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."

as if it had never

did not really want to console and manage anyone's feelings right now. They were all adults... actually, he was the youngest person here, so why was he

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

'...Ugh. How irritating.'

for a few

make sure that we don't

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.

the senses of

path ahead was dangerous and unclear. Remaining in this spot was not at all safe,

also hid them from the sight of the abominations.

at least, played in Sunny's

his thoughts wandered back to

he counted those that had died in

It was... expected, actually.

do with him? Their number was much higher than fourteen hundred,

He was still indifferent.

people

were real. He had lived with them, shared bread with them, and fought side by

than the potential evisceration of the whole quadrant. Knowing what he knew now, he couldn't help but see the First Army and

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. Millions of them. In the end, how many of the seven