Shadow slave: The Prince of Death

The battlefield was a graveyard of slain bodies, humans or otherwise.

The legions of Han li and Randall were dealing with the spiders while the rest of the 5 legions were busy fighting the birds.

Randall himself had joined in fighting the birds too.

The flock of those birds had swelled significantly more than it was assumed to grow. Several tribes of nightmare creatures were in it, and since they flew, it was much harder to kill them.

Nonetheless humanity tried. And so did sunny.

Except he was trying to deal with his newfound duty.

After Yunis was rendered helpless, he was assigned to eliminate the creatures ensnared by master Han li.

Which wasn't so bad honestly, it was a free buffet of fragments. But...

"Damnation! Is there no end to these monsters?"

Sunny had incredible stamina for a dormant person, given by the combined power of his monster core, his two shadows and shadow cradle. But he was still just a dormant human.

It was growing harder and harder to keep up with the rest of the army.

There was a bright flash in the distance. And hundreds of the winged horrors were annihilated in an instant.

Anurag had used his aspect to manipulate Chemicals and had launched sodium missiles into the swarm, igniting a devastating chain reaction.

Hundreds of the winged horrors were annihilated in an instant and fell as a mangled mess of feathers and blood.

Ascended Sohee loosened an arrow and wounded the wing of a fallen demon and sent it plumetting down to Kingmaker's feet.

It had been leading one of the aerial tribes.

Now it was Abel's turn to lead it...

...to its death.

---

Sunny's father didn't miss a beat and started to butcher the demon apart.

In his hand was a Transcendent sword he obtained in his second Nightmare.

If he could read it's weave, he would see a single enchantment called:

[Perfect jade]

It was what made his sword sharper and stronger than most Transcendent weapons.

That combined with the battle art Abel had learnt in his first Nightmare, made quick work of the fallen abomination.

'Heh, fallen.' Abel cleaved the demon's body in two as his dad humor sparked up.

The ascended were the heart of this operation. But their value would be most important when the fallen horde arrived.

Given how tired the ascended were growing, sunny suspected that they'd have to fight the fallen horde too.

'can I take on that? Definitely not. Maybe one fallen creature at this point, but I'd die if I tried fighting the horde.'

Just then, a voice rang from ahead.

"Stop sunless"

sunny halted and turned towards the ascended.

"What is it?"

He didn't like being interrupted in the middle of slaughter, but he couldn't ignore a master.

"The third wave is here." Master Han li spoke with a grim voice.

"What? How are we supposed to..."

"We can't take them if they mix up with the other two swarms. The spiders are almost all dead, leave them to the rest of awakened and come."

"How will we defeat an entire wave alone?"

Sunny wasn't too keen on following orders like an obedient dog and then dying for some noble sacrifice.

So he decided to voice his hesitance.

"This wave isn't a huge army, it has only a hundred creatures. All of them demons."

Han li spoke as if already aware of everything about the demonic horde.

"The government has been working with us to observe their tribe for months before they even migrated here, there was a plan to harvest their projectiles.

So we know about their numbers.

Anyhow, I can hold them off with my lightning, it will be spread too thin too damage them, but I'll make sure their projectiles can be dodged.

He looked at sunny with deep and sincere eyes.

You kill them off one by one until I can fry them all at once."

It was a decent plan, but there was a critical flaw in it.

"But I don't have-"

"WOOOOSH!"

Sunny was cutoff by the raining of hundreds of icicles at the region of conflict.

The demons had synchronised together and raised hellfire upon the human defenders.

Or rather...hell ice?

Han li raised his hands and channeled his lightning, creating a veil of pale blue electricity that covered the skies.

The rain of icicles met the veil, and were rendered immobile.

They fell to the ground harmlessly.

Sunny picked up one of the icicles, feeling it's enchanted strength, a sinister grin appeared in his face. "Nevermind, I do have a ranged weapon."

He flung it with his raw strength at a demon.

The demons were ice elementals—humanoid figures barely three feet tall, their torsos were severed at the waist, hovering like ghosts above the ground.

Three crystalline shards orbited around each of them, ready to be fired.

Their wrists, too, ended in stumps, where a pale blue liquid oozed and froze midair.

