Shadow Slave : Shadow Clan

Chapter 6: Chapter 5: Blood Between Ashes



Beneath the Dying Light of NSQC

The streets had become a warzone.

Civilians were being pulled from debris, carried on stretchers, or ushered into armored evacuation crafts by the extraction teams of the shadow clan . Screams still echoed in the smoke-clogged air, but the roar that shattered it all, came from the Titan.

A massive, grotesque worm, fused with twisted remnants of human corpses. Flesh stretched over its length like a bloody patchwork, bulging with unnatural limbs that sprouted and twisted as it crawled forward—fueled by death, hunger, and soul-rending corruption.

On a rooftop nearby, Olivia stood in silence, cloak fluttering in the rising heat. Her eyes scanned its monstrous form with analytical calm—until they narrowed.

"There," she muttered, spotting it—a long black gash underneath the worm, half-buried in the rubble. A fracture in the armor of nightmare flesh.

"Bingo."

"Orders?" asked Abel, standing at her side, his black spear resting against one shoulder.

"Tell the Black Ring Squad to engage—surround the Titan from all sides and draw its focus. No frontal assaults. I'll take care of the core."

Abel gave a nod and turned to relay her command through the clan-linked comms.

The Black Ring Suppression Squad—elite warriors clad in layered abyssal plating—moved with fluid precision, leaping across rooftops and positioning themselves in the grid around the worm. Crackling weapons flared to life, soul-forged and honed.

Olivia took one breath.

Then another.

And then—transcended.

Her body unraveled.

Strings—endless, razor-thin, radiant filaments—poured from her arms, her spine, her face. Her human form dissolved into a lattice of soul-bound threads, each glowing faintly in the dark.

Her consciousness rode the weave—her limbs became lines of motion.

And with care, she wrapped herself around Abel, forming a stabilizing harness, reinforcing his movements. Her voice echoed directly into his ear, calm but strained.

"Don't worry about me. You lead the front. I'll focus on containment."

She extended both arms—and the sky became a web.

Threads stretched out in blinding speed, connecting to every point of the Titan's writhing body. She didn't flinch, even as one limb lashed out and struck near her projection—only held tighter. Her Spirit essence drained by the second; maintaining a full-weave field at this scale was suicide. But she didn't stop.

Not when Sunny was still out there.

Below, the suppression squad attacked in unison—slashing, driving explosives into weak spots, keeping the Titan's attention off its underbelly.

Abel surged forward like a spear of night, his weapon crackling with binding sigils, striking the worm's armored front—blow after blow ringing with power.

The Titan roared in fury, convulsing—

—and Olivia pulled.

All strings tightened. The worm's body compressed, limbs thrashing. From underground, Olivia sent a signal through her threads, shaping the terrain. The rocks beneath the worm fractured and shifted, forming an upward spike.

The spear she forged from pure thread, sharpened to the thinnest edge reality could allow, launched upward from the ground—

And impaled the Titan from below.

It screamed. The sound cracked windows for miles. Its limbs tore into the air in agony.

And then—

Silence.

It stopped moving.

Smoke rose from the wound.

But Olivia's heart didn't ease. She waited for the kill notification from the nightmare spell

It didn't come.

Her thread-sense twitched.

"…No," she whispered.

The Titan's flesh—sloughed off. A large, blood-red core detached itself, writhing free like a second worm, smaller but faster. It slithered into the shadows, dodging suppression fire, heading…

…Northeast.

Toward where Abel had just pointed moments ago.

"Sunny—" Olivia choked, her form flickering.

Abel had seen them earlier—two small figures in the distance. Running. Still alive.

"I'm going after them!" Abel shouted through the link.

"Go!" Olivia commanded, her voice strained.

Her body began to rebuild—pulling herself from the weave. The longer she stayed in her transcendent state, the more her Spirit essence would deteriorate. She felt her heartbeat falter, her breath hitch. Threads snapped—she was at her limit.

She dissolved back into the ground—barely holding her shape—just in time for the Titan's split body to surge forward once more.

Its remaining limbs twisted and merged into something faster, sharper—moving not toward the fighters, but toward the one thing it instinctively desired: the living essence of the untainted.

Olivia, still half-strung into the battlefield's crust, gritted her teeth.

"I won't let you take him…"

The Black Ring squad re-engaged, firing bursts of suppressive soulshock bolts—but the worm reshaped, weaving its flesh like liquid armor, and began crawling, sprinting—

—toward Sunny and Nephis.

A mother's fury burned behind Olivia's eyes.

Even as her strength faltered.

Even as the threads around her began to snap.

——-

Broken Sword ran like a phantom through the ruined streets, his transcended senses pushing beyond sight, beyond sound—searching.

And then—he saw them.

Through the smoke, beyond the shattered buildings, two small figures darted between the debris.

Nephis. Sunny.

Alive. Still running.

His heart, so long a fortress of steel, felt a flicker of relief. A moment of peace amidst the chaos.

But it didn't last.

From another angle, he saw Abel—running toward them at breakneck speed. His expression wasn't calm. It was tight, desperate.

And then—Broken Sword saw why.

The Fallen Titan was following them.

It had shed its grotesque, bloated form—now smaller, leaner, faster. The twisted mass of red and black nightmare flesh moved like a living missile. Weakened, yes, but still far too powerful.

Sunny and Nephis wouldn't survive a single blow.

But then—

The worm vanished.

It dove underground with a wet, tearing screech, disappearing beneath the ruined street.

