Shadow Slave

As an accomplished cook, Sunny knew that countless dishes could be made from the same ingredients.

War was no different. In this battle, for example, three contingents of the Shadow Legion had initially faced three swarms of corrupted immortals. Their strength was roughly equal, so neither side could crush the other. Once he moved the ingredients around, however, the situation changed completely. Slayer moved to reinforce Saint, vanquishing one of the swarms. Then, both of them descended upon the abominations besieging the Dark Castle — it did not take long to subdue them. The immortals whom Slayer had abandoned in the frigid embrace of the terrifying blizzard had crossed the bridge and entered the park by the time the battle exhausted itself...

But by then, the full force of the Shadow Legion and four incarnations of its malevolent commander were facing the remaining one third of the enemy swarm. More were crossing from the north, attracted by the bloodshed of battle, but their number was not sufficient to change anything.

”Wipe them out.”

Saint, Slayer, Serpent, Fiend, and the shadow of Daeron led the sea of silent shadows into an all-out attack. For a short while, the beautiful park turned into a shattered, broken wasteland where a furious battle was seething and roiling under the undulating black sky...

But soon enough, it was pristine and beautiful again.

The battle was over.

The fallen immortals were defeated and subdued, slowly succumbing to the Dream Curse. Their bodies were being carried into the great maw of the Dark Castle, disappearing from view. Those shades that were not restraining the abominations or moving them assembled into a defensive formation facing north, ready to repel the stragglers wandering into the park from the next island over. The Wharf Island, the Park Island, the Leisure Island, the Residential Island... and the Lighthouse Island, as well. All of them belonged to Sunny now.

Not that it mattered anymore.

Turning into a human atop the walls of the Dark Castle, Sunny inhaled deeply and looked north, at the distant silhouette of the Palace.

”There is only one place that matters, now.”

His expression turned somber.

Even if he cut a straight line from his current territory to the heart of the Eternal City, he would have to conquer three or four more islands. Of course, going in a straight line was impossible — the immortals from the neighboring island would flank and surround the Shadow Legion, swiftly reducing its numbers to zero.

So, if he wanted to reach the Palace in full force, he would have to slowly and methodically lay siege to at least a dozen more islands, taking the entire southem half of the Eternal City under control.

Naturally, there was no time for that.

”Damn it.”

It seemed like he was not destined to lead a conventional military campaign, after all. He would have to pull off a trick once again, only on a much larger scale than usual this time.

His three incarnations appeared on the wall near him, each wearing a dark expression.

”That... really is unfortunate.”

”Huh? Not having to wage an endless battle against a myriad of eternal abominations is unfortunate?”

”Well, when you put it like that...”

”Who has time to fight myriads of eternal abominations when there are myriads of murderous ghosts to fight instead, anyway?” ”Right?”

”Right...”

”Does it seem like a good time to have a chat, fools?”

Sunny looked at the various vessels of himself and grinned.

”Hurry up and go. Try to find a museum, or something.”

Three of his incarnations grinned, as well, and dissolved into the shadows. Using Shadow Step to move as swift as possible, they each went to one of the three neighboring islands. One jumped between various shops and establishments on the Leisure Island, one searched the most opulent manors on, the Residential Island, and the last one searched the warehouses and offices of the Wharf Island.

Anything that looked remotely valuable was immediately pulled into his Soul Sea.

Sunny smiled faintly and let out a satisfied sigh.

”Ah... pillaging. It really is the best.”

Then, the smile drained slowly from his face. Looking down, he said:

”Move.”

Far below, the Shadow Legion marched forward. At the same time, the Dark Castle stirred and abandoned the hill it had been standing on. Following the orderly rows of silent shades, it crawled north, as well.

As they advanced north, toward the distant edge of the island, more immortals coming from the inner islands attacked them — of course, there were far too few of them to pose a threat to the Shadow Legion. In fact, most of them were taken down by Sunny’s Shadows before even reaching the vanguard of his eerily quiet army. The main mass of the corrupted immortals had not left the islands where they dwelled. More importantly, a great number of them had migrated north to fight the wraith army of the Dutchman and east to fight the mysterious nightmare creature because Sunny arrived last, the pressure on him and his forces was lessened.

That was why he had not been swarmed and buried under a tidal wave of horrid flesh yet.

Still, by the time the Shadow Legion reached the northem edge of the island, the series of brief skirmishes it had been fighting turned into an uninterrupted stream of attacks. There were still too few of the fallen immortals to pose a serious risk to the silent shades, but already enough to make Sunny return to augmenting the Puppeteer.

And there were even more of them crossing the bridge, which promised nothing but trouble.

That was before something collided with the surface bridge at terrible speed, of course, causing a devastating shockwave to roll in all directions.

A moment later, the second cannonball impacted against the bridge, turning a dozen abominations into a crimson haze.

’The Puppeteer — and Sunny as well- cast his gaze west.

There, the edges of the Park Island were suddenly illuminated by brilliant starlight.

Sunny smiled mentally.

’Our boat has arrived...”