Shadow Slave: The Holy Emperor

"Nephis here" Keter leaned over and grabbed her hand, transferring [Robes of The Lost] to her. "I want it back after you get a set of armor tho."

Sparks of light immediately surround Nephis as she summons [Robes of The Lost]. She then looks over the runes, letting Keter catch a glimpse of surprise cross her face. "where did you find an ascended memory?"

"I got it in my first nightmare." Nephis eyed him with well-hidden suspicion, not knowing Keter could see right through her facade.

At that point, Cassie suddenly sat up straight. Her eyes were wide open, and her face was a little pale. She looked nervous and excited.

Nephis frowned.

"Cassie? What's the matter?"

The blind girl turned to them and smiled.

"A… a vision! I had a vision!"

"What was it?" Keter pondered 'I wonder if it will be different than the original, and is Nephis still doomed to the dream world.'

Meanwhile, Changing Star stretched her hand, as though prepared to summon her sword.

"Are we in danger?"

Cassie energetically shook her head.

"No, it's not that! People… I saw a castle full of people!"

She smiled and pointed with her finger.

"I don't know how far it is, but I'm sure that it's in that direction!" Cassie pointed west.

"That's pretty good actually, I have a chunk of the west already mapped out." Keter pointed out.

Nephis, who was quietly listening to them, gave him an indecipherable look and finally spoke:

"Tell us more about the castle."

A shadow of the previous excitement returned to Cassie's eyes. With a serious nod, she began describing her vision.

"I dreamt of a vast, ruined city built of weathered stone. It was surrounded by tall, impregnable walls. Various monsters were wandering its narrow streets. In the center of the city, the was a hill, and on that hill stood a magnificent castle."

She smiled.

"But there were no monsters in the castle! Instead, it was full of people. I think… no, I'm sure that they were Awakened. Some were guarding the walls, some were going about their lives without a care in the world. There was food, safety, and laughter!"

"And I saw both of you leading me into the castle! That means we will make it!"

"A castle, sounds like a comfy place to rest in this hellscape" Keter mentally snorts as he says this. Keter stands up and gets ready to set off. "You ready Nephis?"

Nephis nods summoning the rope and making a singular loop, tying it on one of the rocks she then descends the rope like a firefighter summoning [Carapace Scavenger] when she hit the floor.

Keter quickly descended himself after grabbing Cassie. Putting her on [Carapace Scavenger] they got ready to leave as a map appeared in front of him

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[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

[You have Slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.]

[Your Light Grows Stronger]

"How did you guys kill 26 Scavengers?!" Cassie was genuinely confused.

"I don't know what you were expecting with number one and two on the same team with someone who can read attributes of creatures." Keter then hands Cassie six shards and gives the other twenty to Nephis.

"Are you making fun of me?" Cassie frowns suddenly far less upbeat. Keter could tell Nephis was giving him some kind of look too.

"No, I'm not. Knowing the exact attributes of the Scavengers is damn helpful." Keter then looked to Nephis. "I need to hunt soon so what do you want to teach me?"

"Hunt? The sun is almost down." Nephis pointed out.

"I've been hunting in the dark sea." Nephis looked at him in shock her social awkwardness not being enough to hide it as Cassie's head wiped to look at him.

Nephis sit there a little dumbstruck then recovers shortly. 

"We will start with some words. That will be enough for today."

After hesitating a little, she added

"Cassie, you listen too." Both Cassie and Keter listened closely.

Nephis thought for a while and then said

"Mastery of combat can be divided into two aspects. One is body, and the other one is mind. Training the body is not easy, but it is rather simple. All you need is repetition and experience. In a fight, things happen too fast to consider every detail in the moment. That's why your technique must exist in your muscles and bones, so much so that it almost becomes an instinct."

She paused.

"You can achieve initial results through repetition. Then, it must be cemented through experience. The more battle experience you have, the deeper a technique will be assimilated into your body. There is no other way. A thousand hours of training won't be as impactful as one real fight. Only those who survive countless battles can be truly in command of the body."

Keter just nods along already knowing all of this as Cassie tried her best to understand.

"Training the mind, however, is not simple at all. That is because, once you reach a certain level of skill, the mind is where the true combat takes place. The outcome is often decided before your body begins to move. And to master the mind, the first step is to understand the essence of combat. However, very few people truly do."

