Shadow Slave

‘The blade of Death…’

Sunny was not surprised to hear that Eurys had used a weapon of Shadow God to kill the avatar of the Goddess of Life. After all, if there was a group of people capable of stealing a divine relic to spill the golden blood of the gods, it was the Nine.

Neither was he surprised to learn that Eurys had already been adapting at wielding his Will as a Transcendent — to such a degree that the unassailable gap between Ranks meant far less to him than to any other Awakened, no less. None of the Nine was ordinary, so it was only expected that their feats and abilities would be abnormal. Sunny also did not believe for a second that Eurys had simply happened to become a palace slave and a personal attendant of the Emperor. None of the Nine had been captured when the Empire conquered their realm, but Eurys somehow ended up enslaved. It had clearly been by design… And he ended up in the Great Temple of War by design, as well, having meticulously ingratiated himself with all his previous masters in order to manipulate them subtly. The same happened to the priests — and to the Dragon as well, in the end.

So, Eurys had not simply slit a god’s throat. That single slash was the culmination of decades spent preparing patiently to strike once. A whole lifetime of servitude, suffering, meticulous planning, and unwavering malice had added deadly weight to Eurys’s blade.

Sunny was willing to bet that killing the avatar of War God just when the daemons were preparing to rise in rebellion was not the only thing Eurys had done. As a palace slave and later an attendant of the Emperor, he would have been privy to all kinds of information, seeing most of what transpired in the very heart of the empire.

A flawless spy.

Sunny exhaled slowly.

‘Oh. I see it now.’

A long time ago, he had wanted to be a spy and an assassin. But now that Sunny knew what Eurys had done, he realized that he was never cut out for the job.

He smiled faintly.

‘A temple slave, a palace slave…’

No wonder he felt a strange kind of kinship to that deplorable bastard.

The story of Eurys’s feat was not what captivated Sunny the most in what Azarax had told them, though.

Instead, it was something that the ancient tyrant had mentioned in passing.

‘For every force, there is a power that is antithetical to it…’

That was how Eurys had been able to kill the avatar of War God, if Azarax were to be believed. Like matter and antimatter, the collision of Life and Death resulted in annihilation.

It was obviously relevant to the tantalizing question of how a Transcendent had been able to kill a Divine Being, but even beyond that, the implications were quite laden with meaning.

What Azarax said was a confirmation of something that Sunny had suspected and even experienced himself, albeit in a limited capacity — that in conceptual battles among beings of higher Ranks, it was not only the magnitude of one’s power that mattered. The nature of that power mattered as well… it perhaps even mattered more.

For every powerful Aspect, there was one that countered it. And it seemed that the same held true for one’s Will.

Sunny’s Will, for example, was imbued with the power of death. So, he would be especially deadly when clashing with someone — or something — whose Will was imbued with the power of life.

That fact shone a light on the mysterious nature of conflicts between Divine beings. Not enough of it to see things clearly, but just enough to send Sunny’s mind spinning. One thing was clear, though.

If that was true, then Sunny could become the deadliest creature in existence. That was not because he was more powerful than everyone else, but rather because he was the most versatile… the most adaptable. Shadow Dance already allowed him to mimic the Attributes and channel the spirit of other beings. If he were to master all of its steps, he would probably be able to turn himself into a flawless copy of any living being, including the innate nature of their will.

And if he were to do that… he would not be just antithetical to life.

He would be antithetical to everything. Sunny inhaled deeply.

‘…Like Shadow God was.’

Feeble? Faint?

No, Azarax couldn’t have been more wrong. Now that Sunny caught a glimpse of the Divine, he felt like he understood why it was Shadow God who had created Death, and why even the other god had been wary of him.

It was because Shadow God could become anything, and therefore held the power to end everything.

Sunny chuckled.

That was the God of Peace.

The sun climbed the heights of the sky, drowning the Nightmare Desert in immolating heat. The boundless horde of those cursed by that god was hiding underneath the sand, and out there in the distance, the tomb built by the Demon of Dread towered like a black obelisk.

Sunny rubbed his face tiredly.

‘How the hell did Shadow God lose to Repose, then?’

Nothing made sense.

Letting out a sigh, he looked at Azarax.

“I guess killing a god was Eurys’s act of defiance. Did he become Supreme after that?’

The ancient skeleton stared at him darkly.

“Who’s to say? He was already Supreme when we met. Granted, he never ruled a vast and powerful Domain. Rumors said that his pathetic Domain only encompassed nine people.”

A pale smile appeared on Sunny’s lips. He had an idea who these people had been.

‘Nine Fated people… that would have made Eurys the master of the most harrowing Domain in existence.’

Granted, he had not lived long enough to witness the terrifying mission of the Nine come to fruition.

This deathless state those cursed by Shadow God endured could not be called living by a long shot… but then again, Eurys had already completed his personal mission by the time the Doom War began. Having ensured the downfall of the Empire and slain the avatar of War God, he had played his role. After that, all he could do was join the Demon Legion and become an ordinary footsoldier.

Sunny shook his head slightly.

What had it been like? To see all of existence drowning in the flames of a divine war, and know that you were the reason for all that death, sorrow, and destruction. Eurys might have been happy to be crucified on that tree, knowing that he had more than deserved eternal damnation.

Or he might have been full of exhilaration while watching the world come undone around him.

In any case, that was a matter of the distant past. Right now, Sunny had to contend with the fallout of what Eurys and the Nine had done. He had to survive in the wreckage of the world they had created.

And to do that, he had to reach the Tomb of Ariel first.