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.

worry, it's already

was anything but

past his shadow and slaughter them

of

been killed to reach their destionation.

bodies of the Guards looked even more gruesome in person. Sunny frowned slightly, while Aiko and Stev had to struggle to keep the contents

"Gods… poor bastards…"

anything, looking around with a dark expression. He was hoping to notice something that his shadow had missed to give him a clue of what type of Nightmare Creature the

were no signs that anyone except for the three Guards had been in

bother you, but I… I mean, Stev seems to be really scared. Just imagine what is going to happen if he faints

hesitated for a little, then

he suddenly noticed something glint in the pool of blood. The shadow had not noticed it earlier because there was nothing to shine on the small object and make it reflect

reached out with his hand and picked up the bloodied piece of metal, then brought it close

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

is that thing doing

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

get out of

***

were surprised to see Sunny come back with two

Aiko raised an eyebrow.

going to inspect us? What if

each other, and then

would.

petite young woman

he in very high regard around

then coughed with a bit of

it's not that. It's just that starting a conversation with

stared at him with

supposed

watchman hurriedly

Uh, I need to inspect the barricade.

made a

him out of his boots

Sunny turned away and led the two