Shadow Slave

The mournful ruins of the once-great city sprawled around them like a desolate stone maze. With grey skies above and nothing but dead silence surrounding the cohort of four tense Sleepers, it seemed as though they were walking through a vast, cyclopean graveyard.

Sunny had to constantly remind himself that there were countless horrors hiding in the ominous shadows of the Dark City. One wrong turn could land them in dire peril. In this ancient ruin, they had no choice but to entrust their lives to the hands of their guide.

Luckily, the guide in question was not a morose dead poet, but a tall, extremely attractive young woman clad in a pleasantly revealing archaic armor. In their current circumstances, Sunny much preferred the company of a warrior to that of a useless scribbler.

In fact, circumstances had nothing to do with it. He was having trouble imagining any situation where a writer would be helpful to have around. From what he knew, all writers were lazy, talentless hacks whose only real skill was finagling money out of honest people while getting off on torturing them with sadistic cliffhangers.

Not to mention that none of them had a backside like Effie… uh… wait, what?

Getting his mind out of the gutter, Sunny frowned and reminded himself to keep his emotions in check.

In a sense, this harsh necessity was a blessing. The perilous reality of the ruined city prevented them from concentrating on the bitter despair that had taken a stranglehold on their hearts after the grim revelation of the previous day.

They just had to put one foot in front of the other and not think too much about anything.

One step at a time. That was how he was going to survive.

Sunny glanced around and continued

turned out to be a slow ordeal. The huntress lead them through the complex maze of wide and narrow streets following

the weathered buildings and spent some time crawling through the piles of rubble inside. Other times, Effie was able to lead them straight through half-collapsed houses to emerge into secluded alleyways on

bared support beams, jumping across vast chasms and balancing on half-rotten planks of wood that had been placed there by someone to bridge

of some buildings were incredibly well-preserved. It was as though the inhabitants had just left a few days ago, as opposed to the thousands of years that had passed in reality. Because

a strange and

also able to clearly understand that Effie indeed knew the ruins very well. Everywhere they went, there were signs of her previous visits and preparations. From the planks placed across the gaps between roofs to the heavy slabs of stone used to hide improvised passages, it was apparent that she had spent years of meticulous effort turning large

new respect for the seemingly carefree young woman. She almost

from the truth. In fact, he suspected that death was constantly breathing down their necks, only barely held at bay by Effie's knowledge and timely

Creatures were not safe

the ground trembling under heavy footsteps, or noticed swift shadows falling through the clouds. In those

had indeed been a rare stroke of

in this cursed place, he had no doubt that they would have to hunt for food as well. That meant that he was going to have to learn

was Changing Star to partner with, and Cassie. Their presence calmed him

about it. Such a wretched existence would surely kill him, and if not, at least drive him insane. At that point, he wouldn't wish to be

about something that is never going