Deathless

The Deathless were rising from beneath the dunes everywhere, white sand flowing from their black bones, the rustling sand fusing into an eerie hum that filled the air with a sense of primal dread. They existed in an inconceivable number, covering the desert like blades of grass, their disorganized mass stretching far beyond the horizon across the Nightmare Desert. Most of them seemed to have been human once, though not all; among them were ghastly skeletons of gargantuan creatures whose original forms were difficult to determine without their hides, fur, scales, or feathers. Some were not skeletal at all and were covered in weathered black chitin, while others had never been made of flesh and bone, appearing instead to be formed from dark stone, crystal, tattered cloth, or metal. Their sizes varied greatly—some were small, while others towered above the desert like gigantic monuments to the calamitous past. When stirred by a wave of malice, they turned their skulls toward one another with eternal hostility, lunging into battle as myriad undead warriors driven by relentless killing intent, their swords flashing as rust shook off, and their empty eye sockets igniting with a cold, eldritch, murderous darkness.^[2]

They lie buried beneath the sands of the desert, which is portrayed as an ancient battlefield where the curse of Shadow God fell upon them. When the sun sets, the sands begin to move and the dead rise from the depths, forming a vast horde that does not initially pay attention to outsiders but is impossible to bypass without fighting through them.^[1]

Deathless as beings that were neither dead nor alive, having lost their shadows, and with no clear indication that they possessed souls. Unlike all other entities—such as wraiths, ghosts, golems, or even reanimated corpses like Sunny and Jet—these could still be considered living beings because they could be killed and had shadows and souls. The Deathless, however, lacked these defining traits, and thus were not living beings. At the same time, they were not ideas or concepts, since what constituted them was solid matter. By Sunny's reasoning, by method of elimination, they were simply things, no different from items, albeit cursed things that were controlled by malevolent wills.^[3]

Monstrous skeletal cavalries of ancient warriors.^[4] Some resembled humans, some were like giants and some are too monstrous and alien.^[5] The weakest of the black skeletons were equal to powerful Corrupted creatures.^[4]

• A Skeleton in rusted armor holding a war hammer^[4]
• Wandering Archon (Deathless Spirit)^[6]

The Deathless are also described as possessing tremendous destructive power, to the point that they are capable of erasing the stars in the night sky, meaning that attacking targets in the air, such as a flying ship, would be easy for them. As a result, confronting them requires direct combat on the ground while attempting to push deeper into the Nightmare Desert and learn how to fight them before encountering the stronger champions nearer the center.^[1]

These beings cannot be killed and cannot truly be destroyed, although they can be damaged severely enough to be neutralized for a time. Their strength varies depending on where they are buried in the desert: the weakest troops are located on the outskirts, while the elite troops and "true champions" lie closer to the heart of the desert, nearer to the Tomb of Ariel, where the curse fell most strongly. Even the weakest Deathless are extremely formidable—each one appeared like an unimaginable, insurmountable obstacle to a Sleeper, and even a Supreme would not find them simple to defeat.^[1]

• In Chapter 2849, the Deathless launched a vast cloud of arrows, javelins, and makeshift projectiles, and each projectile carried enough force and murderous will to kill a Supreme, demonstrating that the ancient weapons and attacks of the Deathless possessed the power to destroy beings of that rank.
• Some of the Deathless possess the ability to fly—even though their skeletal bodies have no visible means of support, defying logic and expectation.^[7]

The Deathless were not living beings and were not entirely sapient, because thousands of years in the desolate hell of the Nightmare Desert, locked in endless battle, had stripped the flesh from their bones and erased all traces of their personhood, while the curse of Shadow God had shattered their minds. However, they were not mindless; they were quite intelligent, but their intelligence was limited to one thing only—battle. Having spent thousands of years engaged in nothing but endless battle, they had become chillingly proficient at decimating enemies on the battlefield.^[8]

When they recognized the Shadow Legion as a new threat, their behavior changed instantly as they shifted their attention away from fighting each other and formed loose and flexible battle formations, identifying weaknesses in the enemy force and launching a meticulous counteroffensive that exploited those vulnerabilities. They also recognized their own tactical deficiencies, especially the suppression caused by Nephis' radiant star, and attempted to destroy or bring it down by launching vast clouds of arrows, javelins, and other projectiles, each carrying enough force and murderous will to kill a Supreme. On the ground, the Deathless sent their most stalwart warriors to block the strongest enemies such as Sunny, his Shadows, powerful Supreme shades, and the Wolf, while groups of their most deadly warriors attacked the weaker parts of the Shadow Legion's formation, breaching the offensive line in several places and forcing Sunny to pull his shades back and adopt a defensive strategy.^[8]

• In Chapter 2851, the shade of Abundance swallowed the Deathless instead of destroying them.