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.

a large place, and it was not a given that their paths would cross until the end of the operation... he really hoped that they

Effie shook her head.

us! What happened to you? You... you look a bit

Marble Shell. However, Sunny knew that

and took a sip from the cart she had given

the first month after our contingent of the army made it to the Antarctic Center, things were. more or less fine. The field army split into seven divisions, with one remaining in the city of l-'alcon Scott, while

Sunny paused.

mission to retrieve a VIP from a remote research station. That was when everything went from bad to worse. The Chain of Nightmares had gone into overdrive. and three whole titans spawned

lot to keep his voice from shaking at the mention of the Winter Beast. The others looked at him intently, and Sunny

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 by that point,

and the start of the calamitous march

I had to go to the second nearest one, picking up a few refugees in the process that was when I got trapped in that weird tunnel. Thanks for helping me

looking at Nephis

way you delivered the message was very original, to say the least. And, tit... very you! Hopefully, the little kernel of insight I

Sunny chuckled.

from it... 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...

that, he remained silent

her had been holding back that Comupted Titan I mentioned. Once

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 in

happened to Sunny could very easily happen

Eventually, Kai sighed.

Sunny. You've been through a

for a moment. The heart-wrenching memories of the Antarctic Center clawed at

With a smile,

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 Earth,