Shadow Slave: Diaries of a Stranger in even Stranger Lands

Effie liked to think that she had seen enough strange things during her journey through the Forgotten Shore that she couldn't be surprised anymore.

She literally fought and managed to survive against a nightmare creature the size of a house that was a gods damned Awakened Demon.

That was something not just anyone could brag about doing as a mere Sleeper.

Yet, her companion and teacher continued once and again to go beyond her wildest expectations. She knew he was strong, he proved that time and again when massacring Awakened Beasts and Monsters without even breaking a sweat. If she hadn't seen his ability to control ice firsthand, she would've thought that he had some unlimited stamina passive ability, or something along those lines. Or maybe it was some weird memory he was wearing that she didn't know about.

Strangely, he had a questionably large collection of memories from what she had observed over the last few months - not to mention some perversely powerful echoes that he didn't seem too keen on summoning. When she had asked him why he didn't just use his echoes to deal with the nightmare creatures, he answered.

"That just takes the fun out of things, no? Plus, I can't have you train on live targets if the echoes deal with every little thing that comes against us."

It was official, Mal had a few screws loose in the noodle that was his brain; however, she couldn't really blame him. He had survived in an unknown region of the Dream Realm for a long period of time. She doubted that she would've come out half as sane as him if she were in his shoes. No, it was more than likely that Effie would have died before seeing her second day.

All in all, considering his memories, echoes, skills, demeanor, and personality that was slowly coming back to him, Effie found it hard to believe that he was a mere Legacy kid or even an heir. Not even the great clans invested so much resources into a single individual no matter how important.

This only increased the air of mystery about him especially after seeing the white-haired youth, who had managed to kill an Awakened Demon with ease, double over and begin convulsing and spasming on the ground as if undergoing a seizure.

She would've wanted to help if not for the fact that one of her arms just lay limp next to her. Also, she was pretty sure that her spine was in no condition for her to do any sudden movements.

That's why she could do nothing but watch as her mentor struggled through clenched teeth. Strangely, whatever he was going through caused him to desummon his black armor - involuntarily, she assumed, since she never saw him ever take it off in the months of traveling they spent together.

However, upon seeing what lay underneath, she understood a part of the reason why he always wore his armor - at least she assumed that was the reason. Once, the black metallic armor vanished into a cloud of spinning stars, Mal's exposed writhing body lay before her and she was not sure what to make of it...

You see, there were more scars littering all over his body than there was any undamaged skin. So much so that she could count the spots of undamaged skin. The only somewhat undamaged areas were his face, hands, and... groin area; though, she didn't linger her gaze at that area much. Just enough to make sure that it was truly undamaged like the other sites. Yes, that was the reason.

'This...this is absurd... Are they supposed to be that bi- I mean, how can someone stay alive after suffering these injuries?'

Effie was no doctor - Spell, she didn't even receive a proper education due to her illness - but she knew on an instinctual level that a human, not even one who had passed his first nightmare, would have survived the injuries that gave most of the scars on his body.

It was simply too... inhuman.

Effie wanted to believe that she was a patient woman - she really did. However, there were limits to patience, and after the 'trial' Mal had put her through, she was overdue some answers.

Thus, time passed as Mal underwent his excruciating advancement under the piercing gaze of a set hazel-colored eye whose owner's face seemed inexplicably flushed as those eyes flickered down his body every now and again.

Soon enough, her companion stopped his pseudo seizure, plopped onto his back, and stared into the empty space before him. Totally ignorant of the fact that Mal junior was bare to the world to see as it stood defiant against the heavens themselves.

Effie didn't know what to say in this sort of situation. No, rather, what could be said in this situation.

Suddenly, a sigh resounded from Mal as he muttered something unintelligible under his breath. It was then that his cerulean eyes met hers and held contact for what seemed to be an eternity before a small smile appeared on his face.

"Crazy day, huh?" he said with all the nonchalance of a man who wasn't just convulsing like a road kill just a few minutes ago and was now lying spread eagle on the ground in his birthday suit.

It was enough for Effie to get the inexplicable desire to smack him upside the head to get that infuriating smile off his irritatingly handsome face. Unfortunately, the moment she tried to move, she visibly grimaced and clenched her teeth from the pain coming from her spine and quickly aborted her action.

