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…"

and froze for a split second, thinking feverishly

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

garrison. Bloodwave and the Awakened of the

a dent in the defenses of

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,

then steeled himself and raised the

refugees were currently there, with even more already on the ships. Thankfully, the elevator platforms leading to Falcon Scott

the new threat. Powerful beams of light fell from above, illuminating the quiet horde. A instant later, a hail of bullets was supposed to

But it didn't.

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

of the port fortress were

felt a chill run down his

'The hex…'

did not get a chance to

as a human. Sunny shifted, trying to 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 to the ground and rolled, feeling

'Curse it…'

mistaken 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

a neglectful fool, aren't

residents were

Master, a hundred or so Awakened, close to a thousand mundane soldiers, several hundreds of civilians… and thousands upon thousands of

blind to their

was

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

'No, not everyone…'

some were still firing their rifles. That meant that the creature's hex was not absolute. With so