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 to

Sunny called out to his companions. Then, he led them deeper into the nest, where, attached

one hid a rough silhouette

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

sword

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

"Be careful."

his face. As ghostly green light emanated from the blade of his sword, he swung it with

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

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

just too

this harrowing place did not 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

worse still, he recognized the dead

an expression of horrifying agony frozen on it forever. Despite the overall condition of

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

at their condition, Effie

you guys know

a few moments of silence, Caster slowly

name was Stephen. He was

'Stephen…'

to venture into the Dream Realm at the Academy. In fact, he had really disliked

of him, he had forgotten all about it. Sunny would never wish this fate on anyone, let alone one of

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

would happen to them in the future? If not today, death could be waiting for them tomorrow. Perhaps years from now, it would be their corpses that

her teeth and turned away. Then, she