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."

him alive - they wanted Mordret

in the past day. Their luck was also not too bad - the area where the Call had pulled them was not that

help, they managed to make it most

had to be traversed

he could feel her fear... the Ascended had encountered the Skinwalker, too. In fact, the ones with him now were simply those who had survived the encounter. They knew that death - or something

depends on reaching the Black Skull, too. Where

for a moment, then

We're

forward, navigating between

saw the giant black skull appear in the distance. The Masters froze for a moment, excitement burning

however, silently took a step

He shook his head.

people asked him where the Citadel was, and

they should have asked another question

was really

he done with the corpses of the Awakened inside the Black Skull

was that he had

started emerging from inside the giant black skull.

also there, walking at the

Skinwalker, but they had actually been marching toward their deaths all

'Time to run.'

and

***

others. Together, they made their way through the desert,

powerful Nightmare Creatures around, and even though most of them were mesmerized by the call of the Seeds, some weren't, or at least not

they had to fight were of the

it was

inhuman conditions of the white desert, and under terrible mental strain because of the harrowing

Master Xu was on their trail or not... but just the possibility of meeting the creature again was enough to fill them with a suffocating sense of

fought were

them, Nephis seemed to be affected the

white expanse of white dunes,