in any instance, always keeping his aspect ability active while he walked around carefully.

Eventually, he reached the other side of the town. The light was now much brighter, and he could finally get a grasp on what was happening around him.

He first wanted to verify something that he had been suspecting. Summoning [Karak's Lover], a big longsword that he had earnt recently.

Vulcan wasn't the biggest fan on of the weapon as its main advantage required him to be alone, thus rendering it weak compared to other weapons of similar ranking. Nonetheless, it served as a great weapon for rapid growth while training.

But for now, he didn't intend to use it for combat, but to look at himself.

It had now been a few minutes since he was starting to suspect something was up. An eerie feeling was slowly creeping up in his mind. His body didn't feel exactly right, didn't have the exact warmth a human had… if he could even say that.

As the blade finally materialized, he turned himself at a specific angle so he could still get a the largest amount of light possible on himself and at the same time, get some on his blade so he could look at himself.

As soon as he saw himself, his body tensed up.

- Oh no… damn it…

He whispered to not make too much noise, but it was too late.

Now looking back at the village, figures were now moving. The shadows could be barely seen in the darkness, much less who and what it was. And yet, Vulcan was almost certain that he knew what and who was moving.

He had finally figured out why his body felt a bit awkward, a bit off. On the reflection of his blade, he could finally see himself.

His face, his arms, legs, everything was made out of stone and jewelry. His face was plastered with different kinds of jewels. Almost to the point that you could see more jewels than stone.

And yet, he dreaded the revelation because it meant that the statues were most likely alive as well.

And his fears had become reality. The shadow's that were moving in the town only were now walking out in a deformed unison, if they were all intact, they would have made a perfect line, as if they were a single entity. Of course, with the state that they were in, it formed this weird, jumbled line that gave off this dreadful feeling.

Vulcan readied himself, summoning a few memories to get ready for combat. [Shinfok'us commander's armor] A dark gray knight's armor with a purple cape as well as [Shinfok'us shield] a short shield made of dark gray iron.

Slanting his posture slightly and positioning himself to respond to an attack he waited for the statues to make their move.

Nothing was happening yet, they were still walking slowly towards him. The more they moved closely though, the more he could see them.

Their bodies were just like his for the most part as he had seen them earlier, but there was still the big differences in the jewels. While he had many precious gems on him, making a variety of different patterns, they seemed to be the complete opposite, lacking any sort of jewellery or any artifact. Their eyes also glistered a deep blue that seemed to indicate fear, but Vulcan couldn't be sure with his aspect still not activating.

Waiting and waiting Vulcan didn't move an inch, who knew exactly what these guys were after, what they wanted.

A myriad of questions went through his mind.

"What are they?"

"What do they want?"

"Why are they different?"

…

Slowly they made a semicircle around him, the statues stopped and went perfectly still again, this time only, with their eyes locked right onto him.

Vulcan stared back… and they back at him…

He waited for a few seconds, a minute, two minutes…

He looked at them confused, still keeping his guard up he tried to look around, maybe something was controlling them? He looked around trying to find anything suspicious but nothing.

"Just what in the world is happening right now… Why aren't they doing anything??"

Just as he was thinking that 3 of the statues directly in front of him walked up towards him.

The first was one of the statues in the worst shapes. Half of its face was missing, half of one arm and the entirety of his other arm, he also had only one leg.

The other two seemed to be in much better shape, both being injured at the exact same place. Their left hand had no fingers and where their ribs would have been had been destroyed.

Vulcan repositioned himself to focus on the three in front of him.

The broken-down statues stopped a dozen or so meters in front of Vulcan, the two other statues stood behind him.

- Why have you come up hear perfect one?

Vulcan was startled, he hadn't expected them to speak as they were statues and he was even more surprised that they had asked him a question. In hindsight, it wasn't very bright of him to assume they couldn't communicate because by that logic they wouldn't be able to move either since they were statues.

Although he was a bit startled, he didn't let it show, he didn't want to appear weak before a possible enemy.

He thought about the question. What did they mean by "perfect one". Well, he could quickly assume an answer.

His body, he had no defects, the opposite in fact, he was colorful and, in a sense, bright compared to them.

For now, he decided to somehow feign ignorance. From what he could tell, the relationship they had with the "perfect one's" wasn't the best. So, he went with the classic lie of amnesia.

- I'm sorry, I don't think I am who you want. I don't know what a "perfect one" is, in fact I don't even know what this place is.

Vulcan lowered his shield a bit, albeit without lowering his guard. He was hopping that the statues could be civilized and perhaps even help him, so he didn't want to look so menacing that he himself couldn't be reasoned with.

The statue's stopped looking at him for a few seconds and instead looked at the badly damaged statue, it seemed like it was their leader.

