Shadow Slave

1513 Furious Shadow

Sunny had transformed himself in the image of the Serpent King. However, he was not as powerful as Daeron. His onyx body was giant, compared to a human, but it was still much smaller than the Azure Serpent had been.

Much more importantly than that, it did not possess the power of a Great Beast. Sunny was merely an Ascended, after all, and even though the shadows he had used to form the onyx serpent were more powerful and ancient than him, the essence that had manifested them was that of a Master.

Six shadows were augmenting his shell, this time, but Nephis was not here to grant him the blessing of her flame… and although the Dread Lord was weaker than the Azure Serpent had been, the dragon was also not littered with gruesome wounds and nearing death.

None of it mattered to Sunny, though.

Consumed by frenzy, all he knew was the mad desire to rip his enemy apart.

'Kill you… I'll kill you…'

His fangs pressed down on the impregnable dragon scales, leaving deep grooves on their dark surface. His mighty body coiled tight around the Dread Lord, restraining and crushing him.

'I'll kill you no matter what!'

However, the harrowing dragon was full of ire and murderous will, as well. Even though his most dreadful power — the tyrannical authority of his voice — had proved to be futile when used against Sunny, he still had plenty of means to destroy the insolent slave.

A furious roar shook the dim throne room.

And, at the same time, an insidious whisper resounded in Sunny's clouded mind:

[ALL THAT EFFORT TO ESCAPE… AND YET HERE YOU ARE…]

Sunny vaguely realized that the Dread Lord was confusing him with the Mad Prince and doubled his effort to tear open the vile worm's throat. At that moment, however, his enemy finally moved.

Its tail whipped across the great hall once again, crushing countless Soul Stealer vessels. At the same time, he strained his wings against the coils of Sunny's giant armored body, causing cracks to appear on the surface of the Mantle.

Much worse than that, the Dread Lord lowered his head and bit into Sunny's own neck. His porcelain fangs pierced the onyx armor plates and sank into the shadows, tearing them apart.

did not

let out a mad laugh. More shadows flowed from the open gate of the Shadow Lantern, mending the wounds delivered to his shell by the

more hidden away, and his essence was nearly limitless here in Twilight. If the

you dry, one drop

into the tough hide beneath. Tasting blood… or maybe simply imagining

dragon and the serpent rolled across the ruined floor of the throne room, making the whole palace shudder. The

'...Is Kai alive?'

disappeared. He did not care… he did not even really remember who Kai was.

under the weight of the Dread Lord, his serpentine body was coming undone. His neck was shredded, and his head was moments away from becoming separated from his body. Even though he was mending the damage, the hateful dragon was tearing through the shadows faster than Sunny

But…

he tasted the dragon's

was full of dark

of sparks flying from the points where it ground

Flame…

him with a loathsome gaze and opened his

shell, Sunny gritted

torrent of flame… instead, it was an eerie, melodious, otherworldly sound. It almost sounded like

by that harrowing song, the giant body of the onyx serpent shattered. Terrible cracks appeared on its

a hurricane of stone dust into the air, and Sunny was thrown away, his shell torn asunder. Freed from the crushing embrace of his coils, the Dread Lord rose, his eyes burning with demented

radiant arrow hit the side of his head. A fiery explosion bloomed,

the palace, Kai gritted his teeth and drew

wanting to give the

that moment,

mouth, you

of his voice was not nearly powerful enough to restrain the Defiled Saint, the Dread Lord's jaws did

was all

and connected, almost instantly growing back together. His ravaged head rose, baring its fangs, and sank them into one

the scales were much thinner,