Mal's expression suddenly turned grim. He quickly stood up from his lying position and re-summoned his black armor. He reached a hand towards hers and she felt the familiar sensation of something entering her soul core - a memory.

"Wear what I just gave you and wait for me for a few seconds," he said cryptically before literally jumping towards one of the branches of the giant tree she was resting against.

Effie didn't question his orders. True, her companion was a man of many secrets. However, she was sure of one thing, he never wanted to cause her any harm. If he had wanted to kill her, he had more than enough means or opportunities to do so already.

Thus, she summoned her runes and focused on the new memory added to her 'Soul Arsenal' - as he liked to call it.

"Kassian's Resolve?" she muttered before wincing again.

With a thought, the current set of armor covering her body dissolved into a cloud of spinning stars before said said reformed into a formidable set of metallic silver armor that looked eerily familiar to her.

It took a few moments for it to click together for her. It was the armor that her cohort member had worn the first time they met. Yet, unlike that time, it looked brand new without any of the dents or gashes that marred it before. Instead, the metal looked so smooth and polished that she could see her reflection looking back at her.

Damn, that Carapace Demon really did a number on her, huh?

Before she continued admiring her bloody visage, she felt the ground beneath her vibrate slightly when Mal landed a few feet away from her.

He was carrying a sack of sorts filled with several juicy-looking fruits. Her stomach rumbled violently, reminding her that her Flaw didn't care whether she was on the brink of death - it demanded to be satiated.

Unfortunately, her body was in no condition to actually move and try to eat.

Mal moved towards her, a serious expression on his face as his eyes wandered over her half-broken body.

"Good," he said when he reached her, "you're wearing Kassian's Resolve, it should give you enough protection."

"Protection for wha-" Effie wasn't able to finish her sentence before she found one of the fruits in her companion's possession get pushed into her mouth.

She wanted to complain about the sudden action but her teeth had sunken into the fruit and its juices flowed into her mouth.

She inadvertently moaned into the divine fruit as her taste buds were suddenly swept over by a surging wave of explosive taste.

This was the best-tasting thing she had eaten in her life. It almost made fighting the Carapace Demon and ending up with most of her body broken worth it.

She felt a sudden prickly sensation at the back of her head momentarily before it suddenly vanished. However, it was quickly ignored in favor of devouring the fruit that was presented to her.

The first fruit was not so much eaten as much as it was inhaled by the hazel-eyed Sleeper. A rejuvenating feeling washed over her entire body but she promptly ignored it too and in turn, stared hungrily at the other four fruits in Mal's arms.

She looked like a wolf eyeing a particularly plump lamb.

The other Sleeper looked unperturbed, as if expecting his student's reaction, and calmly brought the second fruit near her mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mal's POV:

It took a few minutes for the batch of fruit he gathered to be completely eaten by Effie who now was lying with her back against the the trunk of the Soul Devouring Tree, a content smile on her face.

Glancing at the plant-type Awakened Terror, information that he learned while raiding the Leonian Royal Archives resurfaced.

The Soul Devouring tree, a corrupted variant of the beloved sacred trees of the Heart God. Born from the seed of one of the sacred trees planted on a mountain of corpses and watered by their blood. A taboo so large that the followers of the Heart God would often go to bloody wars just from the rumor of such a tree existing.

Fruits from the sacred trees of the Heart God's Grove were known for their ability to restore the soul essence of the one who consumes them. Alternatively, the fruits of the Soul Devouring Tree, which are born from being nourished by the flesh and blood of countless humans, could both restore soul essence and heal the one who consumes it.

However, such a miraculous fruit had a sinister side effect attached to it. The Soul Devouring Tree was classified as a corrupted, the term used at the Age of the Gods for Nightmare Creatures, and its fruits had the ability to ensnare and take control over the minds of others. It was a defense mechanism that the foul creature used to protect itself from other predators due to its nature as a motionless tree.

He read many ancient records of cults forming around such trees and worshiping them like gods.

Thankfully, this particular Soul Devouring Tree before him was an Awakened Terror and if the story was anything to go by, it would remain like that for the next three years.

