Shadow Slave

The final battle of the last war had begun.

It was the final battle because neither side was willing to retreat, and it was the last war because no matter which side won, humanity was doomed to be destroyed by the victor.

Most of the soldiers fighting for the Hunger Domain did not know that, of course, and those who did were incapable of rebelling against their Sovereign. Were incapable of feeling rebellious, even, their minds poisoned and twisted by the insidious power of the Dreamspawn.

The battle began slowly, as if both armies were stretching their titanic bodies before throwing themselves into the fight.

On the islands surrounding the great chasm of the Tear, the boundless army of the Hunger Domain was slowly assembling into seven assault formations. The beautiful silhouette of the Ivory Island loomed in the Sky Above, and on the opposite side of the chasm, the Night Garden was prowling in the Sky Below.

There were seven titanic chains that connected the Ebony Tower to the rest of the Chain Isles, drawn taut as they stretched across the vast expanse of the Tear. If the aerial assault failed, the warriors of humanity would have to stage a seven-pronged attack, advancing toward the enemy’s last stronghold across these chains.

The chains were truly colossal, each one as wide as a great bridge, but they still offered limited space — especially considering the size of the creatures that would clash atop them. In a battle like this one, seven powerful combatants could stop an entire army.

Of course, the besieging army had powerful combatants of their own, so it would not be stopped.

On one of the islands, Seishan was preparing to lead her warriors to victory. Somewhere else, Morgan of Valor was looking at the distant silhouette of the Ebony Tower, her scarlet eyes shining with a cold, sharp killing intent. Wake of Ruin was observing the darkness of the great chasm with a somber expression. On a different island, Old Jest was trying to come up with a joke…

He was drawing a blank, though. That had never happened to him before, but after he finally saw the light and accepted the Dreamspawn as his Lord, the world didn’t seem that funny anymore, for some reason. There were Saints of storied Legacy Clans, like White Feather or Aegis Rose, and those who had risen to fame in recent years as well. There were countless warriors of lesser Ranks, too.

Among them were the Fire Keepers, the Blood Sisters, the Wolves, the Night Singers, and countless other Awakened forces, renowned or not.

On one of the islands, an ordinary Awakened warrior sighed and thrust his sword into the ground, then leaned his shield against it. His name was Yutra, and his arms were tired from holding the weapons. He could have dismissed them, of course, but what if there was some kind of ambush?

Dying while your Memories were manifesting was a very frustrating way to go…

“When are they going to start?”

The Awakened near him seemed to share his thoughts.

Yutra glanced over and scrunched his brow.

“Hey…”

His eyes suddenly glistened with excitement that he couldn’t quite explain.

“Uh… don’t I know you?”

The Awakened stared at him with a scowl.

“What the… huh? Wait, you do seem familiar. Have we met before?”

Yutra tried to remember where he had seen the man, but before he could, a third voice interrupted his thoughts:

“Do both of you suffer from dementia, by any chance?”

The one speaking was a woman with grim eyes, a bit younger than both of them, leaning on a spear a few meters away.

“That’s Tegrot, and I’m Rit. We all met at that quarantine facility.”

Yutra’s eyes shone.

“Right! We were there together. It’s just that our memories were wiped, so I couldn’t quite remember.”

Rit scoffed quietly.

“The last shift wasn’t wiped, was it? We all sat near each other when Lady Cassia announced that the facility was closing.”

Tegrot suddenly grinned.

“Yeah! You’re Yutra. You’re the one who brought out the synthbeer during the farewell party!”

He shook his head in amazement.

“What are the chances, huh?”

All three of them looked to the distant, dark silhouette of the Ebony Tower. After a long stretch of silence, Rit sighed.

“Kinda hard to believe, right? That we’re about to storm the lair of the King of Nothing. Do you think that it’s true… what they are saying about Lady Cassia? That she betrayed us and is serving that monster now?”

Tegrot looked away with a dark expression.

“If it is, I guess we’ll be helping kill her today.”

Yutra studied them for a few moments, then shook his head.

“What are you talking about? Don’t listen to anyone who calls our lady a traitor. Those people are all fools. She was obviously kidnapped by that sick bastard and is being held captive by him, forced to help him against her will… so we are not helping kill her. We are going to defeat the King of Nothing and rescue her, okay?”

Rit seemed to feel better after hearing that. She nodded, and then smiled tentatively.

“Yeah. Lord Asterion won’t let anything bad happen to her. I’m sure of it.”

Tegrot, meanwhile, studied the sky.

“Look. They’re starting.”

High above them, and all around them, the siege of the Ebony Tower was indeed starting.

The cannons of the Night Garden thundered in the distance, as if a great storm had descended upon the Chained Isles, and a dark haze of arrows fell down from the heavenly shores of the Ivory Island.

