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…"

rose to his feet and froze for a split second, thinking feverishly about the

escape the shore without being torn to shreds by the

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

dent in the defenses of the port. As

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

an involuntary step back, then steeled

thralls could not be allowed to reach the port. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were currently there, with even more already on the ships. Thankfully, the elevator platforms leading to Falcon Scott were empty,

the new threat. Powerful beams of light fell from above, illuminating the quiet horde. A

But it didn't.

anything. Instead of an obliterating onslaught of heavy rounds, all that came were a few sporadic streams of

the wall of the

chill run down his

'The hex…'

not get a chance

deflect the incoming attack, but his reaction was too slow. A devastating blow sent him flying backwards, the breath knocked out of him entirely. He crashed

'Curse it…'

on how powerful the thralls had been before falling prey to the Terror. Whatever the creature had done to them… had made them into… was much more dangerous

are a neglectful fool, aren't

that the hexed residents were capable of showing unnatural

or so Awakened, close to a thousand mundane soldiers, several hundreds of civilians… and thousands upon thousands of Nightmare Creatures, all

seemingly blind to

situation was not

fear for the first time in a long while, Sunny forced himself to rise once again and look at the hollow-eyed

'No, not everyone…'

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