Shadow Slave

Without wasting any time, Nephis silently jumped into the crevice. Just before she did, white flames ignited in her eyes. The darkness swallowed her lithe figure whole, like the maw of some unknown creature.

'Damn it all.'

With a resentful expression on his face, Sunny stepped forward. However, before he could approach the crevice, Caster inadvertently blocked his path. A moment later, the proud Legacy was gone, too.

Sunny lingered for a moment and then looked back. He wanted to check if Cassie needed help going down, but he didn't have to worry. Kai was already gently holding her in his arms.

The charming archer softly rose into the air, hovered there for a second, and then glided into the darkness. Sunny blinked a couple of times and shook his head.

'Show-off…'

Effie soon followed the rest of the party, taking her radiant Memory with her. Left alone in the darkness, Sunny shivered, wrapped himself in the shadow, and jumped down.

He fell for a few seconds and then landed on hard stone, the impact sending a painful tremor through his bones. Standing up, Sunny found himself in a narrow tunnel. Its walls were made out of weathered stone, clearly put there by human hands. The rest of the cohort was already there, preparing for battle.

Nephis had summoned her silver longsword. Because the tunnel was not wide enough to freely use it, she was holding it with both hands — one armored gauntlet rested on the hilt, while the other was on the blade itself, halfway to its tip.

Caster was wielding a sword, too. However, his was a graceful jian with beautiful patterns etched on its blade, with a triangular guard carved out of green jade. Sunny didn't know what was the tier of that Memory, but he knew that it was extremely powerful. He had seen it cut through flesh, bone, and steel alike.

Currently, the jian was emanating a ghostly green light.

Effie had summoned her large round shield, but chose to leave the ancient bronze spear in the Soul Sea. While she was skilled enough to make use of it even in this narrow space, the shield would be much more formidable, especially considering her herculean strength.

Kai looked rather gloomy. Casting a mournful look over his shoulder, on the fletching of his heavy arrows, he sighed and outstretched his hand. Instead of a bow, an elegant falcata appeared in it. The beautiful curve of its blade glinted, reflecting the light.

The last one to draw her weapon was Cassie. Unexpectedly, she unsheathed a slender rapier from the scabbard that was attached to her belt… and let go of it. To Sunny's surprise, the rapier did not fall to the ground, but rather stayed floating in the air, as if attached to the blind girl by an invisible string.

Then it rotated slightly and hovered in front of her… with its tip pointing straight at Sunny.

"Uh… what?"

Cassie smiled and turned her head to him.

"Ah, please forgive Quiet Dancer. She is shy around strangers."

Sunny scratched the back of his head. Sensing his confusion, Cassie explained:

"Dancer is an Echo and a partner of mine. We work well together."

As if answering her words, the rapier suddenly circled around the blind girl and returned to its... her?.. previous position. It was still pointing at Sunny in a rather unfriendly way, though.

"Huh… alright."

Interrupting their conversation, Effie called out to him:

"Hey, Sunny. Now would be the perfect time to invite your girlfriend to join us."

The rest of the cohort stared at them with confused expressions.

Sunny gritted his teeth.

"How many times do I have to tell you, she's not my girlfriend!"

Noticing the weird stares that people were giving him, he sighed.

"Effie! Tell them!"

The huntress did not even continue to tease him. Just this fact alone told Sunny how dire their situation really was…

"Sunny also has an Echo, and a powerful one at that. Go on, summon her."

He did, and a moment later, the Stone Saint stepped into the tunnel out of his shadow. Her ruby eyes were burning with crimson flames from behind the visor of the helmet. The taciturn monster briefly glanced at the people gathered around it, and then indifferently turned away to peer into the darkness.

.

Just like that, their group of six had turned into a group of eight… well, if a moody flying rapier could be counted to be a member.

…Suddenly, a distant noise made everyone freeze for a moment. With a dark expression, Effie looked in the direction it came from and sighed.

"Right. We've wasted enough time already. Follow me… and be ready."

With that, she took a step forward and headed deeper into the tunnel. Sunny followed, commanding the Stone Saint to stay close to Kai and Cassie.

After a while, something crunched under his foot. Looking down, he saw… a bone. A human bone.

"What is this place?"

The huntress glanced back, and then answered in a somber tone:

"The catacombs."

He frowned.

"Since when are there catacombs beneath the Dark City? Why have I never heard you mention them?"

Effie lingered before answering:

"The catacombs were always here. They span beneath the whole city, it's just that most of the tunnels had collapsed a long time ago. As to why hunters don't like to mention them… it's because very few are crazy enough to explore what little remains of the catacombs, and even fewer return to tell the tale."

Then, she added:

"No matter how powerful Harus is, a person can only survive here if they know their way around. And only a couple of us, outer settlement hunters, do. So we should be able to lose him."

Meanwhile, Sunny noticed more and more bones littering the ground. All of them looked like they had once belonged to humans.

'I don't like this.'

Looking up, he asked:

"Can we get back to that thing you said about how very few people manage to escape from here alive? Why is that?"

The huntress grimaced.

"That's because…"

However, before she was done speaking, something appeared out of the darkness and barred their way.

Sunny opened his eyes wide.

Right there in front of them, a corpse was standing on the edge between light and darkness, staring at the six humans with the black chasms of its empty eyes sockets.

…No, not really a corpse. A skeleton.

Defying all laws of logic and physics, a creature made of nothing but human bones suddenly lunged forward, baring its teeth in a hungry grin.