Shadow Slave

Before the gates of the temple, a large hall stood, submerged in darkness. The air was permeated with the smell of rot, and at least a dozen of eviscerated bodies lay on the cold stones, staring into nothingness with their empty eyes.

Sunny had long become accustomed to such sights, so he wasn't too bothered by it. The implication, however, left him feeling cold.

'Damnation…'

He entered the hall, both Saint and the Serpent emerging silently from his shadows. Cassie followed, gripping the hilt of the Quiet Dancer so hard that her fingers turned white.

Sunny walked over to the nearest corpse, held his breath, and knelt beside it, studying its wounds. Then, with a grim expression, he moved over to the next one and did the same.

It took him some time to check on each of the slain Lost, and by the end, his eyes were full of darkness.

The blind girl remained silent for a few moments, then asked, her voice tense and trembling:

"...How did they die?"

He lingered for a second, then shook his head.

"Sword wounds."

Each of the fallen sentinels was killed with one precise, fatal strike. However, most of them were terribly mutilated and covered in multiple wounds — none of them lethal, but all aimed at inflicting the maximum amount of pain.

The killer, whoever it was, wanted his victims to suffer before they died.

Well… Sunny was pretty sure that he knew who the killer was.

Mordret. The man — or thing — that he had set free.

It seemed that the Prince of Nothing had a sadistic streak about him.

…But that wasn't the problem.

powerful Aspect that allowed him to deal either mind

Temple in the eyes… which was good, since both Sunny and Cassie could naturally counter

top of everything else, Mordret was a fighter of incredible skill… skilled and powerful enough to not only kill a dozen experiences Awakened

to win

sighed, then walked past the corpses and

Welthe had told them that the Citadel was sealed, and no one except for Saint Cormac would be able to open

to no avail. The heavy doors didn't budge even when Saint joined him. None of the keys

of primitive weave he

"Curse it."

good kick, then turned around and walked back to Cassie in

we aren't getting out of here until the

would happen in a week, at the

able to

girl frowned,

"Where to, then?"

for

why not try and accomplish the task they had

go check on

the ivory knife

massacre behind, the two of them headed deeper into the stone bowels of the

***

the bizarre interior of the cathedral was disorienting and sprawling, resembling a vast, convoluted maze of black stone.

slowly stretching their already tense nerves. Both Sunny and Cassie had not recovered from their ordeal completely, so they had to stop and rest a couple of times, drinking water

Temple while they were slowly dying inside the cage — rotting corpses of the Lost, signs of

as though they were traveling through the

Sunny grew more and more

began to question the moral implications of what his actions had led to. Even if he had been an unwilling accomplice,

Sunny accidentally released an unspeakable

but on the other hand, Sunny didn't like

was fine,