Shadow Slave: Riftwalker

"Snake, what do you know about this colosseum?" Aeona questioned, relaxing her body and displaying no signs of malice. While she was hesitant to question or delay a battle in front of the Saint, this was necessary for her plan.

"T-The colosseum...?" The Snake was baffled by Aeona's question, mostly because each 'gladiator' was supposed to know practically everything about the battlegrounds. He was also surprised because he had never heard the Battle Maiden speak before, and her voice was oddly tranquil, which contrasted with what he expected.

"My apologies for the question's vagueness, I meant outside the colosseum; the statues..." Her tone was polite, made that way to create an inviting nature. After all, she needed the weak man in front of her to answer her.

"I... Why?" As they were speaking, the countdown for the fight began, so they each raised their fists into a pacifist stance. However, neither had the plan of actually hitting one another. "Ah... I..." The Snake glanced down at his body, seemingly realizing he couldn't win. "There are three statues, the top three will receive next-life blessings from one of them." He took a breather and slowly ran forward, throwing a pathetic punch without killing intent.

"Blessings? Could you tell me more?" She asked as she dodged the punch and tripped him with a low sweep. "Also, what if there were another statue?"

The Snake lifted himself off the ground and backed a few meters away. The question left him pondering, or at least the latter one did. "Well, each of the three statues represent lower branches of divine blessings. The 'angelic' one is a proponent of the War God, the soldier-looking one is an even lower proponent of the War God, and the lavender-black statue is a proponent of the Shadow God...

"As for why a Shadow God statue was placed there, it was likely meant to mock whoever came in third..." He paused for a moment before pointing to himself, "...or, in other words, me." Then he commenced his explanation. "While there are far too many unknowns about the Shadow God, the followers of the War God—or at least the ones here—dislike the idea of the Shadow God." Aeona ran toward him before feigning a strike to his nose and attempting a scorpion kick.

Kicks like these were—for the most part—useless in real hand-to-hand combat, but she hoped that showboating would stall the Saint from rushing the battle.

Unbeknownst to Aeona, the Saint chuckled and glanced at his wrist. His wrist was bare, but what truly mattered was the metaphysical component. What existed there was several tethers of Fate, compact and enclosed around his arm like a bracelet. From his wrist, they extended to the woman titled: "Battle Maiden".

He himself could not see such strings, but he was aware of their existence. Shaking his head, he glared at the two battling and listened in to their conversation. Even the Battle Maiden's curiosity matched the description of what he was fated to do. This was the plan of that treacherous bastard...

...Daemon of Fate.

"So... the time has come..." He sighed before resting his arms on the railing and focusing on the fight, "It seems this girl is a bearer of the 'Spell'..." He paused, "...while I'm not sure exactly what that entails, I'm well aware of its relation to these strings."

He tapped his wrist and breathed in before releasing the air once more. This very action caused each individual watching the match to fix their posture. "If she truly chose the Glass Statue, then even this 'Spell' would be clueless about what blessing she'd receive." He smirked inwardly, "That's what you get, bastard, for laying my life out like some puppet master."

He smiled warmly, as if released from a life-long burden. Go on, girl. Change our fate. I won't stop you!

Back to the fight, the Snake continued, "As for your question about 'another statue', I'm not sure what you meant. Although, if there were to be another statue, it would likely be another representation of the War God." He pondered before cutting into his own sentence, "That is, if it visually represents the aspects of War. Could you describe this 'other statue' for me?"

Aeona was pleasantly surprised by the man's willingness to answer questions, but she knew the reason for it, and it was rather unfortunate. He was sure of his own loss, so he likely wanted to dedicate his last moments to something akin to a peaceful conversation. The Snake also perked up at the mention of another statue, so perhaps he felt a tinge of hope in not being mocked into a blessing from the Shadow God.

"The statue is reflective while also partly transparent. Its material is that of nothing while at the same time something." She paused, thinking back to the beginning of the Nightmare. "It stood like a welcoming deity but stared with eyes commanding you to leave. It was sort of like saying 'Come if you are worthy, but if you come without worthiness, you shall face me.' Does that make sense?"

The man in front of her paused the fight before squinting his eyes, "And where did you see this statue?"

"In the castle..."

"Was it in a public area?"

"No, I believe the area was only accessible by people with high clearance."

The Snake brought his hand to his chin and contemplated, "You said it gave the presence of a welcoming deity...?" He chuckled for a moment before resuming the battle, "I think you may have seen something you weren't supposed to." He curled his eyebrows a little. "I always knew they were hiding something, but something of this magnitude...?"

"Hey, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Unfortunately, the man was done conversating and charged at her.

While she yearned for more information, what she did receive confirmed that her plan had meaning. She wanted to know what that meaning was, but alas, she'd have to find out through doing rather than hearing. Her opponent was ready for death, and she felt no need to take that from him.

As the Snake approached her, she pivoted her leg and ducked a frontal attack before once again sweeping him to the floor. 

As she prepared to deliver the final strike, the man uttered a few words with a warm smile. "Just win, no need to risk your life..." Then her new signature axe-kick landed on his skull and ended his suffering—or at least, it made Aeona more comfortable to imagine it that way.

[You have slain a dormant human, name unknown]

"No need to risk my life? Thank you, but no thank you..."

She noted the lack of a Memory, but didn't mind, as the battle was fought with ease. According to her theory, her Attribute—[Fortune's Curse]—wouldn't activate without struggle

Besides that, she walked across the gravel-covered wood to her station and felt her heartbeat quicken. The next match was the finals. She'd have to either take the chance of gaining a good Aspect or ignore it and focus on winning the tournament.

As she entered her station, the gates clanked shut behind her. The Master then began his intermission speech.

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Authors Note:

As per usual, if this chapter was too fast paced or terrible to read, please let me know so I can fix it.

[1369 Words] This chapter was made as a sort of intermission before the true wrap-up of the First Nightmare, which brings me to these questions:

1: How do you think the ending of the Nightmare will Go?

2: What do you think the Saint is talking about?

Now if you have any feedback or theories about Aeona's family, her journey in the Dream Realm, or her overall role in the story, then feel free to put them here!

If you have any questions about aspects of the story or things I didn't explain enough, please feel free to ask them here!

As I promised, I will be making this story related to the main one, as most of the people reading this chose for it to be the main story.

Anyways, I hope you liked it!