Shadow Slave

Summer had come to Antarctica. The winds still brought with them a piercing chill, but it was warm enough for the snow to thaw under direct sunlight. Gurgling streams of water turned East Antarctica into a land of countless brooks and numerous lakes, which all glistened in the sun or drowned in the shadows of the tall mountains.

The sun itself was distant and cold. but it never disappeared from the blue expanse of the sky. Just like there had been no end to the night, now, there was no end to the day. The twilight of the long dawn had gradually turned into daylight, and now that October was in full swing, the whole continent was suffused with bright radiance... and would be for the next five months.

The situation on the continent, however, was far from light. It was grim and dire, as if Antarctica was had submerged deeper into an endless cycle of dreadful nightmares... the Chain of Nightmares was escalating with each day, and the Evacuation Army was forced to take more and more desperate measures to withstand it.

... The remains of a once-thriving city were buried under thawing snow, with the skeletal remains of tall buildings rising above it like dark cliffs. This settlement had not been chosen to become a siege capital, and so it was abandoned at the start of the campaign. Now. it was nothing but a desolate ruin. From time to time. that ruin would turn into a battleground, sustaining even more damage.

Currently, a furious battle was coming to an end on the streets of the abandoned city. A patrol of soldiers had been chased here by a swarm of Nightmare Creatures and forced to stand their ground. The humans had fought violently and almost defeated the attacking abominations... but sadly, the sounds of the combat awoke a fiend that had been slumbering in the ruins.

The creature had tom a bloody path through the remaining abominations. and then slaughtered the soldiers. Now, only one of them remained alive. Lieutenant Catphine was struggling desperately with the controls of her MWP. but it was of no use - the mighty machine had been damaged too severely and toppled, its vestibular systems going completely offline.

She could have brought it back up relying on nothing but her piloting skills, but most of the limb hydraulics were destroyed, and the frame itself was bent and torn, large sections of the alloy armor already missing. Even the coolant pathways were breached, turning the pilot's cabin into a scorching inferno. The paint she used to decorate its walls with drawings was blistering and melting, anti Catphine herself felt as if she was going to melt, too.

But, of course, she wouldn't.

The abomination that had slaughtered her squad was currently on top of the MWP, clawing at the war machine with its powerful limbs. The armor was parting before the terrifying claws like paper. Each strike sent a concussive shockwave through the frame, tossing Catphine up and down in the tight confines of her safety harness. The creature was going to kill her long before the heat had a chance to. 'Curse it!'

There was just no way for her to fight against a Fallen Demon... and that was what the creature was, most likely. At least the Awakened leader of the patrol had called it that before being killed by the fiend. But even knowing how hopeless the situation was, Catphine stubbornly controlled the only functioning arm of the MWP, bending it at the elbow to press the seven barrels of the kinetic machine gun installed on the forearm of the war platform to the abomination's side. The barrels spun, unleashing a flood of heavy tungsten rounds into the demon's impenetrable hide.

In just a second, the machine gun spat close to two hundred armor-piercing bullets.

However. all of them simply ricocheted off the harrowing creature's skin, not even bruising it. The fiend was pushed slightly to the side, then glanced at the firing weapon with its mad, burning eyes. In the next moment, the abomination's claws struck, ripping through the MWP's arm and severing it entirely. The next blow finally breached the cockpit, destroying the screens and letting Catphine see the fiend with her own two eyes. She gritted her teeth.

'At least there's some cool air now...

She knew that she was about to die.

...But she didn't.

The battle had caused plumes of thick smoke to rise above the ruins, obscuring the sun and submerging the battlefield in deep darkness. At that moment, the darkness suddenly surged anti moved forward. Catphine blinked, thinking that she was seeing things.

Two giant hands suddenly rose from the ground, grabbing the Fallen Demon by the shoulders. The hands had matte, inky-black skin, slender wrists, and long, dexterous fingers that ended with sharp claws. These claws cut through the abomination's indestructible skin with ease.

Then, the dark hands pulled... and ripped the fiend apart.

Half of its monstrous body landed to the left of the fallen MWP, the other half to the right. A river of blood and viscera splashed, falling into the turned-up dirt.

Just like that, the terrifying creature had been slaughtered.

'Wh-what...

Catphine suddenly felt cold. The Fallen Demon was a harrowing monster... so what kind of otherworldly horror would be capable of killing it with such ease?

As she stared, a figure emerged from the darkness, landing softly on the torn frame of the MWP. It was a young man with porcelain skin and black hair, his eyes glistening like dark gemstones. Despite the biting cold and the nightmarish surroundings, he were no armor and wielded no weapons. His slender body was covered only by a light tunic of black silk.

When the young man appeared, the darkness enveloping the destroyed city suddenly seemed to become deeper, darker, and more frightening.

The sight of him was in such stark contrast with the ravaged. war-torn ruin that he seemed more like an apparition than a living being.

Catphine gulped.

The young man lingered for a moment, and then looked at her calmly.

"Are you alright, soldier?"

'Oh gods... he speaks...

It took her a few seconds to digest what the eerie stranger had just said.

"...What?"

He leaned forward and grabbed the jagged edges of the breach in the cockpit's armor, easily pulling the alloy apart to widen the gap.

"I said, are you alright?"

Catphine lingered for a moment.

"Ah... y-yes."

'The stranger nodded.

"Good. I'm Ascended Sunless of the Special Reconnaissance Unit. You can call me Master Sunless or Major Sunless. Let's get you out of this thing..."