Shadow Slave

Sunny gritted his teeth and groaned, feeling his whole body being slowly crushed by the monstrous chieftain of the Barrow Wraiths. One of his arms was pressed against his body, and the other one was, too… but just barely.

If only he could free it…

But no matter how hard he tried, the tyrant's hold was just too strong.

…Back in the gymnasium, the terrifying beast was lunging at the defenseless children. Its maw was wide open, the red shine of the ghostly flames burning in its eyes reflecting from the jagged, sharp fangs.

It was flying directly at Rain, moments away from closing its jaw on her throat.

She felt paralyzed by fear, desperately wishing to run, but unable to move.

Was this how she was going to die? No, no… it couldn't be!

But it was...

Suddenly, a spark of a strange, dark emotion ignited in Rain's heart.

'Die? No… not like this… I refuse!'

She was holding a sword, was she not?

Even if that thing was going to devour her, Rain was determined to die fighting, just like she had been taught to. She was going to remain human, not a cowering animal only good enough to be the stronger beast's prey.

She owed that much to her parents, at least.

Knowing full well that her dull training sword was not going to stop a Nightmare Creature, Rain stubbornly made a motion to raise it. Even though her mind was panicked and her thoughts scattered, the body remembered countless hours of practice…

Not that it was going to do her any good.

that she could see every harrowing detail of its hideous snout

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

childish thought appeared in her mind, as it had undoubtedly appeared in the minds of countless people

then, something strange

magenta lights ignited in the darkness to the side of the

strange, stonelike sword flashed out of the shadows and

swatted the headless

menacing black armor stepped out of the darkness, two ruby flames burning behind the visor of her

never seen someone

her stonelike sword, then sever one more in half with a

just killed

only that, but she also killed them in

'Who… who is she?'

knew what she was doing, she heard herself saying in a

"Who are you?"

between the children and the

at that back, feeling as if nothing was going to get past this frightening,

suddenly appeared in

was a human, a spirit, or a strange Nightmare Creature.

be

***

was being brought closer and closer to the three burning red eyes, and as he did, it felt as if

'What… the hell…'

that he could do… some trick he could employ to wrestle free. A Memory

no matter how hard he tried,

was slowly starting to

I… I

have turned the Mantle of the Underworld too heavy for the tyrant to lift, but it was already as heavy as the [Feather of Truth]

almost ready to panic, and then… a subtle change suddenly