Shadow Slave

The shimmering city was cut from the gigantic pillars of stone, some rising from the white mist on the floor of the continent-sized cavern, some hanging from the impenetrable darkness that hid its ceiling — as such, it had no wall and no gate.

The vast expanse of the great river, hidden under the billowing clouds of nothingness, served as its moat. Additionally, there were layered ramparts and battlements on the outer ring of stalagmites, high above the swirling mist. Even higher, the outer stalactites were encircled by defensive fortifications too.

In case of an assault, the defenders of the city could unleash an endless hail of arrows and projectiles on the attacking adversary, and even if one of the great stalagmites was conquered, advancing further into the city would become a nightmarish trial for the audacious foe.

Not only would the conquerors remain perfectly exposed to ranged attacks from above, but the vertical districts of the city were only connected by aerial bridges, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. The magnificent city was a natural fortress.

But that was only in case of an ordinary ground assault, naturally. Any besieging army would have to brave the rapid currents of the great river that rushed toward the titanic waterfall first, not to mention the tides of nothingness.

Even then, Sunny had a suspicion that the Stone Saints had not been worried about ordinary enemies when building their city. The foes they had faced here in the Underworld were beings of a different nature — the eerie creatures that dwelled in the darkness. And among those, how many even had feet?

The notion of a ground assault was meaningless in the Underworld. And it was especially meaningless for a city that stood above the Abyss.

The great chasm beyond the capital of Nether’s kingdom did not only lead to the deepest stratum of the Underworld. Somewhere there, far below, hid the Abyss —a vast, bottomless pit of elemental darkness that connected the Underworld to the Shadow Realm.

Nobody knew what hid in the Abyss. Perhaps even Nether had not known its secrets — in fact, Sunny had a strong suspicion that the very reason the Demon of Destiny had built his laboratory on the edge of the great chasm was to study the dark mysteries of the Abyss. The city grew around his citadel much later.

A dark and unfathomable creature that rose from the Abyss easily wiped out the settlement Nephis had created in her Second Nightmare. That was the kind of adversary the Stone Saints had fought.

Today, however, they were going to fight Sunny, Nephis, and Saint.

The three of them approached the city openly.

In the past, specially enchanted boats and barges must have braved the swirling mist to approach the peers of the magnificent city, pushing nothingness away — they were long gone now, so Nephis simply summoned her wings and soared into the air. Her skin swelled with a gorgeous radiance, and a radiant white sword appeared in her hand. Saint turned into a torrent of darkness, taking Sunny — one of his incarnations, at least — with her. The second manifested a pair of black wings and rushed after Nephis, following her radiant light.

Neither Sunny nor Saint were visible, hidden from view by the vast expanse of impenetrable darkness. So, from a distance, it looked like a lonely white star was flying toward the ancient city, shining blindingly in the lightless abyss.

In response to her radiant challenge, there was movement on the battlements of the outer stalagmites.

Even from a distance, Sunny saw innumerable figures, which had looked like statues before, slowly coming to life and turning their heads to gaze at Nephis. Those were Stone Saints — thousands of them, all consumed by the appalling plague of Corruption.

They stood on the ramparts of the outer stalagmites, and glanced down from the shooting galleries that circled the stalactites as well. Even from a great distance, Sunny could feel the rabid malevolence of their collective malice, washing over the world like a tide.

‘There are dozens of Great abominations among them.’

His expression turned concerned.

But it was not even the Saints of Tainted Jade that concerned him. Instead, it was a single gaze that slammed into him from afar, threatening to crush his Will. It was the gaze of the Great Titan that reigned over the fallen city, and unlike the gazes of the Tainted Saints, it was not coming from the ramparts of the outer districts.

Instead, it came from the levitating citadel of the Demon of Destiny.

Sunny glanced at the dark spires of the magnificent structure that hovered above the Abyss. His eyes narrowed slightly. There, on a protruding platform that faced the city, he could see a human form. From that distance, though, an actual human would have looked no bigger than an ant. Which meant that the figure he was looking at was hundreds of meters tall.

Sunny frowned, realizing who the adversary was.

‘I’ll... be damned.’

In the past, he had assumed the form of the Jade Titan — a member of the Stone Saint race who was Supreme and also possessed seven soul cores. For a long time, that being was purely theoretical, existing only as a manifestation of Sunny’s abilities.

But now, it seemed, he was about to encounter the real deal. A Child of Nether who had been a Supreme Titan once, but had since succumbed to Corruption — possibly even one of the seven who had received the Mantles of the Underworld from the Demon of Destiny.

A dangerous foe, to say the least.

The Jade Titan was perilous, but thousands of lesser Tainted Saints were not a minor threat, either.

‘Damn it.’

Sunny gritted his teeth, knowing that the battle was going to be a vicious one.

Ahead of him, the Tainted Saints on one of the stalagmites raised their bows, ready to unleash a hail of arrows at the approaching spirit of light. However, before they could, Nephis thrust the Blessing forward.

A blinding ray of pure white light breached the lightless abyss, sweeping across the ramparts. An ocean of stone dust and white flames exploded outward, and a portion of the battlements plummeted into the swirling mist in a cloud of debris, littered with broken figures of the Tainted Saints. Just a few seconds later, Sunny and Saint dove into the dust cloud, landing on the cracked surface of a wide plaza.

Sunny glanced at Saint, his expression grim.

“We’ll handle the Titan. You take care of his army.”

Saint glanced at him with her usual taciturn indifference, then nodded lightly.

In the next moment, her shadow boiled, and a legion of stone warriors rose from it.