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."

the stragglers of Clan Valor had kept him alive - they wanted Mordret to show them the way to the Black

able to traverse a great deal of distance in the past day. Their luck was

help, they managed to make it most of the way

had to be

woman was trying to appear calm, but he could feel her fear... the Ascended had encountered the Skinwalker, too. In fact, the ones with him now were simply those who had

way. Your life depends on reaching the Black Skull,

lingered for a moment, then

We're

walked forward, navigating between white dunes and

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

silently took

He shook his head.

Citadel was, and he

have asked another

was really

had he done with the corpses of the Awakened inside

was that he

emerging from inside the giant

also there,

to escape the Skinwalker, but they had actually been

'Time to run.'

to fall and roll down the slope

***

with Sunny and the others. Together, they made their way through the desert, heading for the

easy. There were too many powerful Nightmare Creatures around, and even though most of them were mesmerized by the call of

the Great Rank. Each of the

it was

of the white desert, and under terrible mental strain because

just the possibility

fought were all powerful and dreadful,

affected the least. However,

the flawlessly white expanse of white dunes, she shook her