Shadow Slave

The familiar lobby of the government compound was uncharacteristically empty... except for the corpses.

The walls were cracked and riddled with holes. The furniture was destroyed. The floor and the ceiling were splattered with blood.

Jet regarded the scene of devastation with a distant expression. It seemed like there had been a firefight here recently... mundane soldiers had clashed with each other at first, and were then wiped out by the Awakened. The battle had moved on deeper into the building since then.

Judging by the sounds and the mild tremors running through the floor, only sporadic skirmishes were still happening on the upper floors of the compound, while most of the violence was happening underground.

In all the years since its establishment, the government complex in NQSC had never been breached — yet now, it seemed to have fallen.

However, the compound had not been attacked from outside. The scene of the lobby told Jet that much... it had been compromised from within.

The thralls of Asterion who had been hidden among the government personnel must have finally turned on those of their comrades who still remained loyal to the Human Domain. The Dreamspawn was tired of waiting and had the means to take control, since most of humanity had already fallen to his plague... so, he gave his servants a command to finish the job forcefully. Frowning in displeasure, Jet made her way into the depths of the compound. She grimaced as she walked, the pain of her burns radiating across her body like heat. Her wounds were painful, but not life-threatening. Even if they were, Jet was not quite alive, so they would not have threatened her existence. Still, she wished that Nephis would heal them, already... sadly, Nephis could not heal every minor scrape. If she did, she would have been overcome by an endless, relentless agony. So, Jet had to endure the pain until her Transcendent body naturally repaired itself in a few days. Cursing quietly, she made her way forward.

The emergency systems of the complex had been shut down, so the elevators weren’t working. The stairwells had become strategic avenues for control over the building — most of them were in the hands of the turncoats, who were besieging the few underground levels where the remaining loyalists had barricaded themselves.

Jet wanted to help, but knew that revealing herself would only bring death and destruction upon them. So, she simply passed through the closed doors of an elevator and drifted down its dark shaft as a wraith.

The deeper she went, the louder the sounds of the battle were.

Eventually, she exited the shaft on one of the deepest levels of the government complex.

The turncoats seemed to have retreated from here temporarily, leaving behind dozens of corpses. Each of the dead men had been killed by one precise shot that struck the weak points of their armor with eerie precision.

The floor was slick with blood.

Jet coalesced into a human and studied the corpses with a dispassionate expression. Then, sensing an intense gaze, she looked into the depths of the long corridor.

“Do you think your bullets can harm me?”

A woman of unassuming appearance revealed herself from the shadows, lowering a combat rifle. She was wearing a dark suit of enchanted combat armor, and her cold gaze was both piercing and calm.

The woman regarded Jet for a moment, then bowed slightly.

“Saint Jet. I am Awakened Kim. We’be been told to expect you.”

Jet headed toward Awakened Kim with measured steps.

”I take it the evacuation is not going well?”

The woman shook her head.

“Everything is on schedule. You are the last one to arrive, though, so we must hurry. Follow me, please.”

Together, they left the bloodied corridor behind and proceeded to the doors of a massive cargo elevator. The doors had been locked, but the seal was broken — as were the doors themselves. Something immensely powerful seemed to have torn them apart.

A pair of winches had been installed at the mouth of the vertical shaft, steel cables falling into the darkness.

Awakened Kim proficiently strapped herself to a descender, slung the rifle to her back, and began to rappel down without saying anything. Jet simply turned into a wraith and followed her by levitating in the air. The shaft was quite long. As they descended into the depths of the earth, Jet asked in an ethereal, echoing voice:

”Are members of the Shadow Clan not susceptible to the plague?”

Awakened Kim glanced at her briefly.

”We are, even if our resistance to it is quite high. After all, each of us knows our Sovereign personally — unlike the subjects of the Longing Domain, for most of whom Lady Nephis is merely an abstract symbol. Still, we did lose a few agents to the Hunger Domain, already. It’s just that identifying them is far easier for us.”

She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and nodded to her forearm, where a small sliver of a serpent tattoo was visible between the edge of her vambrace and the lip of her black glove.

”The Mark of Shadows rejects them. It’s hard to miss.”

Jet smiled.

A method like that did not guarantee absolute safety, but the Shadow Clan was indeed more immune to the plague than anyone else in the world. Better yet, their lands were separated from the rest of the Human Domain by the Hollow Mountains. There were currently only three ways to reach the Forgotten Shore.

One was to cross the Hollow Mountains — even if Asterion was capable of doing that, it would take him a considerable amount of time. The second was to be carried across the realm boundary by Dark Dancer Revel, who had been marked by the Lord of Shadows.

And the third way...

Just then, they reached the bottom of the immensely long elevator shaft.

In front of them was a vast underground chamber, so tall that its ceiling could barely be seen far above.

And in the centre of that chamber, a black rift towered like a wound in the fabric of the world.

The Dream Gate of the Lord of Shadows. One of the seven Gates he could open, and the only one he had left behind for his servants to use.

Detaching herself from the descender harness, Awakened Kim looked at her watch.

“We still have thirteen minutes left. Everyone, hurry! We depart in ten!”

There were other people in the chamber, clad in suits of armor similar to hers. They were currently busy loading supply crates and various equipment on primitive alloy wagons, ready to push them into the Gate. There was someone else in the chamber, as well — someone Jet had not expected to see.

Or rather... something else?

A dreadful black steed was standing beside the Dream Gate, watching the entrance to the shaft with his frightening crimson eyes. There was something different about him today, though. As Jet studied the Terror, she noticed a familiar iron locket hanging on a black leather cord around his neck.

She raised an eyebrow.

”What’s that horse doing here?”

Awakened Kim looked at the black stallion respectfully.

“Lord Nightmare just showed up.”

Jet hesitated for a few moments, then decided to move on and asked a different question instead:

“And what will happen in thirteen minutes?”

Kim looked at her watch again.

”Twelve minutes now.’

She lingered for a moment and then said in a reserved tone:

”We are retreating from the waking world, and no one should be able to follow us. So, in twelve minutes, the Dream Gate will shut down. Today is the deadline set for us by our boss.”

Which meant that they would be completely cut from the rest of humanity after passing through the Gate — the only member of the Shadow Clan who could travel between the worlds freely was Revel herself.

Jet sighed.

“Good thing I arrived on time, then.”

The minutes seemed to stretch endlessly until, finally, it was time to leave.

Just then, Jet heard an ominous sound coming from the shaft.

It was the sound of countless wings beating as a swarm of crows flew down.

”Move, now!”

The wagons were pushed into the Gate. The members of the Shadow Clan dove into its darkness, as well — Awakened Kim was the last one to pass the threshold.

Jet did not want to have to kill her old mentor, so she rushed forward.

“What are you waiting for? Need a special invitation?”

The dreadful steed of the Lord of Shadows spared her a chilling look, then glanced at the shaft and snorted. Then, he followed Jet into the dark expanse of the Dream Gate. No sooner did they emerge on the other side than the black rift of the Gate rippled... and disappeared without a trace.

Jet let out a long sigh and leaned on the side of the monstrous horse, catching her breath.

She could relax a little, since she had finally escaped the clutches of the Dreamspawn. Around her, the Dark City of the Forgotten Shore basked in impenetrable darkness.