Shadow Slave: World's Favorite

The Bright Caslte was bustling with noise a moment before, the halls of it had been filled with conversations as the people inside ignored the existence of those outside.

Particularly tonight an especially joyful atmosphere could be felt, after all it was the Winter Solstice. Celebrating another year passed in relative safety, the Sleepers of the Castle ate with gusto.

"Oh where am I?"

"—!"

And suddenly, all voices in the Bright Castle died down. Next to a wall of the Castle, a being had appeared out of nowhere it was looking around in confusion, it's body completely naked.

Half of the Castle Guards, those that had been enjoying the feast along with the Tenants, Hunters or Handmaidens among others rose to their feet, their eyes were wary and more than a bit confused about what happened. The person seemingly just- materialised.

"Baldr!"

Someone in particular rushed down toward the naked Sleeper, their wings flapped with ecstasy and sorrow, both from finding their friend safe in such a place, but also due to the nature of this very part of the Dream Realm.

Kai covered the body of his friends that was proudly displayed to everyone's eyes using his wings, he had never thought he would ever use them as curtains but here he was.

"Don't you have a clothing memory, some armor?! For Spell's sake I'll give you one if you don't so hurry!"

The Guards themselves were too stunned to speak, not even because of the naked human but because of the winged Sleeper attitude.

Night was one of the kindest Sleepers in the Castle, he was also one of the most valued assets in it due to his ability to fly along with his deadly archery.

The winged Sleeper was one of the few that could live with leisure in the Bright Castle, and that he did. But his pristine attitude was never changed, neither did his polite tone change from when he had first arrived at the Bright Castle.

So seeing him cuss was almost as shocking as the appearance of a new Sleeper right in the Castle's walls.

"Don't stress Kai, rather than that aren't you happy to see me?"

Baldr tried hugging his friend only for a hand to be shoved in his face, keeping him from doing so.

"Put your damn clothes on."

The radiant teen's laugh echoed throughout the hall as light coalesced around his body, it took a few seconds before he stood in a nebulous black toga from wich stars seemed to shimmer. More than a few eyes of the Guards shifted from shock to greed as they hurried towards the presence.

"Hey you—!"

"I'll pay for him."

Before they could even apprehend the man, the archer threw a quick look at them, his eyes filled with something they didn't even think he could emit.

Killing intent.

With that out of the way, Kai directed himself to his personal quarters, hoping to help make sense of the Forgotten Shore to his friend, and bring the sad news that they were stuck here.

But one particular guard thought it wise to try and shakedown the newly arrived Sleeper for his memories.

"That counts as public indecency you kno—"

A solid argument, but ultimately the Dream World was a place where the strong made the rule, it just so happened that today was a day of feasting.

"Enough."

A voice that sent terror in every Sleeper's eye resonated in the halls. The owner of it was clad in a second, golden skin, where his face should have been there was a well polished golden surface serving as a mirror.

"He paid the tribute. There's no need for people to shed blood on a day of festivity."

The unheard threat wasn't missed by most. What they did miss was the thin line of blood that had formed on the guard's wrist.

If it wasn't the Winter Solstice you'd be dead.

The radiant teen looked toward the Golden Serpent, a smile blossoming on his face. Gunlaug returned the gaze, under his golden mask. And, for a moment.

He could assure there was an edge to it.

■■■

"Why did you had to come here?"

"I didn't have much of a choice now, did I?"

Baldr responded leisurely, observing the room of his friend, it was well decorated and clean, the bed rested on one of the corners and under it, a small chest was hidden, in it a few Soul shards were resting.

"That thing you were about to do earlier to the guard, what was it."

While Kai was talking Baldr poured some of the miniscule amount of essence he had into his memory, it's name holding true as it changed in accordance to his will.

What had once been a toga weaved of the star filled sky of the night became a pair of baggy jeans and a shirt, sharing the similar pattern that the Memory originally held.