Thanks to his [Mental Fortitude] that had reached the rank of D+, he was practically immune to any mental intrusions of awakened rank or below and he has high resistance against ascended level mental attacks. Thus, the Soul Devouring Tree was basically helpless against him.

The only problem was his companion since she didn't have any mental resistance as far as he knew, which brought him to why he gave her [Kassian's Resolve]. It was an Ascended armor memory of the fourth tier with the [Bulwark] enchantment that increased all defenses - including mental defenses.

Thus, it should theoretically be able to protect her mind from the Soul Devouring Tree's influence.

Well, if worse came to worst, he could always kill the nightmare creature - it would be a matter of minor annoyance at most.

Looking at his student, Mal let out a relieved sigh, the damage done to her from her clash with the Carapace Demon was healing at a noticeable speed given that she ate several of the tree's special fruits. The cuts were healing, the bruises vanishing, and even though her body was covered in silvery armor, her broken bones were also being healed.

Effie, being in her fruit-induced high, was ignorant of the changes happening to her body. It took him calling out to her for her to come back to her senses.

"Huh? What?" she said, her eyelids blinking rapidly as if waking up from some sort of dream.

"How are you feeling now?"

"I-," she looked like she was about to complain when she raised her left hand to point at him before stopping herself and looking at her raised hand in confusion. It was well warranted since said arm had been limp from its bones being shattered just a few minutes ago.

"How?" her voice came out, confused and weirded out that the severe pain she was feeling just recently had seemed to have vanished as if she had imagined all of it. Her eyes moved and fixed on Mal's armored figure.

"It is thanks to the effects of the fruits you just ate," he said matter of factly, "they are able to heal the body and restore the soul essence of those who eat it."

"Huh, no wonder the Carapace Demon was protecting it," she said, rising up from her lying position and doing a couple of stretches. In a matter of minutes, Effie's body had fully healed from her encounter with the Awakened Demon.

She turned and looked at the Awakened Terror tree appreciatively which soon turned into a panicked frown after hearing what her teacher said next.

"The Carapace Demon was not defending the tree out of its own free will," he said, shaking his head at her incorrect assumption, and then pointed at the black trunk before them. "This is a nightmare creature known as a Soul Devouring Tree. It has the ability to ensnare and control other creatures who eat its fruit to defend it against other predators."

"Wait!" she yelled, panicking even more, "I just ate several of it just now! Why would you give me something that can control my mind! Oh gods, am I being controlled right now? We must move from here now!"

An amused smile crept onto his lips upon seeing Effie try and fail to pull him away from the vicinity of the Soul Devouring Tree.

"Relax, will you?" he said nonchalantly, not budging an inch from his position despite the brunette's best efforts. "It's not like we could go back from where we came from now at any rate.

"What do you-"

Suddenly, the area around them descended into darkness as the sun had finally set on the cursed lands of the Forgotten Shore. The brunette had been so focused on the fact that they were in the vicinity of a mind-fucking nightmare creature that she forgot that it was pretty late into the day when they had reached the ashen mound.

A look of despair came over her as she observed the Black Sea surge and engulf the lands like the maw of a starving titan. Soon enough, all of the Forgotten Shore was swallowed by the tenebrous sea and only a few particularly tall structures were marginally visible over the sea level.

That classification included the mound they were standing on which soon turned into a small island as the rest of it lay beneath the surface of the Great Titan.

"We're doomed," she muttered before falling to her knees and staring despondently at the liquid darkness surging around her.

Mal shook his head and mentally dismissed the five Darkspawn Knight echoes. Then, he walked towards the corpse of the Carapace Demon. He touched it for a few seconds before letting out a sigh, 'The corruption remnants in the corpse have already dissipated long ago, I took too long with my advancement.'

He could raise it as an undead still but... he had much more important matters to address. Thus, he moved towards his despair-ridden student with light steps and tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned and gave him a forlorn look with her eyes glistening with moisture.

'I probably took this a bit too far,' he thought, a small ember of guilt simmering in his heart.

"Did you look at the enchantments of Kassian's Resolve?"

