Shadow Slave: Possibilities Without Meaning

The man was adorned in a simple tunic, yet he was littered with injuries. Blood pooling onto the clouds. Deep gashes covered his body, with his left shoulder missing, his arm barely attached to his body.

He was breathing heavily. Exhausted from the soul battle with Sunny and having his vessel destroyed by Saint Cormac.

Clan Valor knew exactly what Mordret's weaknesses were and planned in accordance. It seemed that Saint Cormac did not hold back in dealing soul damage against the man. And Aldric would follow suit. 

Wisps of darkness began to cover the emaciated form of Mordret, strengthening his body and essence massively. Covering his ghastly wound on his shoulder, his arm was now functional.

"Darkness as well. Luck may finally be on my side. I'll take good care of your body."

He spoke mockingly. His eyes giving his appearance an air of terror and dread.

Listening to the parasite speak to him angered Aldric to no end. It was time to get this started.

'Devour!'

A burst of intent left his body as serpents of darkness pierced through the clouds, engulfing the intruder. A cold permeating around his soul sea as unbeknownst to either of them, the dark core with the light blue accretion disc shone brighter than its two surrounding neighbours. 

With him being in his own soul sea, darkness was abundant. Darkness that was his and his alone. 

A muffled voice sounded from the body of twisting darkness. 

"So that's how this works. Are you from the House of Night?"

A dome of darkness surrounding him, he asked. With the domain of darkness falling under the purview of the Storm God, it was a logical conclusion. 

Aldric did not care to respond to the madman. Knowing of Mordret's intelligence, he knew that any information that he shared could be and would be used against him. After all, his flaw wasn't about being honest, unlike a certain shadow. 

He knew that this attack would not hold him long. Not giving his opponent a moment's rest, Aldric stopped holding back. 

He knew that the longer he drew this fight out, the better the chance that Mordret would have at assimilating to his aspect.

A red hue began to light up the dark void. 

Today was truly a day of strategy. Aldric knew that the Prince of Nothing would have left his soul sea as quickly as he came should he have felt the nascent chaotic energy resting in his soul. The danger it posed to those in its vicinity was obvious. 

He couldn't afford to expose how inhabitable his soul sea was to its invader. After all, he was uncertain if Bael completed his job. Having Mordret escape after all this effort would be an insurmountable loss. 

However, with the time that had elapsed, he was sure that the temple was drowning in darkness.

Gripping his chest, Aldric stopped holding back the foreign feeling that rested in the depths of his soul. Ever since consuming his aspect legacy, he could feel the weight and space it took up. 

'AARRGHHH'.

He exerted mentally. Aldric pulled with all his might. Hedging all his bets on what was about to happen next.

SHUDDER

The small rift at the boundary of his soul sea began to widen, a familiar expansion of red and a singular eye following.

A wave of madness and chaos spread through the space of Aldric's soul sea. The black space gaining a red hue all around. As if the eye was crying tears of blood, hell had descended upon them both.

Looking at his opponent, the emaciated soul was still being bombarded by the numerous serpents. Each vying to devour their prey. Wisps of cold emanating from their serpentine bodies.

With the addition of each dark core that Aldric gained, a pattern began to emerge. His nascent darkness would begin to adopt more and more properties of the overwhelming force that was true elemental darkness. With the addition of his third core, his darkness began to incorporate the eerie and unpleasant feeling that gnawed onto people's souls. Taking the form of a soul-eroding cold. 

However, it was still in its infancy. With the ability likely to increase in potency as he ascended, it was not much in the face of the prince, who perhaps had one of the most potent of souls amongst all awakened. 

But it still affected him, slightly damaging and slowing down his soul form over time. 

Looking away for a brief moment, Aldric looked above towards the eldritch eye that called his soul sea home. While the eye maintained a vacant look at most times, it seemed that it too recognised that something was amiss.

An intruder. 

From the small dome of darkness that Mordret had formed to protect himself, tendrils of darkness bursting out. Wrapping and constricting each serpent that came near it. The whispers of madness began to enter his mind.

"What did you do?! What is that feeling?"

Mordret shouted out. His previously black eyes now reflecting a vermilion red. 

[Sundered Sorrow] was now in his grasp. The soul lich now had access to not only his aspect but his memories as well. A slash of rotting miasma traversed the space and headed towards Aldric. His rage and confusion transmitted through his attack.

