Shadow Slave

Raising his hand, Sunny gave Aiko and Stev a signal to remain quiet. Then, with a frown, he commanded the shadow to abandon its hiding spot and find the Guards.

'They can't be near us… I would have heard them.'

Then where did the bastards go?

Soon, he had his answer.

The three Guards were in the corridor a hundred or so steps from Sunny's current position, just behind a corner. In a place where they shouldn't have been, since it was way off their previous route.

They were also dead.

Two had their skulls smashed in. Sunny did not know what weapon, tool, or limb was used to kill them, because their Memory armors had already disappeared. It had to have been something capable of piercing through steel, though, because the Guards had been wearing helmets the last time he saw them.

The third was even worse. His throat was torn, seemingly with terribly sharp fangs… to such degree that the young man's head was almost separated from his body. One would expect a sea of blood to come out of such a terrible wound, but in fact, there was surprisingly little of it on the floor.

However, the corpse of the Guard was unnaturally pale, as if devoid of blood completely.

'Curses…'

Sunny felt a cold shiver run through his body.

The shadow cautiously looked around, but didn't notice anyone else present on the scene of the gruesome slaughter.

Aiko and Stev were staring at Sunny with alarmed expressions. After waiting for several minutes, he finally relaxed a little and motioned for them to follow.

"What happened?"

He hesitated for a few seconds, then said in an even tone:

"The Blood Lord has just been here."

Their eyes widened.

"That fiend?! Then why aren't we running?!"

Sunny glanced at them with a calm expression.

it's already

was

managed to get past his shadow and slaughter them just a hundred steps away without making enough noise to attract his attention… that, on the other hand, was a reason for

what kind of an abomination is

to reach their destionation. Soon, the smell of blood hit

slightly, while Aiko and

"Gods… poor bastards…"

He was hoping to notice something that his shadow had missed to give him a clue of what type of Nightmare Creature

anyone except for the three Guards had

we please leave? This crap doesn't seem to bother you, but I… I mean, Stev seems to be really scared. Just

for a little, then

noticed something glint in the pool of blood. The shadow had not noticed it earlier because there was nothing to shine on the small

the bloodied piece of metal, then brought it close to his eyes to take a

his fingers was an intricate silver earring in the shape of a flower blossom. It wasn't a charm Memory, though… just

is that thing

a confused scowl, he lingered for a few moments and then stood

get out

***

The Sleepers standing watch were surprised to see Sunny come back with

Aiko raised an eyebrow.

guys going to inspect us? What if

at each other, and then one of

we would.

petite young

in very

watchman gave a strange look, then coughed with a

a conversation with him is,

stared at him with an

that supposed

hurriedly shook his

no. Nothing. Uh, I need to inspect the barricade.

he made a hasty

scam him out

head in bewilderment, Sunny turned away and led the two newcomers deeper into the