Shadow Slave: Shadow of Blood

Kai's day had been amazing.

Despite having to disband Night&Gale due to his new Ascended Ability, he had found purpose in his new life as an Awakened, the Second Nightmare taught him a lot, and knew he was strong enough to protect people.

He wouldn't commit the same mistake he made on the Forgotten Shore, he would stand, just like Sunny.

Other than that, he'd been talking with Gale normally. And he was able to get a comfy place in Ravenheart!

But none of that was on his mind, he was more focused over the fact Seishan had invited him to the Jade Palace.

To say the least, he was both excited and anxious.

Excited because he would see Seishan, anxious because he could be caught by her family.

All that fear evaporated when he entered her room and the make-out session started.

It was supposed to be quick, Seishan had a family reunion later… But she just had to bite his neck…

"Ah!"

Kai retreaded as a sharp pain shot from his neck, a mark of a bite was embedded on his skin, and a bit of blood flowed out.

"Kai! I apologize, are you hurt?"

Seishan cleaned her mouth and went to treat him, although he wasn't really hurt.

"I-It's fine… But why did you…?"

She hesitated, but explained.

"My flaw, I am obsessed with blood, not only do I need to consume it, but the more there is, the more I want it…"

Kai's eyes widened a little, but eventually smiled sympathetically.

"No need to apologize then, you have no control over your flaw."

Seishan blushed.

"Moreover… I kind of like it."

Seishan blushed even more.

She lost track of time. Who could blame her? Not only was his blood sweet and tasty, his lips and tongue were majestic.

The result? Kai ended up facing his worst nightmare as he sat on a cushion of the living room, surrounded by the Song family with Seishan right beside him, hiding her face that had become as red as a rose.

Her mother, the Raven Queen, the head of the Song Clan, right in front of him, he could barely breathe, it was like he was looking at an entire army, a mountain of corpses and blood.

Her beauty was out of this world, silk skin, black-raven hair cascading, scarlet eyes, the red dress flowing like blood. The sword on her chest was almost forgotten.

Not to mention the other women beside her, Beastmaster, Lightslayer, Silent Stalker, Lonesome Howl, Death Singer, Moonveil, all beauties in their own right. All noticeable Saints of humanity.

But still, his heart was broken, because Sunny was standing with them! He was supposed to be on his side, what kind of friend is he?

Sunny was in the corner of the couch Ki Song was, holding a baby Kai had never seen before, who was holding onto Sunny tightly, together with another girl he had never seen sitting at the ground, who was eerily similar to Sunny.

He held a dead-paned expression, just looking at Kai, until he sighed and raised his left hand to the side.

"Dismiss your bow Silent."

He grabbed Silent Stalker's hand that was holding a hunting bow and brought it down, the huntress scowled at her brother and seemed to curse before dismissing the weapon, crossing her arms in displeasure.

Beastmaster chuckled.

"I have no idea how any of us are able to get in a relationship with Caera as our sister."

Moon sighed.

"No kidding… I had to ask mother to give her a mission to keep her away from Shin when we went on our first date…"

"You mean second date, right?"

"No I don't Bin!"

"HAHA, they are going to die anyway! C'mon don't be so grumpy! Anyway, hey, pretty boy, do you know a handsome strong guy that I can devote myself to? Now that Sunny is my brother I can't be obsessed with him!"

Everyone slowly turned to Death Singer, even the little baby stared at her with a strange, disgusted expression.

Ki Song seemed to finally react as she sharpened her eyes.

"Little Hel, what is that supposed to mean?"

A smile froze in her face as Death Singer snapped her head to her mother.

"Oh, please mother, if Sunny wasn't my adorable little brother, I would be falling over heels for him!"

Beastmaster rolled her eyes.

"That is disturbing Hel."

The little girl beside Sunny nodded.

"Especially for the brother in question."

The sisters looked over at Sunny, who was staring at Death Singer with horror in his hollow eyes as he reached out his hand to the side once again, lowering Stalker's bow again.

He looked at the baby in his lap, who looked back with similar horror, then they looked over at the rest of the family.

"Am… Am I really that handsome?"

After a brief silence, the hall seemed to echo in light laughter.

Lightslayer dropped the book she was holding and went to behind the couch where Sunny was sitting, leaning over him, hugging his neck.

"Sunny, you are dense, I swear. Every post on social media says how girls drool over you, that you are the prettiest male Awakened, reaching even Saints! Even Azriel is a little jealous of you."

