Shadow Slave novel Chapter 3182

White Abyss glanced at the spear lying on the ground near the old woman. It was of simple design, the wooden shaft polished by countless years of use, the sharp blade carved from glistening flint.

She remained silent for a moment.

“I welcome War."

The old woman smiled faintly.

Turning back to the fire, she shrugged.

"Kill you? No. It's not time for that yet."

The great and terrible War God — the goddess of life, warfare, progress, craft, intellect, and humans — leaned closer to the fire.

"I just happened to be passing by. Think nothing of it."

White Abyss studied her with an indifferent expression. Behind her, at a distance, her soldiers and priests were trembling in fear, startled by the cruel death of their senior. Paying them no attention, the radiant incarnation of fire took a step forward and sat across from War, with only the dancing flames separating them.

The goddess spared her a curious glance. She seemed to consider something for a moment, then asked:

“A nephilim ruling a kingdom of humans — the first human kingdom, no less. How unexpected. Tell me, nephilim... that child, Kanakht. What did you do to him?"

White Abyss tilted her head slightly.

"I burned him. He is still burning, somewhere within me."

This incarnation was only a fraction of her. Most of the endless ocean of living flames that mortals called the White Abyss were still contained within the great temple, and at the heart of that temple, a blackened corpse was still being burned by the flames. It had been burning for countless centuries,

endlessly reduced to ash and restored, kept in an immolating cage of rebirth that forbade it from crossing the threshold of life.

That corpse was Kanakht, one of the First Humans — and the first human to have ever become Supreme. He had been cursed by the God of Death, after all, so he couldn't be killed.

He could only be contained.

War chuckled.

“What a cruel fate. Hasn't he suffered enough by now? All that agony, all that pain...”

White Abyss glanced at her, emotionless. However, there seemed to be a hint of incomprehension in her gaze.

After a while, she spoke in an even tone:

"It's just pain.”

Some said that evil stemmed from a lack of knowledge, and that those who knew pain would not visit it upon another. Therefore, pain was the source of compassion. However, White Abyss knew pain better than anyone else in the world, and yet, she was not prone to mercy.

War sighed lightly.

"So, how is it treating you? Playing a god?"

White Abyss frowned, then glanced away with a hint of despondency in her harrowing, radiant eyes.

She remained silent for a long while. Eventually, she said evenly:

“It hasn't been easy."

She glanced at War.

“At the start, I wanted to be a good ruler. I wanted to protect my people from the cruelties of the harsh world and empower them to aspire. I wanted them to pursue their passions without holding back, free and unburdened. I wanted to be kind and compassionate."

The white radiance of her beautiful eyes shone with pristine light.

“And so, I defended them against the Creatures of Corruption. I gave them laws and institutions. I healed their wounds and eradicated their sickness. I fed them, I educated them, I provided for them. No one went hungry in my kingdom, no one suffered the cruel tyranny of need. No one was forced to endure the hardships that they had not chosen to face."

White Abyss fell silent for a moment, then glanced at the fire.

“But in the end, they did not flourish. Instead of prosperity, there was only rot. They grew lazy, entitled, arrogant, and overcome by insatiable greed.They turned on each other and foamed at the mouth in the frenzy to tear their neighbors down. They were consumed by envy, avarice, sloth, depravity, and malignant pride. It is so ugly... it is so distasteful. It is so unlike what I wanted to give them, and what I wanted them to take."

She paused, staring into the dancing flames. After a short while, White Abyss said in an emotionless, frightening tone:

“It makes me want to burn them all."

As she spoke those words, the flames surged, sending a cloud of fiery sparks swirling in the black expanse of the darkening sky. The soldiers and priests who stood in the distance behind her suddenly glanced small and fragile... easily erased with a thought.

War studied the radiant nephilim, a hint of a smile on her lips.

"Why haven't you?"

White Abyss slowly glanced away from the flame and raised her gaze to the stars.

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