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Chapter 1916: Burning the Bridges
Shadow Slave

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  1. Offline
    Kosmonavtik
    + 10 ⋅ 0 -
    1917 Fast Promotion

    Once the platform passed the great width of the porous hone, they were surrounded by emptiness from all sides. The vast Hollow sprawled beneath them, drowning in darkness. Here and there, radiant pillars of light fell from the cracks in its dome and illuminated the ancient jungle...


    No one knew what unspeakable horrors hid under its impenetrable scarlet canopy, so the soldiers shivered, trying to distance themselves from the edges of the platform as much as possible.


    Rain simply sat on the creaking wood, trying to catch her breath. She did look at the alien landscape below, but only for a short moment — seasoned hunters like her knew not to stare at the Dream Realm too closely.


    Lest something stared back.


    She looked at Ray.


    "How's your wound?"


    The young man was pale and uncharacteristically quiet. Fleur was treating him, but with how low she was on essence, the process was taking time.


    The young man forced out an unconvincing smile.


    "I'll live."


    Then, he glanced down and paled even more.


    "...Until we reach the ground, at least."


    Tamar dismissed her helmet and sat down near Rain, swiping back her sweaty hair. She scowled and looked at him with scorn.


    "Why are you worried? You have escaped the Hollows before — as a mere Sleeper and completely alone. You are an Awakened now, and we are surrounded by an entire army."


    Ray stared at her gloomily.


    "Don‘t remind me! I still have nightmares about that day... I mean, I would have, if I could dream..."


    The other soldiers heard their conversation and turned, looking at the young man in disbelief.


    "...Is that true, Ray? You survived the Hollows as a Sleeper?"


    Ray seemed startled by the question.


    "What the... wait, have I not regaled you guys with the amazing story of our chilling winter solstice? If that's the case, then — why, yes! Listen here... it happened on a dark and gloomy night..."


    He launched into the story, making Rain wince — she had heard it retold at least a dozen times, after all, and each was more unwieldy than the previous one. Still, she couldn't help but notice that the expressions of the soldiers eased a little as they listened to Ray talk. All of them were frightened, and hearing that three Sleepers had escaped from the Hollows alive gave them some much—needed solace, and maybe even a little hope.


    It was probably Tamar's reason for bringing up their winter solstice all along. Ray had been distracted from his wound, as well.


    'Ilow sneaky.‘


    That girl knew how to be subtle, as well.


    Soon, the platform reached the ground, and they all disembarked, looking around with wary apprehension.


    All around them, the battered soldiers of the expedition force were sprawled on the ground, resting, or hurriedly wolfing down their rations. The wounded were being treated, the dead or missing were being tallied and mourned.


    "Seventh Legion? Your position is right ahead!"


    They were corralled to a particular area and left to their devices for a while. No one knew how long this rest would last, so the soldiers did not waste any time and dropped down, unpacking their provisions and dismissing their armor to bandage shallow wounds.


    Tamar‘s cohort was no different.


    "What do you think the commanders will do now?"


    Fleur's voice sounded subdued... but not at all meak. Rain had assumed that the delicate girl was really soft at first, but after getting to know her better, she realized that their sweet healer had more spine than most Awakened.


    She shrugged and looked into the darkness.


    "We'll know soon."


    They weren't properly in the Hollows yet. The fissure the army had used to descend here was so vast that sunshine freely poured down, and so, the scarlet infestation in a wide area was no older than on the surface. It had already been annihilated by the advance party led by Lady Scishan, making the landing zone relatively safe.


    But not peaceful.


    The sounds of the fighting above barely reached here, but there were other sounds reaching the makeshift camp from somewhere in the darkness — Lady Seishan and Death Singer were currently there, facing the old monsters of the Hollows in a bloody battle to clear a path for the army.


    Deadly Nightmare Creatures in front of them, a vast horde of abominations behind them...


    The expedition force was in a perilous position.


    'Well... there's not much we can do about it.‘


    All they could do was fill their stomachs, replenish their strength, and prepare for battle.


    Which was exactly what they did.