Sunny looked over his sister with a confused frown.

"Azriel? That guy is the dream guy for every girl."

Revel smiled.

"Case and point!"

Lonesome Howl smirked a little on the other side of the couch.

"Fang is also really bothered by you!"

Beastmaster rolled her eyes.

"That man doesn't care about looks, if he did, he would shower."

But Lonesome Howl's smirk only widened.

"But he did! I made a bet with him!"

Everyone looked at her with curiosity, even Seishan raised her head, her face returning to the normal gray colour.

"I was bragging of how amazing my brother is-"

"So you admit you love Sunny–"

"Don't interrupt me, Veil! Where was I? Right! Fang doesn't like Sunny…"

"Yeah, I don't like him either."

"Right, so when he heard that you would challenge the Second Nightmare not even a year after Awakening, he kind of snapped."

Ki Song sighed.

"For one of my Saints to be this childish…"

"Hmhm, whatever, so I made a bet with him, if Sunny is able to complete the Second Nightmare before six months, I can change his looks however I want, permanently. And if I lose, I would let him beat Sunny to a pulp."

Sunny snapped his head to her in anger.

"And you didn't tell me?!"

Ki Song raised her hand to her head.

"For my children to be this childish…"

Lonesome Howl laughed.

"Don't you get it Sunny? I won! You took a little over three months!"

His anger evaporated, and suddenly, all family members looked over Howl, even Ki Song, she hummed in understanding.

"So that was Dire Fang…"

Lonesome Howl smile reached her eyes.

"Yep! I forced him to take a shower daily like a normal person, made him cut that ridiculous beard of his and put a hair dye on him, he's blond now."

Sunny smiled.

"I want to laugh at his face now."

Lightslayer as well.

"Me too! Serves him right for doubting a Song."

And so, as the subject kept bouncing from one place to another, Kai was completely forgotten.

'No one is going to talk about how she said we are going to die?!'

Kai was having a bombardment of thoughts inside his mind, one part over what Death Singer said about the boyfriends of the sisters, another over how much the chaotic Song household was in direct contrast to how they place themselves in public.

The Song Clan was always seen as calm, orderly, always hiding cards close to their chest, their presence on the battlefield meant the enemy would die before they even knew it. Their public appearances also demonstrated that elegant, serious, graceful, true royalty embodied.

But Kai was seeing none of that.

He was just witnessing a normal family.

Eventually, Sunny sighed.

"All right, can we please let Kai go before he gets a heart attac–?"

He interrupted himself, a groan going out his lips.

"Caera! Stop trying to kill my friend!"

"... F*ck."

Silent Stalker curse seemed to announce her surrender, she dismissed her bow and seemingly gave up, proceeding to sit on an armrest, crossing her arms.

Her displeasure only incresed once she heard the strict voice of her mother.

"Caera, how many times do I have to draw attention to your language? Night is present."

Silent Stalker rolled her eyes, unfortunately for her, her brother was not done with chastizing her.

"Are you ever going to stop being overprotective?"

Silent glared at her brother, and declared:

"No."

Kai supressed the will to say she was lying.

Sunny wasn't impressed, rolling his eyes.

"I can't wait for you to get a boyfriend."

"Never going to F*c… Going to happen"

Revel chuckled as she glanced at her brother.

"You are lucky I was there at your date, otherwise she would have shot Changing Star in her face."

The little girl beside Sunny shot her head to him.

"THAT WAS TRUE?! I thought it was fake news!"

Sunless groaned.

"It was! Now please let Seishan's new boyfriend go!"

The girl was about to scream again, but a subtle, but dominating chuckle echoed first, stopping in her tracks.

Ki Song smiled and looked at the charming past singer and let her beautiful and supernatural voice reach his ears.

"Kai, correct? You can go for now, but if you really intend to stay with my daughter, I will ask for some things, including you joining the Clan, or at the very least keeping a close connection to us, like Moonveil's boyfriend. For precaution sake, I'm sure little Shan explained why."

Kai straightened and nodded, he had expected this, and didn't really have a problem with joining Song, he'd rather stay independent or with the Government, but if push comes to shove, he'd rather be with Song, in fact, he was already planning on joining them.

When the news of Nephis having to join Valor came it was clear she didn't want to do it. She didn't even try to hide her anger, the way she looked at the emissary of Valor, and at Sunny once he broke the news…

After that, the cohort needed to split up, Sunny and Seishan already on Song, and Nephis going to Valor, Cassie said she didn't want to go to Song, she needed to stay with Nephis. Interestingly, the first part was a lie, the second wasn't. Effie wanted to stay independent, having no interest in picking a side, so Kai went to Song.

