Shadow Slave

As the silver sword was extinguished, Changing Star lingered for a moment. White flames ignited in her eyes, and suddenly, the pristine white breastplate of the Starlight Legion Armor was enveloped in blinding white light.

The darkness that had begun to seep back into the grand hall of the ancient temple reeled away once more. It appeared as though Nephis changed the target of her miraculous Aspect Ability and used her armor as its conduit instead of the sword.

But from the side, it simply looked like there was a furious white star burning in her chest.

…That momentary delay almost cost her her life.

As soon as Sunny's scream echoed through the cathedral, the terrifying black blade came down once again. This time, Nephis seemingly had no chance to escape.

But, somehow, she did.

Pushing herself off the marble floor, she twisted her body and barely avoided the falling guillotine of the Black Knight's greatsword, then swiftly rolled away. The next moment, she was already on her feet.

As the devil lunged forward to crush her, Changing Star did something that no one would ever expect the proud daughter of the Immortal Flame Clan to do.

She turned her back to the enemy… and ran.

From their early days in the Labyrinth, Sunny knew that Nephis could be incredibly fast when she wanted to. And indeed, just a second later, she was already far away. Cursing under his breath, he followed.

No matter how fast Nephis was, the Black Knight was faster.

The devil was already pursuing his runaway prey, moving with a celerity that seemed strange for a creature of his size, especially one clad in an incredibly heavy suit of steel armor. With each moment, he drew closer and closer to Changing Star, his sword ready to reap her life.

Caster temporary put out

If he didn't…

'Come on!'

his teeth, Sunny somehow managed to accelerate

through the grand hall of the cathedral. The statue of the nameless goddess on the far side

few meters

mount one last, suicidal attack on the swiftly approaching steel giant. Or maybe she

only seemed

corners of Sunny's mouth

'That's my girl!'

was about to come to fruition.

what else did Sunny expect from

was to stall the

after strike with incredible skill. Just like a lifetime ago, when she had been facing Caster at the dojo of the Academy, she

much reacting to the deadly blows delivered by the devil as predicting them, moving to evade the strikes of the black greatsword

course, this deadly dance could not last. The tiniest of mistakes would have been her last. And even if she didn't make any, Nephis was not going to be able to keep this level of concentration for long, not to mention the insane toll this fearsome clash took on

do was to keep the bastard busy for a

when those

crack of breaking stone resounded

***

had confirmed that the Fallen Devil was targeting Nephis above everyone else, their