Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2202

The bloody battle had come to an end.

...It was a strange ordeal.

No one had expected the Queen to attack, but she had. From that point forward, the Song Army had no way back — having abandoned their stronghold and given up on retreating to the heavily fortified main camp, the warriors of Song were as good as committed to one final, decisive battle.

So, what they needed to do before that was weaken the enemy as much as they could. Simply routing the besieging army was not enough, since the surviving soldiers of the Sword Domain would be able to regroup with the forces led by the King and return to the battlefield days later.

No, what Ki Song needed was a slaughter. A thorough culling that would deeply wound the entire Sword Army, cutting its overall strength by almost a half... while simultaneously making the ranks of her dead legion swell. That would have been the soundest strategic solution, at least.

And yet, there was no slaughter. The defeated forces of the Sword Domain were allowed to retreat — having suffered severe casualties, but mostly intact.

The reason why the Queen had spared them was simple...

It was Nephis, Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan.

There was no Saint among the Transcendent champions of the Song Army who could defeat her in battle. Even if they joined forces, the outcome was unclear — especially considering that there were other Sword Saints supporting her.

The only way to defeat Changing Star was for the Queen to kill her personally.

Which she very well could do now that the final confrontation was drawing near. However, if Ki Song did enter the battlefield personally to kill Nephis and destroy the greater contingent of the Sword Army, then Anvil of Valor would without a doubt do the same, wiping out Song forces at the Lesser Crossing personally.

Countless Awakened soldiers would die, and plenty of Saints would die, as well. The King would lose his adopted daughter, while the Queen would lose three of hers. At the end, both sides would come out of the conflict bloodied and weakened, having gained no decisive advantage...

Granted, Ki Song stood to gain much more from the ghastly exchange than Anvil. That was because she would not just be killing Changing Star, but also conquering her Citadel, the Ivory Island — a great boon that could vastly improve her position in Godgrave. So, the cold logic of war still dictated that blood had to be spilled.

But perhaps because the Queen cared about her daughters more than the King did, she stayed her hand.

The gruesome battle had come to an abrupt end without a Sovereign unleashing their power, and the battered forces of the Sword Army were allowed to retreat. The Ivory Island drifted away, overseeing the retreating soldiers — most of them had survived, but too many had not.

The Song Army watched in grim silence.

Somewhere far away, in the Hollows, the news of the sudden attack had already reached the ears of the King of Swords.

After that, the very last act of the profane war of Godgrave began to play out.

The initiative was on the side of the Song Army, so they had the right to choose the final battlefield. Surprisingly enough, Ki Song did not lead her warriors south, but instead marched further east across the Breastbone Reach, deeper into the territory controlled by Anvil.

Eventually, her forces reached the northern edge of the dead god's sternum — a point almost directly opposite the great precipice far south, where the Nameless Temple stood. ᚱ𝘢ŊồᛒΕŚ

Out there, with an abyssal drop to the distant mountain chain of the titanic skeleton's spine behind them, the warriors of Song made camp and started preparing for battle.

They could not have chosen a more eerie battlefield.

Here, the outskirts of the Hollow Mountains were extremely close, and the dark mountains themselves rose from the ground like a jagged black wall in the distance. Cold winds were blowing from the misty slopes, colliding with the heated air of Godgrave and giving birth to furious tornadoes from time to time.

Most disturbingly of all, the colossal skull of the dead god loomed above the northern edge of the Breastbone Reach, its inconceivable scale dwarfing the entire world despite the distance. The neck and the head of the titanic skeleton rested on the slopes of the Hollow Mountains, as if on a pillow, so it almost seemed as if the skull was staring directly at the battlefield from high above.

The unfathomably large, gaping holes of its eyes were full of impenetrable darkness, and its jaw was opened slightly, as if struggling to let out a harrowing groan.

...Or twist into a terrifying grin.

The dead god watched the mortals prepare to fight their last battle in silence, cold mists flowing across the white bone.

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