But for some reason, Cassie didn't seem to like Effie's indecision, insisting she should choose… The huntress ignored her.

"I have no issue of joining Song."

Seishan widened her eyes a little, but maintained her posture, an uneasy expression creeping on her face.

Sunny sharpened his eyes at his mother, hugging the baby on his lap and putting his hand on the toddler's eyes, looking at the girl with a worried glance.

The other sisters seemed to share some unasy glances, but eventually began to stare at Kai with sharpened expressions, as if judging him.

Kai began to sweat, wondering if this is what Sunless meant with his family 'testing' him.

Ki Song continued, smiling as if nothing happened.

"Very well then, then there won't be any problems… But… If I come to know that you, for whatever reason, hurt my daughter…"

The pressure around the room got higher, and Kai suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe anymore.

The stench of rotting blood filled his nostrals, his skin iched as if skeletons were clawing at him, scraching his body and piercing his soul.

Blood began flowing out of the jade walls of the Citadel as the ground began to flood with the same blood, creating a superficial lair of blood, as if he was standing on a sea of the cursed liquid.

Kai looked up to see all the Song family staring at him, with amusement, like Death Singer. With hatred, like Silent Stalker. Judgment, in case of Beastmaster and Moonveil. Worry, in Seishan's case and the little girl's. And cold, yet confidant stare, in Lightslayer and Sunny's case.

The once charming archer grasped his own heart, breathing heavily as his eyes became bloodshot. He innevitably fell of the cushion that he was sitting on.

There was no reaction from the family, only surprise coming from the little girl, that was quickly shot down by Sunny.

Ki Song got up, walking slowly to the trembeling and horrified Kai, not caring for his terrified expression.

She looked down on him as if he was a fly, her eyes looking like one of a corpse… No, he was looking at one. Now Kai understood why there was a sword embedded on her chest, he was looking at someone who was long dead.

The Sovereign of the Undead spoke, her words as flat and dead as her body.

"I care deeply about every one of my children, as such, I want them to be happy. But. I am also in a war, a war against someone who will use my love to hurt me…"

She leaned down, gracefully crouching.

"If you dare to hurt her, or betray us, I won't hesitate to kill you, understand?"

Kai could barely breathe, yet he looked up, staring at the Sovereign's dead eyes and declared his answer.

"Y-Yes. I do."

She eerily stared at him for what seemed like a eternaty…

Until a red, viscous liquid began trailing down her hand.

"Prove it then."

Kai felt a warm liquid pass through his throat…

And the next thing he knew, he was back to sitting at the cushion.

All the pressure and pain he was feeling was gone, the stench of death evaporated, and blood disappeared.

The Song siblings seemingly returned to normal, together with Ki Song, who smiled happily as if nothing had happened on the center of the couch.

"Kai?"

The charming archer snapped his head to Seishan, who now looked much less worried, back to her normal, mysterious expression.

"Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes! Of course!"

He composed himself, confused out of his mind.

'Did I just… Imagined all of that? No way right? Either way, I'm not planning on betraying Shan anyway so I should be fine… Right?"

Kai touched his own neck and felt a chill running down his spine, remembering the sick, warm blood trailing…

Ki Song chuckled, calling his attention to her.

"Thank you for being honest, if you may leave, I need to discuss something with my family."

"Of course!!"

Kai sat up and bowed respectfully, giving Seishan a weak smile, he turned around to leave, his legs shaking tremendously.

'What the hell did I put myself into? My girlfriend is a vampire, my best friend is the Heir of Death and wielder of a Divine Aspect, and their mother may or may not have forced me to drink her blood!'

Kai sighed in the middle of the hall, feeling all his energy evaporate.

"And there is also a War coming… I need a break."

—

"So… He passed right?"

Lonesome Howl asked as if she didn't know the answer.

"Is there any question? If you ask me he passed the second Shan bit his shoulder."

"Bin, don't start!"

"Please, did you see the state of the boy? You devoured him whole."

Moon snickered.

"Devoured is little, if he let her, she would have sucked him dry."

Seishan blushed intensely.

"Enough! We have more important things to do!"

Sunny sighed, hoping his mother didn't traumatize his friend.