    Half an hour later, a weary adjutant approached from deeper in the camp and gave something to Tamar, then ran off after saying a few words. The young Legacy remained motionless for a few moments, then sighed and sat back down. Then, she attached a pin in the form of a blood drop to her armor, and threw another one, this one much smaller, to Rain.


    "Congratulations, Rani. I guess you're my right-hand man now, which technically makes you a junior officer."


    Rain caught the pin, raised an eyebrow, and asked in an amused tone: "Goodness. I'm so honored I can cry. Right... what does it make you, then?" Tamar stared at her bleakly.


    "A captain. No, wait... a centurion, technically, since we're in a Royal Legion." Ray whistled.


    "Ever the overachiever."


    The entire composition of the Song Army was a bit of a mess. There were brigades and divisions, following the unit structure borrowed from mundane armies, but also the seven Royal Legions, which did not.


    The legions consisted of centuriae, which were supposed to consist of a hundred Awakened warriors, but were actually larger than that. In any case, these units of Awakened were usually led by an Ascended officer, called a centurion. Tamar wasn't the first Awakened in the Song Army who had been given the command of a centuria, but she was definitely the youngest.


    It was indeed quite an achievement.


    The young Legacy did not seem too impressed, though. Instead, she grimaced and asked in a grumbling tone:


    "Whatever. Is the food ready?"


    Fleur smiled.


    "Coming right up!"


    They ate a simple, but filling meal in silence. After that, another messenger arrived, dropping a scattering of shimmering crystals in front of them.


    Rain's eyes glistened.


    'Finally!‘


    The crystals were, of course, soul shards.
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    1. Offline
      Kosmonavtik
      + 10 ⋅ 0 -
      1918 Growing Strength

      The souls shards were some of those that the engineers had time to scavenge from the corpses of the Nightmare Creatures in the recent battle. That task was important enough that it had to be completed even in the middle of the most terrifying clashes... after all, with every soldier that managed to fully saturate their soul core, the strength of the Song Army grew.


      Tamar had long saturated hers, so the share of their cohort was divided three ways between Rain, Fleur, and Ray.


      Today, that meant that Rain received about a dozen shards. The rewards were distributed according to the contribution of a cohort, and theirs always performed exemplary... granted, in a chaotic situation like this one, no one was actually keeping score — usually, the centurions would make reports to legion command after the battle, and the allocation of spoils would be decided later on. But their centurion was dead, and the battle was not even over yet. So... Rain felt lucky to even receive anything.


      All of these shards were of a higher Rank than Rain herself was, as well. It was a sizeable boon.


      Forgetting her worries for a few minutes, she concentrated on shattering the shimmering crystals in her fist.


      And look at that! She did not even need to use the pommel of her knife to break them. Just her Awakened strength was enough.


      'I'll never grow used to it...'


      A stray grin somehow found its way onto Rain's face.


      She had not been Awakened for long, so the novelty of possessing superhuman strength was yet to lose its luster. She loved the feeling of being strong, of being powerful... after all, it was the feeling of powerlessness that had instilled into her the desire to step on the path of Ascension all those years ago, to begin with. Rain still remembered the day when a Nightmare Gate opened near her school clearly. The panic, the dazed faces of the students, the teachers who tried to look calm in front of the children, but still couldn't hide their fear.


      She was supposed to die on that day, most likely. But through a twist of fate, somehow, she survived. An Awakened warrior appeared out of nowhere at the last moment, shielding Rain from the lunging abomination and slaying it with a single slash of her sword.


      Rain's memories of that Awakened were strangely blurry... well, it wasn't that surprising, considering her mental stare at that moment. She vaguely remembered a graceful black armor, a feminine silhouette, and a cold indifference with which the unknown woman cut down one Nightmare Creature after another, not letting a single one pass.


      In the end, none of the students died. The teachers had survived, as well. And Rain... Rain had come to know that she never wanted to feel that weak again. For her parents, for her siblings, and for herself as well.


      Her path to Awakening had been a long and brutal one. She often complained and berated her teacher for his whimsical antics and unreasonable demands, wondering why she was putting herself through all that grief... but she had never once regretted her decision to strive for strength, and had never once regretted agreeing to her teacher‘s offer.


