Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the sleeping niche and went about the business of managing the caravan. They had made it far into the mountains and were already moving north, toward their true goal.

The blizzard was still raging, reducing visibility to almost zero. The landscape was as grim and foreboding as ever.

Surrounding areas needed to be scouted, maps needed to be updated, reports needed to be received, and a hundred other things demanded his attention.

Before getting down to it, Sunny spared a few moments to stare at the grey fabric and lusterless black leather of the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Who could have thought that he would be reduced to seriously using it again, after all that time?

'It sure is much more comfortable than walking around in a full plate of steel armor. Ah, the old me had it good...'

Actually, not really.

Sunny was ready to climb to the roof of the Rhino when he noticed Beth staring at him with a strange expression. He lingered for a moment.

"What?"

She blinked a couple of times, then pulled her gaze away.

"No, no... nothing..."

Sunny frowned.

"Just say it, will you?"

Beth remained silent for a second, then asked hesitantly:

"Are you... uh... are you wearing makeup?"

it was his turn

would

him a dubious

a little different, that's

Sunny grinned.

have the complexion of a marble

away with a sigh and

how

and appeared on top of the Rhino, sighing

cold. His passive resistance

Memory of Ice, and wrapped the shadow he kept with himself around his body, simultaneously circulating essence to double

more comfortable. Sunny still sensed a slight chill, but it was in no way

Huh.

Morgan's Warbow, he sat down on the roof and closed his

can get

expanse of the Antarctic Center was still hard and dangerous, but with Naeve assisting

saw each other, communicating mostly over the chain of relays in the military vehicles. Sunny was stationed at the head of the column, while Naeve stayed in the rear to provide the best possible

especially dire threat demanded both of them to

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

an extremely skilled warrior, using a long bone harpoon and a net woven out of unnaturally durable threads

powers seemed to be under severe restriction, though,

was more

Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them. It was understandable... after all, the Nightwalker had a family

to Sunny, and made him think about

By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that Naeve's ship had suffered catastrophic damage. Without the additional supplies looted from its holds, he would have

he had enough to feed everyone and arm

other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was Kim. At some point,