Shadow Slave

Chapter 1853 The King’s Speech When the king entered, everyone in the chamber straightened… everyone except for Sunny, naturally, who was the only person sitting comfortably on a wooden chair. Anvil spared him a short glance — which was heavy enough to make Sunny pale behind the mask — and took his seat calmly.

Once the King of Swords was seated, the rest of the Saints took their places behind the round table. Because of its peculiar shape, everyone here seemed to be an equal… however, that equality was merely an illusion. Anvil did not do anything, and yet his suffocating superiority was painfully apparent.

Consequently, those who sat closest to him were above the rest. Morgan sat to his right, while Nephis sat to his left. As for Sunny himself, he was almost on the other side of the table.

At the same time, he was standing near the wall with the rest of the Fire Keepers. The Masters and a few Awakened who had been invited to participate in the war council did not get a spot behind the table.

There were a few moments of silence before Anvil's deep, strangely enthralling voice resonated in the stone chamber. He spoke evenly and plainly, in a strangely calm tone — as if what he was talking about was a mundane matter, not a war that would shape the future of humanity… or maybe even destroy it.

"Welcome, warriors of the Sword Domain. We have carved out a piece of this cursed land and established a fortress atop the ancient bones of a dead deity. Our blades are sharp, and our will is triumphant… for now. The forces of Song have had a hard time achieving what we had achieved with relative ease, but there is no wisdom in belittling their valor. Those who underestimate the enemy are destined to fall. The cost of arrogance is death."

He gazed at them coldly and continued in an indifferent tone:

"There is no one in the world who knows Ki Song, the Queen of Worms, better than I do. So, I tell you this: there is no end to the insidious schemes woven by that woman. You should prepare yourself to taste bitterness as her machinations unfold. However, I also promise you this — at the end of it all, we will taste the sweetness of victory."

Hearing those words, Sunny couldn't help but sigh.

the rest of humanity — for reasons entirely different from the ones he himself

used to thinking about these two as nebulous and sinister figures — as tyrants of immense power

mere mortals before attaining Supremacy — Awakened warriors no different from him. More

together, and fought side by side in the depths of hell. It was no different from Sunny raising an army against Cassie, to kill her and

'It's actually… quite sad.'

was dead, as

wonder what would happen to his own cohort

but he did know that, at the very least, they would never end up as the Sovereigns. Not the least of all because the Sovereigns were there, in front of them, as a cautionary tale — without their appalling example, Sunny and his companions might very

deeply and

of Swords, meanwhile,

a foothold in Godgrave, we must persist into its depths. The next stage of our campaign will

but he was also someone who could speak them without

succinctly explained the goals looming over the Sword Army. Sunny ignored the flowery words and

its culmination when the two of them faced each other in battle, and end when

to gaining a decisive advantage in that final confrontation were the Citadels scattered across Godgrave. Possessing more of them would allow one of the Sovereigns to manifest

the two great armies were merely tools for taking control of