'Maybe I can shift it a little...'

With a little mental effort, the stars on his jeans moved, filling the shirt with so much of them that he could shape them into a print. His current choice was a glowing pure white heart.

"That's... pretty cool but you didn't respond to my question."

Kai had also been mesmerised by the display of moving stars in front of him.

"Probably cut off his hand."

Baldr replied nonchalantly a genuine smile still on his face, it was so great to finally see his best friend again! That same friend didn't look as happy though...

Kai's gaped, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly before he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"All that for a Memory?!"

"But it's of Transcendent rank..."

"What?!"

Kai shouted each time, the knowledge that his friend had a Transcendent Memory not too dissimilar to Gunlaug's own was something he didn't quite grasp his mind around.

The knowledge that he would have cut for it, and possibly much less also reminded the winged Sleeper of how the Nightmare Spell changed people.

Still, the radiant teen seemed to have the same easygoing attitude he had back when they were idols, never lying simply due to never finding the need of doing so. That core part of him didn't change.

"How did you even get it?"

"How else? I got a Transcendent Human to offer their neck to me."

So the memory didn't come from a Nightmare creature but a human. Kai already resigned himself to what was to come, not even bothering to be surprised about the next events Baldr was about to tell him.

"...what's your Aspect?"

Kai had told Baldr all about his last year when he got out of his Nightmare, why not share information with his friend when he could after all.

Still there was a certain shame with asking such a personal question, yet he couldn't help himself, that quickly dissolved when he looked at Baldr's expression

A certain smugness formed in the radiant teen's eyes Kai knew his Aspect must be something good from that simple shift in the smile his friend had.

There was also the fact that he owned a Transcendent Memory, those kind of thing couldn't simply be bought with money, he reminded himself.

"I'm not going to say much since I still haven't figured out everything about it, but basically I started hearing stuff."

A mortified look appeared on Kai's face at those words.

"Was your Nightmare that bad? Or is it your Flaw that made you schizophrenic?"

"Schizophrenic? No I'm talking about the Voices of the World, the Elements around us!"

The joyous smile on Baldr's face told Kai that this was either an elaborate prank or his friend had gone completely mad. Unfortunately, his Flaw told him wich of the two options it was.

"Okay well... I'll just explain you what's going on in this place."

"Don't look at me with those eyes, come on!"

■■■

Baldr was sitting at the edge of one of the Bright Castle windows

A chuckle left his mouth thinking about Kai's words when he mentioned his Aspect, crazy? He might be a little mad yes, he had discovered before the Winter Solstice, when trying to resist his Flaw for the first time.

While he did smile often before, since the end of his Nightmare not once did the perpetual smile leave his face. For a good reason, he loved everything! To varying degrees of intensity maybe, but being in a world filled with only loved ones would make any person happy.

That was also the root of his madness sadly...

It was said that a madmen would not know of his own illness as the world he perceived was normal for him. But the radiant teen knew. He had emotions, but next to no negative ones.

The sorrow he felt that day the winds told him their True Name served as a trigger in his mind, allowing him to uncover and explore his own emotions, or the lack thereof.

'Talking about Elements.'

A somber gaze arrived on Baldr's face, as he had expected while new Elements were present, Water wich was the most prevalent and dominant one in the Forgotten Shore. Was also completely silent.

Not due to it's usual shyness, simply because what filled the depths and crevices of the Forgotten Shore wasn't Water, it was some sort of Titan that took it's role.

Of what rank that Baldr did not know. The Dark Sea was an entity that much to his regret, he didn't consider himself able to slay as a Sleeper, even from such a distance he could hear the pained groans of the mountains as they struggled to keep themselves from falling while the sea retreated.

Like that, the day arrived.

Kai had already explained him the inner workings of the Bright Castle, in greater details than what was told in the novel he read and so he pondered.

'I definitely can't live here.'

