Shadow Slave: Arthur Leywin

Sunny felt a… a vast, maddening anguish. And a deep, biting reluctance.

And fear. Not for himself, but for the mission. But then, he became scared for himself, too.

Standing with the Sin of Solace in his hand, the curtain of deadly cold and violent winds in front of him grew with every passing moment, causing the pillar he had to protect to slowly begin to fade.

Behind him lay corpses of Nightmare Creatures and humans alike. Many of the latter had been brought by the former in their jaws.

Sunny really never saw a soldier arrive to cover him or help him—they were all dead. And soon, he would be too if he did nothing.

He had nowhere to run. At some point, Sunny realized that because of the diabolical cold that permeated his mind, he could no longer feel his Dream Realm anchor.

It still existed there, somewhere, but it was as though the mystical connection was distorted by a hazy wall of snow. Sunny could not sense the anchor and could not reach for it.

‘Are… are we going to lose, just like that? We were so close!’

The thought filled him with indescribable anger and grief. But the snowstorm had become just too calamitous.

‘Arthur is still inside…’

Sunny was about to clench his teeth and try to enter the storm on his own. But a voice sounded in his mind—a voice painfully similar to his own.

“Admit that it satisfies you to know that Arthur is going to die.”

He shivered.

“Admit that you always wanted him to die because you feel inferior to him.”

Sunny hesitated, staring into the blizzard as the last sparks of the runes finally went out.

“Admit it. You fool… are you happy now?”

He clenched his teeth.

“Shut up!”

“Or what?” The Sin of Solace began to laugh. “Are you going to tell me no? You watched the last pillar go out without doing anything!”

He closed his eyes.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I couldn’t do anything else!”

“Is that true?” the cursed sword asked. “Couldn’t you have gone in with him and helped him fight the creature? Or were you too cowardly to think of it? Maybe your goal was always to fail so that Arthur would die—didn’t you think of that? Look your plan worked wonderfully!”

Sunny paled at that moment and dismissed the sword.

‘Why didn’t I think of going with him?’

He… he had been present the entire time while the plan developed. And yet, he never thought of entering with Arthur…

‘…Wha—’

Sunny felt dread settle in his heart.

With the last pillar of fire going out, the Winter Beast’s deadly wind expanded throughout the surroundings, bringing a feeling of finality to everything present in its periphery.

The cold was so great that it served to snap Sunny out of his state of shock.

And then, he allowed himself to dissipate into the darkness, escaping the murderous cold.

…In the embrace of the shadows, the power of the Winter Beast was not nearly as overwhelming. It could still reach here, somehow, but in a weakened state.

His teeth clenched, and without realizing it, he found himself moving in the opposite direction from where he needed to go. Howling with pain and fury, he plunged into the blizzard.

Even if Arthur was dead and everything was lost, he wanted to try and reach the wretched abomination… he wanted to hurt, break, and kill it…

But he failed.

Even if the cold was not as terrifying in the shadows, it was still there. And the closer Sunny got to the heart of the blizzard, the more annihilating the cold became. He still persisted forward, feeling his very soul freeze and start to grow still, dying, for a time.

Eventually, though, Sunny had to turn back.

He ran away.

He ran away and hid himself.

He survived.

Sunny found a cave outside the range of the wind brought by the Winter Beast, and in that place, he decided to appear, letting himself fall to the ground while bringing his hands to his head.

His heart completely consumed by sadness and anguish. He just wanted to hide and not come to the surface. He couldn’t bear the feeling of emptiness in his chest.

His breathing was rapid while his essence reserves were at their minimum. If any creature found him in the cave… surviving it was going to be complicated.

Blinking multiple times, the realization of the consequences reached his mind like a crossbow shot.

It wasn’t just Arthur and the soldiers who died… It was Sylvie, Jet, and… and Reynolds. That was without counting the millions of people who hadn’t managed to evacuate from the siege capital.

The worst part was that Sunny wasn’t even going to be able to give the first four a proper burial.

Finding Sylvie, Jet, and Reynolds’s corpses could be possible if no Nightmare Creature ate them, but Arthur’s was impossible.

