Shadow Slave

Six people vanished. There were still no traces. It seemed that the killer - whoever or whatever the killer was - did not care if the person was alone or in a group. The mutual responsibility system was not working. Everyone was scared.

The next day, seven people vanished. Four of them were experienced Awakened, some of the best soldiers Verne had. The other three were scientists. On the same day, two more mundanes succumbed to the Spell. One of them died and was eliminated, the other was still struggling somewhere out there, in the First Nightmare. Perhaps that person would become a Sleeper soon.

A day after that, twelve people vanished. No clues were found, and fear continued to spread through the facility like a plague. It had yet to transform into panic, but the residents of LO49 were starting to grow restless, trapped in the suffocating atmosphere of dread, exhaustion, and doubt.

Sunny really wanted to sleep.

Then, the day that the Ariadne could have arrived came. People were uplifted a little by the excitement, but Sunny did not share in their enthusiasm. He expected the rescue to reach them no sooner than after another week. A lot of things could happen in a week.

... The Ariadne did not arrive, but a horde of Nightmare Creatures appeared instead, descending from the mountains. It seemed that things were not going well up north, considering that such a large swarm of abominations had been allowed to assemble and travel freely. What was the army even doing?

Isolated at the edge of the world, they had no way of knowing.

The battle was long and fierce, but ended in a decisive victory. The tired soldiers retreated back into the fortress without even bothering to burn the corpses. They would be covered by the snow soon, anyway.

Everyone felt the growing fatigue.

The mundane person who had been making their way through the First Nightmare woke up as a Sleeper.

...The next day, that Sleeper disappeared, along with fourteen more people.

The Scavenger Gate released a new wave of abominations. There were just a handful of them, so Sunny slaughtered the Nightmare Creatures himself before anyone else had time to arrive.

On his way back, he noticed that many of the carcasses laying under a thin veil of fresh snow seemed to be missing large chunks of flesh.

Sunny was too tired to care.

nothing preventing me from sleeping. In fact, it is detrimental to remain awake. I'll think better

to only become sharper. He had lost a bit of situational awareness and reaction speed, but was now able to enter a state of being laser focused on something in exchange. He was also extremely calm, almost as

His mind was... clear.

cold waves rustled as they washed over the stone expanse of the beach, carrying

was somewhere out there, illuminated

time, a lumbering figure climbed the wall and approached him. Dorn looked as tired

and looked at

an idea. Can I

for a few

it's about the bodies. By now, we have explored every millimeter of this facility. We have searched the coastal plain extensively, too. You probably swept

searched everywhere, but actually, there is one place where we did not look. Since the bodies

man leaned on the

black waves continued to sway, indifferent to his words. The unfathomable

was silent for a while, and then

is my thinking, too. So, I'll be keeping a close

Luster, who was sitting on a couch with a glassy look in his eyes. The young man seemed to

at him with disdainful reproach. Then, it slapped him across the

to his feet and looked around

What...

a pale smile appeared on

protocol. You guys start following it, too. Make

nodded, lingered for a few moments, and

staring

throwing them into the water, someone would have noticed something. Dozens

two more people ascended the wall. One of them was an