Shadow slave fanfic: The Prince of Death

The two dormant soldiers loitered near the wagon, A few meters away from sunny, an Awakened soldier remained standing—they were frozen in disbelief, still trying to comprehend the fallen form of Auro. The scene felt unreal, too violent to be real, and mostly, strange.

Why had this slave killed auro? He was on their side was he not? Or was he trying to escape?

It hardly made sense for them, since they couldn't understand the spell and Sunny's trial.

But one thing was clear.

They had all seen him kill Auro. That one brutal, seamless stroke. The kind of death that left no room for any justification, sunny had intended it.

The soldiers' confusion would not last long. Not once the realization hit them. They had seen it, they knew what it meant. And soon, they would come for Sunny.

But he wasn't worried. Not this time.

Sunny's gaze drifted back to the new memory pulsing within his mind—his third. A bitter, insistent thing that resonated in his soul like a hidden drumbeat, demanding to be acknowledged.

He summoned it and read it's runes simultaneously.

Memory: [Defiance]

Memory Rank: Awakened

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Description: [A hero once loyal to the empire, witnessing its atrocities, begged its rulers to end their crimes. Shunned, scorned, and broken, his hatred birthed rebellion. This is that rebellion forged into a blade.]

A longsword...

It was a sword with a scarlet coloured blade and golden hilt, the centre of the hilt had a brilliant pearl embedded in it. The blade's metal shone with a golden glint.

The sword's presence in his hands felt... transcendent. Not in the sense that its rank was Transcendent, but that it Transcended a normal memory.

In his mind's eye, he could already see the outlines of its power. A weapon forged by killing auro himself. He could feel it,It was beautiful. It was powerful, even stronger than the Midnight Shard.

"If only I could see its enchantments, I could understand it fully. I feel like it grows stronger, maybe it changes in nature?," Sunny muttered, almost lost in thought. "I'll have to wait until blood weave..."

The sword felt like it had a will of it's own, as if it craved to be used for war...or rather... for peace?

But the moment of reverence had passed. The Awakened soldier was already moving again. The two dormant soldiers would arrive in about twenty seconds.

Time was running out.

Fighting an Awakened without tricks, without the strength to back it up... it was insane. Sunny's breath came out in short bursts, his grip tightening around his new weapon. But there was no backing down now.

Sunny shifted his stance, grounding his feet in the Saint's style. His sword gleamed faintly in the setting sun. He waited, watching, breathing with purpose.

And then he moved.

In a flash, he flowed into the Broken Sword style, the weight of his body spinning with the force of his strike. His sword aimed for her neck—everything in him focused on that single point, that one moment. But she saw it coming. The parry was just in time.

The shift between the two styles had been seamless, almost fluid, but it wasn't enough. Not against an Awakened. Sunny's heart hammered in his chest.

He needed more.

He knew over seventy styles at this point-some learned from his past life, others picked up through training under different people, but styles alone wouldn't close the gap between him and a creature like her.

As the two of them danced, he barely dodged the incoming strikes, never committing to a counter. He didn't need to. Not yet. He needed a moment. A single opening.

And then, there it was.

A mistake. A crack in her defense. Not something he would expect from a carrier of the spell. But she wasn't a carrier of the spell.

She wasn't molded by it's Nightmares, she was just someone who had awakened naturally.

Sunny thrust the longsword through her chest, the blade bit deep. She gasped, blood spilling from her mouth, and then—nothing. Her body crumpled, lifeless, at his feet.

For two seconds, he breathed.

The dormant soldiers had slowed, watching, uncertain. Their comrade had fallen. But it was too late.

Sunny quickly removed the two from existence and sat down to relax.

"Alright," he muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Five minutes of rest, then the veteran soldier next."

The old veteran was lying among the pile of bodies, barely alive, as time passed he'd die on his own, but shadows weren't so kind today.

Sunny unceremoniously raised his dormant shortsword and killed him.

[You have received a memory.]

Silver bell was back in his soul sea.

"Easy part's done," Sunny murmured, rolling his neck as he surveyed the carnage. "Now to get to the Forgotten Temple. Wait for the tyrant... and then, the real fun begins."

"Then I'll do my little experiment, and there's two possible outcomes.

Either I fail and simply become a shadow slave again, in which case I will need to hide my true name all over again, it should be possible as long as I don't mess up and reveal it to harper or mordret's little reflection.

I also have cassie's and neph's trust so it shouldn't be a problem.

The other scenario would be if I succeeded, then I will probably have to dance between two terrifying abominations and somehow survive."

Sunny's smile was empty, but there was a spark in his eyes.

"Sounds easy enough! Let's go!"

Sunny made his way to the nameless temple at a moderate pace. He had hours before the tyrant would reach him, and so wasn't too worried.

Once a place of reverence, now a decaying ruin, long forgotten by the world. The forgotten temple lay in ruins. The ancient stone pillars rose like jagged teeth against the cold, too resilient to crumble. He entered, silent as death.

