Shadow Slave

Sitting on the cold stone floor, Sunny inhaled deeply and looked at the people that surrounded him.

All of them were exhausted, wounded, covered in blood, dirt, barely staying conscious. Their armor was broken and torn, and their faces were deathly pale. They sat on the ground, too tired to move or talk, breathing heavily, and stared down with empty eyes.

There were so few of them left…

But also much more than he had expected.

Around a hundred Sleepers had survived the battle of the Crimson Spire. They were the strongest, the bravest… but mostly, the luckiest warriors of the Dreamer Army. Four-fifths of it had been eviscerated in the slaughter.

Not to mention another five hundred or so that had died during the bloody struggle for the throne of the Bright Castle.

This hundred was all that remained of more than a thousand humans that had been surviving on the Forgotten Shore before Changing Star had arrived in the Dark City like a brilliant omen of disaster. Like a herald of ruinous change.

But Sunny was appalled and horrified as much as he was surprised and elated. He had honestly thought that the number of people who would make it this far was going to be in the single digits.

...Looking around, he searched for familiar faces.

Nephis and Cassie were there, of course. So was Kai. Effie was slumped against a wall, dressed only in her white chiton, which was now torn and painted completely red with blood. Her armor seemed to have been completely destroyed.

Caster was also there, bandaging a shallow wound on his shoulder. Compared to other survivors, he seemed strangely clean. However, his armor was seriously damaged, too. It seemed that even incredible speed had not been enough to avoid the fury of the nightmare horde.

Seishan stood slightly apart from the rest of them, surrounded by a dozen surviving Handmaidens. The beautiful woman was heavily injured, the luster of her skin and sparkling eyes growing bleak and dim. From what Sunny could see, she was barely alive.

Aiko, who was sitting on the

there were also many people whom

was Park, his nonchalant friend who had been responsible for turning Effie into a folk hero with

Sunny about his opinion on who could have killed Harus were now

giant that had been in charge of the Memory Market during Gunlaug's reign, did not make. Perhaps this was why Aiko, his friend, was now silently shedding

did not know what could have killed the seemingly immortal man, but suspected that his last hunt had been a

so, so

on

who survived had no time for sorrow, at

had just entered the very belly

***

away from the hundred Sleepers, Sunny looked into the depths of the

entire tower must have been hollow, but now there were growths of coral everywhere inside. They resembled frozen waterfalls of blood, as if rivers of it had once streamed from the top of the Spire and then suddenly turned solid. Because of that, it was hard to see

shadow to explore. The Crimson Terror had already proven its ability to hurt the it, so he was unwilling to risk the well-being of

glanced

the

around and raised her

a while, she frowned, and then faced the surviving humans. Her calm voice echoed

time to go. Gather your strength. We are almost

looked at her with tired eyes, the light of hope igniting in them with renewed strength. Slowly, they rose to their feet. Those who were relatively fine supported those who were seriously wounded. Those who had lost

procession of humans headed deeper into the Spire. Nephis was walking at the front, holding Cassie by the hand. Somehow, Sunny ended up side by