Shadow Slave

1071 Familiar Role

Nephis stared at Sunny for a couple moments, then briefly glanced at her apron and quietly cleared her throat.

"Right."

She turned around and got back to stirring the rice. A couple seconds later, site added without looking back:

"You'll have to wait for a couple more minutes. And... welcome back, Sunny. Did you make it out of the Antarctic Center alright?"

Sunny wondered how much Changing Star knew about the situation in the Southern Quadrant as he followed Cassie, Effie, and Kai to sit behind a dining table. Settling on a wooden chair... which was far inferior to his own Shadow Chair... he sighed.

"I wouldn't call it "alright". But yes, I made it out. I'm already inside a siege capital in East Antarctica."

Neph's shoulder moved slightly.

"...That's good."

Effie grabbed a few cans of something sugary and refreshing, then pushed one toward Sunny.

"Kai and I spent a whole month in transit, aboard those giant ships. We were in the first batch of the Second Army to arrive, so we've been in East Antarctica for about a week. Gods... I thought the ocean was bad, but Antarctica! I havenever seen that many Nightmare Creatures in my life, not even here in the Dream Realm. It's like the two worlds switched places."

Kai nodded southerly.

"Indeed. Even though there are secure evacuation corridors between the inland siege capitals and the harbor strongholds, we had to fight a couple battles just to reach our designated sector. Luckily, there were no casualties."

The Second Army was twice the size of the First Army, so it was going to take two trips for the naval convoys to bring all of it to the Southern Quadrant. Both Effie and Kai were in the first wave of reinforcements, which was why they had made landfall around the time Sunny himself reached East Antarctica.

Antarctica was a large place, and it was not a given that their paths would cross until the end

Effie shook her head.

What happened to you? You... you

different because of the Marble Shell. However, Sunny

from the cart she

army made it to the Antarctic Center, things were. more or

Sunny paused.

a remote research station. That was when everything went from bad to

a lot to keep his voice from shaking at the mention of

evacuated by a battleship. However, the ship never arrived, and everyone in the settlement was eventually eviscerated by a powerful Terror. My people and I were the only ones to survive. We were in a bit of a predicament, though, because

the start of the calamitous

picking up a few refugees in the process that was when I got trapped in that weird tunnel.

at Nephis

the least. And, tit... very you! Hopefully, the little kernel of

Sunny chuckled.

for a time. Sadly, the second nearest siege capital also ended up being destroyed, and so, I had to lead the train of refugees all the way back to Falcon Scott. That was... a hell of a journey. ??????????????․???. But what happened next was even worse. We held the last siege capital for close to three weeks, and in that time, about ninety percent

saying that, he remained silent for

holding back that Comupted Titan I mentioned. Once she was defeated, the titan swept in and killed everyone. The whole field army was wiped out. I am hard to kill, so I survived... well, and here I

silence settled in the brightly lit hall. Nephis and Cassie did not speak, probably not mowing what to say, and neither did Effie and Kal. The latter two were especially grim, because they were now

many people had died, and what had happened to Sunny could very

Eventually, Kai sighed.

sorry, Sunny. You've been through a

The heart-wrenching memories of the Antarctic Center clawed at his heart, making him want to surrender

a smile, he shook

through a lot. On the Forgotten Shore and in our Second Nightmares, we've been through hell after hell. But... it did really feel different, this time. Maybe because I was responsible for other people, and maybe because it was happening right here on