Shadow Slave

Rain had been left to her own devices.

The King of Nothing — that was who the tall man with peculiar mirror-like eyes had turned out to be — escorted her to the lower floors of the Ebony Tower. The floor beneath the Archway Hall was apparently deadly for most humans, so she had to be guided down with a blindfold obscuring her vision.

Rain thought that it was just an excuse to hide something from her, but when she felt her skin crawl and an eerie sensation penetrate her heart as they walked down the stairs, she realized that the King of Nothing had told the truth on this particular occasion.

He seemed trustworthy, in general… charming, even. The man was nothing if not pleasant and treated her with graceful manners — even if his sense of humor was a bit off-putting at times. Needless to say, he did not resemble the bloodthirsty psychopath the rumors painted him to be one bit.

That only made Rain more wary of him.

‘I wasn’t sure at first, but now my gut tells me that if anything, the rumors about him were too mild.’

That was because he seemed too normal. Rain loved her brother and was very fond of Lady Nephis, but even she had to admit that all Supremes seemed to have a screw loose. The fact that the King of Nothing was so adept at pretending to be sane only went to show that he was, without a doubt, the most deranged of them all.

Still, he had not shown any immediate hostility toward them. Cassie also seemed well-acquainted with the man… well, of course she was, Even if Rain wasn’t privy to many secrets, she knew that they had conquered both the Second and the Third Nightmare together. So, there seemed to be some history between the two that she wasn’t aware of.

It was just a shame that Cassie was still unconscious. Rain was reluctant to leave the blind woman alone with the King of Nothing, but there was nothing she could do about it. After all, it was not like she could do anything to stop a Supreme — even if she stayed on the uppermost floor, she would not be able to accomplish much.

So, Rain went about settling the Hollow remnant of Smile of Heaven in first. Luckily, the Ebony Tower seemed well-stocked and fitted for humans to live comfortably. After finding a spare room for the expressionless woman and making sure that she was comfortable, Rain returned to the main hall — which mirrored the Gateway Hall of the Ivory Tower — and finally found herself being able to take a deep breath and think.

Sinking into a chair, Rain stared at the tall ceiling in a daze.

“Damnation…”

She was struggling to digest everything that had happened. Waking up Ascended, escaping the Ivory Tower, and becoming a house guest of a Supreme serial killer… it was a lot to process,

Someone had a lot of explaining to do, but the only person who could explain everything to Rain was currently unconscious.

She remained in the chair for a while. Then, she summoned the Green Canteen and drank some water. That reminded her that she was covered in sweat, soot, and quite a fair bit of blood…

A shower would be nice, or better yet, a trip to the bathhouse.

Sadly, Rain was not comfortable doing any of those things yet. The King of Nothing seemed to have left her alone, but he was undoubtedly watching her every move. So, she preferred not to do anything compromising without discussing boundaries with the creepy Sovereign first, just in case.

Letting out a sigh, she summoned the Bag of Withholding, pulled out some snacks, and enjoyed them in silence.

Then, Rain stood up and walked around the ground floor of the Ebony Tower, exploring its interior.

She sat on the floor and meditated while guiding the flow of her essence. It was truly astonishing — the lever of control over it she could exert as an Ascended was ten times more refined and precise than what she had been capable of as an Awakened, even with the help of the Mark of Shadows.

She was going to have to relearn how to move her body from scratch.

‘That will be a lot of work.’

Rain jumped to her feet and performed a set of simple exercises. She sprinted a short distance, jumped, crouched, lifted a few lumbering pieces of furniture, held her breath, summoned her bow, drew its string a few times…

“..Wow.”

Rain was shocked, Her physical prowess had increased by orders of magnitude, so much so that she was having trouble controlling her immense strength. She felt fiercely strong, disgustingly mighty, astoundingly powerful. Like she wasn’t even a human anymore…

And that was without even learning how to properly enhance her Ascended body with essence, which was the main reason why Masters were so insurmountably stronger than Awakened.

“Wow.”

Rain shook her head.

And then there was her Ascended Ability… which Rain still had no idea about. She could explore her Aspect slowly and learn what she had become capable of over time, or ask Cassie, who was like a surrogate version of the Nightmare Spell in that sense. But Cassie was unconscious, which meant that all Rain could do was continue dying of curiosity.

Instead of actually dying, she went about exploring the Ebony Tower.

The first floor was taken by the great hall, the living quarters, and by various facilities. The second floor was drowning in heat — there was an enormous brazier there, full of brilliant divine flame. The third floor…

Rain was stuck for a while on the third floor.

That was where the workshop of Nether, the Demon of Destiny, had been. Nothing of importance remained there, of course, but simply being close to the tools that a deity had once used and the scraps of his discarded projects was an incredible experience for Rain.

Information about the daemons was scarce, but considering who her brother was, she knew more than most. The Prince of the Underworld was somewhat of a personal idol for Rain, He had been the divine builder, after all — the architect and engineer who had created the Stone Saints, crafted incredible artifacts, and built an entire civilization in the Underworld.

‘Actually, this entire tower is a monument he had left behind.’

So was the Ivory Tower, in fact — a monument left behind by a deity. So was the great Castle, the Jade Palace, the Night Garden…

The gods were dead, and the people who had worshipped them were long gone. But the things they had built remained, having endured the world-ending calamity. Rain found the fact that they still stood, sheltering humans, deeply reassuring…

Beautiful, really.

Promising herself to spend more time in Nether’s workshop later, she ascended the stairs with a feeling of wonder in her heart.

There, she found the shrine of Storm God.

The statue of the elusive Goddess of the Black Skies was drowning in darkness, so lifelike as to almost look alive. Her visage had been carved from stone with such skill that the fabric of the gossamer veil obscuring her face seemed to move slightly in the wind.

The graceful lines of her inhumanly stunning face could almost be seen behind the veil. Rain felt peculiarly drawn to the nebulous statue and spent a long time looking at it, mesmerized.

Eventually, she sighed and tore her gaze away from the altar of Storm God, feeling an odd sense of poignant emptiness. The higher floor was where the King of Nothing warned her to never enter without a blindfold, so Rain descended to the ground floor once again.

She was thinking about finding a place to rest when another staircase caught her attention. This one led down, disappearing underground.

After some hesitation, Rain descended the stairs and entered a large underground chamber.

There, pieces of porcelain mannequins were strewn about, staring at her with eerily beautiful faces.

They were not what drew her attention, though.

In the center of the chamber, someone had cleared out a wide space and installed a tall, towering mirror there.

A person who was not supposed to be there reflected from the surface of the mirror.

It was a reflection of the King of Nothing… at least Rain thought that it was his. The man was sitting on the reflection of the stone floor, looking down. His figure was the same, and his face was the same… however, his clothes, the length of his hair, and even his very presence were entirely different.

He looked much gentler.

‘Damn psychopath, damn…’

Rain backed up, not wanting to disturb the King of Nothing, but at that moment, the reflection raised its head and looked at her silently.

Then, he smiled.

“Oh… You must be Rain. It is nice to meet you. I am Mordret.”

He paused for a moment, and then added with a sigh:

“The other Mordret, that is…”