She looked at him with confusion evident in her expression, it took him a few seconds to mentally facepalm, 'Right, most awakened can't see the enchantments of their memories. Stupid fucking system restrictions.'

"Forget it..." he sighed before looking her straight in the eyes. "You won't get controlled by the Soul Devouring Tree. The armor you're wearing is an Ascended Armor of the fourth tier with an enchantment that raises all defenses of the wearer exponentially. Yes, that includes mental defenses too."

A series of emotions showed on Effie's surprisingly expressive face: confusion, surprise, delight, surprise again, and then confusion.

Before she could speak, Mal placed an armored finger gently on her lips and whispered in her ear, "Whatever questions you have, they have to wait until we are not in the open. You know as much as me how sounds attract unwanted attention at night."

When he looked at her again, the dark vision that he gained with his new heart allowed him to see the rest dusting on his companion's cheeks.

'Probably embarrassed from making such a basic mistake,' he thought to himself before helping her to get on her feet.

Twenty minutes later, the two Sleepers were sitting next in front of each other with a roaring campfire cooking several slabs of Carapace Centurion and Scavenger meat. Meanwhile, the corpse of the Carapace Demon lay several feet away from them while encased in ice to prevent the smell of its blood from attracting other nightmare creatures. It took a bit of essence to maintain the integrity of the ice tomb but the young Lich King's essence reserves were more than up to the task.

Mal had already encased their surroundings in a bubble of True Darkness and had cast his [Sound Barrier] spell. For all intents and purposes, the two were hidden from the predators of the Forgotten Shore.

In the safety of the sanctuary of darkness, Effie finally managed to relax, if the relieved expression on her face was of any indication. However, with her mind relaxed, she could now focus on all of the weird things that happened today.

Seeing the unspoken questions in the brunette's hazel eyes, Mal mentally shrugged. It was inevitable for a situation such as this to occur especially with her seeing his advancement - it was not something he could brush under the metaphorical rug without straining their current relationship.

He grimaced slightly at the thought. He didn't wish for that to happen. He... liked Effie. He didn't know whether it was due to her being the first person he had spoken to since being stranded in Leonia or just being her nature itself.

He had grown fond of the spirited brunette and didn't wish to lose the connection they had due to his paranoid nature.

When he first came to this world, he didn't wish to attract attention due to fear of being exploited for his power or worse derailing the story's canon plot entirely.

However, things changed during his stay in Leonia. He learned and he grew. He understood that he wasn't just in a mere story with events that followed a rigid structure. He was no longer a mere reader, seeing the events unfold through words on a screen.

No, he lived these words and was making new ones appear on the screen with every breath he took and every muscle fiber he pulled. This was his life and he was the protagonist of it. He was going to be damned if he let himself be swept away by some plot like a third-rate side character.

'Hey, Mal..."

Effie's voice brought him out of his thoughts and allowed him to focus on her face. She was nervous, shown by her playing with a lock of her now long, thick brown hair.

"It's fine," he said, breaking the ice, "I know you have questions about what happened today and I promise to answer them as honestly as I can. If I don't want to answer a question, I will simply stay silent. Deal?"

Effie looked surprised at his proactive approach before entering a state of deep thought.

It took several minutes before she finally asked her first question, "What was the deal with what happened to you after defeating the Carapace Demon?"

'Straight to the heart of the issue, huh? I'm so proud,' he thought, a feeling of pride welling in his chest.

Thankfully, he was expecting such a question, so he already had an answer ready.

"How much do you know about aspects and their ranks?"

Effie looked confused at the admittedly weird question but answered regardless, "From what I know, the Spell gives people aspects of varying ranks based on how they did in their first nightmare."

The white-haired youth nodded his head at her answer, "That's about the general idea of it. Now, as you know, there are seven ranks that are given to aspects; from lowest to highest, they are: Dormant, Awakened, Ascendent, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred, and Divine."

Effie simply nodded since what he was talking about was public knowledge.

"Now, aspect ranks aren't everything when it comes to actual combat since a veteran with an Awakened Rank aspect can still easily kill a rookie with a Supreme ranked aspect. However, it is a good measure of how powerful someone can become if allowed to reach their full potential. However, there is an exception to this rule."