'Well, Azriel and Shin are fine… Although they do have a screw loose…'

He looked over at Night, who didn't see the whole ordeal thanks to Sunny's hand on his eyes. Then his gaze came over Rain, who was still shivering.

"Hey, Rain, you alright?"

She jumped a little, startled.

"S-Sorry… I'm not used to it…"

"No worries, mother is scary. Especially when it comes to our safety."

"But… Its Kai, the superstar! The best boy that everyone knows! He's really nice!"

Sunny stared at Rain for some seconds.

"Do you think i'm good?"

"Of course! You–"

"I killed people Rain."

She hesitated, stopping herself.

"Rev killed, Shan killed, so did Bin, Moon, Howl, Silent, we all did. We lied and cheated, we manipulated people, do you think the people we killed knew us as 'good'?"

Rain didn't answer, soon, the whole room was silently hearing the exchange.

"Me and Shan might know Kai, but mother doesn't, she needs to make sure no one that comes close to us is either a spy, or an opportunist, or Gods' forbid, an assassin sent to kill us. We all wear masks Rain, we all hide something, and sometimes, we need to make painful decisions…"

He looked over at Ki Song.

"Although I do think you went a little overboard."

She chuckled loudly.

"You think? You should have seen it with the Vessel of Ice, different from little Shan's boyfriend, Revel found someone who reacted, brandishing his sword at me."

Sunny stared at her, then looked at Revel, who nodded with pride. Sunny looked at Ki Song again.

"And he is still alive?"

"You speak as if I kill whoever bothers me, no need to be this harsh my dear son… Do you really have such an extreme image of me?"

Sunny looked up, remembering a certain event.

"After I saw you dismember an assassin mid air in front of me when I was like, ten, yeah?"

"That doesn't count, he was trying to kill you, Azriel was only reacting to my power and dominion, he even tried to defend Revel, like a good little knight in shining armor…"

The son of the Raven Queen sighed and looked up at his elder sister.

"Guy of your dreams huh?"

Revel chuckled.

"Well, better than Shin who pooped his pants."

"HE DID NOT!"

"Somehow I believe Revel and not Moon…"

Seishan sighed.

"Alright, enough! We'll end up here the whole day… Now, for what we really need to talk about…"

Eunbin widened her eyes, almost forgetting about the whole thing.

"Right! Tell us, how was the Second Nightmare?"

Seishan and Sunny glanced at each other, then looked at their sister.

"Painful."

"Exhausting."

"Disgraceful."

"Draining."

"Ironic."

"I never wanted to kill someone so much in my entire life."

The family stared at them for a few seconds.

Ki Song chuckled.

"Well, I hope it wasn't as exciting as my Second Nightmare, I had to face Trancendents."

Sunny couldn't help it, he had to say it…

"We faced Immortal Transcendents."

Ki Song opened her mouth, and for the fist time, she seemed speachless, but she eventually smiled, ready to hear the absurd story.

— —

"You… Were a mist…?"

"Yes Rain, I became a Shadowspawn that had no form. Then spent two months just to get used to my new existence… Couldn't even breathe since I had no lungs."

"Creepy."

"At least he wasn't stuck in being chased by a few dozen soldiers for a month."

"Speaking of, did you ever figure out why the person you were incarnated in was being chased? Why exactly?"

"Apparently the mercenary backstabbed the Ivory Prince as she claimed to have something of value for him, whatever it was, she lost it."

"Huh… Weird."

—

"Noctis… So this is the man the Citadel is named after."

Ki Song trailed her finguers through her red lips, deciding whether to thank the phantom of the Spell for saving her daughter or hating him for his personality.

"I'm disappointed."

Eunbin sighed.

"How did you let yourself get surrounded anyways?"

"They had exelent trackers."

"F*cking excuses."

"Languege Caera."

"Tsk…"

Eunbin ignored Silent's complaints and focused on Seishan's story.

"Alright, so you spent a month on the Sanctuary with this Noctis calling you niece, and in the end you found Kai…"

Howl interjected.

"Then you two kissed until Sunny came."

"We didn't!"

Seishan's face was red.

—

"Then after who knows how long dreaming, I got Nightmare!"

Sunny pointed to the now Transcendent steed behind him, a terrifying darkness around it that highlighted the calm, yet deep red eyes, making even the Saints tremble a little, let alone Rain, who shifted back.

But strangely, little Night seemed to adore the tenebrous Shadow, reaching out for it.

Ki Song looked at the steed, amused.

"Bladie is still crafting an armor for it, butit is tricky since it is technically a dream entity, so normal armor won't apply the same way."