Sunny swallowed hard.

“What am I going to tell…”

He couldn’t finish vocalizing his question before he began to feel his thoughts slowing. He wanted to frown, but at that moment, he realized the effect wasn’t coming from any external force.

It was… it was his own body!

‘…What is happening?!’

Sunny’s onyx eyes widened as his body began moving robotically without him controlling it. It was as if Nephis had ordered him to do something against his will.

‘No, no, no, what is this?’

His right hand rose, and in it, a shower of silver particles began to gather. In a matter of seconds… a simple Memory was in his trembling hand.

‘Where did this Memory come from? I don’t remember it!’

Sunny blinked and observed the Memory with distrust. At the same time, he wanted to drop it, but his body didn’t obey him. He was completely conscious but couldn’t do absolutely anything.

Dread and a feeling of déjà vu entered his heart and brain.

He felt as if he had already lived through something similar before, but he couldn’t remember where or how!

The Memory, which looked like a simple metallic object similar to a communicator, had a small red light in the center. Sunny, using his thumb, pressed right on that light without his consent.

The device changed light, turning green, and he threw it to the ground a few meters from him.

At first, nothing happened.

Then, a horizontal tear appeared in the fabric of space in front of him.

This type of portal—or whatever it was—glowed with an almost magical, opaque light. Its interior seemed turbulent, distorted, with flashes of energy representing the void or an interdimensional passage to some destination.

Just looking at it, Sunny felt the urge to cross it and discover where it would take him.

Sunny’s legs approached the rift against his will, and he crouched in front of it. Extending his hand, he entered it into the turbulent interior, and his fingers closed upon feeling contact with something solid and frozen.

His body exerted force backward, and slowly, a figure began to become visible within the rift.

The figure that emerged from the rift was covered by dark armor, its plates cracked and destroyed. Golden lines ran across the surface, though many had been hidden beneath a thick layer of frost and dried blood.

Numerous ice fragments protruded from the gaps in the armor, while the cold emanating from that body seemed to have taken away the last trace of warmth.

Its state was, at the very least, lamentable.

Its legs were cut in half, leaving only from the hips to the middle of the shin, though the plates in those areas were all destroyed. Its left hand was completely destroyed—it didn’t exist. Only the arm remained up to the wrist.

The exposed skin was covered in wounds, some of them frozen, and much of its face had disappeared while the rest had been hidden beneath a mixture of blood and ice. One of its eyes didn’t exist.

However, what most caught Sunny’s attention was its hair.

That characteristic pale wheat hair, now hardened by frost and stained with blood, was unmistakable.

Sunny choked on his own saliva.

“…Arthur?”

He paled as the Spell sounded in his mind and he regained control of his body.

[Your Memory has been destroyed.]

‘What the hell?’

Sunny at that moment was completely lost. Eyes wide open, drops of cold sweat running down his body.

‘What just happened?’

Nothing makes sense!

His onyx eyes centered on Arthur’s figure in a deplorable state, and a realization reached him immediately.

‘How the hell is he still alive?!’

To say that his friend currently represented a person was too much!

Sunny crouched beside the semi-frozen figure and invoked a Memory to conjure fire. He could ponder later what the hell had happened with that Memory—and why he had lost control of his own body—but for now, that would have to wait.

The Memory manifested in his hand as a shower of silver particles, taking the form of a simple torch—one he had stolen from the Bright Castle and subsequently converted into a Memory.

The torch illuminated the cave, and as he placed it next to his friend, it began to slowly melt the layers of ice encasing the body.

At the same time, Sunny noticed that Arthur’s body had begun to heal on its own.

First, the most severe wounds on his torso mended; tendons, tissue, and bone grew back as if emerging from absolute nothingness. Then his face began to take shape through the same process.

His jawbone was the first to form, followed by the surrounding muscles, until finally his skin—pale as milk—reappeared. His eye was the last to form.

Sunny blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Arthur’s body had already healed almost completely, returning to a perfect state. Only parts of his feet remained unhealed.