Broken Sword froze mid-step, alarm flashing through every nerve.

Why underground? Why now?

Then it struck him.

It's going to attack from below.

It was hunting them not just with hunger—but cunning. It was aiming to strike from the shadows of the earth, where they would least expect it.

He looked to Abel again—still running, still closing in—but he wasn't going to make it in time. Not unless he understood.

Broken Sword's voice rang out, raw and urgent:

"ABEL! BELOW YOU!"

But the roar of chaos and battle swallowed his warning.

Still, he didn't stop. None of it mattered now.

Not the screams. Not the danger.

Only one thing.

He had to reach them.

Because no matter how strong they were, no matter how brave—

They were still just children.

And he would not lose either of them today

———

Abel ran harder than he ever had before.

The wind howled past his ears. Each step cracked broken stone beneath his boots, each breath burned his lungs. But he didn't stop.

Sunny.

His son's name pulsed in his mind, louder than the alarms, louder than the chaos.

He could see them now—two figures, just up ahead, weaving through the war-torn street. Sunny's black coat, Nephis's silver-white hair streaked with soot and light.

They were so close.

Too close to the Titan.

Abel's eyes scanned the rubble—searching, calculating—and then, something rippled beneath the ground. The stone cracked in a circle just behind the children.

He saw it.

A swell beneath the earth. A shadow moving fast.

And suddenly, Broken Sword's voice pierced the storm in his mind—

"ABEL! BELOW YOU!"

His eyes widened.

He understood.

The Fallen Titan had gone subterranean—using the tunnels, the collapsed subway lines, the ruptured foundation of the mall to launch a strike from beneath. A perfect ambush.

And it was going to devour them.

"No," Abel breathed, horror clawing up his spine.

Not here. Not like this.

He pushed his legs harder. Faster. Past what a human body should endure. Shadow essence surged through his limbs, warping the air around him with sheer momentum.

Sunny turned. Their eyes met for the briefest heartbeat.

His boy looked so small.

So young.

But he didn't scream. Didn't cry.

He just tightened his grip on Nephis's hand.

Brave. Just like his mother.

But bravery wouldn't save them from what was coming.

Abel roared—not words, just raw sound—and threw himself forward.

Just as the ground exploded.

Black-red nightmare flesh burst through the concrete in a cyclone of debris and dust. The Titan's second form launched upward with a spear-like limb, aiming straight for the children.

But Abel was already there.

He slammed into Sunny and Nephis with the force of a freight train, wrapping both arms around them and hurling all three of them aside.

They crashed into a broken pillar, pain slamming through his shoulder—but it didn't matter.

He had them.

The Titan's limb struck where they had just stood, obliterating the street in a violent explosion of stone and flame.

Abel rolled, curling around the two children as more debris fell, shielding them with his own body. His back scorched, his coat in tatters, his heartbeat wild.

He could hear Sunny gasping for air. Nephis coughing. Alive.

Alive.

"Dad…" Sunny whispered in shock.

Abel looked at him—face bruised, blood trickling from his temple—and for the first time in years, he let the mask drop.

"I've got you," he said. Voice hoarse. Fierce. "You're safe."

For now.

But above them, the Titan screamed again.

And the nightmare was far from over.

———

Smoke curled low across the battlefield. The once-pristine courtyard where she had commanded the Shadow Clan's might now looked like the aftermath of a war god's tantrum—cracked stone, charred steel, and silence broken only by the shallow breathing of survivors.

Olivia dropped to one knee.

Her human form returned in a flicker of frayed light—barely whole. The shimmering threads of her transcended state dissolved into nothing, leaving her flesh raw, trembling, and drained of all Spirit essence

Her soul core…

Empty.

She had pushed too far. Held the strings too long. Pulled them too tight.

The price had come due.

Two Black Ring operatives rushed to her side, grabbing her arms with careful strength.

"My lady—"

"I'm fine," she rasped, her voice thin but sharp. "Just… get me up."

They helped her to her feet.

Her knees threatened to give, but her eyes—those storm-dark eyes—never left the Fallen Titan.

Or what remained of it.

The worm's body lay across the city street like a half-shed skin, twitching and smoking. From a distance, it looked dead.

But Olivia's instincts screamed otherwise.

She narrowed her gaze—

And froze.

Near the tail. Beneath the mangled folds of its segmented armor…

A face.

Not the same face as before. Not exactly. But close enough.

And realization hit her like a sword to the gut.

"…No," she whispered. "No, no, no…"

The creature was multiplying.

Not regenerating—reproducing. Evolving.

Where there had been one Titan…

There were now two.

And the second was worse.

Smaller, faster. Smarter.

An evolved Nightmare-class creature—climbing in rank with each cycle, adapting with horrifying precision.

Then it struck her.

Sunny.

Nephis.

Abel.

She could barely stand, but her body moved.

Pushed forward. Shoved away the soldiers trying to support her.

"I don't care how weak I am," she muttered, more to herself than anyone. "I have to get to them."

The new Titan's flesh shimmered like blood-polished obsidian, twitching as it slid through the wreckage like a serpent hunting prey.

Right where they were.

Her family.

Her son.

Her heart.

"No…" she whispered again.

Because she wasn't watching a dying nightmare anymore.

She was watching the birth of something worse.

Something that learned.

And it was heading straight for the people she loved.

Olivia's eyes burned.

"It's evolving… into a CORRUPTED TITAN …"

She took one trembling step forward.


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