Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2901

2901 /2906

The war between the Longing Domain, the Hunger Domain, and the Mirror Domain was over. The Longing Domain, which had seemed indomitable once, fell in just a few months, and now, only two warring factions remained.

So, a new war was now unravelling under the patchwork sky of the Dream Realm.

At the time Cassie and Rain arrived at the Ebony Island, Mordret was steadily pushing the forces of humanity back on all fronts. All the northern expanse of the Dream Realm, excluding only Ravenheart, already belonged to him. His seemingly endless vessels were moving like an unstoppable wave down the River of Tears, and in the east, the Black Mountains were poised to fall soon.

It seemed like the King of Nothing was going to wash over the world like a tide, leaving nothing but death and desolation in his wake... leaving nothing but himself to rule the empty, devastated world.

But reality was different.

As soon as the last bastions of the Longing Domain, including the four Great Citadels, fell into the hands of the Dreamspawn, his rule over humanity was solidified. All of mankind now belonged to him, submitted to him, and worshipped him as their savior.

Of course, that was not because everyone truly believed in Asterion — instead, it was because everyone had been infected by the idea of him, enthralled by him, and no one could escape his frightening powers.

But it was all the same, as far as the war against the King of Nothing was concerned. With all of humanity united in their eerie obedience to the Dreamspawn, the nature of the war changed. There was no internal conflict among the humans anymore, and they were guided by the terrible will of the eldest and most experienced of the Supremes — so, their unity and military cohesion increased by leaps and bounds, going far beyond what was humanly possible.

And since Asterion ruled the most powerful Domain in existence now, having grown far more powerful than any other Supreme as a result, he did not feel the need to shy away from the battlefield anymore.

On the contrary, he led his thralls into battles quite often, as if taunting the King of Nothing to bring his most powerful vessels and face him.

But, of course, there was no difference between those vessels that were powerful and those that were weak. In the end, they were all Mordret — and so, Asterion could assault Mordret's mind every time he found himself close to any vessel.

He could slowly poison Mordret's mind from any distance, as well, but being face-to-face allowed the Dreamspawn to unleash the full extent of his insidious Aspect upon the King of Nothing.

It wasn't easy to infect the mind of a Supreme — especially the mind of Mordret, who had the capacity to control millions of vessels without going mad... or at least more mad than he already was. His mind was vast and eerily alien, but then again, Asterion was not entirely human either.

Just like rivers cut rock, his insidious powers slowly chipped away at the King of Nothing, poisoning his mind drop by drop.

That should have destroyed Mordret, eventually — but even in the short term, Asterion's influence was supposed to diminish his ability to fight against the Hunger Domain effectively.

That did not happen, though.

It did not happen for one simple reason — because of Lady Cassia, Song of the Fallen. She, who was now considered a traitor of humanity by those who had fallen under the Dreamspawn's hex, seemed to be the only reason why Mordret could resist the powers of Lord Asterion so persistently. So, people blamed Song of the Fallen for every person who died in the war against the Mirror Domain, and for every soul that was destroyed to give its sinister ruler a new vessel.

Despite the fact that the King of Nothing had found himself a witch to protect himself from the insidious power of the Dreamspawn, the tides of war still changed against him.

In the west, the warriors of humanity managed to build an effective blockade on the River of Tears. Of course, Mordret could bypass it by using the surface of the river itself as an exit of the Mirror Gate — but in doing so, he would be committing a large contingent of his forces to a battle behind enemy lines.

And with the Song Sisters leading a counteroffensive from Ravenheart, pushing eastward toward Godgrave, he had no choice but to conserve his vessels and pull them back to the Moonriver Plains.