Shadow Slave

Two days later, they finally received a word from Master Jet. The message, which had passed through several people before reaching Sunny, was simple - retreat to Erebus and rendezvous with Davis and his cohort of Irregulars there.

Godspeed.

Sunny took a deep breath after hearing the news.

It was as he had expected, even though a small hope that some miraculous help would be sent to assist them on the thousand-kilometer journey had been still somehow aflame in his heart. Now, it was completely extinguished.

With that, the cohort's short period of rest was over. It was a good thing, too.

Over the past couple of days, Sunny killed several Nightmare Creatures that had wandered close to the camp. Strangely, there had not been as many of them as one would have expected, and he was quick to dispose of the bodies. Still, the smell of blood was slowly permeating the area, and pretty soon, it was bound to attract bigger threats.

The blizzard was still raging outside the wreck of the old war machine. Piercing the swirling snow with beams of light, the Rhino growled as it drove forward and abandoned its temporary shelter. Accelerating, it then moved north, toward the slopes of the towering mountains.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle was tense, but as minutes passed without anything lunging an unexpected attack on the APC, everyone calmed down a little.

...Except for Sunny. He had no plans of calming down until they safely reached the stronghold of the First Evacuation Army. In fact, he would prefer if his people remained tense and paranoid, as well.

much pressure, too. People tended to break if subjected to persistent and overwhelming stress without any chance to take a breath. Actually, his soldiers were holding up surprisingly well, considering everything they had gone through in the past two months... and for a

who seemed like a carefree fool most of the time, was enduring the rigors of the calamitous Antarctica campaign with a surprising tenacity. Maybe it was exactly that lighthearted and

need to

was something Sunny had never

by the veil of snow, Saint and Nightmare followed it from a small distance. Even though the mountains were obscured from view by

road leading to the former LO49 and the path that took a turn to climb high into the mountains, one of

hesitated for a few moments, frowning. Then, he moved closer to the

left a little and slow down. We are going to take a stop in

followed his instructions, gradually slowing down. Eventually, the massive vehicle came

of the Cruel Sight's shaft falling silently into his hand. Struggling against the wind, he then walked forward and

the terminus of the coastal highway, with several empty buildings standing with their doors ajar. Some distance away to his left was the ocean, which made Sunny feel very

him. Under a thick layer of snow, portions of a massive carcass could be seen. The Nightmare Creature had not been dead for long - a day at most, maybe two. From a cursory look, it had been a Demon, probably of the Awakened

covering its body, it had not been killed by human weapons, and as if to

'...Strange.'

to fight amongst themselves on occasion, but only in the Dream Realm. Out here in the waking world, there were too many human bodies for them to tear apart, and too many human souls to devour. So, even when different tribes of abominations collided with

and how concentrated the human population had become due to being moved to a small number of

Sunny prevented himself from becoming too optimistic about