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Chapter 1990: Iron Maiden
Shadow Slave

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  1. Offline
    ZEXOS
    + 44 ⋅ 1 -
    1991. Hideous Face of War


    An enormous Echo stood upon the desolate white plain, shining blindingly as its steel carapace reflected the radiance of the overcast sky. It was powerful enough to flatten fortresses and durable enough to endure Transcendent blows, towering above the sun-bleached bone like a steel behemoth.

    The gargantuan beast had four mighty legs, a broad back, and a flat head that rested on a long neck. However, it had not been created by the Nightmare Spell in the image of a fearsome abomination... instead, it had been forged by the King of Swords once — perhaps to serve an important purpose, perhaps simply out of boredom.

    Unless one wanted to bully the weak, the giant Echo was suited well for battle. It was not swift enough to be of use in a serious battle, and while its carapace was durable, it was not nearly resilient enough to survive the many dreadful perils of the Dream Realm. At best, it could serve as a massive siege tower.

    At present, however, it served as a mobile redoubt for the command staff of the Sword Army... not because of its power or impregnable carapace, but simply because its height offered the King of Swords and his retinue a convenient vantage point to observe the battlefields.

    The Echo's long tail rested on the ground, serving as a bridge that one could use to reach the flat expanse of the creature's back — there were even guardrails installed on both sides of the ascending path to prevent people from falling down.

    On the back of the steel beast, the field headquarters of the Sword Army stood, composed of colorful tents and canvas pavilions... most of them black or vermilion, of course. This was where the King and his close aides resided when the army was on the march, and where the generals gathered to hold council.

    This arrangement was not at all as impressive as the Valor Keep in the main camp of the Sword Army, of course, but still far more comfortable and convenient than one would expect in the middle of an active war.

    Finally, there was another steep path leading from the back of the enormous Echo and up its long neck. A circular viewing platform was located on the other end of the path, resting atop the head of the steel behemoth. The posts of the decorative guardrail were fashioned to look like a crown, and the white plain of sun-bleached bone could be seen far below in stunning view.

    That was where Sunny had found himself on a hot summer day, hiding his grim expression behind Weaver's Mask as he observed the calamitous battlefield.

    Well... every day in Godgrave was cruelly hot and sweltering, so this one was no different from all the rest.

    He sighed.

    'Why is it that every war I participate in happens to take place in an area with extreme weather conditions?'

    First the dreadful cold of Antarctica, now the suffocating heat of Godgrave...

    It was truly unfortunate.

    'The next war I join better happen somewhere with a nice climate.'

    The rest of the people gathered on the platform did not seem to share his sentiment. All of them were clad in heavy armor — except for Nephis, who had stuck with her decision to forego it entirely and was wearing simple white garments.

    There were no dark corners on the head of the enormous Echo for Sunny to hide in, so he simply found a relatively desolate spot and stood there alone, leaning on the railing with crossed arms. Added to his fearsome mask and cold attitude, this pose dissuaded others from approaching him, which suited Sunny fine.

    Most people crowded around the King, anyway.

    Anvil was standing at the foremost point of the viewing platform, observing the battle with a somber expression. His vermilion cloak was moving slightly in the wind, and his iron crown seemed especially heavy today. Sunny could not tell what the Sovereign of the Sword Domain was thinking about, and couldn't even guess what he felt.

    No one was speaking at the moment, absorbed by the dreadful view of two great armies clashing on the plain below.

    It was truly an awesome scene.

    There were hundreds of thousands Awakened warriors participating in the battle, as well as thousands of Masters. There were countless Echoes, as well...

    There was also a vast horde of horrid Nightmare Creatures subjugated by Beastmaster, and the eerie legion of the dead risen by the Queen of Worms.

    The battlefront stretched from east to west for no less than a dozen kilometers, and terrible forces ravaged the crumbling lines of desperately struggling soldiers. Countless Aspects were being unleashed, and countless Memories were consuming oceans of essence to release a myriad of enchantments. The bone plain was quaking, and the fabric of reality seemed to grow brittle and thin.

