Shadow Slave

Looking at the three women in front of him, Mordret pondered what to do.

One was Hollow, one was unconscious, and the last one wore the mark of the Lord of Shadows — more than that, as far as he was aware, she was somewhat of a personal protege for that terrifying man. Which meant that he could not make her a vessel without risking it all in a soul duel against another Supreme.

He could not take Cassia as a vessel either, because she was blind. As for the Hollow woman who had once been Smile of Heaven… actually, he never attempted to possess a Hollow person before. So, Mordret was not sure what would happen.

It used to be that he could only make living beings into his vessels. That had remained true for a while, and eventually, Mordret stopped trying to possess anything else. However, adversity was the mother of invention — it was only when the Lord of Shadows so unceremoniously killed the body of Saint Dar that Mordret discovered how his powers had evolved after he became Supreme.

Not wishing to lose a valuable Transcendent vessel, Mordret tried to maintain control of it even as it was bleeding out. To his surprise, he actually found a way to do that — so, he was wearing Saint Dar’s corpse all around the Black Mountains at the moment. Animating a corpse with a shard of his soul was actually not that difficult, as long as the corpse had not been dead for too long. Naturally, there was no point in doing so if the body was too damaged, but nevertheless, that new ability alone made his campaign in the Black Mountains far more sustainable. Not only were his vessels harder to destroy now, but he could also possess the fallen soldiers of the enemy.

He did not even need to fight a soul duel to take them, which was a pleasant change of pace.

So, Mordret had a reasonable suspicion that taking the body of a Hollow was within his power, as well.

It was just that he didn’t want to.

His vessels inherited their powers from the souls of the original inhabitants. It was by creating a reflection of the original soul that Mordret could make use of the vessel’s Aspect and steal its Memories… Smile of Heaven had lost her soul decades ago, though, so all he would be receiving was one more Ascended body.

And he had enough of those to risk earning Changing Star’s wrath.

“What to do, what to do?”

Mordret smiled.

His instinct was telling him to eradicate Song of the Fallen immediately, but then again, Mordret was not a beast incapable of acting against his instinct. He was quite good at keeping his natural inclinations at bay, in fact. So, even if he was wary of the blind witch, he contemplated whether she could be useful to him if kept alive.

The answer was… yes.

‘Life really is full of surprises.’

Life was nothing but unpredictable, indeed. Actually, Mordret only had a very vague idea of what life was, and how one was supposed to live it. That was because, being incapable of feeling regret, he was not prone to introspection or — ironically enough — any kind of self-reflection either.

But if he were to look back upon his life and ponder its meaning, Mordret would have to admit that he had spent most of his unmoored and adrift, searching for a sense of belonging that he was not destined to find.

The memories of his early childhood were vague at best. He barely remembered his mother, and his father… even as a small child, Mordret had known that his father did not like him much.

He had been a quiet and withdrawn kid, failing to speak his first words until he turned four — at that time, he wanted to impress King Anvil and earn his affection, but before he could even try, the king handed him off to the Dreamspawn.

That probably caused little Mordret a whole lot of anguish, even if the current Mordret was incapable of relating to those feelings. Asterion, meanwhile… was dangerous. Mordret remembered being scared of the odd man and his friendly smiles, knowing that his warm golden eyes hid the cold callousness of a ruthless predator.

But Asterion was too strong, too confident, and too charming. So, it was no surprise that the forsaken little prince of the Great Clan Valor, who desperately needed to find a sense of security, eventually latched onto him as he would to a lifeline. Mordret had silenced the inner voice that told him to be wary of his guardian, choosing instead to see him as some sort of surrogate father.

In the end, he spent twice as many years with the Dreamspawn as he had with the King of Swords. Asterion was not cruel, but he was not kind either — instead, he was mostly indifferent, treating the hostage prince with a shallow kind of care. Still, for a while, Mordret thought that this was his life, and everything was going how it was meant to be.

And then, Asterion discarded him with the same kind of easygoing indifference Mordret knew all too well. As it turned out, all that the Dreamspawn had needed from him was to Awaken his Divine Lineage — after that, Mordret was of no more use to him, and so, he sent Mordret away.

At the time, Mordret had already shattered into seven fragments because of his Flaw, so he was not quite capable of feeling regretful about parting ways with his heartless guardian. But that did not mean that he wasn’t affected. On the contrary, he was quite bitter and hurt.

It was a time painted in hues of darkness, and on the other side of it, Mordret emerged as the creature he was now — an amalgamation of six parts of a once whole person, carrying the burden of the useless seventh.

But, at the same time, he remembered feeling relieved.