Shadow Slave

1082 Ancient Chimneys

He reached the giant chimney without too much problem, avoiding the teeth of the vicious fish-like creatures with the help of the Dark Wing and a couple of perilous leaps. The structure was wide and incredibly tall, reaching at least three hundred meters into the sky... and that was just the part visible above the water.

There were a few holes in the frame of the alloy smokestack, so Sunny did not waste time jumping through one of them. He found himself in a vast, dark well, still water radiating bone-chilling cold a few meters beneath his feet. A tiny circle of light was visible hundreds of meters above.

Sunny did not know what kind of industrial behemoth had demanded such an enormous chimney - three of them, in fact — and what kind of poison had been billowing out of them into the atmosphere in the past. However, even now, decades or even centuries later, the air inside was acrid and hard to inhale, reminding him of the worst days in the outskirts.

Grimacing, Sunny looked around, and then jumped to a piece of scaffolding a dozen or so meters above his current position.

Landing noiselessly on the weathered alloy, he smiled at Saint, who had been standing there, still as a statue, holding a bow in one hand. The taciturn knight turned her head slightly, acknowledging his arrival, then indifferently continued to watch the base of the smokestack.

He could feel Nightmare hiding in the darkness nearby, dissolved into the shadow form. The black steed moved, greeting him, and then grew still once again.

"Good work, guys."

Sunny's comm hissed.

"Get up here, I'm bored out of my mind."

He sighed, then turned into a shadow himself and ascended the tall structure, gliding upward in a wide spiral. As Stmny was going up the old alloy walls, he found himself involuntarily thinking about how long it would take Imp to eat the whole thing. Then, he caught himself and scoffed.

'Gods, what am I thinking about?

But... it was really a lot of alloy...

into the mouth of the well, and the walls were blackened by fire and soot. The acrid smell was somewhat reduced by the proximity to the

the pieces of machinery, her feet hanging above the abyssal drop. Noticing Sunny step out of the shadows, she closed the lid

"Here you are."

He nodded.

Sorry for making you

Reaper shook

long reconnaissance mission the entire week. Honestly, having a chance to just sit and

worked alone, but for the more dangerous missions, Army Command grouped two or more scouts together. As a result, the two

and looked around, studying the ancient

know what

Sunny shook his head.

"No. Do you?"

the edge of

furnace pushed a constant stream of toxic smoke through the smokestack, and on top of it... was another furnace. This one meant to burn all the toxicity out of the smoke and prevent it from getting into the atmosphere. lіghtnоvеlcave․c~оm.

scratched the back

"...Sounds kind of stupid."

glanced at him with a bleak

It must have worked... otherwise, why waste all that time and energy on constructing filters? Anyway, let's get to the top. The faster we finish the mission, the faster we can get the hell out of this

or so meters of the smokestack using an ancient, rickety ring ladder, and climbed onto the lip of the giant chimney. It was as wide as a road. From

the surreal beauty of the desolate landscape beneath them. Almost at the same time, two of his shadows reached the top of

"Well?"

hesitated for a few

our left is empty, but the right one... there is something hiding inside. Something... huge." All the shadow could see were loops of