Shadow Slave

Sunny and Nephis had not been able to battle Asterion in the past because he used humanity as a shield against them. The Dreamspawn settled in Bastion, so if they tried to attack him, a vast swath of the city — if not all of it — would have been destroyed by the ferocity of a battle between Supremes, with innumerable casualties among the civilian population. But there were no people here, in the distant reaches of the Glass Hell. The nearest human settlement was thousands of kilometers away, so they could unleash their powers fully.

So could Asterion

But before any of this could happen, Mordret regarded the Dreamspawn somberly, as if appraising him…

And vanished without a sight.

Almost at the same time, Mordret appeared in Asterion’s Soul Sea, having entered it through his golden eyes.

There, a radiant soul core was shining in the starlit heavens like a silver moon. Most of the Citadels were gone from Asterion’s Domain, but something remained… there was a towering, blooming tree rising from the waters of his soul, its heavy branches swaying above the deep waters.

The air was permeated by the sweet smell of rotten fruit. Asterion split his consciousness between the world outside and the vast expanse of his Soul Sea, where an invader was calmly walking across the water toward the tree.

The Dreamspawn smiled faintly. “Aren’t you wary of challenging me to a soul duel, boy? Oh, and congratulations, by the way. On killing yourself six times over… how truly ruthless! I applaud your callousness”

Mordret smiled chillingly. “Why should I be wary?”

He shook his head, not slowing his steps. “You forget, Dreamspawn. My predecessor was cautious about challenging powerful beings to a soul duel because this was the only place where he could truly die. But me? I can die anywhere, anytime!

His smile widened faintly, never reaching his eyes.

“So what is there to stop me?”

There was nothing.

Asterion’s expression darkened a little. He remained silent for a moment, and then asked in an even tone:

“Shouldn’t you be more cautious than he was, then, not more reckless?”

Mordret chuckled.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

The shadow of the tree had already fallen on him by then, and he finally stopped, looking at Asterion one last time before they clashed.

“It seems that you are forgetting something else, Dreamspawn!”

Mordret inhaled deeply and glanced at the reflections dancing on the restless water. “Here, I can mirror every power you wield. That means that I can feel every emotion you feel, and hear every thought you think… just like you can hear me. You already know what I am going to say, but I will still say it regardless.”

Mordret glanced at Asterion as the smile drained from his face, leaving only coldness behind.

“I used to think of you as a giant. But now that I have seen the depths of your mind, Dreamspawn, I have to say…”

A corner of his mouth curled upward faintly.

“You are so small.”

The branches of the towering tree swayed as Mordret lunged forward, his mirror-like eyes shining with reflected killing intent. Mordret attacked Asterion’s soul while at the same time using Asterion’s own powers to assault his mind.

Somewhere out there, Cassie was besieging the Hunger Domain, having already obliterated most of it. She was eroding the very source of Asterion’s existence — the idea of him.

Which meant that only his physical body remained.

Destroying it was the task for Sunny and Nephis.

In front of them, the pretend smile slipped from Asterion’s face, replaced by an expression of bestial hunger. He took a step forward, and the glass wasteland groaned under his weight.

In the next moment, the tall figure of the Dreamspawn exploded into something monstrous and gargantuan, rushing at them like a destructive avalanche.

He had assumed his Transcendent form. The true form of the Dreamspawn was revealed in all its grotesque glory, blotting out the sky. It was a grotesque, menacing mountain of flesh that consisted of innumerable maws, myriad limbs, countless tails, innumerable hungry eyes — of all the beings he had consumed, absorbing parts of them into his being.

The flesh twisted and undulated, bleeding as his innumerable insatiable maws sank their fangs into other parts of his immense body — as if he was devouring himself in the frenzy of hunger.

Sunny was disturbed and appalled… but most of all, he felt ready.

Nephis faced the Dreamspawn undaunted, as well.

