Chapter 153: A Shadow's Journey Across Antarctica (2)
Sunny woke up with a slight headache, still tired from essence exhaustion.
'Even as a tyrant, I still have to deal with this...'
He sighed. Perhaps essence wouldn't be a problem once he became a saint.
Getting out of bed, Sunny gave Professor Obel and Beth a curt nod, as he grabbed one of the synthetic coffee canes from [Coventus Coffer] and left the rhino.
Tasting the bitter drink, Sunny walked towards his military cohort, which seemed to be... Gauging at Quentin, who was still encased in the Shadow Symbiote.
Seeing Sunny approach, the group gave their captain a respectful salute.
'Must they be so tense around me...'
Sure being respected was nice and all, but Sunny wasn't that scary. It's not like he occasionally transforms into nightmarish monsters like a certain someone.
Suddenly, Luster looked at Sunny with teary eyes.
"Captain! How could you give Quentin such a useful echo, while I, your most loyal soldier, got nothing but insults?!"
Sunny gave the young Awakened a disgusted look.
"Bastard, who said you were my favorite soldier? If anything, you're at the bottom of the list. And besides, I only allowed Quentin to borrow my little friend."
As he said those words, the symbiote slowly unbonded from Quentin and crawled towards Sunny, entering the crack between his armor and resting there.
Quentin seemed a bit sad at the loss of the symbiote, but he remained silent.
"Captain you're so cruel..."
Luster seemed to sulk for a moment, with Kim giving him an annoyed look for some reason.
It was Samara who spoke next, who was already brandishing her gun.
"Do you have any orders for us captain?"
Taking on a more serious expression, Sunny nodded.
"Everyone seemed to have rested a little bit, so it's better that we move. The faster we get out of this place the better." Looking at his soldiers, Sunny lowered his voice "I've sensed a creature dwelling in here, or to be specific something is blocking my senses which means there's a nightmare creature of at least the fallen rank somewhere in this tunnel. The good news, it seems to be dormant, so it's better that we try to avoid it as we leave the tunnel."
Belle gave his captain a strange look.
"It's strange... Any nightmare creature of the fallen rank or above would've come for us right now due to the number of human souls here..."
"Like I said, it's likely in deep sleep right now. I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to go poke it. Anyhow, we will depart in fifteen minutes, inform the other soldiers of my orders and prepare yourselves." Before leaving Sunny added "any questions?"
The members of his cohort looked at each other then collectively shook their head and got up from their places, walking towards the soldiers to inform them about Sunny's orders.
Sunny looked at the other side of the tunnel with a grim expression... He had a feeling that this won't end up well.
A few minutes later, the Rhino came to life and rolled forward, slowly gaining speed. The beams of powerful spotlights installed on its roof cut through the darkness, forcing it to flee and cling to the walls of the tunnel. The civilian transports and the military vehicles followed, staying close to the massive APC.
The darkness flowed back and devoured everything once again behind them, making it seem as though the convoy was traveling inside a small island of light.
Sunny climbed to the roof of the Rhino and stayed there with Saint, staring into the darkness with a grim expression on his face. He was still blind to everything that was happening outside the small bubble of light, which made him curious about the nature of the creature of darkness out there.
Was it a stone saint? Or perhaps something like the knight from the cathedral on the forgotten shore?
'Having Hugo's aspect would have helped right now... If I had the ability to become a creature of darkness then I could've navigated this place easily...'
Unfortunately, he did not have the Omnitrix, so he had to rely on himself.
Minutes passed and yet nothing happened...
The convoy rolled forward with modest, but constant speed. Meter after meter of old asphalt disappeared under the wheels of the Rhino, and the stone walls seemed to move past them, vanishing into the darkness. The tunnel was silent, with only the passing of the human vehicles making any noise.
From time to time, side passages opened up to either left or right of the convoy, making Sunny tense up even more... All these paths sloped down, leading deeper underground. He was prepared for something to lunge at them from the darkness... but nothing did.
'It's better that we don't enter those passages... but maybe I should send one of my shadows there?'
By shadows, he meant the wolves granted by the sacred treasure. But alas, their nature was still shadow, so they would likely perish if they go deep into the darkness without Sunny.
In the end, Sunny swallowed his sense of exploration and decided to continue moving forward.