At that moment, a black will-o’-the-wisp—about the size of a large marble, with sharp, pure-white eyes and two small horns protruding from the sides of its head—emerged from Arthur’s core.

Sunny paled a little.

Regis began floating in the air between Arthur’s now-sleeping figure and his onyx eyes.

He didn’t open his mouth, but Sunny didn’t fail to hear his words.

“Shorty, how the hell did you get us out of there?”

Sunny clenched his teeth slightly at the nickname. And responded after taking a breath.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh well.” Regis floated around him. “Too bad you got amnesia at such a young age. I pity you.”

“I don’t have amnesia, you bastard!” Sunny retorted. “I don’t know how it happened! My body moved on its own and I summoned a Memory I didn’t even know I had!”

Regis went still at that moment and asked, his voice sounding slightly confused.

“Your body moved against your will?” Then he added, “And a Memory you didn’t know you had?”

Sunny nodded twice.

“I had a feeling of déjà vu when it happened. I don’t understand anything…”

Regis blinked and continued floating around both of them.

“You don’t remember anything at all?”

He could only shake his head while letting out a sigh.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.” Regis approached Arthur’s chest and said, “It doesn’t matter how it happened, but thank you. Both of us would have died if it weren’t for your help.” Then he entered the core.

Sunny stood completely still upon hearing the thanks, and finally let himself fall to the ground while the torchlight illuminated the entire cave.

‘You’re welcome, I suppose…’

—

Arthur opened his eyelids slowly, his eyes suffering a little from their dryness. A small sound of discomfort escaped his throat upon feeling the cold floor beneath him.

He heard a voice at that moment.

“Finally, you’re awake.”

He frowned slightly upon not recognizing the voice directly, but then he slowly sat up, supporting himself on his shoulders, and felt how all his muscles ached.

Enduring the pain, he looked at the figure sitting beside him… Sunny was there.

He smiled.

“Sunny, what… how?”

“How what?” Sunny tilted his head.

Arthur finally sat up completely and looked at the torch creating an orange light throughout the cave. Turning to look at him, he asked more specifically.

“How did you get me out of there?”

Sunny shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I did it, so let’s focus on other things…”

He simply nodded.

‘Princess,’ Regis began speaking mentally. ‘Sunny doesn’t remember anything about how he did it. I’ll tell you more specifically later—I’m going to sleep for a while.’

‘Alright, Regis.’

Arthur asked then.

“Where is everyone else?”

“I don’t know either…” Sunny brought his hand to the back of his neck. “I suspect that… well, you know.”

He frowned as a feeling of denial ran through his entire being. No.

It couldn’t be.

Arthur looked at Sunny, waiting for him to add something more—tell him that it was a bad joke, or that he had simply been wrong. But his friend remained silent, with an expression Arthur couldn’t quite interpret.

“How long have I been sleeping?”

Sunny blinked, apparently surprised by the question.

“A few hours, I think. Maybe more.”

Arthur nodded slowly.

A few hours… That meant nothing, they could have survived. His father was an experienced Master, and both Jet and Sylvie were capable of taking care of themselves. There was no reason to assume the worst.

“Then we should go look for them.”

Sunny didn’t respond immediately.

Arthur stood up, though the pain that ran through his body almost made him lose his balance. He had to lean against the cave wall, waiting for his legs to stop trembling.

“Arthur…”

“We don’t know what happened to them yet.” He straightened, removing his hand from the wall. “They could have escaped. They could be looking for us right now.”

“Maybe. But Arthur, couldn’t you see Sylvie’s runes?”

Arthur went still for a few seconds and opened his runes. In them, a part read:

Companion: Sylvie

The runes shone as always.

Arthur had to lean against the wall again as his eyes closed and a deep breath escaped his lips…

Sunny watched everything in detail, and upon noticing his reaction, asked.

“Can I assume that means she’s still alive?”

He didn’t respond at first and instead tried to speak with her.

‘Sylvie?’

There was only silence on the other side.

‘Sylvie?!’

He tried again but got the same result… Finally, he opened his eyes and looked at Sunny.

