Shadow Slave

The sky parted, sliced through by a narrow vertical rift. Behind it, the fabric of reality made way for a dark, harrowing abyss of nothingness — both light and darkness seemed to be twisted and changed near the Gate, breaking as they were destroyed.

The rift dwarfed the entire battlefield, stretching for hundreds and hundreds of meters into the shattered sky. The abandoned outpost, and the black fissure of the Nightmare Gate that led to the vicinity of the Black Skull, looked tiny and insignificant in front of it.

An invisible shockwave rolled outward from the point where the gargantuan rift touched the ground, exerting an almost irresistible force. Sunny braced himself, but still staggered as the wave passed through him, barely managing to stay on his feet.

His mind was drowned by the deafening, cacophonous howling of the Call — it was many times louder, more unbearable, and maddeningly demanding than it had ever been before.

Sunny desperately resisted the overwhelming desire to submit.

All around them, the Awakened warriors screamed as they grabbed their heads and fell to their knees. Their eyes were wide open, but unseeing. Some were bleeding, and some seemed to be crawling toward the Gate. Some were thrown to the ground by the shockwave.

The invisible force made no distinction between those serving Valor and those serving Song — they were all the same in the face of the harrowing rift.

Mundane humans, if any had come to witness this battle, would have been outright killed by the pressure of the Gate.

Sunny staggered back and looked up at it in terror.

His lips moved.

"Four… it's a Category Four Nightmare Gate…"

And, just as he said those words…

The world shook again, and another rift tore through the sky.

The world convulsed, and one more sliced the fabric of reality apart.

Like three dark pillars holding up the heavens— or three vile spears cruelly thrust into the flesh of the world — three colossal Nightmare Gates surrounded the battlefield, cutting out all paths of retreat.

a

Song, and those Awakened of the Evacuation Army that had come as escorts of Saint Cor —were

then, something vast moved in the abyssal darkness of

giant fingers suddenly pushed from it into

the edges of the vertical rift and strained, as if trying to

part of it

That they succeeded.

wound of the Nightmare Gate was torn

flesh expanded, turning into gargantuan black tentacles, which then

a step back.

the opposite side of the battlefield, the towering tortoise Echo was ripped apart with a single swing of a black tentacle. The Awakened sheltered in the stone fort on its carapace

else, the tentacles reached the massive figure of the titanic worm. The titan rose its repulsive body into the air to

second later, the Reflection of Silent Stalker disappeared under the tide of dark flesh, and a faint sound of breaking glass rang

Most shocking of all…

from the vague figure outlined in

blood suddenly bloomed where the vague figure had stood a moment ago. There was no time to react, and no chance

as they splattered all around, unrecognizable as parts of a

the King of Swords

He was dead.

away, Sunny and Nephis watched

Great Terror?

the terrible sight of a Great Nightmare Creature forcing its way

in front of it. The

when the darkness within the other two Gates moved, as

his chances of outrunning the tide of Corrupted and Great abominations that would enter the waking world in mere moments. Even with Nightmare and Shadow Step…

Were zero.

were obliterated in seconds, a