Shadow Slave

Sunny gritted his teeth and groaned, feeling his whole body being slowly crushed by the monstrous chieftain of the Barrow Wraiths. One of his arms was pressed against his body, and the other one was, too… but just barely.

If only he could free it…

But no matter how hard he tried, the tyrant's hold was just too strong.

…Back in the gymnasium, the terrifying beast was lunging at the defenseless children. Its maw was wide open, the red shine of the ghostly flames burning in its eyes reflecting from the jagged, sharp fangs.

It was flying directly at Rain, moments away from closing its jaw on her throat.

She felt paralyzed by fear, desperately wishing to run, but unable to move.

Was this how she was going to die? No, no… it couldn't be!

But it was...

Suddenly, a spark of a strange, dark emotion ignited in Rain's heart.

'Die? No… not like this… I refuse!'

She was holding a sword, was she not?

Even if that thing was going to devour her, Rain was determined to die fighting, just like she had been taught to. She was going to remain human, not a cowering animal only good enough to be the stronger beast's prey.

She owed that much to her parents, at least.

Knowing full well that her dull training sword was not going to stop a Nightmare Creature, Rain stubbornly made a motion to raise it. Even though her mind was panicked and her thoughts scattered, the body remembered countless hours of practice…

Not that it was going to do her any good.

so close that she could see every harrowing detail of its hideous

'Unfair! This is unfair…'

mind, as it had undoubtedly appeared in the minds of countless people just before

something strange

ignited in the darkness

blade of a strange, stonelike sword flashed out of the shadows and easily sliced through the abomination's neck, separating its head from

and swatted the headless

shock, a graceful woman wearing menacing black armor stepped out of the darkness, two ruby flames burning behind the visor of her closed

never seen someone so terrifying, yet so

indifferent calmness, and then turned around to easily pierce another hound with her stonelike sword, then sever one more in half with a swift, vicious strike. It was as though the flesh of the abominations

just killed

not only that, but she also killed them in the span of a second, with a

'Who… who is she?'

knew what she was doing, she heard

"Who are you?"

answer and simply stood between the children and the advancing monsters, her back straight and solid like a

back, feeling as if nothing was

suddenly appeared in her

black knight was a human, a spirit, or a

want to be strong, someday.

***

grip of the Fallen Tyrant. He was being brought closer and closer to the three burning red eyes, and as he did, it felt as if life

'What… the hell…'

something that he could do… some trick he could employ to wrestle free. A Memory he could summon, an

matter how hard he tried, nothing

was slowly

I need

his hands were free, but they were not. He could have turned the Mantle of the Underworld too heavy for the tyrant to lift, but it was already as heavy as the [Feather of Truth] allowed, weighing as much as a

then… a subtle change suddenly happened to