On the ground, as well, those who could send a projectile flying across the great dark chasm were raising their bows, hoisting their javelins up, spinning their slings, or summoning the awesome powers of their Aspects. There were not too many of them, but most were of the Transcendent Rank — so, when they unleashed the first volley, the sight of it was humbling and terrifying to behold.

And that was before the two Supremes entered the battle personally, at that.

A cold wind blew across the world, making Yutra sway and hurriedly pick up his weapons.

He lowered the visor of his helmet and sighed.

“Gods. It’s like the world is coming to an end.”

Tegrot nodded slowly.

“Yeah…”

He remained silent for a few moments, and then shrugged.

“But that’s what… fourth, fifth time we witnessed the world coming to an end? I am not going to lie, watching the world end gets old pretty quickly.”

Yutra laughed.

“True. But, hey, at least we’re in good company this time. You know, I’m really glad to have run into you two, for some reason…”

On the other side of the Tear, Mordret and Cassie watched the cloud of arrows descend upon them while devastating cannonballs were barreling at them from the other side. The Ebony Island was much larger than the Ivory Island, and its vast and desolate expanse was currently flooded by the vessels of the King of Nothing. Cassie was in front of the great tower, standing in the runic circle she herself had carved into the weathered obsidian.

Mordret — his original vessel — was nearby, having donned a suit of intricate black armor and summoned an eerie spear with a long, leaf-shaped blade. The somber steel of the blade was polished and reflected the world upon itself, glistening dimly in the golden radiance of dawn.

Leaning on the spear, Mordret was observing the great army of humanity with an amused smile playing on his lips.

“I guess the old man wants to do things properly.”

He looked at the seven figures that were arrayed in front of them, each facing him with an absent expression.

Those figures were his Reflections — each of them a Supreme Beast, at least.

Mordret created the Reflections out of his own soul cores, so each of them was born of the same Rank as him. In a sense, the process was not that different from his Transformation Ability — the ability to splinter his soul to possess multiple vessels at the same time.

However, the Reflections were independent beings. They possessed the unique ability to mirror other creatures, which Mordret himself lacked, but perhaps even more importantly than that, they could grow and evolve over the course of their lives. That meant that even if they were born the same Rank as their creator, they could rise in both Rank and Class.

In fact, they had a much easier time attaining higher Ranks than Mordret himself, because they were creatures, not humans. All they had to do was absorb the essence of other beings. The slower, much more difficult way to do so was to thoroughly reflect and embody the being they were mirroring, slowly assimilating its essence.

The easier and faster way was simply to kill living beings and absorb their spark, not too different from how humans absorbed soul fragments by shattering the souls of Nightmare Creatures, or received them directly by killing other humans.

Or how the Nightmare Creatures absorbed souls by slaughtering all living things.

That quality of the Reflections had often served Mordret in the past, allowing him to command servants more powerful than he was. However, it had become quite difficult to nurture his Reflections after he became a Supreme.

That was for one simple reason… there had been great amounts of Dormant, Awakened, Ascended or Fallen, and even Transcendent or Corrupted beings for his servants to slaughter before. However, there were very few Supreme or Great beings in the world — not enough of them to fuel the growth of the Reflections, at least, especially because the more entrenched in existence a being was, the more they benefited from destroying it.

Much like humans benefitted more when killing humans with fully saturated soul cores, as opposed to recently Awakened greenhorns.

Godgrave had few of such ancient beings left, most of them concentrated in the Spine Ocean, where even the Reflections could be easily destroyed at any moment.

That was the reason why he had failed to make any of his Reflections Sacred, and that was the reason why they were of relatively lower Classes, as well — even if the sum of the soul cores between them had far outgrown the initial seven he had sacrificed to create them.

But even as Supreme, the Reflections were an immensely powerful force.

Especially so because of how versatile they were.

Just before the cannonballs reached the Ebony Island, they exploded in the air, as if having collided with an invisible wall. The same happened to the arrows sent from the Ivory Island, and to the storm of projectiles sent from the neighboring islands.

That was because, at the moment, most of the Reflections assumed the shape of a person Cassie knew quite well — of Rivalen, the noble Saint of the Aegis Rose clan, whose power allowed him to create a wall of ethereal shields around a target or around a place he wanted to protect.

Saint Rivalen was powerful, but not powerful enough to surround the entire Ebony Island with his aegis. The Reflections working in tandem while channeling his Aspect, however?

That was an entirely different conversation. Especially because one of the Reflections — the one that existed longer than the rest, was of a higher Class than the rest, and therefore had the greatest claim at personhood than they had — was not mirroring Saint Rivalen of Aegis Rose. Instead, it was mirroring a different Saint… a far more dangerous Saint.

It was mirroring Cassie.