Shadow Slave Chapter 2696 Cog in the Machine

‘What the hell? Why is it raining?’

A heavy downpour was descending on the ruins of the Eternal City. The drops of water seed to move slowly as Jet staggered back, barely keeping her balance. Her face was sared with blood, and her body was broken — and yet, she was still full of fight. Now that the Mist Blade had assud the form of a khopesh, she did not have the advantage of reach anymore. The Cursed Wanderer was still avoiding letting their blades cross, which held him back, but he had managed to land far more attacks with his fists and feet now... as well as his elbows, knees, shoulders, and forehead.

The bastard really knew his hand-to-hand combat. It was as if he had spent thousands of years doing nothing but participating in fistfights.

"How co?’

Groaning quietly, Jet turned her torso to avoid the ghostly cutlass and counterattacked, trying to sink her sword into the ethereal body of the great wraith. The rain made it harder to see.

In front of her, the Flesh of Kanakht had already reached the Palace Lake and stepped into it. The water barely reached its knees, and the enormous monstrosity waded through it, painting the lake red. Now that it was not slowed down by the Crushing anymore, it was advancing faster. Around Jet, the Shadow Legion was being pushed back by the endless tide of wraiths. Worse than that, the army of silent shadows was also shrinking — there were barely half of them left, by now.

Behind Jet, anwhile...

Was she imagining things, or were the walls of the Palace faintly bending inward? ‘What did he do?’

She could not be sure, but was pretty much convinced that the Lord of Shadows had done sothing insane.

Not that it mattered to her, at the mont. All that mattered was defeating the Soul of Kanakht and its master.

Jet forced out a smile as she dove under the whistling cutlass and tried to strike it with the Mist Blade from below. The Cursed Wanderer pulled his sword back with impossible speed, easily avoiding her trap, and slamd his palm into her abdon. “Argh...”

This ti, sothing vital ruptured inside of her.

A torrent of blood flowed from her mouth, and Jet staggered back once again.

"Can you... can you give a mont?"

She grinned through the pain.

The sinister apparition did not wait until she recovered, naturally. He moved forward, intending to use her wounded state and finish her off...

If one thought about it, getting beaten that badly but sohow failing to die was quite an achievent.

Then again, she had been dead this whole ti.

The Cursed Wanderer was making a mistake if he thought he could cut her down that easily, though.

He must have made a judgnt about the power of his enemies based on what the silent shadows and the champions of the Shadow Legion could do... but Jet was neither.

Jet was a proud subject of the Human Domain.

So, just as her body was about to fail her, a soft glow suffused her skin, and a pleasant warmth perated her body.

Embraced by Neph’s purifying flas, Jet was healed and nded, restored to flawless health.

That was the blessing of the Human Domain and its radiant, distant ruler. That was the power of the Immortal Fla, of the unquenchable Longing.

Of course, Neph's power was not absolute — she had to be paying attention to heal those who served her, and even her boundless supply of soul essence was not really inexhaustible.

However, Jet was one of the special few who always enjoyed her attention. That was her privilege as a forr mber of Changing Star's cohort and an irreplaceable cog in the great machine of humanity.

The Cursed Wanderer did not expect his enemy to suddenly be healed, so he fell into a montary disadvantage. That was Jet's chance to end this fight, or at least lay the foundation of his defeat...

Sadly, she failed.

No matter how unexpected her recovery was, the great wraith was simply too powerful to be taken down. He easily avoided the Mist Blade, then unleashed a flurry of attacks upon Jet. Deadly attacks rained on her from all sides, as if the bastard was in several places at the sa ti.

By the ti severed drops of rain fell to the ground, Jet was bruised and battered once again, and white radiance enveloped her figure once more.

‘Damn it...’

She threw a calculating gaze at the approaching colossus of mangled flesh. Ti was running out. In fact, there was almost no ti left at all.

Which ant that she had to do sothing drastic.

The hilt of the black khopesh lay comfortably in her hand. This was the form of the Mist Blade that contained the soul of the Heart of Kanakht — the most powerful soul in her possession.

Because of that one soul, the Mist Blade was akin to a Supre weapon of the Fourth Tier instead of being equal to Jet's own Rank and Class.

It also infused the Mist Blade with a special ability — all souls it bound did, but the Heart of Kanakht granted Jet an especially potent one.

It was the ability to stop the flow of ti for everyone except herself for one heartbeat. Needless to say, such an ability was incredibly deadly. However, it was not without drawbacks — the main being that it consud pretty much all of her essence. For sobody else, that might have been rely inconvenient, but for Jet, it was fatally perilous.

It ant that she had to be certain that she would be able to kill sothing in that single heartbeat. If she did, their death would nourish her arid soul. If not... she would die instead.

The risk was real and palpable.

The situation, however, was similarly desperate. And since Jet had known that it would beco desperate, she transford the Mist Blade into a khopesh in advance. ‘Can kill that fiend instantly?’

Jet wasn't sure.

But...

She was willing to find out.