Sunny was staring at the black waves that came and went, licking the stone shore not too far away from the tall wall of the fortress. Even though he had told his soldiers to stay away from the ocean, Sunny came here once or twice every day, perhaps hoping to see the fearsome silhouette of the giant battleship emerging from the darkness.
That was silly, of course, since the arrival of their ride away from LO49 was days, or even weeks away. Still, he found himself in a contemplative mood whenever he observed the waves. He was also reasonably sure in his ability to get away should anything other than Ariadne appear from the ocean…
The blizzard finally subsided a few hours ago, so today, Sunny saw much further than before. Not that there was anything to see.
Shivering in the cold, he sighed and turned around to go find warmth inside one of the station's buildings.
It was at that moment that Sunny froze and tilted his head, as if listening to something. His eyes narrowed.
"...Crap."
The maddening whispers assaulting his mind had just grown much louder.
Jumping off the wall, Sunny walked quickly and soon reached the security center of the facility. There, several Awakened were monitoring the sensor feeds. Verne was standing in front of a wall of screens with a dark expression on his face.
Hearing Sunny's steps, he turned his head.
"You felt it too?"
Sunny nodded.
"Yeah. It's strong."
Verne closed his eyes for a few moments.
"This complicates things."
That was an understatement. What they sensed was the Call, which had suddenly grown much stronger. That meant two things, none of them promising anything good to the people isolated inside LO49.
The first thing was rather obvious… somewhere out there, very close to the facility, one or more Nightmare Gates had just opened. Considering how loud the Call was, Sunny was willing to bet that there were two of them, at least.
The second thing was not immediately dangerous, but vastly more insidious.
Verne gritted his teeth, then sighed and pressed a few buttons on the console in front of him. Then, he spoke, his voice being carried all across the fortress by the integrated speakers:
"Attention all Awakened personnel. This is Master Verne speaking… effective immediately, the interference status of the LO49 facility should be considered to be changed from green to yellow. I repeat…"
Sunny's face was bleak. With the strength of the Call growing so much, the stability of the Gateway anchors of the Awakened inside the fortress was bound to become weaker. It was not at the stage where falling asleep would definitely lead to being thrown into an unknown region of the Dream Realm, yet… but close to it.
What it really meant was that, from now on, falling asleep within the walls of LO49 was a gamble for all Awakened defending it. The probability of becoming pulled away by the Seed of Nightmare was not high, but it was also not zero.
'Damnation.'
Worse still, there were the Gates themselves to deal with. Considering that they had to have opened close enough to strengthen the Call, the Nightmare Creatures brought by them would undoubtedly come to visit, attracted by the smell of human souls.
Finishing his announcement, Verne looked at Sunny with weary eyes. Sunny nodded.
"I'm on it."
Four shadows burst from his figure, swiftly gliding across the floor and leaving the security center a second later. They flew across the facility, climbed its walls, and plunged into the cold dark night beyond.
Verne, meanwhile, started giving orders to his subordinates. Soon, junior officers of the security force, which numbered close to a battalion, were summoned from all over LO49. Considering their expertise and rank, the Devils were naturally included in this list.
By the time everyone arrived, Sunny's shadows were already scouring the vicinity of the fortress, searching for the manifested Gates. Verne briefed his people on what had happened. As he spoke, the faces of the soldiers changed slightly, knowing that they were going into battle soon.
Only the Irregulars remained nonchalant.
Finally, Sunny sighed.
"Found it."
The coastal plain did not have a lot of geographic features, so it was easy to discover the menacing rift that tore apart reality. He was slightly surprised that there was only one Gate, but then again, it seemed to be a potent one.
As everyone stared at him, Sunny winced slightly.
"...There is a single Gate, about three kilometers away from the northern wall. It seemed to be Category Three."
The mundane soldiers among them paled, and even Awakened seemed disturbed. He did not pay them attention.
"The Nightmare Creatures are… wait, what the hell?"
He frowned. Usually, a Gate disgorged Nightmare Creatures of similar origin, at least during the first wave. These ones, however, were all over the place. Some were comically small, while some were large. Some were bestial, while some were bipedal. It was a whole menagerie of monsters.
"The Nightmare Creatures all look different from each other."
A fierce scowl appeared on Verne's face.
"The Scavengers… we fought their kind before. They start weak, but quickly grow stronger by devouring corpses. They inherit qualities of the things that they eat, too. Younger abominations are easy to deal with, but the older ones… the older ones are truly vile."
Sunny pondered for a bit.
"I see. Well, we seem to be in luck. There are about three hundred them, and I only see two Corrupted. The Gate Guardian… is a Demon."
The soldiers shuddered and stared at him with a bit of resentment. If that was what the captain of the Irregular considered luck, then what the hell could be called misfortune?!
Three hundred powerful Nightmare Creatures led by two Corrupted, against a hundred Awakened, two Masters, and a thousand mundane servicemen of the local garrison… the situation did not look too good.
Sunny lingered for a few moments, and then smiled.
"Ah, and the last piece of news. The bastards have caught our scent. So… they are already heading here…"