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."

atmosphere disappeared as if it had never

They were all adults... actually, he was the youngest person here, so why was he the one who had to take care

in charge, both in terms of power and authority. And with

'...Ugh. How irritating.'

hesitated for a few moments,

that are gone is to make sure that we don't follow

and walked away, leaving them

and summoned it into his own hands. Then, he shivered, enveloped by snow. Chilling wind howled through the rusted frame of the ancient war machine, the remains of which rose from the ground like the bones of a giant beast. Even though staying outside was cold and uncomfortable, right now,

the senses

way back, and the path ahead was dangerous and unclear. Remaining in this spot was

them from the sight of the abominations. Unless a swarm stumbled directly on the

least, played

it, his thoughts wandered

even, if he counted those that had died in the weeks

It was... expected, actually.

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 risk his life over

He was still indifferent.

conceive of. It was too distant and abstract. When speaking about millions of people, people stopped being

compare to seven hundred million, to him, they were real. He had lived with them, shared bread with them, and fought side

than the potential evisceration of the whole quadrant. Knowing what he knew now,

death, for sure. The government had an ambitious goal of evacuating the whole continent, but their plan was already bursting at the seams.