Shadow Slave

'Crap, crap, crap...'

Sunny did not know what the creature pursuing them was, exactly. He had hoped that the possessed corpses were not the vessels of a single being, but instead separate abominations, akin to minions of a tyrant... but even if they were, there was obviously a way for them to share information.

He knew it because his hopes were being crushed right in front of his eyes.

If there was no way for the puppets of the Gate Guardian to share knowledge, then he could have pretended to be oblivious to their presence and bought some time. But the seven taken Masters were all seemingly aware that Sunny could tell what they were.

They slowly started to move. At first, their movements seemed inconspicuous, but it quickly became apparent that they were encircling those Ascended who remained human.

There were eerily human smiles brightening their faces.

On one side, there were seven possessed corpses with the power of a Great abomination.

On the other side, there were Sunny, Nephis, Kai, Effie, Jet, Seishan, Morgan, and eleven more unaffected Masters.

Morgan had three Transcendent Echoes left. Seishan had one.

Sunny had Saint and Nightmare.

...And Imp.

In fact, the scrawny goblin was the linchpin of their survival.

[Get everyone to come closer.]

Sunny had already explained the situation to Morgan and coordinated with the rest of his allies. Their only chance to survive was to run... but escaping from the ring of possessed corpses seemed impossible.

Nevertheless, they had to try.

Knowing what to do, Morgan calmly looked at the eleven Ascended who had not been taken by the Gate Guardian yet and called:

"You there! Come here. I have questions about our rations and water reserve... you, too. How many tents can we make from that hide?"

The Masters left what they had been doing and walked over. By that time, even they started to notice that something strange was going on.

One group of people was standing in the center of the hollow tower. The other group had spread out, surrounding them.

The ancient steel was groaning as it was assaulted by the wind.

'That is all. There are also three Ascended outside... but only two of them are human.'

"Lady Morgan? What, uh... what is going on?"

Masters seemed

the other humans were slowly shifting, assembling into a loose battle formation. Their weapons were already in their

the only one who remained

of trying

just need a few

at her subordinates, then

"Come closer."

glanced at each other, then

At the same time...

smiling corpses took a step

"Kai, now!"

by the groan of

that groan was drowned out by

but it enveloped the

"Stop."

'Argh... hell...'

receiving end of Kai's Ascended Ability - or rather, he had never been the subject of its negative influence. His friend usually used the power of his voice to inspire soldiers and ignite their desire to fight, win,

the

true power was to compel living things and bend them

stop, it was

had fallen on him... it was not physical weight, though. Rather, it

some effort,

affected, resisting the command with varying degrees of

stumbled. However, they shook off the effects of the command almost instantly... still, it bought Sunny

the whole tower

And collapsed.

a shrill screeching noise, and then wind and light flooded the interior of the steel

of the tower,

goblin immediately after noticing the lookouts of the survivor group. While he was greeting Effie, talking to Morgan, informing her of danger, and observing the seven vessels

finally couldn't support its weight and

cool shade filling its interior was instantly torn apart by blinding

plenty of shadows

around the bodies of those corpses that had not been buried under countless tons of steel, only

just

out of the

manifested into Transcendent Echoes, who threw themselves

noise. There was an explosion of white flame, and the sharp sound of

white sand, Sunny rolled and jumped to

"Run!"

out of the tower, but five out