Shadow Slave

Having vanquished the battered shades, the Deathless stayed back as Azarax marched across the desert toward Sunny.

It seemed that even consumed by the curse of Shadow God, the Plague of Steel remained true to his nature. He didn’t want to kill Sunny… he wanted to defeat him, trample upon him, and therefore make him a vassal. To add the Lord of Shadows to his ever-growing army.

Sunny took another step back and forced out a smile.

“You know! There are a myriad of Great abominations barrelling this way right this moment. If you are so tough, why don’t you try subjugating them, instead?”

Azarax did not respond — was incapable of responding anymore — and simply continued forward with heavy, confident steps.

Suspended inside the glass carapace, his black skull wore a menacing grin.

Sunny cursed.

“I guess not.”

He stopped backing away and remained motionless for a moment, his head lowered, glaring at Azarax with angry scorn.

“I knew this would happen, you know. Well, actually, I didn’t know — but I had a feeling that it would. So, I’ve been wracking my brain thinking how to get rid of you this whole time. Actually, I’ve been considering how I would destroy you from the very moment Nephis took you off that tree. The sacred tree.”

Sunny laughed bitterly.

“But you know what? It is very difficult to get rid of a Supreme. So, I came up empty. There’s no sure way to obliterate the great Azarax, the Plague of Steel… so, I guess an unsure way will have to do.’

In the next moment, the ancient tyrant was upon him. Manifesting the Serpent in the form of a black odachi to block a world-shattering blow, Sunny shouted:

“Slayer! What the hell are you waiting for?! Do you need a special invitation?! Go!”

Behind him, Nephis was seconds away from clashing with the first of innumerable Nightmare Butterflies.

Her radiant wings opened as if trying to embrace the night sky, and then the Blessing flashed like a white rift in the dark tapestry of the night sky.

Nephis shot past the enormous butterfly without ever slowing down, and behind her, the smoldering corpse of the Great Monster fell apart, cut cleanly in two.

The dark cloud of the harrowing swarm was almost upon her. Neph’s eyes blazed with white radiance, and she cried out the Names, channelling the annihilating inferno of soul flame to devastate her enemies.

A thunderous explosion shattered the sky, and a vast, fierce conflagration of white flame suddenly bloomed in the middle of the boundless swarm of Nightmare Butterflies. Many of them were immediately turned to ash or torn apart, causing a rain of burning flesh to fall to the ground. That was not the end of it, though.

Following the first, another explosion roared almost immediately, and suddenly, the darkness of the night was chased away. The vast cloud of Great Monsters was illuminated from within, as if a star had been born among them. Then, the fire spread, carried by the wind as it jumped from one butterfly to another, incinerating their wings.

It was as if a tidal wave of fire was spreading across the burning heavens.

Finally, Nephis was inside the swarm.

The Blessing moved, its blade turning into a radiant ray of pure light that spanned thousands of meters in length. It sliced apart a dozen ghastly abominations, their fetid blood evaporating as soon as it touched the radiant blade.

This kind of battle…

Was the kind of battle where Nephis could truly shine.

She had sacrificed four of her seven cores to get their expedition this far into the desert. But now that scores of Great abominations were dying to her flame, a tidal wave of soul fragments flowed into her soul. New soul cores were going to be formed from those fragments soon, and when they did, she would be able to destroy them again.

By burning her soul cores to ash, Nephis would be able to slay even more Nightmare Creatures, which in turn would provide her with more soul fragments.

As long as she endured the harrowing pain of her Flaw and the harrowing agony of another soul core being formed within her soul, and as long as she wasn’t killed in one blow by one of the innumerable Nightmare Butterflies, she would be able to continue in the same way.

Like a true Titan battling a vast swarm of lesser creatures.

Sadly, the swarm of Nightmare Butterflies was too great and too terrifying even for her to handle alone…

But she wasn’t alone.

Nephis moved in the sky ahead and to the left of the slowly rising Chain Breaker. Ahead and to the right of the graceful vessel, meanwhile…

A titanic moth whose wings spanned several kilometers was moving toward the falling cloud of giant butterflies. Each of the Great abominations was at least a hundred meters in size, their wings blotting out the stars, but the shadow of the Spirit of Doubt easily dwarfed them with its sheer mass.

The Puppeteer was not that outstanding when it came to physical violence and direct combat. However, that was only in comparison to the Cursed Ones — against Great Nightmare Creatures, the gigantic shade was a natural disaster.

Seconds before the looming figure of the titanic moth dove into the expanding cloud of Nightmare Butterflies, innumerable threads of black silk suddenly shot outward from its body, piercing the abominations and shredding their wings.

In the next moment, a cataclysmic clash thundered like the roar of an inconceivable storm, raising a hurricane so powerful that it reshaped the sea of dunes below.

But even then…

It was not enough.

With Nephis moving like a storm of flame within the swarm and the Puppeteer engaging its expanse in ferocious combat, too many Nightmare Butterflies were still making it past them.

They were already moving toward the Chain Breaker, where Saint stood alone, holding the steering oars with her alabaster hands. That was when Slayer finally entered the battle.

Standing there on the sand, the tenebrous lioness let out a low growl.

Then, it took a step forward, the billowing mantle of grey smoke moving around her. With each step, the form of the lioness changed, growing vague and uncertain. Then, it became obscured by the fog completely…

And then, something gargantuan and terrifying moved inside the fog.

A towering foot that ended with razor-sharp claws descended upon the sand, making the ground quake, then another… a reptilian body covered in obsidian scales was slowly revealed, great black wings opening to encompass the heavens.

Atop a long neck, a bestial head was crowned by twin ridges of twisting horns, two enormous eyes were narrowed like slits, their vertical pupils burning with chilling malice. A long tail whipped in the air, obliterating a towering dune.

It was a dragon.

A great obsidian dragon, surrounded by the tattered mantle of ghostly smoke, raised its head to the sky and opened its maw, revealing two rows of terrifying fangs.

Its thunderous, deafening roar made the winds themselves falter and die.

Raising a hurricane with a single flap of her wings, Slayer rose into the sky.

She rose like a dark tide, rapidly catching up with the Chain Breaker.

And before the Nightmare Butterflies reached it…

A great torrent of lightless black flame poured out of her maw, engulfing them all and leaving no trace of their profane existence.