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?"

was

would you think

woman gave him a dubious look and

just look a little

Sunny grinned.

I naturally have the complexion of a marble statue, no makeup

sigh and mumbled

how

Sunny dissipated into the shadows and appeared on top of the Rhino, sighing as the

that cold. His passive resistance to

the shadow he kept with himself around his body, simultaneously circulating essence to double the enhancement granted to

a slight chill, but it was in no way bothersome. Additionally, the winds were powerless against him. It was as if Sunny had turned into

Huh.

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

can get

of the Antarctic Center was still hard and dangerous, but with Naeve assisting Sunny in defending the caravan,

communicating mostly over the chain of relays in the military vehicles. Sunny was

met face-to-face during the rare stops and when an especially dire threat demanded both of them to fight side by side to vanquish it. Going into battle with the Nightwalker

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

using a long bone harpoon and a net woven out

obvious that he was not entirely comfortable fighting on land, and his Aspect powers seemed to be under severe restriction, though, so the scion of

more

but enough for Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them. It was understandable... after all, the Nightwalker had a family to come back to. He carried more than

and made him think about things that he had

continued to grow, several more groups of Erebus Field survivors joining it. By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that Naeve's ship had suffered catastrophic damage. Without the additional supplies looted from

though, he had enough to feed everyone and arm

would notice his subtle change, but in the end, the only other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was Kim.