Shadow Slave

A wide street was shrouded in darkness, framed by the burning buildings and billowing smoke. The ground was littered with rubble and broken vehicles. Here and there, human bodies lay in the pools of blood, covered with dust.

A woman with raven-black hair and icy blue eyes was standing in the middle of the ruined road, holding a black sickle sword.

In front of her, a towering figure was moving slowly across the rubble, each of its steps exerting an invisible pressure on the world. The creature was surrounded by a haze of swirling sand, with only a vague silhouette of a gaunt human visible behind its veil.

A thousand screaming souls shrouded the ancient devil like a mantle.

Jet looked at him coldly.

«I hear that you are called the Heart of Kanakht… nice to meet you. I am called Soul Reaper Jet.»

A dark smile appeared on her pale face.

«This is my city. So, prepare to die.»

The Great Devil halted, looking down at her through the veil of sand. The whirlwind of souls surrounding it parted, revealing two gaping pools of darkness, Ghostly flames ignited in their depths, piercing her with a gaze of indescribable malice.

And hunger.

Then, a rustle of a myriad of whispers rose like a tide, enveloping her in a cold embrace.

Jet did not know the words of the ancient language the fiend spoke, but understood them regardless with the help of the Spell:

«…Broken… thing… bow, submit, surrender. Succumb…»

She felt a powerful compulsion press her into the ground, as if a thousand invisible hands were pulling her soul down.

However…

The weight of her shattered soul was too great for them to move it even by a millimeter.

Jet's smile widened.

She raised her sword and took a step forward.

«…In your dreams.»

A split second later, her ghostly figure dashed toward the Devil.

unusual soul. Her core was like a vast sphere of shattered crystal, countless shards pressed messily together to form a jagged sun. Her radiant essence constantly leaked through the gaps between the shards… but, in return, the more living beings

since that was the only way for her

core was massive like a giant star, burning furiously in the cold darkness of her desolate soul. Not only that, but her dead flesh could absorb much more essence than that of someone who was truly alive, which granted her

that physical might also translated to the dire power of her wraith

in front of the Great Devil and lashed out with her sword. All of it happened in an instant, too fast to be discerned

sand shifted, raising

the mist blade was not

the sand and cut deeply into the ancient

to their left exploded into a cloud of dust, obliterated by the giant

receiving the cut on his behalf. The abomination sustained no damage at all. It was only affected a little by the lethargic power of the black khopesh, shrugging it off a split second

of sand shot from his towering figure, moving too fast

as well. She jumped back,

Then, the sand settled

the haze of screaming souls flowed forward like a raging river, threatening

«Soul attack.»

Jet gritted her teeth.

going

souls. In her perception, the jagged pieces of torn alloy and shattered concrete were floating down slowly, nearly static. The Great Devil's attack, however, was almost too

into a furious battlefield. Two wraiths- one made of mist, the other of

sand rustled as

The pillars of smoke were not torn apart by the hurricane wind, the scorching flames were not extinguished. The ground did not

because Jet was intangible, and so were her attacks. The harrowing storm of phantoms pursuing

their battle had been happening on the

entire district might have already been flattened, turning into a smoldering ruin… like many other

«Damn it…»

ancient fiend… but what was the point? Her insidious power, which had served her splendidly across countless battlefields, was almost entirely useless against the vile power of the Heart

legion… there must have been millions of people living in the outskirts, where the Great Devil had been wandering before her

one percent of the victims had Joined the whirlpool of souls, Jet would

to evade, however, dealt direct damage to her own soul. It was vast and tenacious,

have to

and slashed at it with her sword,

beings, but instead parts of the Great Devil — therefore,

of Jet's fears… perhaps even her only true fear. For all other Awakened, losing all of their essence simply meant enduring a period of powerlessness and not feeling

worse, Jet wasn't sure that she would be able to control herself when facing this slow and excruciating dissolution. The few times she had come close to exhausting all her essence… well, she didn't really want to remember them. She had done a few shameful

her the limits to battle a Great Devil consumed an

those of most other Saints. More than that, five powerful souls were