Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2859

Night was descending on the desert once again.

As the setting sun painted the white sands vibrant red, the dark sea of shades assembled into a marching formation. Tonight, Sunny did not have enough soldiers to form the defensive wings around the core of the legion — instead, the strongest of his warriors, whom he had held back the previous night, would have to join the battle.

Nephis was sitting on the sand, meditating with her eyes closed. She had used neither her partial nor full Transformation yesterday, but today the battle was promising to be more difficult. So, she had to prepare herself for the agony of the merciless white flames — of becoming flame.

Sunny was preparing, as well.

Today, he was going to send all seven of his avatars into battle independently. More than that, he was going to attempt to accomplish an ambitious feat — building seven intricate Shells at the same time. If he succeeded, then there would not just be one towering Shadow Colossus protecting the legion. There would be seven.

Today's battle was going to be different in one more way, as well...

Today, the Plague of Steel would be fighting on their side.

Azarax was standing a few steps ahead of Sunny, looking at the vast expanse of the Nightmare Desert impatiently. He was not preparing himself in any way — instead, he simply could not wait to plunge into the ferocious battle.

Sunny sighed.

“Should I create you a weapon, at least? What do you fancy? A sword, a spear? A club?"

The ancient skeleton turned his grinning skull in his direction.

“No need. I'll simply take the weapons of my enemies after crushing the fools to dust."

Sunny studied him for a few moments, amused.

Was that the mindset of an ancient conqueror?

There were many things he wanted to ask, but sadly, they did not have a lot of time. So, he settled on the most important thing.

"What powers does the great and mighty Azarax wield, exactly?"

It was a natural question, but a complicated one. After all, despite this temporary alliance, they were still enemies — Azarax made no secret of his hatred toward both Sunny and Nephis, as well as of his desire to unleash a bloody conquest upon the world. So, describing the details of his powers to them would be like arming his future adversaries for the battle against him.

It was not even clear if the ancient skeleton possessed an Aspect at all. The original Azarax had... but he had also been human. This one, meanwhile, was one of the Deathless — of cursed beings reborn through the loss of their shadows, and therefore of their deaths.

Azarax might have lost his Aspect and Flaw a long time ago.

He laughed.

“Wouldn't you like to know?"

With that, the ancient tyrant looked ahead once more.

“You'll see soon enough. However, my power is not even the reason you wanted to strike a deal with me so badly, is it, shadow?"

He shook his head.

"Instead, it's simply the fact that I am Deathless."

Sunny hesitated for a moment, then smiled faintly.

“Oh no. You caught me."

Azarax shrugged, causing his bones to scrape against each other.

“l am Deathless, which means that I am very difficult to destroy. I am also one with the creatures you need to fight in this desert — and half of them were my comrades once. So, you hope that only half of the Deathless will attack me, and by extension, you."

He pointed at Sunny with a cackling laughter.

“You might even be hoping that the ones who recognize me as one of their own would pay less attention to you and the nephilim, or perhaps even join me in destroying the Deathless who were once soldiers of the Divine Host."

Sunny shrugged.

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