Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3085

The shimmering city was cut from the gigantic pillars of stone, some rising from the white mist on the floor of the continent-sized cavern, some hanging from the impenetrable darkness that hid its ceiling — as such, it had no wall and no gate.

The vast expanse of the great river, hidden under the billowing clouds of nothingness, served as its moat. Additionally, there were layered ramparts and battlements on the outer ring of stalagmites, high above the swirling mist. Even higher, the outer stalactites were encircled by defensive fortifications too.

In case of an assault, the defenders of the city could unleash an endless hail of arrows and projectiles on the attacking adversary, and even if one of the great stalagmites was conquered, advancing further into the city would become a nightmarish trial for the audacious foe.

Not only would the conquerors remain perfectly exposed to ranged attacks from above, but the vertical districts of the city were only connected by aerial bridges, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. The magnificent city was a natural fortress.

But that was only in case of an ordinary ground assault, naturally. Any besieging army would have to brave the rapid currents of the great river that rushed toward the titanic waterfall first, not to mention the tides of nothingness.

Even then, Sunny had a suspicion that the Stone Saints had not been worried about ordinary enemies when building their city. The foes they had faced here in the Underworld were beings of a different nature — the eerie creatures that dwelled in the darkness. And among those, how many even had feet?

The notion of a ground assault was meaningless in the Underworld. And it was especially meaningless for a city that stood above the Abyss.

The great chasm beyond the capital of Nether's kingdom did not only lead to the deepest stratum of the Underworld. Somewhere there, far below, hid the Abyss —a vast, bottomless pit of elemental darkness that connected the Underworld to the Shadow Realm.

Nobody knew what hid in the Abyss. Perhaps even Nether had not known its secrets — in fact, Sunny had a strong suspicion that the very reason the Demon of Destiny had built his laboratory on the edge of the great chasm was to study the dark mysteries of the Abyss. The city grew around his citadel much later.

A dark and unfathomable creature that rose from the Abyss easily wiped out the settlement Nephis had created in her Second Nightmare. That was the kind of adversary the Stone Saints had fought.

Today, however, they were going to fight Sunny, Nephis, and Saint.

The three of them approached the city openly.

In the past, specially enchanted boats and barges must have braved the swirling mist to approach the peers of the magnificent city, pushing nothingness away — they were long gone now, so Nephis simply summoned her wings and soared into the air. Her skin swelled with a gorgeous radiance, and a radiant white sword appeared in her hand. Saint turned into a torrent of darkness, taking Sunny — one of his incarnations, at least — with her. The second manifested a pair of black wings and rushed after Nephis, following her radiant light.

Neither Sunny nor Saint were visible, hidden from view by the vast expanse of impenetrable darkness. So, from a distance, it looked like a lonely white star was flying toward the ancient city, shining blindingly in the lightless abyss.

In response to her radiant challenge, there was movement on the battlements of the outer stalagmites.

Even from a distance, Sunny saw innumerable figures, which had looked like statues before, slowly coming to life and turning their heads to gaze at Nephis. Those were Stone Saints — thousands of them, all consumed by the appalling plague of Corruption.

They stood on the ramparts of the outer stalagmites, and glanced down from the shooting galleries that circled the stalactites as well. Even from a great distance, Sunny could feel the rabid malevolence of their collective malice, washing over the world like a tide.

‘There are dozens of Great abominations among them.'

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