Shadow Slave

...Perched precariously on a broken mountain road, the Rhino stood still as the members of the cohort cautiously climbed higher. Belle, Dorn, and Luster were hiding a hundred steps ahead, just below the crest of the tall hill, while Sunny and Kim were currently on the roof of the armored vehicle.

"I see them."

Samara was tensely studying the screen of her military communicator, which was receiving the video feed from a compact spy drone that she had sent ahead. On it was a small valley. The image was grainy and noisy, sometimes breaking out entirely because of the interference of the Nightmare Gate exerted on it.

Flooding the valley, a swarm of Nightmare Creatures could be seen.

"There are hundreds of them. Most are Awakened, but there are several Fallen abominations, as well. The Gate Guardian… has already emerged. It seems to be a Devil."

Sunny nodded.

"Correct. There are two hundred and seventy-four abominations, of them two hundred and forty-two are Awakened, while thirty-two are Fallen. The Guardian is indeed a Fallen Devil."

One of his shadows had snuck much closer to the swarm of Nightmare Creatures. It wasn't suffering from any interference, as well. Sunny, however…

Maintaining a calm facade, he shivered inwardly. The Gate was whispering into his ears, calling to him on a level much deeper than thought or emotion. He had experienced the Call before, but now that he was a Master, it became so much stronger and harder to resist.

Sunny had experienced this change almost instantly after the First Evacuation Army made landfall in Antarctica. While the other three convoys were sent to East Antarctica — the largest and most populated region of the Southern Quadrant — the one he had traveled with was meant to deliver troops to the Antarctic Center.

The Antarctic Center was a long, narrow, mountainous landmass that served as the administrative and industrial center of the continent. As such, it harbored many priority targets that had to be evacuated at all costs.

The first several days after the arrival of the army was pure chaos. The large city they entered, Falcon Scott, was in a state of utter havoc. Millions of people had just learned that their entire lives would be uprooted, or maybe even lost. While the local government forces had done their best to maintain order and prepare the civilians for evacuation, that did not amount to much in the end.

The situation had been only made worse by all the Gates that were opening near and within the city.

had put it, it used to be that one Gate opened every few weeks. Then, it was one every week. Then,

Then, one every day.

time the Evacuation Army arrived, the situation

and

easy for Sunny to adjust to this new, subtly maddening reality. He wouldn't be surprised if

not reached that point yet, even if the

fortress. The northernmost city of the

march south. Their job was to reach other population centers, establish safe evacuation corridors, and start

Company left with the field army and

just a day later, Sunny's cohort was going to fight

emerged from half-a-dozen Gates at the lower altitudes. To wipe the abominations faster, they needed to flank

rough terrain was problematic,

of

"We are in luck."

Samara and Kim turned and stared at him with inscrutable expressions. After a few moments of dead silence, the latter said in a timid

can facing three hundred Nightmare Creatures and a Fallen

He shrugged.

call a low-threat Gate. Do you

Samara frowned.

"Because… there's no Tyrant?"

with

Things would have been much, much worse if all these creatures could coordinate their attack. Plus,

lingered for a

odds are already in our favor. We have higher ground, and the wind is blowing in the right direction. The Nightmare Creatures have not caught our scent