“She’s alive, but she’s not responding. I don’t know why.”

Sunny was about to speak, but he continued.

“If Sylvie survived, then my father and Jet could have too.”

“Arthur, listen to me,” Sunny said in a serious voice. “During this time, Nightmare and Saint have covered the surroundings in addition to going to the zones they should have covered, and there was absolutely nothing—many frozen corpses too damaged to identify whether they belonged to them…”

For an instant, Arthur felt something close in his chest… No. That didn’t mean anything either.

“They could have fled before everything went to hell. Sylvie did.”

Sunny’s response, in turn, was too weak—as if he didn’t quite believe that what Arthur described had actually happened.

“Okay, then let’s go.”

Arthur pushed himself away from the wall once more, using the little strength his body could muster. Every muscle ached from the tension—a pain that coursed through every particle that made up his being.

“Do you need help?” Sunny asked upon noticing how he was trying to hide the expression of pain on his face.

“No.” Arthur responded immediately as a sharp pain ran through his entire calf. “How far away are we?”

Sunny looked at him with pity in his eyes.

“I’m not sure.”

Another step, another sharp pain. Clenching his teeth, he said, “Then we’ll find out.”

Sunny lowered his gaze for a moment but didn’t argue. Still, he approached his friend and began helping him walk to the cave entrance, taking advantage of his shorter height to place one of Arthur’s arms over his far shoulder while his hand supported him by the waist.

Arthur said nothing at that moment and simply accepted the help.

“Do you know how to ride a horse?” Sunny asked with a slight Machiavellian smile on his face.

Arthur at that moment felt he had made a great mistake…

—

Nightmare was flying across the mountains, ignoring all obstacles. He cut through the snow, maneuvered between giant boulders, crested hills, and jumped across deep canyons, his steel hooves sending sparks flying from the weathered stone. The dark destrier was swift like a shadow, moving with innate grace and incredible speed.

The only sound that could be heard throughout the Antarctic Center was the one provoked by Nightmare. Both Sunny and Arthur were traveling in complete silence. There was nothing they could talk about anyway.

Words at such heights lacked value. Promises and commitments formed with them were invalid.

Fortunately, the journey wasn’t very long, and in about half an hour, they were already arriving. The main reason it took them so long was that Sunny, upon escaping the Winter Beast, had headed in the opposite direction from the siege capital.

Nightmare slowed its pace upon reaching the enormous crater created by the death of the Corrupted Titan Mournwing. Soon they left it behind and entered through the section of the wall that was completely destroyed.

A gray mist had taken over the city, making visibility almost nil.

Arthur took in the views with an empty expression. His heart weighing more than normal in his chest.

Multiple destroyed buildings could be found around him, some collapsing on themselves due to the tremors. Others completely destroyed by enormous stones from nearby volcanoes that flew in the wrong direction.

Volcanic stone, crystal, and obsidian in some places while normal stone in others—but over each one was a layer of ice that froze absolutely everything.

In the area where they were, there were no citizens due to the proximity to the destroyed wall. But if they went deeper into its heart, and mainly toward the port…

…Millions of frozen corpses were going to be found.

Neither of them had the desire to see the evidence of their failure, so they preferred not to head in that direction. Additionally, Arthur limited the range of his Aether Sense to avoid sensing them.

‘Art…’ Sylvie’s voice sounded slightly distant, empty.

Arthur’s eyes widened, and his heart became slightly lighter.

‘…Sylvie.’

The next time her voice sounded in his mind, he could discern that there was a smile on Sylvie’s face.

‘I’m glad you’re alive…’

Arthur didn’t hesitate to smile slightly, though the smile was slightly bitter…

‘And I’m glad you’re okay…’ He paused and was about to add something, but Sylvie intercepted him.

‘Art, listen to me… I found Jet and your father already. Both are fine.’

There he finally managed to swallow the knot that had formed in his throat. His shoulders weighed less.

Sylvie hadn’t finished.

‘I found your father first. He’s resting in the main plaza.’ A pause. ‘Right now, I’m on my way there with Jet.’

