Chapter 1512 Chaos and Mayhem

Chapter 1512 Chaos and Mayhem

Somewhere far away, Mordret was in a similar situation. Of course, he did not possess the physical strength, speed, and resilience of Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan... however, he did possess his own arsenal of tricks. 'I wonder...'

He had escaped into a section of the city where the ground had been broken by some titanic blow. Shallow water covered the cracked cobblestones, with ruined buildings rising from it like islands. The twilight sky reflected in the water, turning it into a beautiful painting of soft colors. Mordret was using the reflections to stay ahead of his pursuers. Countless human figures were surrounding him, their weapons hungry for his blood. 'If I try to possess one of them, what would happen?'

Usually, he would have to bet his life against the soul of his victim, armed only with their reflected power. But these warriors had no souls — they had long been destroyed by Soul Stealer... that impostor. So, would Mordret have to battle against the soul of the Defiled Saint? Or the reflection of the dead victim's soul? Whose power would he be able to reflect? He was both curious and reluctant to find out. 'Not just yet, at least.'

Dodging a swift sword, Mordret pierced the attacker's throat, dodged another strike, and jumped back. A subtle frown appeared on his face. 'Inconvenient...'

The worst part about slaughtering these hollow vessels was that they were just that — vessels. There were no souls inside the bodies of the taken warriors, and so, he was not growing stronger from killing them. Otherwise, Mordret would have been able to slowly restore his Monster Core... maybe even the Demon Core, if he was diligent and lucky. With those, he could create a new Reflection or two. Without them, things were proving difficult.

He would have preferred slaughtering actual people, instead.

'What was it that Sunless likes to say?'

He emotionlessly cut down a young woman wearing an archaic garment and sighed.

'Damnation?'

The ring of enemies surrounding him was growing tighter. He couldn't do much against them with one hand... all Mordret could do was flee. Stepping into the reflected sky, he appeared a few hundred meters away, in the middle of a furious clash between the vessels of Soul Stealer and a swarm of Nightmare Creatures that were still loyal to the Dread Lord. 'So, the impostor has a limit, too...'

'Are we all going to die here, in this godforsaken city?'

Wasn't it a bit too ironic? Poetic, even. To die by his own hand... One thing kept Mordret's spirit up, though. It was that girl, Cassia... Song of the Fallen. She might have had others fooled, but he knew that the blind witch was not as simple as she looked. Someone like her had to have something planned, without a doubt... she wouldn't have led her companions here otherwise. But then again, Soul Stealer had gone through the same ritual as Mordret. Neither of them was easy to perceive through divination... how else would that monster have escaped Torment's gaze and rebelled against the Dread Lord?

'Ah... I don't know.'

Mordret pushed an old man in weathered leather armor into the maw of a hideous Nightmare Creature, then pierced the creature's eye while it was busy devouring the poor fool. His expression was somber. 'At this point, we'll need a miracle to pull through.'

But when had the world been generous with miracles? If something truly astonishing happened... it was always a curse, instead. ***

Some distance away, Cassie had fled toward the breached walls of Twilight. Here, there were more Nightmare Creatures fighting against the vessels of Soul Stealer, and therefore, more mayhem and chaos. Using that chaos, Cassie was still struggling to keep herself alive. Blood was pouring from a deep wound on her neck. Pressing her hand against it, she moved through the terrible jumble of human and monstrous bodies, somehow avoiding all the swords, claws, and fangs.

Sometimes, she was only a split second away from death, but each time, that split second was somehow enough to save her. Her face was pale and bleak. An iron locket rested on her chest, wet with blood. 'How much time do I have left?'

She didn't know exactly. Far away, the Serpent King's palace shuddered, coming undone.

There, in the ruins of the throne room...

Sunny coiled his giant serpentine body around the Dread Lord, trying to crush his bones. His fangs were scratching the impenetrable midnight scales, leaving deep grooves on them. 'Die! Die, you worm!'

Losing all reason, he could only think about tearing the odious dragon apart. ...However, killing a Defiled Saint was not an easy task.