Shadow Slave

There were too many enemies for Sunny to cut down with his sword — and his best tool for dealing with swarms of enemies, the Curse, was sadly useless against this particular one.

Because even if he channeled his Death Will to poison the stolen shades with it, they would simply continue to fight as if nothing had happened. The dead did not fear death, after all — they were already in its embrace. So, he did the next best thing he could and split into seven versions of himself, each diving into the mass of shades like a dark hurricane of slaying steel.

Sunny’s allies were not remaining idle, either.

Saint summoned her elemental darkness — the natural adversary of shadows — to slaughter the shades and return them to their rightful owner. Slayer assumed the form of a gargantuan spider, summoning a vast web of black silk to break the wings of Shadow Butterflies.

Nephis seemed confused for a short moment, then simply unleashed her flame, melting both those of the shades who were still loyal and those who had been stolen by the Vile Spawn in its blinding radiance.

It was Ananke who turned out to be the most effective in this unexpected battle, though.

As a sea of hostile shades surrounded her, all following a command to cut her down, Ananke’s azure eyes ignited with a vibrant amber glow. Then, her long ebony hair moved, as if infused with a life of its own. The glistening silken strands slithered like snakes, and when an attacking shade got too close, one of those snakes shot forward, biting the shade on the neck. A stream of Ananke’s essence flowed through the snake’s obsidian fangs and was infused into the dead warrior, turning to virulent poison a moment later.

The shade crumbled into dust, its essence being absorbed by the priestess of the Nightmare Spell to heal her wounds and make her stronger.

That shade was only an outlier, though.

The fate that awaited most of them seemed far more dreadful.

A cold wind blew above the Estuary Lake, and as the gaze of Ananke’s glowing amber eyes fell on the shades that surrounded her, their movements suddenly slowed down. Then, they halted entirely, as if overcome by a peculiar lethargy.

Some of them tried to resist, but it was of no use. Soon, their black bodies turned grey, ceasing all movement, and Ananke was suddenly surrounded by what seemed like a garden of exquisitely crafted, lifelike statues.

The shades did not possess their own Will, so they had little defense against her sinister power. In that sense, the dead warriors could not have met a worse adversary than Ananke of Weave, the last priestess of the Nightmare Spell.

Myriad strings of silver silk — so thin as to almost be invisible — stretched from Ananke’s figure to the petrified shades, their presence betrayed only by the ethereal glisten in the radiant light of the stolen suns. Soon, the statues began to crumble into dust, as well, a flood of essence flowing into Ananke’s soul.

As it did, the glow of her amber eyes became even brighter, and those shades who were further away than their destroyed kin began to slow down and grow still, too. An island of peace and silence appeared around her, dust dancing in the light. In other parts of the battlefield, however, complete chaos reigned.

The Vile Spawn was both elusive and lethal, eviscerating Sunny’s shades like a mad butcher. More and more of them were stolen and joined the fight against their former comrades. Shades were battling shades, white flame raged among the darkness, and somewhere out there, seven incarnations of Sunny were sowing destruction on a dreadful scale.

And all the while, he was losing essence to the damn hatchling.

‘How the hell did this happen…’

The Shadow Legion was supposed to be his greatest strength, but instead, it had become a liability… a threat, even.

Stealing an adversary’s strength and using it against them was quite like what Sunny himself would have done. Considering that and the powers over shadows that the Vile Spawn wielded, it felt like Sunny had fallen into an ambush set by a twisted, evil version of himself…

Only, naturally, the Vile Spawn — that young and inexperienced Devil — could never hope to match the treachery, deviousness, and sheer spitefulness the original possessed.

Sunny had noticed how effective Ananke was in destroying the shades. The youthful Devil had undoubtedly noticed it, as well — in fact, the Vile Spawn might have already been familiar with her powers, considering that it had been born and raised in the Tomb of Ariel.

So, it stepped through the shadows to reach the gorgeous priestess…

Only something was already waiting for it in their dark embrace.

Having predicted what the wicked Devil would do, Sunny sent one of his incarnations into the depths of the shadows, as well. And in that short instant when the Vile Spawn used Shadow Step, moving through the dark expanse of their lightless world to emerge near Ananke, a harrowing presence that had waited there, hidden in the darkness, intercepted him.

In the plane of shadows, Sunny was vast and formless. The Vile Spawn, meanwhile, maintained a vaguely bird-like form. Its wings got broken and tangled, though, when Sunny wrapped himself around him like a shroud, a thousand hungry mouths opening on the nebulous expanse of his true form to bite into the fledgling Devil’s soul. Confused and frightened, the Vile Spawn let out a silent shriek and pushed both of them out of the shadows.

They rolled on the ground, six more avatars of Sunny appearing from the fierce tangle of the battle to fuse themselves with the one holding the distressed Devil by the neck.

The Vile Spawn’s face scrunched up, and he let out a loud, bird-like cry.

The battle seemed to stop for a moment, and a cold chill ran down Sunny’s spine.

He could not see it, and he could not even sense it…

But at that moment, he knew that something frightening was approaching.

It seemed like the mother-bird was responding to its chick’s distressed call. The Vile Thieving Bird was coming…

It was coming directly for Sunny, who still held the Vile Spawn’s neck in his hand.

‘That’s great, then…’

Covered in cold sweat, Sunny let go of the wicked little Devil and turned back.

He thought that he was acting fast — but apparently, he was not fast enough.

Neither had his allies been — Nephis, Ananke, Saint, Slayer…

None of them had reacted in time, failing to perceive the moment the Cursed Terror left its nest and appeared on the battlefield.

By the time Sunny faced the mountain, it was already too late to do anything.

All he could see was a vast, harrowing expanse of black feathers obscuring the sky and a single bloodshot, demented eye peering into the very essence of his being.

In the next moment, sharp talons pierced his chest.

Even though he was two entire Ranks above what he had been in the Third Nightmare, a true demigod, the result was just the same. The Vile Theiving Bird easily ripped through the impenetrable carapace of the Jade Mantle.

It pierced his tenacious flesh and indestructible bones, too.

Its talons reached his very soul, shattering his soul cores as if they were soap bubbles… And delved deeper, as well.

Blood flowed from Sunny’s mouth like a waterfall.

Savagely mutilated and consumed by distressing pain…

He twisted his bloodied lips into a vicious smile.

“Got you…”

His voice was no louder than a dying whisper.

In the next moment, Sunny activated the seventh enchantment of the Curse — one that could only be used when all seven of its links were connected into a chain.

The [Chain] transformed the Curse into a compound Attribute where seven links amplified one another when united. Its passive effect gradually increased the Curse’s power as more incarnations of Sunny fused, but when all seven of them came together, the seven links resonated, greatly boosting all enchantments of the Curse… more importantly, though, a secondary function of the [Chain] was unsealed at that time.

In that state, it could be manifested as a binding force embodying permanence. It could restrain enemies… or anchor Sunny himself, restoring his body, soul, spirit, and mind to their prior state regardless of damage received.

It was the latter function of the [Chain] that he used now, consuming a dire amount of his essence.

As a ghostly chain appeared around his body, all the damage dealt to him was reversed, returning him to the state he had been in before the Vile Thieving Bird appeared.

To perfect health…

Well, disregarding the fact that his body was still pierced by the talons of a Cursed Terror.

The Thieving Bird was leaning down, pearing at him with its mad eyes. Ignoring the pain, Sunny grabbed a fistful of black feathers, pulled the grotesque Terror closer…

And drove the Serpent deep into its neck.