Shadow Slave

1038 The Fall of Falcon Scott (56)

'Tired... so tired.'

Sunny smashed through the nearest beetles and jumped back, sliding a few dozens of meters across the ground as his claws left deep grooves in the frozen soil to slow him down.

In front of him... the river of darkness was falling apart. The dark beetles, who had been acting like a single organism before, were now aimless and sluggish. Some grew lethargic or started burrowing into the ground, while others were wandering away. A few hundred were still pursuing him... with a thought, Sunny deactivated the Dying Wish and watched the small creatures dash away in fear.

The swarm ceased its purposeful advance and instead flowed outward, losing the shape of a giant tentacle of darkness. It was as though a tank of water had been broken, water spilling to the sides.

Utterly, chillingly exhausted, Sunny panted heavily inside the shadow shell. There were several beetles still crawling within it, stubbornly trying to bite through his skin. However, even their vicious bites had grown less determined.

'The breaking point... did they reach it?'

His tired mind wanted nothing more than to release the manifested shadows and let the Shadow Devil form crumble into nothingness, but he forced himself to remain vigilant.

Looking left and right, Sunny saw that the two neighboring swarms were in a similar condition. This was good news, but also bad... now that the Heart of Darkness was acting directionless, its deterrence seemed to have lost most of its power. The horde of Nightmare Creatures, which had been scared away by the dark beetles, was already starting to tentatively move closer to the group of humans.

'Crap...'

Sunny closed his eyes for a moment, then turned around and took a few steps toward the members of his cohort, who were: similarly spent and battered.

His soldiers, however, recoiled away from him.

He looked down in confusion for a moment. 'Oh...'

With that, Sunny finally let the shadows comprising the Shadowspawn return to their natural form and flow back into the intricately engraved lantern hanging on the black silken cord tied around his waist. The towering four-armed devil suddenly crumbled into a cloud of darkness, and a pale young man in a beautiful black tunic stepped out of it with a stagger.

'Argh!'

fist and angrily struck the

"C-captain? Is that y—you?"

at Kim, who was staring at

it's me. Who else would it

Spring, taking several large gulps of

Shell outside the city wall was not the wisest decision, but he felt that he would not be able to sustain it much longer. At least that way, he

The wall...

broken, with many sections laying in giant piles of

many of them were

going on? Why did the Heart of Darkness suddenly...

left, where Saint and Nightmare — and Soul Reaper's

were already approaching, both littered with wounds. Neither had perished, but they did sustain a lot of damage. Even Saint, who was Transcendent, and thus much more durable than Sunny, had suffered dreadfully while battling the swarm of black beetles. Maybe because the small creatures were especially proficient at gnawing through

Darkness] was slow to repair the damage, as well, almost as if Saint's internal source of true darkness was as exhausted as Sunny's reservoir of essence. Her wounds were healing, nevertheless... just not

figure making its way toward him, as

the battle, and now, she

few heartbeats, all three

Creatures started

first one to

Why did the bugs

the members of his cohort looked at the leader of the

few raspy breaths, then

fought his way to the center

Sunny blinked.

exactly did he kill?" She

“I don't know."

realized that Soul Reaper was alone. He hesitated for a moment, then

cohort?" Jet gritted