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."

that. By now, even breathing was a chore. She didn't really

corpse, and stared at it curiously. A few moments later, the crow tried to peck one of the glassy

Jet blinked.

Crow, or I'm

jumped away, seemingly

Soup! Soup!"

looked at

"Did you find land?"

crow spread its wings and waved them

"Land! Land!"

quite

"How far is it?"

feathers

"Far! Far!"

Jet gritted her teeth.

it's far, you stupid bird!

confusion. After a couple

"How! How!"

hissed, then hit her head against the alloy surface of the raft a couple of

"Goddammit!"

say

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

black hair and alabaster skin emerged from it, dragging something in a stranglehold. A terrifying creature with long tentacles

Stop fighting, you bastard!"

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

of the abomination did not make it capsize. The crow flew