Bari walked through the Bright Castle carrying Shade Bearer's body above his head, its massive frame casting a long shadow across the stone floor.
His eyes pierced through walls and concrete until they locked onto his destination, a large three-story building with a sign mounted above its entrance reading "Hell's Res."
The first floor appeared to be a smithing workshop, filled with weapons, a large furnace, and various sets of armour displayed along the walls. It was split into two sections; the other hosted several nightmare creatures. The second floor seemed to house a restaurant, while the third appeared to contain three sets of sleeping quarters.
By the time Bari arrived, he noticed the artificial sun seemed to have reached its brightest, signalling it was afternoon. It took him a second to recall the significance, until he remembered the partnership quest he had scheduled with several Sleepers from the Bright Castle.
He pushed the thought aside for now as a bell rang the moment he opened the door to Hell's Res.
The forge was a compact stone room, warmed by the steady orange glow of the hearth and heavy with the scent of iron and ash. A sturdy wooden counter marked the shop's front, a small brass bell resting neatly on top. Behind it, weapons and crafted goods lined the walls on iron hooks, while polished armour pieces stood arranged along one side. It was clearly a working forge, but one organised for trade as much as craft.
Bari's eyes scanned the interior.
"Err… that doesn't sound right," he thought while glancing toward the counter tucked in the corner. "It's more of a forge mixed with a shop."
He stepped forward and was abruptly pulled back.
Looking behind him, Bari realised Shade Bearer's corpse couldn't fit through the doorway.
He set the creature down and attempted to drag it in by the leg, only to register its size fully. When he had fought the beast, its bulk hadn't registered as abnormal. Being larger than a PTV (Personnel Transport Vehicle) hadn't really felt threatening to him.
After all, to Bari, everything was big. He was only 4.5 feet tall, fifty-three inches, or one hundred and thirty-five centimetres.
That realisation brought back memories of his exciting life before the spell.
"Shouldn't I be having fun? Not… getting out of here…" The thought sprang out and caused him to pause, just standing at the door's entrance, looking back at Shade Bearers' corpse.
"Having trouble there, young man?"
Bari heard a voice from behind.
Turning, he blinked.
'A kid?' Bari thought to himself, 'Wait, does that make him a hypocrite?'
"Kind of…" Bari replied with a scrunched expression.
The figure approaching him was slim and quiet in his steps, boots brushing stone with the faint scent of oil and hot metal trailing behind him. He stood roughly five-foot-six and wore a leather apron strapped tight over fitted work clothes. One arm was encased in a polished metal bracer; the other remained bare, marked with faint burn scars. Pale hair slipped from beneath a bandana and protective goggles, sharp golden eyes studying Bari with open curiosity.
The man smiled faintly.
"You can bring it through the back door," he said, gesturing with a thumb toward another entrance deeper inside the forge.
"Alright. I'm Bari, by the way."
Bari extended his hand.
"My name's Sho," the man replied, taking it firmly. "I'll show you the way. You can tell me what you came for while we walk."
Bari moved aside as they headed toward the rear entrance.
"So… what exactly are you after?" Sho asked, glancing at the kid dragging a cat the size of a transport vehicle.
"I need two things."
Bari held up two fingers.
"First, I need a sack capable of holding multiple Nightmare creatures. Preferably one with a storage enchantment. You can do that, right?"
Sho's relaxed expression shifted into something faintly offended.
"Yes. We do more than just cook around here. Storage enchantments are fairly common. I can have it done within a day or two." He paused. "And the second request?"
"That one's simple." Bari nudged Shade Bearer's corpse with his foot. "After you're done extracting whatever you need for the bag… I want you to turn it into a carpet."
"…What?"
Sho stared.
Bari's smile widened.
"Use the four Soul Shards of this creature as payment."
***
As the sun reached its peak, Bari entered the Quest Hall to complete his first partnership quest.
***
Quest: Team Up
Type: Scouting
Description: You have been requested to join us in our hunts for this afternoon.
By: Boros
Rewards: 5 Soul Shards
Time Limit: Today, Noon.
***
The hall buzzed with muted conversation and the scratching of quills. Bari's eyes skimmed across floating runes and gathered figures until they landed on a Sleeper named Boros, seated at a long dining table with two others.
Approaching quietly, Bari studied him.
Boros had long brown hair that reached his shoulders, framing sharp black eyes. A scar cut across his lip. His build was tall and muscular, and though he wore simple deep-grey clothes, Bari's vision pierced through the fabric to reveal steel plates beneath.
Ascended armor.
Bari raised a brow at its rank, but noted it was the only high-grade item the man possessed.
