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

his companions. Then, he led them deeper into the nest, where, attached to the wall, hung a cocoon that

a rough silhouette

consumed by their own dark thoughts. Finally,

sword

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

"Be careful."

and then faced the cocoon with grim determination written on his face. As ghostly green light emanated from the

of the cocoon, splitting it open. A shriveled human

faces pale and full of ghastly resentment. Then, Sunny bent over and

just too

die an easy death. In fact, being eaten alive from the inside by a hundred of tiny Nightmare Creatures was probably the worst fate imaginable. At least Sunny couldn't think of

he recognized the

face was strangely intact, with an expression of horrifying agony frozen on it forever. Despite the overall

the young man who had attended the Academy with them, the one who had called him a shorty when Sunny first approached Caster to create the impression that he was

their

you guys know

a few moments of silence, Caster

Stephen. He was the youngest

'Stephen…'

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

forgotten all about it. Sunny would never

solemn mood took overtook the cohort. They had already known that the other three Sleepers sent to the Forgotten Shore this year never made it to the Dark City, which meant that they had perished somewhere in the Labyrinth. However, finding one of

future? If not today, death could be waiting for them tomorrow. Perhaps years from now,

time later, Nephis gritted her teeth and turned away. Then, she said, her voice suppressed and