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.

of its defenders. The warriors that wielded the dreadful power of the sorcerous exosuits and the sublime diamond weapons, the

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

enemies the civilization of

certainly made

awalted the civilization of the waking world

were migrating to the Dream Realm

last if the true horrors of the Dream Realm abandoned the Death Zones to

Safety… was an illusion.

world was dying, but the Dream Realm was a

Sovereigns

nightmare. Not because they had brought the Immortal Flame clan

not even because of the countless lives

pursuit of misguided reasons. Ki Song, Anvil, Asterion — none

great, and they might have thought that their cynical tyranny was for

have a chance to defeat them and

survive the meeting with this Corrupted

She gritted her teeth.

«There is no escape…»

was like a deity, and a deity could exert great power upon the world. The ruins

and the Lord of Shadows had already witnessed how

option was

couldn't escape, they had to fight. But defeating a Corrupted Tyrant in battle was not something either

gap was

the Lord of Shadows and asked, her clear voice resounding in the roar of the quaking

of yours… can