Shadow Slave

'Ah... it hurts...'

Sunny had escaped the dark cave fast enough to not be eaten alive, or even to a serious degree. Just as he had joked, he ended up only being eaten a little.

There were a few bites on his body and one on his cheek. The most serious wound by far was the one he had inflicted on himself to get the last beetle from under his skin. The Moonlight Shard had cut deep, but, guided by his steady hand, missed both his heart and anything else that was important.

Still, it stung. Not that Sunny had time to pay it any attention.

The Rhino was speeding forward, almost flying through the shuddering tunnel. All around it, the darkness was rippling and shifting, as if out of control. It felt like the thing they were inside of - whatever it might have been - was convulsing. Not exactly in the throes of death, but maybe in agony. Sunny was pretty sure that the blow Saint had delivered to the black sphere was not fatal to be unknown being, since he never heard the Spell announcing a kill. The source of the true darkness was not destroyed, just damaged.

...Or maybe set free.

"Captain! That... that is new!"

Hearing Luster call out to him, Sunny looked forward and saw an unfamiliar shape appear from the darkness. It was a rusted frame of an old personal vehicle, which they had never seen before. The implication made a pale smile appear on his face.

'It's broken...'

The strange anomaly that had been keeping them inside the tunnel seemed to be no more. They were actually moving forward instead of traveling endlessly through a neverending sea of darkness. Destroying the black sphere had really broken the binding.

He let out a shaky breath.

If he had not received a message from the outside... things might have turned out differently. Sunny would have ventured into the side passages eventually, but probably without leaving one of the shadows behind. Even if he did, he would have definitely taken the rest of the Irregulars with him.

Then, they would have died.

Actually, he still struggled to believe that everyone survived.

...For now.

not out of the tunnel

looked at

us out of

The rest of the convoy followed, and soon, they could feel the floor

good things had

tunnel. At some point, one of the

behaving as if it possessed a maleficent sentienee. Instead of spreading in every direction

a deep crack appeared on another section of the wall, and a few tiny bodies fell from it on

'Crap!'

would pass the swiftly growing crack before the stone wall

Somehow, they did.

ready to collapse. The civilian transports struggled to keep up with the Rhino, climbing up the quaking road. Behind them, the endless flood of dark beetles was gaining speed, swelling as new streams of them poured in. Dust and pieces of

in the distance, a circle of

The exit.

at least there were the stars, the ghostly flames of the aurora, and maybe even the moon. Although small, the difference between the true darkness of the underground tunnel and the mundane darkness of

They almost made it...

going to

exit approach

a bit more...

the Rhino shot through the round opening, escaping into the chilling cold of the polar night. The vast

Then, his grin disappeared.

he sent his shadows to

high into the mountains. Behind them, the stone slopes were cracking and breaking, with giant boulders rolling down into deep gorges with deafening noise. Rivers of darkness were flowing out of the mountain, all twisting

damned beetles were continuing to pursue them even