Shadow Slave

Effie and her companions had been preparing for this day for a long while — in truth, she realized that the siege could only end in their defeat on the day the great river ran dry, and the Steel Horde entered the city by walking across its riverbed.

There had been more battles after that, and while they managed to repel Azarax and his army time after time, cementing the newly built barricades with blood, it was a losing game.

So, Effie had decided to change the rules. Since then, Seishan had been developing a secret weapon, while Morgan had been developing another. To achieve the goal, she conscripted the help of the Mason King and his family — who were not only the rulers of the city, but also knew all there was to know about stonework, mining, construction, and alchemy as well.

Additionally, she gathered all the sorcerers left in the city, most of whom were either disciples of the Mason King or descendants of his former students.

Their task was both simple and difficult to complete — under her guidance, they had to develop a highly incendiary concoction that blended alchemy and sorcery, produce great quantities of it, and hide it in secretly arranged underground caches throughout the city.

With Morgan’s extensive knowledge of history, warfare, and weapons manufacturing, creating a superior analogue of the Greek fire was not a problem. The only problem was to source enough ingredients to produce it in the needed quantity in the harsh realities of a besieged city, with a naval blockade cutting it off from the world.

Still, they managed to achieve their goal in the end. They also created a limited supply of an explosive agent meant to serve as the detonator and delivery vehicle for the sorcerous inferno.

Now, thousands upon thousands of barrels full of highly flammable, unstable liquid were hidden in the tunnels beneath the city. Some were placed in the sewer junctions that had already existed before the siege, while some were placed in the secretly excavated chambers Morgan had created.

A vast runic array connected all the caches, meant to cause the detonators to activate simultaneously.

And so, when Kai ordered the world to burn, that array came alive.

Somewhere in the city, countless items followed his command and caught fire. Among them were the barrels of the flammable liquid and their detonators, as well — and when one of them produced a spark, the heat was transferred to all the rest, causing them all to detonate at the same time.

The result was both immediate and catastrophic.

Throughout the dying city, the earth opened in a deafening roar, spewing towering pillars of fire into the sky. These pillars then turned into swiftly expanding clouds, swallowing the entire expanse of streets between the outer wall and the castle. Fire was literally raining down upon the warriors of the Steel Horde caught in the middle... and it wasn’t mundane fire, either.

Instead, it was a burning liquid that stuck to any surface it touched and could not be doused with water. The temperature at which it burned was utterly terrifying, as well, chewing through stone and steel in mere seconds.

There was no need to say what happened when it touched human flesh.

Instantly, the city was swallowed by a harrowing inferno, its vast expanse disappearing into a raging blaze. Countless streets, countless homes... all of it either burned or collapsed into the deep fissures that opened in the ground, the thunderous roar of utter devastation washing over Kai like a requiem.

The screams of the Steel Horde elites caught in the fire, however, were a far sweeter song.

In an instant, all those who had rushed into the city to plunder it were either swallowed or surrounded by flames. The whole city burned, melting and turning to ash like a great funeral pyre for the countless people who had died to defend it — even if there were pockets of safety among the intense flames, the fire was spreading, and they would not remain safe for long.

And if the invaders attempted to escape the inferno by retreating... the gate was already closed, its mechanism destroyed, turning the city into an inescapable trap.

In the face of such vast, callous destruction, the faces of every soldier manning the walls of the Stone Castle turned pale.

But even if they were watching their city being reduced to ash, they felt sorrow and joy in equal measure. Because their enemies were burning with it.

However...

It was not enough.

The Awakened warriors would perish. The Ascended officers might burn to death, as well. But the strongest of them, the Transcendent powerhouses, could potentially find their way out of the inferno. They could stay alive until their Sovereign arrived, at least.

Kai could not allow that to happen.

”I’m going.”

His face was grim, the flames reflecting in his eyes.

Leaving Morgan, Seishan, and the pale-faced prince behind, he rose into the air... and then dove into the flames.

‘Slaughter...’

This trap had been set by paying such a high price. An unthinkable price.

So, he had to make sure that it was all worth it... as close to being worth it as he could.

‘I’ll slaughter them all.’

The flames roared as they took him in their immolating embrace.

...Far away, across the vast inferno of the burning city and the great expanse of the killing field, Effie smiled as she watched flames rise above the towering wall, and heard the wind carry over screams of chilling agony.

She looked at Azarax, whose expression was contorted in rage.

Effie’s faint smile widened a little, turning into a grin.

“Did you say that you were going to destroy my city, Azarax? Look — you failed. You will never be able to destroy it now. It was never yours to destroy.”

A mad glint appeared in her eyes.

”I destroyed it. It was I who burned it, not you. All the time you wasted, and for what? To be outdone by a Transcendent mercenary?”

As Azarax’s expression turned dark and dangerous, Effie could not help but laugh.

“What do you think the chronicles will say now? Azarax the Mighty, the King of Kings, wasted two years trying his hardest to conquer a peaceful city. But in the end, he could not.”

She was still laughing when his fist connected with her head.

Effie was thrown to the ground. The pain was blinding, and she could feel something inside her head cracking as she fell.

But even then...

She still thought that it was pretty funny.