The leader looked at him straight in the eyes…

As he waited, Vulcan suddenly felt a warm energy swarm inside of his body before quickly coming out.

Vulcan was slightly confused and now a bit worried as well, the energy came and left without warning, he couldn't even defend himself against it, if it had been harmful… he would have been done for.

As soon as the energy had left his body, the leader spoke.

- If you don't mind my asking, what do you remember, this is far away from your city. You couldn't have appeared here randomly…

Vulcan did not know what to think, were they accepting it or were they still suspicious of him?

- I'm sorry, I really do not remember anything, the last thing I remember was waking up on the other side of town. I decided to simply follow the light, but I do not actually know who or where I am.

And yet again everyone turned to look at the leader for his answer, all the other statues waiting in silence.

A few seconds went by again before the leader spoke.

- It seems like you aren't lying. Please put yourself at ease.

He turned around and looked at the rest of the statues.

- You are all free to go back to what you were doing; I'll talk to him alone.

Slowly the other statues dispersed, some lingered a bit, but they eventually left or followed Vulcan and the leader into town.

Vulcan decided to follow the leader for now, he didn't have much information on the statues and he deemed it ill advised to confront them when they seemed to not be on hostile terms with him.

The leader lead him back to the village where they entered one of the very rare remaining houses that still seemed intact.

It was still the same size as the other ones in the village, but this one had a few ornaments inside. The walls although mostly the same did have some of the same stones that Vulcan had on himself.

- You may sit down at the table; I apologize I know this is confusing. The reason that I helped you is because I know who you are.

Vulcan was still standing, looking around the house when the leader of the statues told him this.

Whatever calmness he still had was now gone. What did he mean by "I know who you are."? Did he know he wasn't from this era? Or was he talking about his body's real identity?

The statue chuckled…

- Don't worry, I can see the confused face you have. I knew of your coming thanks to the prince of the underworld, our creator. That's also the reason I, a perfect one, or what's left of one, is here.

Vulcan still hadn't said anything, letting the statue speak while he tried to figure out what exactly was happening. He wasn't unfamiliar with prophesies, seers were extremely rare, but they existed.

"Was this prince of whatever it was a seer?"

He looked back at the old man, trying to find any kind of hint on his face but to no avail.

He sighed dejectedly, he didn't like how things were heading, he felt like his control of the situation was starting to spiral out on control. He had the full intention to fight his way through any sort of abomination or dangers that were sent towards him and yet here he was, sitting at a table with a statue.

- I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Is this prince of yours a seer of some sorts? How did he know I was going to be here?

The statue leaned his head sideways, was he expecting him to know something? Because if so, he honestly didn't know what he would say.

- I see…

- You really know nothing?

- Yes, I know nothing, I honestly simply arrived in this town without any other information.

- Alright where do I start…

The leader made himself comfortable while thinking about what he would say.

On the other hand, Vulcan was starting to get an idea of what was happening… He was going to be sent on some sort of mission…

The reason he knew this was because of his flaw [People's hero]. The flaw made it so if he knew someone needed help, he would be required to help them, whether it was for a righteous reason or not.

It was always something he wanted to avoid, one day he had ended up destroying a rare remaining energy plant because he had helped a young man in the streets who had a bad history with the plant. All to say that because of this, as much as he was willing and wanted to help others, sometimes the people who didn't deserve help ended up receiving his help.

Now, his flaw was starting to flair up and he started to get ready to interrupt the statue if it required of him something too demanding or evil.

- The prince of the underworld is the Daemon of Destiny, he is the one who leads souls on the path forward, giving them the potential to achieve great things that we deem to be our destiny.

- And so… what does that have to do with me? Are you saying my destiny is to somehow related to you and well, everyone else here?

Vulcan let the statue talk, all things considered, learning about his destiny wasn't a bad thing and even if it turned out to be a lie, he would still be able to buy time to find his comrades that were still out there.

- Yes, for now, all I can tell you is that it's related with the eternal flame that lights up the region as well with the war between the daemons and the gods.

…

It was now a few hours later and Vulcan was now at the border of a precipice where down bellow, a bright light shone, one that was so bright that he couldn't even handle the light of it in his periphery.

He looked at the sides of the chasm, they were made out of stone spikes. Each looking sharper then the other, the closer to the bottom the longer they got, stretching from one side to another by the end. It wouldn't be easy, but it was possible.

The reason he was doing this was obvious… his damned flaw!

Well, that's what Vulcan said to vent out his frustration, but he knew that the situation was serious. The statue had explained to him about the other statues that were bellow, the so-called perfect ones, the ones blessed with the healing properties of the fire that was left by the sun god.

He needed to get it and give it to the other statues so they could heal themselves in time to run away from an arriving storm that was promised to destroy the region.

