Shadow Slave

Chapter 1876 Third Pillar The eight Saints that had followed the enigmatic Lord of Shadows into battle were both rattled and elated. The battle was a gruesome ordeal, but they had expected that much.

What they did not expect was to learn just how powerful their sinister commander had turned out to be.

The Lord of Shadows was a singular existence because, unlike the rest of them, he was not a vassal of the King of Swords. He was a mercenary Saint that Lady Nephis had somehow convinced to pledge his blade to the Sword Domain's cause — therefore, she knew him best. So, nobody had doubted her promise that they would not be able to defeat him in a fight.

Nevertheless, it was a startling shock to witness the Transcendent sellsword in action.

Not only was he immensely powerful and chillingly lethal, he was actually an existence of the same caliber as the other two field commanders of the expedition force — Changing Star herself and Summer Knight, the most renowned paladin of the Great Clan Valor.

The Saints had thought that the expedition force had two pillars, but now, they knew that there were three.

By the time the shrill wail of the war horn signaled them to retreat, the way they looked at the Lord of Shadows had changed completely.

…Sunny was a little bit amused by their change of attitude.

'I used to live in this damned place alone, of my own free will. What else did they expect? That I'm a weakling?'

Hearing the war horn, he let out a tired sigh and prepared to pull back.

He could sense Nephis enter the range of his perception, followed by the Fire Keepers. Once she and the other Saints of the first war party advanced, Sunny commanded his Shadows to retreat and followed suit.

Soon, he found himself behind the battle line, surrounded by his eight Transcendent subordinates.

Now that their shift was over, Sunny suddenly felt the weight of fatigue crash into him like a mountain. He was tired, dehydrated, and covered in sweat… it was to the point that he did not know what he wanted to do more, summon the Endless Spring to quench his thirst, or summon it to wash himself.

'In hindsight, Antarctica wasn't that bad. At least it wasn't so damn hot there...'

Dismissing his Shadows to let them mend the scrapes they had received in the nurturing darkness of his soul, Sunny gazed at the exhausted Saints and raised an eyebrow behind the mask.

"What are you waiting for? Retreat to camp. We only have sixteen hours to recover before the second round starts."

Rivalen of Aegis Rose sighed."...You really know how to raise morale, don't you, Lord Shadow?"

gallant voice sounded a

at him

I do. I doubt

seemed to shiver,

the direction of the distant camp.

crossing had been enveloped by the scarlet jungle before his war party cleansed it. There was ash in the air, and piles of burned

soul shards from them — but for now,

Sunny sighed.

only the

warriors were covered in soot and dead-tired,

For some reason.

in the process of assembling into a march formation, but when Sunny and the Saints

thousands of gazes wash over him like a tide,

a crowd of cheering soldiers, Sunny felt a cold chill run down his spine, and a sudden sense of dread grasp his heart with

He almost stumbled.

he recognized their

"...Glory! Glory! Glory!"

one could see his expression. The shadows populating the battlefield moved as he halted and

motionless for a few long

"Move out!"

colder than the frozen depths of

and then died out. The tired warriors followed their general

'Ah, how bothersome…'

base of the dead god's collarbone — mercifully, he did not have to handle the minutiae of managing an army out of battle. He simply wanted to

to step away from the

simply on the ground. Most had dismissed the outer layers of their armors because of the heat, so there was a lot of skin in sight. It was a stark contrast to what he was used

scene of the camp silently, then

'...I hate jungles.'

sleep, he walked to the lifts and climbed some way up the slope of the collarbone to observe the

sitting on the edge of

man with a valiant profile and a thoughtful gaze. His lake-blue eyes were calm, and