Shadow Slave

The First Evacuation Army was accompanied by three Saints. One was loyal to the government, while the other two… the other two had been sent by the great clans.

Unofficially, Valor and Song had refused to participate in the Southern Quadrant campaign. Officially, however, they still had to keep up appearances. For that reason, each had provided a token force to support the evacuation effort, and the two Saints in question were in charge of these forces.

Sunny did not know who these Transcendent were. All he knew was that the government had wisely chosen to separate them, sending one to East Antarctica, while the other ended up in the Antarctic Center.

And now, apparently, that latter was coming to aid the Irregulars in vanquishing a powerful Corrupted abomination. He was not sure how to feel about that.

On one hand, the help of a Saint was more than welcomed. On the other hand… one of the reasons he had decided to participate in the Antarctica campaign was to get away from the great clans and their machinations.

Now, it seemed that he just couldn't escape coming in contact with the Sovereigns and their forces.

'Curse it all…'

With a sigh, Sunny sent Luster the coordinates of the rendezvous point and walked over to the pilot's cabin.

"We have new orders. Get to this location as fast as possible."

The young man yawned, studied the coordinates for a bit, and then nodded.

"Aye, sir."

He lingered for a moment.

"Uh… by the way, what's there?"

Sunny shrugged with a nonchalant expression.

Tyrant? Something like

him with wide eyes, and suddenly grew

it made a sharp turn, left the wide highway entirely, and entered uneven

high-tech suspension system, the members of

briskly traversed the wild expanse of the Antarctic Center. Powerful spotlights installed on the Rhino's roof flooded the landscape in front of it with stark light, cutting the dimness with wide beams. Various sensors supplied Luster

just as lifeless, but in a different manner. There were fewer signs of

Because of that, the horizon was obscured most of the time, and it was hard

of years, and only recently shrugged off its heavy veil. The passing of monumental glaciers had left

navigating the complicated terrain. It moved toward the rendezvous point with sufficient speed, sometimes making use of existing roads, sometimes cutting through untouched wilderness. It climbed or descended tall hills and

Sunny tense, it was that he rarely had an opportunity to see far ahead. These days, the Southern Quadrant was not as lifeless as it had used to be. The life that was spreading through its reaches, however, was not the

one of the upper hatches. Since Samara was yet to return from the Dream Realm, Sunny was the only member of the cohort with decent means of ranged attack.

Rhino's path, only to be slain by a swift black arrow before having the chance to approach it. Luckily, none of them turned out to be too powerful or laid

'For now…'

reached the ruins of a small outpost, where two similar carriers were parked in the shadow of a broken wall. A handful of people could be seen gathered around a fire, having

off the roof and walked toward the fire. Orange light

you

and Soul Reaper's cohort looked at him with wistful

water, sir. The cargo capacity of our carriers is limited, so

As the large chest manifested itself into reality and opened its toothy maw, Sunny thrust his hand inside, and then threw a can of instant coffee and an expensive

sir! Thank

were about to fight a Corrupted abomination of a high Class. They seemed relaxed and nonchalant about the whole ordeal, and paid more attention to the can of coffee than to a menacing

Category Three Gate was situated on its

emerged from the Rhino and joined them, he looked around and noticed Master Jet and Winter. The two were standing some distance away, discussing something between

headed toward them and caught

a woman.

saw that Mongrel