      Even if Rain died in this godforsaken land, she would probably still die feeling gratified for having chosen strength over weakness. Strength... was a bit intoxicating, like a sweet drug.


      And with each soul shard she absorbed, Rain grew stronger.


      The improvement was small and incremental, but noticeable... especially now that she had already absorbed close to two hundred of them. Since most, if not all, Nightmare Creatures in the Godgrave was of a higher Rank than Rain, her core was supposed to be getting close to full saturation. The same was probably true for most Awakened warriors of the Song Army, as well.


      ...She was still unclear on how to Ascend without the help of the Spell, but this increase in overall power was most welcome.


      "What's that stupid grin for, Rani?"


      Crushing the last soul shard, Rain glanced at Ray and winked at him.


      "That? Oh, I'm just glad to be an archer. How is the frontline duty treating you, stealth boy?"


      He gritted his teeth and hissed in outrage:


      "Hey! That's a low blow!"


      She simply laughed.


      Sadly, Rain had not laughed for long when a new command arrived, stirring the entire camp.


      "Assemble! Battle march formation! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Move!"


      Tamar sighed and jumped to her feet, going about bringing their centuria to order. The soldiers seemed a little disoriented, but not very surprised by the sudden command — no one had expected to get a good rest in the Hollows. But why did the orders sound so urgent?


      Soon enough, they found out.


      "By the dead gods..."


      High above them, ant-like figures appeared on the great vine bridges that stretched all the way to the surface, flowing down their twisting Width like a tide. The engineers, who had been desperately trying to destroy their roots, cursed and dashed away, dropping their tools as they ran.


      It was a good decision — just a handful of seconds later, the first Nightmare Creature fell from above, its body hitting the ancient bone with a disgusting squelch.


      The massive beast let out a shriek of agony, then struggled weakly, trying to stand up. Although its body was terribly damaged, it was still alive.


      A split second later, there was another squelch, and then another.


      ...Driven mad by the smell of human souls, the horde of Nightmare Creatures was following the expedition force into the Hollows.


      Rain broke her rule and stared at the flood of ant—like figures that covered the surface of the vine bridges far above.


      Her hands shook a little.


      'Well... crap.‘


      On second thought, maybe she should have chosen weakness over strength after all!


      Then, the commanding shout of one of the Blood Sisters brought her back to reality.


      "Move!"


      Barely rested, the Song Army abandoned the relative safety of the illuminated area and marched into the darkness of the Hollows.


      They were following a blood trail left by their commander, Princess Seishan. Behind them, more and more Nightmare Creatures fell from high above. The fastest of those abominations who managed to remain on the vine pillars were already halfway down.


      The future looked bleak, just like the dim expanse of the great Hollow ahead.
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  2. Offline
    MefetraN7
    + 11 ⋅ 1 -
    10+ глав про дождя, было бы топово. Пукан у чата улетел бы в стратосферу.
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  3. Offline
    DanielPlay
    + 7 ⋅ 0 -
    I believe Sunny should give the practical bracelet to Rain in the next chapters. I don't remember very well, but I think the only thing Cassie is unable to see with her awakened ability is the flaws of others, so the only thing she really needs to find is her flaw.
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    1. Offline
      Dummybaron
      + 1 ⋅ 6 -
      It's Cassie's Dormant ability and she can see flaws with it.
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      1. Offline
        TheIronChoad
        + 2 ⋅ 0 -
        I think she can only see the information provided by the spell. She can’t see details of naturally awakened. Might be wrong.
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  4. Offline
    Elrenegat
    + 5 ⋅ 0 -
    So much tension, I wonder if rain is going to die ...
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    1. Offline
      Dummybaron
      + 8 ⋅ 0 -
      I wonder if this is sarcasm ...
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      1. Offline
        Elrenegat
        + 3 ⋅ 1 -
        Me too
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        1. Offline
          Rãōõñ
          + 0 ⋅ 0 -
          Damn i am but dull but i can assure you she will become divine but will never die in this novel
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  5. Offline
    Crosby
    + 7 ⋅ 0 -
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_V_lsscdK4-vfL67sfO1HQX-I1WrX9071TzDbqMfDM8/edit?usp=sharing 1917 1918
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  6. Offline
    mr Fagotta
    + 13 ⋅ 5 -
    "Through all of that, Rain and her cohort had somehow stayed alive."