Sunny tried to find out the guardian, only to fail.

He had speculated that the guardian must have been much weaker during this time. Thousands of years in the future, when sunny had brought the temple to godgrave, the guardian seemed to be a supreme creature. Perhaps a tyrant or a devil, or maybe something else. Sunny did not know for sure.

What he did know however, was that the guardian must have been much younger during the time of his Nightmare, before the doom war.

And so it would have been weaker too, most likely a monster or a demon, and definitely lower than transcendent.

That was exactly what sunny wanted too.

He moved into the inner sanctum, the altar standing stark before him. The silence in the air felt suffocating. He raised the silver bell, its tone ringing across the space. He slipped into the shadows nearby, waiting, knowing what would come next.

Soon, the tyrant was there, it's grotesque maw had made sunny shiver before, but after an entire lifetime, it seemed utterly ordinary.

Sunny used all of his strength to throw his stony shortsword which he had laced with his blood, at the tyrant, drawing a single drop of blood from it. Then the mix of their blood fell on the altar.

And then something changed, sunny could not hear anything, but he could feel it. The tyrant must have heard the same things he heard in his last life.

The tyrant had become a shadow slave.

But it was still a mad beast, filled with rage, so when sunny made more sounds, it went on a rampage. Trying to destroy whatever creature was close by.

One of his claws hit the temple wall, and that prompted the guardian to take action.

The guardian was responsible for protecting the temple, and it wasn't going to let anyone damage it, marked by divinity or not.

The invisible guardian fought the tyrant shadow.

The tyrant could not see it, and neither could sunny, but guessing by the wounds it inflicted on the tyrant, sunny assumed the guardian to be an Ascended demon.

An Ascended demon, especially one that was invisible, and largely undetectable, would easily win against an Awakened tyrant.

But the mountain king quickly learned to control the shadows, merging with his 5 shadows, it's strength rose astronomically.

Sunny escaped to a safer spot in the mayhem, and, being the treacherous being he was, watched the two anomalies clash.

Hours passed, the tyrant could barely land any attacks on the guardian, and the guardian was busy preventing any damage to the temple.

Eventually the tyrant's arms were ripped off, it's jaw was broken, and its head was bashed. Only a single arm remained, but even that was broken.

The guardian had been thoroughly beat up too, it's movements were almost traceable now, they had become predictable.

And then, sunny saw it, the tyrant used it's leg to pin down the guardian, and was going to kill it. The guardian was biting on the tyrant's leg... guessing from the wound on it's leg.

He ran.

What happened next occurred within seconds, but it felt like years.

He moved quickly, slashing with "Defiance," the blade biting through something that felt like stone. He pushed through the resistance, cut through—not entirely though, only halfway. But that was just enough.

The guardian would die soon.

The tyrant had just turned its head towards sunny when—

With a sudden, brutal thrust, the longsword buried itself into the tyrant's skull.

The tyrant's broken arm swung wildly, sending Sunny flying. His body slammed against the stone.

Sunny felt a world of pain wash over him. He couldn't help but scream for a moment, but then he heard four lines that washed all the pain away.

[You have killed an Awakened tyrant: Mountain King.]

[You have killed an Ascended Demon: Temple Guardian.]

[You have received a memory.]

[You have received a memory.]

"Holy shit. It worked..." Sunny whispered, a grin spreading across his bloodstained face.

"It actually worked!!!" The reality finally sunk inside him.

His strategy had been insane. He wasn't sure whether his plan had actually worked.

Or Shadow had just found Sunny's little gamble amusing.

Sunny would have contemplated such thoughts if he didn't have a fate to change.

"One more thing."

He stepped toward the altar.

"I know you're watching, Shadow."

"You forged death to fight against corruption but fell before it was eradicated.

So if you wish to see your corpse remain free of corruption, if you wish to see your sibling be put to rest."

Sunny extended his hand towards the altar.

"Then lend me your powers, make me your heir, I have already broken fate, let me break the spread of corruption too. Allow me to end...what you began."

A drop of blood formed beneath his bloodied hand, dripping onto the altar.

"I'm not becoming a Shadow Slave again. I want more. I want your throne itself, and DON'T give me that damn shadow bond.

Otherwise I'll regress again and again, until corruption can not be defeated. And even death will not be free of it anymore."

The silence stretched.

He had dropped his blood.

And so the spell spoke...

[You were made into a Shadow Slave.]

[You refused to yield to your fate.]

[You are a unbecoming shadow.]

[You are a treacherous human.]

[But you are a true weaver...]

[You returned to grow stronger.]

[You are a unique existence.]

[Shadow stirs in his eternal slumber.]

[He is entertained by your struggle!]

[He sends a new blessing from beyond the grave.]

[Child of Shadows, receive your blessing!]

Sunny felt his soul be remade...into something much deeper than it had ever been.

[Wake up, Sunless! Your Nightmare is over.]

[Prepare for appraisal...]