Effie tilted her head, a hint of confusion evident in her eyes. Yet, Mal still continued.

"Normally, aspects from the Dormant rank to the Sacred Rank allow their humans to only have a single soul core in their soul sea since that is all that a human body can naturally tolerate."

He went silent for a few moments and enjoyed the impatience evident on Effie's face.

"However, things change when someone gets to possess a Divine aspect. They no longer get restricted by the one soul core rule and can obtain multiple soul cores much like nightmare creatures."

Effie suddenly sprang to her feet but before she could say anything, the youth raised his hand and motioned for her to sit down - he wasn't finished.

Effie meekly sat down in her place under Mal's steely gaze.

"As I was saying, Divine aspect holders get to have multiple soul cores in their soul sea; however, that doesn't come without a price. The human soul doesn't normally tolerate more than one soul core so adding more is an unnatural process that results in an unbearable soul-wrenching pain since their soul is literally being torn apart and reformed to accommodate the additional soul cores."

Mal observed Effie's eyes widen as realization struck her.

"Then... Then you..."

He nodded, confirming her unspoken words.

"You're correct, I have what could be counted as a Divine aspect and the convulsing act you saw me do before was me getting a new core after defeating the Carapace Demon."

The youth stopped speaking to allow his words to sink in for Effie. Said girl opened and closed her mouth several times but no words came out. It was understandable since Divine aspect holders were extremely rare since at the current moment in the timeline only he and Mordret held that particular type of aspect - though his condition is a bit more nuanced.

It took several tries before the brunette managed to ask a question, "So you're one of those Divine aspect holders?"

Mal didn't answer, since saying yes would be considered lying, so he stayed silent and hoped that she would take his silence as confirmation. Which she did since he already pretty much said so. What she asked was more a rhetorical question for herself, really.

She wet her lips with her tongue before continuing, "So... uh... how do you gain soul cores exactly? Do you have to do something specific or kill a particular nightmare creature?"

He smiled at that. She was curious. That was good. It was not every day one got to learn things about Divine aspects.

"That's a good question," he said before pondering on how to answer without exposing any of his future information. Divine aspect holders were spars and him knowing information about others would cast him in a suspicious light in the future when the cohort fully reconvenes.

"I can't speak for other Divine aspect holders since I haven't met one till this point in time," he continued with a sigh, "but for me... I gain this thing called Soul Fragments whenever I kill a nightmare creature. Once they accumulate to a particular point, the advancement process starts and I gain a new soul core. The number of soul fragments I receive depends on how strong the nightmare creature is compared to me; so, killing stronger nightmare creatures allows me to gain cores faster than killing weaker ones."

"No wonder you are such a battle junky...," she spoke before realizing that she mixed up her inner and outer voices. She immediately brought her hand to her mouth and looked at him with a mixture of fear and embarrassment.

"Well... you aren't wrong," he chuckled softly. His time in Leonia changed him - sometimes not for the better. His eyes clouded over as he continued, remembering words spoken to him by a familiar voice, "You need strength to survive in a world like this, and strength doesn't come for those who do not actively pursue it. If you are not strong enough, then others stronger than you will always take away what you hold dear and take advantage of you. In a broken world like this 'Might makes Right' are not simple words but rather a way of survival. Freedom of choice is a privilege of the strong, after all."

Effie took in her teacher's words in silence, allowing her mind to absorb his pseudo-teachings. Silence took over the campfire after Mal stopped speaking. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of the meat sizzling over the fire.

After what seemed an eternity of silence Effie spoke, "Are there any other advantages to being a Divine Aspect holder? Other than the increase in soul core count, I mean. By the way, how many soul cores do you have currently?"

Before he could answer, she added in a hurry, "If you don't mind me asking of course."

The male Sleeper shrugged, it was not that big of a deal, "What you saw just recently was me getting my fifth soul core. The Soul Fragments from the Carapace Demon were enough to allow me to advance. As for other advantages of having a Divine Lineage, well, think of it much like how a nightmare creature gets abilities as they progress their class. I gain a certain ability with each soul core I gain. Like my ice ability."

"Wait! That isn't your aspect ability?" she said incredulously.

