Shadow Slave novel Chapter 301

Chapter 301 Heirs to the Throne

As Sunny sat on the cold stones, wiping blood off his face and wincing from pain, the whole castle shook slightly, and dust fell from the ceiling of the wide corridor. Looking up, he frowned slightly, then turned to Harus and indifferently cut a strip of cloth from the hunchback's garments.

The corpse didn't mind.

Tying the cloth around his head to stop the blood from streaming into his eyes, Sunny sighed and summoned the runes.

Shadow Fragments: [956/1000].

"Such an injustice…"

His battle with Harus was one of the toughest he had experienced on the Forgotten Shore, but all he got from it was one measly shadow fragment. This was one of the lamentable quirks of the Shadow Slave Aspect — it didn't differentiate between humans and Nightmare Creatures at all. From its point of view, Harus was nothing but a dormant beast.

…Or maybe it was a blessing in disguise.

"Killing humans is a really unlucrative business," Sunny said with regret and glanced in the direction of the throne room, where the terrible battle still raged on.

Several hundred humans driven insane by fury and bloodlust could create a lot of destruction in a very short amount of time. Several hundred powerful Sleepers, each in possession of an Aspect Ability, were so much worse. Add the Echoes in the mix, and Sunny shuddered to imagine what was going on back in the great hall right now.

The number of lives being extinguished every second up there must have been immense. The members of the Host, the followers of Changing Star, and everyone unlucky enough to exist on the Forgotten Shore today were dying by the score. Blood was flowing like a river in the halls of the Bright Castle… just like Cassie had predicted all those months ago.

Just like Sunny had feared it would.

What was Nephis thinking?

Her ambition had never been to become the ruler of the Dark City. Wrestling the control over the ancient castle from Gunlaug had always been just a means to an end. Her true goal had always been in the Crimson Spire.

…Where the Terror of the Forgotten Shore dwelt.

From that point of view, this massacre was such a waste. Of potential soldiers, of countless Memories, of every other potential resource she was going to need to reach the Gateway.

But then, was it really?

After all, the rest of humanity was not bound by the strangeness of the divine Aspect Sunny possessed. When one Awakened killed another, they received a vast portion of the soul essence their enemy had accumulated. A lot of it simply disappeared, but what remained was more than enough.

The Crimson Spire was not a place one could conquer with cannon fodder. So really, Nephis did not need a thousand weak humans. What she really needed was a few hundred powerful, battle-tested fighters.

What was happening in the Bright Castle right now was not a waste.