Shadow Slave: Bloodborne

As Ragna continued talking with his reflections, making them crawl out of the glass, and then killing them, gaining more and more pieces, he slowly started to get bored.

'How long have I been doing this by now ? When will I have enough ?'

Lately the reflections have been going creepier and creepier but Ragna didn't really care since it just took 1 touch for them to die. What really made him feel uneasy tho was that his [Unseen Link] Attribute sometimes appeared for a second but then disappeared again, like something was about to happen but that "something" never happened, or rather it already did but Ragna didn't now what exactly.

As Ragna exactly got his hundredth piece they started to glow, slowly melting together and creating something new.

The glass tunnel in front of him started to warp, light crackling in front of him as 2 mirrors appeared. When he looked at each mirror his mimd was filled with information.

The first Mirror showed one of Ragnas futures. He was at his peak. All powerful and having reached his full potential. He had bright red wings and an armor of blood. Yet will all that power he was still bound by chains, being kept in one place and having no way out. This mirror showed his future where he would only focus on himself and getting stronger, yet at the end ending alone and chained.

The second Mirror also showed one of his futures. He was defenitely strong this time too and had a good life. But when the time came he wasn't strong enough and everyone he cared for got killed. In the end he was alone again. The difference between those two futures was that in the first one he was strong yet didn't posses and freedom while in the second future he lost everything except his freedom because he wasn't strong enough.

He felt like he needed to chose but he couldn't and after a while he heard cracking again, the glass behind him was consumed by utter void.

It was getting closer and closer, telling Ragna to chose.

'Fuck you Dream Realm. You think I'll really chose futures like that ?'

Suddenly Ragna turne around, ignoring the two mirrors and running straight to the void or darkness or whatever that "thing" was.

As he got coser and closer and the darkness descended over him he felt light, like he didn't exist. He couldn't see since everything around him was black ... no it wasn't black, it was the physical form of "nothingness" which of course didn't make sense in any way.

'Is this death'

Time passed.

Maybe seconds, maybe minutes or hours. Maybe also dozens of years but maybe also no time at all but suddenly white cracks appeared in this "nothingness".

He heard cracking sounds everywhere. Behind him, over him, in front of him, inside him and just some time later everything went white before he found himself on soft sand again.

[You have slain a corrupted Tyrant, shattered reflections]

[You have received a Memory]

Ragna didn't even have the mental nor the physical powers right now to stand up from the soft sand.

"This was not what I expected to happen when ingot trapped in the quicksand. A new Memory, huh ? Let's check it out, I guess."

...

Memories: [Redfur Cloak], [Glass Piece], [Mirrorblade]

...

'Mirrorblade ? So it's a weapon ? I really needed one to be honest.'

[Mirrorblade]

Type: Weapon

Rank: Ascended

Tier: 3

Description: "The Mirrorblade is a sleek silver blade, so polished it resembles the surface of a Mirror. It reflects not only the Image of your body but also your emotions."

Attributes: [Reflective Edge], [Emotional Blade], [Echo of the Void]

'Jackpot. An ascended weapon. Now only the Attributes need to be good."

[Reflective Edge]: "The blade's strikes become sharper based on how much damage the wielder has sustained, increasing the power as the fight goes on."

[Emotional Blade]: "The blade gets stronger based on the wielders emotions. Rage makes the blade sharper. Confidence makes the strikes faster and more precise. Sadness makes the blade itself weaker but ingrains it with a toxin."

[Echo of the Void]: "Upon landing a killing blow with the blade, it receives a fragment of the dead."

Kills [0/2000]

'Oh god, these are great. An Ascended weapon with 2 attributes that buff it ? And it even has potential to grow stronger if kill enough ?'

Ragna quickly manifested the Memory and stood up as a long, thing singlehanded sword appeared in his hand. It has a silver hilt snd the blade itself looked like a mirror. He swung a few times, feeling the light blade slice through thin air.

After that he analyzed his surroundings. He was defenitely not near where he was before since he didn't see the big stone city anymore. He was probably somewhere east right now.

'Damn, where do I guy now ? I hoped to find people in the city to drink their blood but I don't even know where I am right now.'

The absurd heat was also now starting to pour down on him again so Ragna really didn't enjoy the situation he was in right now. At least he got a nice sword now but dying without using it wouldn't be that nice.

