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

moment the cohort entered Twilight… the eerily emotionless faces of the defenders

to shudder — or at least try to.

'Impossible, impossible…'

in Twilight. How could Soul Stealer have possessed them all? What kind of monster could do that? What kind of conscience could control millions of puppets, reflecting

being they had seen in the mirror

like a repulsive amalgamation of countless humans and Nightmare Creatures, all

fractured monster like that probably

also a strong

goddamn Mordret… even when he's on our side, he's still such

a person be such a bad omen? Whenever the Prince of Nothing appeared, something utterly terrible was bound to

'Calm down.'

was no point in wondering how Soul Stealer could have devoured all of Twilight, or why he and the Dread Lord

also not going to

could it even be salvaged? Weren't all of them already doomed? The

we can still win,

had to be a

there, on the streets of Twilight, surrounded by the numerous bodies of Soul Stealer. Especially Effie, who was much more vulnerable to the insidious powers of the mirror

he could not do anything about that,

had his own

horrific as Soul Stealer, but he was still a foe far more dreadful than words

happened, the tyrant of Verge had

fiend… I have to kill him,

pursued him into the throne room, but more

companions would not be destroyed in the process… in fact,

into deadly

'Damn it all.'

Lord's authority… it was a manifestation of Kai's Ascended Ability. And Kai's

to mental attacks, but that resistance was relative. It was enough, for example, to shrug off an order given to him by Kai — a

was much less relative.

Sunny possessed a Memory that could

used the Shroud of Dusk to send

listen to