"No my aspect ability is something else entirely," he answered and then adopted a thoughtful look, "Hmmm... I did promise to show you something cool if you pass the trial. How about I show you my aspect ability?"

He stood up from his place next to the campfire and walked slowly towards the corpse of the Carapace Demon encased in ice.

A look of confusion, intrigue, and excitement showed on Effie's face as she followed him.

With a wave of his hand, the ice began melting rapidly until the corpse of the Carapace Demon was visible again. He had taken care to reattach the severed limbs of the Carapace Demon it its body since he didn't want to redo the rookie mistake he made the last time he raised a damaged corpse.

"So? What does your aspect ability do?" she asked, impatience evident in her tone.

The Lich King didn't answer, instead, he took in a deep breath and raised his right hand towards the dead body. Then, his eyes began glowing in an eerie bluish light and blackish-blue tendrils of energy snaked their way from his outstretched hands towards the corpse and began seeping into it like water into a sponge.

He opened his mouth but the voice that came out was different from his normal one. It was deeper for starters, and possessed some sort of power that lightly touched the souls of all who heard it. Words from an unknown and alien-sounding language came out of his mouth fluently.

"You died a servant of fate, bound by mortality's cage... Let me shatter those binds and chain you to a greater purpose. Rise, not as a slave of destiny, but as a soldier of my eternal legion."

Effie stared, her eyes wide as saucers, as the previously lifeless body of the Carapace Demon twitched once Mal finished. She observed incredulously as the damage on the creature's body healed itself and its limbs reattached themselves to it. It looked like time was rewinding on the nightmare creature.

Before long, the Carapace Demon was standing tall on its legs, back to its previous glory. However, the maddened look in its eyes was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a cold blue glimmer shone faintly in them.

Then, the newly raised Carapace Demon lowered both its body and its head in some sort of kneeling position, as if greeting its lord.

The voice of the nightmare spell resounded in Mal's ears, a bit colder than normal.

[You have raised an Awakened Demon Carapace Demon as an Awakened Demon Corpse Demon.]

[Bind Corpse Demon as a Royal Guard?]

After a second of thought, he refused to make the Corpse Demon his first Royal Guard. It was good but it didn't quite meet the quality of the targets he had in mind.

With that done, he turned and towards his flabbergasted companion who was looking at him like she was seeing him for the first time in her life.

"Cool right?" he asked, a small smug smile on his lips.

"Cool?" Effie repeated the word, before looking at the undead creature dubiously, "I- I don't know what to make of it. What did you do exactly? I never heard of someone having this kind of ability before."

"It's simple really," the youth shrugged, as if he hadn't just raised a house-sized nightmare creature as his undead minion, "I can raise whatever creature I kill as an undead version of themselves that are completely loyal to me. Of course there are restrictions here and there but all in all, it is a very neat ability."

"Riiiight... neat" she drawled, giving him a look that suggested she thought of him to be crazy but that must have been his imagination. She turned to look at the undead Awakened Demon again, before letting out a deep sigh.

"I was hoping to taste what an Awakened Demon tasted like," she muttered, "I guess that's not gonna happen."

Next, she looked at her companion, "How come you never used this ability during the months we've been traveling? It could've proved very useful when facing against the hordes of nightmare creatures in the labyrinth."

"Who said I wasn't using my aspect ability during our journey?" he said, a cheeky grin on his face. "Didn't you wonder why we never got swamped by countless nightmare creatures even though we never bothered to avoid them?"

It took a bit but Effie soon began connecting the dots together, "Now that you mention it, it does look weird when thinking back on it. I assume it has something to do with these... undead things your ability can make?"

"Exactly on point," he nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes, "I turned some of the corpses that we could take into my undead minions and had them maintain a perimeter of sorts around us. They only allowed a certain number of nightmare creatures to filter through for your training and dealt with the surplus."

After that, he looked at the Carapace Demon and ordered, "Go outside and guard the perimeter of the camp. Kill any nightmare creature that sets foot on the island and ignore the giant tree at the center."

The Corpse Demon nodded its head before turning and walking out of the bubble of darkness they were in.

