Shadow Slave

1060 The Fall of Falcon Scott (78)

The Winter Beast came.

And then, it left.

The last citadel of humanity in the Antarctic Center, Falcon Scott, had fallen to the Chain of Nightmares. The harrowing blizzard had swept through it, freezing the whole city solid and killing everyone inside.

Sunny had heard that a long time ago, during the Dark Times — or maybe even before that — the whole of Antarctica was covered by ice. It had been a land of perpetual winter, cold, and snow.

After the Corrupted Titan wiped out the last human settlement and retreated back into the mountains, as if satisfied to be the sole sovereign of the region, the landscape looked just like that, again.

The city was drowning in snow. The buildings emerged from it, encased in ice. Below the cliffs, a large swath of the ocean was frozen, as well. A gargantuan battleship was stuck in the ice, still anchored, the people aboard it all dead.

Everyone was dead.

Except for Sunny.

His soldiers were dead. Millions of civilians were dead. Professor Obel was dead, too. But he was alive, and not even wounded. Sunny had remained in the shadows for a long time, only emerging from them after his essence almost ran dry.

And now, he was digging a grave.

The earth itself was frozen solid, so his task was not an easy one. He had to summon the Sin of Solace, and use the beautiful jade blade to dig. Sunny was standing in a shallow pit, deepening it. His movements were fast and purposeful. Angry tears were streaming down his face, turning into ice before falling to the ground.

…He was not alone, either.

A vague shape that looked a lot like him was sitting on the edge of the pit, staring at him somberly. It had his voice, too.

"Look at you go."

Sunny gritted his teeth, ignoring the Sin of Solace. The cursed sword remained silent for a while, observing him.

Eventually, it asked:

"So, did you find it? Conviction? Or whatever it was you've been searching for?"

Sunny spared the vague shape a glance, then continued digging.

"No… no, I didn't find crap."

He wiped his face with an elbow.

"Actually, that's not true. I did find something. I found out that I was right all along!"

Sunny plunged the sword into the frozen soil and laughed.

"Faith, calling, conviction… all those lofty words. It's all rubbish! It's all… meaningless. People like Anvil of Valor and Ki Song have conviction, and that conviction helps them achieve greatness. Well, where are they? What good did it do? Where the hell were they, huh?!"

lowered the sword and stared at the vague shape

suffer and lose our little lives. But what's wrong with having small dreams? All I ever wanted was to live a good life, and keep people I care about safe. What's wrong about that? Why do I have to have a great goal and soaring ambition to be allowed

a moment,

their convictions and trample on millions in the process, because there's no one to hold them responsible. They can have their little wars while ignoring the death toll, no matter how much

and then let out

Nephis as well as I do. From the outside, it might really look like Neph draws power from conviction. And she does, too. But

she wanted to

"Because I hate it."

Because she hated it…

was going to destroy the Spell because she wanted to, and she wanted to destroy the Spell because

That was all.

then

such

on the edge of the grave

least we

thinking back on the past months. He… he had

and I know what I want. It might not be much, but it's enough. I

and made it disappear

climbed out of the grave and

graves beside that one. They all stared at Sunny like monuments to

to the four corpses that lay on the ground a

left, he had returned to collect the bodies of

Academy. She had been there when he returned from the Forgotten Shore,

away, he had found the

was dead. She had always been there for him. She had been the first person to meet him after the First Nightmare, and the one to guide him to the Academy. She had been there when he returned from the Forgotten Shore, and from the Kingdom of

even helped him purchase

was synonymous with competence and power. And

now, she was

there in front of him, unmoving and still. Her beautiful blue eyes

Reaper Jet

Sunny's heart was empty.

'Right…'

Belle and carried him to the first grave. Then,

couldn't bring himself to approach her body for a long time. Eventually, though, it had to

dead himself, Sunny approached Jet's corpse, then

him with glassy eyes, and said

"Kindly unhand me."

Sunny sighed.

are no Nightmare Creatures around, yet, but they will come eventually. You wouldn't want to be

remained silent

you lost your mind, Sunny? Put me

He nodded.

yes… I did lose my mind, a little. That's