Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2094

The motionless Nightmare Creatures around them were not dead…

However, they weren't really alive, either.

There was no vile darkness permeating their souls anymore, because the dead had no souls. But there was something.

A strange, almost imperceptible impression of foreign essence hidden deep within the towering carcasses, binding them like puppeteer's strings.

Sunny felt a cold chill run down his spine.

'These are… Queen's pilgrims.'

The siege of the Greater Crossing was such a bloody and arduous endeavor for many reasons, and the fearsome fortifications built by the Song Army on the other side of the chasm was merely one of them.

Terrain was another, but just as importantly, it was the issue of Domain boundaries.

The Sword Domain and the Song Domain were clashing above the dark chasm, just like the two great armies were. Anvil controlled one side of the crossing, while Ki Song controlled the other — as a result, the attacking soldiers had to leave the support of their King behind and enter the hostile Domain when assaulting the Song stronghold.

The defenders, in turn, could not freely counterattack the camp of the Sword Army, because they would have to leave the Song Domain to do so.

It was the reason why the soldiers of the Sword Army could give their fallen comrades a proper burial here in the camp instead of having to destroy the bodies immediately, and why there were not that many guards watching over the field hospital.

The Queen could not raise the dead outside the boundary of her Domain. She could not even send her pilgrims across the chasm…

Only, as it turned out, she could.

Sunny looked at the carcasses of the Nightmare Creature while hiding his apprehension.

'How the hell…'

Some of these abominations had been slain in the Hollows, while most were either Beastmaster's thralls or ash dwellers.

Or so everyone had thought.

But it was clear to Sunny now that it had all been a ploy. All Nightmare Creatures around him, except those from the Hollows, had not been slain by the soldiers of the Sword Army.

Instead, they had been slain by the enemy, raised as puppets, sent across the chasm, and then commanded to play dead after sustaining enough damage to make their supposed deaths look believable.

And now, they were all here, in the heart of the Sword Army camp, waiting… for something. While no one was the wiser.

'Which bastards?!'

For a moment, Sunny felt a searing anger. Sure… it was hard to distinguish a pilgrim from a dead body. They were genuinely dead, after all. But somebody, at least, had to note that the Spell did not announce the kill after delivering a supposedly fatal blow to these creatures.

Granted, the battlefield was a terrible and hectic place, so most soldiers did not pay a lot of attention to the whispers of the Spell during the dreadful clashes with the enemy.

'What now, then?'

Trying to maintain a polite exterior, Sunny tensed inwardly.

He felt more annoyed than troubled, but it was still an issue.

Master Sunless was supposed to be weak and harmless, so he could at best raise the alarm and reveal the insidious infiltration… but then he would have to explain how he was able to detect something that so many other people had missed.

And Sunny really did not wish to share the fact that his eyes had inherited wondrous abilities from Weaver, the Demon of Fate.

'That is not even the real problem.'

The real problem was the intention of the Queen.

Sure, a bunch of powerful pilgrims could deal some damage if they went on a rampage in the depths of the enemy camp. But in the grand scheme of things, that damage would be insignificant.

So why had she gone to such lengths to deliver her puppets to the material storage of the Sword Army?

The answer was right in front of Sunny.

It was Saint Tyris.

She said that she had been coming here regularly in search of suitable materials to armor the flying Echoes. So, her presence here was predictable, and could be exploited.

The pilgrims had not been sent here to sabotage the camp of the Sword Army.

They had been sent here to kill Sky Tide.

...Sunny had just stumbled into an assassination plot.

Which was why he had to get her out immediately — while preserving his facade of a harmless and unassuming Master Sunless.

'Wonderful.'

Noticing a hint of hesitation in Sky Tide's eyes, Sunny put on his most charming smile and said pleasantly:

"I will be happy to give you a private tour of my collection, Lady Tyris. I am sure we can discover something… worthwhile, together."

He had no idea when the pilgrims were going to attack, so there was no time to waste. Saint Tyris already expressed that her search here in the material storage had been fruitless — so, hopefully, she would take him up on his offer.

…However, to Sunny's astonishment, the reaction to his highly pragmatic suggestion was not at all what he expected.

One of the Knights of Valor standing behind Saint Tyris glared at him with contempt, and then uttered quietly through gritted teeth:

"Despicable…"

Another shook his head.

"Damn womanizer."

Hearing those words, the warriors of the White Feather clan pierced him with furious gazes and whispered among each other:

"So he wants to give our lady a private tour, huh?"

"So the rumors are true… he really is that kind of scumbag."

"I told you I saw him bothering Lady Cassia while Changing Star's was away. Ah, I really want to erase that sleazy smile off his face..."

Sunny's eyes widened.

Sky Tide's gaze, meanwhile, turned even colder than usual.

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