Shadow Slave: Arcadius of the Forgotten

A tentacle suddenly gripped Cade, rising out of the depths of the Dark Sea. It coiled around Cade's ankle with terrifying speed, the texture rough yet cold, like the surface of an ancient piece of flesh dragged from inside the maw of a grotesque beast.

Cade gasped, kicking wildly, but it was no use. The tentacle pulled, its strength immense, dragging him downward. The water around him churned as the tentacle slithered up his body, wrapping around his legs, his waist, his chest and finally, his neck. He could feel his armor creak, crack and splinter under the crushing force. 

"No— goddamn it!" Cade shouted, thrashing with everything he had, but the abomination didn't relent. His head dipped below the surface, and the icy water rushed into his ears, muting the world into a hollow, distorted roar. The darkness around him seemed alive, pulsating, as if the Sea itself reveled in his despair. 

There, in that moment, he felt it— he truly felt it.

Fear. Real fear. The fear of death.

It felt like the weight of something vast and unknown pressing down on him— a suffocating emptiness that swallowed his thoughts and left only a hollow ache.

The fear was primal, impossible to put into words, stripping him down to the bare awareness of how small, how fragile, how insignificant he truly was. It was the kind of dread that came from standing at the edge of something infinite, staring into the abyss, and realizing that it didn't care if he even existed or not.

Just silence. Just the end. 

Arcadius had always known that he was playing a dangerous game. This world was the very embodiment of peril, after all. But somewhere along the way, he'd let himself slip into a false sense of security. Maybe it had been when he'd miraculously survived a direct confrontation with an Awakened Demon as a mere Aspirant in his First Nightmare.

Had he really believed that such miracles would keep on happening?

He'd only ever focused on the characters from the novel who'd survived and grown stronger. He'd never once stopped to think about the ones who hadn't made it.

What of the two nameless Sleepers that had been sent to the Forgotten Shore alongside the trio and Caster? What of Stephen of the Pandavar Clan? They hadn't even had the chance to become proper Awakened, let alone something beyond that.

What made Cade so sure that he wouldn't end up like them? What if he, too, was just another nameless Sleeper destined to fade into obscurity?

Was this where his life would end? After crossing worlds, after everything he'd been through— would he die alone? At the mercy of some monstrosity he hadn't even known existed a few months ago?

Was this really it?

However, as these grim thoughts went through Cade's head, the tentacle holding him suddenly trembled. The motion was slight at first, a ripple of unease coursing through its grip. Then, it shuddered violently, as though struck by some invisible force.

Cade froze inside the water, his body locked in a grim tableau with the writhing appendage. The tentacle wasn't merely moving— it was recoiling. 

It tried to pull away, its coils loosening ever so slightly, and Cade felt it slipping away— not the tentacle— no, the fear. The fear he had felt mere moments ago, the fear that had almost overwhelmed his sanity— it was receding.

This was not surprising in the least. No, what surprised Cade was that somehow... somehow, the ancient horror, which had wrapped its appendage around him, seemed to catch it— the fear. His fear. 

The fear radiated from Cade. He didn't know how or why, but his fear— the same fear that'd almost devoured him just moments ago, seemed to bleed into the depth dweller gripping him.

Cade felt his own terror ebb away, replaced by a still, unnatural calm. He struggled a little and finally, his head broke the surface of the water. He breathed heavily, as the tentacle writhed, quivering with the weight of a fear Cade no longer carried. 

No better time to use it, I guess, Cade thought. At the same time, he reached inward and activated his Aspect Ability. He didn't know what was going to happen but he felt like he would need to put all his cards on the table if he wished to survive this ordeal. 

Without fully understanding what he was doing, Cade breathed deeply and let it out. A dense, dark mist, black as the void itself poured from his lips; thicker than smoke, heavier than the air.

It was darkness— or rather, True Darkness.

It curled around him, spreading in tendrils that spiraled outward with a life of their own. The Darkness swallowed the sea around him, a black abyss within an abyss, enveloping him and the tentacle of the monstrosity that held him. 

He felt it immediately. The Darkness was more than just something that devoured light— it was power.

Within its confines, the world became something different— something smaller. Cade could feel every ripple in the water, every movement, every pulse of life trapped inside his dark shroud.

The Dark Sea, once unknowable, was laid bare before him. 

It was like stepping into the mind of a God. The Darkness didn't just surround him; it was an extension of him. He could command it with a thought, guide it to expand or contract, to twist and flow. And in its embrace, he was untouchable. He wasn't merely a man anymore.

Within this realm of True Darkness, he was... everything. 

The tentacle jerked again, its fear seemingly magnified. Cade could feel its desperation, an almost animalistic desire to escape the Darkness's oppressive grasp. It loosened completely, retreating with wild, thrashing motions. The leviathan's tentacle fled in utter silence, vanishing into the abyss below. 

Did I really just scare away a Corrupted abomination? Cade thought in disbelief, lingering in the water for a moment, his heart pounding. He didn't know whether it was relief or exhilaration that filled his chest, but the Darkness seemed to amplify it, feeding on his emotions.

However, his emotions suddenly began to blur, smothered under the weight of it— the rage.

It came without warning, sudden and all-consuming, a wildfire erupting in the pits of his soul. It clawed at his thoughts, shredding his calm into ribbons. The molten anger surged, bubbling up from the depths of his mind, twisting his reason into something raw and primal.

