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…"

froze for

of Falcon Scott, so nothing could escape the shore without being torn to shreds by the defensive armaments… granted, most

of the House of Night were also

put a dent

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

back, then steeled himself

even more already on the ships. Thankfully, the elevator platforms leading to Falcon Scott were empty,

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

But it didn't.

as if not noticing anything. Instead of an obliterating onslaught

on the wall of the port fortress

chill run down his

'The hex…'

not get a chance to finish the

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

'Curse it…'

to assess the enemy's power based 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 than their

are a neglectful fool,

teeth. Indeed, he was… he had already known that the hexed residents were capable of showing unnatural strength. Why would the slaves

thousand mundane soldiers, several hundreds of civilians…

blind to

situation was

in a long while, Sunny forced himself

'No, not everyone…'

their rifles. That meant that the creature's hex was not absolute. With so many residents