Shadow Slave

A Cursed Tyrant…

Nephis felt an unfamiliar emotion that she couldn't quite describe. Awe, perhaps? Or maybe hatred.

The pure flames of her soul roared, surging restlessly in the presence of the harrowing adversary.

Cursed Nightmare Creatures were… the epitome of terror. Each of them was equal to what a Sacred being would have been — not that there were any of those around. Nevertheless, Sacred beings held a special meaning for humanity.

That was because of what the steps of the Path of Ascension meant, at least as far as humans theorized.

If the Path of Ascension was the road to divinity, then each step brought those treading it closer to godhood. Transcendence was the step of breaking away from the limits of the mundane. Supremacy was the act of asserting one's power over the world, thus establishing the foundation of their future apotheosis.

But it was the next step, which no Awakened of their world had taken before, that signified truly attaining the qualities of the divine. A Sacred being was already a deity, albeit a lesser one.

The same could be said about a Cursed being. The Cursed Tyrant, Condemnation, could very well be called a deity, A profane deity of abyssal Corruption.

And so, in a sense…

Today was the first time Nephis would face a god In battle.

But not the last.

—— —— ——

Time seemed to slow down as Condemnation rose from beneath the ruins. The gargantuan shape of the ancient fiend was still hidden behind the layers of collapsing soil and crumbling buildings, but it was already like a towering mountain. The quaking earth, the scale of it all… seemed more like a natural process than the movements of a living being.

Or rather, unnatural.

its slumber, Nephis could finally guess how this ancient city had been destroyed, and why it had fallen despite the dire might of its defenders. The warriors that wielded the dreadful power of the sorcerous exosuits and the sublime diamond weapons, the asuras… had perished

strength had not been enough to save this land, which was now a forgotten ruin. One of many similar ruins

the caliber of enemies the

made one

the same fate awalted the civilization of the waking

Nightmares. Humans were migrating to the Dream Realm now… but what would happen if a Cursed Tyrant

of the Dream Realm abandoned the Death Zones to roam its vast

Safety… was an illusion.

but the Dream Realm was a death trap as well. Of

why the Sovereigns had

and turned her childhood into a cruel nightmare. Not because they had brought the Immortal Flame clan to ruin… although Nephis would lie if she said that none of

was not even because of the countless lives lost because of their schemes in

not up to the task. They were incompetent, strangling humanity's power in pursuit of misguided reasons. Ki Song, Anvil, Asterion — none of

achievements were great, and they might have thought that their cynical tyranny was for the greater good.

to defeat them

to survive the meeting with this

She gritted her teeth.

«There is no escape…»

The ruins of this

be able to leave. Nephis and the Lord of Shadows had already witnessed how

option

battle was not something either of them was capable of…

was

asked, her clear voice resounding in the roar

Ability of yours…