Shadow Slave

The Lost crowded near the entrance, staring at the grisly scene with grim expressions. Welthe was in the corridor. She was standing in the middle of the pool of blood, her fists clenched.

Sunny wasn't clear on who had discovered the bodies, since he only woke up due to the noise of everyone rushing to the door and the shine of the sparks of light as they summoned their weapons. He remained at the back of the crowd, using one of the shadows to study the corpses, and another to observe the surviving sentinels.

There was a thoughtful expression on his face.

'I wonder…'

Before he could finish the thought, Pierce appeared from behind the bend of the corridor, glanced at Welthe, shook his head briefly, and then growled at the Lost:

"What are you standing around for?! Clean up this mess and secure the perimeter! No one moves alone or in pairs, three people minimum! Be ready, the bastard might return at any minute!"

The soldiers glanced at each other, seeds of fear blooming in the depths of their eyes. Then, they silently got to work, following the Master's command.

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then returned to Cassie and sat down on his mattress.

The blind girl asked quietly:

"Who died? And how?"

He rubbed his face tiredly.

"The guards. One was the guy who had noticed my shadow back in the great hall. The other, I didn't know him. As to how… pretty much the same as everyone else. Butchered and cut to pieces…"

She thought for a bit, then frowned.

"And no one heard a thing?"

Sunny sighed.

done it really fast. Or his new vessel

remained silent for a bit, then

"Anyway, you should prepare."

Cassie tilted her head.

for what?

seemed busy and focused, moving with trained precision and purpose. However, there was a hint of uncertainty on their pale faces. The sentinels tried to hide it, but to no

He looked down.

somehow broke through the seals and got into the inner sanctum. However, once they have

girl paled. Sunny

of the two strangers who had miraculously escaped an enchanted cell and

Cassie gritted her teeth.

reasonable way to

He chuckled.

have to do with any of this? Reason

he fell silent and, after a few

toward the part of the hall that had been converted into a makeshift kitchen, many gazes followed him. Just as

to be appropriately frightened, too, he put some porridge in the

'...Interesting.'

as

be extremely cunning and meticulous, crafting such a masterful trap that even Sunny, who was an ingenious deceiver

been killed and the morbid displays of demented butchery that the prince had left in the halls of the Night Temple, however, were utterly impractical and did not fit into this image of a cold and calculating

had decided to reveal his presence in the inner sanctum and sacrifice the invaluable advantage of surprise in exchange for only two lives, Sunny became convinced that there was

him with heavy gazes, dark expressions contorting their faces, he was pretty sure

of each other, he wanted them to be tense and scared. He wanted

ability to devour souls was not absolute, and required the victim to be… what? To be defeated? To surrender? Or