Shadow Slave

Sunny was not too worried about being able to reach East Antarctica. Unless something truly harrowing rose from the depths of the ocean to devour them, he was certain of his ability to either kill or escape it.

However, he was worried about Jet.

A week ago, she had been weak... but not nearly as weak as she was now. Her mental state was also getting worse. He knew that Soul Reaper had been intentionally starving her body of essence in order to conserve as much of it as possible, but still...

Sunny did not know how much longer she would last. Right now, she was not even able to afford summoning a Memory... every drop of essence counted, and there was very little of it left in her shattered soul core.

Which presented a problem.

Saint was capable of killing most Nightmare Creatures that attacked them with her bow, and Sunny was not far behind her in terms of lethality. However, Jet was in no condition to kill anything.

But despite that...

As he considered his options, the corpse stirred, then started laboriously crawling in his direction again, demented lights burning in its glassy blue eyes.

"Come here... come here..."

Sunny stared at her with distaste, then shook his head and stood up. His shadow sense spread outward, encompassing as much of the world as he could perceive.

He remained motionless for a while, allowing the corpse to draw dangerously close. Jet's hollow eyes glinted.

Got you!"

Before she could grab his shin, however, Sunny sighed... and dove off the edge of the raft, disappearing under the cold water. The Graceless Dusk dissipated into dancing threads of black silk.

Jet seemed startled by his disappearance. She fruitlessly clawed at the surface of the raft a couple of times, then grew still.

"...He's gone."

bluish lips. She didn't inhale after that. By now, even breathing was a chore. She didn't really need

time. Eventually, a black bird landed on the raft, hopped over to the corpse, and stared at it curiously. A few moments

Jet blinked.

Crow Crow, or I'm going to make

jumped

Soup! Soup!"

Soul Reaper looked at the

"Did you find land?"

spread its wings and waved them a couple

"Land! Land!"

quite disturbing. Even Saint spared it

"How far is it?"

bird ruffled its feathers and

"Far! Far!"

Jet gritted her teeth.

it's far, you stupid bird! How

stared at her in confusion. After a

"How! How!"

hit her head against the alloy surface of

"Goddammit!"

outburst, she didn't say

on the waves. Below the raft, hundreds of small metallic feet were furiously paddling the cold water. On top of it, a living statue,

A terrifying creature with long tentacles that were as wide as a man's thigh was struggling furiously, trying to free itself. Its spongy flesh was awash with inky

Stop fighting, you bastard!"

a tentacle that was wrapped around his neck, exerting enough pressure on it to crush an armored vehicle. Using one hand, he swam toward the

side of the Coffer, so that the weight of the abomination did not make it capsize. The crow flew up and landed on her shoulder,