Shadow Slave

The battle against the Dutchman and his wraith armada was all but over. It ended suddenly and without warning when Jet shattered the Soul of Kanakht from within and cut its master down with her Mist Blade.

At the moment, surrounded by cold mist in her ghostly form, she really did look like the Grim Reaper.

Continuing to pour all of his Will into stitching Nightwalker and his shadow back together, Sunny whistled quietly.

”She really is fine...”

Honestly, it felt great — for once, someone else had pulled off an unexpected and utterly unbelievable, borderline preposterous feat. Sunny was quite happy to be usurped.

”This peculiar mixture of disbelief and elation... is that how people feel when I’m around?”

Maybe it was.

”What are you mumbling about?”

Sunny was pale and covered in cold sweat because of his ghastly burns and the exertion of bending the world to his Will, while Nightwalker looked the same because his soul was being pierced by a literal needle. His voice sounded a bit strained. Sunny flashed him a brief smile.

“It’s Jet. She killed the Dutchman.” Nightwalker blinked a few times.

”That lovely young lady? She destroyed that fiend?”

Sunny chuckled.

”Yes. To everyone outside the Eternal City, that lovely young lady is the fiend.”

She had once been the commanding officer of the Devil, after all.

Sunny sounded nonchalant, but while he wasn’t as stunned as Nightwalker, he was also surprised. Jet was strong, yes, but the most powerful adversary she had defeated before was a Great Devil — and even then, Effie and Kai had aided her. So, he had not expected her to go and outright slay the Dutchman.

She had given them an unexpected gift. There were countless wraiths still left on the battlefield, but now that the Tyrant who commanded them was gone, they became a disorganized mob. The Shadow Legion had already been gaining the upper hand, so now the battle was turning into a slaughter. The sorcery of the Demon of Repose was failing, and as more holes appeared on the surface of the dome, the ruins below were not repairing themselves anymore. The Crushing had destroyed the Eternal City one final time.

Behind Sunny, the Palace was slowly turning into an enormous sphere of jagged scrap metal.

Beyond the Palace...

‘Oh. Damn.’

The entire eastern expanse of the lake was enveloped in white flames and swirling torrents of black dust. Nephis seemed to have unleashed her true Transcendent form, becoming a boundless sea of immolating fire. The maelstrom of flame and dust was revolving furiously, being drawn to the epicenter of the fiery calamity...

Soon, it coalesced into a radiant silhouette that hovered alone above the water, illuminating the darkness with her luminosity.

Nephis seemed to have absorbed the Madness of Kanakht into herself.

That was... one way to deal with the seemingly indestructible Nightmare Creature.

‘Just her style.’

She remained motionless for a few moments, then lowered her head slowly and briefly covered her eyes with an unsteady hand.

Then, her eyes ignited with a pristine, ferocious white light.

Sunny thought that he heard an echo of an inhuman wail.

”I guess that one is dead, as well. Ah. I suddenly feel lazy.”

Sunny was not entirely sure how Nephis had managed to absorb the Madness of Kanakht into her mind and burn it to ashes instead of succumbing to it, but then again, that sounded exactly like something she would do.

If it had been Sunny, he would have probably had to suffer infuriating whispers for a couple of years before finding a way to rid himself of the maddening mind invader. ”What are you talking about now?” Nightwalker glanced at him with curiosity. Sunny smiled.

“Oh... Nephis killed the Madness of Kanakht””

Nightwalker tilted his head.

”Nephis? That pretty young lady?”

Sunny gave him a smoldering glare.

“Yes. And hey, bastard! Pretty young lady again? Don’t you know any other words?!”

Nightwalker smiled sheepishly.

“What? I’m just saying it like it is.”

He paused for a moment, then asked with a hint of excitement in his voice:

”What about Naeve? Whom did he kill?”

Sunny stared at him with a dubious expression.

“A bunch of wraiths?”

Nightwalker remained silent for a bit, then glanced away and sighed.

”Well. He did his best...”

Sunny frowned and drove Weaver’s Needle into his soul.

“Ouch!”

At that moment, Sunny dismissed the Shadow Lantern.

The last of the shadows had just entered the Gate of Shadow, so there was no need to keep it manifested anymore. Sunny had recruited as many as he could, and the rest were already being obliterated by the Shadow Realm — a resulting essence storm was becoming increasingly devastating and ferocious, accelerating their final demise. Even Sunny’s own avatars were not safe there anymore.

So, raising a hand, he summoned the Shadow Lantern back.

The small stone lantern appeared in his hand as if nothing had happened... as if it had not randomly turned into a black hole and obliterated both the divine sorcery of the Demon of Repose and her entire Palace. Its gate opened, and three tattered shadows flowed out of it, turning into three battered avatars of Sunny.

“Welcome back, guys. Good job.’

Behind them, the messy sphere of metal that had been levitating high above the island suddenly plummeted down and hit the ground with a deafening thunderclap. It was all that remained of the Palace — a hundred times smaller in diameter, but weighing the same.

The moment the sphere impacted against the ground, the Palace Island shook, and its surface split open. Shielding his eyes from the cloud of dust and debris that rose into the air, Sunny calmly continued stitching.

Nightwalker, meanwhile, glanced north, where a titanic mountain of ghastly flesh was drawing closer to the shore.

The arrival of the Flesh of Kanakht was imminent, and the shadow was attached only halfway.

”So, only this ugly thing is left, then?”

Sunny took a deep breath.

”Yeah. Why worry, though? It’s just a Great Titan...”