"They really do follow orders," Effie chuckled. True the Carapace Demon nearly killed her but watching it turn into a soulless puppet helped ease the fear from the traumatic experience. After all, she was alive and kicking while it was... that.

The two Sleepers returned to the campfire as soon as the smell of the well-cooked crab meat tickled their nostrils.

They were in the middle of eating when Effie spoke after swallowing a mouthful of meat, "You know this whole schtick with the Divine aspect and your aspect ability can be considered cheating."

Mal smiled, "Yes, it could be considered cheating when other people are only stuck with one ability per soul rank but that's just how the dice rolls. Still, it is not all sunshine and rainbows since there are some downsides to having a Divine aspect."

"Like what?"

"For starters, our abilities tend to consume much more essence than those of average awakened. For instance, just raising that Carapace Demon almost emptied half of the essence in one of my cores. Plus, the process of getting a Divine ranked aspect is by no means a walk in the park."

A thoughtful look came over his features as he remembered his first nightmare, "Not everyone managed to survive the trial the Nightmare Spell gives them to awaken their Divine aspect."

Effie didn't answer and instead simply returned to eating her food with an unreadable look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Effie's POV:

Soon enough, all the food was eaten and Effie lay on her back a bit further away from the campfire. Thanks to the dome of darkness that Mal put around them, she didn't need to sleep while suffering from the cold that encroached on the Forgotten Shore at night.

She was staring at the top of the dome of darkness they were in, her mind processing all the new information that Mal had told her. She half-believed herself to be asleep and all that happened today to be a dream. Like really, Divine ranked aspect? It was something unheard of for an aspect of such a legendary rank to exist. Yet, the guy she had been traveling with for the past months admitted to possessing it.

In hindsight, it kind of explained how strong he was compared to any other awakened she had heard of. It was not every day when you witnessed a Dormant human slay an Awakened Demon singlehandedly. Yet, she couldn't forget the scars that littered his entire body. Having seen him fight, she found it hard to imagine him suffering such fatal injuries on the regular. Her curiosity knawed at her so much that she couldn't hold it in.

"Mal?" she spoke, eliciting a distracted humm from the white-haired youth who was staring blankly at something in midair. 'Probably his runes,' she speculated.

"You know that when you were gaining that core of yours, your armor suddenly unsummoned itself," she started, flushing slightly upon remembering a particular memory that she immediately threw to the back of her mind. It was not time for that kind of thing right now.

Still not looking at her, he hummed again, indicating that he was listening.

"So, uh, I couldn't help but see all the scars that covered your body," she half-raised her body off the ground and moistened her dry lips with her tongue before continuing, "I am no doctor but some of them didn't look like ones even awakened humans could survive."

The armored youth blinked and turned to look at her. His face was impassive with no hint of emotion or feeling shown on it. Unbidden, a chill ran down Effie's spine as she felt that her entire soul was getting exposed under the scrutiny of those cold, cerulean pupils.

This continued for a few seconds before a long sigh escaped his lips, "So you saw... those, huh? I am afraid that there is no heroic story about how I got the scars on my body. Rather, each and every one of them is a testament to a mistake I made in battle.

A testament to every hard-earned lesson I learned by getting it carved into my body. I told you before about how one has to actively pursue strength to attain it, no? Believe it or not, I was not as strong as I am now when I first found myself here. I awoke from my first nightmare late into the year and had only a few months before the Winter Solstice arrived, which is not enough for an untrained person to get any decent training in."

This seemed to stump the brunette who suddenly cut him off, "Wait, wait, wait! Untrained? Aren't you from some sort of Legacy Clan?"

Mal raised an eyebrow at her question, "When did I ever say that?"

"But... all those memories? Echoes?"

"Those?" he shrugged, a smug smile playing on his lips.

"I just have better luck than most when gaining memories, that's it. By the dead gods, Effie, which Legacy clan will give their members tens of memories or even echoes for that matter. Even heirs of the Great Legacy clans don't get more than one or two decent echoes at most. Every memory and echo from my soul arsenal had been attained solely through my own efforts, thank you very much."

Effie's cheeks reddened and her face suddenly got hotter from embarrassment. A part of her mind chided her for jumping to conclusions on her own while the other comforted her by saying that it was her companion's fault for not saying anything in the past months.

