Shadow Slave

On the way to the ruin, Sunny stumbled on a human. It was the first survivor of the Battle of the Black Skull that he saw in the desert… sadly, the man was already dead.

His body lay on the white sand, staring at the merciless azure sky with glassy eyes. Sunny vaguely recognized him as one of Clan Song's Ascended — they had never spoken to each other before, but he recalled seeing the man during the battle against the titanic horde, back in East Antarctica

The Ascended's Memory armor had dissipated after its master's death, so the body was only covered by a torn bodysuit. There were several wounds in view, but none of them were serious enough to doom a Master. It was unclear what had brought upon the man's death… maybe there was severe internal damage, or maybe it was simply the heat that had killed him.

With a sigh, Sunny jumped off Nightmare, kneeled, and closed the man's eyes. There was not much more he could do, so he just remained motionless for a few moments, then climbed back into the saddle and continued on his way.

His mood was somber.

In the end, the sun had almost disappeared beyond the dunes by the time Sunny reached the large ruin. Scared by the prospect of remaining in the open after dark, he hurriedly dismissed his Shadow and climbed over the weathered black stones. He quickly found a narrow fissure in the sand-covered floor and squeezed through it, eventually reaching an underground chamber.

Near the end of the narrow crawlway, the stones shifted under his weight, and Sunny fell down in an avalanche of sand.

He landed awkwardly and was about to let out a relieved sigh when something cold touched his neck.

A steel blade.

A hoarse voice resounded from above:

"What do we have here…"

Sunny carefully put his fingers on the blade of an enchanted glaive and slowly pushed it away from his skin.

"Can you not? I really don't want to have my head cut off… again…"

There was a moment of silence, and then a soft gasp.

"Sunny?"

Looking up, he saw a curious scene.

two beautiful women hiding inside. Both of them were bruised and battered, with

them was Jet, and

had fallen from, so she had lashed out with her

it's me. Say… why are you two sitting here in

retracted her weapon, took a step back, and tiredly lowered herself onto the cold stones. A stifled scoff

the light would

silent for a

glad that you're

Shroud of Dusk, and summoned a luminous memory. The two women grimaced,

better, he judged that they were in a worse state than he had initially thought. Jet's armor was torn rather severely,

trying not to

"Me too…"

sounded too sentimental,

to be alive, too. Anyway, the light won't attract the abominations. Most of them are being pulled toward the Seeds, and those that are going to rise at night… well… I guess with a Category Four Gates,

He fell silent.

— had not entered the waking world during the Chain of Nightmares. That was because most of them were too terrible and powerful

at Jet and Seishan. Both were in sorry states, but at

Endless

water,

Their eyes gleamed.

"Then give it here!"

with a terrible lack of decorum. Well, thirst would do that to a person… Seishan, who had been a second too late, stared at her coldly. Nevertheless, she patiently waited for her turn while Soul Reaper

a delighted sigh and passed the bottle to the daughter of Ki Song. The latter, at least, had enough composure to bow slightly and say "thank you" before bringing the

watched this

you trying to kill each other? I swear I saw you fight.

leaned back

me… ah, it was really gross! But what does it matter now? Here in the desert, there are no

her

calling a wench,