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.

curious to see what the Carapace Demon was up to in its

time to think things

avoided

look. I'll just take one

shadow glided up the slope and approached the place where

than any high natural feature they had encountered before, vast and spacious as an actual island. However, the traces left behind by

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

was standing beneath the tree, looking up at its lower branches. The transcendent

it

and noticed several round, appetizing fruits hanging between the scarlet leaves.

sand and, completely forgetting about it, raised

tore off the branch. Holding it as something fragile and extremely precious, the massive creature slowly lowered itself to the ground. Then,

This

sure of what he had just seen, Sunny had no choice but to command his shadow to leave and hurry to the base of the hill. The time was up, and if he wanted

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

'Phew.'

centurion's route would not put him on the collision course with the knoll

until the scythe-wielding monster was completely gone before slowly

to come out

stood up, stretching and massaging their limbs. Suddenly remembering how tightly they were pressed

was

Demon had appeared at the perfect moment to take his thought away

"What happened?"

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

at the not-so-distant Ashen Barrow

ahead. We need to return to the Bone Ridge. I'll explain everything once we're safe and sound,

something, but then thought better of it and remained silent, simply giving him a nod. The trust they had built was enough for that

Echo, tied the golden rope around its torso, placed Cassie's makeshift saddle back on its carapace and helped the blind girl

them back onto the scavenger and took a step

one more thing to do. Coming close to the knoll, he

was revealed beneath. It was the same exact color as the bark of the colossal tree growing from the center