Shadow Slave

The ground shook, and as a terrifying roar thundered above the two armies, dust spilled from between the great stone blocks that formed the wall. Atop the battlements, many of the soldiers lost their balance and fell, dropping their weapons. Below, on the battlefield, the horses of Irian’s cavalry buckled in fear, making the riders curse as they struggled to remain in the saddle.

The infantrymen gripped their weapons, looking around with startled and frightened expressions.

Only a few people remained calm and collected, but even their expressions turned grim.

The Altar Sage, the Blade of Dawn, and the Beast of Twilight — the three Transcendent heroes glanced around, momentarily forgetting about their conflict.

”W—what the hell?”

Noctis peered into the distance, where a gargantuan hill was slowly crumbling. His voice sounded subdued.

Shadow, meanwhile, was leaning leisurely on the wall of a guard tower, his expression just as calm as it had always been.

He shrugged lightly.

“Who knows?”

Irian and Arelen, meanwhile, were observing the calamity with wary gazes. Then, briefly, they glanced at each other. Far away, the hill had collapsed entirely, and something gargantuan, hideous, and malevolent moved slowly in the billowing cloud of dust. Suddenly, the radiant light of dawn grew pale and feeble, and the warmth of early summer turned into a piercing chill...

As though death itself had come to reap the two armies.

A moment later, the soldiers paled and staggered, some of them even fainting — that was because the overwhelming presence of the hidden menace washed over them, followed by the suffocating pressure of a vast and alien Will.

Sitting on Shadow’s shoulder, Snuggle turned her head to look at him, then stood up slowly and pulled on his hair.

Her squeaky voice was reduced to a barely audible whisper:

“H—hey! Are you not... overdoing it a little?”

Shadow just smiled faintly.

“Am I? It depends on how strong these mortal heroes are, I suppose.”

He spoke quietly enough for Noctis not to hear — the young Transcendent was not listening to Shadow, anyway, his entire attention focused on the immense figure moving slowly under the veil of dust. Finally, the Altar Sage uttered a Verse, and a powerful gale tore apart the cloud of dust, revealing the true form of the unknown creature.

Standing atop the wall, he was the first to behold it. His face paled, and his gaze turned grim.

Out there on the plain in front of the city, a towering abomination was slowly crawling out of the shattered earth. Its body was long and segmented, like that of a centipede, but its head resembled a giant human skull that was missing the lower jaw, with three empty eye sockets that hid impenetrable darkness.

The chitinous carapace of the giant abomination was so black that it seemed to absorb the surrounding light. The enormous skull, however, was vibrantly scarlet, as if it had been bathed in an ocean of human blood until the surface of the ancient bone fully absorbed it.

Finally climbing from the depths of earth, the hideous centipede raised its long neck. Even with most of its body still on the ground, the scarlet skull loomed at least a hundred meters above it, turned in the direction of the city.

The three empty eye sockets of the titanic abomination stared at the three Transcendent heroes, eerily emotionless, the unfathomable pools of darkness hidden within them still and hollow.

What was not still, however, were hundreds of ghastly maws that revealed themselves on the inner side of the creature’s belly, gnashing myriads of teeth as they revealed the crimson flesh of the monster. Witnessing the great immensity of the abhorrent creature, the soldiers of Irian’s army, who stood between the city and the subterranean horror, took an unconscious step back — in the direction of the wall they had been meant to besiege.

Irian herself seemed rattled, as well. Looking at the eerie scarlet skull, she gripped her spear and whispered in a stunned voice:

”A Great Monster!”

She could not see the soul of the giant creature, of course. But merely by sensing the oppressive power of its presence, as well as the malevolent flavor of its Will, she could make a judgment.

Atop the wall, Arelen wore a grave expression, as well.

Noctis, meanwhile...

Seemed thoroughly appalled.

“A centipede! Ah, eww! Why did it have to be a damn centipede?! I hate them!”

He shuddered, grimacing in utter disgust. Shadow spared him an amused look.

“That’s what you worried about?”

He was a little bit hurt.

After all, he had gone into a lot of trouble to create that monster.

