Shadow Slave

Verne and Professor Obel were suddenly very focused on his words. Even Dorn, who had spent the last two days on the wall with Sunny, seemed to shake off his fatigue and paid rapt attention to what his captain had to say.

Sunny shut his eyes for a moment.

"When the first victim vanished, I said that there were only three possibilities - that he had deserted, that he had been killed by another human, and that a Nightmare Creature had infiltrated the facility. Well... I was wrong. None of these theories were correct. The third one was the closest to the truth, though."

He sighed.

"There is indeed a Nightmare Creature. Only it is not inside the fortress."

Verne frowned, looking at him with dark intensity.

"What do you mean?"

Sunny lingered for a bit before answering.

"The answer is almost obvious when you consider two things, and then put them together. First, the bodies. People don't just vanish without a trace, and yet we failed to find anything - not at LO49, and not on the coastal plain beyond the wall. So, the most obvious answer is that the bodies are being taken to somewhere where we can't find them... into the water. There is a whole ocean out there, after all."

Verne wanted to say something, but remained silent at the end, waiting for Sunny to continue. Sunny nodded.

"The second thing is the Call. Its strength had a qualitative change on the day we fought the Scavengers... too drastic of a change, really, to be produced by a single Gate. Especially one as unimpressive as that. I remember being convinced that there were two, at least, before exploring the plain and finding just one. I even said that we were lucky."

He stared at them for a moment, and then shook his head.

"However, we were not lucky. And there was, indeed, another Gate... one more powerful than the Scavenger Gate that we cleared. We just did not find it."

Professor Obel did not seem to follow his reasoning. That was only to be expected, considering that the old man did not experience the Call himself. Verne, however... finally, a hint of understanding appeared on his face.

"A second Gate... water... you think that there is another Gate? That opened underwater?"

Sunny nodded.

"I am more or less convinced that there is. And that is the reason why people are vanishing."

Verne shook his head.

"That doesn't entirely explain it all. Yes, we have pulled a lot of soldiers off the walls to augment internal patrols, but the ocean is still being watched. Nothing would have been able to crawl from beneath the waves, grab people inside the facility, and drag them back into the water unnoticed."

Sunny smiled darkly.

"...I was just about to get to that."

He rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Right... we are all under a mind hex. That is why no one noticed anything."

Professor Obel, Verne, and Dorn looked at him with confusion. Finally, the old man asked:

"Master Sunless... do you perhaps have a piece of evidence to substantiate your theory?"

Sunny simply shook his head.

"No. But... that is exactly the point. It is the absence of evidence that proves my theory. No matter how elusive, devious, and powerful a Nightmare Creature is, we should have found some kind of clue by now. Although security equipment of the facility barely works because of the interference, the cameras would have captured something. The strict protocols and mutual responsibility system Verne had implemented would have produced some result. My shadows would have found some traces. But nothing of the sort happened... which is nothing short of impossible. There is a big negative space in the place where all the results should have been. However, we can infer certain things from that negative space itself. "

A dark expression appeared on his face.

"What I am trying to say is that there are, in fact, traces. We were just rendered incapable of comprehending them. Something like that... something like that had already happened to me once. Back then, I spent an entire month being mesmerized by an insidious Nightmare Creature. However, I was utterly oblivious to its influence, simply for the fact the first thing that the hex did was take away my ability to become aware of its existence. I am convinced that something like that is happening to all of us right now, too."

Sunny looked at Verne and Professor Obel somberly.

"There is a powerful Gate below the surface of the water, somewhere in the vicinity of this facility. The Gate brought a dreadful Nightmare Creature into the waking world, and that creature is using mind manipulation to both lure people into its maw and make others incapable of stopping it."

An uncomfortable silence settled in the security center. Professor Obel seemed resigned, but Verne, on the contrary, was suddenly energized.

"If that is true... then we just have to kill that abomination. Then, everything will be resolved."

There was hope and resolve in his eyes. For a warrior, having a clear enemy to fight was familiar territory.

With a sigh, Sunny shook his head.

"No. We won't be able to kill that Nightmare Creature."

Verne scowled.

"What? Why?"

Sunny pointed at the bleak steel of the Undying Chain, which he had been wearing ever since people started disappearing.

"Because this is a Transcendent armor of the third tier. One of its enchantments provides the wearer with a high degree of protection against mind attacks. And yet, I wasn't spared from the effects of the mind hex at all. You know what that means..."

Verne's face suddenly grew dim.

"..That the Nightmare Creature's attack is more powerful than your armor's defenses."

Sunny nodded.

"Indeed. Which would make it of the Corrupted Rank, at least. My bet would be that it is a Corrupted Terror. Neither of us is its match, especially not in the water. We can't kill it."

At that moment. Professor Obel finally spoke:

"So then... what should we do?"

Sunny remained silent for a while. looking at the memory storage device that lay on the table in front of him. Finally, he shifted slightly and said:

"First...... we break the mind hex."