Shadow Slave

Verne and Professor Obel were suddenly very focused on his words. Even Dorn, who had spent the last two days on the wall with Sunny, seemed to shake off his fatigue and paid rapt attention to what his captain had to say.

Sunny shut his eyes for a moment.

"When the first victim vanished, I said that there were only three possibilities - that he had deserted, that he had been killed by another human, and that a Nightmare Creature had infiltrated the facility. Well... I was wrong. None of these theories were correct. The third one was the closest to the truth, though."

He sighed.

"There is indeed a Nightmare Creature. Only it is not inside the fortress."

Verne frowned, looking at him with dark intensity.

"What do you mean?"

Sunny lingered for a bit before answering.

"The answer is almost obvious when you consider two things, and then put them together. First, the bodies. People don't just vanish without a trace, and yet we failed to find anything - not at LO49, and not on the coastal plain beyond the wall. So, the most obvious answer is that the bodies are being taken to somewhere where we can't find them... into the water. There is a whole ocean out there, after all."

Verne wanted to say something, but remained silent at the end, waiting for Sunny to continue. Sunny nodded.

"The second thing is the Call. Its strength had a qualitative change on the day we fought the Scavengers... too drastic of a change, really, to be produced by a single Gate. Especially one as unimpressive as that. I remember being convinced that there were two, at least, before exploring the plain and finding just one. I even said that we were lucky."

He stared at them for a moment, and then shook his head.

not lucky. And there was, indeed, another Gate... one more powerful than the Scavenger Gate that we cleared. We just did not

follow his reasoning. That was only to be expected, considering that the old man did not experience the Call himself. Verne, however... finally, a hint

second Gate... water... you think that there is another Gate? That

Sunny nodded.

there is. And that

Verne shook his head.

is still being watched. Nothing would have been able to crawl from beneath the waves, grab

Sunny smiled darkly.

just about

rubbed his eyes

mind hex. That is why

him with confusion. Finally, the

you perhaps have a piece of

shook his

proves my theory. No matter how elusive, devious, and powerful a Nightmare Creature is, we should have found some kind of clue by now. Although security equipment of the facility barely works because of the interference, the cameras would have captured something. The strict protocols and mutual responsibility system Verne had implemented would have produced some

appeared on

just rendered incapable of comprehending them. Something like that... something like that had already happened to me once. Back then, I spent an entire month being mesmerized by an insidious Nightmare Creature. However, I was utterly oblivious to its influence, simply for the fact the first thing that the hex did was take away my

looked at Verne

vicinity of this facility. The Gate brought a dreadful Nightmare Creature into the waking world, and that creature is using mind manipulation

center. Professor Obel seemed

is true... then we just have to kill that

in his eyes. For a warrior, having a clear enemy to fight was familiar

Sunny shook his