Shadow Slave novel Chapter 313

Chapter 313 Starlight Shard

On the last day they would spend in the Dark City, Nephis led a small group of her most powerful warriors on one last hunt.

The members of her cohort were all following behind her. Sunny, who stubbornly refused to accept his status as one of them, walked apart from the group, idly looking around and observing the ruins.

Gemma and Seishan were also with them, as well as ten or so of the most experienced hunters — some of them formerly from the Host, some formerly from the outer settlement. There was no difference between the two anymore.

All of them were simply Changing Star's people now.

As they were walking, Gemma approached Sunny and glanced at him with curiosity.

After Tessai had fallen to Neph's blade, the tall man seemed to have found some measure of peace. Somewhere deep in his eyes, however, there always was a hint of sorrow.

Sunny stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

The hunter smiled slightly and asked in a friendly tone:

"You're Sunless, right?"

Sunny shrugged.

"Yeah, that's me."

Gemma silently measured him and then asked with interest:

"I've heard that you lived for months alone in the city. Is that true?"

'Ah, makes sense.'

The tall man was perhaps the most experienced hunter on the Forgotten Shore. He had survived countless battles on the streets of the cursed city. It was natural for him to be curious about this matter…

Sunny gave him a nod.

"Sure. A little over three months, I guess."

Gemma rubbed his chin, then asked bluntly:

"How did you survive?"

Sunny grinned.

How had he managed that, indeed?

"...Lots of hiding, lots of killing. A modicum of madness, and a little bit of luck."

Gemma stared at him for a bit, then chuckled.

"Sound about right, I guess."

After a while, he glanced forward at Changing Star and asked in a curious tone:

"Do you know what we are going to hunt today?"

Sunny looked at him with surprise:

"She didn't tell you?"

The tall man hesitated, then shook his head.

"She did. I'm just not sure that I believe it."

Sunny smiled and looked away.

"Ah, let me guess. Your first thought was that she had lost her mind. What can I say… get used to that feeling."

After a few moments of silence, Gemma sighed.

"But how can we kill it?"

'Poor guy…'

Sunny glanced at him, lingered for a bit, and then said:

"If my guess is correct, you know more about it than I do."

And just like that, their conversation ended.

By the middle of the day, they reached the eastern edges of the city and climbed the imposing monolith of the great wall. Standing on top of it, they saw the colossal crater and the headless statue that stood not too far away, its one remaining hand thrust toward the skies.

Their prey was hiding in a vast underground chamber beneath that statue.

Today, they were going to hunt the Lord of the Dead.

***​

Soon, Sunny was trying to survive the fury of the Lord of the Dead once again. But this time, it was not as hard as it had been before.

He had become stronger, and the horrible creature had become weaker. His Memories were augmented by the Crown of Dawn, and Saint was now a demon.

There were also more humans resisting the tyrant today.

…That was not to say that the battle wasn't harrowing and perilous. In fact, it was utterly lethal.

The humans fighting the monumental Nightmare Creature were surrounding it, dodging the long limbs of the tyrant and trying to attack it when an opportunity presented itself. Kai was zipping in the air, providing support and bringing the wounded away from the fight.

They were only alive because the attacks of the Lord of the Dead were now slower and less devastating than before. With some preparation, both Effie and Saint could withstand one or two with the help of their shields. Caster was able to deliver several cuts to it with its ghostly blade, while Seishan had broken one limb completely with her graceful war hammer.

Each strike of the Sunlight Shard seemed to bring immense pain to the Lord of the Dead.

But nothing hurt it more, of course, than the incandescent blade of Changing Star.

Together, they dealt more and more damage to the terrible creature, despite the fact that many of them were now either severely wounded or dead. The tyrant was being consumed from within by the green vines, and broken from the outside by their weapons.

And then, after a long and arduous battle, a huge lair of bones fell from the body of the Lord of the Dead, revealing its inner core.

That core, which was made of human skulls and coagulated blood, was absolutely terrifying, malignant, and abhorrent. In its death, a shape of a fat white maggot could be seen, curled into a ball.

At that moment, Effie suddenly stepped forward, twisted her body… and threw the Dusk Shard as a discus with a deafening cry.

The shield that was said to contain the weight of the heavens streaked through the air with terrible speed and hit the inner core of the tyrant, crushing through it like a wrecking ball. It cut the maggot in half and exited the body of the Lord of the Dead from the other side in a torrent of broken bones. Then it fell to the ground, shattering the stone floor of the chamber and sending a net of cracks running through it from the point of impact.

The mountain of bones froze, the shuddered.

And then, it crumbled.

Everyone stared at Effie, shocked, hope burning in their eyes.

On her face, there was a dark, mournful expression. Belatedly, Sunny remembered that the members of the original cohort that the boisterous huntress had belonged to all perished here, killed either by the undead army or the Lord of the Dead itself.

A few moments later, Effie sighed and turned her face away, hiding it from everyone. Then, she raised a hand and made it into a fist.

That was her letting them know that she had received a Memory from the kill.

A Shard Memory.

The last one there was.