Shadow Slave

The battle of the three bridges had started from a stunning explosion of violence, and as it progressed, the carnage only grew more dreadful. Facing the fallen immortals of the Eternal City, Sunny felt as if he was finally experiencing what it was like to face him and his Shadow Legion — needless to say, that made him quite uncomfortable.

It did not matter, really, how powerful his shades were or how finely he controlled their movements. The personal skill and valor of his Shadows did not matter either — no matter how well they fought and how many enemies they killed, the fallen immortals inevitably returned to life and dove back into combat, their hideous flesh bulging with lethal tendrils and morphing into terrible maws.

’The shades themselves could not be destroyed, but it took them much longer to return to the battlefield after being vanquished. So, time was not on Sunny’s side. With a subtle shudder, he fully realized that his eventual defeat was inevitable — sooner or later, the citizens of the Eternal City would completely obliterate the Shadow Legion and consume him. There was simply no escape. .If he played by the rules, of course, which Sunny had no intention of doing. Why follow the rules and lose when he could cheat and win?

’It’s still a little disturbing, though.’

His own intent and ability to deal with the immortal prisoners of the Eternal City were a stark reminder that Sunny was not invincible, either. His shades were indestructible, true —but only until he met a being disinclined to follow the rules, as well.

’Immortality is really a curse.”

Or at least it could become one.

On each of the three bridges, his shades were trying to achieve the same result through different means.

Saints and her soldiers had built an impregnable wall and steadily weathered the flood of hungry flesh, Slayer and her beasts hunted down the enemies in the snow, while the defenders of the Dark Castle unleashed a storm of ranged attacks on the ghastly abominations — but their end goal was the same. Minimize their losses and gradually restrain the enemy until the Dream Curse takes hold. Defense, offense, and a combination of both.

On the western bridge, the Black Millipedes had flanked the fallen immortals, who were now caught between them and Slayer’s main force. The murderous Shadow herself had spent her quiver of powerful enchanted arrows and leaped into battle, assuming the form of a bizarre beast whose colossal body and long tail were covered by impenetrable scales, and who could tum into an armored ball.

The scales turned out to be all but indestructible—the tendrils of the fallen immortals, at least, failed to pierce them, while the immortals themselves were easily crushed by the rolling beast or tom apart by its sharp claws after it unfurled its giant body.

Serpent moved in their midst, as well, shifting between various forms...

On the middle bridge, the Dark Castle was steadily moving forward. Mimic was merely a Transcendent Shadow, but it was currently augmented by one of Sunny’s incarnations — so, its walls had tuned durable enough to withstand the glancing attacks of the fallen immortals, even if just barely.

Most of the abominations were tom to shreds by the ranged attacks of the defenders before reaching the castle, but in the end, many of them inevitably began to scale the walls. Reaching the battlements, they were met by the shadows of Daeron and the human Saints, cut down, and swallowed by black chains.

In front of the marching castle, on the bridge, the Defiled Seeker of Truth expelled clouds of deadly miasma, the Remnant of the Jade Queen breathed out torrents of caustic volcanic ash, while Goliath gazed upon the rushing abominations, washing everything it beheld in immolating heat.

On the eastern bridge, a wall of black chitin was refusing to buckle under an avalanche of hungry flesh. The Asuras of Condemnation and the bestial horrors of Godrave advanced through the breaches in the phalanx of monstrous millipedes, crushing and severing the bodies of the fallen immortals. Fiend rampaged in front of the defensive formation, serving as its vanguard.

Saints herself, meanwhile, had carved a bloody path to advance forward. Surrounded by grotesque horrors of the Eternal City from all sides, she calmly activated the [Shield of Nothing] and descended upon the abominable creatures, moving under a veil of true darkness.

Sunny and the Puppeteer controlled all three armies, tensely observing the changing currents of the battle.

”This... is a problem.’

The fallen immortals were powerful, and there were a lot of them. Not all of these abominations had been humans once, either there were bestial horrors among them, as well, each like a moving abyss of abhorrent, murderous flesh. However, Sunny had managed to bridge the divide between the Shadow Legion and the dwellers of the Eternal City with skill, strategy, and cohesion of his silent troops.

The problem, however, was in the nature of this battle. Killing the enemies only slowed them down a little, and to truly deal with them, they had to be restrained and eventually infected by the Dream Curse. But while temporarily destroying the body of a fallen immortal was a task that an individual shade could accomplish, restraining them required continuous efforts of at least a couple of shades.

Which meant that with each adversary Sunny neutralized, the number of his soldiers diminished - even if none of them were vanquished.

Something had to change.

And soon, it did.

Just as Saint was finally forced to move back on the eastern bridge... a powerful explosion rocked it, and dozens of immortals in front of her were tom to pieces. A moment later, another explosion bloomed, and a powerful shockwave sent the enemy reeling.

That was the Night Garden, sailing at the edge of the invisible barrier that protected the Eternal City while circling it from the east.

As they left the Wharf and passed the island, a perfect view of the eastern bridge and the battle happening on it opened to the right of the living ship.

Which meant that its starboard cannons had a direct line of fire, and could unleash a devastating bombardment on the attacking immortals.

There were no firing crews and Ascended officers on deck to fuel the cannons with essence and load them, though...

So, instead, Sunny loaded and aimed the cannons himself, summoning countless black hands from the shadows, then charged the cannon balls with his own Supreme essence.

As a series of explosions erased swathes of the advancing abominations from the great bridge, Saint and her army advanced swiftly.