Chapter Text
Awakening, whilst generally a common occurrence, wasn't what he was expecting after going under for surgery.
At least not as quickly as he had awoken.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
"…Oh god damnit. Really?
Getting isekia’d is already a horrible concept to consider, but of all the possible stories I get Shadow Slave? I couldn't get isekai’d into some generic fantasy story where I get a harem of cat or dog girls by being a dense bastard without any struggle in life. No, I get mega death story number 5.
I haven’t even finished it! I haven’t even got to the end of volume 10, I'm at 2612! You couldn’t have waited till I at least finished the volume?''
The weird void he was in continued to slowly coalesce into an open area somewhere, ignoring his question entirely.
'Okay me focus on the good news, you're not in Lord of the Mysteries. Here, you get an actual chance and not get jumped by a dude named Adam or the outer gods immediately. Instead, you'll probably be jumped by whoever that A named guy mentioned by Nephis in the forgotten shore, and from the start of volume 10 is. Don’t actually remember his name, I was probably watching YouTube whilst reading those chapters, didn't know that'd come back to bite me, but I know that he’s bad news despite being stranded on the moon.
So, The Nightmare spell, am I actually in Shadow Slave or did the writer just have a very bizarre prophetic vision of the future? I'll assume I am in Shadow Slave, when? I really hope that it's at least before the trio gets infected by a year or 2 so I can rest and get stronger in Bastion or whatever the Song place was called before everything hits the fan.
Also why was I thrown directly into the nightmare, aren’t isekai stories supposed to give you some time to get used to the world? Why am I getting a faulty one!'
‘The entrance to the nightmares aren’t done nearly enough justice in the book’ A stray thought resounds in his head as around him time flies backwards as a city appears in ruins with a massive perfectly circular crater in the middle where nothing falls in, as if someone put an eraser to reality. The city looks to be a mix between Roman and ancient Greek architecture. It’s honestly very beautiful watching this all unfold.
The city slowly fixes itself as the crater gets filled with a temple with a symbol of a snake coiled around a clock on the front of its entrance, the temple looks more Gothic/Victorian in nature. Made by a different culture or was made after the city grew.
Suddenly everything changes as time jumps back even further as the city completely disappears in a blink, the temple remains in what is now a burnt forest, but the temple is now more in line with old Greek temples, but its pitch black by what he suspects is soot. This thought is proven quickly as suddenly it is set alight. The forest slowly returns to its green flourish as a ring of flame gets closer to the temple.
After a minute or 2, which would’ve meant the flames took possibly years to stretch out to where they were originally, the flames hit the temple and as he prepares mentally for the start of whatever this nightmare is, another jump occurs as the forest becomes wild and overgrown with a thin path he's standing on with no temple in sight.
A small hand drawn cart slowly backs up the path before stopping just beside him.
Suddenly he feels the heat of the temperate forest hit his skin as he collapses to the floor in pain. Looking down he notices bandages wrapped around his legs.
“Great, absolutely great.”
He never expected a great start. These nightmares are, if he's remembering correctly, unique to the person. But this is just rude.
He lays back on the ground instead of getting up immediately. ‘I might as well process the vision I got and look at my runes… I wonder who I am in the waking world, myself without any change?’
“Don’t worry I’ll be quick, and when this is done and over with, I will take you to see that band you wanted,” he said, his voice tired and drained, the Spell’s hold on him firm.
His sister, currently death gripping him in a hug nodded shakily, despite being 9 she already had a good grasp of engineering and as such she had a small amount of muscle on her arms from lifting things on the heavier side, despite our wishes against doing that. Behind her #### shook his head slightly, he recently got a job as a clerk for some government agency. Luckily he made it to his 20’s without being infected, if only I was the same.
Our parents passed away several years ago, just before ### turned 4 leaving me, a 12 year old, and ####, a 15 year old to take care of her.
“Do you promise?” she quietly murmured into my chest as she tightened her already tight hold on me.
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t dare abandon you, either of you.” I tightened my hug slightly, trying to give her any reaffirmation possible.
Despite not sleeping he jolted re-awoke on the forest floor, head pounding slightly, tears dropping down his face.
‘What was that?’
Upon realizing the pain in his legs had dulled, he stood up and leaned slightly on the cart. Inside it was a bag or 2, some baskets with berries and vegetables, and a small…. Deer carcass.
He disliked biology back in school, he preferred physics and chemistry, despite not getting that great a grade in later tests for either subject.
It had antlers, fur, 4 legs and kind of looked like a horse. So by his definition it was a deer.
Looking over the cart, the amount of food here if meant to last over a week, if this is a medieval like era without refrigeration, would by his uneducated guess be overkill for a grown man, but barely not enough for 2. If there was a third one, someone's going hungry.
“Don’t worry ###. I ate earlier.” He lied calmly. Tomorrow was a day off and, ### has work tomorrow so he can get my fill, A day without eating never killed anyone.
‘There it goes again. I’m going to guess these memories are meant to be mine.’
Maybe the runes will help figure out what's going on. How does one open them is the question. Did the novel ever actually say how?
Suddenly they appeared in front of him, ‘Guess just intent is enough.’
The runes were an interesting thing to look at, they had a beauty in them he didn't expect and despite never learning them he knew what they meant. An obvious sign of the spells apparent translation feature.
-=-
Name: —
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant
Soul core: Dormant
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Worm of Fate], [Parasite] ,[Mark of Divinity]
Aspect: [Omen Bearer]
Aspect description: [Some carry blessings, some carry a burden. But only you carry an Omen.]
-=-
'I didn't think I’d open a can of worms on my first nightmare but I guess I don't have a choice in this matter
I can make a guess at one of the attributes but why I have it makes no sense, the person I took the place of seems like a normal guy, apart from the fact the aspect is [Omen Bearer] but i’ll deal with that worm later.
[Parasite] and [Worm of Fate] are maybe due to me being isekai'd?'
[Worm of Fate]
[A loose string from a greater being of fate. “Fate shall bind all.” Decreed -Unknown-. Yet a Forgotten fragment of a fragment of his seems to have, and will, loosened itself. If one can , why not you?]
[Parasite]
[An accursed existence. As decreed all bare a fate. And yet you stole another's to make your own and with a perverse joy distorted it. Even those truly Hungry will turn their gaze away from your profane form.]
'“And yet you stole another’s to make your own” so I took over someone else’s body, guess that’s why the runes don’t display a name. But why? I have one, It’s #####
It’s #####,
I said it’s… It’s…
“Look #####!” ### cried out to me, turning over I saw her holding up a little mechanical toy she fixed.
So something's hiding any names from me, including my own?
‘Fate is fair’ my ass. It took my fucking name, what sort of power do I get from being nameless?'
[You have gained a new Attribute]
'What? Now? I’ve done nothing but fall on my ass!'
Opening the runes and reading the new addition didn’t help with the confusion
[Omen of Secrecy]
[A man sat upon a throne, his body radiant with false light wished that even He shan’t know all.]
'Ominous... so that explains [Omen Bearer].
I got the attribute for wondering why I couldn't remember my name. Or the name of… my family? Or is it unrelated? Omen are basically prophecies and I already can't remember my name, so it’d make no sense if that was it.
Are they meant to be this annoying?
Lets make this easy and focus on 3 problems: why I can’t remember having a name, why I'm remembering things that I'm 100% sure aren’t mine, what this nightmare needs me to do.'
Standing up he turned towards the cart and sighed, ‘I might as well follow the only lead I have for the last question.’