DANGER 

With a pulse from [Insight], he twisted his body away from the attack. A deep rotting gash would have formed on his arm had he not dodged by an inch.

Mordret's honed instincts screamed at him that something was wrong. 

After having his vessel destroyed by Saint Cormac, the Prince of Nothing had decided to wait in the comfort of a reflective shard of glass from the bell tower. Waiting until the Saint left the island to report what happened. Hearing the clash of Cormac and an unknown person, likely a Saint, Mordret lied in wait.

With the island collapsing around him, he basked in the feeling of freedom. 

While not having a vessel was inconvenient, that's all that it was. For him, anyone could be a vessel. So when a clear friend of Sunny stumbled upon the temple, Mordret took a chance. Finding a vessel that would be entering the second nightmare with Sunny was a miracle. 

After all, that was his goal. It was his goal before he got sealed, and it was his goal afterward.

And looking back, that's where it all began. 

Why would Sunny's friend be here on the outskirts of the Chained Isles? 

How did he know to come exactly today, just when Cormac unlocked the temple?

And finally, the feeling of all surrounding reflections disappearing with a strange muteness.

It was all coming together for the prince. 

But it was too late.

Aldric kept pulling on the anchor deep in his soul. Pushing the power further than he had ever done before. 

Throwing caution aside, Mordret began to attack at close range.

Trap or no trap, the prince would complete his objective and destroy his enemy's soul.

In the instant that the intruder shortened the gap between them, Aldric embedded his will into the darkness that surrounded them.

All of it. 

Expending the majority of his soul essence, the sea of darkness at their feet came alive. Aiding him in his battle. 

The pair were now locked into a deadly clash of swords. Aldric utilising the synergy between [Insight] and [Visionary] to deconstruct the utterly brutal swordsmanship that the prince displayed.

It was made up of a trained legacy battle art embedded with brutality. The prince did not hold back at all, even when his own safety was on the line during exchanges. 

Even with the wounds and damages of previous battles, nothing would stop the prince from achieving his desires. However, it was enough to stop the Prince of War from talking needlessly. 

He would find out everything he needed after taking this vessel.

Aldric met the brutality with efficient and calculated counters. Learning and adapting to his enemy's battle style, triggers of danger allowed the Singularity to fight a reflexive battle.

Around the pair, darkness given meaning attacked the invader. Shifting and turning into a myriad of sharp tendrils and spikes. Strangely, sparks of red began to litter the surface of the darkness. Their effects unknown.

But it seemed like Modret was feeling them as errant red sparks dissipated over his body. 

"Who are you?! No... What are you?!"

His voice detailed how impossible his current situation was. He attempted to exit the young man's soul sea but could not. With no reflections around them, he was stuck here. 

"Well, whatever your intentions are, I'm sure losing a few pounds of flesh will loosen your tongue."

The man spoke crudely, hiding his uneasiness with cruelty.

Having just experienced the uniqueness of Sunny's soul sea with the army of shadow creatures, Mordert did not expect to encounter another soul sea that he could not understand or even fathom. 

And now it was two versus one. The prince did not usually fight alone; however, he could not bring his trusted reflections with him to this battle. He was alone.

Embedding his own will into the darkness generated from his body, Mordret was adapting to the aspect of darkness of his host.

While the sea of shifting darkness hindered many of Aldric's attacks and movements, it was enough to hold back any ranged attacks of darkness from Mordret as well as limit the prince's attention. 

It was here that the battle prowess of the prince shone. Fighting both an awakened as well as an environment that was embedded with the sole objective of killing him. 

But he was slowing down. Second by second.

And it was here that the battle changed. 

Sixty-three seconds into the clash, Mordret felt a disturbing gaze on his soul. It was similar to the haze of chaos he had been feeling throughout this battle but many times more intense. It felt alive, as if someone was watching him. 

A strange feeling called for him. Whispers that he could not make sense of until he heard a familiar voice whisper.

'Wretched being.'

A voice that played in his mind during all of those years that he was imprisoned.

The root cause of it all. 

'Bastard!'

With calamitous rage building inside of him, his gaze faced upwards. Away from the intense battle that demanded one hundred percent of his focus. Away from the darkness that hunted his very being. 