"Hello," Bari said, waving.
All three turned.
They stared ahead and saw… nothing.
They scratched their heads in confusion before a moment later, they heard a small cough.
Simultaneously, all three looked down.
"A kid…" one of the women muttered.
Bari did not know why, but he found her really pretty.
Bari studied her in return. Her hair was a deep blue, almost black, unless light struck it directly. Her eyes were the colour of chocolate, and she possessed a black dot on her cheek. She wore a grey leather armour with steel plates protecting her most vital organs.
"I'm Bari. I accepted your scouting quest," he replied with a small smile.
Boros blinked once before grinning broadly.
"Well, I'll be damned! I didn't expect someone so… compact." He stood and extended his hand. "Name's Boros. I'm leading this little expedition."
Bari shook his hand.
The two women introduced themselves as Pearl and Sui.
The older one had light blue hair and carried herself in a timid way that Bari dismissed as low self-esteem. The younger had darker blue hair and radiated warmth, her smile easy and disarming.
As Bari gazed at their runes and memories, he noted they were both archers.
Boros was clearly the frontliner.
"It's a two-day quest," Boros explained. "Today we do some 'easy' hunts, things like awakened and fallen Beasts only."
Bari nodded.
As they moved through the Dark City together, Bari guided them toward one of the few Awakened Nightmare creatures nearby — an Awakened Devil lurking between crumbling buildings.
He did not join the fight.
Instead, he watched.
Boros engaged first, drawing the Devil's attention with a controlled temper. The sisters positioned themselves instinctively; one created pressure, the other exploited openings. Their arrows struck in synchronised rhythm.
They weren't sloppy, but they weren't great either.
They communicated with subtle glances and movement rather than shouting.
It was efficient, but Bari could see their mistakes or missed opportunities as if someone was yelling at him.
After the fight ended, Boros wiped his blade clean.
"Alright, kid. You've seen what you liked?"
Bari just hummed with a nod
"There are weaker Nightmare creatures in that direction. Something around your level. We'll observe from a distance." The younger sister said before pointing down a nearby street.
"The sisters will watch your back if you get into any trouble; however, if you get into a close combat, I don't think we will be able to support from a long distance," Boros added.
Bari nodded.
He preferred it that way.
As he walked through the quiet streets of the Dark City, he focused not on the obvious threats, but on ensuring he wouldn't be ambushed.
He liked surprises.
Just not the lethal kind.
Flashback End.
***
The rooftops shattered beneath Bari's steps as he dashed across them, grey clay surging after him like a living tide.
It wasn't faster than him, not even close.
Eight soul cores burned within his chest, flooding his limbs with strength and speed far beyond that of an ordinary Sleeper. To Bari, it felt closer to that of a Master, or at least what he thought a master was like.
Behind him, the clay surged in an attempt chase.
The world slowed.
Essence reflected in his vision as he looked at the clay-covered ground, every grain shimmering with essence under his gaze. Everything was laid bare before him. The creature below pulsed like an exposed organ, its control spreading outward through every speck of clay touching the earth.
Several imaginary arrows unfolded in his mind; they were the quickest path towards killing the creature. Currently, they wer three arrows, one in a straight forward line, dashing towards the creature, the other flanking its side in an attempt to run around the creature for more information.
He knew the moment he attempted to touch the ground in an attempt to close the distance, the ground would surge as the clay would attempt to dismember him.
This would make the previous three imaginary arrows, which dictated a path forward, disappear; however, a hundred more would sprout as his eyes and mind analysed the quickest path forward.
He chose the quickest.
Bari skidded to a halt mid-stride and hurled Sunset.
The spear tore through the air with a violent shriek.
Instantly, a thick wall of clay erupted from the street below, rising with perfect timing to intercept it.
Bari expected it, it wasnt his true goal afterall.
Before the wall had fully formed, Bari dismissed the memory and dove from the rooftop. The falling spear dissolved into motes of light as it impacted the wall, already returning to his soul.
He dropped to the ground below, landing behind the clay barrier and using it as cover. The moment his boots touched the street, the clay reacted.
In his slowed perception, several massive grey hands exploded upward from the street, fingers splayed wide to seize him.
'Hmm, echolocation through contact…'
The instant he touched the surface, the creature seemed to know, even though it could not see him from its position.
The hands snapped shut, but Bari was already gone.
He moved in a sudden burst, body blurring forward as spikes erupted in chaotic succession. Some of the sizes of towers. Others as thin as needles. Hands, pillars, and jagged protrusions, all trying to impale, restrain, or trip him.
