Shadow Slave

Sunny did not have to wander the stretch of the staging area that had been ruined by the destruction of the wall for long. It was a mess, with broken prefab buildings laying shattered and broken, buried under piles of alloy debris. Finding anyone here would have been a challenge.

Before he allowed himself to drown in dark thoughts, however, a familiar black beard appeared from above and landed on a bent steel beam protruding from the ground nearby.

The Crow waved its wings, clearly agitated, and cawed:

"Jet! Jet!"

Sunny let out a shaky breath, feeling a lot of relief. If the Echo was still here, Soul Reaper couldn't be dead. He took a step toward the bird and asked:

"Where is she?"

Instead of answering, the Crow flew away, landed on a communication relay a dozen meters away, and looked back expectantly.

In this way, the Echo led Sunny to Master Jet.

After finding her, Sunny remained silent for a few moments.

Then, he coughed.

"Well, uh... that was not what I expected to see."

Jet was hanging upside down, her body caught in the jagged mess of torn alloy beams. One of them was piercing her abdomen like a hook, and her arm was caught between two others. Despite the ghastly situation, there was a calm and slightly annoyed expression on Soul Reaper's face.

"Yeah, well. Care to help me get down? I can do it myself, of course, but... I would prefer for my insides to remain on the inside for a little bit longer."

She could probably free herself. Simple alloy would not have held back a Master for long... but with how thoroughly trapped Jet was, ripping herself off the hook would have probably exacerbated her wounds by a lot. Not everyone had the lineage of a tenacious daemon to help them recover and skin as hard as enchanted marble.

Sunny studied the tangled mess of alloy beams, then floated up with the help of the Dark Wing and carefully pulled Master Jet off the jagged hook. With a quiet hiss, she slid off the bloodied alloy and fell down, landing softly on her feet.

"Argh, damn it..."

Jet clutched her abdomen with a grimace, and then slowly straightened. Sunny landed nearby and looked at her with concern.

"That... are you going to be alright?"

Instead of answering, Soul Reaper spat a mouthful of blood, then looked at him with a dark smile. Her teeth were all painted red, so the smile was not very reassuring.

"Don't worry about it. I am a very sturdy girl... woman. Whatever. The point is, it will be as good as new in a couple of days, even without a healer."

Sunny scratched the back of his head, then hesitated for a few moments. Eventually, he said:

"...I was afraid that you died."

laughed, then winced and clutched her

thing you should be afraid of. Believe me, Sunny,

his head at

to tell you how the battle

Reaper waved her

Gate... I am a bit embarrassed that I wasn't there to help. There are several others that opened either near or within the city. All of them were contained, it's just this particular one that was an unpleasant surprise.

She frowned.

observed it too,

nodded with a dark

the swarm. The damned leeches

and pulled him forward. They slowly walked through the ruins of the staging area, looking like two

is why the Devouring Cloud pulled away before being

his eyes

targets converging on the city. I hoped that we would destroy

glanced at Jet, his

what do we

She simply shrugged.

Prepare to

was there to

was a constant

the wall was broken now, they had to find an elevator that would take them to the proper side of the breach. Even worse, the pulse of the Gate had destroyed a lot of fine machinery, so finding

however, they made it to the top of the defensive barrier and returned to the

they saw was Winter, who sat tiredly on the alloy surface of the battlement, her eyes hidden once again behind the sunglasses. A thin crack ran through one of the lenses. Hearing their steps, she turned her

smile appeared

heroes return. You two... look like

scoffed, which caused her to wince once

his cohort. Noticing the towering figure of Dorn a dozen or so

how did it go? Do we have

did not respond, prompting him

was

cold brush against

"What?"

Ascended Archer sighed,

I'm sorry, Sunny. Things were a bit

a while, then turned away and silently headed toward where he had seen Dorn.

Luster,

cohort, they turned to him, their faces pale and grim. Kim's eyes were glistening, and she avoided looking directly

the first one to speak, his tone

"Captain! We... we..."

Sunny cut him off.

"Show me."