Shadow Slave

1526 Tempered in Flame

Nephis tilted her head, remained silent for a few moments, then said:

"I received a fair number of Memories, too… sadly, not nearly as many as one would have expected, considering the death toll of the explosion. Still, there is at least one or two for each of us. We can distribute them later."

With that, she turned to Sunny.

"That is what happened to Soul Stealer. What happened to the Dread Lord, though? How were the three of you able to kill him?"

He lingered for a bit.

'Cassie almost died in that explosion. Is Neph not concerned about that at all?'

A slight frown appeared on his face.

Eventually, he grimaced and answered in a dark tone:

"Well… I already said that the Crown of Twilight allowed me to ignore his commands. That should have made things easier, since his most fearsome weapon was taken away. In practice, though, so was mine. My mind. Without being able to think straight, I was no better than a frenzied beast… worse, even, because even a beast would have used everything at his disposal to survive."

He shook his head.

"But I was unwilling to summon my Shadows, or work together with Kai to bring the Dread Lord down. That was… unfortunate, to say the least. In the end, we ended up outside the city, in that floating fortress. I tied down the fiend, relentlessly attacking his body. That gave Kai an opportunity to destroy the amulet which had protected the bastard from Soul Stealer, and that gave Mordret an opportunity to attack his soul, in turn."

Sunny glanced at Kai and smiled from the corner of his mouth.

"The Dread Lord was paralyzed for a few seconds, and our resident dragon slayer used those seconds to drive an enchanted arrow through his brain. That was how the three of us — but mostly Kai — managed to kill him."

Kai had also prevented Mordret from taking possession of the Dread Lord's body, which would have undoubtedly given the Prince of Nothing ideas. Right now, he could be trusted not to turn on them because he needed Nephis to destroy the First Seeker. If Mordret had the power to subjugate her with the authority of the dragon's voice, though?

Who knew what he would have done?

In hindsight, Kai's decision to not wait for the results of the soul battle might have saved them all.

Sunny gave Mordret a somber look.

'Gods. How did I end up on the same team with that guy?'

gaze, the Prince of

Dread Lord myself. Probably. There was a little problem, you see — a seed of Corruption somehow ended up blooming in my soul. Luckily, I managed to extricate the infected part and turn it into a Reflection before the disease spread. So, I am back to being a

was time for them

'What the hell…'

and turning the contaminated portion of it into an external entity in order to heal themselves? What insanity

person to accuse someone of insanity. He was currently living out the devious plan concocted by his past Defiled self, after

contemplating whether any of the seven people present on the mess deck could be called sane, Jet smiled

club? No, that doesn't sound right. Let's call it the Othercide Club. You know, for people who killed the other, evil

a wisp of mist, making it swirl

Oh… you could have received an Echo, even. Having an Echo of yourself would

imagining him having an Echo of

He coughed awkwardly.

Or receive a Memory, or an

for a

instead. The [Dragonslayer] Attribute. I am…

tilted his

it's an

the description

seemed to blush

something about being forged in battle, tempered

at him

damn. I bet the Spell was generous on

Attribute had to have made his friend stronger. Considering the description, it most likely had something to do

The cohort was finally assembled, and most of the members had already grown stronger. Nephis had received a collection of powerful Memories, as well — considering the strength of the Nightmare Creatures of the Defiled legion, many of them would be of the Transcendent

Supreme soul shards stored in the Covetous Coffer, so he would be able to elevate some of those Memories

face Verge… and Torment. The

by accident, or the result of someone's

the Mad Prince? Or Torment's

even both of them, had harbored plans for Verge behind

at Cassie and asked, not

what's the plan

hesitation in her steady

sail for Verge,

she turned to

way