Shadow Slave

The road ahead of Sunny was almost empty. Only several people could still be seen, running away from the vertical line where the air was rippling strangely, a hundred or so meters behind their backs. When they saw his menacing figure, the stragglers recoiled. Someone let out a frightened yelp.

Not paying them any attention, Sunny calmly walked forward.

The Soul Serpent rested on his shoulder.

'Strange… I have never seen an opening Gate up close before.'

The deserted street in front of him did, indeed, look very eerie. Not only because it was almost entirely empty, both of pedestrians and of rushing PTVs, but also because light and shadows were behaving very strangely, the hue of the light slightly wrong, the movement of the shadows slightly erratic.

The sound was strange, too. It was deadly quiet, but at the same time, Sunny couldn't get rid of the feeling that there were barely audible noises coming from all directions, assaulting his ears like an inaudible cacophony of muffled, distant, demented screams.

There was a strange pressure rising in the air, getting stronger the closer he got to the nascent Nightmare Gate.

The Gate itself was easy to recognize. It looked like a tall vertical depression in the fabric of the world, a place where light refracted in unnatural ways and the inaudible screams were the loudest… not a rift in reality yet, but a hint of one.

In front of the Gate, half a dozen people stood, staring at it in tense silence. The Awakened who, just like Sunny, decided to answer the call.

'Only six of them…'

While that fact didn't promise him anything good, it was to be expected. Two hundred seconds was just not enough for a lot of willing defenders to arrive. Even those who were ready to risk their lives in an attempt to protect the civilians needed time to get to the Gate, after all… this bunch were those who had already been in the immediate impact zone when the alert was sent to their communicators, just like Sunny.

Maybe they were overly confident in their abilities, or maybe, just like he, they had people they cared about in the surrounding area, perhaps even in the very same school where Rain was, a few hundred meters behind their backs.

In any case, he couldn't help but feel a bit of respect toward these people. Coming to a Gate already required a lot of courage… remaining even after it became clear that there were going to be less than ten Awakened fighting side by side to stall the tide of monsters was beyond that.

These people were ready to die to fulfill their duty.

'...Fools. Brave, brave fools.'

What about Sunny himself, then?

'I am a fool, too. But a cowardly one.'

Sunny had no plans of dying today. He knew what he was doing, and had ways to escape if things got too dire.

Without slowing down even a little, he calmly walked past the six Awakened and stopped with his back to them, closer to the Gate than anyone else.

Unwittingly, Sunny found himself standing at the head of the small group of defenders.

Unlike them, he showed no sign of fear. The others were staring at the Gate with pale faces, their bodies tense, their eyes full of unease and dark resentment. Sunny's pose, however, was confident, indifferent… almost relaxed.

And in the eyes of the fearsome mask, there was nothing but darkness.

The others reacted to his arrival with excitement. One more Awakened to fight with them was already a good thing, but this one, in particular, looked especially imposing. His onyx armor and fearsome blade were obviously a cut above the Memories they themselves had in their possession, and his calm demeanor suggested either an experienced fighter… or a madman.

And then, someone recognized him.

"Wait… isn't that M—mongrel?!"

The others looked at the girl who spoke with confusion.

"Who?"

She stared at them with wide eyes.

"That's… that's Lord Mongrel! Haven't you heard of him?"

A hint of recognition appeared in the eyes of the Awakened gathered in front of the opening Gate. One of them glanced at Sunny, lingered for a moment, and asked:

"I am sorry, friend. This young woman seems to have heard of you. If I may ask, are you an Awakened of some renown?"

Sunny didn't move a muscle, and lied almost on autopilot:

"...I am not an Awakened. I have no renown."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean, not an Awakened? Then who are you?"

Sunny cursed inwardly.

'My damned tongue…'

He gritted his teeth, remained silent for a second, and then answered in a calm tone:

"I am just a human."

Then, he sighed and turned his head slightly, staring at the six Awakened.

From the look of their Memories and how they held themselves, they weren't elites. Several seemed to know how to hold a sword, but that was all. They were going to get eaten alive once the Gate opened.

Disheartened, he asked:

"Combat Aspects?"

The defenders looked at each other, and then the girl who had recognized him answered:

"I have an Awakened Aspect that enhances my agility and allows me to strike with deadly precision. Two guys have Dormant Aspects centered around endurance and strength, and the other two can perform ranged elemental attacks."

So, three weak Combat Aspects, two supporting fighters, and no one capable of proper support or healing.

He lowered his head for a moment.

There were only thirty seconds left before the Gate opened. Slight tremors were running through the ground beneath his feet, and bits of dust and small pieces of gravel were slowly rising into the air, levitating on the invisible currents of energy coursing through the air.

'How I am going to do this?'

Sunny gripped the hilt of the Soul Serpent tighter, then said hoarsely:

"Stay back, kill anything that gets past me."

He paused for a moment, and then added:

"...Make them bleed."

The girl stared at him with wide eyes.

"Stay… stay back? But, sir, you can't do it alone! There will be a horde of them! Even if there were a hundred of you, that wouldn't be enough to kill them all!"

Sunny turned away and looked at the slowly opening rift in front of him.

How could he get these people to stay out of his way? The best place for them to be was at the back, finishing off anything that Sunny failed to kill and preventing the Nightmare Creatures from escaping into the city... escaping toward Rain's school.

Failing to come up with a better lie, he opened his mouth and said coldly:

"One of me is enough to kill them all."

With that, Sunny left the girl standing there with an open mouth, and walked forward.

'What's the big deal, anyway? It's… it's just a Nightmare Gate…'

His legs, however, were trembling a little.

Just at that moment, an especially strong tremor ran through the ground.

The shadows exploded in a mad dance, the sunlight growing dim and ghostly.

The wind howled through the empty street, as if the air was being sucked into the widening rift.

And then, an invisible shockwave spread out of it, making the windows in the surrounding building shatter.

Sunny resisted the push and suddenly felt the familiar feeling permeate his soul.

...The call of a Nightmare.

The Gate had opened.