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.

worse was still

on his face, Sunny called out to his companions. Then,

a rough silhouette of a

their own

sword cut it

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

"Be careful."

for a second, and then faced the cocoon with grim determination written on his face. As ghostly

tip of the jian cut through the metal wires of the cocoon, splitting it open. A shriveled human body

it, their faces pale and full of ghastly resentment. Then,

was just

eaten alive from the inside by a hundred

worse still, he recognized

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

called him a shorty when Sunny first

their

guys

a few moments of

was Stephen. He was the youngest heir of the

'Stephen…'

this arrogant young man back when they were preparing to venture into the Dream

him, he had forgotten all about it. Sunny would never wish this fate on

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

for them tomorrow. Perhaps years from now,

turned away. Then,