Shadow Slave

Heat.

It was hot. Lethally hot… a mundane human would not have lasted in this suffocating heat for long. Even as a Master, Sunny was struggling to breathe. His skin was burning.

Sitting on the sand, hunched, he covered his eyes and looked up at the merciless white sun.

The sun was like a small silver coin that hung high in the cloudless azure sky.

White sand. Azure sky.

This was indeed the desert Nephis had once tried to cross. The one that lay east of the Forgotten Shore, stretching far and wide along the Hollow Mountains.

He couldn't see the dreadful black peaks, though. Either this part of the Nightmare Desert was much further north than the small fragment Nephis had traversed, or much further east, where the Hollow Mountains were no more.

In either case, Sunny was in big trouble. Nephis had told them that the further one went into the desert, the more dangerous it became. Eventually, she could not advance anymore, and chose to take her chances in the mountains instead…

Just how deadly was this desert, for Nephis to decide that venturing into a known Death Zone was a better choice?

There was one more thing, too… if it was the same desert, then he had to find shelter before the night came. Failing to do so meant death.

Death...

Sunny sighed.

He was sitting on the white sand, casting five stark shadows. A few dozen seconds had already passed since his arrival in this cursed land, and very soon, something was bound to find and attack him.

He had to move, but his mind was plagued by too many thoughts.

useless… it's

few minutes ago, Sunny had been full of a sense of triumph. He had defeated a Saint. He had won. His desperate

been bound to shift. Mordret's reflections would have been destroyed… the

Valor would have achieved a sweeping victory. None of its key figures would have perished, and plenty of Awakened would have remained alive to continue defending East Antarctica until

that had happened, of course.

lost. Once again, he had been utterly

victory slip through

'Curse it all…'

crushed by the weight of

clans had clashed with each other, but the only victor was the Nightmare Spell. These three Category Four Gates… it wasn't hard to imagine what was going to happen

would be soon… oh, and more than a few government elites, too. All the Awakened of Valor and all the Awakened of Song were as good as dead. The only ones who had a chance to survive were the Masters, the Saints, and a handful of people those Saints

it was not a guarantee that they would have had

those who had would still have to survive the

left without the most powerful defenders. And much worse still, there would be swarms of Corrupted and Great

was going to

it. Don't think about it

Sunny gritted his teeth.

lot on his mind… but if he continued thinking about it, he would drown in anger and despair. For now, he couldn't allow himself to lose focus — he

that was much more harrowing than the Forgotten Shore, without any way to get back to the waking world. His friends could be lost somewhere

them… if they were still alive… and figure out

his first

was a will, there was a

a bunch

a slight tremor run through the sand

could he

There were four ways.

the Hollow Mountains. Needless to say,