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.

as fast as he could, too, desperately trying to catch up to them. With Effie and Caster temporary put out of commission and Cassie and Kai sidelined, he was the only one left. He had to make

If he didn't…

'Come on!'

teeth, Sunny somehow managed

of the nameless goddess

few meters because of the momentum. The silver sword had already

desperation, Nephis decided to mount one last, suicidal

it only seemed that

Sunny's

'That's my girl!'

fruition. Changing Star

else did Sunny expect from

stall the Black Knight for

girl in a fury of obliterating black steel. Nephis met him with her usual calm resolve, dodging strike after strike with incredible skill. Just like a lifetime ago, when she had been facing Caster at the dojo of

blows delivered by the devil as predicting them, moving to evade the strikes of the black greatsword before they could

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 her stamina and

do was

those seconds ran

sudden crack of breaking stone resounded in the darkness of

***

the Fallen Devil was targeting Nephis above everyone else, their strongest combatant — his Shadow — was nowhere to