Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3099

3099 /3102

[Nephis... I have an idea.]

Engaged in a dreadful battle against the abyssal horror's creation, the very fabric of reality bending and parting in front of their blades, Nephis invoked the Name of Decay as she plunged the Blessing into the impostor's flesh. The radiant surface of the sword blazed with a scorching radiance as it turned into a torrent of pure light, incinerating her adversary's body.

At the same time, more Names escaped from Neph's lips, echoing with primordial power and reshaping the world around her.

The Name of Withering, the Name of Erosion, the Name of Sundering...

Destruction took innumerable forms, after all, and she knew the Names of all of them.

The dark copy reeled and staggered back, her body disintegrating in a conflagration of radiant flames — only to be restored moments later. Her eerie smile remained the same, even if her lips had been turned to ash and made it into a grotesque grin.

Nephis pressed the attack, even as the adversary's sword cut her flesh in turn.

[What... kind of idea?]

Sunny collected his thoughts and then explained in a short and concise manner.

[You are going to have to split your attention...]

Once he was done talking, something cold and frightening flashed in Neph’s eyes. Her lips twisted into a faint smile then, too.

She dashed back, intending to buy herself a split second of respite.

[...Damn.]

Huh? Was that really Neph's reaction?

No, it couldn't have been. That was so unlike Nephis... Sunny must have heard wrong.

Nephis grasped her sword with both hands and lunged forward, meeting her dark copy in a shocking explosion of annihilating carnage.

[Can we even survive that ourselves? Actually, never mind. Let's do it anyway.]

Now that was Nephis he knew!

In the next moment, the tides of her Will shifted, and her soul began to exert a subtle pull on the world.

Forced to split her focus, Nephis suffered a harrowing wound just a moment later — unlike all the previous ghastly wounds she had received, that one went against her intent, weakening her too much and sending her staggering back. The dark copy did not miss the opportunity, pressing the advantage and gaining the initiative in their vicious clash.

The battle turned against Nephis then.

But even while being pushed back, she coldly calculated every painful loss, guiding her adversary into destroying the least vital parts of herself. Biding her time.

And all the while, the subtle pull her Will exerted slowly grew more forceful.

‘Come on, come on...’

Sharing her pain, Sunny gritted his teeth and counted heartbeats.

The solution he had come up with was not difficult to realize, but demanded a bit of time to implement. Usually, it would not have been a problem, but attempting it in the midst of a battle was immensely difficult — especially a battle as intense as this one, where even the slightest distraction could spell doom.

But this was the best chance to turn the tide against the abyssal horror.

When Sunny asked himself how the dark copy differed from the real Nephis, he found too many answers. The eerie creature was merely emulating her powers, after all — there were things it could only vaguely approximate, and other things it could not replicate at all.

The dark copy was not a carrier of the Nightmare Spell, for example. Its soul — if it had one — did not burn with the Flame of Divinity. It did not possess [The Fire], and its dark sword did not carry the [Blessing of the Fire] enchantment either — which made Nephis stronger the more her soul was damaged.

But among those distinctions, few could actually help Sunny and Nephis defeat the eerie Creature of Darkness. The most obvious choice would be to make use of the [Blessing of the Fire], asking Nephis to detonate her soul cores in order to harm her adversary and empower herself.

However, there was no guarantee that the abyssal horror could not replicate the effects of the [Blessing of the Fire] once it observed them. That was why Nephis had not resorted to that strategy herself yet. No... Sunny needed something more decisive, more final. Finding out a way to bend the rules of the game was not enough — he needed to break the gameboard completely, leaving the adversary no chance to respond.

That was why his thoughts turned to the Longing Domain. On paper, it did not grant Nephis any actionable benefits — except for an endless stream of spirit essence and the unfathomable weight billions of loyal souls added to her Will, naturally, which were both passive boons. On the contrary, it was Nephis who could actively help her subjects.