Shadow Slave

1496 Bygone Battlefield

They traversed the old battlefield for several more days. By the end of the second week, there were so many dead Nightmare Creatures and ghostly ships floating in the still water, surrounded by debris and broken weapons, that it became almost impossible to navigate between them. A strange haze hung in the air, limiting how far they could see.

With no other choice, Cassie raised the Chain Breaker higher, and they flew above the scene of harrowing slaughter.

The Great River was littered with rotten husks of massive abominations, debris, and shattered ships. Shrouded in the somber twilight, they covered the water like a horrid carpet. That carpet stretched into the distance, eventually disappearing in the haze.

Sunny was appalled and shaken by this sight.

'How many people died here?'

He was no stranger to battlefields, but this one seemed especially somber and poignant.

Although there were much less broken ships than there were slain Nightmare Creatures, this section of the watery battlefield alone must have taken the lives of countless warriors of Twilight. Not all of them had been Ascended, after all… desperate to escape a dying world and create an army of Saints to reclaim it, Daeron had led most of his surviving subjects here, both Awakened and mundane. Before the fall, they had been truly numerous.

"What is this place?"

Effie's voice was low.

Nephis glanced at her, then looked back at the dreadful scene.

"...It's the outskirt of a battlefield. This is where our predecessors, warriors of the Twilight Sea, faced the Defiled legion of Verge."

The Serpent King had once led his people to besiege the cursed city of Verge, but was forced to retreat after failing to destroy the First Seeker. The forces of the Defilement must have launched an war campaign in retaliation, and this was the morbid result.

Sunny studied the floating corpses.

'No wonder the Defiled have been slow in obliterating Fallen Grace.'

The Six Plagues and their tainted army might have been the victors of the siege of Twilight, but the casualties they had sustained were immeasurably severe. Verge did not possess an infinite number of soldiers, after all. With how many of the Defiled abominations seemed to have perished here, in the haze of dawn, there would not be enough of them left to continue an aggressive conquest.

during the

standing. Same for Weave, and some of the cities ruled by the sybils. The cohort would have been able to travel across the Great River, slowly gathering allies and

River People, Jet and Effie would have gathered the tribes of the River Nomads, and Kai would have earned the trust of the king of Twilight with

new challengers arrived, and the Serpent King had always been destined to descend into madness

now, and there was no way

crown, and of Wind Flower's trust, to finish

He gritted his teeth.

your

"Let's proceed."

flew above the carpet of dreadful corpses,

closer and closer. They could not see far because of the haze, but

unexpectedly attack them from below. This way,

the sky, and a black crow landed on Jet's shoulder. Her Echo had been scouting ahead, and seemed

Reaper looked at Crow Crow and raised an

"What did you find?"

crow opened its wings and

"Shai-nee! Shai-nee!"

Jet frowned.

found

of moments, then clicked its

"We should probably follow."

blind girl hesitated for a bit, then moved the oar, leading the Chain Breaker away from the direction where the Guiding

the same time

mighty wall rose high above the water, crowned with battlements. The base of the wall was

the distance from both sides of the

a

fortress, impressed by how imposing it

However…

spike that remained whole, more were bent or broken. Most of the massive chains that had been connected to the sides of the

human bones, with tattered flags hanging