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."

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

had been able to traverse a great deal of distance in the past day. Their luck was also not too bad - the area where the Call

they managed to make it

stretch, however, had

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 survived the encounter. They knew that death - or something

reaching the Black Skull, too. Where

a moment, then

We're already

between white dunes and ancient

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

silently took a

He shook his head.

Citadel was,

have asked another question

question was

he done with the corpses of the Awakened

answer was that he

figures suddenly started emerging from inside the giant black skull. One, two, three... a dozen, two dozens...

corpse was also there, walking at the

they had actually been marching

'Time to run.'

to fall and roll down the slope

***

made their way through the

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

of the Great Rank. Each of the five Masters was immensely

it was a

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

of Master Xu was on their trail or not... but just the possibility of meeting the creature

they fought were

to be affected the least. However, she was struggling

flawlessly white expanse of white dunes,