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…"

then rose to his feet and froze for

the Tyrant, he was now behind the city. There were tall cliffs between the ocean and the northern wall of Falcon Scott, so nothing could escape the shore without being torn to shreds by the defensive armaments… granted, most of the

Bloodwave and the Awakened of the House of Night were also there, protecting the anchored

dent in the defenses of the port. As

slowly advancing figures of the drowned residents of LO49, the black water seethed and boiled, releasing even more thralls. Nightmare

step back, then steeled

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 evacuation stopped briefly

Powerful beams of light fell from above, illuminating

But it didn't.

onslaught of heavy rounds, all that came were a few sporadic streams of rifle

on the wall of the

a chill run down

'The hex…'

get a

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, the

'Curse it…'

how powerful the thralls had been before falling prey to the Terror. Whatever the creature had done to them…

a neglectful

he was… he had already known that the hexed residents were

Awakened, close to a thousand mundane soldiers, several hundreds of civilians…

seemingly blind to

situation was

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

'No, not everyone…'

still firing their rifles. That meant that