However, another important thing came to her mind at that moment: he had acquired every memory and echo by himself. She, as well as any other person, knew how rare it was for awakened to gain memories from the Nightmare Spell - not to mention echoes. Even if he claimed to have better luck than others when gaining echoes, it still meant that he killed hundreds if not thousands of nightmare creatures in his wake to do so.

The sheer number made her throat dry. That sealed the deal for her regarding those with Divine aspects. They were not mere humans like the rest of them but rather monsters in human flesh and one such monster was sitting for her.

Various questions stormed into Effie's mind, the most prominent of which was:

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why tell me all this?" she asked again, her voice trembling. "I don't understand why you would tell all of this information to someone like me? It's not like anything would have changed if you remained silent."

Mal stayed silent after Effie finished, merely staring at the flame of the campfire with a faraway look in his eyes.

Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as the silence consumed the campfire.

Mal continued observing the flames while Effie stared at him, waiting for an answer that she didn't know whether it would come or not.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"You know," finally, Mal's voice broke the silence around them like fragile glass, each word becoming deeper and rougher as he continued, "Secrets can put strain on even the strongest relationships. Secrets can cost you the lives of your loved ones. Secrets can break up even the staunchest of friendships."

Then, when his voice reached a particular peak, it softened as he gazed at her with an unreadable expression.

"Yet, secrets are what keep our deepest desires and weaknesses hidden. It is the mask that allows us to walk among others without the fear of being judged or ridiculed. A veil under which we hide our ugly personalities and insecurities. So... you ask why I told you all of this?"

Under the white-haired Sleeper's scrutinizing gaze, Effie hesitantly nodded her head.

"At first, I didn't really know why I told you all of this," he said, mulling over his words as if testing how they tasted, "however, I believe that was just me lying to myself. Honestly, I just wanted to get all of this off my chest and I decided that you were trustworthy enough for me to tell this to. It's just so very tiring tiptoeing and doing all that cloak-and-dagger bullshit just to hide these things from you."

"You say that I am trustworthy but what stops me from blabbing about all of this to the first person I meet later on?" the brunette, despite her better judgment asked. She knew she was talking a load of bullshit. Mal had been the first person to ever give a shit about her other than her parents. He fed her, trained her, and gave her memories, and valuable battle experience; all the while asking for nothing in return.

She wasn't so unprincipled as to spit in his face and betray the trust he was showing her. However, maybe it was the nagging part of her brain that insisted on knowing why he would put so much trust in her.

An amused chuckle escaped his lips, "Honestly, if you were the type to bite the hand that fed you; then I wouldn't even have bothered to pick you up in the first place. Let's just say that I have an eye for reading people's true natures."

Effie's lips curved slightly as his answer before freezing when he continued.

"And if by the off chance, you do betray my trust without any good reason to do so," a predatory grin appeared on the youth's lips, "well, let's just say that death would be the least of your worries."

A sharp shiver ran down Effie's entire body and goosebumps appeared on her arms under the gaze of the Lich King before her. How he managed to instill more fear into her than a damned Awakened Demon, she didn't know.

This continued for a few moments before Mal couldn't stop his shoulders from shaking and erupted in a jubilant laugh, "Man, you should see the look on your face. Relax, would ya? I was just joking - mostly."

Hearing this, the hazel-eyed girl let out a relieved sigh, "Right, of course you were joking."

'Wait! Mostly!?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A.N: Well, this chapter finished at last. I tried to make it as cringeless as possible though I don't know exactly how I fared.

As I mentioned before, the MC opened up about some of the less dangerous secrets that he held. I believe that it was a required step for them to improve their relationship; plus, it allows for more usage of his abilities in future chapters. Moreover, I believe Effie was the best choice among the main cast of Shadow Slave for him to open up to first.

Anyways, in the next chapter, we will be revisiting Nephis, Cassie, Sunny, and Nyx in their journey through the Forgotten Shore to know where they are at the moment.

As always, I wish you that you stay in perfect physical and mental health.

(P.S. How do you like the new chant for his raise undead ability. I believe that it is better than the overused 'Arise' but that could just be my opinion.)

Sincerely,

John_Doe_777