Everyone immediately stopped staring at the horse and turned around to their mother, even Night, seeing the reaction of his siblings, began to stare at his mother with serious eyes.

"Is there an issue?"

Revel nodded, answering her with uncertainty.

"Yeah… Mom, since when did you began calling Undying Blade… Well, 'Bladie'? Every time you talk about him now, is always with that nickname."

Ki Song stared at Revel for a few seconds, before hed mouth opened, letting out a… 'Oh'.

"He is just too serious, figured a little nickname would light him up."

Sunny pointed out the problem with that logic.

"Then what about Frostblade? Where's her nickname? And Lunae's?"

Ki Song looked at her son with a smile that didn't show any inherit emotion, for the first time, she didn't have an answer for a question one of her children had.

For several seconds, the room was silent, the daughters of the Raven Queen already making extrapolations about the implications of a simple nickname.

Ki Song simply smiled.

"Let's focus on other things, shall we?"

—

"How lucky you went to the prison first! If you had gone to the Temple, you would have missed our dearest Changing Star!"

Sunny nodded at Hel's statement, then completed his part.

"I destroyed the whole damn fortress, then she made sure the bastard that tortured her died slowly…"

Rain stared at her brother, her mind wandered, pondering about what her brother said to her earlier, understanding those words now.

"Good."

She turned to look at Lonesome Howl, who was smiling.

"He got what was coming for him."

The family agreed…

But the story wasn't done yet.

"I'm pretty sure he became the Fallen Terror in the Box of the Chained Isles… I still have to kill him."

Ki Song smiled.

"Then we'll leave that to you."

—

"Excuse me, Mordret is a what? You fought how many Awakened?!"

"Mordret is a Divine Aspect User, and we fought thousands of Awakened, dozens of Ascended, and a Transcendent. The other two were delt with by Noctis."

Moon stared at her brother, then looked at her mother.

"Where is Mordret right now?"

"Still missing…"

A laugh resounded on the room, Death Singer was amused.

"No issue! We have a deal with him after all!"

An uneasy feeling innevitably creeped onto Sunny's back.

Thankfully, Seishan seemed to trust her sister, as she made no metion of Nephis' Divine Aspect.

—

The information about the Demon of Desire was as interesting as it was terrifying, the prospect of all of them being in a simple chessboard of the Divine was not expected.

The Gods were dead after all, along with all the Daemons.

But if Weaver was as cunning as he was treacherous…

Sunny returned to the real world, it was the dead of night, the moon shining down at him.

Remembering the Second Nightmare also brought certain memories back, somethings he needed to do.

Activating Shadow Step, he ventured into the dark, after some minutes, he reached his destination.

A cemetery, where the dead were burried… At least their memory was, as many were left empty as no body of the deseased were ever found or had been cremated.

This specific burial ground was made for the Awakened, warriors, spies, healers, those who wished to be remembered in their homeland, not the terrible Dream Realm. This one was made for specifically the members of the Song Clan, even though there were other people buried here.

There were exceptions, some weren't Awakened.

Sunny walked through the path, passing so many graves of many people, until he reached a isolated place, one with a particular tree beside it.

It was vast, old, if there was any sunlight, it would be sheltering the two graves right next to it…

Sunny walked up, a feeling of sorrow took over him as he smiled, looking at the graves that were kept protected under the three.

"Hey mom, dad… It's been a while…"

His mouth dried as he lost his words, forgetting what he had to say, so he ended up just saying how he was.

"I became a Master, Ki Song has been treating me well… And Rain is fine too… I think…"

He sighed.

"She is safe. Seishan just gained a boyfriend, who ironically is my best friend, can you believe it?! Kai got his blood sucked and liked it…"

Sunny smiled remembering the encounter, innevitably he sat down, continuing to tell the memories of his birth parents how his current life is going.

He told about his sisters and new brother.

"Revel is still an isolated shut-in! Azriel did nothing to change her, in fact, I think he is turned on by that!"

"Bin is trying to charm Kira, how she's going to do that? No idea."

"Silent still cursing when she rarely speaks."

"Howl was able to make Fang take a shower! She's a genius."

"Moon still the same, gained some new sabers and now is going on a rampage in the Dream Realm."

"Hel is… She's still weird."

"Little Night is adorable, reminds me of Rain when she was born…"

"Ki Song… What is there to say…?"

Sunny spent hours there, talking about his life, his subordinates, family, and regrets.