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.

horror pursuing them was the fact

reach the Black Skull and escape into the waking world. Now that they knew what was out there in the pristine white purgatory of the Nightmare Desert, though, the Citadel had become the source

by Clan Valor. And the corpses

Great abomination was terrifying, while seven of them were beyond the concept of fear. What about dozens, then? The Citadel that the survivors had been putting their hope into had turned out to be

was nowhere for them

continue

growing sense of panicked urgency.

out the night. They would come up with

'Ah… I'm really tired.'

the swift shadow of Kai, who flew high above. There was no real need for both Sunny and Kai to keep an eye on the

behind

[...Yeah. I sense it.]

onyx armor 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 across

shaking under the weight of numerous arrows. One more fell from the sky like lightning — the abominations swayed and toppled, falling heavily into

[One more for me.]

Sunny smiled bleakly.

have a better vantage

the smile slowly disappeared from his

Kai was far ahead of the party. Two more shadows kept to the left and right of the survivors, separated from them by several kilometers of white

was

who noticed a dark silhouette appear from behind the crest of

for a moment, then turned and stared directly at

Sunny shuddered.

'The Gate Guardian…'

cracked as