To an observer, it would look like a storm of death.
To Bari, it felt more like a headache as his eyes and mind analysed hundreds of possible paths forward while predicting every single movement after it seemed to commit to an attack.
Bari watched as essence surged before any manifestation took shape. To him, it appeared as ripples of white water, signalling an attack and allowing him to predict the creature's next move flawlessly.
He slipped between them, brushing past attacks by fractions of an inch. His face remained calm, almost bored.
Only his eyes strained and itched as he analysed so many movements.
As he closed in, the pavement ahead darkened.
The essence beneath it swelled violently.
And a second later, a shadow fell over him. As he craned his head upwards, he could not help but sweatdrop.
A building-sized wave of liquefied clay descended like a collapsing sea.
Annoyance flickered across his face, but the tsunami was not the real threat.
Behind him, another wave rose, dense with hardened spikes and forming a crushing pincer, while beneath his feet the ground softened, slowly liquefying in an attempt to trap his legs.
Three directions closed at once, leaving no airspace and no stable footing. For a brief moment, even Bari saw no path of escape except left or right.
The clay flooded everything.
"Blasphemy…" he muttered softly. "A Fallen Demon my ass"
The world slowed further.
Essence lines revealed something so simple, he almost missed it. One word surfaced in his mind. 'Liquid.'
A slow smile touched his lips.
Liquid could drown.
Liquid could crush.
But the liquid lacked structure.
The world resumed its pace.
Bari surged forward.
His boots skimmed the liquefying clay, sinking for a split second before he pushed off with explosive force. He hurled Sunset directly into the descending wave.
The spear struck
And instead of resistance, the fluid mass parted violently from the force alone, a tunnel ripping open through the center of the tsunami.
Bari was already moving.
He leapt through the hollow corridor the spear created, resummoning it mid-air as it embedded itself in a secondary wall conjured in panic by the creature.
He landed hard, never slowing.
The creature stood ahead, robed in flowing clay, its faceless head twisting unnaturally toward him.
This time, it changed tactics.
From both sides of him, massive curved pillars erupted, rib-like structures slamming downward in succession, forming a grotesque cage meant to crush and impale simultaneously.
As Bari watched the hundreds of bone-like pillars descend, he noticed they were neither perfectly synchronised nor large enough to prevent him from slipping through.
Bari's body blurred.
He weaved through the falling "bones," each step precise, never wasted as he followed the path laid out by his eyes. Clay ribs shattered against the street where he had been a heartbeat earlier.
Bari watched as a sudden arrow whistled overhead from behind the creature and struck the creature in the chest.
Another followed.
Then another.
The sisters.
The Nightmare creature jerked as it kneeled in pain, forced to divide its concentration. Walls rose to block the arrows from two directions. The rain of projectiles intensified.
For a split second—
The tsunami of ribcages faltered, some turning to liquid as they lost form.
That was all Bari needed.
His feet skidded, and he hurled sunset.
This throw, however, was different. Instead of lifting the spear by his head and throwing it, he extended his arm to his side and hurled it at an angle.
The spear, which at first seemed to go straight, slightly bent as it curved through the air.
The spear spun through the collapsing clay ribs, grazing one, slicing another cleanly in half, slipping through a narrowing gap by a margin thinner than a finger.
The creature sensed it.
Its robes split as a clay hand, its actual hand, shot upward in a stopping motion. Simultaneously, a defensive wall began forming before its head.
Too slow.
The spear pierced through the half-formed barrier, shattered the conjured hand, and struck its skull.
For a single frozen moment, everything stopped for Bari, only to restart as the creature's head exploded.
Clay and blood burst outward like a ruptured vessel, the force of the throw detonating the construct from within.
The towering waves lost cohesion.
The rib cage collapsed.
The clay tsunamis, which seemed to be heading towards the two archers, fell harmlessly, collapsing into sludge that impacted the buildings they stood atop.
As silence returned to the Dark City, the spell's voice reverberated through Baris's head.
"You have slain a Fallen Demon, Claymore."
"You have received an Attribute"
Bari exhaled slowly as Sunset dissolved back into his soul.
He glanced at the liquefied street around him.
"If this is a Fallen, then…a Titan," he murmured quietly, "would be troublesome."
***
AUTHORS NOTE: there's this really good shadow slave fanfic and it's ten times better than mine, writing, storytelling, character desigh and everything. seems like glaze but it's true, ive read it and I can admit that it's peak. go check it out and bug the guy for more chapters (Ik I can't be talking about chapters but, Ay. I'm not a professional writer like my guy.) Anyway, it's called Shadow Slave: A moment of weakness