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.

it different during the first cycle?

the Six Plagues, Twilight would still be 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 building

Jet and Effie would have gathered the tribes of the River Nomads, and Kai would have earned the trust of

Twilight had always been destined to fall before the new challengers arrived, and the

and there

Wind Flower's trust, to finish what the people of the

He gritted his teeth.

use your gifts

"Let's proceed."

of the sybils, the Chain Breaker flew above the carpet

They could not see far because of the haze, but the wind brought with it distant whispers

afraid that something would unexpectedly attack them from below. This way, at least, they would notice an approaching threat in

peering into the distance when a swift shadow suddenly fell from the sky, and a black crow landed on Jet's shoulder. Her Echo had been scouting ahead, and

Crow Crow and

"What did you find?"

crow opened its wings and

"Shai-nee! Shai-nee!"

Jet frowned.

found

her for a couple of moments, then clicked its beak and flew

"We should probably follow."

bit, then moved the oar, leading the

direction which used to be downstream, at the same time moving closer to the Edge. After some

carcasses of the leviathans, the structure was clearly made by human hands. A mighty wall rose high above the water, crowned with battlements. The base of the wall was littered with

the distance from both sides of

a floating

fortress, impressed by how imposing it looked in the

However…

had been connected to the sides of

with human bones, with tattered flags hanging lifelessly in the forlorn