As the grotesque chimera rushed at them like a tide, a soft radiance ignited under her skin. And then, a vast and boundless shadow shrouded her like a dark mantle. She raised the Blessing, its blade piercing the sky…

And then brought it down, parting the red sea of grotesque flesh in a blinding conflagration of white flame.

The power of that single blow was so unimaginably annihilating that an incandescent cut extended into the distance, disappearing beyond the horizon. The edges of the line cut into the surface of the Glass Hell were glowing, streams of molten glass flowing into the depths… into the endless labyrinth of the Hive.

The Blessing had plunged deep into those depths, as well, penetrating the Glass Hell all the way to its dark roots.

Such was the combined power of Changing Star and Lost from Light.

Pure might was not the only thing born of their union, though. Their Wills seemed to have fused into one, as well, soaring to swallow the heavens. The tyrannical force of their shared authority was so unimaginable that the world felt soft and malleable to Sunny, ready to offer them its support.

At that moment, they had risen to the heights of power neither of them could have imagined before. They were as close to being a deity as a mortal being could be before undergoing Apotheosis, and from that height, godhood almost felt within reach.

It was different from how it had been when Sunny augmented Nephis as a Master.

That was because back then, he could only send his shadows to empower her. But now, he was a shadow himself, and therefore, it was his incarnations that had taken her into their dark embrace, augmenting her power. And so, just like how it happened when Sunny wrapped himself around his Shadows, he could feel Nephis. He sensed what she sensed and shared her emotions, gazing at the world through her eyes.

The world Nephis saw was stark and pure, painted in hues of black and white by absolute clarity.

And he could feel her pain, as well.

At first, Sunny shuddered, ready to convulse and scream from the awful agony of being burned alive — it was not only his body that burned, but also his soul, his mind… his spirit. All of him was aflame, drowning in the blinding torment.

But he endured the pain. In fact, he was glad to share it. Because he knew that he could soothe it, as well.

At least a little.

Sunny activated the [Dark Embrace] enchantment of the Curse, lessening Neph’s suffering. Her pain was still torturous, far more harrowing than any mortal was meant to endure… but still, the sharpest peaks of its inhuman cruelty were smoothed, allowing Nephis to feel a bit of relief.

The gargantuan, appalling body of Asterion was split in half and burned by the fiery Blessing of Changing Star, flowing past them in a blaze of white flame. However, only moments later, it was restored to its previous form, already spinning to attack them once more.

A hundred scorpion tails were rushing at them already, forcing Nephis to push herself off the ground and slide back. By the time she landed, there were already a thousand claws barreling through the air to rend her apart, a million fangs a split second away from sinking into her flesh.

The Blessing flashed again, severing them, and the glass wasteland around was suddenly painted black by swirling ash.

The battle continued.

And as it did, Sunny realized something… He realized that they had outgrown Asterion.

The situation would have been different if he still ruled the mighty Hunger Domain, if he could use humanity as a hostage against them. But the Hunger Domain was all but gone, destroyed by Cassie, and humanity was saved from the hungry maw of the Dreamspawn by her as well.

Now, he was surrounded like a beast and assaulted by four Supremes, having no choice but to lose.

His end was already decided.

His fate was already scaled…

All he was doing now was struggling against the inevitable.

Sunny and Nephis were simply too strong, too overwhelming now that their powers were one. Asterion could not resist them with the might of his Domain, so he had no choice but to be destroyed.

It was just that he could not be destroyed, so each time his grotesque body was annihilated by the pure whiter flames, he was remade anew, continuing the fight with inexhaustible fury.

However, he could not eradicate Nephis either. Every wound he dealt her was rapidly healed by the flame, and every injury he delivered disappeared without a trace moments later.

All he could do was try to manipulate their minds, poisoning them with his insidious power. But even that process was slower than it should have been, because Asterion’s own mind was under Mordret’s assault. Mordret was protecting them from the Dreamspawn’s Aspect — from most of it, at least. As for the rest of it…

[Let’s switch, Nephis.]

