Shadow Slave

Sunny sttod at the edge of the water for a while, looking at the ocean with a wary expression on his face.

'Funny...'

Back when he had first developed the habit of climbing the southern wall of the fortress, he stared at the ocean in hopes of witnessing the fearsome silhouette of the mighty battleship appearing from the darkness. But now that the Ariadne was about to arrive, his thoughts were far away.

Eventually, Sunny sighed and finally dismissed his chair, planning to return into the warmth of the settlement.

...However, just before he turned away from the dark water, something attracted his attention. A subtle gleam a few steps further down the shore, revealed from beneath the retreating waves. As though bleak starlight was reflecting from a small piece of glass.

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then walked a meter or two forward, stopping at the spot where he had spotted the gleaming object. A new wave rushed in, licking his armored boots. He had to wait for it to crawl back before kneeling and taking a closer look at the wet rocks.

There, between them, something glistened, buried under several shards of ice. Sunny brushed the ice away and picked the object up, then stood up before the next wave came.

His frown deepened.

In his hand was a simple brass button, similar to those that could be found on the countless winter coats issued to soldiers of the First Evacuation Army as part of their kit.

By itself, the button was nothing special.

However...

"Huh?"

Army. They were locals of Antarctica, and had served at LO49 long before the Chain of Nightmares. As such, their uniforms were slightly different. In fact, they were of

kits were far better suited for cold weather, and included well-designed parkas that could keep a person warm in most dire of

this

looked up, facing the darkness of the

closed his eyes and extended his shadow sense forward, as

show yourself, bastard. I know you

the black surface of the cold water. Everywhere light reached, there were shadows, after all. And even where light never entered, there was its

Sunny did not sense the Terror no matter how hard he tried. He did find something,

thirty meters away from him, deep underwater, there was a large shape. It rested on the seabed, moving slightly from

was irregular and mostly flat, with a very slight

and the fact that the shape was not that of a living thing, considering that the shadow lacked the quality of being cast by something possessing a

had no idea what it

kinds of

for some reason, he

waves for a bit. Then, he slowly took a step forward, and

his shins first, then his knees. Then, his waist. He shivered, gasped for breath, but continued walking

not mesmerized, am

he had broken the

an easy task, even one as thin and light as the Undying

Ice hanging from a string on his neck, a cold like he had never

ignored it and swam

eternity, he finally reached the seabed and pushed himself along its uneven surface, getting closer and closer to his target. Far away on the shore, Saint