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."

change the direction of the group slightly, aiming to

their heads, making their shadows small and

time of day was 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 as tall as Sunny, somewhat oblong and covered in the same

dangerous, but there was no harm in checking… well, most likely. Maybe it could provide them with

surface of the knoll, Sunny's shadow suddenly

Sunny jumped toward the

"Hide!"

hulking scavenger. Suddenly losing her mount, Cassie flung her hands up and fell. Catching her in the princess carry, Sunny darted toward the knoll and lowered himself to

one hand on Cassie's shoulder and looked at him with a silent

"Danger?"

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

over by a massive figure. Surrounded by the cloud of ashen sand, the figure moved forward, stepping onto

carapace that looked like

Sunny silently cursed.

monsters twice before, and won both times. However, that was because each battlefield had been

one

Nephis,

had just walked out of

scowled. Cassie, meanwhile, lightly touched his

"Where is it heading?"

the shadow's vision. Soon, he exhaled with some

behind this knoll and it doesn't change course, there's

a

and tell me as

them pressed their bodies to the knoll.

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

on

it was so hard to concentrate with Cassie's soft

'DEADLY! MONSTER!'

able to get his mind out of the gutter, Sunny sighed and focused on observing

able to see every crimson line and every spike on its weathered

a beautiful crystal was gleaming with hypnotic inner light. It was bright and strangely

A transcendent soul shard.

already seen a similar scene, back when a pair of centurions were retrieving two of such crystals from the remains of the giant

that was their

atop the Ashen Barrow. With its onyx