Shadow Slave

1034 The Fall of Falcon Scott (52)

The special shutes built into the wall had mostly been destroyed or damaged, so the Awakened had to use other means to sortie into the killing field. Some rappelled down, some summoned Memories capable of slowing one's fall, some simply used the exposed framework of the great barrier to swiftly climb to the ground.

The few surviving Masters stationed on the southern wall went first to clear the landing.

Saint mounted Nightmare, who leaped from one protruding sheet of deformed alloy to another, reaching the swarming abominations in mere seconds. Wielding the Cruel Sight, she quickly slaughtered the nearest enemies.

Sunny was not far behind. He glided through the air using the Dark Wing, then dismissed it a couple dozen meters above the ground and plummeted down, landing among the Nightmare Creatures like a cannonball. The Sin of Solace danced, effortlessly slicing through flesh and bone.

It took Sunny only a few seconds to carve out a small island of safety. The members of his cohort joined him, forming a beachhead. More Awakened followed behind them, grim determination shining in their eyes.

Everyone knew that for many, if not most of them, this was going to be the last fight. Nevertheless, no one tried to flee or turn back.

‘It is strange:

Cutting down a lunging beast, Sunny glanced at the descending Awakened. Surely, all of them valued their lives... maybe if left alone, most would listen to their fear and their desire to survive, and choose to save themselves instead. However, they had all been swept up in the moment and lost their reason.

They were all individuals, but more than that, they were also parts of something much larger right now. A crowd, a mob... a collective had no fear of death, because the destruction of one of its small parts did not mean the destruction of the whole. Maybe that was how these people suppressed their utterly natural and reasonable desire to live, knowing that even without them, the larger entity they belonged to would continue to exist.

what Professor Obel had meant when he said

refused and rejected by the collective, so

he was, charging into the horde of Nightmare Creatures with the rest of the Awakened of the First Army. Of course, his situation was vastly different — Sunny was pretty sure of his ability to at least escape alive, no matter what happened. But he

Was it spite and unwillingness to admit defeat? Or had he actually become infatuated by

the word "selfless" seemed rather vile and frightening to Sunny. After all,

of Solace and pushed forward, cutting through one abomination after another like a ruthless, eerily graceful butcher. At some point, his three shadows joined him, wrapping themselves around his body — the fourth one he had sent to help Nightmare. Sunny was surrounded by a fine haze of blood, but whenever drops of it fell on his black tunic, they rolled off the soft silk without leaving

Graceless Dusk

Awakened behind and advanced into the

because the dark

of the Heart of Darkness,

to split and

shockwave to spread outward in all directions. Away from water, most of his

Transcendent was

swords, Bloodwave instantly turned into a whirlwind of steel, moving with such speed and

vulnerability on land. For that reason, his soul arsenal included many powerful Memories to account for

three Echoes manifested by his side. One was a monstrous crab the size of a house, one resembled a towering golem of wet clay, and the last one was ethereal and elusive, like

glinted when he realized that the creature shrouded in fog was actually Transcendent itself. It would have been powerless underwater, but here under the walls of Falcon Scott, the Echo could exert truly devastating

something into his ear. A

can actually

out of his head, Sunny concentrated on carving a path toward the tide of beetles. Somewhere behind him, hundreds of