Shadow Slave

Moving through the ashen sand and piles of fallen leaves, a giant monster was coming down the hill.

Sunny gulped, his expression turning dark.

The creature was as large as a house, with its eight segmented legs resembling tall pillars. Its form was similar to that of scavengers and centurions, comprised of a crab-like carapace and a protruding, somewhat humanoid torso. However, this was where the similarities between them ended.

Instead of chitin, the behemoth's shell was seemingly made out of polished, lustrous metal. It was as though its whole body had been once submerged into a crucible of molten steel, emerging from it encased in an impenetrable suit of shining armor.

Beams of sunlight were reflecting from the chrome surface of the carapace, creating the bright glimmer Sunny had noticed. Massive but strangely elegant, the steel monster resembled a giant knight. Sunny was ready to swear that he had noticed the shapes of seven stars carved into its chest.

However, that knight was corrupted and evil. It radiated a sinister aura, like a demon summoned from hell to sow death and slaughter. The polished armor of the creature was covered with long, jagged spikes. Its humanoid torso had four mighty arms, two ending with powerful pincers, the other two — with razor-sharp, terrifying scythes.

The demon's head was more pronounced than that of a scavenger and crowned with several tall, sharp horns. Its metal face was almost human-like, but simultaneously repulsively monstrous and bestial. Just looking at it made Sunny's skin crawl.

'That thing… is scary.'

Whatever that creature was, its rank within the carapace legion was clearly higher than that of a centurion, not to mention of a lowly scavenger. It was the next step in their evolution. A general or a commander, perhaps. What were they called… legates? Praetorians?

Holding his breath, Sunny watched as the Carapace Demon descended from the Ashen Barrow. Stopping in front of the transcendent soul shard, it looked briefly at the kneeling centurion.

The deadly awakened monster shrank under its gaze, as if terrified of the larger Nightmare Creature. Sunny knew how it felt, since he did the same when the behemoth's eyes had briefly glided past his shadow's hiding place.

Not paying the centurion any attention, the Carapace Demon picked up the gleaming crystal and turned around. Then, it unhurriedly returned to the shade of the giant tree's branches.

Sunny slowly exhaled.

"Sunny? What is happening?"

He looked at Cassie, whose face was full of worry and curiosity. After hesitating for a little while, he said:

"There's a new threat. Stay quiet a bit longer, I'll explain later."

Back at the footsteps of the tall hill, the carapace centurion was finally ready to stand up again. Sunny was in a dilemma. He had to follow the monster to make sure that it doesn't stumble on their hiding place on its way back to the labyrinth.

also extremely curious to see what the Carapace Demon was up to

no time to think

a hasty decision, Sunny sent his shadow sliding over the grey sand. It masterfully avoided the carapace centurion's

just

majestic tree's scarlet crown, the shadow glided up the slope and approached the place where

fallen leaves. The Ashen Barrow was indeed larger than any high natural feature they had encountered before, vast and spacious as an actual island. However,

shadow to the center of the island, where the obsidian tree's enormous trunk was rising from the ground, with its

looking up at its lower branches. The transcendent shard was still clenched in its

is it looking

and noticed several round, appetizing fruits hanging between

into the sand and, completely forgetting about it, raised its

something fragile and extremely precious, the massive creature slowly lowered itself to the ground. Then, it carefully

This abomination

leave and hurry to the base of the hill. The time was up,

Ashen Barrow and flew back in the direction of the labyrinth, soon catching up

'Phew.'

of relief, Sunny made sure that the centurion's route would not put him on the collision course with the knoll they had been hiding behind and finally

the scythe-wielding monster was completely gone before slowly rising

to come out

how tightly they were pressed against each other while hiding behind the knoll, Sunny just barely avoided

uh… was a

Carapace Demon had appeared at the perfect

"What happened?"

looked at him and raised an eyebrow. For once, her expression of indifference did not

glanced at the not-so-distant

I'll explain everything once we're safe and sound, back at the

simply giving him a

Echo, tied the golden rope around its torso, placed Cassie's makeshift saddle back

them back onto the scavenger and took a step

to do. Coming close to

black surface was revealed beneath. It was the same exact color as the bark of