Shadow Slave

A black arrow noiselessly flew through the darkness of the moonless night and disappeared into white snow without a trace. Then, another. Sunny tried to send as many arrows flying as he could before the swarm arrived.

In the end, he managed to draw his bow fourteen times.

Knowing that he would have to - and, hopefully, have time to - rescue Saint, he had chosen to wear the Mantle of the Underworld into the upcoming battle. The Dying Wish was already fused with it, but Sunny had not poured his essence into the Transcendent charm yet, not wishing to draw attention to himself.

For now, he was just a black silhouette on the dark backdrop of the night, almost unnoticeable if not for the pale radiance of the crimson aurora that swirled above, devouring the skies with its ghostly light.

Soon, the swarm descended into the valley.

The Nightmare Creature were bestial in appearance, with dirty fur and emaciated, gaunt frames that brimmed with feverish power. Their snouts were long and narrow, revealing hungry maws with black tongues and countless fangs, all sharp enough to cut through metal.

The Fallen abominations were especially ferocious. Their lean bodies were twice the size of Nightmare and had bloody bone protrusions rising from the patchy fur, like morbid armor.

Their tails resembled slithering snakes, and their long black tongues were dripping with venomous saliva.

Sunny had not encountered this type of abomination before.

Two months into the Antarctica campaign, the First Army had learned a few things about the Chain of Nightmares. Despite all the precautions, many Awakened had been pulled into the Dream Realm by the Call... most of them never returned, but two or three managed to locate the Seed and survive its trial, thus becoming Masters.

They had all brought the same story back. There was a previously unknown region of the Dream Realm where countless Nightmare Seeds seemed to be blooming, sending myriads of Nightmare Creatures into a frenzy. It was a vast desert covered by eerie ruins, with a giant black pyramid sometimes appearing on the horizon like a terrible mirage.

Considering that most of the Gates originated from the same cursed land, it was no surprise that the Nightmare Creatures arriving into the waking world through them were also often similar. The First Evacuation Army had battled the same tribes of abominations many times. The Eyeless, for example, were a common sight throughout Antarctica, so humans had developed methods of dealing with them.

...But these Black Tongues were new. Sunny had never seen or heard about them before.

'Come down, you bastards.'

shadows. Surrounded by them, he was all but invisible...

meant giving up the opportunity to bombard the Nightmare Creatures with

howled through the mountains, bringing with it the fetid smell of blood and rot.

Sunny had expected to hear a litany of furious howls, but to his surprise and unease, all he could hear

one was with the convoy, so Sunny could

driving him insane, and his muscles ached,

the plan, he

to descend

heard, or smelled the convoy! Aren't you

of bestial bodies flowed south, aiming to cross the

'Nearer than you think...'

the swarm reached the middle of the lake, and then

into Morgan's Warbow. However, he did not draw

causing the fourteen

task, even for him. Sunny had to test the limits of his essence control and concentration to achieve what he wanted. It felt like he would cough blood and faint

in the end, Sunny had passed

ice sheet covering the lake, which he had found with Kim's help. Now that all fourteen of

ice started to

a net of cracks spread under the snow, as if a massive pane of glass was breaking. An indescribably beautiful wholesome of shattering ice drowned the howls of the wind for a few

was too

beneath their feet broke, sending hundreds of abominations into freezing cold water. Instantly, the vast space of pristine snow was no more, replaced instead with a scene of utter havoc. Massive pieces of ice

nothing to support their weight anymore. The whole swarm was being swallowed by

simply walk on the bottom of the lake until they reached the surface again, breaking through the ice on the other side. For monsters like these, being thrown