The elementals were usually immune to non incorporeal damage unless they were attacked at the heart.

Unfortunately for them, they hadn't evolved to counter their own projectiles

It was no different than being punched by your own hand.

So they fell, like an overly specialised predator falls when it's exact niche of food disappears or a different creature completely counters it's abilities.

The icicle sunny had thrown flew past the veil of lightning, unaffected by some strange rules of Han li's aspect and hit an elemental on its head.

Popping it out of existence.

[You have killed an Awakened demon: Feeling of rejection.]

[You have recieved a memory.]

Sunny briefly checked his soul sea for the drop and, seeing that it was a bow memory, summoned it.

[Memory of rejection] appeared in his hands. It was a longbow made out of an icy wood and ghostly string, it's design was primal, unrefined but made for killing.

"Mhm neat" said sunny who found it neat.

And began firing the icicle shards as projectiles on the Awakened demons.

"GHRRAAAKKH!" Roared the elementals in agony who found it absurd.

They were being attacked by their own powers, completely unable to defend themselves.

Protected by an Ascended, sunny was on a roll. He fired shard after shard at the demons.

Almost all his shots hit their mark too, courtesy of his hardwork until now.

This battle had been his current body's first experience of real long term combat and bloodshed.

And it was adapting rapidly.

But the demons were not stupid and mindless beasts, they were demons... intelligent demons.

So they didn't sit idle, they adapted to the situation and stopped firing their shards altogether.

Then they tried to circle around the veil from two sides.

It was their belief that only sunny was capable of damaging them, so to them their strategy made sense.

Get rid of the one creating the veil of defence first. Little did they know...

...that was the bigger threat to them.

---

Sunny chose to bombard the smaller group of demons until most of them were dead.

Then, having run out of shards, he summoned Guardian's Creed, Defiance and Serpent's weapon form. He was going to need the stealth.

He also summoned the memory he got from the spider matriarch.

It was an armour called [Pale Lily].

Since Sunny's Puppeteer's shroud was a garment, he could equip the armour on top of it. Essentially gaining twofold defence.

He had not activated defiance's invisiblity, in an attempt to attract the creatures to its shiny surface.

But now it was time for an assassination, so he did.

The sword turned completely transparent, a strange aura surrounded it, making it hard to discern whether it even existed there.

Then sunny activated the incorporeal damage property.

Only to be disappointed.

The sword stopped being invisible and returned to its usual form, only now there was a subtle hint of a new power in it.

It could now cleave through the incorporeal.

"So I can't stack attributes.... whatever, it's still great." Sunny sighed in dejection, but he didn't have time to cry about it.

Equipping the three memories and serpent's odachi form, sunny ran towards the seven remaining demons.

Some distance away, Han Li condensed his web of lightning, trapping the remaining demons on the opposite flank.

His lightning was starting to burn them up now, but after that, his essence would be dried up.

Sunny would have to help with the leftover monsters even more...

Shaking that thought away, he focused on himself.

Defiance's shine was completely subdued by guardian's creed.

Sunny himself was now nearly invisible in the shadows and had crept closer to his next victims.

He would be noticed once he killed one of them, so he wanted a triple kill to begin.

"With those last 7 demons, I'll be done with the demon core." The thought gave sunny a boost of strength.

He stepped into the centre of three of them and thrust serpent at one of them, screwing it's heart in a blur.

At the same time, he spun while using defiance to rip through the two other demons.

The demons died without even realising it.

The four other elementals noticed him. And two of them backed away to get some distance, while another fired his shards at him. Another simply observed, watching the situation play out.

Sunny dodged two shards, but the third one hit him on his shoulder.

His armour didn't budge, but it did send him back a few steps.

Sunny ignored the pain and the demon that had thrown them...

...And turned to run towards the demon that had been slow to react.

Calling serpent back to him at the same time.

The demon tried forming it's icicles to shoot him, but before it could fire it's shards...

He lashed at it with a horizontal strike, cutting its head off.

Serpent in its tattoo form boosted his strength. Allowing him to turn quickly, grab the now fallen shards and throw them at the other demon.

That demon had been aggressive from the start though, and it wasn't going to change now.

