Shadow Slave

In front of them, the ground was shattered, creating a titanic fracture. The canyon was so deep and vast that Sunny had to strain his eyes to see the other side of it. Crimson coral clung to its walls, spilling over the edge like a torrent of blood.

A long time ago, a graceful bridge of white stone connected the two sides of the canyon together. Now, however, it was broken, with only its base remaining in place.

Looking at the bridge, Sunny realized that there must have been an ancient road somewhere beneath their feet. It led directly to the main gates of the ancient city, moving across the colossal canyon by means of the miraculous bridge and passing beneath the grandiose arch of white marble.

Come to think of it, the headless knight, the Ashen Barrow, and the graceful woman whose hands had saved him twice were also situated in a straight line. Perhaps there was another road leading east, too.

However, this thought disappeared from his head as quickly as it had appeared. All his attention was drawn to the remnants of the stone bridge, where...

Stood another giant statue.

Right above the weathered ruins stood a colossal stone warrior. He was clad in an archaic cuirass, with a beautiful spear resting on his shoulder. The warrior was facing south, as though greeting the travelers who traveled on the road to reach the ancient city.

…Of course, his head was missing.

More than that, the whole statue was covered in vast sheets of dull grey spiderweb, as if dressed in a solemn burial shroud. Sunny shivered, afraid to imagine what kind of creature was capable of creating the thick metal cables of the web that encompassed the stone colossus.

Noticing his expression, Effie smiled.

"Scary, huh?"

Sunny gave her a nod, hoping against all hope that they would not have to find out the answer to his question.

For once, his hopes were not shattered to pieces.

The vivacious huntress sighed.

"I haven't seen it myself, but I heard stories of the creature that used to make its nest here. It was the mother of all these damnable spiders we've been dealing with for the past week. A huge menace of a Nightmare Creature, as big as a house and utterly deadly. Armored like a hover tank, too."

Sunny gulped and cast a sideways look at Nephis.

"What's a hover tank?"

of times, then

a school dropout, I almost forgot. You've seen a PTV before, right? PTV stands for a "personal transport vehicle", as you know. I hope. Well, a tank is sort of like that, only much bigger and heavier, with thick armor and a kinetic or energy cannon installed on it. The government sometimes employs

imagine such a vehicle and hazily remembered seeing something like this on the news when he was a kid. Mostly, these tanks Effie had described were shown opened like tin cans, with their crews pulled out

Mundane people had no business

were had no business facing them. It's just that they had no

going to try and kill that big spider,

Effie laughed.

it's you lucky day. We won't be meeting the Spider

and glanced

great. But how do you

She shrugged.

— before he went and got himself killed trying to conquer the Crimson Spire. The huntress who showed me the ropes when I arrived on the Forgotten Shore had actually been one

giant mass of spiderwebs

I'm glad that she did. That's how she

Sunny frowned.

exactly are you

beautiful bronze spear and

the big bad spider was an awakened tyrant, I guess. Can you imagine? All these

at her with a

would that mentor of your gave away

silent for a

idea how to use a spear. Sorcerers, am I right?

tell that that smile was fake. Effie did not let it show, but Sunny could tell that the death of this huntress whose name he didn't even know had met affected her more than she

Effie's original cohort had perished in the catacombs, their

was on his

Shard. Was there a connection?

might have been. He had received the Midnight Shard from Nephis, who had gotten

had been enthralled by the Soul Devourer, appeared as the leader of the Nightmare Creature in that region of the Labyrinth… just like the brood mother

names. Wasn't it a little bit too much to be a

at Effie,

a shard of

Cassie slightly turned her head, listening to their conversation. That small detail told