Just like that, an hour passed, and then another, and another. The tunnel continued to stretch forward, seemingly endless. The more time passed, the deeper Sunny's scowl became.
...After a while, he finally left the roof of the Rhino and dove back into its interior with a dark.
He walked towards Luster with a nervous expression and said:
"That's enough. Stop the convoy."
Luster glanced at him questioningly, then shrugged and followed his orders.
The APC slowed down, and then stopped. The other vehicles followed suit, and soon, the whole convoy came to a halt.
Sunny left the Rhino and stood still for a few moments, staring at the weathered asphalt.
Sergeant Gere and the members of his cohort soon approached from the direction of other vehicles, while Luster, Professor Obel, and Beth exited the Rhino through the hatch. Saint walked over to the edge of the roof, looking at them from above indifferently.
Most of the gathered people had grave expressions on their faces.
Noticing the grim mood, Luster blinked a couple of times, then turned to Sunny.
"Uh... Captain why did we stop? Is there a problem?"
Sunny looked at him silently.
"...Yes. There is a problem, you fool. Can't you tell?"
Luster scratched the back of his head.
"What, is there a Nightmare Creature ahead?"
Sunny sighed, then looked up.
"No... there's nothing ahead. That's the problem. We've been driving for about seven hours, correct? What was our average speed?"
The young man hesitated for a moment.
"Thirty kilometers per hour, sir."
They had not rushed and kept a modest speed, to be able to react in case danger appeared front ahead.
Sunny nodded.
"That is more than two hundred kilometers of going straight forward. And yet, there is no exit. Do you see the problem now?"
Luster's eyes suddenly widened.
"Oh... well, if you put it like that... it really is weird..."
Sunny gritted his teeth.
"It's not just weird. If there was a tunnel of that length in Antarctica, it would have been the longest one in the world, by far. Everyone would have known about it."
Luster paled a little, then studied everyone's faces.
"How come no one did, then? Sir?"
Sunny looked down and shook his head.
"There is only one possible answer. This tunnel is under the influence of a powerful nightmare creature... The same one that's the source of this darkness."
At his words, everyone seemed to grow slightly paler, and the light in their eyes dimmed even further.
Professor Obel stepped forward, his posture still straight despite his age.
"Master Sunless, while it's true that the source of our problem is a supernatural, it will do us well to know its nature so that we know how to escape it. For example, is a nightmare creature influencing space around us? Or has it transported us into a pocket dimension of sort?"
Sunny shook his head.
"I'm not sure, however I don't think it's a pocket dimension. Only creatures of the great rank and above can do that, as far as I know. If such a creature existed here in Antarctica, then the first evacuation army would be dead by now... As for space being altered, that seems more plausible considering true darkness is known for having strange effects on reality... Especially shadows."
Or they could be under the influence of a mind hex...
In the age of the nightmare spell, all of those were possibilities that could bring upon their demise... Nothing was impossible and everything could bring upon their doom.
Moreover Sunny found himself in a situation where his powers were all rendered useless.
His aspect was restricted and weakened, his memories offered him no help and his Shadows, including the ones from the sacred treasure, were of no help in this situation...
Well, all aside from... The white devil, the most powerful shadow in the sacred treasure and the only one that Sunny didn't tame.
Hugo had told him about its ferocity, and how he had almost lost his life fighting it. Apparently, he had managed to kill it using an attack before it finished adapting to it.
In theory, that creature could adapt to whatever was happening to the convoy and potentially even break their confinement.
'I'm still not powerful enough to tame it though... Not to mention summoning it now would result in everyone here but me to die...'
Sunny quickly decided against the idea of summoning the White Devil, and tried his best to formulate another plan...
Sunny's eyes fell to the walls and he suddenly got an idea.
Moving towards it quickly, he augmented himself using shadow essence and wrapped all five of his shadows around his body, then he struck the wall leaving a hole within it.
Sunny then turned towards the convoy and said:
"Get back into your vehicles."
Everyone followed his instructions without asking questions. The convoy continued to move forward. However, this time, Sunny made it stop after ten minutes and left the Rhino alone.
A dark wheel manifested above his head, at the same time, Sunny made a hand sign causing a shape to emerge from his shadow.
He had summoned one of the shadow wolves, then the Shadow rushed towards Sunny and disappeared into light, fusing with its master.
