Shadow Slave

As Cassie reached the third floor of the Ebony Tower — the floor where Nether’s workshop had been — the windows suddenly exploded into a hurricane of crystal fragments, and a swarm of black crows poured inside like a torrent of hungry darkness.

The crows surrounded her in a deafening choir of cries, a myriad of sharp talons and cruel beaks rending at her face and sinking into her body, making her bleed.

Cassie raised a hand to protect her eye and let out a short cry, staggering toward the wall and slamming into it at full speed.

‘Wake of Ruin…’

The swarm of crows barred her path, cutting off her only path to salvation. Looking at the stairs leading to the fourth floor, Cassie gritted her teeth and readied her dagger.

Her exhausted voice sounded hoarse when she spoke, her tone full of dark determination:

“Out of my way, Cor. I… don’t have time for mercy today.”

The crows did not listen.

***

At the same time as Cassie attempted to ascend the Ebony Tower, Mordret escaped from the mirror hidden on its underground floor.

He rolled on the cold obsidian, suppressing a scream, and remained motionless for a few moments, his body contorting in painful convulsions. Finally, broken and bloodied, he let out a tortured groan and pushed himself off the black stone.

Kneeling in front of the mirror, he drew a shaky breath, and then slowly raised his pale face to look at his reflection.

His reflection was looking back at him with worry and panic, the concerned world of white mist behind it drowning in vile darkness.

“What did you do? Brother, what did you do?”

The other’s voice was shaking.

Mordret’s soul was being consumed by the Corruption, and his mind was drowning in the alien endlessness of the Void. He could feel the Nightmare Spell turning its back on him, abandoning him like a lost cause.

A pale smile illuminated his bloodied face, and then he let out a laugh, crimson drops falling from the corners of his mouth.

“What did I do?”

Mordret paused for a moment, his face contorting in agony. Then, overcoming it, he drew a hoarse breath and said in a bitter tone:

“Everything… I did everything. Everything I could.”

His reflection looked behind it, at the vile darkness flooding the concerned expanse of white mist. The face of the other was pale, twisted in terror.

Mordret studied him for a short while, then forced out a smile.

“Ah… but what can you do? Doing your best doesn’t always pan out. Life is unfair that way.”

It was so cruelly difficult to keep stringing words together. To keep himself together. The vast darkness was flooding his mind, full of visions so alien that there were no words to describe them… radiant, harrowing. Utterly revolting, irresistible. Inevitable.

Mordret knew that he did not have much time left.

He looked down, whispering:

“Unfair… it’s unfair, unfair. Why do you get to… argh!”

He growled, clutching at his face, his nails leaving deep grooves on his skin. Then, he grew still, remained silent for a few moments, and said in a hollow tone:

“I really hate you, you know?”

The other Mordret looked at him with a solemn expression.

“I know.”

Mordret grinned.

“I wanted to kill you for a long, long time. You know?”

He laughed.

“Now’s my chance, don’t you think?”

Then, his laughter turned into a groan, and he shook his head slowly.

“It truly is frustrating, my hateful brother… I wasted so much effort on so many fruitless things, and in the end, I still ended up no better than that pathetic, revolting thing — Soul Stealer. No, that detestable abomination never attained Supremacy, did he? So I will be like the Skinwalker, instead. Why did I even bother destroying it, then? Huh? Answer me!”

The other Mordret remained silent, not knowing what to say. Mordret stared at him for a moment, and then scoffed.

“Gods, why are you so useless? You can’t… can’t even…”

He paled, and then let out a scream, bending down to the ground. A bestial growl escaped from his lips, full of anger and torment.

“No… no, becoming like one of those contemptible things does not agree with me. I refuse the indignity of becoming like them, you wretched fool. I’d rather die.”

His reflection finally moved, leaning toward the surface of the mirror as the world became consumed by darkness behind it — the darkness coming closer and closer, its tendrils almost reaching his secluded refuge.

“Is that why you came here, brother? Do you… do you finally need my help?”

He looked at Mordret, and then smiled sadly.

“In the end, is this the only way I can be helpful? All I can do… is help you die.”

His gaze was mournful as he studied Mordret’s broken figure.

“If so… I am willing. I will help you, brother. All I have to do is destroy myself, right? If that means that you don’t have to suffer anymore, of course, I will.”

His tone was kind and soothing.

Mordret stared at him silently for a few long moments, and then snarled through the pain:

“What are you talking about, you fool?”

Just as the darkness was about to swallow his reflection, he reached into the mirror and grabbed him by the throat.

Pulling his other self from the reflections, Mordret threw him to the ground and growled:

“And what were you doing, just waiting there to be consumed by the Corruption? Have you no mind of your own, you pitiful worm?!”

He stared at the other part of himself hatefully for a few long moments, swaying from the strain of keeping the Corruption from consuming him whole.

He could keep it at bay, still…

Just barely.

He was already forgetting why he wanted to, though.

Mordret inhaled deeply.

“You see, my loathsome Flaw… I am unwilling to become a demented abomination, but I am also reluctant to let the Dreamspawn win. To let this cursed world win and devour me. To let the story of Mordret of Nowhere come to a meaningless conclusion — nothing more than a side character in the annals of history, a stepping stone for the Dreamspawn to leave behind on his path to Ascension. So…”

He looked into the eyes of his other self, a harrowing darkness slowly seeping into his own.

“I don’t need you to destroy yourself, fool.”

Mordret lingered for a moment and then forced out a smile, a hint of amusement finding its way into his pained voice:

“I need you to destroy me, instead.”