Shadow Slave

Effie gazed at the King of Kings across the vast ocean of steel separating them.

Her eyes were cold and somber...

And tinged with a hint of contempt.

‘That bastard...’

Over the past year, Azarax seemed to have developed an unhealthy interest in her — all members of the cohort, really, but Effie most of all.

In some sense, it wasn’t surprising. He was known to collect powerful warriors, after all, and each of the mercenary Saints was deadly beyond measure. But Azarax also seemed to revel in the act of subjugating strong-willed individuals, and since Effie was the nominal leader of the defending army, he saw her as his direct opponent — and, therefore, considered taming her a personal challenge.

Effie did not land into the role of a leader by accident. Sure, the woman whose place she inhabited was the commander of the mercenary army... but that was not the real reason why she came to lead the defenses of the city.

In truth, other members of the cohort had plenty of qualifications to replace her. Morgan was a far better strategist; Jet was a far deadlier fighter. Nightwalker possessed a wealth of experience that Effie lacked, while Seishan was a better ruler. Kai was both more virtuous and more noble. However... none of them could inspire loyalty the same way Effie did. The soldiers of the defending city might have respected and admired the members of the cohort, but they loved Effie. They drew strength from her presence — not only in a mystical way, but also quite mundanely. Seeing her raised their morale and gave them hope. And in a besieged city where hope was in short supply, that was more important than anything else.

So, Effie found herself in the leadership role — and, therefore, as the main focus of the King of King’s perilous attention.

That was fine with her, but...

To make things worse, Azarax seemed to be harboring a severe misunderstanding about who the War Maidens were and what the Red Sect stood for.

In his warped mind, the War Maidens were priestesses who had promised themselves to War God, and could therefore be considered his brides. The main covenant of their sect forbade them from surrendering in a battle, and they always fought to the death — so, unless they could retreat undefeated, most War Maidens only ever lost once.

Their first defeat was their death.

Azarax seemingly believed that this covenant was their promise to War God, so he saw the act of subjugating a War Maiden as a slap in the face of a god. And since he considered himself an equal to the gods — or even superior to them — that was something he longed to do.

Of course, he was completely misguided. In truth, while the current avatar of War God was indeed a man — a male dragon, to be precise — the Red Sect was far more ancient than him.

At the time of its foundation at the dawn of time, the avatar of War had in fact been a human woman. Therefore, the War Maidens did not promise themselves to War God as brides — they strived to forge themselves in her image.

That was the promise they made, and that was why they were forbidden from surrendering alive — not because choosing a peaceful resolution instead of battle would mean being unfaithful to War, their divine patron.

Effie had known that since her time in the Second Nightmare, but Azarax had no idea, and did not seem to care about the truth. All he cared about was conquering the arrogant War Maiden... in fact, as time went on, it almost seemed like he cared about that more than he did about conquering the city.

That was one of the reasons why the city still stood.

Holding her breath, Effie ignored Azarax’s question and summoned her spear.

It was time to face the Plague of Steel once more.

The ocean of steel parted like a sea, and just in a split second later, Azarax was already upon her. He breached the distance between them in the blink of an eye, moving even faster than his axe had at the start of the battle. There was no weapon in his hands, but it didn’t matter. Considering how horrifyingly strong Azarax was, his fists were as devastating as great meteors.

Now, too, one of them flashed toward Effie at astonishing speed — arriving sooner than the roaring thunderclap caused by his lightning-quick lunge did.

However, instead of striking her armor, it only struck a whirlwind of white sparks. Effie’s colossal size was a tremendous boon in most battles, but when fighting someone as mighty as Azarax, it was a fatal vulnerability. So, she dismissed her Transcendent form as soon as he moved, assuming the shape of a normal — albeit very tall — woman.

The Plague Steel flashed through the whirlwind of essence sparks and crashed into the wall of the city, making its entire expanse quake. A split second later, he had already pushed himself off its surface and lunged downward, landing on the bloody soil near Effie with a resounding boom.

The ground split beneath him, seeping with blood it had absorbed.

Both of them were immediately caught in an invisible vice.

For Effie, it felt as if a mountain fell on her shoulders. The burden pressed her down, forcing her to grit her teeth — at the same time, her heart was overwhelmed by a debilitating feeling of dread. That was the presence of the King of Kings suffocating her with the help of his Aspect.

Azarax himself, however, was not doing any better. That was because now that he was beneath the walls of the city, he was within the boundary of the Mason King’s Domain — and therefore, his own Will was being suppressed by it.

Usually, a Supreme would not want to be caught in the enemy’s Domain, cut off from most of his power... but Azarax did not care. He believed himself to be strong enough — he was strong enough — to crush any enemy even while being suppressed.

The warriors of the steel horde hurried to get as far away from their own Supreme as they could, creating a vast open space around him and Effie. Straightening, Azarax looked at her and smiled darkly.

“Good... it seems I finally taught you not to look down at me, priestess.”