    The bone plain was drinking blood greedily, and too many lives were being lost each minute.

    ...It was appalling.

    Here on the head of the gargantuan steel beast, it was almost peaceful. The deafening roar of the battle was like a distant murmur of the tide, and none of the devastating forces unleashed on the battlefield reached the viewing platform.

    And yet, the people gathered here were not at all at peace.

    If there was one thing lacking on the battlefield... it was the Saints. Neither of the two armies had sent their Transcendent champions into battle, so all they could do was watch from a distance and gnash their teeth.

    Sunny had imagined the war as many things, but he had never imagined that it would be so... boring.

    At the start of it all, he had been worried about having to slay countless humans with his own two hands.

    But in truth, Sunny had barely had an opportunity to spill blood after his first few attacks on the supply caravans of the Song Army.

    All the killing and all the dying was being done by ordinary soldiers like Rain, and they were the ones paying the hideous price of war.

    It was a shameful truth.
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    1. Offline
      ZEXOS
      + 41 ⋅ 2 -
      1992. Mass Destruction


      There was a good reason for that, of course.

      And shameful and ugly reason, but a good one nevertheless.

      Soon after the second stage of the war started, the forces of both Domains had ventured to gain control over vast territories of Godgrave. The Sword Army had held a great advantage in that regard, already holding East Collarbone Plain and a large portion of the Breastbone Reach at the time, while the Song Army had been locked on West Collarbone Plain.

      There were expeditions launched to conquer the two remaining Citadels in Godgrave. Revel was leading an expedition into the darkness of the Spine Ocean, and a Saint from the branch family of Valor was leading a competing one to make sure that the Lightslayer died there.

      At the same time, Sir Gilead ventured south with a small force of elite warriors to claim the Citadel on the femur of the dead deity — considering that Nameless Temple stood between them and the Song Army, his expedition was unopposed. The Queen of Worms had seemingly decided to choose her battles and gave up on the south completely.

      A lot of time had passed since the three conquest parties departed, but neither of the Citadels was conquered yet… which was quite important.

      That was because the conquest of the last two Citadels would become the final tally of the authority that the two Domains possessed in Godgrave. And once their authority had no more room to grow, there would be nothing left to hold the Sovereigns back.

      And so, the King of Swords and the Queen of Worms would finally enter the battlefield in person… to face each other, and see which one of them would inherit the throne of War's Divine Realm.

      Which one of them would kill the other and get the other's crown.

      …That did not mean that there was nothing for the two great armies to do while the conquest parties braved the dreadful depths of Godgrave to claim the Citadels, though. In fact, the ordinary soldiers had to play the most important role in this Realm War.

      The authority of a Domain did not only depend on Citadels, after all — as Sunny had found out. There were other factors involved, like the strength and spirit of those people who belonged to the Domain… and its territory.

      The latter was especially important, because while the two Domains were roughly equal in terms of population, there was vast unconquered territory in Godgrave. The side that managed to claim more of it could very well swing the final balance of power in its favor.

      So… the two great armies had begun the conquest.

      The initial process of claiming territory for a Domain was rather simple — Sunny had helped the Sword Army do just that while marching to the Vanishing Lake.

      The forces of humanity had to push the scarlet jungle back, burn it, slaughter the Nightmare Creatures who populated it — the original masters of this cursed land — and build fortresses around the fissures in the ancient bone, thus preventing the abominable infestation from extending its tendrils from the Hollows again.

      However, what followed next was more complicated, and far more vile.

      Because after the forces of humanity wrestled control over the lands of Godgrave from the grasp of Corruption, humans could still fight for that control among themselves.

      And that was what had been happening during the second stage of the war.

      Both armies continued to claim more territory by banishing the scarlet jungle into the Hollows wherever possible, but they also clashed with each other, fighting for the already conquered land. The extermination outposts had become the currency that both Domains lusted for, and so, humans were now spilling human blood in Godgrave.

