Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2728

A different memory, this one full of ruin and devastation...

A vast, shattered bone plain stretched endlessly under a grey, cloudy sky. Liquid metal rained down on the corpses of numerous men as an abyss of ferocious white flame melted a raging storm of swords into an incandescent hail.

Among the corpses, a man in a vermillion cloak and heavy armor had crossed swords with a young woman wreathed in flame. Her own sword had surrendered to his Will, as well, so she discarded it and forged herself a blade out of her own soul.

Out of pure light and a ferocious, unquenchable longing.

And hatred, of course.

The battle had wounded the very foundations of the world, so reality was coming undone around them, revealing the harrowing depths of divine laws hidden beneath.

Needless to say, that battle had swallowed up numerous lives, as well.

The man had been overbearing and proud, but now, he was battered and covered in gruesome burns. His sword, which had been able to cut concepts once, was turning blunt. His face, which had been handsome before, now resembled a ghastly mask of melted wax.

But his steel-grey eyes were still burning. His swordsmanship was precise, transcendent, and sublime. His authority over all things metal was insidious and uncompromising. His Will was like a towering iron wall, impregnable and devastating.

The young woman was a sage of the sword, as well. She had mastered countless styles and invented more than a few of her own... but today, she was stubbornly clinging to only one. A flowing, unpredictable technique that was both versatile and supremely adaptable.

Her father's technique, which the King of Swords knew too well.

It did not save him from falling prey to the legacy of Broken Sword, all the same.

In the end, the indestructible steel wall of his Will was melted down by the fiery longing. The dreadful edge of his all-severing sword was swallowed by light. And his unfeeling, cold heart was pierced by the blade forged of incinerating hatred. Anvil staggered, grasping the ray of white light that had plunged into his chest — it was of no use, though, because the sharp edge of light simply severed his fingers, making him stagger and fall to his knees. When he raised the ghastly melted candle of his face, however, a twisted smile was playing on what remained of his blackened lips.

A ghastly, gargling voice came from the depths of his scorched throat:

“Flawless... you are flawless at last..." Standing above him in the immaculate brilliance of her merciless white flames, Nephis gazed down with no expression on her inhumanly stunning face.

Her lips moved, as if she wanted to respond, but in the end, all she gave him was silence. ‘Did I want to say something?’

Yes... yes, she remembered that she had. She had wanted to say something — too much, even. More than could ever be expressed with words.

She had spent most of her life dreaming of this moment, after all. Longing to kill this fearsome man and burn all the things he had built to ashes.

She had wanted to make him remember her father. She had wanted to make him remember her... every loss, every tear, every wound, every moment of bitter hopelessness that she had endured. She had wanted to make him choke on his failure, his weakness, on his wasted betrayal.

But at the moment, she could not really remember why she had wanted to say anything at all.

She did not really care...

About this man, and about the pain she had suffered, either.

It was just pain, after all.

Looking down at Anvil of Valor, Nephis felt nothing.

Her heart was a beautiful, barren wasteland of flame. It was pure of all feelings, all doubts.

And all desires, as well.

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