Shadow Slave

Sunny was staring at the black waves that came and went, licking the stone shore not too far away from the tall wall of the fortress. Even though he had told his soldiers to stay away from the ocean, Sunny came here once or twice every day, perhaps hoping to see the fearsome silhouette of the giant battleship emerging from the darkness.

That was silly, of course, since the arrival of their ride away from LO49 was days, or even weeks away. Still, he found himself in a contemplative mood whenever he observed the waves.

He was also reasonably sure in his ability to get away should anything other than Ariadne appear from the ocean...

The blizzard finally subsided a few hours ago, so today, Sunny saw much further than before. Not that there was anything to see.

Shivering in the cold, he sighed and turned around to go find warmth inside one of the station's buildings.

It was at that moment that Sunny froze and tilted his head, as if listening to something. His eyes narrowed.

"...Crap."

The maddening whispers assaulting his mind had just grown much louder.

Jumping off the wall, Sunny walked quickly and soon reached the security center of the facility. There, several Awakened were monitoring the sensor feeds. Verne was standing in front of a wall of screens with a dark expression on his face.

Hearing Sunny's steps, he turned his head.

"You felt it too?"

Sunny nodded.

"Yeah. It's strong."

closed his eyes

"This complicates things."

was an understatement. What they sensed was the Call, which had suddenly grown much stronger. That meant two things, none of them promising anything good to the people

thing was rather obvious... somewhere out there, very close to the facility, one or more Nightmare Gates had just opened. Considering how loud the Call was, Sunny was willing to bet that there were

thing was not immediately

on the console in front of him. Then, he spoke, his voice being carried all across the fortress by

is Master Verne speaking... effective immediately, the interference status of the LO49 facility should be considered to be changed from green to yellow.

growing so much, the stability of the Gateway anchors of the Awakened inside the fortress was bound to become weaker. It was not at the stage where falling asleep

for all Awakened defending it. The probability of becoming pulled away by the Seed of Nightmare was not high,

'"Damnation.’

have opened close enough to strengthen the Call, the Nightmare

his announcement, Verne looked at Sunny with weary eyes.

"I'm on it."

leaving the security center a second later. They flew across the facility, climbed its walls, and plunged into the cold dark

junior officers of the security force, which numbered close to a battalion, were summoned from all over

and rank, the Devils

arrived, Sunny's shadows were already scouring the vicinity of the fortress, searching for the manifested Gates. Verne briefed his

he spoke, the faces of the soldiers changed slightly, knowing that they were going

the Irregulars

Finally, Sunny sighed.

"Found it."

menacing rift that tore apart

everyone stared at him, Sunny winced