Shadow Slave

The Night Garden had left the Wharf, so Sunny saw no need to keep a presence on the island connected to it. Having cleansed it from the abominable immortals, the Shadow Legion abandoned the territory it had previously conquered and advanced northward to three neighboring districts of the Eternal City.

Each of the three islands was larger and more densely developed than the Wharf Island — and populated by more abominations, as well. The immortals dwelling there seemed slightly more powerful, with more champions akin to the abhorrent silver tiger hiding in their midst.

One of the islands seemed like a residential area, one resembled a leisure district with vibrant shops and theaters scattered among peaceful alleys, while the last one was mostly taken up by an exquisite park.

Beautiful trees rustled quietly in the nebulous darkness, their silver leaves glistening in the rays of falling light. Ponds and winding canals rested under the black abyss of the watery sky above, and tall hills rose above the landscape, cascading toward the promenades built along the edges of the island.

Saint and her army invaded the leisure district, Slayer led her bestial force into the residential one, while the Marvelous Mimic entered the park. Each of the three forces was met with its own set of challenges, dictated both by its composition and the terrain of the three battlefields.

The nature of the battle kept changing, and Sunny had to adapt swiftly.

His legion was facing a far greater number of enemies now, so its numerical advantage did not play a large role anymore. The Dream Curse was not spreading among the restrained immortals fast enough, either, and Sunny did not have enough shades to keep restraining them indefinitely — so, he had to keep releasing captured enemies despite knowing that they would attack him again. Additionally, the three islands were not only larger and more populous than the first one, they were also connected to more districts of the Eternal City, which meant that many new abominations were already trickling across the wide chasms dividing them. Worse still, they were not arriving only from the north, but threatening to flank Sunny’s forces on the residential and leisure islands. Things did not look too good for the Shadow Legion...

However, the most important change in the cadence of the battle was a positive one.

Sunny had not noticed it during the battle for the Wharf Island since it was relatively short and had been fought on a smaller scale than these three terrifying collisions, but even the sorcery of the Eternal City was not omnipotent.

The fallen immortals of this sunken hell could not be destroyed, indeed. Even if they were tom apart or burned to ash, the Eternal City would restore their youthful bodies to pristine condition - endlessly, no matter how many times they perished.

However, the time it took the immortals of the Eternal City to be revived varied. At first, it only took them mere seconds to rise again, but if the same nightmare creature was killed repeatedly, that time slowly increased. Already, some of the immortals whom the Shadow Legion had fought on the bridges spent entire minutes remaining dead.

That was still incomparable to the silent shades of the Shadow Legion, since the more powerful of them needed entire days to return to the battlefield. However, it introduced an entirely new dynamic to the battle for the Eternal City, giving Sunny more tools to work with.

The fallen immortals seemed to be slowly growing wary of the Shadow Legion as a result — not because they feared being destroyed by the shades, but because they feared remaining dead for too long and surrendering their chance to eviscerate the adversary to someone else. So, the intestine of the combat lessened, somewhat, and it would probably keep changing as Sunny killed more nightmare creatures over and over again, slowing down their revival process.

In these circumstances, the ruthless economy of battle had become even more important, forcing Sunny to concentrate on a particular aspect of warfare - the use of siege engineering and fortifications.

Like a general commanding an army... well, an actual general commanding an actual army, rather... he had to conquer optimal positions on each of the three islands, entrench his forces, and slowly chip away at the swarm of immortal abominations. That was his priority at the moment.

Luckily, Sunny possessed a unique advantage as far as fortifying battle positions went.

In the leisure district, Saint and her army fought their way to a large structure that made him shudder, in secret, because of its similarity to the colosseum of the Kingdom of Hope. It was a vast theater built in an elliptical shape, with towering walls with open arches and lavish spectator seats descending toward a wide track that circled the arena... a hippodrome, if he was not mistaken.

The open nature of its walls made the Hippodrome a hardly defensible position, even if its great size and overall shape made it perfect for establishing a stronghold.

As Saint and her warriors poured into the ancient theater, the shadows around it stirred and flowed upward. They filled the wide portals cut into the walls of the Hippodrome and then solidified, closing them. At the same time, a layer of manifested shadows reinforced the stone walls, making them harder to destroy. Wide battlements with protruding bastions were established on top of the walls, and an inclined palisade of sharp spikes rose from its base, making approach more difficult. Sunny was already straining himself to maintain the countless chains that bound the captured immortals, so he simply manifested these shadows permanently. That made them far less potent and far more brittle, but by overlaying multiple layers of manifested shadows on top of each other, he was able to vastly improve the resilience of the Hippodrome.

Remembering the many sieges he had ever participated in, Sunny implemented every measure he could realize in a short amount of time to make the ancient theater as difficult to conquer as possible.

Soon, a dark fortress towered above the leisure districts, bristling with countless black spikes. Saint stood atop its walls, shrouded in a mantle of darkness. Similar things were happening on the park island and the residential island, as well...