Shadow Slave

The Memory Sunny had created was, of course, a message to Nephis. The [Shadow Bond] that connected them was an innate Ability of his Aspect, and as such, existed outside of the Spell. It did not matter that the convoy was isolated from the Dream Realm... their tenuous link remained active. Sunny knew it because he himself was still able to see Neph's runes, so she should have been able to see his, as well.

'Well, that's done...'

The only question was how soon would Nephis see the message, and how long would it take for her to come up with a response. Sunny suspected that he was going to have to wait for a while.

Morgan's Warbow proved that forgemasters of clan Valor were capable of naming the Memories they created. However, he did not know how high Changing Star's standing in the great clan was at the moment, and if it was possible for her to charge them with forging a specific Memory for her, let alone do it quickly.

In any case, he was sure that she would come up with something. Nephis was a frighteningly resourceful person, when she needed to be.

...Kind of like Sunny himself.

'It won't be fast, though.'

With a sigh, he glanced at Professor Obel and Beth.

"The message is sent. Now, we just need to wait for a response."

The convoy continued its meaningless march. Hour after hour, the small column of vehicles drove through the overflowing darkness, their sense of time and direction slowly disappearing. The dark tunnel was just too eerie, inexorable, and unchanging. Everything there seemed like a strange, foreboding dream.

From time to time, one of the vehicles would break down, forcing them to stop for quick repairs. The Rhino was operating on an advanced spelltech engine, which meant that its fuel was soul essence. Luster was more than capable of keeping the APC moving indefinitely. The military vehicles had primitive spelltech batteries serving as a backup energy source for their hybrid systems, so he was able to help the soldiers, too.

and possessed a vast charge capacity, but were going to gel

of the

day went by in the same manner. Sunny spent it on the roof of the Rhino, staring at the

convoy would have been passing under Erebus Field, their final destination, right about now. With no mountains to climb and no Nightmare Creatures to fight, only the straight road and no obstacles ahead, the distance that Sunny had hoped to cover in weeks

translate to the same amount of covered ground in the real

he had sent his message, Nephis finally

habitually summoned the runes to check on Neph, and then blinked a couple of times, noticing that the list of her

a lot. There were certainly benefits to being an adopted daughter of a great clan, so she would occasionally receive a Memory or two. It seemed that she was being provided with

I am not regretting my decisions... even

the dark tunnel, then at the battered convoy, the desperate people who clung to what little warmth they could find inside the

runes, which showed that Nephis had gained fifteen new Memories in the

she was being nurtured by a great clan, that

he read the names of

Warning, Haunting Eversong, Eager Cut, Altar of Denial, Rust Reaver, Testament of

And six more.

been created

Sunny scoffed.

'...Clever.'

in the darkness, he read the first letter of each

ended up with was a

FINDHEARTCUTRUN