It was less of an opinion and more of an objective statement. Baldr wanted to fill his Soul Core as quickly as possible, his current goal was to get the thousand soul shards needed to fill it a month before the cohort arrived.

He couldn't do so in the Bright Castle. Tenants had the right to hunt for soul shards by themselves but there must be a reason there weren't many wealthy ones, other than Kai.

Someone without affiliation doing good in the Castle was a clear challenge to Gunlaug's Tyranny. And while Baldr thought himself able to defeat Harus. That could spark a hunt for him, wich would delay his initial goal.

So the only solution was to live outside. With that in mind, Baldr woke up his friend who even while providing citizenship in the Golden Serpent's Castle did not give up his bed to his poor and frightened friend.

'How greedy.'

"Kai! There's a Spire Messeng- Oh you're awake?"

He planned to play a prank on his friend, who simply calmly sat up. Much to Baldr dismay the winged Sleeper's Flaw didn't even allow him to fall to such jokes.

Kai scrutinised the radiant teen's face, before his own quickly became a shade of pale, an horrified look gracing it.

"You have that look."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

Trying to play dumb, Baldr smile gave away his thoughts, the mischief it expressed made it obvious to Kai that he planned something bad, again.

"That look... The one you had before you wrote that absolutely horrid song! Or before you had us enter that look alike contest!"

"First of all, Fetty Wap is a masterpiece, and we did win the contest in the end! Second of all this is a completly different situation, I wouldn't willingly put us in harm's way come on."

"Both almost ended our lives, one socially and the other literally- I still don't get how you take sasaengs for jokes really."

Baldr brows squirmed a bit as he squinted at Kai who did the same, both locked in this battle before finally one relented.

"Fine! Tell me then."

"A little wind told me about one gluttonous Pathfinder..."

■■■

Arriving at the entrance of a black tower, Kai let Baldr drop down to the floor, the radiant teen gently grabbed at the air, allowing it to glide him down the remaining distance.

As they looked around, not much was seen by them, but they did hear something, from inside the tower, the sounds of someone- something loudly mowing down on meat was heard, it was savage in nature, Baldr almost mistaking it for a Nightmare Creature, but he smiled.

Because he knew.

"...I shouldn't have let you convince me."

"I'm telling you it's the place we were searching for."

Kai skeptical eyes followed Baldr as he entered the tower alone, before long shouting and laughter was heard, the winged Sleeper assumed everything had gone well.

Before long Baldr came back, a beaming smile on his face, followed by a grinning giantess. Her olive skin contrasted with her white attire, wich showed much more skin than what Kai thought a Pathfinder would let you see.

Most of the ones back in the Castle weren't particularly dressed in an elusive manner, but like any other Sleeper, or even more so, they wore armor meant to protect their body.

The same couldn't be said about the woman in front of him, the arm and leg guards she worn barely counting as such.

One could have said the same about Baldr, but differently from the tall woman, he looked out of this world. Quite literally.

His modern attire contrasted greatly with the medieval feel of the Dark City, or the Dream Realm as a whole. The garment itself only took care of his legs and torso. His head and hands laid bare for all to harm.

But Kai remembered that it was a Memory of Transcendent rank wich could twist into any shape, surely his friend had another reason for making it as such, other than simply partaking to his taste of fashion.

Maybe the abilities of the memories were worth the trade?

"Is this the guy you mentioned?"

"Yeah if something bad happens, you can count on him to pull me away."

'Is this the end of it?' As those thoughts conjured themselves in Kai's mind, he regretted them.

"Come Kai! Let's go hunt a Fallen Beast!"

The words that left the smiling Sleeper's face fell on Kai like a sword of damocles. He could only extend a word, still befuddled by the impossibility he heard.

"...what?"

■■■

Yessir, next chapter will be out soon I promise, This might be a little crazy for a first Nightmare Creature but trust me it for real ain't🙏🏾(Baldr is cooked.)