Shadow Slave novel Chapter 499

…Somewhere far away, in the depths of an endless and inescapable nightmare, a blinding disc of an incandescent sun was bathing the dunes of a vast desert in a flood of immolating heat. The sands of the desert were flawlessly white, and the azure sky above them was deep and boundless like an ancient ocean, with not a single cloud blemishing its silken expanse.

Being battered by the heat, a lone figure moved across the sand.

It was a young woman with striking grey eyes, her skin covered in terrible burns, her silver hair dirty with blood and surrounded by a radiant halo of reflected light. She wore charred remains of a shattered armor, and wielded a broken sword, its silver blade fractured and ending in a jagged edge close to the hilt.

The young woman walked forward, the trail of her footprints stretching far into the distance and disappearing over the horizon. To her left, there was nothing but an endless sea of white dunes; to her right, a line of black mountains eventually created a boundary for the scorching desert.

Far ahead, there was a tree with scarlet leaves and a scattering of something that looked like pale fruit hanging from its wide branches.

...This was where Nephis was headed.

She had to reach the tree before the night came, or… no, it was better not to think of it.

Her water had long run out, and the thirst was slowly taking hold of her mind. Her tortured body was a sea of pain, but she could still walk. She could still fight.

She was still not willing to give up.

,m …After a while, the tree grew closer.

Nephis stopped and stared at its white bark, its scarlet leaves, and the shapes she had thought were fruit. But they weren't. Instead, tens of thousands of skulls hung from the beautiful branches, fastened to them with glistening threads of black silk.

A spring of water formed a clear pool in the shadow of the great tree, and on its bank, with his back to her, stood a figure clad in a strange, rusted armor.

'A… human?'

No… the figure was too tall to be one of her kind.

As if hearing her thoughts, the creature turned around, revealing a desiccated face of a corpse, hollow eyes emanating ominous blue radiance, and six hands, each grasping the hilt of a weapon. Two hands held long swords, their blades sharper than a razor and curved slightly, two hands held menacing twisted sickles, and the last two held a heavy scepter and a broken shield.

The chestplate of the creature's rusted armor was shattered, revealing a harrowing wound beneath.

Being consumed by thirst and exhaustion, Nephis raised a hand, as if begging the creature to stop.

But, of cause, it didn't.

With furious madness burning in its eyes, the abomination lunged at her, striking down with one of the sickles. It moved faster than lightning, sending a scarlet cloud of fallen leaves swirling into the air with a strong gust of wind.

Taking a step back, Nephis raised her broken sword to deflect the devastating strike, as if forgetting that it had no blade.