Shadow Slave

Lonesome Howl seemed embarrassed, but not particularly concerned by being found out. She shrugged.

“Sorry, but you saw it yourself. We would have been gone if it weren’t for Asterion. Oh, and by the way... he has a message for you.”

Seishan lowered her head faintly, gritting her teeth. The rest of their sisters — Beastmaster, Moonveil, Death Singer, Silent Stalker — gathered behind her, looking at Lonesome Howl tensely.

Howl chuckled.

“The Citadel is gone, so you are homeless now. Asterion thinks that a Saint like you should not be without a Citadel, Seishan. So, he commands you to conquer the Jade Palace, instead.”

She smiled.

”It should have been yours, anyway. You should have inherited it from our mother instead of surrendering it to a stranger.”

Seishan glared at her and uttered through gritted teeth:

”Since when...”

But Lonesome Howl interrupted her in an easy tone:

“Oh, Lord Asterion also said that his plans had to change. He is not satisfied simply waiting anymore — he wants to act and take the Citadels of the Human Domain even if their masters have not seen the light yet.”

He meant that the Saints whom he had already enthralled would have to conquer the Citadels of those whom he had yet to turn to his side.

Seishan cursed quietly.

There had probably never been an order from Kai. Lonesome Howl had just wanted to lure them away from the refugees, for some nefarious reason.

It was a trap.

But that did not mean that they could not escape from that trap.

‘What am I going to do with Howl? Cassia... Cassia should be able to help, as long as we subdue her.’

”Moonveil, use...”

She was interrupted for the second time. This time, it wasn’t because Lonesome Howl spoke over her.

Instead, it was because a cold blade plunged into her back.

Seishan moved on pure instinct, wrenching the knife away from the hand that held it and dashing away. Through the pain of the sudden wound, she saw her sisters — all five of them — looking at her with regret and apprehension.

Beastmaster, who had just leaned down to pick up a bloodied dagger, sighed.

“Relax, Shan. We weren’t really going to hurt you. We just need to subdue you... it’s for your own good.”

Moonveil nodded.

”You should know by now. We can’t defeat Asterion — in fact, we shouldn’t. Now that Mordret has gone insane, he is our only hope. While Changing Star and Lord of Shadows simply abandoned us. Don’t resist, please... and everything will be fine.”

Death Singer smiled joyfully.

”We’re all going to live for a long, long time!”

Seishan remained motionless, dazed.

How could...

How could this have happened?

They had all been themselves during the battle. They all knew the threat Asterion represented.

‘He must have done something.’

The Dreamspawn was changing his plans, and the Song sisters seemed to be an important part of his new scheme. So, he must have targeted her sisters especially, using their fatigue and hopelessness caused by the crushing defeat at the hands of Mordret to sway them to his side.

‘Am I... the only one left?’

Seishan had not been rattled by the deep wound on her back, but at that moment, she felt her blood run cold.

She hoped that Revel was safe.

Taking a careful step back, Seishan glanced at her sisters with unease.

“Snap out of it, you fools. I am not going to say it twice.”

When they were little kids, this stern tone usually got them to behave. Seishan was not older than the rest of her sisters, but she had played the mother role in their close-knit group of orphan girls. She had been their leader, all those years ago... and they looked up to her still.

But the bond they shared did not seem to matter anymore.

Beastmaster sighed.

”I am sorry, Shan. I really am. But... you will understand soon...”

They lunged at her.

The breathtaking moons shone upon the desolate plain, and the nearby canyons roared as mystical rivers rushed through them.

On that night, Seishan — the Lost Princess of Song — spilled the blood of her sisters. Their battle was short and ferocious, its harrowing violence leaving deep scars on the surface of the rocky plain. Seishan’s sisters were skilled and powerful — they were the best of the best, in fact, more than worthy of being heirs of the Great Clan Song.

But she was stronger, more skilled, and far more ruthless.

More than that, she was the one who had inherited the core of Beast God’s Lineage from their mother... [The Blood].

And by inheriting it, she had also inherited power over all the rest who had Beast God’s blood in their veins.

So, in the end, her sisters lay on the ground, bleeding, but Seishan was still standing. Barely standing, but not on her knees.

She swayed, raising a trembling hand to wipe the blood off her face.

Her mind was empty.

‘I am going to lose, aren’t I?’

Her sisters were broken and battered, but they were still alive. That was because she couldn’t bring herself to kill them.

And because she couldn’t kill them, they were going to bring her down eventually.

”Help...”

Beastmaster’s voice was weak.

Seishan shuddered.

”Bin!”

She staggered toward Beastmaster and fell to her knees near her, full of guilt and concern.

Then, she slapped her sister across the face.

”Don’t you try that with me. Get out of my head!”

The guilt, the concern — all of it was nothing but a mental attack disguised as a flood of genuine emotions. Seishan knew that the wounds she had dealt to the gorgeous enchantress were not deadly. Beastmaster grinned weakly.

“Or what? What will you do?”

Seishan raised a hand, her nails extending to turn into sharp claws.

But she never brought it down. Beastmaster, meanwhile, reached forward and thrust her fingers into a ghastly wound on Seishan’s side, tearing it open.

”What can you do, Shan? Give it up... or kill us. One or the other — there is nothing else you can do.”

She was right.

Seishan could not even escape, because a few of her sisters were much faster than she was.

She stared down at Beastmaster, her claws still hovering above her sister’s throat.

All Seishan needed to do was slash across Beastmaster’s delicate neck once. If she wanted to escape, she needed to deal with her sisters. Otherwise, a fate worse than death awaited her.

They had all been taken by Asterion already, anyway.

But her hand refused to move.

In the end, Seishan glanced at the three radiant moons and laughed.

Then, she sobbed.

“I’m just like our mother, in the end...”

Lowering her hand, Seishan bent down and pressed her forehead against the ground.

”I can’t, I can’t... I can’t kill them...”

She surrendered.