True darkness was different from light and shadows.
Shadows existed in places where light was obscured or could not reach. If the shadow was vast and deep enough, people mistook it for darkness, but all it truly was was the absence of light.
True darkness, however, was more than that. It was an elemental force of its own, one that was both independent from and opposed to light. Instead of a simple lack of light, pure darkness was its rival.
And, since light and shadows always went hand in hand, it was also the enemy of shadows… strange as it may sound.
That was why Sunny suddenly felt the cold touch of unease when he discovered its presence.
True darkness was exceedingly rare and mysterious. He had only encountered it once before, in the ruined cathedral of the Dark City, where it had been born of and controlled by the cathedral's guardian… the Forsaken Knight. The bastard that had gutted him like a pig.
In fact, that unfortunate encounter had been the fault of the darkness that the Fallen Devil wielded. If not for its veil, Sunny might have not allowed the black knight to get so close.
That was because his eyes, which were capable of peering through any shadow, were as blind in true darkness as that of a mundane human. Sunny had not seen the approaching Forsaken Knight in the shroud of darkness, and now, he could not see into the depths of the tunnel.
Worse still…
The Fallen Devil of the ruined cathedral had only controlled a modest amount of true darkness. Here in the tunnel, however… there was a whole ocean of it.
Sunny grimaced.
'Well… there goes the hope that there are no abominations inside.'
He remained near the sentries for a minute or two, then turned around and tiredly walked back to the Rhino.
"We'll rest here for a few hours."
The convoy was not in any condition to continue moving, anyway. The vehicles needed to be repaired, and the wounded had to receive treatment. People desperately needed rest.
Plus, what good would it do to leave the tunnel before the Devouring Cloud moved on? They had to wait until the swarm passed through.
Sunny was exhausted, as well.
Entering the Rhino, he fell on one of the seats in the lounge area and closed his eyes.
'Why do I feel like we jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire?'
Nothing good ever came from going underground... every time Sunny had, something nasty had been waiting for him there. His distrust of underground passages and tunnels was only rivaled by his dislike of the sea.
At least the tunnel seemed dry.
Scowling, Sunny tried to empty his mind and concentrate on circulating what little essence he had left through his body.
No matter what came next, he had to be ready.
***
Samara was recovering from utterly depleting her essence, and Quentin was busy healing the injured soldiers. Kim and Luster were performing field repairs on the civilian transports. The Sleeper was creating a new batch of poisoned bullets to replace those expended during the flight from the Devouring Cloud… Sergeant Gere's ammunition reserves were at a point where each round had to count.
Only Belle and Dorn had nothing to do, which was why Sunny chose them to accompany him on a scouting mission. He wanted to find out how far the exit from the tunnel was, or if not, then at least explore a long stretch of it before leading the convoy forward.
Nobody knew how long the tunnel was. There were a lot of them cut through the mountains in the Antarctic center, where the terrain was too uneven to build straight roads. Whenever a road met a mountain outcropping that was too wide to go around, though, people had often chosen to simply burrow through it to create a convenient shortcut.
As a result, the length of tunnels varied greatly, from several dozen meters to ten kilometers or more. Most of them had been created during the Dark Times.
Later, when the constant wars, environmental cataclysms, and the descent of the Nightmare Spell had reduced human population and concentrated it inside a small amount of vast and easily defended cities, most of the mountain roads went out of use and were abandoned.
So, there was no information on the tunnel. It could have been only a few hundreds meters long, or stretched forward for a dozen kilometers. Considering the local terrain, Sunny suspected that the latter would turn out closer to the truth.
Summoning the Cruel Sight, he glanced at Belle and Dorn.
"Are you ready?"
They nodded.
"Yes, sir."
They were standing in front of the Rhino. A few people were looking at the three Irregulars, but only Professor Obel approached to see them off.
"Be careful, young people. Places such as this can be quite dangerous. Don't use any Memories or Abilities that have to do with fire, too… now that we are underground, it would be all too easy to burn all the oxygen away."
Sunny looked at the old man with a bit of tension hidden behind his outwardly confident expression.
"Anything else we should know?"
Professor Obel thought for a moment, then shrugged.
"Many of these tunnels went through several rounds of additional excavation to serve as bomb shelters during the latter stages of the war between the… ah, but those names probably won't tell you much. Suffice it to say, you might find that the structure of the tunnel is not as straightforward as one might expect."
Sunny sighed.
"Alright. We are going, then. If we aren't back after two hours… well, I am not going to lie, if something manages to kill me, then all of you will probably die soon, too. So, there's nothing much you'll be able to do at that point."
He tried to force out an encouraging smile, failed, and simply turned around.
Carrying luminous Memories, Sunny and his people walked past the nervous sentries, and dove into the darkness without looking back.