Shadow Slave

The Spell kept whispering, the rich tapestry of its voice creating a strange harmony with itself. The result was almost distracting. Sunny instantly lost count of how many creatures he had killed with that single arrow, but it seemed to be... seemed to be close to a hundred, at least.

The swarm was nothing short of decimated. Half of the Black Tongues were dead, and the remaining half were fried and damaged to different degrees. The water of the mountain lake, which had been freezing cold just a few seconds ago, seemed to be boiling.

He had also been lucky enough to receive a bunch of Memories. Even if most of them came from Awakened abominations... Saint was definitely going to eat well tonight.

If she survived, that is.

...Before Sunny could come back to his senses, the familiar electric whine reached his ears. Samara was already aiming her heavy rifle. Its muzzle flashed, and in the next moment, the head of a wounded Fallen abomination that was trying to climb onto a large piece of ice exploded into bloody chunks. A split second later, Kim's carbine was firing, too.

'Right...'

Any other Master could have probably spared a few moments to appreciate the unbelievable feat of slaying a hundred powerful Nightmare Creatures in less than a second, but Sunny did not have such luck. He was still racing against time, and there was still an entirely different swarm of abominations for him to fight.

The pristine white expanse of the mountain valley was gone. Instead, all he could see was black water with charred corpses floating in it, and scores of viciously burned Nightmare Creatures feverishly trying to get to the shore.

Abandoning their attempts to climb onto the ice, they were diving down into the lake instead, to travel across its bottom. Since electricity only spread over the surface of water, summoning the Strike of Thunder for the second time was not going to do him any good.

Glancing at the macabre scene, Sunny turned his head and spoke:

"Dorn, I'll leave you in charge. The bastards sustained a lot of damage, and will be vulnerable while trying to break through the ice. Have Samara take out the strongest ones, and finish off the rest as they come up with Belle and Luster."

The giant man nodded, staring at him with a very strange expression.

"Understood. But, Captain... what about you?"

Sunny was already jumping off the boulder.

"I'll go deal with the second swarm!"

Dorn blinked.

"...There is a second swarm?"

Sunny did not hear it, though. Turning into a swift shadow, he flew through the darkness as fast as he could, rushing to the spot where he had sent Saint to.

'Hold, hold, hold... hold just a little bit more, Saint, I'm coming..."

Soon, he crested the sheer wall of the mountain slope and froze for a moment, looking down.

Far below, in a narrow ravine, a furious fight was taking place.

The Nightmare Creatures resembled grotesquely tall humans with inky black skin, sunken eyes, and motionless faces. They're wearing strange armors forged out of dark metal, and wielded no weapons. However, Sunny had a strong feeling that being touched by their empty hands would be the end of him.

Their mouths... were also sewn shut.

"No wonder there were no howls."

Saint was the silent type, and these wretches were the same.

She was currently facing three of the four Corrupted abominations alone. Corpses littered the ground, and the Sin of Solace danced, deflecting one blow after another. The taciturn demon had abandoned her usual grounded style, and was not fighting with composed, but desperate urgency. Looking at it, Sunny could not help but be reminded of the first time he met the living statue, back on a barren plaza of the Dark City.

Back then, the original Stone Saint had slain several creatures of a higher Rank, at the cost of her life.

The fourth Corrupted was wandering aimlessly, straining to rip the black threads piercing its lips open. Inky blood was smeared all over its eerily still face. The creature's mind seemed to be gone, shattered by the cursed blade... however, Saint was also wounded, ruby dust flowing through the cracks of her onyx armor.

She was slowly losing strength...

Some distance away, Nightmare was holding back dozens of Fallen abominations. The black steed rampaged in their midsts, using its iron hooves, bestial strength, and wolfish fangs to tear them apart. His body was wreathed in shadows, with two crimson flames glowing furiously through the haze of darkness. The black steed looked like an incarnation of terror and dread.

But he was not doing well, either. For now, Nightmare was able to stay ahead of the enemy due to his overwhelming speed, but he could not allow the abominations to swarm Saint from the back. Every time they tried, the dark courser had no choice but to give up his advantage and put himself between the voiceless and his rider.

His sides were torn, and there were strange marks lingering on his sable coat, glowing with ghostly blue light. Around these marks, Nightmare's flesh seemed to be rotting.

The two Shadows were no match for the swarm of terrible abominations, which seemed to have come from a Category Three Gate. They could escape from the voiceless wraiths, but they could not defeat them... only be defeated. Saint and Nightmare only lasted this long because of the perfect combination of their innate abilities and the Memories Sunny had entrusted to his Shadows.

Saint was using the Broken Oath, which continuously weakened and damaged the Corrupted. She also wielded the Sin of Solace, which was a Transcendent weapon that possessed an insidious power. That power came at the cost of dealing mental damage to its wielder, which Saint was immune to.

A combination of soul damage and mind damage was truly a formidable one, especially when paired with her sublime mastery of the sword.

Additionally, the Sin of Solace possessed the [Omen of Dread] enchantment, which caused terror to poison the minds of its enemies. That enchantment augmented the potency of the

[Mantle of Fear] and [Dreadlord] that Nightmare possessed, making the black steed more powerful the more he was feared.

In the past, that seamless synergy had never failed. But today, it was not enough.

...Well, that was before Sunny himself was added into the equation.

Dashing toward the ravine, he sent his senses forward.

The voiceless abominations were strong enough to bully his Shadows...

But how long would they last now that the Master of the Shadows had arrived?