Two shards clashed from both sides, turning into ice dust.

Another two shards were fired from both sides, this time the shards missed each other, while Sunny's shot connected to his Target, the elemental's shot was swatted away with the scarlet sword.

A popping sound was heard, as the elemental burst into pieces.

[You have slain an Awakened demon: Feeling of rejection.]

[You have recieved a memory.]

"Only two remaining." Sunny thought to himself as he contemplated how to face them.

They were perhaps the smartest of these demons, having gone far enough that dashing to them would warrant being shredded by their shards.

Sunny didn't have an effective ranged attack against them either, he had used up all the shards around.

He had only been protected by their attacks because of Han li till now. If he rushed them, he wouldn't be able to parry all their shards in time.

"Damn these demons and their intelligence. I'll have to retreat safely first and then find an opportunity later. But even doing that without being bombarded would be tough."

Before sunny could move however, the demons let out a high pitched screech.

They were about to bombard him within seconds.

He did not even have time to summon a memory in time.

Fortunately, sunny did not have to bet on his luck...

...as the very next moment the air changed.

The temperature decreased by several degrees and the sound of a beast jumping with ridiculous force was felt throughout the battlefield.

A massive shadow fell across the land.

Boom.

For a moment everyone halted. Both humans and corrupted ones. In awe as they saw a gigantic white yeti descend.

The tyrant fell on top of the elementals, squishing them and....absorbing? Them?

It had assimilated the elementals into his body, becoming slightly bigger and more powerful.

It's gaze fell upon sunny, who forgot to even breathe.

The beast stood tall, taller than five meters, its shaggy white fur seemed impenetrable and its dark blue horns felt like they could break through the walls of NQSC.

It gazed at Sunny for a brief moment, its nostrils flaring as if assessing his worth.

Sunny looked away by sheer instinct, sensing certain death if he did not.

Then, as if unimpressed, the monster turned.

And jumped.

It landed with a deafening crash again—directly beside Jet, and looked at her with his deep abyssal eyes.

Only to be stared back by the cold icy blue gaze of death.

For a moment, the two stared at each other.

And then, all hell broke loose.

---

Before anyone could yell out the arrival of the 4th wave,

The ground fractured.

The tyrant brought a terrifying earthquake in its wake, perhaps it's devil ability, or perhaps it was just that strong.

The entire army fell into disarray, the spiders and even the bird Nightmare creatures did too.

How did the flying critters get affected was anyone's guess, but it spoke of the insane threat that was the fallen tyrant.

Soul reaper faced the fallen tyrant head on, with Kingmaker making his way towards his daughter.

Other masters were also coming, but not to duel the tyrant.

They were gathering to fight the fourth horde.

"John! How many creatures remain from the last three waves?"

"I'm not exactly sure Sohee, but the spiders are basically all dead.

The birds have dwindled to a mere fraction of their former selves, with many even escaping the conflict and running away, but there's still about 500 of them left."

The two legacies were joined by the third.

"And the elementals are all dead, courtesy of Kingmaker's son supporting me, that boy is something else."

Han li stroked his moustache, as if proud.

"For the love of all that is holy, stop shipping your girl with every single boy she meets."

Sohee sighed in exasperation as she knocked on three arrows on her bow.

Master vandall joined in.

"It seems like we can focus on the fourth horde then, those avians have been more annoying than anyone's imagination. Leave them to the awakened and face the fallen horde with me!

Jet! Abel! You two hold back the tyrant!"

Jet wasn't interested in holding back anything though

"I'll kill it myself, don't worry about it, you six deal with the horde." She spoke with indifference as if the tyrant was not an issue at all to her, but her eyes never left the tyrant.

Jet knew her limits too. So she wasn't going to grow arrogant.

"Are you sure?" Kingmaker was obviously hesitant.

"Yes I'm sure, if you have to worry about anyone, worry about sunny. He has to leave this place now!"

With that, soul reaper had no more time to talk.

And King maker had no time either.

The fallen horde descended upon them, it's ranks filled with beasts and monsters. There were about 20 of them, not too difficult for a cohort of masters.

Especially one as strong as this.

But soul reaper was busy, and a fallen devil was leading the charge, accompanied by a fallen demon.

