Shadow Slave

The battle was over.

…It was over for the Irregulars, at least. The fresh soldiers pulled from the other sections of the wall were still fighting on the ramparts of the secondary defense line, but with the Heart of Darkness and Goliath destroyed, and the boundless horde of Nightmare Creatures decimated by the titanic explosion, the siege was reduced to the usual stream of chaotic, relatively small-scale skirmishes.

The spine of the assault had been broken. Falcon Scott had faced the most dreadful battle yet, and endured.

For the most part.

The southern area of the city was entirely destroyed, replaced by a gargantuan crater. The buildings were gone, and a long span of the great wall was gone, too. Even most of the killing field beyond was erased from existence, with only the towering stone corpse of the slain titan remaining intact. It just lay on the slope of the crater like a mountain-sized pile of rubble, filling the hearts of the soldiers who saw it with dark glee.

With the collapse of the wall, defending the city had become much harder. However, the crater formed a natural barrier of its own — even though the secondary ramparts were not nearly as tall or formidable, they still gave the First Army a chance to resist the attacks of Nightmare Creatures.

More than that, four out of the five direst threats to the siege capital were now eradicated. The Devouring Cloud, the Terror of LO49, the Heart of Darkness, and Goliath… despite the terrible price the First Army had to pay, they were dead. Now, only the most powerful of the horrors remained. The Corrupted Titan, Winter Beast.

But it was being contained by Sky Tide of the White Feather clan, so…

For the first time since the start of the siege, the people of Falcon Scott felt hopeful.

They were shaken and terrified, too, but with countless millions of refugees already evacuated, and so many powerful abominations slain, it was no longer impossible to imagine the end of this bloody affair.

Falcon Scott only had to hold for a handful more days…

The ghostly flames of the aurora burned above the ravaged city, and the moon had hidden itself in the cold darkness of the night sky.

***

Sunny was sitting in the familiar conference room of the government complex. Rather, he was sprawled on the chair, staring at the ceiling with a detached expression. His skin had healed, turning into a surreal painting of black bruises, but the internal damage remained. Even with his incredible healing speed, he still felt terribly hurt.

That was because he had been… the Scavenger had done a number on him, especially near the end of their murderous clash. Nevertheless, the hateful fiend was dead, and Sunny was not. He had even received an Echo, and a great number of shadow fragments.

Unexpectedly, the Spell had chosen to count the black beetles, who were not living beings, as a weapon of his. Therefore, after the appalling creatures had devoured the Scavenger, it rewarded Sunny for the kill.

He was currently looking at the runes with dull eyes.

'What to do… what to do…'

Two strings of shimmering symbols were at the center of his attention.

Shadow Fragments: [3857/4000].

And:

Echoes: [Ravenous Fiend].

The Scavenger… Ravenous Fiend… had been a weird abomination. He had obviously assumed some qualities of a shadow creature, but not all of them. Otherwise, the bastards would have turned into a Shadow instead of an Echo.

Or maybe the issue was that the Scavenger's soul was corrupted, and thus unsuited to directly become a Shadow… in any case, as a result, Sunny had received almost eight hundred shadow fragments for killing the abomination, as well as a Transcendent Echo.

The Ravenous Fiend had been a top tier Nightmare Creature, a peerless genius of vile abominations, so turning him into a Shadow was an easy decision. Having two Transcendent Shadows would be a tremendous boost to Sunny's power, too.

However… there were two problems.

The first one was the Echo itself. When Sunny summoned it in the Soul Sea, he had expected to see a towering ogre clad in unbreakable bone armor… but what appeared instead was a pitiful, tiny gremlin! The Ravenous Fiend was no fiend at all… it was an imp, at best.

The imp was still a Transcendent Devil, but weak beyond belief. His true power lay in a rather insane ability to grow stronger and acquire new traits by devouring various creatures or things. He also possessed a few very surprising and potent Attributes.

If Sunny carefully chose a rich diet for the little bastard, in time, the imp could potentially grow stupidly powerful — even more powerful than he had been after devouring random trash across the Antarctic Center. But that would only be in the future, and right now, transforming the Echo into a Shadow would cost him no less than three hundred shadow fragments.

Three hundred fragments was not a terribly large amount… except he was on the verge of becoming a Tyrant now.

Dismissing the runes, Sunny sighed.

'Later. Now is not a good time.'

It was, indeed, not a good time… in more than one sense.

Suddenly reminded of something, Sunny somberly looked around.

There were only two people in the conference room — himself and Master Jet. Winter's seat was empty.

…That was because Winter was dead.

She had died while holding back the horde of Nightmare Creature, when the section of the wall under her cohort collapsed.

A great number of people had died that day. Thousands of mundane soldiers had perished, and of the seven hundred Awakened, only about two hundred survived. Winter and her Irregulars had been wiped out, too. Even Soul Reaper's own cohort had been destroyed, leaving her the sole survivor.

Sunny stared at the empty seat, feeling a dull pain in his heart. Winter… the two of them had not known each other for long, but there was a bond between them. He liked the brash Master a lot. And now, she was gone… just like that… and he had not even gotten a chance to say goodbye.

All of them were gone… Randall, Jesse, Davis, Dale, and now Winter, too. He could still vividly remember their first meeting, when the First Irregular Company was officially established.

A few months later, there were just Sunny and Master Jet left. Of the forty-two Awakened Irregulars, only four remained — Belle, Dorn, Samara, and Kim. Luster was alive, too, but for him, the war was most likely over.

'Damn it all…'

Sunny studied the empty room, a strange, dark, burning emotion rising in his chest.

'What is the damn point? What is the point of it all?'

Soul Reaper and he were supposed to be having a strategy meeting right now, but there was nothing really for them to discuss.

After some time spent in silence, Jet suddenly shook her head and stood up, accidentally sending her chair flying into the wall. She stared at it in confusion, then cursed.

"...We're just wasting time here. Go rest, Sunny… you deserve a break. Gods, we all do…"

With that, Jet picked up the chair, placed it near the conference table, and walked out without saying a word.

Sunny was left alone in the empty room.

He remained motionless for a while, then sighed and stood up.

'Less than a week left, now. We'll all be able to rest, soon…'