Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2552

The Eastern Quadrant had been one of the four great strongholds of humanity once. It was perhaps not as large and populous as the Northern Quadrant, but hundreds of millions of people still called it home...

Now, mere years after Antarctica had fallen, Australia itself was on the verge of being consumed by the powers of Corruption.

The difference between the two was that while the Southern Quadrant had fallen to an endless tide of monsters birthed by the Chain of Nightmares, the Eastern Quadrant was being devoured by a single, insidious abomination. The Great Terror, Skinwalker.

Of all the horrors brought to Earth by the Nightmare Spell, this one was perhaps the most dreadful — not because it was the most powerful, but simply because it could mimic human behavior almost flawlessly and blend in with mundane people without raising any suspicion.

And even worse than that, the Skinwalker had shown a frightening ability to learn and adapt with terrible speed.

Its first appearance had gone unnoticed, and by the time the powers watching over humanity learned of its existence, it was already too late. The Skinwalker had infected many cities in the Eastern Quadrant, embedding its vessels among the mundane population, the Awakened warriors, the government forces, and even the private armies of the local Legacy clans. There were few of these vessels, at first — maybe because the abomination was biding its time and learning the ways of humanity before starting to spread like a plague. Some of them were eventually hunted down and destroyed... but not all of them. Even if the Sovereigns reigned supreme, they could not fight a Nightmare Creature that they could not find.

And their forces had been pulled away to fight an internal war, regardless.

By the time the original Sovereigns had fallen and Changing Star of the Immortal Flame took the throne of mankind, it was already too late. Humanity managed to prevent the Skinwalker from spreading to other Quadrants or consuming the human settlements in the Dream Realm, but the sinister fiend became too deeply rooted in Australia.

A single settlement fell first, all of its citizens becoming vessels of the eerie abomination. Then, another one, and then another one still. Before too long, the whole Quadrant had been washed over by the spreading plague, and a full-scale war against the Skinwalker started in earnest.

That war was not going well for the humans. The Eastern Quadrant Siege Capital still stood, and they still controlled most of the coastal area facing the Indian Ocean. However, the inner expanse of the continent and its southern reaches were fully conquered by the Skinwalker. And almost every day, the Great Terror took more lives, gained more vessels, and conquered more land.

The spread of the abominable plague seemed unstoppable. The humans were slowly retreating toward EQSC, losing one city after another — in fact, they had not been routed entirely only because Changing Star herself took to the battlefield as often as the laws governing the waking world allowed her, pushing the Skinwalker back from time to time.

But even with her support and with the best Saints of humanity joining the war effort, the abomination continued to spread. Eventually, it became clear that the continent could not be saved — so, a grievous decision to evacuate it was made, and the Dream Gate opened in the heart of EQSC to take the refugees away, the naval convoys arriving to ferry them north.

The arrival of Soul Reaper Jet and the Night Garden helped stabilize the situation. A fragile balance was achieved in the Eastern Quadrant... for a short while.

The Skinwalker had taken millions upon millions upon millions of vessels by then. Among them were millions of humans, both mundane and Awakened... but there were millions of lesser Nightmare Creatures from the wild reaches of the continent, as well.

No one really knew how many vessels the abomination possessed now, and even if someone did, there was no way to defend the vast expanse of the continent from that terrible, ever-growing force.

And worst of all...

Both the academics and the diviners in the service of the Human Domain were unanimous in their suspicion that the Skinwalker was on the verge of evolving — either to the Cursed Rank or to the Titan Class... or maybe both. If it did, neither Soul Reaper nor the Night Garden would be able to hold it back anymore, and the entire population of the Eastem Quadrant, including the military forces of humanity concentrated there, would be consumed without having time or opportunity to evacuate.

The situation was dire...

And it was in that dire crisis that something odd began to happen.

There were isolated reports at first, then a wave of them, all saying the same things — that the Skinwalker was behaving strangely.

As if something was attacking the terrifying abomination from within, fighting for control of its vessels.

He, who was nearly immortal, put his life on the line and left himself no way out but success. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

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