It was a hot summer night.
A plain-looking young man walked calmly down the street.
But there was something he shouldn't have been doing.
Corin had his phone in hand, eyes glued to the screen.
On some random site, he was reading his favorite novel.
[Shadow Slave]
It was so good he couldn't put it down.
The characters were captivating, the plot complex, and the fight scenes insane.
Debates about who the best character was popped up in the comments.
"Nephis is the GOAT of the series…? Who's the clown that said that?! She doesn't even compare to the noble cockroach Sunless!"
"Who's the best match for Kai? Obviously Morgan. How is that even a question?"
"Tsk… these guys are sick. Why the hell is this dude talking about Sunny and Nephis fighting in bed? Bunch of degenerates!"
Grumbling, Corin let out a laugh. One comment was better than the last.
To him, among all the powers and characters, one stood out more than the rest.
Mordret.
Even with his twisted nature—despicable, even—Corin still found him more interesting than most.
Especially because of his power.
He couldn't deny it: Mordret's abilities were absurdly impressive.
Shaking the thought off, he kept walking down the street.
Too distracted.
Without realizing it, he stepped into the road without looking.
Then he heard a horn.
"Huh?" — was the last thing he managed to say before the light swallowed him.
A brutal impact hit him, killing him instantly.
He'd once heard that, before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes.
That was a lie.
He couldn't even remember what he had for breakfast.
The searing pain lasted only a second before vanishing.
Then he was consumed by darkness.
Corin wasn't very religious, but he believed in heaven and hell.
And, unfortunately, he was pretty sure he was heading down.
But none of that mattered anymore. His consciousness was fading.
'So this is how I die… what a cliché way to go… damn it.'
If he'd had a face, it would've been scowling.
Suddenly, the process stopped.
His soul began to take shape—then drifted through the void.
He couldn't see anything, but he felt terrifying forms moving in that darkness.
The bright light of his soul shimmered across the endless expanse, leaving behind a white trail like a comet.
Some creatures tried to grab it, but the light dodged them effortlessly.
From beyond the cosmos, it approached Earth.
But it wasn't the Earth he knew.
Floating islands hung in the sky, while a white pagoda hovered above them all. A void of flames burned below.
Chains the size of bridges connected the islands together.
Near a massive mountain range, one island lingered close to a sea of mist.
Before he could keep observing, Corin was hurled into the light.
A blinding glow covered his vision, forcing him to shut his eyes.
Slowly, the brightness faded.
When he opened them again—
He saw.
Was he in a cage? No… he couldn't quite explain it.
He just knew he was trapped.
At that moment, his head began to throb with excruciating pain.
"Argh! What the hell!"
He tried to grab his head, only to realize his hands were chained behind his back.
Ignoring it, he kept writhing.
It felt like thousands of needles were piercing him, drilling into every inch of his body.
Maybe it was worse than that.
His muscles burned like fire.
After nearly half an hour, the pain finally stopped.
"Urgh…"
Without a doubt, it was the worst experience of his life.
Still trembling, he tried to process everything.
"What… what is this?" he muttered, still in shock.
Memories that weren't his flooded his mind—some fragmented, others whole.
But he was certain of one thing.
They didn't belong to him.
Turning his head, he looked around.
To his surprise, he was seeing from seven different points.
"A dungeon?"
That wouldn't be entirely wrong.
It was a chamber made of cold stone, drowned in deafening silence. Dark and empty, shaped like a heptagon, with seven corners swallowed by shadow.
Seven mirrors stood on each wall, angled toward the center.
There was nothing there.
And yet, in each mirror, the reflection of a young man sat on the stone floor, hands chained behind his back.
"Is that me? This feels strange… almost like a dream."
Corin saw himself reflected in all seven mirrors, but couldn't see through them.
His appearance had changed.
Now he was tall and slender, with pale skin and black hair like raven feathers.
His face was sharp and fine—not exactly handsome, but charming in a strange, unsettling way.
But his most striking feature was his eyes.
They didn't seem to have a color of their own.
Instead, they reflected the world back, like two pools of liquid silver.
The realization hit him.
"These memories… this appearance… I became Mordret…?"
Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn't believe it.
Reality shoved the truth in his face.