The creature— the thing that had dared grab him, that had dared threaten his sanity— flashed in his mind. Its audacity, its monstrous presence, burned like a brand.

The desire to turn, to chase it into the abyss, to tear it apart piece by piece, bit by bit, limb by limb, roared through him. It wasn't merely a thought; it was a need, a compulsion that set his very blood on fire.

This was obviously Arcadius's Flaw [Ragebound] taking effect because he'd called upon his powers.

It had him now, its hooks buried deep. The anger wasn't just consuming him—it was him. His vision sharpened, the world narrowing to a single, searing focus. He turned, his movements sharp and feral, scanning the black water for the monstrosity.

He began to move in the direction in which the tentacle had retreated, his body cutting through the darkness with frenzied purpose. His eyes darted wildly, searching for the Corrupted leviathan, for the tentacle that had dared touch him.

That thing— that abomination— deserved to die. It deserved to die slowly. And brutally. He could almost feel its flesh tearing under his hands, hear its screams echoing in the void.

But then, as he was swimming through the blackness... faintly, like a whisper beneath a storm, reason tried to fight its way back. The leviathan was gone, vanished into the depths of the Dark Sea. He couldn't follow it. Not now. Not like this.

The realization was like a jagged pill being forced down his throat. He shook, his body trembling with adrenaline and unspent fury. His teeth ground together, the sound loud in the suffocating silence.

Reluctantly, painfully, he forced his body to turn around and push forward in the opposite direction.

The Darkness clung to him like a shroud. He didn't deactivate his Ability. No, despite the rage, this cover of Darkness made him feel safe. It made him feel aware of his surroundings. He wasn't blind in the black embrace of the Dark Sea anymore.

His breaths came in ragged, furious bursts. Each one fanned the flames, the rage still simmering, still demanding release. But for now, he held on— albeit barely.

He swam until his arms burned, until his lungs felt like they might collapse, until his mind was on the verge of being consumed by the almost uncontrollable fury, until finally— finally, he saw it. Or rather sensed it within his bubble of True Darkness.

A small platform of coral rising from the water. 

The Darkness receded as he climbed onto the platform, dissipating by entering his body through his eyes, his ears, his nose and his mouth. As the Darkness disappeared, Cade felt the grip of rage weaken. Cade collapsed onto the cold, uneven surface, his chest heaving, his body trembling. 

He couldn't even be bothered to look around. For all he knew, this could be the platform where Nephis and Cassie had spent their first couple of nights in the Dream Realm.

But he was tired... too tired to even consider his plans or to look around for danger. He had neither the strength nor the mind for it. So, moving to one side, he coughed and then, fell into a deep slumber. 

***

Cade's eyes fluttered open to the sharp sting of the sun against his skin. His body ached— every muscle sore from the tension of the night before. He shifted his weight against the jagged red coral, the rough surface scraping his armor as he pushed himself upright. For a moment, everything felt distant, as though the weight of the world had faded into the horizon. 

His mind was still clouded by the remnants of the Darkness, the rage and the power that had pulsed through him. "Ugh..." he groaned, straightening and rubbing his eyes slightly. 

He glanced around and momentarily froze. The water— the oppressive, crushing Dark Sea— was gone.

Well, of course it's gone, idiot, he thought to himself, embarrassed by his own surprise. It's daytime. 

He was high up right now, sitting on the upper branches of a colossal crimson coral pillar; its jagged, irregular shape twisting upward like some ancient, alien structure reaching towards the sky. His gaze drifted downward, and that was when he saw it. 

The Crimson Labyrinth. In all its glory. 

The water had receded far enough that the great expanse of the crimson coral jungle below him was exposed in all its eerie majesty.

The entire landscape had transformed overnight, the blackness of the Dark Sea giving way to an unearthly forest of twisted, jagged pillars of coral, rising up from the retreating abyss like the spires of some ancient temple or forgotten city. 

The coral trees seemed to grow chaotically, their massive forms stretching toward the heavens, intertwining and merging in unnatural ways. They were unlike anything he had ever seen— monstrous and delicate at once, but desolate and haunting in their irregularity. 

The labyrinth stretched out far into the distance, disappearing into the horizon, and even in the daylight, the sight left him breathless. It was a labyrinth in every sense of the word, broken by sudden cliffs, chasms that gaped open like the maw of a beast, and natural features that seemed to appear and vanish with each shift of his gaze. 

Cade had read about this place before; several times, in fact. He had seen the fan-arts. But seeing the real deal, he felt something stir inside him.

Wonder.

It was strange, this feeling— he wasn't sure whether it was the surreal beauty of the labyrinth or the lingering sense of power and rage he had felt last night. Perhaps it was both. 

There was something about the sight of the Crimson Labyrinth— something otherworldly— that anchored him; that pulled him to the heart of this strange new land. 

He stood slowly, his legs wobbling slightly, the ache in his muscles a sharp reminder of his struggle. He took a deep breath, steadying himself.

The labyrinth had always been here, somewhere, waiting for the water to retreat. He had expected it, yes, but standing here now, seeing it laid out before him in its full, terrifying grandeur...

It was nothing short of mesmerizing. 

He shook off his shock and wonder, clapping his hands together with his face caught in between. Alright, time to get to work...