Shadow Slave

After an eventful night, Sunny left the dormitory in a much improved mood. The air outside was frigid with bone-chilling cold, hilt it actually felt pleasant against his bruises. Sunny headed in the direction of the barracks, whistling a simple tune under his nose. As he walked, one of his shadows flew toward the distant ramparts to check if everything was alright there.

Apart from the fact that soldiers were miserable because of the heinous cold, even more so than usual, the situation seemed to be under control. Disparate groups of Nightmare Creatures were throwing themselves against the ramparts, some larger than the others, but it was nothing that the army could not handle.

‘Everything seems fine, for now...’

Sunny was still hurting all over, but at least he was capable of walking without a limp now. The barracks were a considerable distance away, but there was no rush. He. enjoyed this rare moment of peace a great deal, studying the city as he traversed it.

Falcon Scott... was much emptier now. miraculously, the First Army had actually managed to evacuate most of the two hundred million refugees. Now, less than two tenths of that number remained, not nearly enough to make the city feel crowded. Even though countless people fought and sacrificed to make it happen, Sunny couldn’t help but feel that this emptiness was the direct result of his actions.

It was nice to see his labor bear fruit.

Among the ancient heroes Nephis sometimes liked to talk about, there was one named Heracles, who had apparently accomplished twelve labors. Sunny wondered what that guy would think about defending this damn city.

Well, from the descriptions, Heracles seemed like no more than an Awakened with a moderately powerful physical Aspect... maybe a rather average Ascended. He would probably think that Falcon Scott was a hellish nightmare, and die in the first few days of the siege.

‘Huh...’

As Sunny walked, a swift shadow fell from the sky, and a black crow suddenly landed on his shoulder. The crow stared at him for a moment, and then cawed:

“Sah-nee! Sah-nee!”

Sunny spared him a somber glance.

“What?”

The Echo waved its wings.

“Come! Come!”

and disappeared in

and dove into the shadows. seemed that

at all. Emerging from the darkness near the guarded gates, he waited a few seconds for the security officers to confirm his identity a useless formality, considering that pretty much everyone knew what he looked like by now entered the building. - and

Irregulars usually gathered. As he was approaching, however, there.

‘What the...’

he entered the room and saw Master Jet standing with her back to him. The wall in front of her was deformed, a net of cracks running

a moment, then turned to him. Her usually calm face was ‘5’ contorted

heart skipped a beat. He had never seen Master let lose control of herself in that

breath, she closed her eyes for

are here..-

a chill run down his spine, Sunny

“What happened?”

she spoke, her

Tyris. She

***

of the White Feather clan without wasting any time. While the elevator was taking them to the ground level of the government complex,

lost a

Jet grit her teeth.

wrong just half an hour ago. Roan sent me a message personally right before you

source of information was Master Roan, that meant that Army Command had chosen to keep it a secret for now. And if Army Command was keeping secrets from someone

Reaper... things

hurried to the White Feather compound, Sunny shivered again and noticed that it had

it, curse it, curse

appeared to guide them inside.

Sunny was... shaken.

silently wishing for her to be alive. At the same time, he had to think about what her fall would mean for the evacuation... with no one to stop the Winter Beast, what

against each other, pressing down on his heart with terrible

to come in. Inside, they saw an empty hall with some medical equipment and a lonely operating table standing in its center. The table, and the floor around it, were