Shadow Slave

Inside the giant nest of spiderwebs, a desiccated corpse of the colossal Matriarch lay shriveled on the floor, its iron carapace shattered by some devastating blow. The creature was long dead, but the sight of it was still terrifying.

The vast abdomen of the brood mother, however, appeared to have been severed much later than her fatal battle against the Lord of the Bright Castle. It almost looked as if it was… torn apart from within. Inside the terrifying wound, Sunny noticed the shattered remnants of five giant, metallic eggs.

The size of them was about the same as that of the five monstrous Fallen Beasts that had destroyed the original Stone Saint and her brethren back in the Dark City.

'So… that was where they came from.'

Looking away with a shiver, Sunny noticed numerous cocoons of spiderwebs attached to the walls of the nest all around the dead Matriarch. Inside them, withered carcasses of Nightmare Creatures of all shapes and sizes were preserved in a strangely good condition.

This was a true museum of terror.

The Nightmare Creatures appeared as though they were kept alive inside the cocoons for a long, long time before finally succumbing to death and turning into mummified corpses. Perhaps the abominable spiders stored them there for later consumption.

Or… not.

Noticing a few cocoons that had been broken open and what was inside of them, Sunny had to try hard to stop himself from vomiting.

The iron spiders did not use the monsters caught in the cocoons for food.

...They used them as incubators.

The creatures in the broken cocoons had been devoured from within. A few of them still had hundreds of small, moist eggs embedded into their flesh, with embryonic spiderlings moving weakly behind the slightly transparent shells.

'Curse… it all…'

Damn these spiders, damn the Labyrinth, damn the Forgotten Shore… and especially damn the damned Nightmare Spell that had brought him here. Sunny suddenly felt tired of this long, feverish, neverending nightmare he had found himself in.

was still

first to notice it. With a dark grimace suddenly appearing on his face, Sunny called out to his companions. Then, he led them deeper

hid a rough silhouette of a

stood somberly around the cocoon, each consumed by their own dark thoughts. Finally, Nephis turned her head

you sword

and took a step forward. Approaching the cocoon, he stopped and

"Be careful."

lingered for a second, and then faced the cocoon with grim determination written on his face. As ghostly green light emanated from the blade of his sword, he swung it with the graceful precision of an expert

of the cocoon, splitting it open. A shriveled human body fell to

their faces pale and full of ghastly resentment. Then, Sunny bent over and emptied the contents of his

was just

In fact, being eaten alive from the inside by a hundred of tiny

still, he recognized the

face was strangely intact, with an expression of horrifying agony frozen on it forever. Despite the overall condition of the corpse, Sunny knew who it was just from one

the one who had called him a shorty when Sunny first approached

at their condition,

guys

a few moments of silence,

is… his name was Stephen. He was the youngest heir of

'Stephen…'

of this arrogant young man back when they were preparing to venture into the Dream Realm at the Academy. In fact, he had really

hideous, terrifying corpse in front of him, he had forgotten all about it. Sunny would never wish this fate

never made it to the Dark City, which meant that they had perished somewhere in the Labyrinth. However, finding one of them served

If not today, death could be waiting for them tomorrow. Perhaps years from now, it would be their corpses that someone would stumble upon by

Nephis gritted her teeth and turned away. Then, she said,