Shadow Slave

1510 King's Resentment

Sunny could not even turn his head to take a better look at the humans that had appeared above the ruined throne room, standing on the edge of the collapsed sections of the dome.

At least he knew now that the army of Twilight was not gone. It was still out there, beyond the walls of the palace, fighting against the invading abominations.

Fighting against the Dread Lord and Soul Stealer.

'Thank the dead gods…'

He had no hope that these few warriors would be able to defeat the dreadful dragon — if they had the ability, there would have been no need to plunge Twilight into the eternal trap of frozen time, to begin with.

But they could at least distract the Dread Lord for a few moments, which would give him an opportunity to somehow rid himself of the command… perhaps. Once Sunny was free and reunited with the other members of the cohort, they would join the defenders of the city and help them slay the Defiled Saints.

He was already planning his next actions when something strange happened.

The people who had climbed the dome of the palace jumped down into the throne room without hesitation. Which wasn't that strange in and of itself… except for the fact that not all of them were equally powerful.

The few Masters among them landed easily, ready to attack the next moment. The Awakened warriors were less graceful, crashing heavily on the marble floor.

Most frightening of all was that there were mundane humans among them, as well. The height of the dome was too great for them to survive the fall. They hit the floor with repulsive sounds, painting it with their blood. Dying senselessly.

'What… what are they doing?'

Witnessing the dreadful scene, Sunny felt horrified.

Dozens of people were emotionlessly jumping to their deaths, not even hesitating before taking the fatal plunge. It was so appalling, so meaningless…

So inhuman.

His eyes widened as a terrible suspicion surfaced in his mind.

As those of the warriors who were strong enough to survive the jump dashed forward to attack their enemy, the harrowing dragon simply swiped his tail, pulverizing their bodies into puddles of blood. A crimson haze spread through the dim twilight of the great hall.

Sunny was suddenly nauseated.

those people… were taken

that he had felt from the moment the cohort entered Twilight… the eerily emotionless faces of the defenders of the city…

moments before flooded Sunny's mind, forcing him to shudder — or

'Impossible, impossible…'

monster could do that? What kind of conscience could control millions of puppets, reflecting false copies of

the ghastly being they had seen in the mirror version of

own twisted soul — had looked like a repulsive amalgamation of countless humans and

demented, fractured monster like that probably

felt utter despair, but also a strong desire to

even when he's on our side, he's still such

could a person be such a bad omen? Whenever the

'Calm down.'

was no point in wondering how Soul Stealer could have devoured all of Twilight,

also not going to help him salvage that

of them already doomed? The plan had been based on completely

we can still win,

to be

his companions, who were lost somewhere out there, on the streets of Twilight, surrounded by the numerous bodies of

do anything about that, at

his own dire

horrific as Soul Stealer, but he was still a foe far more dreadful than words could describe. And dealing with him…

what else happened, the tyrant of Verge

have to kill that fiend…

had already dealt with the Soul Stealer puppets that had pursued him into the throne room,

other, which was good for the cohort. But their clash did not mean that Sunny and his companions would not be destroyed in the process… in fact, now that they were here in Verge, they had

without a doubt, capable of using his authority to turn them into deadly weapons against Soul Stealer. Soul Stealer, meanwhile, could

'Damn it all.'

of Kai's Ascended Ability. And Kai's Ascended Ability was a mental attack, of

possessed a very high resistance to mental attacks, but that resistance was relative. It was enough, for example, to shrug off an order given to him

mental attacks, however, was much less

possessed a Memory that could grant them

Shroud of Dusk to send Kai a

listen to