Shadow Slave

Sunny crawled onto the shore and lay on the cold stones of the pebble beach for a bit, breathing heavily. It was incredibly nice to lie on solid ground again, but at the same time, his body felt heavy and cumbersome. A part of it had to do with spending some time in the depths of the ocean, and a part of it was simply because he was still tired and low on essence.

'Curse it...'

He had enough sense left, at least, to let one shadow slide off his body and take a look around to make sure that there were no enemies in his immediate vicinity.

There were none, at least not close by. There was only Naeve, who seemed to be doing a little bit better than Sunny. The Nightwalker took a few deep breaths, then slowly sat up.

"We... we actually made it. Gods, I really did not expect to live through this one."

He glanced at Sunny, receiving a vague gesture of confirmation. Sunny shared the feeling.

Naeve grasped his shoulder for a moment, then asked with a hint of morbid curiosity in his voice:

"I low did you manage to kill that horror, anyway? Such a devastating mental attack... even Uncle failed to resist it."

Sunny remained motionless for a few seconds, pushed himself off the ground with a tired groan, and glanced at the scion of Night somberly.

Spitting out the Essence Pearl, he then grimaced and said: " I guess it was just fate... that fiend was fated to die by my hand, and so, fate helped me kill it."

Naeve smiled weakly, then looked away.

"Never took you for a fatalist."

That was when a third figure rose from the water. Bloodwave walked onto the shore, his eyes glinting with shades of deep blue and indigo. Drops of water were rolling down his smooth ebony skin, contours of steel muscles clearly visible under it.

for a few moments, looking into the distance. Then, he sighed, and suddenly disappeared. A strong gale threw a scattering of pebbles into the air, making Sunny cover his face

is

lowered his hand and looked in the direction where Bloodwave had dashed. Slowly,

"No..."

Naeve's voice sounded defeated.

ground, their blood steaming in the cold. Snowflakes were dancing in the air as they fell

All good signs.

one saw the port fortress

in the breach, silhouettes who looked like people walking between the rubble with unsteady

abominations. The ships anchored near the fortress were

and the Nimble Catch. Black

at the crestfallen

"Lets go."

of them slowly made their

more

bodies of the thralls littered the ground, mangled and torn apart. There were much more of them here than there had been protecting the Terror — thousands of them, all slain despite their dreadful power. it seemed

as well — the former residents of LO49, who had finally found their

breached wall of the fortress, they saw the bodies of the

bitter

of his victory, as

However, his victory was made possible because most of the creature's drowned guard had been drawn away by the defenders of the port. While Sunny was fighting the Sybil in

however, it did put it in perspective. Cruelly

once, years ago, while driving him

in the Dream Realm