Shadow Slave

They were on the run. The Nightmare Desert welcomed them with immaculate purity and lethal heat, the white dunes stretching toward the distant horizon — the merciless sun burned in the azure sky like an incinerating well of molten silver, and a harrowing enemy was following them across the sands like an inescapable omen of torturous death.

'...I'm tired.'

Sunny was bone tired. He had long exhausted his reserves of essence, leaving just enough of it untouched to not be helpless in a fight. Not that fighting the Gate Guardian was a real option… Nephis might have destroyed one of its vessels, but it had almost killed her. The rest of them did not possess Aspects that countered the creature's powers, either.

Fighting the puppets of the Great abomination meant giving up on life — or, much worse, their very humanity.

Blindly advancing deeper into the desert was not much better.

There was a terrible foe pursuing the battered group of survivors, but there were also countless dangers ahead of them. The dunes hid all kinds of Nightmare Creatures, and several people had already been killed in the short, but brutal and unavoidable skirmishes with the wandering abominations.

None of those abominations had been weaker than Corrupted. The people fighting them were all tired, wounded, and in a desperate hurry, as well.

There were only thirteen of them left.

Looking at the exhausted survivors, Sunny wondered how many of them would live to see nightfall.

How many would survive until dawn?

The mighty Masters were already resembling walking corpses. They were moving forward with grave expressions, suffering silently as the terrible heat pressed them into the ground. Their hair and armor were covered in sand. Those with Echo mounts were in the vanguard, those without shakily followed behind.

Sunny and Kai were serving as the scouts of the party. Morgan, Nephis, Jet, Effie, and Seishan were the main strike force… the rest were just trying to stay alive.

Worst of all…

Everyone knew that it was pointless.

them was the fact that the

— reach the Black Skull and escape into the waking world. Now that they knew what

sent there by Clan Valor. And the corpses he had left

seven of them were beyond the concept of fear. What about dozens, then? The Citadel that the survivors had been putting

was nowhere for them to go

continue

panicked urgency. They continued forward because there

the night. They would come up with a

'Ah… I'm really tired.'

flew high above. There was no real need for both Sunny and Kai to keep an eye on the same stretch of the desert, but this way, Sunny was able to reach him with the Blessing of

ahead, behind the

[...Yeah. I sense it.]

emerged from the shadow. A few moments later, two arrows pierced the flesh of a Nightmare Creature that was slumbering in the shade of the tall dune. The creature exploded forward in a fury of sharp fangs and claws, its roar spreading far and wide

One more

[One more for me.]

Sunny smiled bleakly.

better vantage point,

the smile slowly disappeared

Sunny's shadows, Kai was far ahead of the party. Two more shadows kept to the

more was

who noticed a dark silhouette appear from behind the crest of a towering

figure froze for a moment, then turned and stared directly at

Sunny shuddered.

'The Gate Guardian…'

cracked