Shadow Slave | The Herald of Ruin

Zero began looking at this.. he wasn't sure what to call it.

'Is this perfect unison between dark and white or white and dark?'

He couldn't tell but it looked mesmerising.

He took a few steps forward if you can call it that while hovering almost above ground.
On the ground something seemed to be..sleeping.
As if nothing could disturb its eternal rest.
'Just looking into it's direction gives me a huge sense of dread, is that the goal of my nightmare? Something like a guardian keeping an eye on the void spawn?' He thought and realised that this..idea of his, theory if you will was very plausible and started sweating bullets.
'If..the weakest opponent was a dormant devil, just what was laying there so happy and undisturbed?' He thought.
It could be anything.
' if anything I'm hoping nothing more than a fallen demon...if I lure it into the darkness I might have a chance and even that is me being cheeky.' He thought as he felt his wings fludder in excitement.
He glared at them
'What could you possibly be happy about right now?!'
Knowing his wings weren't much of a talker he looked forward and ignored them.
'Now about that creature..what do I do? If i go back and find some of the remnants of a Void Spawn I could maybe trick it if it's smart enough..maybe I could also find a few more..living void spawns.' He thought as he made his way back to the darkness and tried to map his footing since he had nothing else to use as a navigation tool.
On his way back he started thinking about future possibilities.
'Knowledge..I need Knowledge first things first both in this nightmare, the dream realm or in the waking world.
I have heard about marvelous technology that sent people into space, onto the moon, using the energy of the sun and weapons of mass destruction.
Simple tools to ease every day life and be more independent on your own without Dependance..I need Knowledge, when I'm back in probably won't have much time and need to enter the dream realm very soon, after that I need to find our past camps and any surviving Abyss member, they are my responsibility after all..' he had lots of thoughts to feed on while going back until he saw something moving in the darkness.
'Finally! Another void spawn! But..why does it seem bigger?' He thought as the outline was almost a straight bulky line going upwards..twice?
'Back back back!!! I need to find a Fragement!' He thought in horror of what he just discovered.
'What..is that?? My big brother?' He thought while scared to his wits.
After a while he arrived back at the white field looking down to find his own fragment from before maybe able to catch a glimpse of this being in another Fragment.
Then he saw himself looking up to it

In the fragment.

And immediately starting looking around in hopes.
And then he saw it.

With all of its terrible glory.

That..certainly seemed to be a much bigger version of himself and much more protected and covered..in almost armor it seemed.
'That's definitely what a big brother would look like if I was the younger one' he chuckled to himself
'Now..' he thought with a dark grin.

'How am I gonna bring big brother or that other thing together to let them fight it out and have me reap the rewards?' He thought with his grin widening from each thought.

'There has to be something to lure them together' he thought and looked down on himself
He went to the sleeping creature and looked at it from close.
'I wonder what I need to do for it to wake up' as he thought of this something stirred beside him.
He only had one thought.
'This is how I die huh, it looked much smaller even as I was next to it, is that it's ability?' He thought almost too calm about his immediate demise.
He looked up just to see it staring down on him and swinging down its arm
[You have died]

[Starting over trial.]

He opened his eyes in surprise but only to welcomed by extreme darkness.

'Ah right..I died..how.. uneventful?' I expected more of a reaction from myself but what did it mean with starting over trial? Where am I? Is this normal?' He thought to himself.

*Waking world Pov*

"D-Dale? Did you just see him move aswell?" Asked the young awakened next to him.

Dale looked at him as if looking at a joke.
"What do you possibly mean? How can he move? He is in nightmare right now..unless he turns into a nightmare creature this instant I don't see much to worry about." He said, having them continue their journey towards the siege capital
It's been almost 3 weeks now and they already have the big city in their sights as they slowly continue their way forwards.
*Zero's PoV*

Before he could think more his mind was assaulted with a mind shattering pain as he fell down and held what seems to be his head.

One could hear unsettling growls, screams and shrieks only befitting of a beast, a monster.

Nothing a human would dream to replicate.

He found himself passed out for what seemed to be mere minutes or years that have passed by.
'What was that gut wrenching pain? If I had a body i would've died again.' He thought seriously and still somewhat in pain.
Not much else to think about he focused on his surroundings..to find the void spawn again. Surrounding him hoping to get a bite of his soul.
He called forth both the mantle and ring, he realised that they needed some kind of essence to activate which he obviously did not have..and looked at his surroundings guessing that might be reason why they worked in the first place.
He moved forward to the white field as he murdered his siblings once again, alas this time he didn't get a single memory, leaving the dark behind with a scowl he looked forwards and moved to the ring of unison, looking at the small beast that laid there, remembering that it's totally not small and got squashed just by a wave of its hand made him shudder.
'It has to be the goal of my nightmare..no way there it isn't it.' He thought
And he had a dark thought as he thought of that..
'I wonder if me dying is a one time thing..'
As he went up to the beast with determination and punched it's face and started running towards the dark.
Before he knew it.
[You have died]

[Starting over trial.]

'Damnation! Can I not even get 2 meters away from the thing after trying to get it to move?' He was in deep thoughts.
Something had to be done and so

He got to work.

[You have died]

[You have died]

[You have died]x3.200

This was his plan.

He had one in mind after mindless suicides attacks to wake the abomination from it's slumber and get it killed.

'This time! This time surely it'll work ' he laughed in his mind with maddening smile.
As he started over again he had access to the void spawns.
He never got a single memory from them again or so he thought when he got to his 1510th revival.
Memories:[Void Mantle][Void Bag][Void Ring]
And now there was one more.
[Void Mirror]

Memory description: "from long forgotten times, a Void Spawn saw its brethren suffering and offered itself to help alleviate it's pain and come forth itself if it's treacherous brethren so wished."

He didn't know what it meant at the beginning but learned that it practically meant he could mirror anything and anyone and have them come forth.
So he did the sanest thing anyone would've been and used it on the giant bleeding black as he had run out of options.

Even his big bro seemed not to have been enough for the guardian of this nightmare.

The great being opened its eyes as if surprised that it's still awake.
It looked around to see the similar Void Spawn that had murmured to itself looking at his stare.
He went ahead and touched the brave void spawns head and closed his eyes again as if finding this acceptable to be last thing he did before his eternal slumber.
[You have been blessed by the shadow god]
[Error unexpected intervention of the divine.]
[A corruption seed has been found in your soul and is fighting of the divine blessing.]
'Pain..pain..it hurts it hurts so much, why me? What's happening to me?' He said as he saw the colossal being from the unison ring closing in and almost chuckled to himself when he saw his bigger version coming from the dark having heard the commotion.
'Just come, I'll show your place' he thought as he almost lost his consciousness only to see his hand moving forth summoning the [Void ring] he looked perplexed, what did this mean?
The [Void Mantle] and the [Void bag] also weaved themselves into existence, he looked in horror as hands of complete utter darkness came out of the bag even more harrowing than he saw from the shadow God and devour the two beings right next to him.
[You have slain a Unholy Tyrant.]

[You have slain a Cursed Titan.]

Before he could complain about the difficulty of his nightmare, the spell spoke it's sweet whispers.
[Wake up, Zero! Your nightmare is over.]
[Preparing for appraisal...]