The giant Nightmare Creature was not an Nightmare Creature at all. Instead, it was merely a construct woven out of manifested shadows, controlled by his will. Its flesh was equal in toughness to that of a Supreme being, since it was infused with his Supreme essence.

As for the power of its presence and the malevolence of its Will, those were simply the presence and Will of Shadow — a sliver of them, at least — which he revealed when the monster appeared.

Creating such a monstrosity was no easy feat, but not that difficult either. Its carapace, its muscles, its tendons, its fangs, and all the other parts of its enormous body — Shadow manifested them all and then connected them together into a functional organism, breathing a false spark of life into that organism with his nuanced control.

He had even gone into the trouble of changing the color of its bones and its flesh, thinking that showing a creature painted entirely black would put Noctis into a difficult position. The youth had just returned from supposedly vanquishing an unknown horror that dwelled in eternal darkness, after all, so Shadow didn’t want anyone to think that the monster followed the Beast of Twilight to this peaceful city from a distant realm.

As for whether Irian and Arelen would believe that the giant centipede was indeed a Creature of Corruption... Shadow did not particularly care. Unlike soul essence, his own was the essence of shadows — so, even if they had means of peering into the souls of living beings, they would not see the familiar silver radiance.

And even if they discerned that something was not quite right, it did not matter. The nature of the monster was not as important as its perceived malice and intent to destroy the city.

”Irian!”

Standing atop the wall, Arelen shouted his adversary’s name. The radiant Transcendent who had come to kill him glanced up, and the two seemed to converse silently, their gazes full of concerned wariness.

Then, after exchanging a nod, they both rushed toward the towering creature side by side.

Noctis cursed and leaped down from the wall, as well, dashing to follow them. Moments later, Shadow and Snuggle were left alone among terrified soldiers.

”What the hell did you create, Shadow?”

Snuggle’s voice sounded oddly weak. Looking down at her in surprise, Shadow raised an eyebrow.

“What? It’s merely a construct.”

He paused for a moment, then added with a shrug:

“Actually, I didn’t even have to work that hard on it. That thing was already something I had considered creating — back when I was thinking of making a better vessel for you. A battle golem, of sorts.”

The little doll trembled and stared at him in dismay.

“T—that? You wanted me — me! — to climb inside that thing? That disgusting, ghastly thing over there?!”

Shadow looked at her in confusion.

“Why? Look at it. It’s very sturdy, can move below and above ground really fast, and has a lot of ways to kill enemies. And it is very menacing — instilling the adversary with fear is half the victory, you know.”

He scratched the tip of his nose awkwardly.

“Admittedly, it can’t fly. Adding a sufficient number of wings introduced too many points of vulnerability to the carapace, so I was left with no choice but to scrap that idea. Still. I think it turned out pretty well.”

He smiled proudly.

”I call it... the Giant Red Skull Centipede, Prototype One.”

Snuggle groaned and covered her face with a hand.

“Prototype One, he says... gods have mercy, look how proud he is! He’s completely serious, too!”

Shadow blinked a couple of times.

”It’s a fitting name, though? I don’t see the issue.”

Perhaps Snuggle was simply too young to appreciate his stellar namingship.

Well... what else would one expect from a doll called Snuggle?

Far in the distance, the giant monster lowered its head and flowed forward like a river of scarlet darkness, moving toward the three Transcendent heroes with terrifying speed, the ground turning into a shredded mess of torn soil and seething mucus wherever it passed.

Shadow sighed.

‘All that work, only for it to be destroyed...’

Even though he had promised Snuggle not to kill anyone and created this construct specifically to be slain by the mortal heroes... he still found himself secretly rooting for the giant centipede.

After all, if its own creator couldn’t support this soulless construct, wouldn’t it be just too pitiful?

A split second later, on the plain in front of the city, three Transcendent heroes — Arelen the Altar Sage, Irian the Blade of Dawn, and Noctis, the Crimson Beast of Twilight — clashed with the harrowing Nightmare Creature... Giant Red Skull Centipede, Prototype One.

Their battle would become a legend all across the mortal realms in the future, one day soon.