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."

aiming

approached it, it was already noon. The sun was right above their heads, making their shadows small

time of day

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 grey sand as the rest of the

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

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

toward the

"Hide!"

fell. Catching her in the princess carry, Sunny darted toward

and looked at him

"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 grey sand. Suddenly, one of them collapsed, knocked over by a massive figure.

scythes, black and crimson carapace that looked like ancient armor that had been splattered with blood… another

Sunny silently cursed.

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

would be able to kill one in

Nephis, Sunny

centurion had just walked out of

lightly touched his hand

"Where is it heading?"

then concentrated on the shadow's

Barrow. If we stay hidden behind this knoll and it doesn't

thought for a second and then

and tell me

their bodies to the knoll. There wasn't a lot of space to hide, so they had to endure being cramped against

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

you thinking about, fool?! Concentrate on the

to concentrate with Cassie's soft body pressed against

'DEADLY! MONSTER!'

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

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

between the centurion's scythes, a beautiful crystal was gleaming with hypnotic inner light. It was bright and strangely

A transcendent soul shard.

of centurions were retrieving

that was

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