Shadow Slave

'Curse it...'

Sunny stared at the dark abyss of the canyon, his mind empty. A second passed in stunned silence, then another. Finally, he turned around and looked back, as though capable of gazing through the armored hull of the Rhino.

Which he was, in a way.

There, behind the heavy AFC, the other vehicles of the convoy had hit the brakes, barely avoiding slamming into each other. They were crowded on the mountain road, snow dancing in the narrow beams of the headlights.

And behind the convoy, the flood of darkness was rushing forward, stretching its tentacles in their direction.

They had maybe a minute before the mass of dark beetles reached the rear vehicle.

...This time, Sunny was not going to be able to protect it.

He might: manage to destroy hundreds, or even thousands of the ghastly insects, but: it would be like a drop in the ocean. None of his attacks would be able to deal the titanic wave of darkness any serious harm... especially because, as Sunny suspected, the beetles were not technically alive.

Not only did he not hear the Spell announcing the kills while slaying the few that had crawled into his armor, but the mere fact that the damned creatures traveled with him through the shadows meant that they were somehow akin to inanimate objects - Sunny was only able to carry those with him through Shadow Step, after all.

What good would it do to kill a bunch of bugs that were not even alive, to begin with?

"Captain! What... what do we do?! "

Sunny glanced at Luster, then said in a hoarse voice:

"What else? Run... we have to run..."

Then, he silently disappeared into the shadows. A moment later, Sunny was standing at the edge of the broken road, looking into the bottomless abyss below. The biting cold of the polar night caressed his skin, and the strong winds instantly tried to push him down.

of black beetles was devouring the cracked surface of the road, getting

that stretched far, far down. There was no secondary road to skirt its edge

Sunny gritted his teeth.

did the first thing that came to his mind, without even stopping

it was impossible... he would just have to

surged, coursing through his veins with tremendous speed, and then flowed outward. His face paled

mountain moved, the shadows covering its slopes moved, too. The deep murk drowning the deep canyon boiled, rushing upward. Two black pillars suddenly broke through the snow covering the sides of the shattered road and rose into the

the same time, the tide of shadows rushing from below reached the edge of the broken bridge and bent, freezing for a moment above the bottomless canyon like a wave that was about

to spread forward and solidify, as if forming a

Sunny would just have to build one of

'Argh...'

essence that his soul felt as if it had

to meet the first one. Long tentacles of darkness shot from the

however, he was worried about the structural integrity of the hurried construct, and the speed with which

not much time

out of chains. After all, he had spent so much time in the ruined Kingdom of Hope, traveling from one island

and stronger

some philosophical lesson to learn from it all, but Sunny was too preoccupied to care. With a groan, he stepped aside and waved to Luster, who was staring at him through the

"Drive!"

man looked at him with wide eyes, then glanced at the eerie black road that hung above the

trembling hands, he sent the APC rolling forward. Its massive wheels soon abandoned the cracked asphalt of the broken road and touched the black surface

manifested path of shadows

of the next vehicles that drove

left the solid ground and entered the aerial road built by Sunny. He grabbed the metal handle on the hatch of the last vehicle

seconds, Sunny glanced back,