Shadow Slave

The sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon, and the world was painted by a million shades of dark crimson. In that fiery blaze, the endless sea of white dunes seemed to be drowning in blood. The eastern sky was already submerged in deep shadows, and the suffocating heat of the desert was slowly surrendering to the tyranny of cold winds.

Sunny and Nephis ascended to the deck of the Chain Breaker, ready for battle. He walked to the railing and jumped down, landing on the sand softly. A moment later, Nephis landed next to him.

Rotating his shoulder to loosen his muscles, Sunny sighed and looked east. There, six figures were waiting for him motionlessly, their silhouettes countered against the crimson sky like black statues.

They were, of course, none other than Sunny himself. After a long time apart, all seven of his incarnations were finally reunited.

Smiling darkly, Sunny headed toward his avatars.

“Funny meeting you here, gentlemen. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Another avatar sighed and shook his head.

“Talking to yourself again? You know, this joke was funny the first few hundred times, but now, it’s just tacky. We should really put it out of its misery.”

A different avatar frowned in indignation.

“Hey, funny is funny. That joke is not overdone — it’s a classic.”

Another nodded in solidarity.

“Yeah. You are just jealous because, unlike us, you can’t pull it off.”

The first incarnation stared at him in disbelief.

“We are literally the same person. What exactly can’t I pull off that you can?”

Reaching the six avatars, Sunny shook his head.

“Shut up, fools.”

They looked at him somberly.

“Who are you calling a fool, you fool? There are six of us and one of you. What are you going to do if we don’t, huh?”

Sunny grinned.

Nephis, meanwhile, observed the scene with a strange expression.

Eventually, she turned to the original Sunny and spoke in a neutral tone:

“The dead are going to rise soon. Are you ready?”

He shrugged.

“As ready as I can be, I guess.”

With that, Sunny regarded the Nightmare Desert with a dark expression.

One of his avatars sighed.

“This place offends me.”

A different incarnation nodded.

“Yes. I am supposed to be the Sovereign of Death, after all. But lo and behold… there is an entire horde of beings here who have cheated death.”

Another one scratched the back of his head.

“Well, to be fair, it is more like they have been cheated out of death. Shadow God’s curse, and all that.”

Sunny grimaced.

“I guess we will have to deal with the mess Shadow God left behind.”

Nephis interrupted the banter in a serious tone:

“The deathless will begin rising from the sand soon. They won’t pay attention to us — at least not immediately — but getting past them without being annihilated will be impossible. We will have to fight our way through, and soon after we involve ourselves in the battle, both sides will most likely endeavor to destroy us.”

She paused for a moment, and then added: “Luckily, it is not all bad news. I did not make it far into the Nightmare Desert as a Sleeper, but since I was travelling during the day, I had a chance to observe the Deathless across various parts of the desert. Here on its outskirts, they are not that strong… which makes sense, once you think about it as an ancient battlefield. The elite troops are buried closer to the heart of the desert, where the curse of Shadow God fell upon them. Only the weakest troops remained in the rear.”

She inhaled deeply.

Of course, their weakness is relative. To a Sleeper, each of the countless undead seemed like an unimaginable, insurmountable obstacle… and even for a Supreme, they won’t be simple to defeat. Nevertheless, our goal today is to get as far into the desert as we can. At the same time, we must use this opportunity to learn how to fight the Deathless. Because once we draw closer to the Tomb of Ariel, we’ll have to face the true champions.”

Sunny looked at her, then turned to face the Nightmare Desert.

“Remind me again, why don’t we just fly the Chain Breaker above them and hide in the clouds?”

Nephis shook her head.

“Because the Deathless are capable of erasing the stars in the night sky… destroying one flying ship won’t be difficult for them. Once one takes to the sky, they expose themselves to danger — after all, there is nothing to take cover behind in the sky. There is no ground to push against, either, which means that there are very few ways to arrest your momentum. In short, you’re a sitting duck… well, a flying duck, I suppose.”

She looked at him and sighed.

“Plus… there’s no clouds.”

Sunny regarded her silently for a moment.

“What the hell is a… no, wait. A duck. I actually know that one.”

Looking up, Nephis remained silent for a moment, and then said in a somber tone:

“I doubt that I’ll be able to stay in the air myself… at least not for long. But we’ll see. Fortunately, I am far more durable than the Chain Breaker.”

She turned to Sunny and finished calmly: “Needless to say, the Deathless cannot be killed. They cannot even be destroyed, really… however, they can be damaged severely enough to be neutralized, for a while.”

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

“In that sense, I guess your excursion into the Eternal City was good training for the Nightmare Desert.”

Sunny grimaced.

“How come every second adversary I meet can’t be killed these days… well, actually, I can hardly be killed myself. I guess there’s a balance.”

By then, the sun was already halfway hidden behind the horizon.

The sands were moving, as if the entire desert was coming alive.

Of course, it was the opposite — there was an army of the dead rising from its depths. Sunny looked ahead with a grim expression.

“Let’s get this party started, then.”