Shadow Slave

"Move, monster!"

An Ascended of Clan Valor had fear in his eyes as he pushed Mordret in the back with the butt of his spear. Mordret had already been walking as fast as he could, so the forceful push made him stumble and fall.

The blistering white sand burned his mangled face.

He sighed, then struggled to stand up.

One of his eyes was gone, and he had only one hand left. His Reflections had all been destroyed. His body was in a sorry state...

Even though Mordret had managed to escape the rampage of the Great being, his luck in the Nightmare Desert was awful. Soon after entering it, he stumbled on the pursuing Gate Guardian, and after barely surviving that unfortunate encounter, a band of surviving Masters of Clan Valor ambushed and overpowered him.

He had failed to finish off his sister, too.

'A pity.'

Now, his arms were bound behind his back with enchanted shackles. Even if he wanted to abandon his original body, he was temporarily trapped within it... the heavy chains were probably not the tool Morgan had planned to imprison him with, but they too were forged by his father.

Getting out of the shackles was going to be troublesome. If anything, though, having only one hand left could help with that.

"Stand up!"

Mordret sighed in exasperation.

"I'm trying... really now, is this how you treat a prince of Valor?"

Instead of the answer, the Master angrily hit him in the ribs.

Mordret plopped back into the scorching sand.

Another voice resounded from somewhere above:

"Stop it! You're only slowing us down... the Skinwalker has to be drawing close. If we want to survive, we need to reach the Citadel as soon as possible."

was the only reason that the stragglers of Clan Valor had kept him alive

was vast, but with the Echo mounts, the band of survivors had been able to traverse a great deal of distance in the past day. Their luck was also not too bad -

Mordret's help, they managed to make it most of

had to be

fact, the ones with him now were simply those who had survived the encounter. They knew that death - or something much worse - was

depends on reaching the Black Skull, too. Where

a moment,

worry. We're already

forward, navigating between

saw the giant black skull appear in

silently took a step

He shook his head.

the Citadel was, and he led them

they should have asked

question was really

he done with the corpses of the Awakened

that he had

human figures suddenly started emerging from inside the giant black skull. One, two, three...

also there, walking at

survivors wanted to escape the Skinwalker, but they had actually been marching

'Time to run.'

body to fall and roll

***

made their way through the desert, heading for the spot where he had left

and even though most of them were mesmerized by the call

they had to fight were of the Great Rank. Each of the five Masters was immensely

was a rough

were utterly exhausted, suffering from the inhuman conditions of the white desert, and under terrible mental strain because of the

whether the corpse of Master Xu was on their trail or not... but just the

abominations they fought were all powerful and dreadful,

them, Nephis seemed to be affected the least. However, she

expanse of white