Shadow Slave

As soon as they left the familiar confines of the labyrinth and stepped into the vast expanse of the ashen wasteland, Sunny felt strangely uncomfortable. It was as though he had unknowingly turned slightly agoraphobic while traveling through the complicated madness of the crimson maze.

He had grown accustomed to being surrounded by tall walls of coral, with endless tangled paths stretching in all directions for as far as he could see. Despite the fact that the labyrinth was hiding numerous dangers, it also offered a strange sort of safety.

At least in the case of Sunny, who had the advantage of being able to see beyond its twists and turns thanks to his stealthy Shadow Scout.

Now, with grey sand beneath and nothing to break the line of sight, he had lost that advantage. The idea of not being able to hide from the enemy made him feel naked.

'Keep cool. There's no one here.'

That thought, which was supposed to calm him down, had the opposite effect instead. Indeed, there were no Nightmare Creatures anywhere in the desolate wasteland… but why was that?

What made them so eager to avoid this place?

Nephis was walking in the front of the group, with Sunny right behind her. The Echo was in the rear, moving at a slow pace. He looked around and, after a bit of hesitation, said in a low voice:

"I don't like this."

Nephis glanced at him with her usual indifferent expression. Turning away, she simply said:

"Stay alert."

They continued forward in silence, sand squeaking under their feet. A dozen or so minutes later, Changing Star raised her hand, gesturing them to stop. Turning to Sunny, she asked:

"Has your shadow noticed anything?"

He shook his head.

"No. There are some irregularities here and there, like small knolls or shallow pits, but nothing is moving. Mostly, it just seems flat and lifeless."

He turned to Cassie and asked hesitantly:

"Do you hear anything?"

In some cases, her keen hearing was more effective than his shadow sense. When they were caught by the strom, Cassie had been able to sense that something was wrong long before her seeing companions noticed anything.

However, this time it was of no use. She simply shook her head, indicating that there were no unusual sounds around them.

Nephis sighed and lowered her head, thinking. Then she cast a gaze at the distant Ashen Barrow.

"Let's continue."

did change the direction of the group slightly, aiming to approach one of the knolls that

their shadows small and

time of day

to determine its nature. There was nothing remarkable about it except for the fact that everything around was flat, and it was not. The knoll was about

didn't seem dangerous, but there was no harm in checking… well, most likely. Maybe it could provide

Sunny's shadow suddenly noticed something moving in the distance, back at the edges of the

Sunny jumped toward the Echo

"Hide!"

Suddenly losing her mount, Cassie flung her hands up and fell. Catching her in the princess

and looked at him with a silent question

"Danger?"

raised one hand with his palm open, telling her to wait. His shadow was already peeking from behind the knoll, carefully observing the source of the

away, the dead walls of the labyrinth rose from the grey sand. Suddenly, one of them collapsed, knocked over by a massive figure. Surrounded by the cloud of ashen sand, the

and crimson carapace that looked like

Sunny silently cursed.

both times. However, that was because each battlefield had been carefully prepared to stack advantages in their favor, with

sure that they would be able to kill one in a direct confrontation, at

to Nephis, Sunny

had just

meanwhile, lightly touched his

"Where is it heading?"

then concentrated on the shadow's vision. Soon, he

it's heading for the Ashen Barrow. If we stay hidden behind this knoll and it doesn't change

Star thought for a second and then

on it and tell me as soon as something

as small and silent as possible, the three of them pressed their bodies to the knoll. There wasn't a lot of space to hide, so they had to

maybe "endure" was not the right word. Sunny might have

you thinking about, fool?! Concentrate on the dealy monster!' he

concentrate with Cassie's soft

'DEADLY! MONSTER!'

of the gutter, Sunny sighed and

wasteland, slowly drawing closer. Soon, he was able to see every crimson line and every spike on its weathered carapace. However, his

gleaming with hypnotic

A transcendent soul shard.

already seen a similar scene, back when a pair of centurions were

was their

the magnificent tree standing atop the Ashen Barrow. With its onyx