Shadow Slave

About an hour later, Sunny reached the spot where the convoy was supposed to leave the highway and turn inland, scaling the mountains once again to eventually reach Erebus Field.

Of all the siege capitals in the Antarctic Center, only the first and the largest one - Falcon Scott - was situated near water. Even then, the actual port was a separate and solitary fortress, connected to the city above it by a network of industrial elevators. The rest of the human strongholds were built away from the ocean, on the outskirts of the mountains.

So, the last stretch of the way was going to take the convoy away from the coast... if they continued on the route Sunny had planned for them, of course.

He had killed a few more Nightmare creatures while trying to catch up with his men, and the corpses he had encountered seemed fresher as of late. From what Sunny could tell, the column was not too far ahead of him now. If he was lucky, he might even be able to rejoin the convoy before reaching Erebus Field.

The siege capital had to be surrounded by a ring of active battle engagements, so Sunny really hoped to accompany the refugees through that mess.

'No time to waste, then.'

He commanded Nightmare to turn east. Not long after they started to ascend the mountains, the snowfall seemed to pick up, making it harder to see.

There was something strange about that snow, though.

'What is this smell?'

Frowning, Sunny raised a hand and caught a few snowflakes on his palm. While he could see in the dark, differentiating colors that way was not his strongest suit. Sunny could instantly tell that something was wrong, though, because the white snowflakes did not contrast against the onyx metal of his gauntlet nearly as much as they should have.

In fact, they were not white at all.

He tilted his head a little, then smeared the snowflakes across his palm. What was left behind was a trail of black soot.

'...It's ash.'

Looking up at the sky, he scowled. The strong snowfall was no snowfall at all. Instead, it was raining ash. Countless grey flakes fell from high above, dancing in the wind as they slowly obscured the world in a thick fog.

'That can't be good.'

Full of bad premonitions, Sunny sent Nightmare into a gallop.

and his wounds were already healing. His essence

hell is

thought that, the scouting shadows noticed something ahead. Just short of the highest point of the nearest mountain pass, protected from the wind by tall cliffs, a group of battered vehicles

of profound

'...They're fine!'

a heavy breath, and asked

few minutes later, the figure of an infernal rider clad in fearsome black armor entered the circle of light surrounding the parked convoy. The soldiers flinched and raised their rifles, aiming at the frightening

Sunny raised a hand.

What the hell is this,

soldiers blinked a couple of times, staring at him with wide eyes.

Captain!

"Thank the gods!"

"Someone, tell the Devils!"

to notice him, and just a few moments later,

Nightmare, patted the stallion on the shoulder, and then dismissed him. Then, he turned to his

first one

mean, of course, you are. That rock of yours would have disappeared if

Luster grinned.

"See, I told you!"

glanced at him, then nodded

you would manage to stop a Fallen Titan, let alone live to tell the tale. All by

him blankly for a

"I didn't."

wide eyes, he scratched the

to be, though, so I walked it off. Anyway, I found the empty transport on

Irregulars glanced at each other. Dorn sighed, then pointed to the

other three vehicles. The abominations did not let us do it in peace, of course... it was a hell of

out