Shadow Slave

The first Guard to follow Tessai's order lunged forward, summoning his weapon… and fell to the ground, a heavy kunai suddenly appearing in his eye.

Due to the everyone's attention being drawn to the bloodied figure on the throne, no one noticed as Sunny moved his hand slightly, letting the Prowling Thorn fly.

He wasn't looking at Gunlaug, though. His eyes were drawn to Nephis, while his shadow watched Caster.

When the Bright Lord died, something strange happened to Changing Star. Her eyes opened wide, losing focus, and then she swayed a little and fell to one knee.

Her body was busy rearranging itself after absorbing a huge amount of soul essence, which made Nephis vulnerable for a few moments.

That was when Tessai had given his order, and that was when Sunny threw his kunai and killed the Guard rushing to attack the slum dwellers.

Someone screamed, and in the next moment, the great hall of the Castle descended into chaos.

Unnoticed by anyone, Caster suddenly turned into a blur.

'Not so fast!'

Sunny was thrown of his feet and awkwardly fell, his wrist screaming in pain. He had achieved his goal, though: even while falling, he saw the proud Legacy rolling on the marble floor, tripped by the invisible string of the Prowling Thorn.

A second later, hundreds of Sleepers clashed against each other, their suppressed rage, bloodlust, and murderous resentment finally exploding into a storm of violence.

The white marble was instantly painted red with blood.

The Guards slaughtered indiscriminately, their powerful Memory armaments and training giving them a vast advantage over the disorganized crowd of slum dwellers. But they weren't killing just those who came from the outer settlement: in the panic and havoc that engulfed the throne room, differentiating friend from foe was not an easy task.

as a few unlucky people who had paid a heavy tribute in exchange for the

that safety was now gone,

them who had preserved some vestiges of conscience, now, it was utterly gone, devoured by the crowd instinct and the exhilaration of being

seen… and he had seen

humans do this to other

to devoid their victims of the status of a human being, thus absolving themselves of any guilt or sin. Why feel guilty for slaughtering

worse than cattle, even.

that simple mind trick

only took him a fraction of a second. Jumping to his feet,

much fury and bloodlust. Even though they were

"Protect Lady Nephis!"

"Kill the bastards!"

"Judgment!"

them. Screams of terror and pain filled

hunter from before dive under the strike of a young Guard and drive the tip of his sword into the enemy's throat. He saw several Hunters of the Host lunge at Effie, who had easily tore the rope that bound her arms and met them with a ferocious grin, the beautiful bronze spear weaving itself from sparks of light in her hands. He saw Tessai crushing a random Sleeper's skull with a heavy mace. The

fell on the floor, and were then crushed under the

problem was, he

away and then punched his opponent in the face, causing him to fly back with a pained scream. He looked around, trying

Changing Star at the moment of her

of the Hunters. No matter how strong and skilled Caster was, this was not an opponent that would go down easily, if at all. He couldn't extricate himself from

seems to be

there was another.

with his

left the darkness of

was staring at Gunlaug's dead body, his glassy