Shadow Slave

1475 Defiled Saints

By the end of the day, Aletheia's Island had grown silent. It was still shaking from time to time, the quakes growing stronger each time… which meant that the sorcery keeping the island afloat was slowly coming undone.

But its surface had become strangely peaceful.

Sunny was pretty sure that, apart from the motionless Nightmare Creatures on the stone bridge, there were only two abominations left on the entire island — Devouring Beast and Undying Slaughter.

The former was messily consuming the remains of the dreadful fiends in the obliterated forest. Deep wounds were covering her towering body, but the bestial giantess did not seem affected by her Flaw, yet.

The latter had just broken free from the circle of black obelisks, shattering most of them in the process. Whatever horror had dwelled within the circle was now dead, while Undying Slaughter… she, at least, appeared to be running low on essence.

Sunny could not see much from his observation post at the top of the tower, and he did not even dare to look at the Defiled Saints directly, afraid that they would sense his gaze. But he could tell that battling the being that had been imprisoned by the black obelisks took a lot out of the hateful mist wraith.

Undying Slaughter had a more cruel Flaw than the bestial giantess. Not only was her essence constantly being drained, but she also had to spend it while fighting powerful opponents. As a result, her entire existence was a perilous balancing act.

And right now, the mist wraith was out of balance.

Sunny watched as she prowled the island, searching for new victims. She even approached the tower and spent some time observing the Nightmare Creatures on the bridge. In the end, however, Undying Slaughter backed away and disappeared into the mist.

'She's running out of time.'

Sunny felt a spark of hope ignite in his heart. Come dawn, the cohort was going to leave the tower and face the Defiled Saints in battle. The weaker their enemies would become, the better their chances of survival were going to be.

Still… he did not feel confident. If anything, Sunny felt that they would be marching to their deaths.

'Maybe we should rethink our plans and try to escape stealthily, instead.'

There was still a little bit of time left. He would try to talk some sense into Nephis in the morning.

Sunny continued to monitor the island until dawn, dreading the next day.

He… could imagine killing one of the Defiled Sense. With him and Nephis working together, both being Terrors, with Jet's lethal Aspect, Cassie and Effie supporting them from the back, Saint and Fiend holding the vanguard positions, and Nightmare affecting the enemy with his insidious powers, there was a chance.

Most importantly, he possessed the most precious advantage — detailed knowledge of what the two Plagues were capable of and experience fighting them.

at the same time, no matter how drained

to separate them

was distracted from his heavy thoughts and peered into the distance

'What is she doing…'

go of the horribly mutilated corpse of a Nightmare Creature she had been chewing. The

her face, the

noticed another figure standing some distance away from her, this one much smaller. Undying Slaughter was obscured by the mist, but now that it had become

contrary, it was as

look that well. Her elusive figure seemed even less substantial than usual, as if on the

stared at each other silently for a while. Sunny did not know if they were capable of communicating with each other, or if they needed to. From what he could tell, there was an unspoken understanding between these harrowing

wickedly, revealing her bloodied

they are

His eyes widened slightly.

appeared in Undying

was no loyalty among the

prisoners of Aletheia's Island should have been like a feast for Undying Slaughter… but those harrowing abominations had not been weak. In fact, most of them had been superior to the mist wraith both in

And the only creature she

answering their fury, the whole island shuddered. This time, the

'This is our chance!'

been checking their equipment, almost ready to leave the tower. However, Sunny saw an opportunity, so he turned

need to go,

one of the Plagues would already be dead… and there was not going to

to risk staying on the island until it collapsed into

motion. A few

the distance, the Defiled Saints collided. Devouring Beast's towering figure shimmered, and thensuddenly disappeared. Instead of a dreadful giantess, a savage-looking woman appeared amidst the toppled trees, her skin painted by dirt and blood… she must have realized that her size would only be a disadvantage when

form, however, possessed astonishing strength, explosive speed, and ferocious might. Even Undying

Effie's evil twin did not possess means of attacking intangible beings. Nevertheless, she was more than capable of dodging and evading the wraith's attacks… and remaining in the form of

had no choice but to abandon her ghostly form and face her sister as

tower and race to catch up to the cohort. He could

what

steps, Sunny jumped into Nightmare's saddle, commanded his shadows to augment the black stallion, and rushed forward on his own. For a moment, it felt as if they were falling… but then, his

side of the wide chasm, Nightmare flew in the direction where the