Shadow Slave

Sunny stood motionlessly, gathering whatever strength he had left… which was far too little. Cassie was silent, too, a tense expression on her pale face.

With his vision compromised and his shadow sense limited to the circle of runes glowing around the cage, all Sunny could see was a blurry silhouette. He was almost sure that it was a human… however, something about the dark figure was wrong.

Utterly, terribly wrong.

...A strong smell of blood assaulted his nostrils.

The silhouette swayed, and then took a step forward. The scraping sound resounded once again, coming from it. Sunny strained his eyes, and thought that he had noticed a slender sword being dragged behind the person. A hint of recognition appeared in his clouded mind, but in the next moment, a sudden burst of creaky, gurgling laughter threw his thoughts into a spin.

Sunny shivered.

'That... voice…'

The silhouette took another step forward, coming to the point where the flat surface of the floor gave place to the downward slope of the dome. Coincidentally, that was the moment when the dim glow of the runes finally reached it.

Sunny flinched.

'C—curses…'

A familiar face was looming in the darkness above him. Even through the haze clouding his sight, Sunny managed to recognize the arrogant sentinel who had locked them in this cage a long, long time ago.

Only now, that cold and handsome man was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, he looked broken and gaunt, his face contorted in a demented grin.

But much worse than that…

In the place where the sentinel's eyes used to be, two bloody pits were gaping, crimson streams flowing down his cheeks like tears. His fingers were marred with blood, too.

As Sunny recoiled, the Lost laughed again, and then suddenly clawed at his face, his laughter turning into a stifled groan, and then into a whisper:

"...can't get me anymore… can't, can't... get me... I tricked him..."

Then, the lunatic abruptly froze. Slowly, his head turned, and the bloody pits of his eyes stared directly at the cage. A moment later, a grimace of hatred appeared on his face.

"You! You! It is all your fault, yours! You let him free!"

energy for fear. So, although it was obvious that the sentinel had returned

Instead, he welcomed it.

the door. You cant try to kill me all you want. Just open the damned door,

the door was open, they could

forward… and stopped. His sword fell to

'Damn you!'

of sparks swirled around his hands, and a curved bow

Sunny's heart grew cold.

'No, no, no...'

The sentinel whispered:

"Die, vermin…"

the string of the bow. As soon as he did, a ghostly arrow appeared on it, its tip long and sharp as

slowly turned his head and looked at Cassie, who stood motionlessly beside him. His face grew

make a sound… please,

sound of the string, and saw the arrow streak above the blind girl's

flinched, but remained absolutely

The sentinel frowned.

are still alive… but

bow again, and sent

it flew mere centimeters above Sunny's head. For the first time in his life,

the crazed Lost wasn't

his head and stared directly at him. A ghastly smile suddenly

"...got you now."

bow again, and then lowered it, aiming directly at Sunny's

did not move

Lost released the string, something small and swift suddenly dashed toward him from

was the Covetous

Echo, but the Coffer was still able to follow simple

And then wait.

thing had loitered near the locked door of the cell for several weeks, hiding every time anyone

'Attack!'

short iron legs, just in time to sink its sharp triangular teeth into the sentinel's heel. They easily pierced the steel of his armored boot. Blood spurted into the air, and with a surprised shriek, the man stumbled forward, fell, and rolled down the slope of the dome, crashing into the bars of

Sunny, missing him by a hair's

not

the Covetous Coffer, and before the runes could devour the tiny amount of shadow essence returned to him by that act, sent all