‘Okay, we’ll head there right away. I’m with Sunny—he’s in good condition.’

Sylvie’s voice then sounded lighter, with a tone of joy in it.

‘Then we can all meet up soon… I’ll be there in a few minutes.’

He accepted mentally and notified Sunny of the matter. After doing so, he responded.

“Good—to the plaza, then.”

Commanding Nightmare to change direction, they headed to the main plaza. Fortunately for them, it was close to their location and far from the frozen figures of the civilians and the few soldiers who had stayed behind to cover them.

In a matter of minutes, they were already arriving, but before doing so, both met up with the pair of Sylvie and Jet.

The former was carrying the latter on her back while running through the collapsed streets.

It didn’t take Arthur long to realize that Jet was almost out of essence. Fortunately, now she could regenerate it… at a lower rate than a normal Awakened, but she could.

Upon seeing each other, the four let out deep breaths, and a change occurred.

On Nightmare now traveled Sunny with Jet, while Arthur and Sylvie continued alongside them but on foot.

Before setting off again, the latter two wrapped themselves in a strong hug.

“How are you physically?” Sylvie murmured the question in a low voice.

He tilted one corner of his lips slightly.

“Everything hurts, but I think in a few hours I’ll be fine. And you?”

Sylvie giggled slightly.

“Same as you, though my essence reserve is also at about half.”

Arthur chuckled.

“Well, better than me then. More or less a third remaining.”

“Let’s start moving,” Sunny suggested from atop Nightmare.

Both nodded, and their journey to the main plaza continued.

They were less than five minutes away, so it was simple for the group of Masters to get there. Arthur’s main reason for letting Jet get on Nightmare was that she was in bad shape, but at the same time, he wanted to get used to the pain in his body in case they had to fight some creature.

With the Winter Beast’s absence, multiple Nightmare Creatures would begin invading the area to claim it, and at the same time, multiple Gates could open in a matter of seconds.

The mist was still very thick in the area, making visibility very poor. But having spent three weeks defending the city, the four knew the path by heart.

The first thing they saw was that all the buildings surrounding the plaza were completely destroyed, bringing a strong loneliness to the few structures that survived.

The plaza at one time was quite beautiful, but Arthur didn’t focus on its before and after. Instead, his golden eyes centered on searching for his father’s figure.

Running in that direction, he didn’t fail to find him trying to stand up to receive them.

‘Father…’

A smile found its place on his face.

His father had multiple parts of his armor completely destroyed, though his physique was in good condition. This was because Sylvie must have healed him before going to look for Jet.

At that moment, he extended his Aether Sense to cover all the blocks near them, and fortunately, he did.

At that moment, he sensed the movement of a figure. The speed of movement was such that Arthur had trouble effectively identifying the direction. Still, it wasn’t that hard to do—it was heading directly toward them…

Arthur wanted to scream at that moment to alert everyone, but the figure changed direction ninety degrees, and now he managed to identify where it was heading…

…It was going straight toward his father.

Cold sweat tried to manifest on his face but never got to do so when Arthur used Godstep to appear immediately between the figure and his father.

Yet… in front of him, there was nothing.

A muffled sound was heard next, followed by the dry sound of something impacting the ground.

Arthur turned around, but what he found was not his father’s figure looking at him… In fact, his father didn’t appear in his range of vision.

In it, there were only destroyed buildings and, a little in the distance, the figures of Sunny, Sylvie, and Jet completely paralyzed. Still, Arthur with his Aether Sense could perceive a figure standing mere meters from him.

Arthur lowered his gaze, and at that moment—

—His world collapsed.

Hey! Another chapter here, and honestly, this one was a real pain to write. I had a massive writing block and eventually had to force myself to get it done, so I don’t think the quality is that great, but oh well.

First of all, I’m sorry, Reynolds… I really didn’t want to do it, but it’s necessary for what’s going to happen later.

I honestly don’t have much else to say. I’ll repeat that the quality isn’t the best, but this chapter was far from easy to write, even if it might seem simple enough on the surface.

See you in the next one, which should be coming out soon!