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.

on the floor, wiping tears off

many people

their long expedition was dead. So was Park, his nonchalant friend who had been responsible for turning Effie into

watchmen who had asked Sunny about his opinion on who could have killed Harus were now dead, too. So was the

Market during Gunlaug's reign, did not make. Perhaps this was why Aiko, his friend, was now

did not know what could have killed the seemingly immortal man, but suspected that his last hunt had been a truly terrifying sight to behold. Most of the people Gemma had brought

so, so

on survivors like

those who survived had no time for sorrow, at least not now. They

fact, there had just entered the very belly of the

***

Sleepers, Sunny looked into the depths of

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 what hid in the depths of the cyclopic construct. Further away,

not to send his 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

he glanced at

Shore. By now, the light of day outside was almost blinding. On her

and raised her

the surviving humans. Her calm voice echoed

your strength. We

to their feet. Those who were relatively fine supported those who were seriously wounded. Those who

walking at the