"Holy shit… I really turned into Mordret? This has to be a dream or something…"
Suddenly, understanding dawned.
"I must be in a coma! That's it! The car hit me, but I survived and fell into a coma. That's the only explanation!"
A faint smile appeared. That meant he could still wake up.
But then a sense of dread crept in.
Even in a coma, he doubted he had enough imagination to fabricate memories this vivid.
"Why does he look at himself in the mirror so much? Seriously, this guy's ego is insane."
Mordret's memories came and went—most involving his family, his power, and—
'Asterion…'
The name, along with that bastard's face, echoed in his mind constantly—second only to the countless images of Anvil, dead in a thousand different ways.
It seemed Mordret harbored a special hatred, even toward his little sister.
Not that it mattered much to Corin.
At least, not yet.
All he could do now was wait to wake up.
So time passed.
A few hours.
"I'll wake up any minute now," he told himself calmly.
Then a day.
"They must be doing surgery or something!" The smile was strained.
Then a week.
"What if I'm in a vegetative state?"
He was completely bored.
There was nothing to do but stare at cold stone walls.
Mordret's memories began blending with his own at an unsettling level.
An irrational fear of losing himself took root—alien and suffocating.
"I am Corin. A student, a son, a brother—and above all, a normal human."
He repeated it to anchor himself.
But sometimes, he slipped.
"I am Mordret, Awakened—"
He cut himself off.
"What am I saying?"
The anxiety grew with each passing day. After so long between those walls, he even started feeling claustrophobic.
—
Cori—no, Mordret remained in the same position as always.
Blinking with empty eyes.
He had completely lost track of time. Maybe a month had passed. A year. A decade.
He didn't know.
He had learned many things.
Emotions that once felt foreign now surfaced clearly. Maybe this was how Mordret in Bastion had felt.
He learned what family meant—something he'd never truly had.
Now he wasn't just Corin, nor only Mordret.
He was both.
Corin still held more control over decisions, staying one step ahead. Even so, he accepted abandoning his old name.
From now on, he would be Mordret.
Because there was no more hope.
He had believed he would wake up eventually. But after so long alone, that belief crumbled.
And even if he were in a coma, he wouldn't stay idle any longer.
'I'm so tired of this place… so tired of being called a monster… What did I even do? It was Anvil who handed me over to Asterion!'
Clenching his fists, he felt the chains scrape his wrists.
"Damn you, you cuckolded mirror! If you didn't want to acknowledge me as your son, you could've at least let me go!" he growled.
Mordret suspected his father despised him because of the accident involving his mother—when a mirrored version of Anvil escaped and lived with her for a time.
Maybe he himself had been born from that twisted union.
Fortunately, he wouldn't be trapped much longer.
The day of his freedom was near.
A malicious smile curved his lips.
And that day came.
—
To make something notice him, Sunny summoned the Silver Bell and rang it in the darkness, listening as the melodic sound faded into the abyss.
Now he sat atop the treasure chest, staring at distant stars while talking to the Common Stone.
"So, how was your day, Stone?"
The Memory answered in its own voice:
"The same as always. And yours?"
Sunny was silent for a moment.
"I'm enjoying my vacation."
The Common Stone laughed.
"That sounds wonderful! How's your vacation going?"
He sighed.
"Splendidly. I haven't quite hit rock bottom yet."
For a while, there was only silence.
Then a new question echoed.
"…Why is it so dark?" Mordret asked.
Sunny smiled faintly.
"Why wouldn't it be dark? After all, this is the Underworld."
But in the next instant, he froze.
'…What?'
The voice that had asked the question—
Hadn't come from the Common Stone.
And it wasn't his.
---
Author here:
This is my second fanfic, so I basically don't have much experience yet.
I'm also gonna have to make up a lot of stuff in this story, since Mordret's runes — or the exact mechanics of his Aspect — aren't really shown in Shadow Slave.
There might be some mistakes here and there, like events I forgot to mention or details that slipped past me. Shadow Slave is huge, and honestly, I'm not about to reread the whole thing multiple times just to double-check every single moment.
Oh—and I almost forgot. I don't know if there's gonna be romance. If there is, don't expect anything amazing. I'm not really good at writing romance 😅
I'm also using AI to help translate, so please don't get mad if there are any mistakes.