Shadow Slave

Well, actually, it was black. Shrouded in the darkness of the long night, Sunny rode north through the wailing hurricane of snow. To his eyes, which could see through any shadows, the snow appeared as light-grey, bordering on white.

The way back was not long enough to deal with thoughts and emotions raging in his heart, but luckily, Sunny had too many worries about the future to drown in the regrets of the past.

'...Doesn't matter, anyway.'

Verne was dead, and everyone else was also dead. None of the people Sunny had come to know in the past weeks survived. Now, all he could do was make sure that his soldiers, Professor Obel, and Beth did not share their fate.

That was not going to be an easy task.

Soon, the wreckage of the old war machine appeared in view. Sunny dismissed Nightmare, walked into the rusted metal frame and lingered for a few moments in front of the Rhino.

Then, he opened the hatch and climbed inside.

Quentin, Samara, and Belle were keeping watch, each of them tense and ready for battle. Noticing him, the Irregulars sighed with relief.

"Captain. You're back."

Sunny nodded.

"Did anything happen in my absence?"

Quentin shook his head.

"There were no Nightmare Creatures yet. Professor Obel and Miss Beth were both exhausted, so they're sleeping. We settled the Professor in your quarters. I hope you do not mind."

He remained silent for a moment, then added with a hint of melancholy in his voice:

In case one or both have become carriers of

did not particularly care about the accommodations at that moment, so he simply

'No Nightmare Creatures, yet..."

could change at

if one of his shadows had stayed back to observe the surroundings and be a potential exit point

Center, it was Nightmare Creature country now. Hordes of them moved through the mountains, many spilling down onto the

swarm could have stumbled on the cohort's camp at any moment, so

was a thing of the past

had choices that were safe, and choices that were dangerous. But after leaving the protection of LO49 and its thick walls, he could only choose between different degrees of

Attribute, such calculations were more or

He was

to take a nap, then.

occupied by Professor Obel, Sunny climbed

was it to

plunge into the comfortable embrace of darkness, he summoned Saint and ordered

all Sunny could

***

morning never came. When Sunny woke up, the world was exactly the same as it had been before. The raging blizzard enveloped the world, obscuring the cold dark sky. He had been pulled out of his dreamless slumber

had drawn a short straw when they were assigned the transport vehicle, since standard pods were a little bit too

not smile,

any threat,

Samara - you

that they did not even linger to listen to the report that their colleagues had brought from the Dream Realm. A minute later, all

They looked much better than they had yesterday. Even though one night of rest was not enough to remove all the accumulated fatigue, Awakened were resilient

broken instead of rested himself.

"So?"