At least that's what Kurken, the leader of the statue's told him, thus obliging him by his flaw to help them.

His plan was quite simple, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he looked like the statues at the bottom to blend in. Using that he would stop close by of the flame and hopefully, some way or another manage to take the flame and bring back to the village.

His hope was that his aspect, having to do with fire would in some way or another would help him.

But first, getting down…

A sparkle of white lights surrounded him, flaps between his arms and legs appeared, just like the flying chipmunk he used to see on television a few years ago.

He took in a deep breath…

- Well, I think this is a great time to say it, so here it goes… YOLO!!!!!

As he weaved in-between the first few small spikes, he could already feel the wind whistling, well as much as a statue could feel realistically.

The beginning was fairly easy, the spikes were fairly easy to avoid, but the further he went the harder it was going to be to avoid as the amount as well as the size got infinitely bigger. On top of all of that, he couldn't even look in advance where the spikes were as he would see the light from the flame.

He slowly glided down, skilfully avoiding each spike. It had already been at least an hour of endless gliding down. The speeds he was starting to reach were scary, as much as he could hold on it was starting to get hard, every movement meant a possibility of hitting a spike and dying or at least getting gravely injured.

But considering his new body, he didn't want to test it out.

He kept weaving between each spike, his vision was getting darker… it was the last stretch. The spikes were now so wide that it blocked his entire view. Every second that went by the closer he was to having a direct impact with the spikes. He had to find an opening and fast.

And then… a white light appeared, an opening. He whizzed through the hole and repeated it again.

Once more

Twice more

Thrice more…

Again and again until he lost count, moving not based on what he saw but purely on instinct, letting his body guide him.

Another tight squeeze,

Another…

Another…

- Owww!!!!

Bright light jumped to his eyes and he finally lost control.

Vulcan immediately braced for impact; he wouldn't have time to get any of his armor type memories out.

He waited, bracing for impact…

Nothing?

"Wait… am I out of the spikes?!!"

Vulcan reopened his eyes and finally he could see what was happening, he was out of the spiked hole, the reason he was blinded by light was because he had simply escaped.

- Damnit… Damnit!... DAMNIT!!!!

Because he had stopped looking and panicked for a few seconds because he thought he was going to crash, well now he was going to crash-land.

Although he could see that there was civilisation, he didn't have the time to look at it.

Vulcan quickly steered up to kill as much momentum as he could, but it didn't do much.

Just as he had but a few seconds left until his crash he switched out his wingsuit for [Shinfok'us commander's armor].

BANG!!!!!!

Vulcan laid on the ground, he was still breathing… for now.

He had avoided the worst, injuries all over, broken pieces of rock from his body surrounded him.

With the little force he had right now he looked around, he was in the middle of a beautiful house, or what was left of it.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily for him, no one seemed to turn up.

10…20…30 minutes had now passed.

Vulcan was confused, Kurken had told him about the statues that lived down bellow, they were statues that had great pride and intelligence, so he had expected to be interrogated as soon as he arrived, especially in the matter that he arrived in.

And yet, nothing. No one had even peeped to see if he was okay.

By now he could finally get up and move around slowly. His body was overall in ok shape, no lost body limbs but almost all of them were damaged.

He knew that the fire could heal him thanks to Kurken, so he planned to head there and try and find a way to get healed and afterwards, to somehow bring all, or part of it back to the top.

Vulcan got up and used one of the wooden sticks that had fallen down as a walking stick. He struggled, but he was still able to move around.

He could feel the warmth of the fire, it was quite clearly different then at the top. The warm and cooling radiance filled his entire being. He now understood why the statues were supposedly living so much better than the others and he understood why the other statues needed this fire, it was almost like a drug.

Cautiously he walked out, still wary of the missing statues.

His hole body radiated as he was greeted with an incredible light.

Just outside of the broken house, a humongous fire shone brightly.

Without even knowing, Vulcan's aspect ability [Soul Flame] activated, giving him insight on the flame.

It shone brightly in an orange tint, after feeling almost left alone without his aspect for so long, he was now overwhelmed by a crazed mixed of emotions. The feeling of passion and destruction, combined together, twisting together, making one together… that was the flame that stood before him. The eternal flame from the Sun god, the god that was said to have given him freedom and then forgotten him.

Vulcan walked up to it in a trance, captivated, overwhelmed by the emotions…

The flames grew stronger and stronger as he approached…

A small fire separated and approached him…

A fire salamander of some sorts, its entire body was made of flames. It walked nonchalantly towards Vulcan until it stood right before him.

Vulcan slowly bent down… Bringing his arm forwards… his fingers out…

[You have received an attribute, The Fire]

[You have received your true name, Immortal Flame]

…