Shadow Slave

The remains of the field army sent to the Antarctic Center gathered into a formation after marching across the giant crater. The hill—like stone corpse of the Fallen Titan Goliath, the pit created by the enormous explosion, and the city with millions of defenseless humans sheltering inside were now behind them.

In front of them were a vast field of snow and the towering peaks of the mountains.

There were around twenty thousand mundane soldiers, some of them piloting the mighty war platforms, and a thousand or so Awakened gathered in front of the crater. Just like Gere had said, very few members of the First Army had used the priority right to be evacuated ahead of civilians. Most had remained, and were now preparing to face a dreadful foe.

The Winter Beast.

The plan of the battle was rather simple... the creature's physical body was rumored to be hidden at the heart of the blizzard, protected by hurricane winds and murderous cold. To prevent it from reaching the siege capital, the army was going to advance into the snowstorm and confront the titan.

Neither mundane soldiers nor the Awakened had any hope of actually damaging a Corrupted Nightmare Creature. Luckily, an abomination that mostly relied on unnatural powers to kill its prey could not be too formidable in a physical confrontation. The few Masters who still remained with the army had a good chance of wounding, or even slaying it... if they could get close enough.

The role of the soldiers and the Awakened was to bury the titan under their bodies and distract it, hopefully giving the Ascended an opportunity to strike.

No one knew if the plan had even a theoretical chance of working, but it was their best chance.

Aside from Sunny and Jet, there were two more Masters who had both survived the previous weeks of the siege and chosen to stay and fight. The four of them were spread across the formation, each commanding one of the four brigades.

he had received during the previous battle, but Saint, maybe due to the [Mantle of Darkness], had already recovered. However,

would send one of his shadows ahead, to allow the taciturn knight to emerge from it near the titan and

his

did not know if Saint would be able to do anything. That was the main problem — none of them knew anything for sure. The Winter Beast was just too unknown and mysterious. Chances were, every single one of them would die long

'Curse that fiend.‘

the brigade of grim-faced soldiers who were now under his nominal command. The members of his cohort were right behind him, and behind them were the rest of the Awakened. The mundane soldiers were at the back of

of them were looking ahead, struggling

slowly blotting out the sky. It was like a swirling white wall was slowly erasing the world. With

The blizzard was coming.

looked

"Get ready!"

his sight. Each of them had summoned a luminous Memory, and so had the rest of the Awakened in the brigade. The mundane soldiers, too, were equipped with various light-producing devices. Beams of powerful spotlights shot into the darkness from the shoulders of

appeared like a river of light in the middle of a sea of

harrowing snowstorm was getting closer

"Advance!"

titan's most fearsome weapon was cold, today, these armaments were more valuable for their ability to create heat,

both sides of the brigade, two more rivers of light flowed forward — one commanded by Soul Reaper Jet,

the snow