Shadow Slave

Everywhere Sunny looked, the Deathless were rising from beneath the dunes to resume their eternal battle. White sand flowed from their black bones, and its rustle fused into an eerie hum that permeated the air with a sense of primal dread.

There were truly an inconceivable number of them, covering the surface of the desert like blades of grass… or possibly like the mythical warriors who had grown from the fangs of a dragon. Before, Sunny had not spared much thought to the Deathless, perceiving them as an elemental force — no different from the Dark Sea of the Forgotten Shore or the Crushing of the Chained Isles. Now that he was close enough to divinity to be able to imagine the calamitous horror of the Doom War, at least, he could not help to be stunned by the scale of the battle that had taken place on the endless expanse of white dunes.

The Nightmare Desert was a region of the Dream Realm no smaller than the Forgotten Shore — in fact, it was most likely far superior in terms of size. And yet, the Deathless seemed to be everywhere, their disorganized mass stretching far beyond the horizon.

How many soldiers would it have taken to cover the surface of Godgrave completely? He couldn’t even fathom the number.

The war in Godgrave was a Domain War, but it could also be called a Realm War — because it was a conflict that had involved the entire population of a single realm, and because its outcome decided the fate of that realm.

The Doom War, however, was not a Realm War. It had involved the entire population of all realms, not just one, and its outcome decided the fate of existence itself. The scale and scope of the battles that had been fought between the Demon Legion and the Divine Host were therefore far greater, and far more terrifying, than any battle Sunny ever witnessed.

It was a good thing that Sunny and Nephis did not have to undo the curse of Shadow God and defeat the Deathless. They just had to wage a campaign that would take them to the base of the Tomb of Ariel, regardless of whether the adversary was defeated or not.

‘Asterion failed to reach the pyramid… but we won’t.’

They had no choice but to succeed.

Most of the Deathless seemed to have been human once — but not all of them. There were ghastly skeletons of gargantuan creatures among them whose original nature was difficult to guess without their hides, fur, scales, or feathers. Some were not skeletal at all, covered instead by weathered black chitin.

Then, there were creatures that had not been made of flesh and bone at all. Some Deathless seemed to be made from dark stone, some seemed to be made out of crystal, tattered cloth, or metal.

Some were small, while some towered above the desert like gigantic monuments to the calamitous past.

As Sunny watched, the Deathless remained motionless for a few brief seconds. Then, a wave of malice seemed to roll over the desert, making his hair stand on end, and they turned their skulls to regard each other with eternal hostility.

“Holy hell…”

A moment later, the world exploded with violence.

The white sands rippled as myriad undead warriors lunged at each other, overcome by the relentless killing intent that had kept them enslaved for thousands of years. Their swords flashed, shaking off the rust, and their empty eye sockets seemed to ignite with a cold, eldritch, murderous darkness.

The sky itself seemed to shake.

Sunny glanced at Nephis.

“I feel like this is going to be a long, long night.”

She simply stepped forward, two radiant wings shining behind her like a blinding halo.

“But it is nice, no?”

Nephis met his gaze and smiled.

“For once, all we have to do is fight. Don’t you find it refreshing?”

With that, she bent slightly, then leapt into the air and shot into the dark sky.

Sunny watched her go with a wistful expression.

“Come to think of it, it is indeed a little refreshing.”

When was the last time he could lose himself to the fury of a battle without thinking about anything else?

When was the last time all seven of his incarnations were gathered in one place? Sunny always had to live several lives at the same time, performing a multitude of tasks simultaneously.

This time, however, he could focus fully on only one thing…

Conquering the Nightmare Desert.

“Let’s go.”

His voice drowned in the rustle of sand as countless shades took a step forward.

In front of him, the Nightmare Desert was drowning in darkness. An ocean of ancient undead was clashing silently among the dunes, the fury of their endless war so fearsome that Sunny’s Supreme body was being damaged slightly simply from being in proximity to the harrowing battle.

The Shadow Legion flowed forward like a dark tide, but before the shades could reach the adversary, it was as if a sun suddenly ignited high in the night sky.

Nephis had channelled the Name of the Light once again, using herself as its vessel this time. Her radiant light illuminated the ancient battlefield, making it seem as if time had been reversed and thus forcing the night to retreat in fear before the radiance of the day.

The Deathless staggered, distracted from their eternal battle by the sudden appearance of a transient sun. The empty eye sockets turned to the sky, the deep darkness in them retreating deeper.

After the light came the heat.

Sunny saw a bright light in the sky above him, and then, a radiant white ray connected the desert to the heavens. The flawlessly white line swiped across the landscape, moving across a dozen kilometres in the blink of an eye. Then, it vanished as rapidly as it had appeared.

And then, the world shuddered.

Out there, a distance away from the advancing Shadow Legion, a furious explosion ravaged the sea of white dunes. Following the line cut in the sand by the ray of light, the sand exploded into the sky in a terrifying conflagration of incinerating white flame. Innumerable tons of it were displaced and thrown upward, soaring high like a fiery cloud.

Numerous Deathless were broken and tossed aside by the devastating shockwave, then swallowed by the fierce flame a moment later. The sand melted, turning into a fiery liquid, and the liquid glass rained from above, drowning more of the ancient undead.

The first shot of the Nightmare Desert subjugation campaign had been fired.