      The Song Army had eventually made its way to the Breastbone Reach by staging a two-pronged offensive from the Collarbone Plain and the Western First Rib. The battlefront had become twisted and complicated, with some fortresses changing hands several times a week.

      …And all of that was being done by the Awakened soldiers and Ascended officers.

      The most powerful champions of both great armies, the Saints, mostly remained on the sidelines.

      That was because Saints were too powerful, and too rare. Losing even one was a great loss for the Domains, especially if the fallen Saint controlled a Citadel — since there was usually no one left to replace them as its ruler.

      Besides that, a single Transcendent could annihilate an uncountable number of soldiers. If they were unleashed on the battlefield, the casualties among the Awakened warriors would be too monstrous.

      …Which would never stop either of the armies from using their Saints as weapons of mass destruction, of course. In fact, they would gladly do just that — the more enemy combatants perished, the better.

      However, they were deterred from doing so… by the enemy Saints.

      The Transcendent champions of the Song Army guarded the Transcendent champions of the Sword Army watchfully, and vice versa.

      None of them was allowed to enter the fray unless an enemy Saint launched an attack on the ordinary soldiers, so everyone remained passive, doing nothing.

      Valiant Saints led their warriors to battle, only to stand back and watch as the soldiers fought the enemy alone — all the while the enemy Saints stood on the other side of the battlefield, doing the same.

      Of course, there were exceptions to the rule, especially because the Song Army possessed much more Transcendent champions, and the Song Army had been having a hard time keeping them in check. At the same time, though, the Sword Army possessed Changing Star and the Lord of Shadows, who could not be stopped by just one or two Saints. These exceptions were rare.

      So, the weak fought and died while the powerful stood back and watched.

      It was a disgraceful affair...

      While not at all different from how it was in most other wars, perhaps.

      It was also quite strange at times.

      At one point, for example, the Saints of Song had decided to stage a clandestine attack in the portion of the Breastbone Reach that Sunny had been assigned to watch over. He had to Shadow Step into the middle of the battlefield, summon the Shadow Chair, and sit down… then watch Silent Stalker and a few other Transcendents shift awkwardly from one foot to another and grind their teeth, unwilling to provoke him and unable to do anything.

      Sunny had remained sitting until the battle ended, never moving a muscle.

      He had a feeling that things could change today, though.

      Because although there had been countless minor battles and skirmishes in the war already, today's battle was different.

      It was the first full-scale clash between the two great armies, with most of their soldiers present on the battlefield and participating in the bloodshed.

      The scale of it was both terrible and daunting... there had never been a greater battle in the history of humankind, after all.

      Sunny was watching the greatest crime in history be committed right in front of his eyes.

      ...Well, maybe not. Humans of the waking world, the children of War, had committed plenty of atrocities during the Dark Times, after all, and plenty more before that.

      Nothing had really changed since then, except that human soldiers wielded far greater powers now.

      In the indescribable chaos of their cataclysmic confrontation, anything could happen.

      He doubted that Saints would be forced to remain idle until the bitter end.
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      1. Offline
        JAYDEEP
        + 7 ⋅ 0 -
        Thanks buddy 🙂
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  2. Offline
    PentamaX
    + 19 ⋅ 0 -
    Today in Shadow Slave we have:
    Female titan vs Crocodile
    Blue eyed dragon vs Kraken
    Snow white mirror vs Metal Slime!!!

    May the best win!
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    1. Offline
      Doksoo
      + 5 ⋅ 0 -
      Green eyed*
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    2. Offline
      REN・DOVERঐ
      + 7 ⋅ 0 -
      Are we taking bets? If yes, my money is on Metal Slime evil
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  3. Offline
    Zeus dab
    + 5 ⋅ 0 -
    Where that zuxos guy, the lord the saviour.
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    1. Offline
      Lrb
      + 2 ⋅ 0 -
      Deixe o homem descansar
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  4. Offline
    JAYDEEP
    + 6 ⋅ 0 -
    Waiting for new chapters...
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