The radiant figure shrouded in billowing darkness moved back, and in its place, a figure woven out of shadows appeared. Sunny had regained his fate, and with it, his True Name. That meant that his sense of self had a powerful anchor now, which allowed him to use Shadow Dance without being too concerned about losing himself. So, just like in Ariel’s Game, he assumed the form of the Jade Titan — a Supreme champion of the Stone Saint race, all but immune to any kind of mental attack or manipulation.

Suddenly, there was a towering colossus in fearsome jade armor towering above the glass plain, his black figure wreathed in roaring white flame.

The burning colossus raised his immense odachi into a high stance and then lunged at the grotesque chimera that besieged him. The Glass Hell quaked.

It quaked, and then shattered.

Sunny, Nephis, and Asterion plummeted into the depths of the great Hive. Their battle continued there, and the more devastation they visited upon the world, the deeper they fell.

Until the light of the sun was obscured by the mass of cracked glass, and they were surrounded by shadows.

Sunny’s power grew even more because of that.

By then, the battle had reached a state of stagnant balance. Asterion could not be destroyed, and Sunny’s towering body was mended by the white flames when it received damage.

In the end, it all came down to a clash of Wills.

Asterion’s Will to defeat and consume Sunny, Sunny’s Will to see Asterion gone… the one whose Will was exhausted first would become the loser, while the one who remained stalwart and indomitable in his conviction was going to become the victor. Sunny and Nephis possessed a stronger Will… but was it more inexhaustible? That remained to be seen.

Ironically enough, none of the six living Supremes possessed an exceedingly strong Domain at the moment.

Sunny had lost countless shades, including some of the strongest ones, to the Vile Thieving Bird, so his Domain was diminished. Nephis had lost her Domain to Asterion, whose Domain was in turn destroyed by Cassie.

Cassie herself had just become a Supreme, and while her Domain was unique and consisted of memories of living beings instead of the beings themselves, she had not had time to properly manifest it yet. Mordret… the new Mordret… was in the same situation, ruling no one — not even a single other fragment of himself.

The only exception was the people aboard the Night Garden, which he temporarily controlled,

And finally, there was Ananke, who had never had a subject either.

So, even if Sunny and Nephis had an advantage in the battle of Wills due to being connected by the Shadow Bond, their advantage was not overwhelming.

At first.

Then, however, something unexpected happened.

Neph’s Will began to grow heavier, more oppressive… and mightier still.

Out there in the vast darkness of her empty Domain, new sparks were appearing one after another. There were a few of them at first, then more, then a sea of them.

That was because when Cassie erased the memories of Asterion from the minds of humanity, what was left in her wake was not desolate emptiness. Instead, it was the memories that those cleansed of the plague had possessed before becoming infected by it.

And most of them remembered having faith in Changing Star.

So, as if a blindfold was removed from their eyes, they were inspired by her radiance again, and therefore became subjects of the Longing Domain once more.

Things were returning to how they were meant to be.

Asterion growled with his myriad maws, feeling his conquest being reversed. But there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was already doing all he could, and his effort was woefully insufficient.

Slowly but surely, the boundless reserves of his Will were being exhausted. Even if Asterion was immortal, there was only so much death he could endure without being drained — physically, mentally, spiritually. And in the battle against an adversary as superior as Sunny and Nephis, he could not allow himself to feel even a hint of hesitation, a hint of doubt — a hint of the ominous premonition that existence would not submit to his authority.

Asterion’s ferocious Will was growing weaker.

At the same time, Nephis was only growing stronger, returning to the heights of her previous power as the guiding star of humanity.

She might have been the guiding star for all humans, but for Asterion, who did not consider himself one, she was the Star of Ruin.

Sunny felt that he would be able to subdue Asterion soon…

And it was then that Cassie’s urgent voice resounded in his mind:

[Sunny! You must retreat…]