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."

Valor had kept him alive - they wanted Mordret to show them the way

in the past day. Their luck was also not too bad - the area where the

managed to make it most of the

stretch, however, had to be

too. In fact, the ones with him now were simply those who had survived the encounter. They

depends on reaching the Black Skull, too. Where

lingered for a moment,

worry. We're

between white dunes and

saw the giant black skull appear in the distance.

however, silently took

He shook his head.

him where the Citadel was,

have asked

question was

with the corpses of the Awakened

that

giant black skull. One,

was also there,

but they had actually been marching toward their deaths

'Time to run.'

Mordret allowed his body to fall and roll down

***

way through the desert, heading for the

was not easy. There were too many powerful Nightmare Creatures around, and even though most of them were mesmerized by the call of the

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

it was

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

was on their trail or not... but just the possibility

were all powerful

to be affected the least. However, she was struggling with

white dunes, she shook her head and