Shadow Slave

For a moment or two, Sunny's mind was empty. He crawled back, looking up at the familiar figure towering above him.

Verne… it was Verne. There was no mistake.

…Or something wearing Verne's corpse, at least.

His shadow was much more vast and dreadful than a human's shadow was supposed to be.

The hollow gaze of the dead Master pursued Sunny, his face still and unmoving like a mask. Behind him, the dark waves stirred, and more figures rose from the water. Men, women… dozens of them, hundreds even. They marched forward like an army of the dead, silent and emotionless, their eyes drowning in darkness.

All their shadows were wrong.

The people of LO49 that Sunny had left to die. He recognized all of them, staring at the undulating surface of the ocean in horror.

'The… the Terror…'

Strangely, it was the contemptuous laugh of the cursed sword that shattered his paralysis.

"Look, Lost from Light… your sins have come to haunt you!"

Sunny shuddered, coming to his senses.

'What sins, you bastard? I did everything I could to save them!'

The insidious voice laughed again, then whispered, its hissing words falling like drops of poison:

"Weakness is also a sin, you pitiful worm… it is the greatest sin of them all…"

to his feet and froze for a

without being torn to shreds by the defensive

though, and defended by its own garrison. Bloodwave and the Awakened of the House of Night were also there, protecting the anchored ships and overseeing the loading of the

thousand enthralled corpses were not going to put a dent

as that thought flashed through Sunny's mind, he saw something that made his blood run cold. There, behind the slowly advancing figures of the drowned residents of LO49, the black water seethed and boiled, releasing even more thralls. Nightmare Creatures… thousands of them… were rising from the waves, all moving

an involuntary step back, then steeled himself and raised the Sin

currently there, with even more already

from above, illuminating the

But it didn't.

moved on, as if not noticing anything. Instead of an obliterating onslaught of heavy rounds, all that came were a few sporadic streams

wall of the

chill

'The hex…'

did not get a chance to finish

had been capable of as a human. Sunny shifted, trying to deflect the incoming attack, but his reaction was too slow. A devastating blow

'Curse it…'

prey to the

neglectful fool, aren't

he had already known that the hexed residents were capable of showing unnatural strength. Why would the slaves be different? If anything, their

thousand mundane soldiers, several hundreds of civilians… and thousands upon thousands of Nightmare Creatures, all controlled and changed by the

everyone seemingly blind to

was not

fear for the first time in a long while, Sunny forced

'No, not everyone…'

the Terror's thralls, some were still firing their rifles. That meant that the creature's hex was not absolute. With so many residents around, it