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

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 First Army forces were currently concentrated on the southern side of the wall, fighting against the

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

to put a dent in the defenses of the port.

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

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

had also spotted 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.

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

on the wall of

felt a chill run down his

'The hex…'

did not get a chance to finish the

moving with much more speed than he had been 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, the breath knocked out of him entirely. He crashed to the

'Curse it…'

power based on how powerful the thralls had been before falling prey to the Terror. Whatever

a neglectful fool, aren't

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

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

everyone seemingly blind

situation was not

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

'No, not everyone…'

firing their rifles. That meant that