Shadow Slave

Morrow stared at the severed head for a split moment, feeling cold terror creep into her heart. The clean cut, the hollow emptiness of his dead eyes, the dark entrance into the tunnel behind...

Were... were they all dead? A whole cohort of experienced, battle-hardened Awakened warriors of the great clan Song, wiped out in such a short span of time without making even a single sound? Had a human done that? No, that was impossible. Only Whispering Blade would have been capable of slaughtering them in such a manner. But then, Madoc would never lower himself to play with his prey...

What kind of abomination was it, then? How had the dogs of Valor allowed a monster like that to live freely under their city?!

Then, Morrow scowled. Why was she scared? What was there to be scared of? Neither death nor Nightmare Creatures had ever frightened her before. Her people seemed to be shaken, too, so unbecoming of the elites of a great clan.

'A mental attack.' The creature must have been employing some kind of beguilement. She growled: "Activate the mental resistance enchantments!"

At the same time, she raised her hand and clicked her fingers, sending a devastating sonic shockwave into the tunnel. A deafening boom rolled through the production hall, and a fountain of stone dust and debris shot out of the dark entrance.

The Awakened of Song poured essence into the protective charms they carried. Instantly, it was as if they could breathe again... the memory of terror still lingered, though, gnawing at their willpower. There were twenty of them left, gathered in a circular defensive formation that had no blind zones, with the massive cage placed in the center. Morrow stared in the direction of the tunnel tensely, wondering whether her attack caught the creature or not.

unnerving silence settled over the production hall, she lingered for a moment, then gave the order to dismiss luminous memories. Trapped in a circle of light, they were too vulnerable. Instead of relying on natural vision, the messengers of Song sacrificed a bit of essence to activate enchantments that granted them the ability

the hall was empty. There was nothing within its dark expanse except for old machines

her thumb and middle finger together, and then said loudly: "Show

moment more. And then, the severed

of Rikas, which stared back at

then looked away from the morbid visage of

slid from his shoulders and fell to the floor, rolling through the dust as the body toppled behind it.

the Awakened, obliterating a large swath of the production hall.

The severed head of Rikas spoke again, unperturbed: "Pay... pay...

gritted her teeth, calmly analyzing the situation. Where was the enemy? What were its capabilities? There was something else beneath her calmness, though. A slither of fear. This time,

the defensive formation... from the massive cage that contained the enthralled abomination. Second, a section of the

earlier, many levels above the production hall of the underground factory, Knight Amiran was standing in the middle of a wide corridor. He was surrounded by Awakened of