Shadow Slave

There was not much time to prepare and make plans, since the abominations were going to reach LO49 in mere minutes. The Shrill alarms blasted throughout the facility, and poweriul spotlights ignited on its walls, flooding the snow-covered plain with light. Civilians rushed to shelters, while soldiers ran to man the defensive fortifications.

Sunny and his cohort followed, summoning their Memories as they calmly prepared for battle. As they walked through bitter cold, he spoke:

"After we deal with the Nightmare Creatures, everyone is to remain awake until we board the ship. You know the drill. We won't be sleeping for a week, at least. Maybe two. Get the stimulants from Quentin and keep each other in check."

The Devils grumbled. They had already completed a few long missions in areas where sleep was deadly. A week was unpleasant, but doable... two weeks, however, was going to be a hellish challenge.

'I just hope that Ariadne arrives on time.'

It was not like they had any acceptable choice other than sit and wait...

At that moment, someone called out to Sunny.

"Hey, you... uh, Master Sunless, or whatever... what is going on?"

He looked to the side and saw Beth -- Professor Obel's assistant -- shivering in the cold in her civilian clothes and flimsy lab coat. The young woman's hair was gathered in a bun, like always, but a few stubborn locks had wrestled free and were now dancing in the wind.

Her pale face wore an irritated scowl, but he could see fear and alarm hiding behind that temperamental mask.

of his shadows usually kept watch. He had spoken with the old man a lot, learning all kinds of things about the tumultuous times of the First Generation, the world

well, too. That was why he knew for a fact that she was pretending to barely remember his

is even more petty than

steel of the Undying Chain appeared from nothingness and embraced

Nightmare Creatures coming this way. We'll go deal with them real quick. You head back, gather the scientist, and lock yourselves in the safe

for a moment,

"Yeah... alright."

and ran back into the door of the research center. Sunny shook his head and continued forward. Soon, they reached the top of the northern wall and

As turret towers whined, ramping up their engines, Samara placed her rifle on the lip of

a shield and

"What do you think?"

were still following the swarm of Nightmare Creatures, so he was studying

been honest -- of course -- when he said that they were lucky. As far as Category Three Gates went, this one was surprisingly weak. He was even confused by the fact that it affected the strength of the Call so much. The

of them was merely a Demon. Of course, the word "merely" could hardly be applied to

Finally, Sunny spoke:

will deal with the Gate Guardian, and you deal with the other Corrupted. Awakened Kim will support

not an easy request. However, asking an average Master to face a Corrupted one was less so, because all Masters were elites by definition. There was a fundamental distinction between Awakened and Ascended, since most of the former had no choice in what they had

would survive a battle against a Corrupted

local Master hesitated for a moment, then

"I'll handle it."