    Did anyone doubt they'd survive? SS is turning into the Avengers or the fifth shinobi war.

    Take the last chapters, Mordred's battle against our guys. They were defeated, retreated, lost a random fortress, nobody gives a shit.
    Same with Raine, no sense of danger, she'll survive, and even those dudes in her cohort will survive.Maybe after a couple chapters there'll be some "terrible" losses, but the fact is nobody gives a shit.
    I don't like this war arc, there is nothing at stake, no sense of importance to what's going on. It was probably a bad decision that our heroes are not involved in the war, no confrontation of ideas, ideology, future (the game was equal: two shit played).Maybe when the confrontation with Supreme starts it will be better, but now it's boring.
    Sunny even didn't go for revenge. His girlfriend was almost killed, hurt. Sunny they are not my enemies, disgusting position.
    Nefis can be f#cked by anyone.... Sunny, they're not my enemy, that's bullshit, no words
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    1. Offline
      drodyakov
      + 6 ⋅ 0 -
      I kind of agree with what you're saying. Especially about revenge, I was at a loss myself.
      As for the deaths, G3 said that it would not just kill the characters, it should be important for the plot and the work
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      1. Offline
        Elrenegat
        + 6 ⋅ 0 -
        He is not going to kill the characters because he can't
        There are to few of them for him to allow himself to kill some of them
        If he does, no one will be left
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        1. Offline
          wotpe
          + 0 ⋅ 0 -
          Take the breastbone citadel battle. Curiously the number of characters we know of grew, even though 7 saints died. G3 only introduced the saints that were going to survive. This may be frustrating for some, but the story is realistic.
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          1. Offline
            Shre08
            + 2 ⋅ 0 -
            But he did it differently in the Antarctica war. He introduced the cohort , creating interactions between sunny and them , and ending it all by killing half of them giving Sunny a huge trauma for whenever he will lead a cohort or any kind of army. It made it more memorable too , Sunny watching them and all he could do was apologise for his lack of power while they died smiling.
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          2. Offline
            Rãōõñ
            + 0 ⋅ 0 -
            Is it
            First time hearing plot armor is realistic
            Actually real frustrating things is none of song daughters died either
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    2. Offline
      MefetraN7
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      По факту с аркой антарктиды вообще не дотягивает.
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    3. Offline
      EVOLT
      + 4 ⋅ 0 -
      Yeah I completely agree, but I feel like G3 has a specific goal in mind. We know that the saint are all tenacious and won’t die too easily (especially our cohort + Mordret) and all have hidden aspects like the queens blood as we saw. What I’m assuming is that once we get to Sunny’s citadel, that’s when we will see saints dying left and right and see close calls for our crew. We may even see Morgan finally die and Mordret’s weakness + Neph revenge. Also, no clue how Rain’s doing so well too
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      1. Offline
        MefetraN7
        + 0 ⋅ 1 -
        Возможно мы недооцениваем морган. Ведь она же может копировать силы у других. Вот только никто же не сказал что она ограничивается только людьми. Возможно она из своего кошмара что то скопировала у сильного кошмарного существа.
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        1. Offline
          Dummybaron
          + 0 ⋅ 0 -
          Она не у людей способности копирует а у Зачарованных Оружий/Брони/Инструментов, Воспоминаний короче.
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      2. Offline
        Rãōõñ
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        We just saw a Saint being one shotted few chapters ago
        I like the novel but in the all of cohort and Sunny's relationships and his friend's families all will become of divine rank 🙏🙏
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    4. Offline
      Dummybaron
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      I don't completely agree but I can understand
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    5. Offline
      Glox
      + 0 ⋅ 0 -
      Nothings at stake? So mankinds survival is nothing?
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      1. Offline
        Rãōõñ
        + 0 ⋅ 0 -
        And whom do we know in this mankind
        Let me give you a example in lotm i cried when Klein's
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        1. Offline
          isaias Gabriel
          + 1 ⋅ 0 -
          The guy just wanted some mortadella. gloom troll47
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  7. Offline
    DeathGun AS
    + 8 ⋅ 1 -
