Shadow Slave

Chapter 1917 Fast Promotion Once the platform passed the great width of the porous hone, they were surrounded by emptiness from all sides. The vast Hollow sprawled beneath them, drowning in darkness. Here and there, radiant pillars of light fell from the cracks in its dome and illuminated the ancient jungle...

No one knew what unspeakable horrors hid under its impenetrable scarlet canopy, so the soldiers shivered, trying to distance themselves from the edges of the platform as much as possible.

Rain simply sat on the creaking wood, trying to catch her breath. She did look at the alien landscape below, but only for a short moment — seasoned hunters like her knew not to stare at the Dream Realm too closely.

Lest something stared back.

She looked at Ray.

"How's your wound?"

The young man was pale and uncharacteristically quiet. Fleur was treating him, but with how low she was on essence, the process was taking time.

The young man forced out an unconvincing smile.

"I'll live."

Then, he glanced down and paled even more.

"...Until we reach the ground, at least."

Tamar dismissed her helmet and sat down near Rain, swiping back her sweaty hair. She scowled and looked at him with scorn.

"Why are you worried? You have escaped the Hollows before — as a mere Sleeper and completely alone. You are an Awakened now, and we are surrounded by an entire army."

Ray stared at her gloomily.

"Don‘t remind me! I still have nightmares about that day... I mean, I would have, if I could dream..."

other soldiers heard their conversation and turned, looking at the young man in

that true, Ray? You survived the

startled

not regaled you guys with the amazing story of our chilling winter solstice? If that's the case, then —

the story, making Rain wince — she had heard it retold at least a dozen times, after all, and each was more unwieldy than the previous one. Still, she couldn't help but notice that the expressions of the soldiers eased a little as they listened to Ray talk.

probably Tamar's reason for bringing up their winter solstice all along. Ray had

'Ilow sneaky.‘

how to

reached the ground, and they all disembarked, looking

the expedition force were sprawled on the ground, resting, or hurriedly wolfing down their rations. The wounded were being

position is right

knew how long this rest would last, so the soldiers did

was

think the commanders will

at first, but after getting to know her better, she realized that their sweet healer had more spine

looked into

"We'll know soon."

poured down, and so, the scarlet infestation in a

But not peaceful.

reached here, but there were other sounds reaching the makeshift camp from somewhere in the darkness — Lady Seishan and Death Singer were currently there, facing the old monsters

Creatures in front of them, a vast horde

was in a

not much we can

could do was fill their stomachs, replenish their strength, and prepare

was exactly