Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1846

The army assembled in a complicated battle formation. With so many soldiers, it was vast and unwieldy, and mostly useless... but not entirely so.

The Masters and the Saints were going to assault the vermilion jungle, but the Awakened were prepared to fight, as well.

Obviously, they had very little chance of killing Corrupted abominations, not to mention the Great horrors who dwelled in Godgrave. However, they did not necessarily need to.

The commanders of the Song Army were well aware of the limitations facing their troops, so they had come up with various chilling, but effective strategies. If it came to that, the task of the Awakened soldiers was not to kill the powerful abominations, but to immobilize them.

Although hard, that could be achieved with numbers alone. Even if an abomination had to be buried in human bodies, that was one way to deal with it.

Of course, Rain felt a bit horrified by the prospect, just like all the other Awakened warriors did. Still, it was not like the Nightmare Creatures would spare them otherwise - so, they were prepared to carry out their orders and do their best., no matter the cost.

Hopefully, that was not going to happen today.

If the Saints and their Ascended retinue succeeded in holding back the tide of Nightmare Creatures, it would not.

The Seventh Legion was positioned in the second line of the formation, so she could not even see the battle. All she could see were the tops of the strange and hideous plants swaying in the distance and the backs of her fellow soldiers. She could also hear the sounds that the wind carried from somewhere far ahead.

Next to her, Fleur trembled nervously and looked at Tamar.

"...It is starting, isn't it?"

The Legacy girl nodded somberly.

"It is."

A few moments later, the sound of a horn rolled above the army, and the ground under their feet trembled slightly.

Rain saw vague silhouettes moving forward from the front of the battle formation. The white surface of the ancient bone was still inclined, since they had not reached the collarbone yet, so she could not discern their shape clearly. But she knew that they were the Saints who had assumed their 'Transcendent forms, as well as the larger of the Nightmare Creatures enthralled by Beastmaster.

At the same time, the jungle came alive.

She saw the red trees sway, but mostly, she heard and felt it: a harrowing choir of bestial roars and sounds too alien to be described with human language washing over the massive army like a tide, the violent trembling of the ground as countless abominations rushed forward at the scent of human souls.

She glanced at Tamar.

For the rest of them, the fate of the Saints fighting on the frontline was an abstract concept. The Saints were people whom they admired, looked up to, and maybe even knew as well as the wall separating them from having to face the dreadful horde of Nightmare Creatures themselves.

But it was different from Tamar, whose father was somewhere out there, as well. The Saint of Sorrow was among the warriors whose task it was to make the tide of abominations stop.

There were close to two thousand Masters in the Song Army, but only around forty Transcendent champions.

It did not seem like a lot, but at the same time... The world suddenly quaked.

The world suddenly seemed to be on the verge of shattering.

The violence of forty Saints unleashing their Transcendent power at the same time was staggering.

Even far removed from the battlefield, Rain felt blood drain from her face. Next to her, Fleur swayed and leaned heavily on Ray. All around them, the Awakened soldiers staggered.

Only Tamar remained standing straight, seemingly undaunted.

She did, however, look at the sky.

As Rain's eyes widened, she did as well.

...Was the clash between the champions of the Song Army and the creatures of the vermilion jungle terrible enough to rip apart the veil of clouds?

Luckily, it did not seem so. For now.

The sounds of the battle grew much more loud, becoming almost deafening. Rain had to struggle not to raise her hands and cover her ears. To her shame, she found herself trembling.

'Insane, insane... this is insane...'

The fear that had risen from some deep, primal part of her was almost too powerful to overcome. The inability to see what exactly was happening out there, ahead, only made it worse. After all, it was the unknown that was the most terrifying.

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