Shadow Slave: Monochrome

The corridor here was much like the one 100 metres above. It was made from black marble, littered in gold. However these corridors had torches lining the side, with white flames burning diligently, keeping the dark away.

Nero noted that it was the same fire that burned just outside the room of dark waters. This fire certainly wasn't ordinary.

Walking down that hallway was a daunting task, as to his left, he felt an innumerable number of corpses, and to his right, he felt the colony of knights that were currently resting. 

He wondered if Rodenaus was amongst them, but he quickly shook his head.

'I need to be quick...'

He silently tiptoed through the hall, being careful to not get caught. His [Yin] didn't sense anyone else, but that wasn't an excuse to be an idiot.

Walking through that place felt like hell. There were several doors that led to a various rooms, so Nero stopped to check a few of them. He had no way of going down, and he hoped at least one of them would lead to a staircase.

But of course, his dumb luck made sure they were all empty.

"Ha..."

And then very quickly, he abandoned his discrete rule, as he started to pick up the pace by lightly jogging.

His footsteps barely made a sound against the cold marble floor. Shadows stretched along the walls, twisting with every flicker of the dim torches. The air was thick, heavy with a silence that pressed against his ears, making each breath feel too loud.

Then, just up ahead, the hallway ended abruptly. Instead of a door or a wall, a set of spiraling stairs descended into the darkness—deep, endless. Nero leaned forward, peering down, but there was no bottom, no end in sight. The steps seemed to dissolve into the abyss, swallowed by something far darker than mere shadows. A strange, hollow sound echoed from below, as if the void itself was breathing.

A chill crawled up his spine. His fingers clenched into fists at his sides. He knew, somehow, that whatever lay at the bottom—if a bottom even existed—was just what he was looking for.

'Jackpot.'

Step by step, Nero descended into the abyss, his shoulders slumped with exhaustion. The stairs stretched endlessly below him, vanishing into the same thick darkness that swallowed everything above. He had long lost count of how many steps he'd taken, his legs aching with every slow, dragging movement. The air grew colder, heavier, pressing against his skin like an unseen weight.

He activated [Bond], only to see that he had gone down a few metres. A frustrated sigh escaped his lips, and the eerie quiet allowed it to echo into the void.

'Why the hell is it so deep?? How much longer?'

There was no change in the scenery—just the same monotonous marble steps, the same eerie silence. His feet ached, his knees burned, and his mind buzzed with the maddening thought that maybe he wasn't getting anywhere at all.

He sat down for a moment, rubbing his face with trembling hands. No doors. No turns. No end.

Just stairs.

He exhaled sharply and forced himself back up. There was nothing else to do but keep going, even as misery settled deep in his bones.

And before he knew it, he was at the bottom.

**

Epsilon waited in the dark, with steady anticipation in his heart. A black hollow string was in his chest, and it protruded out of him as it flew off into the darkness, connecting him to his brother.

He was just a few hundred more metres.

Epsilon himself had been in a strange place. His prison was etched into a large pillar made from white marble, that was perfectly smooth like glass.

Although this place was his prison, there was no door stopping him from leaving, nor were there any guards here to throw him back inside if he tried. He could've left this place anytime he liked, and he would periodically exercise to stay in shape.

The only times any knights would come to him, was to remind him of his duties, and give him food to keep him alive.

Sometimes he would ascend this place, but not get very far before forcing himself to turn back around. For he knew, that he was the only thing stopping a monstrous creature from massacring them all.

On the first day he came here, he felt his [Judgment] screaming at him to not venture off too far from this cell. He didn't know why, but he listened to it diligently while keeping track of his brother. It was only later that he learned of the horror just his presence was holding back. Whether it was because of the vessel he was in, or some other latent power he had yet to access.

But it all didn't matter anyway. His brother would come for him, he was sure of it.

And so he did.

**

Stepping through the darkness, Nero entered a stupidly large circular room. The whole floor was made from cold stone, with numerous strange circles and symbols engraved on the ground. It looked like some kind of language, and yet the Nightmare spell refused to translate it.

But what interested Nero the most, was the massive white pillar in the centre. He quickly activated [Bond] just to be sure, and his eyes lit once it connected to something at the end.

He ran, he was exhausted, his limbs were tired, he thought he would fall asleep, but he ran anyway.

He approached the white pillar with urgency, as he felt his string begin to move too.

There was a small cavity in the white pillar, and a human figure began to run out of it as well.

It was young boy, who seemed no older than the vessel Nero was in. He had pale white hair, and his eyes were covered by his obscenely long hair, yet Nero recognised him anyway.

It had only been 4 days, yet he felt as if it had been 30 years since the two had last met.

Nero opened his arms, and immediately embraced his brother in a tight hug while holding back some tears.

"Finally... we can get out of here now... "

Epsilon did not respond. His quietness bothered Nero a little but he immediately disregarded it. And then with a look of gloom on his face, Epsilon muttered,

"I can't go with you."

Nero nodded. He had already been reminded of that quite a bit, but he's had a long time to think about what to do too.

His lips curled into a smirk.

"I know. I have a plan."