In the moment that his eyes were locked with the strange eye, he stopped. Nothing but dark red reflecting in his eyes. 

THUD

His version of [Sundered Sorrow] dropping to the ground, he froze.

His ruby eyes were wide. His body was strangely still. Entranced within that gaze for what looked like eons.

His soul was subjected to untold horrors. Perhaps seeing and learning more of whatever rested in the anomaly's soul. Even more than Aldric himself.

"You...had me in check this whole time..."

Mordret spoke brokenly, barely able to get those words out. Everything fought against him, to submit to that otherworldly force. His mind was battered. His soul exhausted. Whatever this being was, he would not win. 

While his voice was broken and quiet, his eyes spoke of the embodiment of rage. 

It was clear to Aldric that the prince had much more to say, but the unknown being won their battle for control.

Moving immediately, Aldric fashioned large chains out of darkness and wrapped them around the prince's limbs. Tugging and pulling as his body dropped onto his knees, those red eyes never leaving the large eye. 

The shackles shook as the prince unconsciously fought for freedom. As while his mind was being influenced, his body subconsciously fought back.

From Aldric's perspective, it was as if the prince was in a haze. Seeing something that no one else could.

Everything changed when a single red tendril of energy extended from the rift of the eye. Like the silk string from hell, it descended. To finally encompass the invader in its embrace.

The tendril latching onto the space between Mordret's eyebrows, a pulse of red light transferred onto its target. 

His soul form began to change. 

Dark red lines were now visible on his face, spreading from his eyes like tears. From his head, down his neck, and towards his chest, the strange phenomena stopped at his heart. 

A sudden pale white light glowed from his core as the prince gasped in agony. A battle of control began. Whatever this white light was, it was fighting back.

Shimmering like a kaleidoscope, it was futile. Crimson devouring the pale white light completely.

Spreading beyond the confines of his tunic, he could see it spread in a circular manner. Like a disease, the red light spread throughout his body. Mapping the same intricate pathways that soul essence traversed as it was harnessed. But only this time, it was something else. 

While Aldric was ignorant of the strange phenomena, he was not ignorant of what he sensed emanating from Mordret. 

A feeling that he knew all too well. 

Corruption.

But not exactly so.

Strangely, it seemed as though his flaw did not register the source of it. While an awakened would not trigger any severe reactions from his flaw, Aldric was still sensitive to corruption. However, this was different.

While it shared some components with the corruption emanated from nightmare creatures, that was all. Made up of similar parts but completely different in design. 

As if it shared the same source. 

The feeling spread over the prince's body. His form shifting and turning as his skin decayed rapidly. Aged like leather, his body began to enter a metamorphosis.

Muscles atrophying before his eyes. Bones become more pronounced by the second. It was as if all the liquid in his body had been dried out.

Unclear on what this change would lead to, Aldric began to close the distance between them. His blade ready.

'Soul Stealer.'

Reminding Aldric of the corrupted version of Mordret in the Tomb of Ariel. While this form was different from what he remembered, he would take no chances. 

Perhaps his bet to rely on the uniqueness of his soul to defeat Mordret was short-sighted.

For the first time, Mordret's gaze pulled away from the titanic eye and shifted onto Aldric. Even as his soul changed into a grotesque form. Even as he stared death in the face. Even as his sanity drained from his mind. 

What made up Modret and what drove him would never change. 

Spite.

As the changes spread to his face, it shifted into a horrific visage. A horror that would be etched into Aldric's mind.

A smile of death. Grotesquely wide enough to show his teeth as his lips decayed. Sunken, gaunt eyes with visible orbital bones like a skeleton. A grin formed on his decrepit face as if he knew something that Aldric didn't.

Not willing to entertain the prince's final move, Aldric moved. While there was no danger, his own intuition told him to stop the prince.

PIERCE

A black blade gouged the bound man's heart. 

In a shout of manic glee and utter hate, the prince choked out one final shout as blood filled his lungs.

"ASTERION!"

As the prince drew his last breath, a heavy silence took over his soul sea.

DANGER

A heavy feeling fell upon his soul. 

**********

Thanks for reading. 

1 million people! A very big milestone for this story. I appreciate the support this story has received over the past six months. 

While it was the biggest goal I had while writing, we gotta keep moving. 

Mordret got packed up. But is this truly his end? 

Till the next one.