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.

had spent most of his time with or near the scientists. When he was away, one 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 before that, and the scientific understanding -- or rather, the

Beth rather well, too. That was why he knew for a fact that she was pretending to

She is even more petty

nothingness and embraced his

big Gate and a lot of nasty Nightmare Creatures coming this way. We'll go deal with them real quick. You head back, gather the scientist, and lock yourselves in the

for a moment,

"Yeah... alright."

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 observed the vast

As turret towers whined, ramping up their

armor, holding a shield and a short sword in his hands, looked at

"What do you think?"

His shadows were still following the swarm of Nightmare Creatures,

even confused by the fact that it affected the

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

Finally, Sunny spoke:

a big deal. I will deal with the Gate Guardian, and you deal with the other Corrupted. Awakened Kim will support you. Can you handle

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

reasonably sure that Verne would survive

for a

"I'll handle it."