Because of that Ragna decided to quickly just walk forward, aimlessly, in hopes of finding anything, or any human, of course.

***

2 days have passed by now and Ragna was slowly loosing his stamina. He was thirsty and hungry, was sweating the whole time and his muscles ached because of the constant moving on sand.

Suddenly he heard shriek as he saw a creature claw his way through the sand and jump at him.

'Another one ..'

He lazily sliced at the creature, killing it with one thrust because the creature wasn't that strong.

[You have slain a dormant monster, Sand Mole.]

[You have spilled blood.]

[Your Core grows stronger]

...

Blood spilled: [224/10000]

...

As he continued walking, he started to see something in the distance a few hours later. It were thin sticks build into the air, defenitely human made. And there wasn't only one small tower but multiple, trailing in a certain direction.

Ragna decided to follow those sticks for a while and then actually found the one building those towers. And it was someone he knew, Layla, the pale girl with an ink Aspect.

Right now she was building one of those stick towers again, he didn't know why tho but he still decided to approach her, since they were friends after all.

When Layla saw him she froze for a second before summoning a weapon memory but when she realized it was Ragna she calmed down again. She still had a emotionless expression tho.

"Hey, Layla ... pretty lucky to meet you here in this cursed place."

"Indeed .. finding someone I know in the Dream Realm should be beneficial ..."

"Uhm .. so, Layla. Might you give me some of your blood ? I can of course also pay you with some Soul Shards I've been carrying with me."

"Oh of course. You must have been starving."

Layla gave herself a wound with her Memory and held her arm out to Ragna for him to suck on the wound.

Ragna liked it very much that Layla often didn't show emotions so this felt slightly less awkward then when he did it with Celeste for example.

After he felt satiated he gave Layla 2 Soul Shards, which she instantly absorbed.

"By the way, have you found water somewhere or why don't you look like you're thirsty ?"

"My Dad was an Awakened. He gave me a Memory that makes me summon a fruit of sorts. It's pretty helpful because of the juices. Water would still be better tho."

As they continued talking and discussing how they would continue inside of the Dream Realm it slowly started getting dark. They couldn't afford sleeping in a place like this so they just stayed awake and continued moving forward.

"By the way, Ragna. You said you were on those big mountains, right ? So you've surely seen the villages in the north, right ?

I would advice you to not go there, at least not yet. I actually got send there on my first day and the only thing I saw were pixie like creatures. They weren't hostile tho even tho I'm sure they are Nightmare Creatures. Yet they threw me out and said that if I, a human, came back they would enslave me."

"I seeee ... good to know. I actually wanted to go there but now I'm not so sure."

And so their journey on the sand continued for a few days. They actually didn't have many problems since they didn't meet that many creatures and when they did, they were weak. The afternoons they spend their time sparring or talking about deeper stuff.

But of course things couldn't stay like that. At the sixth day after they met they suddenly heard a loud grumble and the earth shaking . Something was erupting, under them.

They quickly dashed forward as the spot where they stood just a few seconds ago was engulfed in lava. Together they ran forward as more and more space was burnt by the active volcano underground.

'Shit, this is bad. We are too slow, or rather Layla is too slow ..'

Ragna decided to quickly pick Layla up like a princess and then augment solely his legs before continuing to run.

Thankfully, again, Layla didn't find it weird and just let Ragna carry her as the volcano underground shot more lava into the air

Thankfully, because of his augmentation, they ran fast enough. Now they could see the space where they stood just a few minutes ago completly melting as the lava also slowly started to get hard and become magma.

Ragna sat Layla down, since there was no more reason for him to carry her.

"T-thanks, I wouldn't have survived without you."

"Oh uhm .. no problem. We are friends, no ? I also wouldn't survive without your blood so lets just keep eachother alive and escape this damned place."

And so, without giving the volcano that almost killed them a few minutes ago another thought, they continued their journey.

——-Author's Notes——-

Words: 1714

Finally also done with this chapter. Took me longer than I expected but I didn't wanna end the daily upload streak just yet.

Hope y'all like how I ended the glass tunnel and his new Sword Memory.

I'm not completly sure how I continue the story from this point forward but I'll think of something interesting tomorrow when I'm in school.

Peace ✌️