Sunny's hands and feet shifted taking on a wolfish form and granting him incredible agility. With those augmentation stacked atop each other, Sunny shot forward like a missile, moving much faster than the vehicles had.
He soon reached the point of the previous stop and studied the cracked section of the wall, then made his way back.
The convoy moved for another ten minutes. After that, Sunny commanded them to put the vehicles in reverse - the tunnel was not wide enough for the Rhino and the civilian transports to turn around - and drive back.
After a while, he gave the order to stop.
'...This is bad.'
His seemingly erratic actions, of course, had not been without a reason.
He had wanted to test if the tunnel was ever expanding or a loop and now, he knew it was the latter.
The second stop was to test if something would change with more distance... and it bad.
They should have long seen the imprint of his fist and the net of cracks around it, but there was none. At some point in time, somewhere between five and ten kilometers of separation, the mark had disappeared without a trace.
Which was very, very bad news for Sunny. It meant that they could not return to the collapsed exit from the tunnel. The way back, and the second option he had of escaping to the surface, did not exist anymore.
'This makes no sense... But now, it seems we can't go back...'
Cursing, Sunny suddenly felt a new sense of dread coursing through his body... Only a few things could make a seasoned warrior such as Sunny scared, and unfortunately he had added another one to that list.
Sunny looked at the confused convoy... There was many civilians here, and all of them had gone through enough in the last few months.
Sighing, he unsummoned the wolf and the sacred treasure wheel and returned to the rhino, meeting with the Irregulars.
"Luster, Samara, and Dorn. Go to sleep and report our situation. Perhaps Army Command has some idea about what we are dealing with here."
Despite the ominous nature of the dark tunnel, things weren't as bleak as they seemed. The convoy was cut off from the First Evacuation Army in terms of actual support, but information still flowed between the cohort and their superiors.
Somewhere in the government databases, there had to be a hint on how to escape the endless darkness. Even if no one had ever encountered its source before, people would have clashed against something similar in the past.
...If not, Sunny would venture into the Dream Realm himself and seek out Cassie. With her powerful divination abilities, she was his best bet. More than that, he could transport food and other resources from the Ivory Tower with the help of the Covetous Coffer, so his people were not going to starve.
For now, time was not their enemy. They just had to find a way to solve the puzzle, and escape.
He sighed and prepared a meal for himself, while his soldiers entered the dream realm.
A few hours later, The Awakened he had sent to the Dream Realm were going to return soon.
Luster slowly opened his eyes and looked directly at Sunny.
Then, the young man flinched back with a startled expression on his face.
"C-captain? What are you doing here?!"
Sunny silently brought an apple to his mouth and took a bite, looking unimpressed.
"I am eating, fool. What does it look like I'm doing?"
Luster opened his mouth, then closed it. He seemed to be very confused.
"No, I mean, what are you doing in my Citadel? How did you get here? That doesn't... wait..."
He finally looked around, realizing that he was inside the Rhino. However, Luster's confusion only grew.
"That... is not my Citadel..."
Sunny frowned, studying the young man's expression.
"Why would you think that you are inside a Citadel?"
Luster blinked a couple of times.
"...Well, that is how things work, right? You go to sleep in the real world, and are sent to the Dream Realm."
'Don't tell me...'
Sunny closed his eyes for a moment.
"So what you are trying to say is that you did not return from the Dream Realm? You fell asleep in the waking world, and woke up in the real world?"
Luster let out a nervous laugh.
"Ha! That's impossible. Awakened don't stay in the real world when we sleep. But also... yes? The last thing I remember is settling inside the pod... sir."
The corner of Sunny's mouth twitched.
It seemed that the impossible had just happened. An Awakened fell asleep without being transported to the Dream Realm.
Luster's soul had remained in the dark tunnel.
...So did the souls of Kim and Samara, When they woke up shortly after, the result was the same - they had been confused and startled. None of the three had managed to reach a Citadel.
'That is not good, not good at all...'
Without saying much, Sunny reached within himself and tried to sense the familiar pull - the pull of his anchor in the Dream Realm. Usually, as long as he concentrated on the anchor, he would initiate the process of traveling across worlds.
However, this time, there was nothing. No matter how hard he searched, his soul seemed devoid of the Dream Realm's pull.
His connection to the Ivory Tower was gone, just like the Call.
Their connection to the dream realm, and to the rest of humanity was gone...