    The queen's army is more powerful than the king's army... She has more saints, she has 7 strong daughters, Mordret with 13 saints and her supreme reflexes and she can revive the dead...
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    1. Offline
      DeathGun AS
      + 8 ⋅ 0 -
      Since they are in a place with several monsters, the queen's ability would give them an additional advantage in a long-term war... Because she will become stronger and stronger... Without Sunny and Nephy, the sword army would meet its inevitable end.
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    2. Offline
      Elrenegat
      + 1 ⋅ 9 -
      Mordret alone is stronger than both the king and the queen's army, together ...
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      1. Offline
        Doksoo
        + 6 ⋅ 0 -
        Good luck to Mordreth against over 80 saints
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        1. Offline
          Elrenegat
          + 2 ⋅ 8 -
          Dude he is nailing them, easy peasy
          It's not even a challenge
          Heck even a rooki would be able to do so with his powers, it's how broken they are
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      2. Offline
        REN・DOVERঐ
        + 4 ⋅ 0 -
        Don't overestimate him broseph cheerful
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        1. Offline
          Elrenegat
          + 1 ⋅ 6 -
          Well he is immortal with as many bodies as he wants, I don't think I'm overestimating him in any way
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            DanielPlay
            + 6 ⋅ 0 -
            I think you're confusing Modret with Soul Stealer. The more bodies Modret controls, the harder it is to control them. Soul Stealer had thousands of bodies, but none of them were capable of using swordsmanship or their aspect, to the point of just swinging their weapons randomly. That's why he limited himself to just the Saints and didn't control the masters or awakened ones of the House of Night. Another point is that the battle of souls isn't immediate, it takes time. Soul Stealer was only able to consume the city instantly because he simply spoke the forbidden knowledge in the battle of souls and corrupted the person immediately. That's why he only controlled humans in Twilight.
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            1. Offline
              Elrenegat
              + 1 ⋅ 5 -
              No I'm not, I am well aware of who I'm talking about
              Mordret said it himself, that he was limited to a certain number of bodies, 18 or something like that and that the strenght of the bodies was limiting him from taking any more, at the same time
              So if we follow that logic, he could have taken a larger number of weaker bodies
              But really it's that that important, because he doesn't need that many to win this war, one is enough
              As long as he is immortal with the ability to take over others and bring them to his level, he is just a f#cking menace, that's all
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              1. Offline
                DeathGun AS
                + 1 ⋅ 0 -
                Mordret has weaknesses... His power comes from reflections, after all, his affinity has to do with mirrors... One way to defeat him would be to place him in a place where there is no light. That's how Sunny got through the mirror maze... So, a fight against Sunny, Mordret could fall short or even with the Light Killer... Besides, even the Dark Moon and Hunter Souls,It would be a complicated opponent for him... Now imagine all of them together... Mordret is strong, but that's because he's attacking and not holding back at all. Imagine if Sunny wanted to kill the Song army? He could kill them little by little, saint by saint... But if he gets caught in a bad combination, he wouldn't be able to handle the large numbers either...
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                1. Offline
                  Elrenegat
                  + 0 ⋅ 4 -
                  He has 18 fragment of himself, you can't trap all of them at the same time and he has his mirror dimension to walk around
                  And no, number doesn't matter, he is freaking immortal
                  I'm not going to elaborate any further, everything that needed to be said has already been said about him
                  Just read what I wrote
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  8. Offline
    Elrenegat
    + 4 ⋅ 1 -
    The good way to go about it for song instead of throwing your pigs to the slaughter is to capture a citadel with the help of your elites and grow yourself an undead army of monster which will last longer and cost you absolutely nothing
    That's the way to go about it, in and out, easy peasy
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    1. Offline
      MefetraN7
      + 3 ⋅ 0 -
      Так их элита встретилась с командой санни.
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  9. Online Offline
    Reii
    + 7 ⋅ 0 -
    I hope shit hits the fan down there and sunny has to save her and gets recognized. That would make things interesting. 16
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