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.

heavy sigh, Sunny glanced around

huntress lead them through the complex maze of wide and narrow streets following a strange, convoluted path that only she knew.

empty sky, sometimes they dove into 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 the

vast chasms and balancing on half-rotten planks of wood that had been placed there by someone to bridge especially wide gaps. During these moments, either Neph or Sunny would carry Cassie in their

opposed to the thousands of years that had passed in reality. Because of that, he was able to catch glimpses of how

was a strange and eerie

the gaps between roofs to the heavy slabs of stone used to hide improvised passages, it

for the seemingly carefree young woman. She almost

death was constantly breathing down their necks, only barely held at bay by Effie's knowledge and timely judgment. Several freshly eviscerated carcasses that they had stumbled

Creatures were

stone, sensed the ground trembling under heavy footsteps, or noticed swift shadows falling through the clouds. In those moments, Effie would change their course

her had indeed been a

he had no doubt that they would have to hunt for food as well. That meant that he was going to have to

it by himself. There was Changing Star to partner with, and Cassie.

this terrible hell alone… he didn't even want to think 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

something that is