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

deal of distance in the past

they managed to make it most of the way

stretch, however, had to

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

reaching

for a moment,

We're

walked forward, navigating between white dunes and

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

however, silently took

He shook his head.

where the Citadel was, and he led them

they should have asked

was

corpses of the Awakened inside the Black Skull

answer was that he had

the giant black skull.

also there, walking

Skinwalker, but they had actually been marching

'Time to run.'

allowed his body to fall and

***

Together, they made their way through the desert, heading for the spot where

even though most of them were

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

was a

the white desert, and under terrible

but just the possibility

fought were all

be affected the

flawlessly white expanse of white