Shadow Slave

'I certainly knew that Neph was coming to Antarctica, but why is Wake of Ruin calling her one of the lea... huh? What? In a few minutes?!'

Sunny stared at the veteran Saint, dumbfounded. He had been anticipating meeting Neph again for a long time, but now that it was mere minutes away, his thoughts were in disarray.

'Did she check out my runes recently? Does she know that I'm a Tyrant now, too? Wait, no... why do I care if she knows or not? I shouldn't!'

Jet seemed a little surprised, too.

"Weren't they supposed to arrive in a couple of days?"

Saint Cor shrugged.

"They were. But with Tyris receiving some free time due to the three of us being beaten black and blue in the last battle, the schedule has been moved up. Ascended Sunless and you arrived just in time."

Sunny tried to digest the information. He knew that the Legacy reinforcements would be coming in two waves. The second one consisted of the bulk of their forces, traveling by sea, while the first one was supposed to be the vanguard and consisted of just a few people. They were going to travel to Antarctica through the Dream Realm.

The process was both simple and complicated. They needed a Saint who had already established a tether in the Southern Quadrant... in this case, Saint Tyris. The members of the vanguard had to either already be anchored in the same Citadel as she or be brought there by a different Transcendent.

Then, Sky Tide would be able to bring them with her to the waking world, thus transporting the necessary people to Antarctica.

The vanguard had to be small because Saints were limited in how many living creatures they could carry with them between the two worlds - just like Masters were limited in how much inanimate weight they could bring. Usually, a Saint could only transport one or two people at a time, and that consumed a fair amount of essence.

Coming to a sudden realization, Sunny looked around. He was starting to understand why such a lavish place was chosen for their impromptu meeting.

was not for the benefit of two Ascended... Wake of Ruin was rolling out the red carpet for the powerhouses of the

at the old man,

a very high opinion about

his teeth, trying to hide contempt and anger from seeping into

putting

studied him with a

"Why?"

gathered his thoughts, trying to come up with a convenient

to

Ruin raised

"Traitors... interesting. How so?"

Sunny sighed.

are supposed to be humanity's sword against the Spell, no? The Legacies are the greatest of the Awakened, and yet, they have seemingly given up on challenging the Spell. Much worse, they refused to come out of the sheath when we needed them. This whole disaster could have been salvaged if they had

the tens of thousands of soldiers that perished with them. He doubted that such numbers could touch the heart of

the great clans because of the death of just three Awakened, the old man would have

Wake of Ruin sighed.

clans. It is even easier to dislike them if you know a lot. But forgive me for sounding like a grumpy old man, Ascended Sunless... young

at him

"Do we?"

Saint Cor nodded.

might be a cruel world, and a harsh world. But it is a stable one, nevertheless. Because it has been built that way by your predecessors. Many tend to look at the flaws of the world, but very few stop to question its foundations. And those foundations... why, they might have been better, but they could have also been

leaned back in his chair, looking