Shadow Slave

His words caused a dead silence to settle over the Rhino, Luster, Kum, and Dorn froze, grave expressions appearing on their faces. Professor Obel looked down, suddenly appearing even more fragile and old. A heavy sigh escaped from his lips.

Beth's eyes widened.

"W-what... what do you mean, dead? That is impossible."

Sunny looked at her silently, and then shook his head.

"This is the era of the Nightmare Spell. Anything is possible, and terrible things are doubly possible. In fact, they are all but inevitable. We were lucky to get out in time, but the others were not. That is all there is to it."

His voice was full of grounded confidence, but in fact, Sunny felt very unsettled. He was not entirely sure if he was trying to convince Beth, or himself.

Professor Obel, who had been born during the Dark Times and lived through the horrors of the First Generation, seemed to understand what Sunny was trying to say. He must have experienced many such calamities throughout his long life, and lost a lot of friends. His young assistant, however, did not.

Looking at Sunny with a pale face, she forced out:

"B-but..."

He interrupted her.

"Don't think about it too much. Concentrate on your own survival instead. We are not out of the woods yet, and what is to come is far more important than something that is already over. And it is over."

it had never existed. Sunny studied the faces

and manage anyone's feelings right now. They were all adults... actually, he was the youngest

because he was in charge, both in terms of power

'...Ugh. How irritating.'

for a few moments, and then

is to make sure that we don't follow them. So, rest well and gather your

sighed and walked away,

of which rose from the ground like the bones of a giant beast. Even though staying outside was cold and uncomfortable, right now, he preferred it to being in the company of other humans. There

area through the senses of his shadows, Sunny closed his

ahead was dangerous and unclear. Remaining

approaching Nightmare Creatures before they launched into a frenzied attack, but also hid them from the sight of the abominations. Unless a swarm stumbled directly on the rusty wreckage, it would pass by

least, played in Sunny's

his thoughts wandered back to the lost

people... sixteen, even, if he counted those that had died in the weeks before. Just like that,

It was... expected, actually.

Sunny remembered hearing about the Chain of Nightmares from Master Jet for the first time. Back then, he was rather callously indifferent. What did the fates of humans in Antarctica have to do with him? Their number was much higher than fourteen hundred, too. There were seven hundred million people living in the Southern Quadrant, and he had not been inclined to give a damn about a single one. At least not enough to

He was still indifferent.

too large of a number to conceive of. It was too distant and abstract. When speaking about millions of people, people stopped being people and turned into numbers. Sunny did not wish them ill, but

hundred could not compare to seven hundred million, to him, they were real. He had lived with them, shared bread with them, and fought

quadrant. Knowing what he knew now, he couldn't help but see the First Army

for sure. The government had an ambitious goal of evacuating the whole continent, but their plan was already bursting at the seams. Many more people were going to die.