Abel wanted to search for sunny, but as he moved, the fallen devil came in his path.

The fallen devil looked eerily terrifying.

Its gaunt frame loomed unnaturally tall, ribs jutting through pallid, torn flesh. Elongated limbs ending in splintered, blackened claws. A stag-like skull had crowned its hunched form, empty eye sockets glowing faintly, its lipless maw frozen in a deathly stare.

"Just wait for me sunny...once I slay this fiend I'll find you." Abel steeled his resolve and brandished his transcendent sword of the first tier.

Every time he swung that sword, a sense of guilt filled his soul, empowered by his flaw, not because of an insidious enchantment...

...but because of a mundane guilt.

Vandall danced between the fallen demon and a few monsters.

Anurag summoned some sodium missiles at the horde, and once they exploded, he turned the shrapnel into mercury, poisoning the fallen further.

Then he turned it into pure hydrogen, causing a chain of heavy explosions.

That took a toll on him, but that was alright, Sohee came closer to him, now he was in her 5 meter radius. Instantly his essence began to recover faster.

Han li had already come inside her radius too, for the same reason.

The three of them faced the horde together, with sohee shifting to a dark purple whip for melee, it's enchantment turning the victim slightly drunk everytime she hit them with it.

John stood behind those three, atop the carcass of a few giant black spiders, in his hands was a crossbow, made out of light blue coral.

Wounds inflicted by it made the target bleed much more profusely than any normal wound would.

The Awakened fought too, some against the Awakened hordes, some unfortunate enough to end up closer to the fallen, after the earthquake.

---

Sunny had a splitting headache. The world seemed broken and blurry. He barely got up from wherever he was lying.

"What the hell was that earthquake...at least I'm still alive..." He looked around to assess his situation.

He was separated from the rest of the forces. Trapped in a sinkhole where the ground had collapsed.

"Great. Just great."

A groan echoed nearby.

That rash awakened from before was next to him, unconscious.

He was about to check on him when a low, guttural snarl sent a chill down his spine.

Slowly, he shifted his gaze.

Across the cavern, something moved.

There was a fallen beast in the hole with them.

'Must be the runt of the litter...it got left behind by its pack and by the time it got here, the earthquake happened.

The fallen was a dark skinned werewolf, with a crimson mane. It's left arm had gotten stuck in the rubble, and the beast was trying to remove it.

A fallen could easily have done that, but this one seemed weird, it was trying to remove the rubble one by one, as if trying to avoid injury.

'must be a youngling'

Sunny quickly glanced at his runes.

Shadow fragments: [1998/2000]

Just one more kill...

Silently, he gripped his sword. Guardian's Creed masked his presence, and his enhanced senses let him pick up every subtle movement of his prey.

Step by step, he crept forward.

He didn't strike the head, as it was moving around frantically, but instead he aimed at the shoulder of the free hand.

Hoping to half it's attacking options.

The beast didn't notice.

He raised his sword.

And struck.

Schwing!

Steel bit into flesh.

The werewolf howled in agony as Defiance cut halfway through its shoulder. Blood sprayed across the cavern floor.

It was too much for sunny to cut in one shot, but it was the best start he could have asked for.

Sunny leapt back, heart pounding.

He didn't try to remove his sword, he simply unsummoned it.

Sunny had 12 times the strength of a dormant human with his shadows and shadow cradle. On top of that he had serpent boosting him with the slightest essence flow.

And he had two layers of Awakened defence, and a sword stronger than the midnight shard. His senses were enhanced by guardian's creed too, and it also made him hard to detect.

And his adversary had a broken arm and was a young inexperienced beast.

But a fallen was a fallen. The beast freed it's other arm with savage wrath and lunged at sunny with it, sunny dodged it just in time.

And the duel began.

---

The beast was predictable yet far stronger than sunny, it's jaws and left claw kept coming savagely with no hint of a defensive thought.

Even it's broken claw was swinging wildly.

The monster had now forgotten all self preservation.

Which was terrible for sunny, because he was completely preoccupied with surviving the barrage, just barely.

He saw a hundred openings but couldn't exploit them, simply because the moment he stopped dodging,

He would die.