Shadow Slave | The Herald of Ruin

It's been a normal day just like any other that Zero had experienced, He was currently in a makeshift school, sitting on what many would call a rotten tree stump, he thought it was a good chair. Currently they were talking about wilderness survival as a change of pace from how they would differentiate nightmare creatures.

Nightmare creatures? He thought,

He had never seen one personally,

This made him think about his clan and how cushy he had it here, He was The current Heir of the Abysaal clan.

That of course made him somewhat the center of attention even though he had to admit, he didn't dislike it but nor did he relish in the attention that he got.

He looked around as his eyes laid on the old mostly withered map on the wall, there were more than one, each having different dates of months and years, some of then going back hundreds of years, the oldest one he could see was..from the year 1235.

The current year if he remembered right from what his teacher told him was 2240 it's been 30 years since the nightmare spells descent on earth,

Trying to remember what he had read on one of the many history books collected by his clan. Their outmost importance was all kinds of knowledge and he had to agree, so he continued thinking, how did it start again?

Ah right, many people had fallen asleep, millions even at once it was unknown back then what the cause couldve been, but sadly the spell wasn't nice enough to wait for them to figure it out. People who had failed their first Nightmare fell to the profane and turned into nightmare creatures, on a pause this made him wonder, were every creature just former humans or was there more to it? Before he could continued this train of thought he heard the sad excuse of a low sounding school bell not to attract any nearby unwanted neighbours.

As he bid farewell to his teacher for today he went to the side of the walls as he pondered his current circumstances, he thought it was fun to see what he knew and tried to refresh upon it, he currently was somehwere in the eastern side of Europe, it was overrun by a category 5 gate, it was unsure whether it appeared from nothing or the mass of death that was already present from those who failed their first Nightmare? The ones who brought a resemblance of order were the ones who survived the nightmare and became so called awakened.. putting aside his history knowledge he looked around their little "home", their base of operation however was a sad excuse of what many could call a home, their clan has been forced to move many times as they encountered beasts and horrors that no human should ever witness, he himself didn't see much as he was really too young to remember..but he thought now with him at 15 years he could maybe finally see one, for all thats worth he at least wanted to see one before they moved again.

It was a scary thought and he knew that but he believed in his peers and parents to protect him that was until he heard a shrieking yell that shook him to his core, he immediately looked to where it came from, many thoughts forming as he darted to where the guards were supposed to be to inform them of the unsettling scream that he had heard. To his surprise..or not he saw them already running towards his position taking a defensive stance, they were awakened so he felt a bit more safer.

"w-what happened? Are there any nightmares invading? I thought we still had about 4 days before we would've been forced to move!"

The one who seemed to be the leader of their little cohort looked him into his eyes, he shivered a little upon his gaze, there was no humor or hope in it, he felt as if something was very terribly wrong. While looking at them he heard someone call him Dale, was that his name? He remembered he shouldve been on the other side of the camp towards north why was he here with the eastern guards ?

"we've been informed that the west part of the camp has been breached and south won't be able to hold on for much longer, our task if to bring you out of here preferably to the NQSC that's located in Asia"

I was stumped.

'We were all just laughing and talking about daily occurrences,

The awakened and masters that were part of our clan even including the saints that I only heard about.. could nothing be done? Did we need to move again?' Or so I had thought shortly before realising the last things he had said..move him to the NQSC? Him alone?Did he hear incorrectly?

"Wait, wait wait a minute, what do you mean bring me to the NQSC? Can't we just move again like the other times? Dale please tell me you haven't been tasked about what I'm thinking of right now.."

'I had an inkling..that we couldn't just move all the time, as over time everyone got more tired with less time to rest, Dale hasn't said anything yet but we started moving east as he took the front, i followed without much resistance, i was just hoping mom and dad would make it', Then I heard Dale talk again.

"We've been tasked with your Safety as its unknown as of yet wether we can move after this attack, Our saints started moving already and have confirmed several Fallen devils and even a few corrupted tyrants running rampant north and south of our camp. We have a few storage memories to give you before you enter your first Nightmare, they are filled to the brim with our clans history files, what we compiled about nightmare creatures, their classes and soul Cores. This also goes for us humans up to the sovereigns, understood Zero? But Never forget this, never ever, mention A sovereign near any other human.

It's unclear how many know of them and any of those who do, have never lived long enough to tell the tale.

I know this is a bit much to process but everything will be explained in due time."

I was deep in thought. As if I felt a bomb explode in my mind, 'i had heard about classes and soul Cores.. for nightmare creatures if I remember correctly it went like this'.

Class

Dormant

Awakened

Fallen

Corrupted

Great

Cursed

Unholy

Soul Cores

Beast

Monster

Demon

Devil

Tyrant

Terror

Titan

Its a long progression path he thought..he couldnt imagine what an Unholy titan would be like as it was like a mythical creature from the past

Not to mention he never has seen even a dormant beast yet.

Humans followed their own path

Usually differentiated by calling humans divine and the nightmares the profane.

Classes

Dormant/Sleeper

Awakened

Ascended/Master

Transcended/Saint

Surpreme/Sovereign

Sacred

Divine

He thought it pretty interesting as he himself would soon become a carrier of the nightmare spell..after having been trained thoroughly from a young age about combat and survival, he thought he would at least survive for a while in his nightmare if anything.

And about the sovereigns... I thought for a while but couldn't come to any conclusion, who were they? The pinnacle of humans, that's what he knew, what did it mean for him? Nothing good when he thought about it.

From what his Father had told him there were 3 great clans he needed to worry about, Valor, Song and the House of night. The lesser ones didn't really matter from what his father told him, there was one thing which made him wonder again, his Father told him that the Immortal Flame can, before it's fall was a respected friend of theirs, while not friendly and having had shed blood before they seem to have come to a compromise and later became somewhat trusted friends with his Abyssal Clan and formed a deal, that when one of their members comes in contact with one another they'll help each other until they can contact a higher up from one of their respected clans.

He was fully aware that he couldn't and shouldn't make his presence known to the 3 current great clans, what worried him though was the last member of the Immortal flame clan. From what he heard she enrolled into a academy in the siege capital.

Is that where he was gonna go? If yes meeting her would probably bring a lot of benefits..and he cut his thought short as he said to himself in a low voice.

"She probably wouldn't know who I am.."

It was true. Not many knew of their deal even in the Immortal flame clan, for the last Heir of the clan to know would be expected but he didn't know how their relations with the Abyss were before their downfall.

His thoughts in a bit of disarray, He looked forwards to where Dale was moving his cohort of 4 people including him.

They were slowly leaving behind the camp as he could only widen his eyes in shock and horror, getting shivers all over his body.

His face now turned back looking with a distant emotion in to the distance of the camp, his dark hair resembling the night sky.

His pale skin ever so slightly shining beneath the moonlight, his stature of 165 cm just enough to see what happened over the makeshift walls of their leftover camp,

Beasts, creatures, horrors, he didn't know what to call them, they had devastated everything, it seems they had fully breached every wall including west.

"Damnation!" He cursed under his breath, he wanted to see at least one nightmare creature but not like this!

He was very upset and looked back to their current leader Dale, his back seemed safe and comforting, for now that is, he knew that a bunch of awakened could never survive the these cursed and overrun lands, he just hoped to get out and reach the capital without losing his limbs.