She looked at them and asked

"What do you think that essence is?"

Keter waited allowing Cassie to figure out her answer before he spoke. After a minute or so, Cassie finally answered "Victory."

"Violence" Keter then explained his thought. "Be it pain, murder, torture, or mutilation it's all violence."

Nephis looks at him for a moment and ponders his words. "The essence of combat is murder." Cassie flinched badly as she heard that.

"At the core of it, there is only this: you are trying to kill your opponent, and they are trying to kill you. In the end, one of you will be killed, and the other one will be the killer. Everything else is just noise."

"Style doesn't matter. Weapons don't matter. Reason and intent do not matter. The only thing that matters is to be the last one standing. In this way, anything you do in combat must be viewed as only serving one of two purposes: either to kill your enemy or to prevent the enemy from killing you."

Nephis lowered her eyes.

"If you can understand that, you will have enough clarity to master the mind."

After that Cassie went to sleep with a disturbed look and Nephis took watch and Keter Jumped into the dark sea.

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[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

[You have slain Awakened Monster, Depth Dwealer]

[Your Light grows stronger]

Keter came out of the water as a piercing scream tore through the morning sky. Quickly catching Cassie, he dismissed part of his armor so as not to harm her.

"I got you." Keter pulled them up off the ledge and set her down.

Nephis was listening to the sea for the same reason. After a few seconds, Nephis asked.

"Do you see anything?"

"No, and she's not hurt either." Keter looked over her to make sure she was not injured. "What did you see?"

Magically, that did seem to calm the blind girl down a little. At least enough for her to speak in a quivering voice. Cassie extended one hand and pointed down.

"Th—the head… I saw… oh gods!"

"Keter frowned then looked at Nephis. "Let's give the girl her space." Nephis nodded and led Keter over to the edge of the platform.

"Can you fight?" Nephis asked regarding his hunt.

"Yeah, why?"

"Your swordsmanship is completely one-handed while you use your other hand for blocking or movement. Its razer like your style resembles Death by a Thousand cuts but only partially. Your footwork is swift and incredibly balanced, but you trick your opponents into thinking it's not very stable as you only allow 30%-40% of your foot to touch the ground at any given time. But your one major flaw is that your style is rigid while you use your aspect to make up for it, you shouldn't need to do so." Nephis got into her combat position. "Come at me."

"Got it, princess." Keter rushed at her with {Azure Blade] in hand while keeping in mind what she told him.

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After a while, Cassie was ready to talk so she called them over.

Cassia didn't look too well. Her face was still very pale, with a distant, dazed expression on it. Her body at least was no longer trembling.

"What did you see?" Keter asked as Cassie handed him the [Endless Spring].

Cassie hesitated for a bit before saying

"I… don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."

"I don't really remember. It's all in fragments." Keter handed the bottle to Nephis and then said.

"Nobody can dream in the dream realm so it had to have been a vision." Keter suddenly felt Nephis shot him a glare. 'What did I do wrong?"

Cassia sighed and tentatively nodded. After a long pause, she finally found the courage to speak

"At first, I saw a… a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning in the darkness. I felt like if I directly saw it, I would lose my mind. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another, until only one remained. And then that seal broke, too."

She trembled a little.

"After that… I don't know. It was as though my mind shattered into a thousand shards, each shard reflecting its own image. Most of them were dark and scary. Some I have already forgotten. The other…"

Cassie fell silent, remembering.

"I saw the human castle again. Only this time, it was at night. There was a lonely star burning in the black skies, and under its light, the castle was suddenly consumed by fire, with rivers of blood flowing down its halls. A bleeding light atop a towering golden wall; a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monsters; an archer trying to pierce the falling sky with his arrows."

Finally, she looked up, her face full of horror.

"In the end, I saw a colossal, terrifying crimson spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the top, was the sun devouring the bleeding light. All I could feel was horror as the sun ate the bleeding light, it was like I just saw something I thought invincible die."

"And then as the horror consumed me, everything shattered."

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2046 words, this is the biggest chapter yet. Also I know he doesn't have anything like [Fated] but I'm not coming up with more memories right now so I'm just going to give him something better later.