The Awakened warrior was simply gone. The whole facility was swept, both by the soldiers of the garrison and Sunny's shadows, but no trace of him was found. Verne even made the decision to unseal the dome of the old observatory. However, there was nothing but old equipment, darkness, and dust inside.
Sunny then sent his shadows to scour the coastal plain outside the fortress, hoping to discover a clue. He did not.
A sense of unease and foreboding spread through the isolated fortress.
As people were crowding together to alleviate this tension, Sunny, Verne, and Professor Obel gathered in the security center to have an emergency discussion. However, none of them seemed too eager to speak first.
They simply had nothing to say.
Eventually, Sunny rubbed his face with a sigh.
"Well, there are only three possibilities, right?"
Verne looked at him darkly.
"And they are?"
Sunny hesitated for a moment.
"First… he might have really deserted."
