Shadow Slave: Possibilities Without Meaning

The storm was approaching. 

Nephis quickly went beside Effie. The Amazonian was covered in cuts and was dripping blood all over the surface of the statue. With her all-encompassing flame, she healed Effie of her wounds. Quietly harrowing in the agony of her flaw.

The leader went to Sunny who was near the edge of the shoulder.

Aldric could not make out their conversation but it seemed personal.

'Now really isn't the time for talking.' 

He could feel the weight in the atmosphere. Charged air with a dense smell. Warning him of the impending disaster.

Knowing what was coming next, he went looking for a crack in the ground.

"Get ready. It's here." 

Nephis shouted.

Finding a shattered part of its surface, Aldric extended the range of his viscous darkness down the pores of the cracks. Like pouring oil down a sink, it slowly filled up all the available space. He limited his control to 1 metre deep into the statue so that he could have absolute control of his anchor. Like the roots of a tree, the tendril spread out and cemented itself where it could.

Wrapping it around himself like a spider's web, Aldric was ready for the first wave.

Everyone used their own methods to anchor themselves to the statue.

Both Caster and Nephis used their swords while Effie and Sunny's echo relied on their strength to withstand it. Effie held Cassie in place while Sunny and Kai hid behind the Stone Saint. 

At last, the colossal giant and the storm met. 

In a shower of rain, the storm pelted the statue with water. Cleaning its surface off the dead locusts and their black blood.

The cohort was blown by high-speed winds and covered in rain. With the movement of the statue and the winds, their bodies were shifting and swaying. Luckily, no one so far had dropped.

The wind. The rain. The wailing thunder. The flashes of lightning. It was like a scene out of the rapture. Calamity was descending on them.

Time passed slowly as they held onto dear life. Eyes closed firmly; no one dared to look ahead.

That all changed when Sunny shouted in the wind.

"Get ready! The dwe..."

Before he could finish, a large black pillar rose into the air from the dark abyss below. Showing its flexibility, it firmly wrapped itself around the neck of the statue. The mass of flesh contracted so as to pull the statue into its den. 

The statue continued unmoved. 

Without slowing down, the statue raised its colossal hand and gripped the tentacle. With the ease of a tug, the tentacle was ripped completely off. Falling back into the sea with a crash, displacing a pillar of dark water. 

The hidden creature did not stop its assault. Now releasing six tentacles, it wrapped around the body of the builder. Four were wrapped around its legs and torso, and the remaining two were reserved for its arms.

The creature contracted its tentacles and pulled the statue in once more. This time, the statue visibly slowed. The statue's attention was moved to batting away the tentacle that attempted to wrap itself around its hand. 

The distraction worked well for the creatures as the statue began to fall forward and then stopped. 

Straining to move, the statue bent forward towards the depths as if it were reaching for something. 

"Get ready! It's going under."

Nephis shouted. 

The group remained in their anchored positions. With deep breaths, they were ready to be submerged again. 

Cold water enveloped them. Without their armour and superhuman condition, they would have already been hypothermic from the freezing sea. This time, they were descending deep into the ocean. 

Slowly, the water pressure weighed on them like a heavy blanket that got heavier and heavier. It was a painful and harrowing experience. It felt as if they were descending into the gates of hell.

Luckily, the statue achieved whatever its objective was and rose out of the water as quickly as it dove in. Clasped within its hands was the body of its opponent.

Sunny knew not to look but curiosity was calling him. The creature was wrong. Malignant, evil and alien. It looked as if it didn't belong.

This was amplified by its nest. A massive skull sheltered its body. With its three hollow eye sockets and long canines, it was the most human-like skull he had seen since entering the dream realm. 

With the lower half of its jaw broken, the creature used it as an outlet to release its tentacles. Looking at the tentacles, he could now tell the origin of those feelings of wrongness was from the skull. 

His thoughts were interrupted by a soft whisper from beside him. 

"How... how is there a full moon? and why... why is it so red?"

The whisper was so quiet that it should not have gotten his attention at all. 

He slowly turned his neck to the sound of the voice. 

There was a figure that was standing in the middle of the storm, not anchored to anything as if they were taking a stroll down the park. Their head was tilted high and one arm was pointed to the sky as if they were reaching to grab a star in this starless realm.

With curly hair matted down by the rain and garbed in a familiar stone-plated armour. Sunny could recognise who this was.

But that was where the similarities ended.

Leaking blood from his ears and crying tears of blood. His eyes were fully red from what he could assume were from broken eye veins. It was a haunting look. 

From a serene and calm face, he exploded in visible agony. Gripping his face like a madman, he shifted and contracted in place. 

In a weird feeling of deja vu, he could see a vertical slit form between his eyebrows. Blood leaked from the slit and ran down his nose. It slowly opened to reveal a black and empty space. In the centre, small specks of light came together in a chaotic dance. The centremost was completely filled but the edges were filled with stray specks, like a galaxy in the void of space.

The changes continued to radiate to the rest of his body.

His hair grew longer with its new edges turning completely white. His skin was shifting as if something was changing beneath the surface.

It seemed everyone was looking at the horrifying display. 

It was as if he was going through a metamorphosis. Becoming non-human

His hands shifted from his face to attempt to touch his back. As if something was waiting to burst out of there. 

Their attention was grabbed by the statue raising its right hand. With its hammer in hand, it raised it towards the sky like a warrior in battle. Blue wisps of electricity wrapped around the surface of the hammer. 

Like a blacksmith, he brought the hammer down with the rage of the gods. Breaking through the skull and hammering the creature inside. 

Crushing the creature into a mess of gore and blood. Its remaining tentacles withered in agony. 

Unbeknownst to anyone, Aldric dropped to the floor unconscious the moment the skull was broken. As if he was released from a spell. But it did not end there. 

The skull released a wave of pure darkness. A cloud of tenebrous abyss was heading their way. 

Sunny could not see through the wave of darkness and so he knew the danger awaiting them.

"Neph! Light!"

He shouted. 

Nephis immediately raised her sword and conducted pure light through her sword. It erased the small portion of the darkness that surrounded them but it was not all cleansing. 

The darkness surrounding the edges of her effective range coalesced together towards something behind them. 

Sunny had noticed the darkness come together and looked for its target. 

A still body lying face down in a pool of blood was surrounded by a chaotic sphere of darkness that was consistent in size despite the amount entering it. Sunny could not see what was happening beyond the darkness with his eyes. 

He heard Effie speak.

"That unlucky bastard."

**********

Thanks for reading once more. 

Back in town people. Be ready for more chapters. 

Thanks for all the suggestions about his abilities. It is starting to come together. 

So what do you think is happening to our boy? Is he even alive?

See you next time, peace.