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.

he sighed, and suddenly disappeared. A strong gale threw a scattering of pebbles into the air, making Sunny cover his

what is

hand and looked in the direction where Bloodwave had

"No..."

Naeve's voice sounded defeated.

and there, a few dead Nightmare Creatures lay on the ground, their blood steaming in the cold. Snowflakes were dancing in the air as they fell from the empty sky. There were. no brood beasts in sight, and the roar of the distant cannonade was much quieter titan

All good signs.

of peace was destroyed when one saw the port

walking between the rubble with unsteady steps. Beyond that, Sunny could see nothing else. lіghtnоvеlwоrld․соm ѕhоuld nоt bе іgnоrеd ․․․ Remembering the sight of the vast crowd of frightened refugees cowering in the

Bloodwave would have already been rampaging among the remaining abominations. The ships anchored near the fortress were intact, as well. Whatever damage had been done to the port did not

and the Nimble Catch. Black threads surrounded his body,

at the crestfallen Nightwalker, he said

"Lets go."

them slowly made their way

approached, more

— thousands of them, all slain despite their dreadful power. it seemed that the defenders of the fort had not

saw Nightmare Creatures of all kinds among the felled thralls, some of them large enough to make him shiver. There were. human bodies among them, as well — the former residents of LO49, who had finally found their final resting place thousands of kilometers away from the distant research base. Perhaps they would have been glad to lay on solid ground again, as well, instead of floating endlessly

the breached wall of the fortress, they saw the bodies of the First Army soldiers among the dead thralls, too. Mundane humans, Awakened... there were too many of them

a bitter feeling grasp his

was a part of his victory, as

Terror, happy to receive a powerful Memory. 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 the depths of the ocean, these men and women were dying here on

diminish his accomplishment... however, it did put it in perspective. Cruelly

Sunny remembered something Master Jet had told him once, years ago, while driving him to

survive in the