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.

beautiful women hiding inside. Both of them were bruised and

Jet, and

from, so she had lashed out with

why are you two sitting

step back, and tiredly lowered herself onto the cold stones.

if the light

silent for a moment, and

really glad that

and summoned a luminous memory. The two women grimaced, shielding their

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

coughed, trying not

"Me too…"

sentimental,

that are going to rise at night… well… I guess with a Category Four Gates, some of them will leave for the waking world, as well. The rest will be too busy fighting each other. As long

He fell silent.

Nightmare Desert — the dead soldiers that endlessly continued their ancient battle in the darkness, night after night, as they had for thousands of years — had not entered the waking world during the Chain of Nightmares. That was because most of them were too terrible and powerful to step

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

Endless Spring

have water,

Their eyes gleamed.

"Then give it here!"

that to a person… Seishan, who had been a second

let out 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 Memory to her parched

watched this scene

you trying to kill each other? I swear I saw you fight. How come you're

back

to bite me… ah, it was really gross! But what does it matter now? Here in the desert, there are

gave her a

calling a wench, you