Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2889

2889 Ancient Grudges

The Deathless were growing stronger the deeper into Ariel's Hell they went, yes — but Sunny and Nephis were learning how to fight them better, as well.

There were the mundane lessons of how to dismantle the undead warriors faster and more effectively. There were the broader lessons of developing better strategies and implementing better tactics, as well. Most importantly, Sunny and Nephis were learning about the nature of the Deathless, and therefore about their weaknesses.

One of those weaknesses, for example, was the tenuous grasp the undead warriors had on their Aspects and powers. Most Deathless had either lost them entirely or could only use them on a shallow level, as if using muscle memory to do something that they did not understand or remember anymore.

As a result, fighting the undead horrors was an exhausting, but mostly straightforward affair. It was combat in the purest of forms, a clash that relied solely on physical prowess and martial skill — even if the physical power involved in that clash was obliterating and terrifying enough to destroy lesser realms and reshape the very landscape of Hell.

It was a physical clash shaped by the underlying battle of warring Wills, of course.

Even then, Sunny and Nephis had found ways to overcome the tyrannical vastness of the enemy's Will.

The secret to doing so lay in the fact that it was not just two Wills that clashed with each other — their Will against the Will of the Deathless. Instead, it was actually three Wills struggling to subjugate one another. That was because the Deathless were not a monolithic force.

Even if they were united in their determination to obliterate the invaders, the undead warriors who had once belonged to the Demonic Legion were still opposed to the undead warriors who had once belonged to the Divine Host, and vice versa. Even consumed by the curse of Shadow God, the two great armies still struggled against each other.

Their resentment ran so deep that even after forgetting themselves, the Deathless still carried an overwhelming hostility toward the enemy. The thousands of years that had passed since the Doom War did not diminish their animosity toward each other one bit — if anything, it only made that animosity far greater.

The Deathless seemed to forget their strife when faced with a new enemy, but that was only an illusion. In truth, both sides still harbored a deep resentment for the other army, even while they were trying to eradicate the invaders. That division was not noticeable in their movements and seamless tactics, but betrayed itself in the turbulent expanse of their Will.

In other words, there were powerful undercurrents in the vast ocean of crushing Will the Deathless wielded, and those undercurrents clashed and collided with each other, creating a state of chaos and discord.

If one knew how to make use of that discord, how to slip through the cracks in the insurmountable mountain of the enemy's Will, they could overpower it with far less effort than would have been needed to summit the mountain through brute force.

So, that was how Sunny and Nephis managed to make it halfway to the Tomb of Ariel despite facing a seemingly endless horde of ancient, undying, immensely powerful foes.

Tonight, however, it all felt different.

The power of the Deathless they faced had taken a qualitative leap. The billowing ocean of murderous Will they possessed felt deeper than ever before. Their presence, too, felt different from before — it was colder, crueler, and far more focused.

‘Let's think positively...'

The seven incarnations of Sunny were the vanguard of the battle formation, serving to break the momentum of the advancing Deathless and soften them up for the marching army behind him. He moved like water, being elusive at times and exploding with crushing power at others.

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