Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3059

3059 /3084

The eerie creatures built from the corpses of fallen Underworld warriors surrounded Nephis and Saint in a wide half circle, hidden in the darkness. Nephis could not see them, but Saint could... if vision was the right word to describe it.

Rather, it was a special sense that allowed her to perceive the movement of elemental darkness, as well as discern the shapes of objects hidden in its cold depths.

There were countless jigsaw creatures around them, varying in size, all poised to attack.

When the attack came, it all happened in a split second, making the ancient chamber quake and groan, slabs of rough stone falling from its ceiling.

The Dark Ones lunged forward, the brunt of them facing Saint. She dashed ahead to meet their tide, as well, diving into the darkness — despite her towering size, the taciturn Shadow moved fast enough to leave afterimages in her wake, a thunderous clap resounding in the underground hall as the crushing weight of her stonelike body sent devastating shockwaves spreading through the air.

Those shockwaves alone would have been enough to obliterate lesser opponents. Her enemy, however, possessed the same tremendous mass and moved with the same lightning-fast speed — so, when the two shockwaves collided, a roaring disturbance shook the mountain, heralding the terrifying fury of their clash.

Sunny, who shared Saint's senses, could not help but feel the devastating momentum of their motion deeply — at that moment, he himself was like a mountain... or a cataclysmic rockfall, perhaps, his indescribable weight bearing down on the enemy as if nature itself chose to erase their blasphemous existence.

The first creature to reach Saint was a lumbering monstrosity that towered above her, reaching forward with an enormous hand, its jagged fingers ending with sharp stone spikes. Despite being almost two times smaller than the abomination, Saint used her shield to push the giant arm just a little to the side, causing it to miss her completely.

A fraction of a second later, carried by her terrifying momentum, she reached the creature's body and slammed the rim of her shield into its abdomen. The entire middle section of the macabre colossus exploded, the mystical stone pulverized into a billowing cloud of dust, and its upper body crumbled.

The jagged pieces of stone were only beginning to fall when a flowing dark mass tried to escape from the collapsing shell — only to be pierced by Saint's lightning-fast sword and dissolve into the surrounding darkness.

Continuing to move forward, barely slowed down, Saint spun to receive a devastating blow on her shield and, at the same time, beheaded another abomination with a swift and calculated slash of her sword. A moment later, her foot descended on a smaller creature rushing past her to lunge at Nephis, crushing it entirely under her armored boot.

At the moment, Saint was augmented by the [Evening Star], which was in turn empowered by her [Underworld Armament] Ability — and since she had abandoned the circle of light emanated by Nephis and dove into true darkness, the enchantment of her charm had reached its maximum potency. Saint was also strengthened by her [Mantle of Darkness] Ability, the two augmentations fusing to produce a chillingly devastating synergy. And, of course, she was empowered by Sunny himself — the scope of his augmentation increased by the Curse.

All together, this combination of sorceries and Abilities produced a devastating result. Nothing was as annihilating as Saint herself, though.

The power of a Supreme Devil augmented by the Lord of Shadows was daunting, but it was the battle skill of the last of the Stone Saints — honed by eons of war, bloodshed, and combat — that was truly terrifying. Even if the enemies were equal in strength or more powerful than Saint, their might seemed useless in front of her measured, murderous battle skill.

Their numbers, though...

Sunny felt a bit of unease.

Saint was strong, yes, and her cold wrath had made her even more fearsome than usual. But there were simply too many enemies around, all of them immensely powerful — easily equal to the pinnacle of the Great Rank. Additionally, their authority over true darkness seemed to be innately profound, which had rendered Saint's sword and armor unstable.