Shadow Slave

It was growing near, the moment Sunny feared.

He did not really care if Valor won or lost. All he cared about was making sure that there were enough Awakened left alive in the aftermath of the battle to continue defending the siege capitals across Antarctica until the winter solstice.

But for that, he needed Clan Song to be defeated in a swift and decisive fashion. Which didn’t seem to be possible anymore… in fact, from what he saw, the most probable result of the battle was the one he had wanted to avoid at all costs— mutual destruction.

The forces of Song were going to win, but the closer they came to victory, the more furiously the warriors of Valor would fight. In the end, it was going to be a massacre.

…Unless Morgan had something planned.

But what could it be?

’Damn it, damn it…’

Sunny could think of only one way to quickly break the tide of the battle — eliminate Beastmaster. But the alluring Saint was hidden from his sight, and so, he couldn’t even attempt to attack her.

In the absence of the real target, there was a secondary goal he wanted to achieve. It was not something that his calculating mind had deemed the most beneficial in the current situation, but simply something he desired.

Sunny did not want to see Saint Tyris die.

So, he was intending to help her. Maybe that would force Beasmaster to keep suppressing Sky Tide without switching to other targets, as well…

Currently, Sunny was in the very thick of the furious melee between the two armies. There were swords flashing and blood spilling on all sides, the terrible cacophony of the battle assaulting his ears at the same time as the vile ugliness of it all assaulted his eyes. Numerous Aspects were turning the somber Antarctic plain into a feverish nightmare, and the overcast sky was on the verge of unleashing a heavy rain.

In front of him, an Ascended of Clan Song easily cut down a valiant Awakened of Clan Valor. He had noticed her a long time ago as she moved across the battlefield, leaving a trail of blood and death in her wake. The woman’s Aspect seemed to do with manipulating blood — a stream of it spiraled around her like a scarlet ribbon, sometimes shooting forward to pierce the heavy armor of her enemies as if it was paper.

Their eyes met for a moment, and then, the Ascended lunged into an attack.

Sunny was faster.

He easily dodged the scarlet ribbon, dashed forward, and deflected her sword. A split Sunny cursed, then sent essence into his legs to give them some explosive strength, broke through the bindings, and bent backwards to dodge the javelin.

As a result, he avoided the attack, but ended up rolling over his shoulder.

When he hit the ground, though, it felt… wrong.

’What the hell?’

Sunny felt something cold and slithering move across his palm. Looking down, he saw a thin, grey worm crawling across it, with pieces of soil sticking to its translucent body.

The sight of it was naturally disgusting, but more than that, it suddenly filled Sunny with fear.

He gazed at the spot that he had touched to exit the roll and shivered.

The soil… was moving, countless worms crawling out of it like flesh maggots.

It was not just that small patch of ground, either.

All around them, the battlefield seemed to be… rippling. The ground was seething like a liquid, full of these thin, grey worms…

Suddenly, Sunny felt very cold.

His mind froze for a brief moment.

It could have been a manifestation of a powerful Aspect Ability… but the scale of it was too great to come from anyone except for a Saint.

There were no Saints with these kinds of powers on the battlefield, though.

His eyes widened.

’The… the... the Titan?’